The Biden administration has finalized a rule limiting overdraft fees banks can charge, as part of the White House’s campaign to reduce junk fees that hit consumers on everyday purchases, including banking services. President Joe Biden had called the fees, which can be as high as $35, “exploitative,” while the banking industry has lobbied extensively to keep the existing fee structures in place.

Under the finalized rule announced Thursday, banks will be able to choose from three options: they may charge a flat overdraft fee of $5, they may charge a fee that covers their costs and losses, or they may charge any fee so long as they disclose the terms of the overdraft loan the way they would for any other loan, typically expressed as an annual percentage rate or APR.

While banks have cut back on overdraft fees in the past decade, the nation’s biggest banks still take in roughly $8 billion in the charges every year, according to data from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and bank public records. Currently, there is no cap on the overdraft fees that banks can legally charge.

Right now, when a bank temporarily lends a consumer money when their account has reached a zero balance, the consumer is typically responsible for paying back both the overdrawn amount and an additional fee, which can be more than the original amount charged. In one example often cited by opponents of the fees, a $3 cup of coffee can end up costing someone more than $30.

The finalized rule is set to take effect in October 2025, but the incoming Trump administration has yet to tap anyone to lead the CFPB and has mentioned the idea of eliminating the agency.

The finalized rule applies to banks and credit unions that have more than $10 billion in assets, which includes the nation’s largest banks. Banks have previously sued the CFPB over these rules and caps on credit card late fees, and are likely to sue again. Congress also can challenge or overturn the rule.

Overdraft fees originated during a time when consumers wrote and cashed checks more frequently — so that the checks would clear instead of bouncing if there was an issue of timing — but banks steadily increased the fees in the first two decades of the 2000s. The fees disproportionately affect banks’ most cash-strapped consumers. A majority of overdrafts (70%) are charged to customers with average account balances between $237 and $439, according to the CFPB.

The agency estimates the new rule would save consumers about $5 billion in annual overdraft fees, or $225 per household that typically experiences the fees.

To claim retirement benefits in the US, you need to earn 40 ‘credits,’ the equivalent of ten years of consecutive work. The maximum number of credits earned annually is four, one for each quarter. However, once you reach earnings that exceed the value of four credits combined, which in 2024 stood at $6,920 ($1,730 per credit), you will automatically receive four credits for that year.

Starting in 2025, the value of each credit will increase to $1,810 or $7,240 for all four. These amounts change annually based on the change in the national average wage index. The formula to calculate the increase looks like this:

This increase will impact low-income individuals and part-time workers, as it may prevent them from obtaining the full four credits in the coming year. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median weekly earnings for private sector workers in November were $1,221.42. This means that if they are contributing to Social Security, they earn enough for one credit after just two weeks of work.

For more information, the Social Security Administration has a pamphlet describing how credits are earned and how they are applied to each aspect of Social Security.

Why Social Security credits are so important

Multiple factors affect how much you can claim in retirement Social Security payments. These are your earnings, your highest salary each year for 35 years, and the age at which you retire.

These credits are also used to claim Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). Not having enough credits will prevent you from claiming disability benefits, contributing to more than 20% of disabled Americans living in poverty.

When a person who has worked and paid Social Security taxes dies, certain members of the family may be eligible for survivor benefits. Up to 10 years of work is required to qualify for benefits, depending on the person’s age at the time of death. Survivors of very young workers may be eligible if the deceased worker was employed for 1.5 years during the three years before his or her death.

While we’re in the heart of the holidays, tax season is lurking right around the corner. In the coming weeks, many businesses and individuals will begin classifying and adding up their expenses and potential deductions to lower the amount they owe the government. But several investment firms, including Vanguard, Schwab, Betterment, and Wealthfront, are also offering automated tax optimization tools that can reduce your tax bill.

It all revolves around a practice known as direct indexing. Instead of putting money in a mutual fund that is tied to the S&P 500 index, for example, investors own stocks in that index individually. That way, underperforming stocks can be sold at the end of the year to offset larger gains, lowering the year-end tax bill. That can bring an extra annual return of 1.1 percent, according to one study, conducted in 2020, which can mean tens of thousands of dollars in investment returns over a long-term period.

Here’s what various investment companies are doing to help investors cut bills—and what you’ll need to take advantage of them.

