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While rent payments do not traditionally affect your credit, so-called rent-reporting services are changing that.
This week, real estate site Zillow Group launched its new rent payment reporting feature.
To reap the full benefit, make sure the service reports your payment to all three major credit bureaus.

Luis Alvarez | Digitalvision | Getty Images

While rent payments do not traditionally affect your credit, a growing number of so-called rent-reporting services are trying to change that.
These services track users’ rent-paying habits and report them to one or more of the big credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — with the aim of helping renters build credit and potentially boost their credit score.

But these services don’t all operate the same way, and some may have less value for renters. There’s one major detail you should consider before signing up, said Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree: Is your payment record going to all three bureaus?
“It’s important for people to understand that you don’t just have one credit score,” he said. “You just don’t know which bureau your lender is going to use to get your information.”
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How rent-reporting programs work

This week, real estate site Zillow Group launched a new rent payment reporting feature. Renters who pay through the site can now opt in to have their on-time rent payments reported to Experian, one of the three major credit bureaus, at no charge to the renter or landlord.
In order for a renter to use the Zillow feature, their landlord must be a user of Zillow Rental Manager and have agreed to receive payments through the firm.

“It aligns with our goal of providing accessibility to building credit in the rental space. It’s a really positive step in that direction,” said Michael Sherman, the vice president of rentals at Zillow Group.

While Zillow is the first real estate marketplace to report rental payment data to a credit bureau, it joins a host of different rent-reporting services already available for consumers.
There are many services renters can look into, including some that are free, such as Piñata, and others that come with service or processing transaction fees, such as Rental Kharma, which charges $8.95 a month after an initial set-up fee of $75.
There are also services geared to landlords that offer rent reporting for tenants, including ClearNow, Esusu and PayYourRent. Landlords usually shoulder the cost of these programs, but there may be processing fees depending on how you make your rent payments.

Rent reporting can help the ‘credit invisibles’

Nearly 50 million Americans have no usable credit scores, according to a 2022 fact sheet from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s Project REACh, or Roundtable for Economic Access and Change.
Being “credit invisible” can affect your ability to qualify for loans and affect the interest rates and terms you are given when you apply for credit.
When rent payments are included in credit reports, consumers see an average increase of nearly 60 points to their credit score, according to a 2021 TransUnion report.
Other payment reporting programs such as Experian Boost, StellarFi and UltraFICO have aims similar to those of rent-reporting services, but with different kinds of payments. They allow users to build credit based on alternative metrics such as banking activity and payments for streaming services, electric bills and mobile phone plans. 

Talk to your landlord before you sign up for a rent-reporting service on your own. They may be open to signing up as a benefit to their tenants.
While “people are creatures of habit and don’t always embrace change,” a credit building feature can help a landlord stand out in a competitive rental market, said Schulz.
“It would be significant added value; building credit is a big deal and if you are somebody who can help people build credit, you may be a little more interesting to them,” he added.

‘Three credit reports are different reports’

Before you sign up to a rent-reporting service, it’s important to understand which bureau or bureaus the company sends reports to. It may not be worth using a service that sends rent payment reports only to a single bureau.
“If a rent-reporting service only gives your information to one of [the three big bureaus], and the lender that you are getting your auto loan from uses a different credit bureau, the benefits that could and should come with that tool may not end up panning out,” said Schulz.
The ideal is that the rent-reporting company gives the data to Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.
“People hear about three credit bureaus, but they don’t understand that your three credit reports are different reports, and different companies report to different bureaus,” said Schulz. More

House Republicans have reintroduced legislation to permanently repeal the federal estate tax.
For 2024, the federal estate tax exemption is $13.61 million per individual or $27.22 million for spouses.
However, without bipartisan support for the policy, it’s unlikely to pass through the current split Congress.

Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., speaks during a House Oversight and Accountability Committee impeachment inquiry hearing into U.S. President Joe Biden on Sept. 28, 2023.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

House Republicans this week reintroduced legislation to permanently repeal what they’re calling the “death tax” — or federal estate tax, which is levied on inherited property above a certain value.
Introduced by Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, with support from 162 lawmakers, the Death Tax Repeal Act follows past Republican proposals to abolish estate taxes, including a Senate bill from early 2023. 

