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(NEW YORK) — Credit card debt is often easy to pile on, but hard to pay off. For Lisa Samalonis, smart credit card saving was the key to rebuilding her life after divorce.

“It was very important for me to preserve some of that money so that I could put it down for a down payment and also to preserve through the divorce, to preserve my credit score so that I would be eligible for a mortgage,” Samalonis told ABC News’ Good Morning America.

The New Jersey mother said she had to adjust to living as a single mother of two on one income, so she decided to go on what she calls a “credit card fast.”

“Not using my credit card in the beginning was a key factor in that, because when you’re using cash or debit, you can see [that] you don’t have enough money,” she said. “It’s having the awareness to know that you’re actually spending more than you have.”

With the help of her new trick, Samalonis was able to buy her own home. She shared her top three steps to becoming financially free.

Break down your finances

Samalonis said she bought a notebook to write down her expenses, prioritizing what was most important.

“The ones that were most important at the top, like food and my mortgage or housing. And then down the list of things that were less important,” she said, adding that she was able to grant her own freedom by being honest with herself.

“By kind of breaking it down, and really being honest or getting real with myself, that actually gave me control as I went forward,” she said.

Use zero-based budgeting

Samalonis said if you must use a credit card, be sure to continue to allocate your expenses so your budget remains accurate.

“When you use your credit card, you take money that you have in your account and you put it into a category or you allocate it to what you’ve just spent,” she said.

Plan ahead

Finally, Samalonis said the best way to be prepared for the “credit card fast” is to plan ahead. Unexpected expenses will always come up, but you can plan a savings cushion to help cover some of those surprises.

“When unexpected expenses came up, either if it was things that were owed or if it was things that we wanted to do, I tried to plan ahead and so I would be able to save money each month towards that goal,” Samalonis said.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department and eight other states filed a historic antitrust lawsuit Tuesday targeting Google over what they allege is the Big Tech giant’s monopoly over the online advertising market.

The lawsuit, filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, aims to have Google’s dominance in the online ad marketplace broken up by having a court compel the company to divest its Google Ad Manager suite. They also seek an order from the court enjoining Google from further engaging in any of the anticompetitive practices outlined in their lawsuit.

“Having inserted itself into all aspects of the digital advertising marketplace, Google has used anticompetitive, exclusionary, and unlawful means to eliminate or severely diminish any threat to its dominance over digital advertising technologies,” according to the lawsuit. “The United States and Plaintiff States bring this action for violations of the Sherman Act to halt Google’s anticompetitive scheme, unwind Google’s monopolistic grip on the market, and restore competition to digital advertising.”

DOJ is joined in the lawsuit by California, Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Virginia.

“Competition in the ad tech space is broken, for reasons that were neither accidental nor inevitable,” the DOJ wrote in the lawsuit. “One industry behemoth, Google, has corrupted legitimate competition in the ad tech industry by engaging in a systematic campaign to seize control of the wide swath of high-tech tools used by publishers, advertisers, and brokers, to facilitate digital advertising.”

Google is set to take in more than 26% of all digital advertising revenue this year, according to an analysis from data firm Insider Intelligence. In total, tech giants Google, Amazon and Facebook-parent Meta will take in about 64% of the $200 billion in digital ad revenue generated this year, the study found.

Google rebuked the lawsuit’s claims in a statement to ABC News.

“Today’s lawsuit from the DOJ attempts to pick winners and losers in the highly competitive advertising technology sector. It largely duplicates an unfounded lawsuit by the Texas Attorney General, much of which was recently dismissed by a federal court,” a spokesperson said.

“DOJ is doubling down on a flawed argument that would slow innovation, raise advertising fees, and make it harder for thousands of small businesses and publishers to grow,” the spokesperson added.

Google exploits a conflict of interest, the lawsuit alleges, since the company controls the technology used to both offer and purchase advertising space, as well as the largest ad exchange on which marketers are matched with publishers.

Further, the lawsuit accuses Google of using its market power to punish companies that purchase digital ads elsewhere and charge heightened fees for clients that buy ads on its platforms.

