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By Dawn Allcot Holiday Spending: Get Top Holiday Shopping and Savings TipsTake a Look Back: 2022 Year in Review If you are missing a package that shows as “delivered” based on your tracking information, you’ll want to check security cameras to see if it was stolen. After that, your first course of action should be to contact the seller and see if they will issue a refund, says Michael Orefice, SVP of Operations at SmartFinancial, a digital insurance comparison engine....

Consumers are returning to shopping malls looking to spend. Simon Property Group, a real estate investment trust that invests in shopping malls, outlet centers and community/lifestyle centers, saw sales return to pre-pandemic levels in its second fiscal quarter. By Josephine Nesbit “I am pleased with the profitability and substantial improvement in cash flow that were generated in the second quarter,” said David Simon, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President in the company’s second-quarter earnings call on Monday....

With a new variant on the rise and a new year on the horizon, change is inevitable — especially for small business owners. And change is nothing new; small business owners have been rolling with the pandemic punches since early 2020. By Cynthia Measom First, it was the shutdowns and then it was the financial strife. Then, once the shutdowns eased, it was struggling to get employees and customers to return and also dealing with those customers who were angered by social distancing requirements and mask mandates....

A stock buyback is when a company purchases or “buys back” stock from its shareholders. It’s sometimes called a share repurchase. The company buys shares of its own stock at the market price, thereby reducing the number of shares that are outstanding. Since the value of the company stays the same, the result of a buyback is usually an increase in the share price. By Karen Doyle How Stock Buybacks Work Share Price Why Companies Buy Back Stock Stock Buyback A Good Investment?...

Americans who qualify for federal student loan forgiveness can now take a peek at the application, though they still don’t know when the application process will begin. By Vance Cariaga The Future of Finances: Gen Z & How They Relate to MoneyZelle Facebook Marketplace Scam: How To Recognize and Avoid This Scam On Tuesday, the Biden administration provided a preview of the student loan forgiveness application website, CNN reported. In a briefing with the media, White House officials said the application website will be live “later this month” and applications will be open through December 2023, but did not provide a specific launch date....

What Is TaskRabbit? TaskRabbit was established in 2008 by Leah Busque as RunMyErrand when she had a problem getting to the store to buy food for her dog. It was intended to be a neighbors-helping-neighbors type of service and still tries to have that vibe. In 2010, it adopted the current name, TaskRabbit, and in 2017 TaskRabbit was acquired by Ikea. The main change that came from that acquisition was the added furniture assembly service....

Making it to the half-century mark should come with certain rewards, and the IRS is ready to hand them out. Once you turn 50 years old you begin to qualify for certain tax breaks that younger taxpayers don’t enjoy, including the ability to contribute more to retirement accounts. By Vance Cariaga See: What To Do (and Not Do) If You Can’t Afford Your Property Taxes Taxes in 2022: Find Out Everything You Need To Know About Filing, Refunds and More Some of the breaks date back 20 years, when they were included in the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act that took effect in 2002, the AARP reported....

There are nearly 7 million property crimes that occur every year, according to the latest FBI data. And although property crimes have been on the decline in recent years based on the latest data, you may still want to consider investing in a home security system for a number of reasons. By Gabrielle Olya Top 5 Reasons To Invest in a Home Security System How Much a Home Security System Costs Read More: The Housing Market Forecast for the Rest of 2021, According To RealtorsFind Out: 10 US Cities Spending Big Money on New Housing Construction...

The Federal Reserve has signaled it’s getting ready to raise interest rates in March. While this could impact mortgage rates, experts say it’s difficult to predict if they’ll steadily rise throughout the year. By Josephine Nesbit Explore: 10 Fastest Ways To Pay Off Your MortgageLearn: 15 Mortgage Questions To Ask Your Lender Mortgage rates typically don’t rise closely with the Fed’s rate increases and can even move in the opposite direction, the Associated Press reported....

One of the main advantages of exchange-traded funds is that you can use them to gain exposure to a particular sector of the market. This is especially valuable if you’re looking to invest in commodities, which are often quite volatile and may be hard to invest in as a retail investor. By John Csiszar Best Commodity ETFs See: 5 Things You Must Do When Your Savings Reach $50,000 Commodities are often seen as a hedge against inflation, which is why many investors have flocked to them in 2022....

