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Financial
15 Financial Resolutions for 2025
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- By John S Kiernan, WalletHub Managing Editor
Resolution season is a great time to make financial improvements, and 52% of Americans are planning to make finance-related New Year’s resolutions for 2025, according to a new WalletHub survey. For example, 41% of people making a financial resolution want to save more money.
To help you make the most of this opportunity for reflection and self-improvement, we put together a list of the top financial New Year’s resolutions for 2025, plus a playbook for making them a reality.
States with the Most Credit Cards
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- By Adam McCann - WalletHub Financial Writer
Exactly how many cards are manageable varies from person to person and state to state, though. Having multiple cards in your wallet can help you boost your credit score if you use them responsibly, but they can also lead to the temptation to overspend. The average American has around 5 credit cards, according to WalletHub’s research.
To determine the states where credit card ownership is increasing the most, WalletHub analyzed our latest finance data across four key metrics: the average number of cards owned per person, the average number of new cards opened per person in Q3 2024, and the percent change in both of those numbers from Q3 2023.
Harris and Trump Offer Contrasting Economic Plans
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- By Eagle Forum
It IS the Economy, Stupid
Inflation and the economy are top issues this election year. Everyone feels the strain in their wallets at the grocery store, shopping mall, car dealership, and gas station. The cost of groceries has risen 25% since January 2020. Eggs saw the greatest price increase — a 94% increase from January 2020 to January 2023. Although the cost has come down, a dozen eggs are still more than 40% higher than pre-pandemic. “Bidenomics” has resulted in the urban Consumer Price Index being 21.8% above its level in January 2020. Voters are looking closely at the ideas being suggested to get the economy back on track. Both candidates have proposed economic plans, but one is suggesting reforms with a communist touch!
Stock Market Crashes in ‘Harris Trade,’ Says Analyst
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- By Joshua Arnold - The Washington Stand
Global stock markets continued their Friday stumble with a Monday tumble, as all three major U.S. indices fell by two percent or more. The Dow Jones index, which fell 600 points on Friday, lost an additional 900 points on Monday. The Nasdaq lost 900 points over the two days, while S&P lost 250 points; meanwhile global stock markets also crashed, led by Japan’s Nikkei 225, which lost 12%.
Some analysts attributed the stock market crash to July’s lackluster jobs report, also released on Friday. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the U.S. economy added only 114,000 “nonfarm payroll” jobs in July, the second fewest for any month in the past two years, behind April 2024.
South Carolina Ranks 45th Most Independent of 50 States
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- By Adam McCann, WalletHub Financial Writer
Most & Least Independent States (2024)
Americans value independence. We fought hard for it during the Revolutionary War, and in the present day, we celebrate not only our freedom from the British crown but also our strong ability to rely upon ourselves as individuals. Now, with inflation affecting people across the country, many Americans are struggling to maintain financial independence. Some have become at least temporarily more dependent on support from the federal government. Other people have become more dependent on personal vices, such as drinking and drugs, due to stress and depression.
In order to find out where Americans are the most self-reliant, WalletHub compared the 50 states based on five sources of dependency: consumer finances, the government, the job market, international trade and personal vices. We broke down these categories into 39 key indicators of independence, from the share of households receiving public assistance to the unemployment rate to the share of adults with gambling disorders.
Job Openings Fall to Lowest Since 2021
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- By Bob Adelmann - The New American
As the U.S. economy continues to slow, job openings are declining. They peaked at more than 12 million in March 2022. Today the Labor Department reported just eight million openings in April, the lowest number since February 2021.
The U.S. economy has been generating about 234,000 new jobs a month over the last year. The upcoming report due Friday from the Labor Department is hoping to see 190,000 new jobs created in April.
That could be a big miss. The third quarter of 2023 showed the economy growing at an annual rate of five percent. The fourth quarter showed the economy slowing, to a 3.4 percent annual rate.
The first quarter’s initial estimate showed GDP growth of just 1.6 percent, and the final number was just lowered to 1.3 percent. The early estimate for April shows a further decline to 0.2 percent. Adjusted for Bidenflation, GDP went negative in April.
State Tax Rates on Long-Term Capital Gains, 2024
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- By Katherine Loughead - Tax Foundations
When taxpayers sell their capital assets, like real property or their shares in a company, net earnings on those sales (capital gains) are generally subject to tax, and net losses on those sales (capital losses) can generally be deducted from income when calculating income tax liability.
One major shortcoming of current policy, however, is that when calculating the capital gain from the sale of an asset, the original purchase price (tax basis) is expressed in nominal terms when subtracted from the selling price. Because no inflation adjustment is made to the original purchase price, capital gains taxes are applied to nominal, not real, increases in wealth, meaning taxpayers are taxed on what is typically a combination of real and fictitious income (although the tax code does provide a few accommodations, such as for qualifying sales of owner-occupied homes and properties transferred to an heir). In some cases, this lack of inflation indexing of the tax basis results in taxpayers paying taxes on what appears on paper to be a capital gain but, due to inflation, is, in real terms, a net loss.
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- President Biden Outlines Vision for Higher, More Complicated Taxes in State of the Union Address and FY 2025 Budget
- Greenville Takes 21st Place Among Cities Where Renters Can Stretch Their Dollars the Furthest
- Property Taxes by State (2024)
- State Corporate Income Tax Rates and Brackets, 2024
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