Key takeaways A first-time homebuyer is someone who has either never owned a home or who has not owned a home in the last three years. First-time homebuyer programs offer mortgages with low down payment requirements and other favorable terms or assistance. Buying a new house involves many steps, from…
Amazon (AMZN) delivered a strong earnings performance in the first quarter of 2025, a signal to investors that the e-commerce giant remains a dominant force in Big Tech. But beneath the healthy profit lies a more complicated picture for investors moving forward. A quarter of solid results for Amazon Amazon…
Key takeaways An increase in prices for construction materials will raise the replacement cost of insured homes Tariffs will add an estimated nearly $11,000 to the cost of building a home Most imports of construction materials in the U.S. come from China, Mexico and Canada, the nations that currently have…
Filing an insurance claim can be frustrating. Maybe you’re waiting for an update that hasn’t come yet, or you expected a check and instead got a list of questions. From the outside, it can feel like nothing is happening. But behind the scenes, a lot of moving parts — file…
Personal Finance
While there has been much conversation on not buying from companies with poor diversity, little has been said about investing…
Lifestyle inflation occurs when your expenses increase as you earn more income. It can start subtly—dining at pricier restaurants, upgrading…
Chime, the largest digital bank in America, grew its revenue to $1.7 billion in 2024, an increase of roughly 30%…
Technology has transformed some parts of the daunting homebuying process–making it easier to search and compare properties online, to prepare…
Featured Articles
Apple shares fell more than 4 percent in early trading Friday as investors weighed an outlook for the iPhone maker that’s clouded by tariffs. The company’s fiscal second-quarter results came in ahead of analyst estimates, with sales rising 5 percent to $95.4 billion, and diluted…
Dept Managmnt
Key takeaways Your debt-to-income ratio (DTI) can quickly determine if you have too much debt. Good debt, like a mortgage or student loans,…
Banking
Apple, FedEx and Oracle all got loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration. But rules and red tape keep many banks from making…
Credit Cards
Key takeaways Adding authorized users to your business credit card account can make it easier for you to complete purchases and earn rewards…

All News
Key takeaways A second mortgage is a home-secured loan taken out while the original, or first, mortgage is still being repaid. Like the first, the second mortgage uses your property as collateral. A home equity loan and a home equity line of credit (HELOC) are two common types of second…
Capital gains are the financial profit you earn when you sell an asset like a home, business or stocks. Those gains are subject to capital-gains taxes, but capital gains are taxed differently depending on how long you owned the asset. That’s because, while the federal government encourages Americans to invest,…
Images by GettyImages; Illustration by Bankrate Cryptocurrency made a big splash when it was approved for trading in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in 2024. Now, investors looking to buy cryptocurrency through mutual funds have a few ways to do so, following the launch of ProShares’ mutual funds for Bitcoin and Ethereum.…
Here’s an uncomfortable truth: Every time we buy one of the Magnificent 7 stocks, shop with the largest online retailers or pay loan interest to a big-name bank, we’re putting money in the pockets of billionaires. To put their enormous wealth into perspective, if you make $50,000 a year, it would…
Unsecured business loans provide a critical form of funding for small businesses. In 2024, businesses relied on $261 billion in unsecured loans globally. That figure is expected to grow to more than $682 billion by 2024. This type of funding is valuable because it can be used to cover everything…
Any time I tell someone what I write about for work — specifically, cryptocurrencies — people always ask the same follow-up question: How can I get rich by investing in crypto? Truthfully, I’ve wondered the same thing. I’ve invested in crypto before, but it was a long time ago —…
Key takeaways As Americans reckon with high prices, “no-buy” challenges, which swear off most discretionary spending, have become popular online. No-buy challenges are designed to help people re-examine their spending habits and save more money. To optimize your own no-buy challenge, it’s important to identify why you want to do…
Did you know that according to the, “2025 Report on Employer Firms: Findings from the 2024 Small Business Credit Survey“, approximately 70% of small businesses in America are carrying some form of debt? Running a small business involves a myriad of responsibilities, from managing operations to satisfying customers. Amidst these…
Bankrate housing analyst Jeff Ostrowski attended 10 open houses in Bradenton and St. Petersburg, Florida — both in the once-red-hot Tampa Bay area — over the course of a single weekend in April. Here’s what he found, along with an analysis of what the numbers say. Price reductions. Sparsely attended…
Cheng Xin / Contributor / Getty Images Shares of Meta Platforms (META) and Microsoft (MSFT) jumped by more than 6 percent and 10 percent, respectively, in early trading Thursday after both companies reported strong quarterly results that showed the artificial intelligence spending boom is far from over. Meta said it…
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