Author Archives: Jay Butchko
Misconceptions About The New Rules About Mortgage Lending
Google has an uncanny ability to figure out your vulnerabilities and exploit them, no matter how much you try to keep your poker face on while choosing search terms. Google knows that you are in debt, and it taunts you with promises of quick fixes to your debt situation. If you subscribe to anything… Read More »
Business Bankruptcy And Your Personal Credit Score
The application for an employer identification number (EIN) is only one page long, but filling it out is an exhilarating moment. It is the official beginning of a new business venture. One of the few questions on the form asks you to choose a business entity type for your new business; a business entity… Read More »
Strategy Is The Key To Getting The Desired Results From Debt Consolidation Loans
If you try to explain to a classroom full of middle school students what debt consolidation loans are, they will probably tell you that taking out a debt consolidation loan is a terrible idea. Why would you borrow more money if you are already in debt? If you are a working adult, however, balancing… Read More »
Reality Check: Rolling Over Your Underwater Car Loan Into A New Loan Is A Terrible Idea
If you are looking for a corner of the Internet that is just grumpy enough to make you smile without being the incessant torrent of vitriol which is current events-themed social media feeds, you can do worse than the Jalopnik website. Here, curmudgeonly car enthusiasts throw a wet blanket on the latest trends that… Read More »
Despite Recently Enacted Protections, Medical Debt Can Mess You Up
The medical debt crisis in the United States is not new. The cost of healthcare, even for Americans with health insurance, has been unaffordable for decades. Three years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the panic has subsided, and almost everyone you know has been infected with COVID, vaccinated against it, or both, but the economic… Read More »
Yikes! Florida Can Suspend Your Driver’s License Just Because You Can’t Pay Your Debts To The Court
Everyone you know would probably balk at the idea of imposing criminal penalties on people for unpaid debts; in the popular imagination, debtors’ prisons belong to a Dickensian dystopia, which is where they belong. Despite this, there are plenty of ways in which the law punishes people for being poor. First, despite recent measures… Read More »
Unglamorous But Effective Workarounds For The Cycle Of Poverty
The fact that you are in debt is largely due to factors beyond your control. Even if you have forgone all nonessential purchases and if you spend all of your time either working to earn money or seeking out discounts so you can spend as little of it as possible, it is virtually impossible… Read More »
3 Ways That People Sabotage Their Own Efforts To Get Out Of Debt
Getting out of debt is much harder than it sounds. Even if you made a budget at the beginning of 2022 and did not exceed your spending on any of the budget categories for the whole year, you are probably still in debt. In the best-case scenario, your disciplined spending enabled you to increase… Read More »
Don’t Panic If You Can’t Afford To Pay Your Taxes
Another year in the gig economy has gotten far enough that the deadline for filing income tax returns is approaching. Without your income from gigs, you wouldn’t even be able to survive paycheck to paycheck; your debt situation would just be in free fall. Your gig income enables you to keep up with your… Read More »
Credit Reports Show Fewer Debts In Collections, Helping Consumers Improve Their Creditworthiness
The three years since the COVID-19 pandemic have brought an onslaught of fear, not only existential dread about our own mortality and about the fragility of the natural ecosystem and of political institutions, but also more mundane worries about whether we can pay our bills this month while keeping up with the minimum payments… Read More »