In turn, such “anticompetitive behavior” has forced potential competitors out of the digital advertising business and sidelined businesses that remain, the lawsuit said.

“Google has thwarted meaningful competition and deterred innovation in the digital advertising industry,” the lawsuit said.

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(WASHINGTON) — It was a Ticketmaster meltdown that sent millions of Taylor Swift fans spiraling: lockouts, delays, hours of confusion and soaring aftermarket prices amid reports of scalpers.

During the November presale for Swift’s upcoming “Eras” tour, Ticketmaster was forced to halt purchases for her shows, citing “extraordinarily high demands” and “insufficient remaining ticket inventory,” drawing outcry from Swifties — and the artist herself.

At the time, Ticketmaster said that “every ticket was sold to a buyer with a Verified Fan code.”

“While it’s impossible for everyone to get tickets to these shows, we know we can do more to improve the experience and that’s what we’re focused on,” the company said in November.

Now they will face lawmakers: On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing to examine “how consolidation in the live entertainment and ticketing industries harms customers and artists alike,” according to a statement — addressing the bad blood between Ticketmaster and musicians, fans and the industry.

Lawmakers will focus on Live Nation and Ticketmaster’s 2010 merger, which has given the company an outsized influence on the market — with critics highlighting how they can raise ticket prices, shut out smaller venues and smaller artists and sideline rival ticket companies. The merger drew particular scrutiny from some members of Congress in the wake of the Swift ticketing fiasco.

“If it’s Taylor Swift fans that move some of my colleagues on monopolies, great,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a member of the committee, told ABC News’ Rachel Scott ahead of Tuesday’s hearing.

“Some of the things that came out of the Taylor Swift concert were larger than life because it’s Taylor Swift. But many of the things were things we’ve been hearing for years [about ticketing issues], and it’s time to take this on. The fees are too high, and there’s not enough competition,” Klobuchar, D-Minn., said.

Top executives from the ticketing industry are set to testify, including the president and CFO from Live Nation, Joe Berchtold, and SeatGeek CFO Jack Groetzinger.

During Berchtold’s opening statement, which was obtained by ABC News, he will point the blame at ticket-scalping, arguing that “breaking the law using bots and cyberattacks to try to unfairly gain tickets contributes to an awful consumer experience.”

“There are problems in the ticketing industry — problems that we believe can and should be addressed through legislation. Many are the direct result of the industrial-scale ticket scalping that goes on today, which is a $5 billion dollar industry in concerts alone and is fueled by practices that run counter to the interests of artists and fans,” Berchtold plans to say.

Singer-songwriter Clyde Lawrence, from the band Lawrence, is also expected to testify with his bandmate Jordan Cohen. They say it’s the overwhelming control Live Nation has over the industry that leads to lopsided deals.

“Our place is to tell some of the experiences that we have from the unique perspective of artists that are really hands on … and just talk about some of the ways that we’ve run into road bumps about trying to get a fair deal for ourselves,” Lawrence told Rachel Scott.

The musicians said that, as one example, they receive no profit from the fees Ticketmaster adds onto tickets: “We have zero say in setting what they are and we have zero participation in any of that money,” Cohen said.

“We are looking to Live Nation, as the leader of the industry, to just give us a crumb, give us some breadcrumbs. I don’t know if the government needs to get involved. That’s, again, not our area of expertise,” Cohen said. “But we would just hope that the industry leaders make a little bit of change.”

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(NEW YORK) — After an exciting weekend of NFL divisional round playoff games, the stage is closer to being set for Super Bowl 57. But in addition to teams who came up short on Saturday and Sunday, another major name will be sidelined from this year’s big matchup.

M&M’s announced Monday that its iconic “spokescandies” will sit out of the brand’s advertisements this season to make way for their new spokesperson and “Chief of Fun,” Maya Rudolph.

A message from M&M’S. pic.twitter.com/EMucEBTd9o

— M&M’S (@mmschocolate) January 23, 2023

M&M’s partnered with the beloved actress and comedy icon for the newly created role, in which Rudolph will “use her comedic talents and captivating personality to help M&M’S build on its mission to create a world where everyone feels they belong,” a representative told ABC News’ Good Morning America.

