Your Money

If you’re 16 years old, live in California and just passed your driver’s license test, the first thing you should do is drive your family to In-N-Out Burger for a milkshake and some animal-style fries. The first thing a parent should do is call the insurance company to update the …

American homeowners have accrued hundreds of thousands of dollars in home equity and they’re increasingly borrowing against that value, even though interest rates remain high. Home equity, the difference between your home’s value and what you owe on your mortgage, has ballooned as home prices have risen. American homeowners with …

More automobile owners are falling behind on their payments, and a new report suggests that lenders have sometimes been overzealous in repossessing cars. Even after borrowers have made payments as promised or received extensions on their auto loans, lenders have illegally repossessed cars, according to a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau …

In what universe would anyone want to whip out a debit card with the name of a credit bureau on it? For the past year, Experian has been testing this question with its Smart Money debit card, which it advertises as a way to “build credit without the debt.” TransUnion …

As higher education becomes ever more expensive, some states are giving employers incentives to contribute to 529 college savings accounts for their workers. Fifteen percent of employers with 500 or more employees now help workers fund 529 plans, either by letting them deposit their own money through paycheck deductions or …

It has been one year since federal student loan payments resumed after a 42-month pandemic-related pause, but borrowers have been receiving one benefit: Missed payments didn’t damage their credit standing. That’s about to change. The Biden administration provided borrowers with a yearlong “on-ramp” to help them ease back into the …