Sharing Bank Accounts Can Deepen a Couple’s Relationship

Sharing Bank Accounts Can Deepen a Couple’s Relationship

When Nia Darville Stokes-Hicks and Armondi Stokes-Hicks married two years ago, they set up five bank accounts. Each had an individual bank account for personal spending, and they shared a checking account for paying household bills. They had a joint savings account. And they had yet another account for money …

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How Improv Comedians Make a Living Teaching Corporate Workshops

How Improv Comedians Make a Living Teaching Corporate Workshops

In 1994, Bob Kulhan was in his early 20s and on the path to becoming a marketing executive at a top ad agency. The financial stability of his blossoming career comforted his parents. That year, he also began taking improvisational comedy classes at Second City, a renowned comedy institution based …

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Financial Advice on Social Media Is Growing. And Risky.

Financial Advice on Social Media Is Growing. And Risky.

Amy Ryan was panicking about her savings when she went online for advice. It was April 2020, and the stock market had plunged, draining a nest egg that she had built up over the years. Ms. Ryan, a 43-year-old sales engineer from Wales, had dumped her portfolio in the crash …

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How to Invest During a Presidency With a Deep Devotion to Profits

How to Invest During a Presidency With a Deep Devotion to Profits

“The chief business of the American people is business.” That declaration by Calvin Coolidge has been shortened and simplified since that Republican president uttered it before an assembly of newspaper editors a century ago. But the notion that the business of America is business was on conspicuous display at President …

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How to Come Up With a Down Payment on a House

How to Come Up With a Down Payment on a House

Wishing you could buy a home? It can be challenging to save enough for a down payment, given how much houses now cost. But many people don’t realize there are myriad programs that offer grants or loans to help home buyers come up with the necessary funds. “There are tons …

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How Unauthorized Immigrants Help Finance Social Security Benefits

How Unauthorized Immigrants Help Finance Social Security Benefits

The Social Security Administration receives billions in free money each year from an unexpected source: undocumented immigrants. This group paid an estimated $25.7 billion in Social Security taxes in 2022, according to a recent analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning tax research group. Since unauthorized …

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Investing in Stocks and Bonds Will Be Trickier Under Trump

Investing in Stocks and Bonds Will Be Trickier Under Trump

Financial markets have been choppy since the November election, and for good reason. With the next presidential administration promising sharp policy changes on a broad range of economic issues, there is plenty to be nervous about. The new proposals are dizzying. The president-elect says he wants to deport millions of …

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Now on the College Course Menu: Personal Finance

Now on the College Course Menu: Personal Finance

Sean Karaman, a freshman at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, hadn’t always paid close attention to his credit card spending. But after taking a personal finance course on campus last fall, he said, he is much more likely to pay as he goes. “I’ve become best friends with my …

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