Author: Press Room

By Gergely Szakacs (Reuters) – Underlying inflation in central, eastern and southeastern Europe is stronger than in advanced economies, requiring many central banks in the region to maintain a tight monetary stance for longer than the European Central Bank, a top IMF official said. Aided by a retreat in price growth from double digits, some central banks in the region have started lowering interest rates, led by Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic, with Romania’s central bank holding off on rate easing for now. “The decline of the inflation rate is progressing more slowly in Romania, Moldova, Montenegro, Hungary, and…

John Bogle once said index funds would never compromise more than half of the total mutual fund market. That was years ago. Morningstar MORN recently reported the total value of passively managed funds has surpassed actively managed mutual fund assets. Some are expecting index funds to top 70% of total mutual fund assets within the decade. How much can the market share of these investment products grow? What happens to capital markets if that number hits 100%? More important, how might this put your retirement savings at risk? Finally, what opportunities present themselves to savvy investors as the market share…

Our goal here at Credible Operations, Inc., NMLS Number 1681276, referred to as “Credible” below, is to give you the tools and confidence you need to improve your finances. Although we do promote products from our partner lenders who compensate us for our services, all opinions are our own. The interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is 6.875% as of March 15, which is 0.125 percentage points lower than yesterday.  With mortgage rates changing daily, it’s a good idea to check today’s rate before applying for a loan. It’s also important to compare different lenders’ current interest rates, terms,…

Millions of borrowers have missed student loan payments since the October restart and about 1 in 10 are refusing to pay in the hopes it will pressure the government to cancel their outstanding debt, a recent survey said. Six in 10 student loan borrowers have missed payments after a 42-month payment pause ended in October, the Intelligent.com survey said. Twenty-five percent have not made one payment since repayments resumed three months ago. Over one-third (36%) of borrowers who haven’t made any payment said they planned to resume as soon as possible, with the same number saying they are unsure when they’ll resume payments.…

Capital One Financial’s $35.3 billion deal for Discover Financial would create new competition for payments behemoths Visa and Mastercard, potentially helping smoothen the path for regulatory approval, analysts said. The all-stock deal announced on Monday would give Capital One access to Discover’s network of payments processing and settlement services, allowing it to cut its reliance on Visa and Mastercard, which have come under fire for their fees.While legal experts expect the deal – the biggest in the global credit card industry according to Dealogic – to face fierce antitrust and other regulatory scrutiny, it could take a slice out of…

Our goal here at Credible Operations, Inc., NMLS Number 1681276, referred to as “Credible” below, is to give you the tools and confidence you need to improve your finances. Although we do promote products from our partner lenders who compensate us for our services, all opinions are our own. Borrowers with good credit seeking personal loans during the past seven days prequalified for rates that were higher for 3-year loans and lower for 5-year loans when compared to fixed-rate loans for the seven days before. For borrowers with credit scores of 720 or higher who used the Credible marketplace to…

When should you leave money to your kids? “Die with Zero” author and hedge fund manager Bill Perkins told Fox Business’ Neil Cavuto “don’t wait until you die.”The author weighed in on how to approach the topic of sharing wealth with your children while spending to live comfortably.  SHOULD YOU TELL YOUR KIDS ABOUT THEIR INHERITANCE? “You know, life is about net fulfillment, about having a fulfilling ride. I mean the destination is always a grave,” Bill Perkins proposed. “So we have to enjoy the journey.”He went on to lay out his rationale for spending before dying. “We want to use…

Every weekday the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer holds a “Morning Meeting” livestream at 10:20 a.m. ET. Here’s a recap of Tuesday’s key moments. U.S. stocks declined Tuesday as Wall Street extended its poor start to the second quarter. This is a big shift from the market’s stellar first quarter . The S & P 500 jumped 10% over the first three months, notching its best start to the year since 2019. “We should all expect sell-offs after a bountiful period that started in October,” Jim Cramer said. Although the S & P 500 Short Range Oscillator indicates that…

Housing costs are outpacing median household incomes in the U.S., further straining affordability.Would-be homebuyers need to earn $113,520 a year to afford the typical house in the U.S. That is 35% more than what the typical household earns annually ($84,072), according to a new analysis by Redfin, a national real estate brokerage site.”Since the pandemic, affordability has just totally collapsed,” said Chen Zhao, a senior economist at Redfin. February 2021 was the last month when the typical household earned more money than they needed to afford the median home. They’ve been in a deficit ever since, Zhao said.More from Personal Finance:Top…

Some people go to Costco for its $1.50 hot dogs, others for its $179 Ozempic prescriptions. The warehouse retailer is now offering its US members access to prescriptions for GLP-1 weight loss drugs through its low-cost health care partner Sesame. Costco first partnered with Sesame, a direct-to-consumer health care marketplace that connects medical providers nationwide with consumers, last fall when it began offering its members online health checkups for as low as $29. But about two months after that announcement, Costco and Sesame noticed that customers were inquiring about weight-loss help and began working on a new program to address…