Happy Friday, everybody!

While working on our 2026 Best Colleges list, I was dismayed to learn that the total annual cost to attend my alma mater is now just shy of $100,000 per year. Yikes.

To combat rising sticker prices, private universities are hoping to attract students by offering financial aid packages that would have been unimaginable a decade ago. Even households earning six figures can sometimes receive free tuition or significant discounts.

Today, we’re diving into colleges that have expanded their financial aid offerings to help middle-class families afford higher education. — Annie Johnson

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15 Colleges That Students Can Attend Tuition-Free

This week, Rice University announced that families earning up to $200,000 a year will qualify for free tuition. Students from families making less than $100,000 will receive grants covering tuition, mandatory fees, room and board. Rice will also continue meeting 100% of demonstrated financial need without requiring student loans.

Rice joins a growing list of prestigious private universities using large endowments to reduce — or eliminate — the cost of attendance for students from low- and middle-income families.

Top schools like Harvard, MIT, Duke, Caltech, UChicago, Emory and more have expanded their aid programs to better compete with public universities on price, many of which have long offered free or discounted in-state tuition.

If you’re a prospective student or parent, it’s important to look beyond the published price, and in some cases, apply anyway to a school that would otherwise be out of your price range. Once financial aid is factored in, you may be pleasantly surprised at which schools become more affordable.

Click below to check out Money’s list of popular colleges that qualifying students can already attend tuition-free. — AJ

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CHA-CHING

Credit Card Users Are Turning a $10 Promo into Hundreds of Dollars in Freebies

A digital wallet promo is giving savvy credit card users a new hobby this summer: figuring out how many $10 credits they can rack up in what Bloomberg has dubbed the Paze Craze.

Paze, the online checkout service from the company behind Zelle, is trying to attract users by offering a $10 statement credit for spending at least $10 at participating merchants, including Dunkin’, Domino’s Pizza, StubHub, United Airlines and Sephora. The deal can be used up to 10 times per eligible card, meaning someone with several qualifying cards could theoretically rack up hundreds of dollars in credits. 

Deal hunters have been using the offer for everything from lattes to lip gloss, with many maximizing the promo by keeping transactions as close to $10 as possible. Small gift cards have been especially popular. Bloomberg reports that so many people bought Dunkin’ gift cards that a $10-a-day cap was put in place.  

There are catches: Your bank and card have to participate (though major Paze backers include Chase, Bank of America and Capital One, so plenty of popular credit and debit cards are covered). And Paze says credits can take up to two billing cycles to appear.

The promo ends Sept. 10. — Kaitlin Mulhere

In the newsroom, our editors are talking about...

SHIFTING GEARS

Self-Driving Cars Won't Necessarily Make Auto Insurance Cheaper. Here's Why

Experts say that insurance companies will likely face pressure to offer more affordable car insurance if self-driving cars prove to be safer and lower insurers' costs. However, cheaper insurance is not guaranteed.

Money; illustration AI-generated with Claude

Between soaring stock prices, low-to-no yield index-dominating tech firms and record-setting share buybacks, dividend investing has become challenging. The current yield for the S&P 500 — between 1.1% and 1.5% — is now the second-lowest in 50 years. 

For income investors who rely on cash flow, actively managed high-yield funds offer an alternative. But they carry a major caveat: net asset value (NAV) erosion, or the gradual decrease in a fund’s value per share over time. And no matter how appealing the yields they offer are, they’re structurally unsustainable.  

These funds generate income by using options strategies. NAV erosion occurs when payouts exceed what the underlying investment strategy earns. For example, the YieldMax MSTR Option Income Strategy ETF (MSTY) currently yields 90.51%. But if something looks too good to be true, it probably is. 

Over the past year, MSTY’s NAV has eroded 71%, which has directly impacted its share price. From a 52-week high of $99.40, shares now trade at $12.57 — 87% lower. If income is the focal point of your portfolio, don’t chase yield. Dividend growth ETFs — like the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF (SCHD) — or Dividend King and Dividend Aristocrat stocks offer stable alternatives. — Jordan Chussler

This issue of Daily Money was written by editors Annie Johnson, Kaitlin Mulhere and Jordan Chussler. It was edited by managing editor Julia Glum. Questions? Comments? Concerns? Please email [email protected] with any feedback.