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Vanguard

In 2021, Vanguard bought Just Invest, which specializes in direct indexing. Instead of using human workers to sell and reinvest daily and not violate Securities and Exchange Commission rules, Just Invest uses an algorithm and AI to stay within the lines, while still carrying out complex buy and sell orders.

Investors with as little as $250,000 can now take advantage of this.

Schwab

Schwab’s Personalized Indexing accounts have an even lower minimum than Vanguard, requiring a balance of $100,000. It’s a separately managed account that lets you personalize your portfolio but is optimized and monitored daily by proprietary technology at the company. Schwab launched the direct indexing offering in November of 2023.

Fidelity

The nation’s largest investment firm offers the Fidelity Managed FidFolio, with just a $5,000 minimum balance requirement. This is not a pure direct indexing fund, though, but rather one where Fidelity combines that investment strategy with fractional share investing.

Betterment

Using an automated tax optimization algorithm that can incorporate everything from direct indexing to fund purchases, Betterment focuses on lowering taxes on long-term returns. Among the features offered by the tools that oversee these accounts are things that can be overlooked by human advisors, like moving high-dividend stocks into tax-sheltered accounts. The tax loss harvesting program is optional but does not have a minimum balance requirement.

Wealthfront

Wealthfront’s tax loss harvesting accounts use a proprietary automation program to look for losses and utilize those to lower tax bills. Some clients, the company says, that began using Tax-Loss Harvesting in 2021 received an estimated after-tax benefit worth four to nine times the company’s annual advisory fee in 2022. The downside, though, is you’ll need to have a balance of $500,000 or higher to take advantage of Tax-Loss Harvesting at no additional cost.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (NY-D) announced earlier this week that he would bring the Social Security Fairness Act to a vote in Congress’s upper chamber just as Democrats are preparing to lose control of the legislative body.

The Senate Majority leader called on his Republican colleagues to join Democrats in passing legislation to increase retirement incomes for workers and their qualifying spouses, children, and survivors.

In America, there’s a basic promise that if you work hard all your life, play by the rules and contribute year after year, then you deserve a secure retirement!

That’s why I am doing everything I can to pass the Social Security Fairness Act.

And the Senate GOP needs to join us. pic.twitter.com/pUdRL9eIHH
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) December 11, 2024

Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown (D), who lost re-election in November, introduced the bill, which has been co-sponsored by 62 senators, including over a dozen Republicans. Assuming none of these sponsors have removed their support, the bill has the necessary votes to pass and be sent to the House of Representatives.

The benefits included in the bill for public servants

The bill contains provisions that will greatly benefit some public servants by ending Social Security penalties that reduce their income in retirement. According to Congress.gov, if enacted, the law would eliminate “ provisions that reduce Social Security benefits for individuals who receive other benefits, such as a pension from a state or local government.” As noted by Masschuessets Senator Ed Markey (D), the bill could affect nurses, teachers, firefighters, and law enforcement officers by making them eligible to receive Social Security benefits.

We must pass the Social Security Fairness Act and restore full Social Security Benefits to 130,000 Massachusetts retirees and nearly 3 million across the country. From firefighters to teachers to nurses, we must ensure public servants get the benefits they earned. pic.twitter.com/LnbpdGxiJ3
— Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) December 11, 2024

For instance, imagine a teacher receiving a pension that makes them ineligible for Social Security benefits, even though their time in the workforce paying into the retirement benefits program would have made them eligible for a small monthly payment. This law would allow those workers access to the income they paid taxes on during the early years of their careers.

Similar legal provisions that lead to smaller Social Security payments for “spouses, widows, and widowers who also receive government pensions of their own” will also be repealed. Lastly, if enacted, the new law would protect “individuals who also receive a pension or disability benefit from an employer that did not withhold Social Security taxes” by abolishing the windfall elimination provision.

As the lyric goes, ‘You don’t often know what you’ve got until it’s gone.’ Yesterday, users of ChatGPT experienced one of the platform’s first major outages. Left without their AI chatbot, some began searching for alternatives, and here we will discuss a few that offer some of the same services.

After the issue was resolved, OpenAI which owns ChatGPT, announced that service had been restored but provided no information on the source of the problem. The sheer interest tracked by Google Trends in the outage shows how much the public relies on the program.

