Personal Finance

Auto Dealer Expectations Sink to All-Time Low

Posted: December 10, 2018 at 10:45 am

U.S. auto dealers are not optimistic about market demand for new cars, either in the current quarter or in the first quarter of next year. In fact, dealer expectations for ...
Read Full Story »

US Consumers Owe $1.17 Trillion in Car Loans

Posted: December 7, 2018 at 1:20 pm

Whether U.S. consumers are purchasing a new car or a used model, chances are that an auto loan is involved. More than 85% of all new car buyers and nearly ...
Read Full Story »

Feds to Shut Down Illegal Contact Lens Seller

Posted: December 7, 2018 at 10:05 am

If you want to turn your brown eyes blue, your choices of places to shop for cosmetic contact lenses has just been shortened. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on ...
Read Full Story »

The Best Time of the Year to Buy a Used Car: Right Now

Posted: December 4, 2018 at 7:55 am

In the third quarter of this year, the average price for a used vehicle topped $20,000, a 3.5% year-over-year increase and the highest quarterly average since 2005. Combined with higher ...
Read Full Story »

Half a Billion Starwood Hotels Customer Records Breached

Posted: November 30, 2018 at 9:45 am

In a filing Friday morning with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Marriott International Inc. (NASDAQ: MAR) revealed that up to 500 million guests at Starwood properties may have had ...
Read Full Story »

Losses From California Wildfires Could Reach $19 Billion

Posted: November 27, 2018 at 11:20 am

After burning through more than 153,000 acres over 17 days, the Camp Fire in northern California was fully contained on Monday. The state's deadliest-ever wildfire has so far been charged ...
Read Full Story »

As God Is My Witness, I Thought Turkeys Could Fly!

Posted: November 15, 2018 at 10:45 am

The U.S. Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) expects more than 25 million travelers to pass through airport screening checkpoints during the Thanksgiving holiday travel season. And because Thanksgiving is about food, ...
Read Full Story »

Long-Term Care Insurance Harder to Get, More Expensive as Care Costs Rise

Posted: November 8, 2018 at 12:55 pm

In 2004, the annual cost of care in an assisted living facility averaged $28,800 nationally. By 2018 that cost had ballooned to $48,000, an increase of 67% over the 15-year ...
Read Full Story »

Data Breaches Have Exposed 3.6 Billion Records So Far in 2018

Posted: November 8, 2018 at 7:05 am

There were 3,676 publicly disclosed global data breaches in the first three quarters of 2018 that exposed more than 3.6 billion user data records. Both totals were well below last ...
Read Full Story »

10 ETFs to Avoid the Next Stock Market Crash — or Profit From It

Posted: November 5, 2018 at 10:25 am

An atrocious October in 2018 has spooked many investors in the stock market. And almost as fast, the stock market has proven yet again that it can bounce back rapidly. Just don't ...
Read Full Story »

The Top 20 Must-Know Investor News Items for the Week of November 2

Posted: November 3, 2018 at 7:01 am

  This last week was a crazy end to the October selling craze being followed by a flood of stock buying this week prior to Friday's major profit taking. ...
Read Full Story »

How Higher Interest Rates and Tighter Credit Are Adding to Peak Auto Fears

Posted: November 1, 2018 at 4:30 pm

  While the notion of "Peak Auto" is not a new observation about the U.S. domestic car buying trends, there is another source of pressure that has not garnered as ...
Read Full Story »

Down Payments on a Home Are Dropping

Posted: October 28, 2018 at 11:02 am

Perhaps the highest hurdle for first-time home buyers has always been scraping together the down payment. A 20% down payment on a $250,000 home comes to $50,000, not an easy ...
Read Full Story »

Is Now the Time for Discouraged Workers to Get Back in the Job Market?

Posted: October 25, 2018 at 10:25 am

With U.S. headline unemployment down to 3.7%, the 5 million workers who have left the labor force and are not counted among the unemployed have a significant opportunity to begin ...
Read Full Story »

Unbanked Population Trends Keep Improving in America

Posted: October 23, 2018 at 2:05 pm

The number of unbanked and underbanked people in America has continued to shrink in America. A fresh report covering 2017 banking trends (and hopefully things have continued to improve considering ...
Read Full Story »