“Families who spend a generation building up a successful farm, ranch or small business should be rewarded — not punished — by our tax code,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., said in a statement Thursday, applauding the bill.
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However, there hasn’t been bipartisan support for repealing the estate tax, and it’s unlikely to be enacted via the current split Congress, experts say.
“It seems like it’s largely a messaging play here where they’re trying to keep these ideas in the forefront,” said Garrett Watson, senior policy analyst and modeling manager at the Tax Foundation. “It’s a reminder especially as we approach the 2025 discussion.”
The federal estate tax exemption adjusted for inflation by rising to $13.61 million per individual or $27.22 million for spouses in 2024. Estates can owe up to 40% levies on anything above that.

But those limits will drop by roughly one-half after 2025 when provisions sunset from former president Donald Trump’s 2017 signature tax overhaul.
“Because the revenue effects are relatively small, they may have more leeway to eliminate [the estate tax] altogether if they had full control,” Watson said.

Who pays the federal estate tax

“In a sense, [the federal estate tax] has already been repealed,” said Robert McClelland, senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, noting that most Americans aren’t affected by the levy.
In 2019, roughly 2,100 tax returns — representing 0.08% of adult U.S. deaths — were subject to federal estate taxes, according to the latest IRS data.
“It’s not something that should worry the average American” or even the average wealthy American, McClelland said.

While some Republicans say the federal estate tax puts a burden on family farms and small businesses, most aren’t affected, he said.
For 2022, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service estimated that 0.22% of 39,534 farms with principal operator deaths would owe estate taxes. Of course, the need for estate tax returns largely depends on the farm size, USDA noted.

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The cost to raise a child has become expensive for parents in the U.S.
For instance, 47% of parents spent more than $1,500 a month on child care expenses in 2023.
To help get a return on these costs, here are two tax credits parents can look into.

Maskot | Maskot | Getty Images

The cost to raise a child has become expensive for parents in the U.S. As tax season approaches, it’s smart to pay attention to tax breaks related to children and care expenses.
Costs for child care have increased significantly due to inflation. Many child care centers also bumped their rates amid the so-called child care cliff of pandemic aid expiring.

To that point, 47% of parents spent more than $1,500 a month on child care expenses in 2023, Care.com found. Meanwhile, 20% of parents shelled out at least $3,000 per month. The site polled 2,000 U.S. parents with children age 14 or younger.
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“I have some clients that have three young kids in daycare and their daycare costs are like $5,000 a month,” said Sophia Bera Daigle, a certified financial planner and the founder of Gen Y Planning in Austin, Texas. She’s also a CNBC Financial Advisor Council member.
Fortunately, there are two tax credits with different parameters that are meant to serve parents and help offset some of these costs.

How the child tax credit works

The child tax credit is meant to help families navigating the expense of raising a child.

“The intent behind the child tax credit is to give parents a bit of a break,” said Ted Rossman, a senior industry analyst at Bankrate.
The child tax credit was temporarily expanded during the Covid-19 pandemic, but expired at the end of 2021. Now, lawmakers are considering an $87 billion bipartisan tax agreement that could once again boost the child tax credit starting in 2023.
The changes proposed earlier this week would retroactively boost the maximum refundable tax break to $1,800 per qualifying child for 2023, up from the current limit of $1,600. The limit would increase to $1,900 for tax year 2024, and $2,000 for tax year 2025, along with inflation adjustments.
“The child tax credit is very broadly applied,” Rossman said.
It’s “something that all parents can claim within the income thresholds,” he added. For 2023, the credit starts to phase out for those with an annual income of $200,000 or more, or $400,000 for married couples filing jointly.