When setting out in search of a replacement, it might be best to taper your expectations. Many of the other free platforms are more specialized; some are designed to generate content and edit, others are helpful with research, or project management.

ChatGPT replacements for writing

When it comes to AI options for writing and editing, there are plenty of alternatives, though some only allow limited operations for non-paying users.

Microsoft Co-Pilot and Google’s Gemini can help users write and edit content and have an interphase that is similar to ChatGPT.

As far as free options focused on writing are concerned, Perfect Essay Writer AI is one alternative that can jumpstart the writing process. Students or researchers looking to use this program should know that it will likely be flagged by software that recognizes AI writing styles.

Write Sonic also allows users to generate up to a certain amount of prompts for free and can be used for editing.

Speaking of editing, Quilt Bot is an option, it also offers support for paraphrasing and citations and includes a plagiarism checker that is built into the software. Quilt Bot is similar to other programs like Grammerly and Rytr, for those who enjoy that format and are shopping around.

Costco (COST -0.68 %) reported better-than-expected earnings on Thursday, fueled by solid revenue growth, strong e-commerce performance, and increased membership fees. The results extend a strong year for the retailer, whose shares have climbed nearly 50% in 2023, compared to the S&P 500's 27% gain. The stock closed at $988.39.

As global birthrates decline, Boston Dynamics (HYMTF-2.44%) has proposed a solution that aligns remarkably well with its business model: robots.

“We don’t have enough people to do the work of the future,” Brendan Schulman, vice president of policy and government relations at Boston Dynamics, said during a talk at the AI Summit New York.

In June, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found that the total fertility rate across its member countries fell to 1.5 children per woman in 2022 from 3.3 children per woman in 1960. Meanwhile, in the U.S., the general fertility rate fell by 3% to a historic low, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Boston Dynamics’ robots are already being used to replace humans in dangerous and difficult jobs, such as those on construction sites and in warehouses.

The company’s four-legged” robot, Spot, has been used by decommissioning crews at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant to collect data and measure radiation at the site and by the St. Petersburg Police Department in a hostage situation.

Spot, which was released five years ago, is now able to train itself with reinforcement learning, Schulman said, demonstrating the robot’s ability to “learn” how to walk across a slippery surface.

However, Schulman said that a challenge to rolling out robots is that robots have mostly been portrayed in fiction as harmful to humans. Boston Dynamics is “working on educating the public and preventing actual harm,” Schulman said. One way is through design that doesn’t impact its capabilities, such as programming a bounce in Spot’s walk to make it more approachable.

In April, Boston Dynamics introduced its fully electric humanoid, Atlas, saying it’s “designed for real-world applications.” Compared to previous generations of robots, including the hydraulic Atlas, the electric version “will be stronger, with a broader range of motion,” the company said.

Google hikes YouTube TV's price to $83 a month

It's the streamer's first price increase since March 2023.

The U.S. online grocery market reached a staggering $9.6 billion in sales in November, marking a 17.8% increase over the previous year.

President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday voiced his support for the dockworkers union before their contract expires next month at Eastern and Gulf Coast ports, saying that any further “automation” of the ports would harm workers.

The incoming president posted on social media that he met Harold Daggett, the president of the International Longshoreman’s Association, and Dennis Daggett, the union’s executive vice president.

“I’ve studied automation, and know just about everything there is to know about it,” Trump posted. “The amount of money saved is nowhere near the distress, hurt, and harm it causes for American Workers, in this case, our Longshoremen. Foreign companies have made a fortune in the U.S. by giving them access to our markets. They shouldn’t be looking for every last penny knowing how many families are hurt.”

The International Longshoremen’s Association has until Jan. 15 to negotiate a new contract with the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents ports and shipping companies.

At the heart of the dispute is whether ports can install automated gates, cranes, and container-moving trucks that could make it faster to unload and load ships. The union argues that automation would lead to fewer jobs, even though higher levels of productivity could do more to boost the salaries of remaining workers.

The Maritime Alliance said in a statement that the contract goes beyond ports to “supporting American consumers and giving American businesses access to the global marketplace – from farmers to manufacturers, to small businesses and innovative start-ups looking for new markets to sell their products.”

