While you may not interact with your 529 plan as much as you do your checking account, you can still take steps to safeguard your hard-earned savings. Check in regularly: You may have decided to “set and forget” your 529 plan investments, but that doesn’t mean you should blow off your account altogether. Sign in

First, you receive a call about your student loans. The person on the other end offers to lower your monthly payments or make your debt disappear all together, potentially for a fee. Sounds great, right? You go through the steps, sharing your federal student loan ID and other sensitive information along the way. No worrisome

Both parents and students are in agreement that a finding at least one job after graduating is a top priority, according to the Discover Student Loans survey. “On many questions you see the answers for parents and students are not largely different,” Straub said. “We want alignment between those two parties.” The top fear for

If you don’t take full advantage of the rewards, many offers do not make sense, Huffman said. Depending on how much you spend each month, signup bonuses and other rewards don’t always offset the cost of an annual fee, which can be as much as $450 depending on the card, according to personal finance site

It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Today, the longest ever Amazon Prime Day begins. From Monday, July 16 through Tuesday, July 17, deals will be widespread across the site. But while deal days are an opportunity for consumers to snag items at low prices, they can also be a trigger for over-shopping. Since

Your marital status should play a big role in when you decide to take benefits. If you are married, starting benefits earlier will also reduce the potential spousal or survivor benefits your husband or wife will receive. Delaying claiming benefits until age 70 could result in as much as a 40 percent to 50 percent

People tend to trust financial institutions, making mobile payments more attractive to older generations, according to Zelle, which recently studied how different age groups behave and think about P2P apps. Zelle questioned more than 9,000 U.S. mobile-savvy millennials, Gen Xers and boomers who own smartphones, are aware of P2P and have used online or mobile

Spread over 26 acres on Long Island’s North Shore, with a private beach, is a tiny but top-ranked college that offers each and every one of its students a full-tuition scholarship for all four years. Of course, there’s a catch. At Webb Institute — one of only nine colleges in the country that is completely

Not all tax debts are covered by the action. Not included are those who are paying their debt through an IRS installment agreement, offers in compromise with the IRS or a settlement with the Justice Department; have requested a collection due process hearing about a levy; or have had the collection of the debt suspended

With the annuity option, annual payments of about $11.3 million would be reduced yearly to $8.5 million from about $2.8 million going to the IRS. Over 30 years, that would mean $255 million for you and $85 million paid in federal taxes. More from Personal Finance:Your travel budget will go the farthest in these international

Generally speaking, original Medicare does not cover dental work and routine vision or hearing care. This means it does not cover dentures, which can run anywhere from about $1,000 to north of $5,000 for a complete set. And while a routine cleaning and X-ray could set you back about $200 and a filling runs about

The tax break would be limited to $500 for individuals and $1,000 for heads of households and couples who file joint tax returns. Planet Fitness stock appeared to climb on the news that the bill made it out of committee, rising more than 4 percent to above $47 a share in early afternoon trading. The

The longest Amazon Prime Day yet will begin on Monday, July 16 and last for 36 hours through July 17. For many shoppers, it’s a day to finally snag that tech product or kitchen device they’ve been eyeing at a discount. But for others, it could lead to over-shopping, overspending and financial regret. Since the

While it’s unknown exactly how much debt Kavanaugh carried — the form only requires that filers report the amount in ranges — or what interest rate Kavanaugh paid, even the low end reported ($60,000) is a liability that could cripple many households. The average interest rate on credit cards is nearly 17 percent. Using that

Single Social Security claimants who want to hold off until age 70, but find they can’t quite wait any longer should select age 69 for the best trade off, Jones said. That sacrifice may be as little as a few thousand extra dollars in additional lifetime benefits in exchange for starting a year earlier, according

Meanwhile, packing up and settling into another state is not possible, or desirable, for many. “There’s a risk moving to a place you’re not familiar with, or don’t have well ensconced friends and business relationships,” Hamrick said. Before you leave behind your current home, Hamrick recommends that people ask themselves a few questions about a

In extreme situations, disputes over money are a battle for power, which is more often the case in very traditional household situations, Newman said. Though traditional gender roles are changing, financial advisors say, many couples still adhere to them, with men generally taking the lead on finances. If the other person is left purposefully in

There are ways to pay off your card debt that don’t include giving up something you love. 1. Look for money in your home If you own a home, you might consider tapping your equity, which likely comes with a lower interest rate than your credit card. Thanks to the new tax law, however, the

If you’re job hunting, a move may be in your future. Just over a quarter of job applications are sent to new metro areas from where the person is currently living, says a survey from Glassdoor, the companies rating website. The big draws are salary, opportunity and company culture, which Glassdoor assesses based on its

Similarly, today’s young people are not in a rush to reproduce. The share of married households with children, aged 18 to 34, dropped to 25 percent in 2015, from 37 percent in 1990. And having a child increases a person’s chance of owning a house by 6 percentage points, the researchers calculated. Millennials are also

Germany was the best value overall, thanks to the nation’s commitment to free higher education for both German and international students. Colleges in France and Switzerland offer low tuition and, as a result, only a small percentage of students graduate with loans. In other parts of the world where student debt is a growing problem,

There is no blanket statement that applies to all health plans. What is most important for families as they make health insurance decisions with adult children is that they have an active conversation about coverage. “That ends up being a negotiation not unlike when the adult son or daughter is still living at home,” said

If you’ve been pining for an epic international vacation but are feeling strapped for cash, look for cities where the U.S. dollar is the strongest. Over half of Americans plan on going on vacation this summer, according to a recent survey by Bankrate. The median amount they plan to spend is $1,000, with less than

Freelance, or gig work, is on the rise. People freelance for a range of reasons, and their satisfaction levels and financial challenges also vary, according to a survey from Prudential. For millennials, it’s all about work-life balance. This age group often has children under age 18, or still is in school. Gen X works the

Your HSA will be assessed based on two components: Fees taken out by the provider and investment expenses, according to Devenir, an HSA consultancy. Those “provider fees” include account maintenance costs, which may be assessed on a monthly basis and could be waived if an account holder’s balance crosses a particular threshold, which can range

According to Vickberg, who is also a psychologist, the more you know about your co-workers and managers’ personality types, as well as your own, the better off you’ll be. “It’s flexing the way you do things so you can work better, and strengthening the relationships [at work], to get more of what you want out

Another reason to look closely at your continuing care center: If its independent living quarters are sparsely occupied, there might be financial troubles ahead. “In some cases, lower than 90 percent occupancy could suggest an issue with being able to fill certain units with new residents, and the inability to maintain a high occupancy level

Some also include career coaching. “All of the pieces taken together play a critical role in making sure all the students are set up for success,” said Tom Ogletree, senior director of social impact and external affairs at General Assembly, an experiential education company focused on today’s most in-demand skills. In addition, a number are

After nearly two decades of student loan payments, Lisa Wickman saw the light. Her new fiance offered to help her put an end to the persistent debt. And so the elementary school teacher from Grand Blanc, Michigan, mailed a $7,000 check in February to Navient, one of the country’s largest student-loan servicers. Weeks went by,

The explosion in generic drugs — now at about a 90 percent dispensing rate — came in the wake of the 1984 Hatch-Waxman Act, Bishop explains, which was intended to encourage the manufacture of generic drugs. “It literally went from 20 percent or so in the 1980s,” Bishop said. But the language in some contracts