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The tax filing deadline (April 18) is rapidly approaching, so clear off a workspace and start by answering two big questions.

Will you take the Standard Deduction or Itemize? The standard deduction is a set amount that increases based on inflation.

The other option is to itemize, which is when you tally up certain deductions including state ...Read more

Federal Reserve officials were under fire as they convened their two-day policy meeting, during which they decided to raise short-term rates by a quarter of a percentage point to 4.75-5.00 percent. Despite uncertainty in the banking sector, the Fed said that still-high inflation required action.

The rate decision, along with events of the ...Read more

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), which catered to technology startups and the venture capital firms that financed them, was taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). (The FDIC is an independent agency of the U.S. government that protects customers of insured banks against the loss of their deposits, up to $250,000, per depositor,...Read more

The gender pay gap, which is the difference between the earnings of men and women, has been stuck for years.

In 1982, women earned just 65 cents to each dollar earned by men. The differential narrowed, but since 2002, the numbers have barely budged. In 2022, U.S. women typically earned 82 cents for every dollar earned by men.

It would be great...Read more

Warren Buffett released the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter and the 92 year old “Oracle of Omaha” has a number of notable comments about markets and investing.

For over 58 years most of the decisions that he and his partner — 99-year-old Charlie Munger — have made were “no better than so-so,” and in fact, some bad bets ...Read more

“My beautiful pile of cash is slipping away,” lamented a recent caller to my podcast. She is not alone.

The personal savings rate, which is the amount of money people have after spending and taxes, dipped to 3.4 percent at the end of last year. That’s a far cry from the COVID record high rate of 34% in April 2020 (as it turns out, it’s ...Read more

As Valentine’s Day approaches, the perennial personal finance survey that grabs headlines is about financial infidelity.

This year’s version from Bankrate finds that “23 percent of Americans in relationships are keeping a money-related secret from their significant other” and “39% have been financially unfaithful,” defined as having...Read more

Reports of the death of the U.S. labor market have been greatly exaggerated. In January, 517,000 jobs were created, more than double analysts’ expectations and the unemployment rate was 3.4 percent, the lowest level in more than 53 years.

Not to be a buzzkill, but the resiliency of the labor market makes NOW an ideal time to dust off your ...Read more

Two recently released economic reports paint a nuanced picture of the U.S. economy.

The government said that U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) increased at a 2.9% annualized pace in the fourth quarter of 2022, capping a year when growth was up by just 1% (as measured from the fourth quarter a year earlier), down substantially from the 5.7% ...Read more

Tax season is officially open and to prepare, the IRS has a warning: DO NOT expect refunds to be quite so generous this year.

The average tax refund for the 2022 filing season (through the end of October) was $3,176 — a 13.8% jump from the prior year average refund of $2,791 and a sizable increase from the pre-pandemic year of 2019, which was...Read more

As we settle into 2023, economists and analysts are still trying to answer last year’s two-part question: Is the economy still too strong – and is inflation too high, which means that the Fed will have to keep interest rates higher for longer?

The answer may help determine whether or not the economy slows substantially, prompting the U.S. ...Read more

Amid the scary, early days of the pandemic, I decided to increase the frequency of my Jill on Money podcast from a bi-weekly to a daily show.

The new schedule was a response to the thousands of emails pouring in, as people were anxious, confused and needed help making sense of their financial choices in a highly uncertain time.

Those early ...Read more

2022 was a year of transition, as we tried to resume our pre-pandemic lives while also contending with a four-decade high in inflation. Despite the past grueling three-years, one area that seemed particularly consistent was our desire to get back on track with our money.

Fidelity’s 2023 New Year’s Financial Resolutions Study found that two-...Read more