“To achieve this, we need modern technology that is proven to improve worker safety, boost port efficiency, increase port capacity, and strengthen our supply chains,” said the alliance, adding that it looks forward to working with Trump.

In October, the union representing 45,000 dockworkers went on strike for three days, raising the risk that a prolonged shutdown could push up inflation by making it difficult to unload container ships and export American products overseas.

The issue pits an incoming president who won November’s election on the promise of bringing down prices against commitments to support blue-collar workers along with the kinds of advanced technology that drew him support from Silicon Valley elite such as billionaire Elon Musk.

Trump sought to portray the dispute as being between U.S. workers and foreign companies, but advanced ports are also key for staying globally competitive. China is opening a $1.3 billion port in Peru that could accommodate ships too large for the Panama Canal.

There is a risk that shippers could move to other ports, which could also lead to job losses. Mexico is constructing a port that is highly automated, while Dubai, Singapore, and Rotterdam already have more advanced ports.

Instead, Trump said that ports and shipping companies should eschew “machinery, which is expensive, and which will constantly have to be replaced.”

“For the great privilege of accessing our markets, these foreign companies should hire our incredible American Workers, instead of laying them off, and sending those profits back to foreign countries,” Trump posted. “It is time to put AMERICA FIRST!”

IRS leadership on Thursday announced that the agency has recovered $4.7 billion in back taxes and proceeds from a variety of crimes since the nation’s tax collector received a massive glut of funding through Democrats’ flagship tax, climate, and health law in 2022.

The announcement comes under the backdrop of a promised reckoning from Republicans who will hold a majority over both chambers of the next Congress and have long called for rescinding the tens of billions of dollars in funding provided to the agency by Democrats.

IRS leadership, meanwhile, is hoping to justify saving the funding the agency already has.

On a call with reporters to preview the announcement, IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said improvements made to the agency during his term will help the incoming administration and new Republican majority congress achieve its goals of administering an extension of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Republicans plan to renew some $4 trillion in expiring GOP tax cuts, a signature domestic achievement of Trump’s first term and an issue that may define his return to the White House.

“We know there are serious discussions about a major tax bill coming out of the next Congress,” Werfel said, “and with the improvements we’ve made since I’ve been here, I’m quite confident the IRS will be well positioned to deliver on whatever new tax law that Congress passes.”

Tax collections announced Thursday include $1.3 billion from high-income taxpayers who did not pay overdue tax debts, $2.9 billion related to IRS Criminal Investigation work into crimes like drug trafficking and terrorist financing, and $475 million in proceeds from criminal and civil cases that came from to whistleblower information.

The IRS also announced Thursday that it has collected $292 million from more than 28,000 high-income non-filers who have not filed taxes since 2017, an increase of $120 million since September.

Despite its gains, the future of the agency’s funding is in limbo.

The IRS originally received an $80 billion infusion of funds under the Inflation Reduction Act though the 2023 debt ceiling and budget-cuts deal between Republicans and the White House resulted in $1.4 billion rescinded from the agency and a separate agreement to take $20 billion from the IRS over the next two years and divert those funds to other nondefense programs.

In November, U.S. Treasury officials called on Congress to unlock $20 billion in IRS enforcement money that is tied up in legislative language that has effectively rendered the money frozen.

The $20 billion in question is separate from another $20 billion rescinded from the agency last year. However, the legislative mechanism keeping the government afloat inadvertently duplicated the one-time cut.

Treasury officials warn of dire consequences if the funding is effectively rescinded through inaction.

Trump last week announced plans to nominate former Missouri congressman Billy Long, who worked as an auctioneer before serving six terms in the House of Representatives, to serve as the next commissioner of the IRS. Democrats like Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) have called Long’s nomination “a bizarre choice” since Long “jumped into the scam-plagued industry involving the Employee Retention Tax Credit.”

Trump said on his social media site “Taxpayers and the wonderful employees of the IRS will love having Billy at the helm.”

Werfel’s term is set to end in 2027, and he has not indicated whether he plans to step down from his role before Trump’s inauguration. Trump is permitted to fire Werfel under the law.

Changes ahead for Social Security Credit: here’s the new threshold set for 2025 To claim Social Security credits for retirement, you must earn above a certain amount each year, which will increase in 2025.