How the child and dependent care tax credit works

The child and dependent care tax credit is meant to help working families offset the costs of care for kids under age 13 and adult dependents. It’s not just for daycare. Expenses such as summer day camp can qualify, too.
“It’s not as generous as the child tax credit, but it still can be meaningful,” Rossman said.
The credit is capped at eligible expenses of $3,000 for one qualifying child, or $6,000 for two or more. Depending on your income, the credit may be worth up to 35% of those expenses.
However, there are a few limits, Daigle said.
“It’s specifically for working single parents or dual-income, working spouses. If you have a stay-at-home parent … you cannot claim this credit,” she explained.
Families who use a dependent-care flexible spending account to set aside pretax dollars for child care will also need to pay attention to those contributions. Expenses you paid for with FSA funds can’t be counted toward the tax credit.Don’t miss these stories from CNBC PRO: More

Egg prices rose 8.9% from November to December, according to the consumer price index. The figure is adjusted for seasonal patterns.
Highly pathogenic avian influenza, also known as bird flu, reemerged in U.S. commercial table-egg farms at the end of 2023 after a hiatus.
Bird flu caused an egg shortage in 2022-23 that led prices to soar to record highs, economists said.

A customer shops for eggs in a Kroger grocery store in Houston, Texas.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Egg prices are on the rise again, after having fallen from record highs in 2023.
Average egg prices jumped 8.9% from November to December, following a 2.2% rise the prior month, according to the consumer price index. The U.S. Department of Labor adjusts these numbers to account for seasonal patterns.

December’s egg price move was the largest relative to other items in the CPI basket, which measures prices of everything from concert tickets to furniture, electricity and prescription drugs. For comparison, the overall CPI basket rose 0.3% during the month.

Bird flu ‘pops back up again’

Matthew Hatcher | Afp | Getty Images

A dozen grade A, large eggs cost $2.51 in December, still well below last year’s peak at $4.82 in January 2023. At the time of that early 2023 high, prices had more than doubled in less than a year.
That increase was largely due to a historic outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, also known as bird flu, according to agricultural economists.
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The virus is extremely contagious and lethal among birds, including egg-laying hens. The outbreak killed tens of millions of birds, contributing to an egg shortage that coincided with peak consumer demand heading into the winter holiday season, economists said.

After having subsided for most of 2023, bird flu reappeared among commercial U.S. table-egg flocks in early November and has since been detected in several states, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.
“Just when it seems that perhaps it’s behind us, it pops back up again … after a roughly 10-month hiatus,” said Karyn Rispoli, head of egg market coverage at Urner Barry, a market research firm.

More than 14 million egg-laying chickens died in November and December due to avian flu, according to USDA data. There are more than 368 million egg-laying chickens in the U.S., the USDA said.
That loss has caused wholesale prices to increase, though “not nearly to the same degree” as at the end of 2022 into 2023, Rispoli said.
At the time, a farm group alleged that price gouging and profiteering among major egg suppliers also drove high prices in 2022, though some economists were skeptical that factor was at play.

Strong consumer demand may also be a factor

Some of the increase consumers saw in December was also likely attributable to the typical seasonal patterns of demand, which tends to spike around the winter holidays and therefore increases shelf prices, said Brian Moscogiuri, global trade strategist at Eggs Unlimited, an egg supplier.
Prices have increased higher than most expected, however, though “nowhere near the shock markets” in 2022, Moscogiuri said.

The extent to which bird flu may continue to spread and affect egg supply — and therefore prices — going forward is unclear, economists said.
“It’s hard to predict when a virus is going to present itself and how impactful that could and will be,” said Amy Smith, vice president at Advanced Economic Solutions.Don’t miss these stories from CNBC PRO: More

TikTok’s “loud budgeting” trend encourages consumers to take control of their finances and be vocal about making money-conscious decisions.
Being open about your financial constraints and cutting down on impulse purchases can help reduce anxiety and achieve broader goals, experts say.

Just months ago, we were coveting Loro Piana cashmere baseball hats and $300 Smythson notebooks in the name of “quiet luxury” and justifying such expensive purchases using “girl math.”
But in 2024, there’s a new idea taking hold that overtly rejects the urge to overspend and promotes speaking up about saving money — welcome to the era of “loud budgeting.”

What is loud budgeting?

