Trump's payroll tax holiday sows confusion

Aug 10, 2020
President Trump has ordered Treasury to stop collecting the employee portion of payroll taxes for some workers through the end of 2020.
President Donald Trump signs an executive order and three memorandums extending coronavirus economic relief on Aug. 8. How the payroll tax holiday would benefit Americans remains unclear.
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Social Security benefits' buying power is fading, despite adjustments

Oct 10, 2019
Seniors will get an extra 1.6%. But their cost of living rose by 1.9%.
Blank Social Security checks are run through a printer at the U.S. Treasury printing facility Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
William Thomas Cain/ Getty Images

How 65 came to be defined as a turning point into old age

Jun 19, 2019
The origin story of 65 can be traced back to the 30s, when President Roosevelt sought to make retirement available to everyone.
Many of the regulars at The Allegheny Elks Lodge in Pittsburgh had a love/hate relationship with their 65th birthdays.
Erika Beras/Marketplace

Low interest rates have cost savers roughly half a trillion dollars

Apr 10, 2019
The post-crisis financial policy has a downside.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

Will that extra money in your Social Security check add up to much?

Oct 11, 2018
An estimated 67 million Americans receiving the benefits will see a 2.8 percent cost-of-living boost to their checks.
Blank checks run through a printer at the U.S. Treasury printing facility in Philadelphia in 2011. 
Photo by William Thomas Cain/Getty Images

4 things you should know about protecting your kid's credit

Oct 4, 2018
It's something parents need to think about more and more these days.
In this photo illustration, a man is seen using a mobile phone in the light of a projection of a thumbprint on August 09, 2017 in London, England.
Leon Neal/Getty Images

Food aid need shifts from cities to countryside

Sep 24, 2018
Since the late 1970s, lawmakers have placed the SNAP nutrition program into the farm package hoping to get both urban and rural support. But that thinking might be outdated.
Small-town grocery stores like this one in southwest Iowa get 10 percent to 25 percent of their sales from federal food aid called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, according to the Rural Grocery Initiative at Kansas State University.
Peggy Lowe/KCUR