Wherever you are in your financial journey, money likely has caused stress at some point. A majority of U.S. consumers — 58% — say their finances control their lives, and 42% say saving for long-term goals keeps them up at night, according to a 2024 Ally Consumer Check survey of 1,000 Americans. A crucial component
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If you’ve ever taken out a loan or used a credit card to cover a car repair, you’ve created debt. Debt is money you borrow and agree to pay back, usually with interest. Debt can be a useful tool, and if you handle it responsibly, it could help you build a positive credit history. But
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When you work 45, 50 or 60 hours a week, you expect your paycheck to reflect that time. Instead, you may be told you are “exempt,” be classified as an independent contractor, or receive the same hourly rate for every hour of overtime. At this point, you know something feels wrong, but you don’t have
Continue ReadingThey have the same amount of debt. But why do they feel so differently about it? While 53% of men say their financial situation is sustainable long term, only 39% of women say the same, according to Accredited Debt Relief’s 2026 Everyday Debt Survey The 14-point spread is one of the widest demographic splits in
Continue ReadingEarning well? You’ve likely done what many financially successful people do: focused on building a strong career first. No matter your career path, years of discipline, long hours, and smart decisions have helped you reach a high-income position. That part of the equation is working. Yet when you step back and look at the bigger
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Housing is typically thought of as a fixed, non-negotiable bill, the one expense that gets paid before anything else. New survey data suggests that for a meaningful share of Americans, it isn’t being paid outright at all. It’s being financed. In a 2026 survey of 2,000 U.S. adults with at least $10,000 in unsecured debt,
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As of mid-2026, over 8.5 million Americans are working more than one job. It’s becoming increasingly common for Americans to take on multiple jobs just to make ends meet. While having a second job may be a great way to earn extra income to afford bills or help save up for larger expenses, it’s important
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Most budgets don’t fail because the person behind them lacks discipline. They fail because of predictable design flaws: the numbers were optimistic rather than real, irregular expenses were never accounted for, there were too many categories to maintain, or one overspent week made the whole plan feel broken. Each of those has a specific fix.
Continue ReadingEconomists, policymakers, and business leaders are parsing through a wider range of variables than usual to make sense of present-day macroeconomic conditions and determine what should be done to keep markets on a healthy course. Some variables suggest the economy is faring well, if not improving. Economic analysis from the US Bureau of Labor
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Some school expenses get delayed. Some get financed. And some get canceled — a season, a club, a trip a kid was counting on. That last group is bigger than most parents realize. Accredited Debt Relief’s back-to-school survey of more than 1,000 parents of K-12 students found that 19% kept a child out of
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