TikTok’s loud budgeting trend encourages consumers to take control of their finances and be vocal about making money-conscious decisions, rather than modeling purchase decisions after celebrities and their bottomless pockets — and financial experts love it.
The idea making waves on social media is centered around the everyday person, or the “average Joe,” according to Lukas Battle’s viral TikTok video.
“Let’s send a message to corporations about the national inflation level. Let’s take a stand,” Battle said.
“It’s not ‘I don’t have enough,’ it’s ‘I don’t want to spend,'” Battle explained.
In fact, the truly ultrarich are less interested in conspicuous consumption, he contends. In that way, loud budgeting is “it’s almost more chic, more stylish, more of a flex.”

‘Being loud can be empowering’

“Being loud can be empowering,” said Erica Sandberg, personal finance expert at CardRates.com. “With this process, you become proud that you bring a bag lunch, make your own coffee, or take the bus.”
Further, being open about your financial constraints can also help reduce anxiety and crowdsource solutions, she added.
“Not only can consumers find commonality with budgeting concerns, they can also find community to achieve broader goals and cut down on impulse purchases,” Sandberg said.

Aire Images | Moment | Getty Images

Although a majority of all Americans say they are living paycheck to paycheck and feel increasingly strained by higher prices, consumers routinely spend more than they can afford on impulse purchases, many studies show — particularly on sites like TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.
One report by online lender SoFi found that 56% of consumers said that more than half of their online purchases are spontaneous, driven largely by changing habits post-Covid and the surge in online shopping.
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In fact, there are a growing number of catchy phrases, such as “bougie broke” and “de-influencing,” which aim to consciously stop overspending on social media and adhere to a realistic budget.
“When opening Instagram and routinely seeing photos of that friend who travels to Europe every month, or near daily dinners in $100 per person downtown restaurants, it can become easy to feel that doing the opposite, putting more into savings for a single annual vacation, isn’t really ‘living,'” said Yuval Shuminer, CEO of budgeting app Piere.
Yet, Battle is spot-on, Shuminer said.
“Deprivation isn’t the goal or the outcome,” she said. “It’s the creation of a lifestyle that creates real individual value. It’s about spending money and allocating resources on what you prioritize in life, and cutting ruthlessly on what you don’t.”

How to jump on the loud budgeting trend

Quiet the noise altogether, consumer savings expert Andrea Woroch recently told CNBC.
“The most simple way to dodge temptations is to get off the list by unsubscribing from emails, opting out of text alerts, turning off push notifications in retail apps and unfollowing brands on social,” she said.
In addition, deleting payment details stored online helps create a “purchase hurdle” that forces you to think through your buying decisions, Woroch said.
Otherwise, Jacqueline Howard, head of money wellness at Ally, recommends trying “the 48-hour rule,” which requires waiting a full two days before making a purchase, even if it’s on sale.
“This small window of time allows you to calm your emotions from the urgency of the sale and helps you decide if you really want or need the item,” she said.
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While a 12% annual rate of return has been suggested as possible in retirement investing, that’s not always achievable.
Here’s why you may want to anticipate a more conservative return to account for life’s inevitable curveballs, according to experts.

GlobalStock | Getty Images

When you invest toward retirement, experts often like to say you are letting your money work for you. But how much can you realistically expect to earn on your money?
The annual rate of return — defined as the percentage change in an investment’s value — is an estimate of the gains you may earn over time.

Exactly how much you can expect to earn per year on average has been the subject of debate.
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A 25-year-old who invests $100 per month in an S&P 500 index fund in a Roth individual retirement account until they are 65 may see a 12% annual rate of return over 40 years, personal finance expert Suze Orman recently told The Wall Street Journal in an interview. Dave Ramsey has long called for a 12% return estimate in his calculations.
However, David Blanchett, managing director and head of retirement research at PGIM DC Solutions, is seeking to debunk the idea of 12% return assumptions. Among other reasons, that rate of return is “absolutely nuts” because it doesn’t incorporate volatility or inflation, Blanchett said.
He said a more reasonable return assumption is 5% for a balanced portfolio of stocks and bonds or 7% for a more aggressive exposure to stocks.

Return assumptions as a lesson on compounding

The point of her example was not to expect a 12% average rate of return on your money, Orman told CNBC.com. Instead, it was intended to teach young investors what time and compounding can do, she said.
“You have no idea how many kids have said to me, ‘When I heard that I immediately opened a Roth IRA, I immediately started to put money in it,'” Orman said.
Young investors should start right now and should not wait, she said. The reason comes down to a concept called compound interest — that both the money you initially invest and the interest earned on that money will continue to grow.