Rudolph’s first appearance for the brand will be during the M&M’s Super Bowl campaign on Sunday, Feb. 12.

“With the new role, Maya will serve as M&M’S new spokesperson, while the colorful cast of original spokescandies will step away to pursue other passions,” the M&M’s rep added.

In addition to sharing a sneak peek look at her first appearance, the brand urged fans to check out the candy’s social media channels and tune in during and after Super Bowl 57 “to see what happens next.”

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(WASHINGTON) — The Treasury Department is rolling out new measures aimed at improving customer service as the IRS starts to accept 2022 federal income tax returns.

Treasury Department Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo told reporters on Friday that the agency has used funds from the Inflation Reduction Act to hire more customer service staff and modernize decades-old technology.

That includes 5,000 new customer service workers to answer calls, Adeyemo said. Just 13% of 173 million calls to the IRS were fielded by live agents last year and 8% of calls were answered with automated assistance.

A Treasury Department official said the new hires mean the IRS has a “historic number” of workers ready to answer the phones this tax season, with the goal of reducing average wait times from 30 minutes to 15 minutes.

These workers will be trained and in place by Presidents Day weekend in late February, Adeyemo told reporters. The IRS also beefed up staffing at taxpayer assistance centers across the country, with 700 new hires.

Adeyemo said “meaningful progress” has been made to update technology. The IRS will now let taxpayers respond to notices for document verification and other issues electronically rather than by mail.

The IRS will continue to move towars automating the scanning of millions of individual paper returns, as it currently inputs the information from paper returns manually one number at a time.

“These customer service improvements will have a positive impact on tax filers, ensure returns are processed more quickly and taxpayers are able to access credits and benefits they’re entitled to in a timely manner,” Adeyemo said.

The IRS began to accept federal returns on Monday, and individuals have until April 18 to file. Taxpayers who request an extension will have until Oct. 16.

The agency’s new resources come as congressional Republicans try to reclaim the money approved for the IRS in the Inflation Reduction Act — which was opposed by every GOP lawmaker in the House and Senate. The law allocates roughly $80 billion for the IRS over the next decade.

Earlier this month, House Republicans voted to strip the funding in the first piece of legislation the new majority brought to the floor. Many GOP lawmakers misleadingly claim the money will result in the hiring of 87,000 new agents to target middle- and lower-class families, though ​​IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig said it will not increase audits of households making less than $400,000 per year.

The legislation has little chance of passing the Democratic-controlled Senate, and the Office of Management and Budget said in a statement that President Joe Biden would veto it if it came to his desk.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said a priority of the agency is to use the Inflation Reduction Act funding to clear the IRS backlog, as well as improve technology and hire more workers.

“Our work to improve services will continue throughout policies and the resources provided by the [Inflation Reduction Act] will continue to support a years-long transformation with the agency long after this filing season concludes,” Adeyemo said Friday.

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(MICHIGAN) — The Justice Department is investigating conduct at Abbott Laboratories’ infant formula plant in Sturgis, Michigan, in connection with a contamination investigation that closed the plant last year, a source familiar with the matter told ABC News.

The monthslong shutdown of the plant amid a investigation helped trigger a nationwide formula shortage.

An Abbott spokesperson told ABC News, “DOJ has informed us of its investigation and we’re cooperating fully.”

The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Consumer Protection branch of the DOJ is conducting the criminal investigation, the source familiar said.

The discovery of Cronobacter sakazakii bacteria inside Abbott’s Sturgis plant prompted a massive voluntary formula recall in February, after four babies who had consumed Abbott’s formula contracted a Cronobacter infection.

Two of the infants subsequently died, although Abbott maintains there has not been conclusive evidence that its formula caused the infant illnesses, since none of the Cronobacter strains found at their plant matched the two samples genetically sequenced from the sickened infants.

Food and Drug Administration officials said the investigation remains ongoing.

Ultimately, it was the combined findings of Cronobacter inside Abbott’s plant — along with a pattern of serious operational deficiencies and consumer complaints — which led to the plant’s closure.

The plant reopened in June and restarted production of its largest formula Similac in August.
 

