Personal Finance News

2,153 Billionaires Are Richer Than 4.6 Billion People

January 20, 2020 Leave a Comment

The world’s richest 2,153 people controlled more money than the poorest 4.6 billion combined in 2019, while unpaid or underpaid work by women and girls adds three times more to the global economy each year than the technology industry, Oxfam said on Monday. Reuters reports:

The Nairobi-headquartered charity said in a report released ahead of the annual World Economic Forum of political and business leaders in Davos, Switzerland, that women around the world work 12.5 billion hours combined each day without pay or recognition.
In its “Time to Care” report, Oxfam said it estimated that unpaid care work by women added at least $10.8 trillion a year in value to the world economy – three times more than the tech industry.

Google Parent Company Alphabet Hits $1 Trillion Market Cap

January 17, 2020 Leave a Comment

Google parent-company Alphabet has hit $1 trillion in market capitalization, making it the fourth U.S. company to hit the milestone. CNBC reports:

Apple was the first to hit the market cap milestone in 2018. Then, Microsoft and Amazon followed. Apple and Microsoft are still valued at more than a trillion dollars while Amazon has since fallen below the mark.
Analysts are bullish on the company’s newly appointed CEO, Sundar Pichai. In a surprise announcement in December 2019, Alphabet founder Larry Page announced plans to step down as CEO, along with co-founder and president Sergey Brin.

Pichai had already been the CEO of Google, which includes all the company’s core businesses — including search, advertising, YouTube and Android — and generates substantially all its revenue and profits. But he reported to Page, who also oversaw other businesses making long-term bets on experimental technology like self-driving cars and package delivery drones. Now, he’s in charge of the whole conglomerate, although Page and Brin still have control over most of the company’s voting shares, giving them significant influence in major decisions.

Comcast Settles Lying Allegations, Will Issue Refunds and Cancel Debts

January 16, 2020 Leave a Comment

Comcast has agreed to issue refunds to 15,600 customers and cancel the debts of another 16,000 people to settle allegations that the cable company lied to customers in order to hide the true cost of service. Comcast will have to pay $1.3 million in refunds. Ars Technica reports:

Comcast will have to pay $1.3 million in refunds. The settlement with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, announced yesterday, resolves a lawsuit filed by the state against Comcast in December 2018.

The attorney general’s lawsuit alleged that Comcast “charged Minnesota consumers more than it promised it would for their cable services, including undisclosed ‘fees’ that the company used to bolster its profits, and that it charged for services and equipment that customers did not request,” the settlement announcement said. Comcast also “promised [customers] prepaid gift cards as an inducement to enter into multi-year contracts, then failed to provide the cards,” Minnesota alleged.
Refunds to the 15,600 customers will total $1.14 million. Comcast must also pay another $160,000 to the state attorney general’s office, which can use any or all of that amount to provide additional refunds. That brings the total amount Comcast will pay to $1.3 million.

All U.S. Metros Enjoyed Income Gains For First Time in 26 Years

January 15, 2020 Leave a Comment

Americans in every U.S. metropolitan area experienced economic prosperity in 2018, according to a recent report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. For the first time in 26 years, no metro area saw per-capita incomes fall that year — the latest available data — and it was only the fourth time since 1970 that every U.S. urban region experienced prosperity. Bloomberg reports:

Americans in fewer than 6% of metropolitan areas have experienced uninterpreted gains in personal income since 1970. In contrast, as the country began to recover from the Great Recession in 2009, residents of 84% of metro areas saw incomes decline. A large number of areas saw significant decreases in 2013 and to a lesser extent in 2016.
Metros that haven’t experienced per-capita income drops in recent years include Washington D.C. and Pittsburgh. The nation’s capital is buffered from sector-based recessions by a federal government that pulls tax revenue from a variety of sources and geographies. The Pennsylvania city, meanwhile, has emerged as a health care, education, and technology hub even as its population declines.

Dow Breaks Above 29,000 for the First Time Ever

January 10, 2020 Leave a Comment

Stocks rose to record highs on Friday despite weaker-than-expected jobs data as Wall Street concluded a volatile week chalk full of geopolitical concerns. The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 48 points higher, or 0.2% to break above 29,000 for the first time ever. CNBC reports:

The U.S. economy added 145,000 jobs in December. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect the U.S. economy to have added 160,000 jobs in December.
Wages also disappointed, growing by just 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. Economists had forecast a gain of 3.1%. December was also the first month since July 2018 that wages grew by less than 3% from the year before.
“The December jobs report was a little softer than expected but not so much so as to stoke big worries about the US consumer and the health of the overall economy,” said Alec Young, director of global markets research at FTSE Russell. “Although both readings were slightly below expectations and the recent trend, neither is overly alarming by itself.”