Those investors start to learn that — no matter the return — it’s better to start at age 25 versus 35, she said.
“Every year that you wait, you have less time for your money to compound,” Orman said. “The less time you have for your money to compound, the less money you could have.”
Moreover, investing through a post-tax Roth IRA account versus a pretax traditional retirement account may help boost your returns, as tax rates may increase in the future.
Ramsey was not available for comment.

Why 12% is an optimistic benchmark

There’s a reason that 12% tends to be used as a benchmark, according to Blanchett. The average historical return from 1926 to 2023 is 12.2%, according to a monthly data set called stocks, bonds, bills and inflation, or SBBI.
But that is based on a simple arithmetic return, which may not accurately reflect all fluctuations, according to Blanchett.
For example, if you have $100 and your portfolio goes up 100%, you now have $200. But if it then goes down 50%, that brings you back to $100. The average return, by taking the 100% and negative 50% returns and dividing by two, would be positive 25%. Yet your realized return would be 0%, as you are back to your original $100 balance, Blanchett said.
Another more complicated calculation used by experts, known as compounded or geometric returns, would better account for those fluctuations, he said.
“It’s just the impact of negative returns that hurt you so much,” Blanchett said.

How much retirement savers can expect to earn

So how much can you realistically expect to earn on your retirement investments?
“I would tell them 4% to 6%,” Orman said.
The two different returns Orman cites serve different purposes, she said. The first example, with a 12% average rate of return, is to illustrate the power of compounding. The second is a lesson to anticipate a conservative return, “because you never know what can happen in life,” Orman said.
Orman’s conservative estimate is in line with Blanchett’s 5%.
Investors saving for retirement may see tools that provide return projections. However, it is important to be mindful of how those anticipated rates of return are determined.
For example, Fidelity provides a balance projection for a NetBenefits accountholder’s next milestone age that anticipates a 3.5% return, among other assumptions. Because those time frames tend to be shorter, using historical returns is not necessarily the best strategy for those estimates, nor is it intended to be a long-term growth assumption, according to the firm.

How your personal rate of return may vary

Of course, no rates of return are guaranteed.
Much of the rate you may anticipate earning on your investments depends on your personal asset allocation, said Brian Spinelli, a certified financial planner and co-chief investment officer at Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors in Long Beach, California, which was No. 8 on CNBC’s FA 100 list in 2023.
Investors in workplace retirement accounts typically have a limited menu of options from which to choose. If they opt for greater exposure to bonds or stable value funds, they can expect more muted returns compared with someone who is more heavily invested in stocks, Spinelli said.

The goal is to match those allocations to your time horizon, which typically means reducing the size of your stock investments the closer you get to your anticipated retirement date.
Generally, investors should not have major asset allocation shifts from month to month, quarter to quarter or even year to year, according to Spinelli.
It also helps to pay attention to the fees you may be charged on your investments, he noted. Fees eat into your returns.
To stay the course, it helps to anticipate a certain amount of volatility from the outset, he said. By selling and sitting on the sidelines and waiting for the market to recover, you may miss the market’s best performance days.
“In order to get those returns, you have to stay in it,” Spinelli said. “You cannot try to market-time and try to get out and expect yourself to get back in at the lows, because [you] probably won’t make that decision.” More

The Biden administration announced Friday it would forgive $4.9 billion in student debt for 73,600 borrowers.
The relief is a result of the U.S. Department of Education’s fixes to its income-driven repayment plans and Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

US President Joe Biden speaks at Abbotts Creek Community Center during an event to promote his economic agenda in Raleigh, North Carolina, on January 18, 2024. 
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

The Biden administration announced Friday it would forgive $4.9 billion in student debt for 73,600 borrowers.
The relief is a result of the U.S. Department of Education’s fixes to its income-driven repayment plans and Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

