Stacker-Financial Protection

By Maurie Backman for Freedom Debt Relief A zero-based budget is a budgeting method built around one simple rule: your income, minus your expenses and savings, should equal zero every month. It gives every dollar in your paycheck a purpose. A dollar might be assigned to a household bill, an unsecured debt, or a savings

By Erik J. Martin for TheZebra.com When someone in your family passes away, it can trigger a cascade of financial complications, including insurance concerns, at a difficult time when you’re least prepared to handle them. Life and health insurance policies take priority, but don’t overlook your loved one’s homeowners insurance. Many families don’t realize that

By Tonya Sisler for Insurance.com The majority of homeowners either don’t think climate change is behind increased homeowners insurance rates, or aren’t sure if there’s a connection, according to the 2026 Insurance and Climate Change survey conducted by Insurance.com. The survey found that 43% believe climate change is impacting the home insurance market, while 32%

By Josh Carmichael for Jewelers Mutual Group Couples spend months planning a proposal. They research the ring, scope the location, coordinate with family and friends, and rehearse what they are going to say. What most do not do is insure their engagement ring before they get down on one knee. According to the 2026 Jewelers

By Sarah Rochford for CreditNinja Roughly 100 million adults in America are carrying some form of medical debt right now, according to KFF Health News. On July 15, 2025, a federal judge in Texas vacated the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s medical debt rule. That rule had been finalized six months earlier under the Biden administration.

Your wedding day is a significant occasion filled with joy and celebration, but it’s also a considerable financial investment. With so much at stake, you may want to consider purchasing wedding insurance as part of your wedding planning process. In this article, BriteCo explores the cost of wedding insurance to help you understand what factors influence

Jewelry insurance is worthwhile for any piece valued above your homeowner’s policy’s sub-limit, which is around $1,500 to $2,000, per the Insurance Information Institute. At 1% to 2% of appraised value per year, insuring a $6,000 engagement ring with a specialized jewelry insurance provider costs around $60 to $120 annually. This is a fraction of

Roughly 15% of U.S. drivers — approximately one in seven — were operating vehicles without valid auto insurance as of 2025, according to a study by the Insurance Research Council (IRC). This figure reflects a steady rise from pre-pandemic levels in 2020, a trend researchers have linked primarily to escalating premium costs that have strained household budgets across income

Your credit score is an important metric that lenders and credit cards use to determine if you qualify for financing. While that score isn’t important to your car insurance company, they likely use the same underlying credit data to calculate another number that can significantly impact what you pay for coverage: your credit-based insurance score.

Your kid isn’t a kid anymore. Maybe he’s off to college, or she’s boomeranged back home following graduation. Wherever they now live, be aware that your existing homeowners and car insurance policies may not cover your grown child the same way they’ve done in the past. Welcome to the somewhat muddled middle years, when your offspring is

Football season is in full swing, and many people are gathering at homes around the country to watch their favorite teams. If a guest gets hurt or something in your house gets damaged during your game day party, your homeowners insurance usually pays for it. This guide from Insure.com explains what homeowners insurance generally covers, so

Ahead of Cybersecurity Awareness Month this October, there’s no better time to focus on your risk of falling victim to a scam. In 2025, the Federal Trade Commission logged a record $15.9 billion in fraud losses from 3 million fraud reports. When thinking about a scam, you might picture an older adult getting tricked out of

If you’ve been labeled a high-risk driver due to tickets, accidents, or a gap in coverage, finding affordable insurance might seem daunting, but you have options. While your rates will likely be higher, insurance companies often provide competitive pricing for certain infractions. If standard carriers aren’t a fit, non-standard insurers specialize in helping drivers with

Learning how to manage your money is a little like learning how to cook a new dish. You might be a little intimidated by the ingredients or the fancy instructions using French words you’ve never heard of. But you enjoy the end result, and the next time you make the dish, it’s even easier. The

Jewelry insurance covers more than most people expect and excludes less than you might think. The basics: Dedicated jewelry insurance typically covers loss, theft, damage, and disappearance, including during worldwide travel. The fine print: A handful of specific situations aren’t covered, but most are uncommon. The documentation: An appraisal and photos are helpful to have,

Jewelry is one of the most underinsured categories of personal property, not because people don’t care, but because they genuinely don’t know what their existing policy covers. Your homeowners or renters policy likely covers less jewelry than you think. The gap: Most standard policies cap jewelry theft coverage between $1,000 and $1,500 for all jewelry

Are you guilty of “sharenting” — oversharing details about your child’s life on social media, like a birthday, pet’s name, school name, or photos of where they live or spend time? It may seem harmless, but those details and proud moments can help cybercriminals answer security questions, build a profile, or piece together a child’s

Fifty-one percent of the population of the U.S. has some kind of life insurance coverage in place, and the industry assets cover the equivalent of 41% of the country’s collective yearly personal income, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Meanwhile, ACLI data shows that the annual voluntary surrender rate for individual policyholders