Personal finance

Elon Musk speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, U.S., Feb. 20, 2025.  Nathan Howard | Reuters A federal judge in Maryland on Monday granted a temporary restraining order barring staffers from Elon Musk‘s secretive government-slashing effort, the Department of Government Efficiency, from accessing the personal information of millions of student loan

Protestors in New York City demonstrate against the push by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who leads the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, to gut federal services and impose mass layoffs, Feb. 19, 2025. Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images The Trump administration’s purge of federal workers may ultimately amount to the biggest job

Although inflation has eased considerably, in many ways, it is still alive and well. The consumer price index, which measures the cost of a wide-ranging basket of goods and services, has fallen gradually from a 9.1% pandemic-era peak in June 2022 to 3% in January. But it is still above the Federal Reserve’s 2% goal. “The progress toward 2%

Damircudic | E+ | Getty Images Student loan borrowers who expected smaller monthly payments under the new Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan received some bad news on Feb. 18, when a U.S. appeals court blocked the program. As a result, millions of people will need to switch to a new repayment plan

Protesters demonstrate in support of federal workers outside of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Feb. 14, 2025 in Washington, DC. Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images On Feb. 11, Elizabeth Aniskevich, an attorney at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, received a notice that she was being terminated immediately. “I was completely shocked,”