✍🏼 paper checks is a high-risk endeavor: It provides the raw materials for low-level fraud artists and sophisticated crime rings, and even though banks know about the problem, many freeze or shut down customer accounts why investigating. buff.ly/3uUWWNO via Tara Siegel Bernard

Retirees and their dependents receive more than three-quarters of all Social Security benefits paid, but millions of other beneficiaries will also receive the increase, Tara Siegel Bernard notes. nyti.ms/46M87WD

Social Security Benefits Will Rise 3.2% in 2024 nytimes.com/2023/10/12/you… via NYT Business Tara Siegel Bernard

Something deeply, deeply broken in a system where NYC child care is both

- so expensive for buyers, that NYC families have to make $300k to make it affordable (<7% total hhld income)
- so meager for providers, that a quarter of child care workers in the city live in poverty

Student loan payments restart next month, but you do have more options. Here's what to know: Tara Siegel Bernard
nytimes.com/2023/08/31/you…

This is disturbing but unfortunately in no way surprising. washingtonpost.com/health/2023/08…

Many of these children being dropped from Medicaid are likely still eligible for coverage, and are simply getting caught up in bureaucratic red tape, nowhere more so than in Texas.

Tara Siegel Bernard reports on SAVE, a new income-driven repayment plan to significantly cut federal student loan payments, eventually by as much as half. nyti.ms/3QXfllU

The Biden administration's new student loan repayment plan -- called SAVE-- is officially open for enrollment. Like other income-driven repayment plans, payments are based on your income and family size, but this is the most generous by far. More details: nytimes.com/2023/08/22/you…

Discharging student debt became far more difficult over the past four decades, Tara Siegel Bernard notes. Under new guidelines, each piece of the discharge test becomes easier to pass if the debtor can check certain boxes. nyti.ms/3OODFoF

Discharging student debt became far more difficult over the past four decades, Tara Siegel Bernard notes. Under new guidelines, each piece of the discharge test becomes easier to pass if the debtor can check certain boxes. nyti.ms/3OqUe8V

'For decades, making television shows was similar in some ways to the early days of automaking: A team of writers would be involved in all parts of the production. Many of those who wrote scripts were also on set...' Not anymore. nytimes.com/2023/07/20/bus…

How will the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision today affect you?

Tara Siegel Bernard breaks down the impact on loans for homes, cars and higher education, as well as the effect on savings accounts: nytimes.com/2023/06/14/bus…

Weather events are driving up home insurance costs in high-risk regions. There strategies can help you keep premiums affordable (free to read) Tara Siegel Bernard
nytimes.com/2023/06/14/you…

The The New York Times' new podcast, The Headlines, summarizes the top stories of the day. In today's episode, I discussed the end of the student loan payment pause. You can follow the link below, or find it on the NYT Audio app in the App Store. nytimes.com/2023/06/05/pod…

A toddler who desperately needed care was turned away by Allina Health.

The reason: the 3-year-old had too many outstanding bills.

We learned the wealthy health-system often cuts off care to patients in debt.
With the indomitable Sarah Kliff

nytimes.com/2023/06/01/bus…

After a three-year pandemic break, student loan payments are about to come due again. Here's much of what you need to know, and I'll update with any changes along the way. More questions? Send them my way and I'll try to get them answered.
nytimes.com/2023/06/01/you…

“Some of the world’s biggest companies have said they do not plan to change course and will continue increasing prices or keep them at elevated levels for the foreseeable future,” ⁦talmon joseph smith⁩ & ⁦Joe Rennison⁩ report. So they can earn more $$$ nytimes.com/2023/05/30/bus…