Citi® has a name for offering travel-related services, particularly in the credit card arena. While some of its travel credit cards are directly affiliated with American Airlines, others offer a wide range of travel benefits, from enhanced points earning capability to cash back. By John Csiszar At a Glance Overall Travel Rewards Single Category Spending ThankYou Rewards Regular Travelers No Annual Fee How To Choose Given the broad assortment of cards available, it pays to take the time to filter through and decide which is the best Citi travel credit card for you....

By Andrew Lisa Find Out: 10 Kitchen Renovations That Will Hurt Your Home’s ValueTips: Unplug These Appliances That Hike Up Your Electricity Bill More than one-third of the study’s respondents consider a home to be affordable if it costs between $100,000 and $150,000, and another one-quarter said that their idea of affordable falls between $150,000 and $250,000. Although home prices rose by nearly 17% in 2021 alone — the highest growth on record — there are still some inexpensive gems scattered across the country....

With gasoline prices at record highs ahead of the summer travel season, many drivers appear to be finding other ways to get around instead of hopping in their cars and heading to the nearest fuel pump. By Vance Cariaga POLL: Have Gas Prices Affected Your Driving Habits?Discover: The True Cost of Going Electric Gasoline demand on a four-week rolling basis has fallen to its lowest level during this time of year since 2013 (excluding the pandemic-outbreak period in 2020), Business Insider reported, citing data from the Energy Information Administration....

The idea of a one-stop shop when it comes to a bank has much appeal. By John Csiszar For starters, keeping all of your money at a single institution makes it easy to track, as you don’t have to chase down statements from different institutions, particularly at tax time. It also makes it easier to get a complete, easy-to-understand picture of your complete banking situation, potentially including even your investment performance....

Whether you actively participate in the holiday madness or not, some amount of holiday stress will undoubtedly find its way into your peace of mind. Bustling crowds, bad traffic, higher expenditures, presents to buy and wrap and the pressure to gather with family can quickly weigh you down. However, it doesn’t have to. Here, experts offer some tips for how to combat holiday stress without spending a lot of money:...

Medical care is expensive. And, when you don’t have insurance, it can be frightening to think of the financial fallout you might suffer from an unexpected trip to the doctor or hospital. By Cynthia Measom David Silverstein, author and founder of Amaze Health, said uninsured Americans are often middle-income households — those whose household income is too high to qualify for assistance and too low to afford worthwhile medical coverage....

The rise of non-fungible tokens has been among the most unexpected developments since cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology first emerged. Nowadays, many are creating, buying and selling them across Solana NFT marketplaces and taking advantage of this growing industry. By Teddy Garcia DigitalEyes Metaplex SolSea Solanart Magic Eden Artz.ai Exchange.Art Alpha.art Solport NFTs can be found on many different blockchains, and Solana is one example. Solana is a relative newcomer compared to the NFT leader Ethereum, which hosts a majority of all NFTs....

Investing isn’t just for stocks and bonds — you can also invest your money in other things that could be valuable in the future. Surely you’ve heard of people who collected items such as records, toys, comic books and stamps simply because they enjoyed doing so, only to discover years later that they had a goldmine on their hands. By Cynthia Measom That could be you — you just have to find the right items to collect....

With inflation at a 41-year-high, a market that has entered bear territory, fears of a looming recession and a tech sector that is taking a beating, the road ahead for investors is tricky. Some analysts say, however, that in these panicked times for stocks and risks, one should focus on “tech secular winners” — stocks that will remain unaffected by short-term trends such as Microsoft and Apple. By Yaёl Bizouati-Kennedy See: Once the Economy Enters a Bear Market, How Long Does It Take for Stocks To Hit Their Lowest Point?...

Semiconductor stocks are in an interesting place right now. While most of them were down last year — just like almost everything else — they’ve begun to recover in 2023. By Karen Doyle Micron Technology GlobalFoundries Broadcom Texas Instruments AMD Intel Qualcomm iShares Semiconductor ETF Here’s a look at seven semiconductor stocks to consider for your portfolio. See: 3 Things You Must Do When Your Savings Reach $50,000 What Are the Best Semiconductor Stocks To Buy?...