“The Biden-Harris Administration has worked relentlessly to fix our country’s broken student loan system and address the needless hurdles and administrative inaccuracies that, in the past, kept borrowers from getting the student debt forgiveness they deserved,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement.
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Around $1.7 billion of the aid will go to 29,700 borrowers enrolled in income-driven repayment plans. Those plans are supposed to lead to debt forgiveness after a set period, but historically, this hasn’t always happened because loan servicers failed to keep track of borrowers’ payments, experts say.
In addition, 43,900 borrowers who have worked in public service for a decade or more will receive $3.2 billion in loan cancellation, the U.S. Department of Education said. Borrowers in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program have also struggled to get the debt erasure they’ve been promised due to errors in their payment counts and other issues.
The announcement did not specify when eligible borrowers may expect to see that relief.

The Biden administration has now canceled more than $136 billion in student debt for over 3.7 million Americans, according to the White House.
Consumer advocates have praised President Joe Biden for his recent actions but are pressuring him to do more.
On the campaign trail ahead of the 2020 presidential election, Biden vowed to cancel at least $10,000 of student debt per person.
“Student debt cancellation tipped the balance in Democrats’ favor in the midterms,” said Astra Taylor, co-founder of the Debt Collective, a union for debtors, in an interview last fall with CNBC. “Failing to deliver will demoralize and demobilize young people whose votes they cannot afford to lose.”
Biden’s plans to cancel up to $400 billion in student debt for tens of millions of Americans were thwarted last June at the Supreme Court. The high court said the president didn’t have the authority to instruct his Education secretary to cancel such a large amount of consumer debt without prior authorization from Congress.
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Tax-related identity theft happens when criminals use your personal information to file a return in your name and claim your refund.
Victims are waiting an average of almost 19 months for the IRS to process their returns and issue refunds, the National Taxpayer Advocate reported.

5M3photos | Moment | Getty Images

As the start of tax season approaches, experts are warning filers about tax-related identity theft, an issue that often halts returns and delays refunds.
Tax identity theft happens when criminals use your personal information to file a return in your name and claim your refund — and “it continues to be a huge problem,” said Eva Velasquez, president and CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center.

The IRS’ Identity Theft Victim Assistance program had 294,138 individual case receipts during fiscal 2023, up from 92,631 in 2019, according to the National Taxpayer Advocate’s annual report to Congress released last week. 
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Tax-related identity theft has diminished since the early days of electronic filing. But “the challenge is it takes so long to resolve,” Velasquez said.
Indeed, victims are waiting an average of almost 19 months for the IRS to process their returns and issue refunds, National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins wrote in the organization’s report to Congress. She called the lengthy waits “unconscionable.”
There are signs of tax identity theft listed on the IRS website, including a letter from the agency about a “suspicious tax return,” the inability to e-file, tax transcripts by mail you didn’t request and more.

There are also two key steps taxpayers can take to protect themselves.

File your tax return early

One of the best ways to avoid tax-related identity theft this season is by filing your return early, according to Mark Steber, chief tax information officer at Jackson Hewitt.
“There’s just too much downside risk in allowing the scammers and the stealers to come in and get in front of you by filing a faster return,” he said.

There’s just too much downside risk in allowing the scammers and the stealers to come in and get in front of you by filing a faster return.

Mark Steber
Chief tax information officer at Jackson Hewitt

Of course, it’s important to wait for the necessary tax forms to file a complete and accurate return. With missing information, the IRS may flag your filing, which could cause delays.
As a year-round precaution, the IRS recommends protecting your data with strong passwords, multi-factor authentication, encryption programs and software updates.

Get an identity protection pin for the future

If you’re looking for added protection, experts suggest getting an identity protection PIN, or IP PIN, from the IRS.
This six-digit number blocks others from using your Social Security number or individual taxpayer identification number to file a tax return. Once you enroll, the agency generates a new IP PIN for you each year.
Previously, IP PINs were only for identity theft victims. “Now, they’ve opened it to everyone,” Steber said. “I highly recommend it.”
However, he doesn’t recommend “last-minute adjustments” by trying to get an IP pin before filing your 2023 return. “If you file [your return] now, you do a lot more to protect your data and secure your personal information” than trying to get an IP pin in January, Steber added. More