Household money and consumer rights

Every new government portal is followed by convincing fakes. Twelve checks separating a .gov site from an impostor before you type your Social Security number.

The federal rule that would have erased it was vacated in 2025. What actually protects you now, what can still be reported, and what to do about an entry.

Model weights, four key factors the law makes a lender disclose, and what you can change this month are three different rankings. Which one to use, and when.

USDA proposes chip EBT cards, self-service blocks and alerts for SNAP households. What to do about skimming now, and why stolen benefits may not come back.

ED extended the 1% auto-pay interest rate reduction deadline to December 31, 2026. Who qualifies, how to enroll, and what borrowers in default must do first.

Since July 1, 2026, the plans you can pick depend on when your loans were disbursed. How RAP, IBR and the Tiered Standard plan differ, and what AGI does.

Three to six months of expenses is the standard answer, but the useful questions are which expenses count, and what the money should actually be held in.

Prepaying a mortgage earns a guaranteed return equal to your after-tax interest rate. Whether that beats investing depends on four numbers you can look up.

Treasury's General License 135 lets Russian diesel be sold, shipped and imported through April 7, 2027. A permission is not a barrel, and here is the math.