IRS Reforms Free File Program, Drops Agreement Not to Compete With TurboTax

December 31, 2019 Leave a Comment

Finding free online tax filing should be easier this year for millions of Americans. ProPublica reports:

The IRS announced significant changes Monday to its deal with the tax prep software industry. Now companies are barred from hiding their free products from search engines such as Google, and a years-old prohibition on the IRS creating its own online filing system has been scrapped.
The addendum to the deal, known as Free File, comes after ProPublica’s reporting this year on how the industry, led by TurboTax maker Intuit, has long misled taxpayers who are eligible to file for free into paying.

Under the nearly two-decade-old Free File deal, the industry agreed to make free versions of tax filing software available to lower- and middle-income Americans. In exchange, the IRS promised not to compete with the industry by creating its own online filing system. Many developed countries have such systems, allowing most citizens to file their taxes for free. The prohibition on the IRS creating its own system was the focus of years of lobbying by Intuit. The industry has seen such a system as an existential threat. Now, with the changes to the deal, the prohibition has been dropped.

The addendum also expressly bars the companies from “engaging in any practice” that would exclude their Free File offerings “from an organic internet search.” ProPublica reported in April that Intuit and H&R Block had added code to their Free File pages that hid them from Google and other search engines, diverting many users to the companies’ paid products.
“The improved process will make Free File stronger and give taxpayers another reason to consider this valuable software option,” IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said in a statement. The agency hopes the changes will make the free option more accessible for taxpayers in the 2020 filing season, he said.

Wages for Typical Workers Are Rising at Their Fastest Rate in a Decade

December 27, 2019 Leave a Comment

Wages for nonsupervisory employees — who make up 82% of the workforce — are rising at the fastest rate in more than a decade, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Workers at the bottom of the pay scale have been feeling positive effects on their wages at the end of 2019 — especially when compared to those at the top.

Pay rates the bottom 25% of wage earners rose 4.5% in November from a year earlier, while wages for the top 25% of earners rose only 2.9%, per data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

Americans Are Retiring to Vietnam, for Cheap Healthcare And a Decent Living Standard

December 26, 2019 Leave a Comment

Rapid growth in Vietnam and its Southeast Asian neighbors has created a situation that would have been unthinkable in the past: Aging American boomers are living a lifestyle reminiscent of Florida, Nevada and Arizona, but in Vietnam. Monthly expenses here rarely exceed $2,000. Los Angeles Times reports:

Vietnam has relaxed visa rules to lure American retirees like Rockhold, along with their savings. Geopolitics are a factor; Vietnam has seen spillover benefits from the economic boom in China but also has an ambivalent relationship with its far larger and more powerful neighbor, with which it fought a brief war in 1979. Expatriates tend to consider Vietnam more hospitable than China; Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, retains a cosmopolitan character.
The government won’t say precisely how many American retirees live in Vietnam. Interviews with about a dozen such retirees suggest that some are here on one-year tourist visas; others are here just for a season or two; and still others have qualified for long residence by marrying Vietnamese citizens, as Rockhold did.

Millionaires Support a Wealth Tax — as Long as They Aren’t Getting Taxed

December 25, 2019 Leave a Comment

A majority of millionaires support a wealth tax on those worth $50 million or more, but their support declines for a tax on those worth $10 million, according to a new poll. CNBC reports:

Fifty-nine percent of millionaires said they would support a new federal tax on wealth over $50 million, according to the Q4 CNBC Millionaire Survey. Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren’s tax plan includes a wealth tax of 2% on wealth over $50 million and 6% over $1 billion.
Forty-eight percent opposed a wealth tax on those worth over $10 million.
Attitudes toward the wealth tax are also strongly dependent on political party rather than wealth levels. Fully 88% of Democratic millionaires support a tax on wealth over $50 million, compared with just a third of Republican millionaires.

Super Saturday Set Record as the Biggest Single Day in U.S. Retail History

December 23, 2019 Leave a Comment

Holiday shopping set records over the weekend, with Super Saturday sales reaching $34.4 billion, the biggest single day in U.S. retail history, according to Customer Growth Partners. Bloomberg reports:

“Paced by the ‘Big Four’ mega-retailers — Walmart, Amazon, Costco and Target — Super Saturday was boosted by the best traffic our team has seen in years,” said Craig Johnson, president of the retail research firm.
Job growth and fatter wallets, along with stronger household finances, have put consumers in a buying mood this season, Johnson said. And more of them are shopping online. As retailers offer improved web platforms, online spending so far this season has accounted for 58% of sales growth from a year earlier, he said.
Super Saturday’s results topped Black Friday’s $31.2 billion in sales by 10%. The next biggest shopping days were Dec. 14, with $28.1 billion, and Cyber Monday, with $19.1 billion.

