Investing News

Three of the best-known professional designations in the financial industry are certified public accountant (CPA), chartered financial analyst (CFA), and certified financial planner (CFP®). Each has a core career focus and points to its own professional path. Below are details of the coursework and study each designation requires, what careers they typically lead to, and

If you’ve been considering making green home improvements, you might be in for some budgetary luck. President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 into law on Aug. 16, 2022. Among other initiatives, the bill lowers energy costs, reduces carbon emissions, and invests in a clean energy economy. Such investments primarily take the form

Welcome one and all to the 100th episode of the Investopedia Express. We are so grateful to all of you for listening and to all of our guests who’ve climbed aboard the Express to make us smarter every single week. Now let’s get down to business, and we got a wake up call to end

The crypto market is tough to crack, as it does not adhere to the same rules that the stock market does. It has its own personality, and this can be intimidating to someone who has so far only had experience with trading stocks. Veteran investors themselves exercise a lot of caution when talking about the crypto market’s direction, so you

Many people are likely unaware of how many entities declare bankruptcy each year. By the end of 2020, 523,917 Americans had filed for bankruptcy. However, the United States isn’t a monolith, and regions can be subject to vastly different financial circumstances than their neighbors. These factors can impact how much credit the average resident or

Traders on the floor of the NYSE, Aug. 11, 2022. Source: NYSE As the market reacted in alarm to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s hawkish comments and determined tone on Friday, I struggled to retrieve an analogous situation that ended well. My conclusion is that, although we have experienced a bear-confirming drop of over 20%

There have been more than 38 million cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. and at least 629,000 deaths. This new reality has been compounded by the severe economic toll from the outbreak, sending the U.S. economy into a recession in February 2020. The COVID-19 crisis pushed the U.S. stock market into bear market territory in

After four days of again registering above the 6% bar, rates on 30-year mortgages eased lower Friday, ending the week almost exactly where they were the previous Friday. Today’s National Mortgage Rate Averages Last Monday, the 30-year average climbed back above 6% for the first time since mid-July, and stayed there until Friday, when it

Whether you’ve done it before or not, the challenge of buying a home can be incredibly daunting. It’s tempting to either just go with the first place that falls in your price range or continue to rent. To help you demystify the process and get the most out of this purchase, let’s examine what you’ll

Who We Are Since Investopedia was launched in 1999, we’ve made it our mission to simplify complex financial information and decisions for our readers, giving them the confidence to manage every aspect of their financial life. Our millions of users come to us from all over the world and from all walks of life. Some

The U.S. labor market will be in the spotlight this week, as upcoming reports could provide insights into how the Federal Reserve’s agenda of rate hikes to address inflation is impacting the job market. On Tuesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is set to release its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) report tracking hires, quits,

During March 2020, the U.S. Department of Education extended an array of relief measures aimed at helping borrowers with federal student loans get through the COVID-19 pandemic. The temporary deferment period applied to eligible federal student loans and included the following: A suspension of payments A fixed 0% interest rate A temporary halt to collections

When most people hear the term financial services sector, the first thing they’re likely to think of is the hustle and bustle of Wall Street. However, there’s more to the industry than just stock trading and investment services. In fact, the financial services sector includes a broad array of different types of financial services companies.

A restricted stock unit (RSU) is a form of stock-based compensation used to reward employees. Restricted stock units will vest at some point in the future and, unlike stock options, will have some value upon vesting unless the underlying company stock becomes worthless. RSUs can be an important part of your clients’ compensation packages. They can

Certificates of deposit (CDs), whether purchased online or at a brick-and-mortar bank, are perfectly safe places to stash your cash as long as you follow these rules: Make sure the money in your CD is federally insured against losses by either the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) if it’s a bank or by the National

While stuffing cash under a mattress may seem like the easiest solution, your local bank or credit union offers better and safer options. Either a traditional savings account or a certificate of deposit (CD) would earn some interest. At nearly all U.S. banks and credit unions, your money in either a CD or a savings

Certificates of deposit (CDs) are widely available and easy to buy. You can open a CD online in a matter of minutes or in person at almost any bank or at your credit union. However, there are a number of things to consider before you commit. Key Takeaways Opening a certificate of deposit (CD) with

If you borrowed money to pay for school, your first question might be how best to pay off your student loans. The short answer is that there’s no magic bullet, but there are definitely things you can do to make paying back education debt easier. Student loan debt reached an all-time high of $1.61 trillion

If you’re traveling to the U.S. and plan on arriving in Los Angeles (LA) at LAX airport, you’ll likely need U.S. currency for cash purchases, such as a coffee or bottle of water. If you’re traveling abroad from the U.S, you may want to have foreign currency on hand to pay for taxis and small

Whether we admit it or not, taxes drive a lot of our personal finance decisions. Avoiding or lowering them can influence where we choose to live, what kind of car we buy, where we send our children to school, whether we purchase a house, and many other everyday decisions. Everyone tries to limit the amount