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(NEW YORK) — Companies across the tech industry have announced layoffs, affecting thousands of workers in the first few weeks of 2023. Company officials have often cited economic uncertainty and fears of a recession in their job-cutting, cost-cutting decisions.

It follows a volatile 2022, which was also marred with layoffs by the thousands across major tech brands.

Google

Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google, said it will cut roughly 12,000 jobs from its global workforce on Friday, Jan. 20.

The decision will impact approximately 6% of the company’s employees.

“This will mean saying goodbye to some incredibly talented people we worked hard to hire and have loved working with,” said Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai in an email to Google employees on Friday morning.

“I’m deeply sorry for that. The fact that these changes will impact the lives of Googlers weighs heavily on me, and I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here.”

Pichai told employees the company is “bound to go through difficult economic cycles” and will “reengineer our cost base, and direct our talent and capital to our highest priorities.”

Microsoft

Microsoft said on Jan. 18 it will lay off 10,000 employees this year, affecting nearly 5% of Microsoft’s global workforce.

The layoffs at Microsoft arrive in response to “macroeconomic conditions and changing customer priorities,” the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“As we saw customers accelerate their digital spend during the pandemic, we’re now seeing them optimize their digital spend to do more with less,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a memo to employees on Wednesday.

He continued, “We’re also seeing organizations in every industry and geography exercise caution as some parts of the world are in a recession and other parts are anticipating one.”

Amazon

In early January, Amazon announced plans to eliminate just over 18,000 roles total, including impending layoffs announced in November. The majority of roles being cut are in Amazon Stores and People Experience and Technology Solutions teams, according to an email sent to employees from Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.

Jassy had warned in November that job cuts at the e-commerce giant would continue in early 2023. Amazon employs roughly 1.5 million employees around the globe.

“This year’s review has been more difficult given the uncertain economy and that we’ve hired rapidly over the last several years,” the message read.

It continued, “We typically wait to communicate about these outcomes until we can speak with the people who are directly impacted. However, because one of our teammates leaked this information externally, we decided it was better to share this news earlier so you can hear the details directly from me.”

Coinbase

Coinbase, a cryptocurrency trading platform, announced it will lay off 950 people, in a Jan. 10 statement from CEO Brian Armstrong.

“As we examined our 2023 scenarios, it became clear that we would need to reduce expenses to increase our chances of doing well in every scenario,” Armstrong said in the statement.

“While it is always painful to part ways with our fellow colleagues, there was no way to reduce our expenses significantly enough, without considering changes to headcount.”

Vox Media

Vox Media is also laying off employees, according to the Vox Media Union.

In a statement on Twitter, the union said, “We were informed today that the company is laying off around 7 percent of its workforce, and some of our members have been impacted. We’re furious at the way the company has approached these layoffs, and are currently discussing how to best serve those who just lost their jobs.”

ABC News’ Max Zahn and Jon Haworth contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — T-Mobile says they discovered a “bad actor” was taking information through a single application, according to an SEC filing by the company this week.

“The preliminary result from our investigation indicates that the bad actor(s) obtained data from this API for approximately 37 million current postpaid and prepaid customer accounts, though many of these accounts did not include the full data set,” the SEC filing dated Jan. 19 says.

The wireless giant is facing the second major breach in as many years. They said the activity started on Nov. 25 and they notified the proper agencies when they discovered the hack on Jan. 5, 2023.

“We are continuing to diligently investigate the unauthorized activity,” T-Mobile said. “In addition, we have notified certain federal agencies about the incident, and we are concurrently working with law enforcement. Additionally, we have begun notifying customers whose information may have been obtained by the bad actor in accordance with applicable state and federal requirements.”

The company said they were able to trace the identity of the activity and stop it.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has previously warned of major hacks occurring on or around holidays — and it would appear this started around Thanksgiving.

The company says the most sensitive customer data wasn’t taken but some personal information was.

“The API abused by the bad actor does not provide access to any customer payment card information (PCI), social security numbers/tax IDs, driver’s license or other government ID numbers, passwords/PINs or other financial account information, so none of this information was exposed. Rather, the impacted API is only able to provide a limited set of customer account data, including name, billing address, email, phone number, date of birth, T-Mobile account number and information such as the number of lines on the account and plan features.”

