Money Management

 Before you panic, get informed. Here’s what you must know about the debt ceiling and what you can do in a worst-case scenario. Jim Barber / Shutterstock.com

Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared on NewRetirement. “The ceiling is falling! The ceiling is falling!” It is hard to know if the news of the debt ceiling is akin to Chicken Little’s misunderstanding or an actual looming crisis. (In the story of Chicken Little, an acorn hits her head and she mistakes it as a sign that the sky is falling, leading her to spread hysteria throughout the…

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 The federal agency says it “will not challenge the treatment of these payments as excludable for federal income tax purposes in 2022.” Pamela Au / Shutterstock.com

Millions of taxpayers can breathe a sigh of relief after a last-minute panic over whether Uncle Sam would tax the state relief payments they received last year. The IRS has decided that, long story short, it “will not challenge the treatment of these payments as excludable for federal income tax purposes in 2022.” The Feb. 10 announcement comes a week after the IRS told taxpayers who received…

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 You might not get as much of a supplement as you expect. Prostock-studio / Shutterstock.com

Those who take supplements might not get the proper dosage if they don’t look closely at the number of capsules or tablets that constitute a serving. Recently, on the website MousePrint.org, consumer advocate Edgar Dworsky raised the example of woman who bought some calcium supplements with a bottle labeling the dosage inside as being 1,000 milligrams. After she realized there were 90 capsules…

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 We’re all bad at spotting fake negative reviews, however. Krakenimages.com / Shutterstock.com

Your personality appears to affect your ability to spot fake reviews when shopping online, according to recent research. For a paper published in the Journal of Consumer Marketing, researchers examined the ability of more than 400 people to sniff out fake hotel reviews, and then gave them a personality test. Each participant was given a set of eight hotel reviews to evaluate from among 1,600…

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 Smart planning and the right steps can help you keep your house warmer without a hefty utility bill. Lopolo / Shutterstock.com

Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared on The Penny Hoarder. Americans are seeing the largest spike in their heating bills in more than a decade, and it’s been a bitterly cold season for much of the United States. But we’ve got eight tips to help you lower your bill. With wicked cold temperatures breathing down our necks, we’ll list these tips from the simplest to the most complicated.

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