Category Budget

Your savings account earns a stated rate — a “nominal” return. What you actually take home in purchasing power is the “real” return, which subtracts inflation. With headline CPI at 3.3% year-over-year in March 2026 and top high-yield savings accounts…

APY and APR measure interest, but they are not the same number and they are not used for the same products. APY — Annual Percentage Yield — is what you earn on money you deposit into an interest-bearing account like…

A mortgage rate lock guarantees the interest rate on your mortgage for a set window — typically 30, 45, or 60 days — between approval and closing. The rate inside that window does not move even if market rates climb.…

A basis point — abbreviated “bp” or “bps” and pronounced “bip” or “beep” — is one-hundredth of a percentage point. One basis point equals 0.01%, and 100 basis points equal exactly 1%. The unit exists because the financial industry talks…

SOFR — the Secured Overnight Financing Rate — is the benchmark interest rate used to price more than $200 trillion of U.S. financial contracts, from adjustable-rate mortgages to private student loans to corporate credit facilities. It measures the cost of…

A yield curve inversion happens when short-term U.S. Treasury bonds pay higher interest than long-term Treasury bonds — the opposite of normal. The most-watched version is the spread between the 10-year Treasury yield and the 2-year Treasury yield. When that…

The Fed dot plot is a chart released four times a year — at the March, June, September, and December Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meetings — showing where each of the 19 FOMC participants thinks the federal funds rate…

A 0.25% prime rate change moves a $50K HELOC by $125 a year and a $150K SBA loan by $375. Here's exactly how each rate move hits your wallet.