After the first hack, the company says they went through extensive cybersecurity measures.

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(NEW YORK) — Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google, said Friday that it will cut about 12,000 jobs from its global workforce, affecting approximately 6% of the company’s employees.

“I have some difficult news to share,” Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in an email to Google employees on Friday morning. “We’ve decided to reduce our workforce by approximately 12,000 roles … This will mean saying goodbye to some incredibly talented people we worked hard to hire and have loved working with. I’m deeply sorry for that. The fact that these changes will impact the lives of Googlers weighs heavily on me, and I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here.”

Employees who are being laid off in the United States will be paid during the notification period — a minimum of 60 days — and will also receive a severance package starting at 16 weeks salary plus two weeks for every additional year they spent at Google.

Google also said that they would pay out the 2022 bonuses and remaining vacation time to the employees that are being laid off as well as “six months of healthcare, job placement services, and immigration support for those affected.”

“As an almost 25-year-old company, we’re bound to go through difficult economic cycles. These are important moments to sharpen our focus, reengineer our cost base, and direct our talent and capital to our highest priorities,” Pichai said. “Being constrained in some areas allows us to bet big on others. Pivoting the company to be AI-first years ago led to groundbreaking advances across our businesses and the whole industry.”

Pichai said that in spite of the layoffs, Google is “getting ready to share some entirely new experiences for users, developers and businesses.”

“Google’s products are better than ever,” he wrote. “We have a substantial opportunity in front of us with AI across our products and are prepared to approach it boldly and responsibly.”

Said Pichai: “When I look around Google today, I see that same spirit and energy driving our efforts. That’s why I remain optimistic about our ability to deliver on our mission, even on our toughest days. Today is certainly one of them.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(NEW YORK) — The holiday shopping season began with a boom but ended with a whimper.

U.S. retail sales fell in December, offering the latest sign of an economic slowdown driven by elevated prices and rising interest rates.

Year-over-year retail sales dropped by about 1% last month, extending a nearly identical fall in November. The prolonged decline followed a buying surge in October, when many Americans seized on discounts for holiday purchases.

“Consumers finally have this fatigue from inflation,” Mickey Chadha, a retail analyst at Moody’s Investors Service, told ABC News. “Rising prices are taking a chunk out of disposable income.”

Consumer spending accounts for nearly 70% of U.S. economic activity. A sustained drop off in retail sales foretells a sluggish period for the broader economy, and in return signs of a downturn drag on sales, Chadha said.

“The economy is definitely slowing down,” Chadha said. “When consumers are worried about whether there will be a recession, they always pull back.”

The sales downturn battered stores across the sector. Sales at department stores fell more than 6% compared to a year prior; while sales at furniture stores fell 2.5% and sales at auto dealers dropped 1.4%.

Sky-high prices have eased in recent months but continue to hover near a 40-year high. Consumer prices rose 6.5% last month compared to a year ago, marking a significant drop from a summer peak.

The Federal Reserve imposed a string of aggressive rate hikes last year that aimed to slow price increases by cooling the economy and choking off demand. The approach, however, risks tipping the U.S. into a recession.

Consumer spending defied the economic headwinds for much of last year, as pandemic-era savings and robust wage gains fueled purchases. But the pace of wage gains trailed the inflation rate, drawing down household savings and ultimately forcing cutbacks in spending.

“Consumers have finally started to see cracks in that resilience,” Chadha said.

The personal savings rate fell to 2.3% in November, the lowest rate in nearly two decades, according to data from the Commerce Department.

In addition, the sluggish sales in December sprang in part from the push forward of holiday spending into October, when many retailers offer significant discounts and consumers fear missing out on the cost gains, Chadha said.

“There was some pull forward on holiday buying in October, primarily because consumers were looking for bargains,” he said.

In all, the fall in retail spending offers a cautionary note as the U.S. economy begins a year in which many economists expect a recession, Chadha said.

“Consumers are definitely getting pickier and getting a lot more skeptical about prospects in 2023,” he said.

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