Monthly Archives: January 2025
Are Appraisals to Blame for Your Mortgage Woes?
It is so difficult to qualify for a home mortgage these days that, if you complain about how expensive your mortgage payment is, almost everyone you know will accuse you of humblebragging. It isn’t only the people who are trying to apply for mortgages, and facing bigger and bigger obstacles, who are struggling. The… Read More »
Tackling Your Debt in the New Year
2024 was supposed to be your year to pay off your credit card debt. So were 2023 and 2022. You made progress on your debt several years ago by making gig work your pandemic hobby. When most of the distractions were closed to everyone except the one percent who can afford to rent out… Read More »
Predatory Pricing at Supermarkets
It is easy to feel that, in today’s society, our brains have received so many disturbing stimuli that we have shut down and cannot feel emotions anymore. Life is an endless cycle of frustrations brought on by financial hardships, plus Internet content that invites itself at all hours of the day and night to… Read More »
The Digital Coupon Divide
The Visual Capitalist website recently published a map showing the countries that have the largest populations of non-Internet users. The country with the largest unconnected population is India, but part of the reason for this is that India is the most populous country full stop. More than 80 percent of the population of Ethiopia… Read More »
The Consumer Debt Crisis Lingers On
Living paycheck to paycheck does not get easier the longer you do it. With each passing pay period, you only become more tired, even as the outstanding balances on your debts do not budge. Before you know it, you are engaging in revenge bedtime procrastination, reading fascinating and intellectually challenging books when you should… Read More »
Is Auto Pay a Debt Trap?
Almost anything that promises to make your financial situation better can also make it worse if you let it. Consider buy now pay later (BNPL). It does not charge interest, and the monthly installment payments are low, but the BNPL debts can quickly add up if you make too many new BNPL purchases before… Read More »
Will Downsizing Your House Improve Your Finances?
Consumers figured out that giving up their daily McDonald’s breakfast on their way to work barely made a dent in their monthly budget. Eventually the “brew your coffee at home and watch your credit card debt disappear” content stopped getting clicks, so personal finance experts stopped producing it and started saying what cash-strapped consumers… Read More »
Think Twice Before Assuming Someone Else’s Mortgage
Journalists have been saying for at least a year that the only way you can afford to be a first-time homebuyer is if your parents give you money for a down payment, co-sign with you on the mortgage loan, or both. Where does that leave the rest of us who do not have wealthy… Read More »