A $45,000 Loan for a $27,000 Ride: More Borrowers Are Going Underwater on Car Loans

December 20, 2019 Leave a Comment

John Schricker took out a loan to buy a car in 2017. Then he took out another. And then another. In two years, the 40-year-old electrician signed up for four auto loans, each time trading in the previous car and rolling the unpaid balance into the next loan. He recently bought a $27,000 Jeep Cherokee with a $45,000 loan from Ally Financial Inc. The Wall Street Journal reports:

Consumers, salespeople and lenders are treating cars a lot like houses during the last financial crisis: by piling on debt to such a degree that it often exceeds the car’s value. This phenomenon—referred to as negative equity, or being underwater—can leave car owners trapped.
Some 33% of people who traded in cars to buy new ones in the first nine months of 2019 had negative equity, compared with 28% five years ago and 19% a decade ago, according to car-shopping site Edmunds. Those borrowers owed about $5,000 on average after they traded in their cars, before taking on new loans. Five years ago the average was about $4,000.
Rising car prices have exacerbated an affordability gap that is increasingly getting filled with auto debt. Easy lending standards are perpetuating the cycle, with lenders routinely making car loans with low or no down payments that can last seven years or longer.

Robocall Fines Rise to $10,000 Per Call Under Newly Passed Law

December 19, 2019 Leave a Comment

After months of negotiations, Congress approved a landmark bill on Thursday to stop the flood of illegal robocalls. The president is expected to sign it into law within the next few days. The Verge reports:

The Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act, or the TRACED Act, empowers the federal government with new abilities to go after illegal robocallers. Once TRACED is enacted, the Federal Communications Commission could fine robocallers up to $10,000 per call. It also would require major carriers like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile to deploy a new technology called STIR/SHAKEN into their networks, which will make it easier for consumers to know if they’re receiving a call from a spoofed number.
The House voted overwhelmingly to approve the measure earlier this month, and Thursday’s unanimous Senate vote means the bill only requires President Trump’s signature to become law. Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA) said that the bill should be signed into law within the “next week or so.”

For the First Time in History, the US Economy Has Started and Ended a Decade Without a Recession

December 19, 2019 Leave a Comment

As of December, the U.S. economy has expanded for a record 126 straight months, the longest time period in the country’s history according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. Put another way, the U.S. has avoided a recession for an entire calendar decade for the first time ever. CNBC reports:

“It is unusual that this has been such a persistent recovery,” Michelle Meyer, chief U.S. economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, told CNBC.
Economists cite a few reasons for why the expansion has lasted for so long. For one, the U.S. was coming from a low point at the end of the last decade. Much of the expansion over the past ten years has been spent recovering from the Great Recession…
Overall, economic expansions have started to last longer in the post-war period. The NBER, which keeps the official tally of recessions in the U.S., found expansions have lasted an average of 58.4 months from 1945 to 2009, compared to 35 months from 1919 to 1945. One reason for this, economists say, is that policymakers have gotten better at responding to changes in the economy while inflation has remained subdued…
Another reason economists say the expansion has lasted so long is that the memory of the crisis is still fresh in the minds of consumers and businesses, making them more risk-averse and alert to the next downturn.

Any Amount Of Running Linked To Significantly Lower Risk Of Death From Any Cause

December 16, 2019 Leave a Comment

The joggers and runners of the world certainly have reason to smile, according to a new international study. Researchers from Australia, Austria, Finland, and Thailand performed a comprehensive analysis on available evidence, and concluded that any amount of running significantly lowers one’s risk of death from any cause. Study Finds reports:

All in all, 14 studies were included, encompassing 232,149 people who had had their health tracked for periods of time between 5.5 and 35 years. Within that long time frame, 25,951 of the included study participants passed away.
Upon pooling and analyzing all of that data, researchers determined that any amount of running was associated with a 27% lower risk of death from all causes, in comparison to participants who reported never running. This held true among both genders. Any amount of running was also associated with a 30% lower chance of dying due to cardiovascular disease, and a 23% lower risk of cancer-related death.
Even “small” doses of running, defined as going out for a jog just once every one to two weeks for less than 50 minutes, at a slow average speed of less than 6 miles per hour, were still found to induce significant health and longevity perks. In summation, the research team say their findings point to some light running as a great fitness option for people who may not have enough time most days to get in a full workout.

More Americans Delaying Medical Treatment Due to Cost

December 9, 2019 Leave a Comment

A record 25% of Americans say they or a family member put off treatment for a serious medical condition in the past year because of the cost, up from 19% a year ago and the highest in Gallup’s trend. Gallup reports:

Another 8% said they or a family member put off treatment for a less serious condition, bringing the total percentage of households delaying care due to costs to 33%, tying the high from 2014 …
Reports of delaying treatment for a serious condition jumped 13 percentage points in the past year to 36% among adults in households earning less than $40,000 per year while it was essentially flat (up a non statistically significant three points) among those in middle-income and higher-income households.
As a result of the spike in lower-income households this year, the gap between the top and bottom income groups for failure to seek treatment for a serious medical condition widened to 23 percentage points in 2019. The income gap had averaged 17 points in the early years of Barack Obama’s presidency, but narrowed to an average 11 points in the first few years after implementation of the ACA, from 2015 to 2018.