Recent Blog Posts
A Tax Credit for the Rest of Us
You know you have officially joined the middle class if you know the difference between a tax deduction and a tax credit. A tax deduction is a qualifying expense that the IRS subtracts from your taxable income before assessing how much you owe. With a tax credit, the IRS calculates how much you owe… Read More »
An Emergency Fund for the Rest of Us
Personal finance experts have been saying for decades that most Americans cannot afford a $400 emergency expense, such as a home or vehicle repair or a medical bill. If you have ever been able to afford an emergency expense, your financial situation has only gotten worse since then. You can barely afford necessities like… Read More »
What Would a 10 Percent Credit Card Interest Rate Cap Mean for You?
When you first got a credit card, swiping the card at a retail store or restaurant or entering your credit card information in a phone app to make a purchase felt like a thrill, but that was a long time ago. Once you saw how quickly the balances would climb up, you made it… Read More »
High Credit Card Debt, Low Credit Score
As consumers’ financial problems in our society get worse and worse, fretting about your credit score is starting to seem like a high-class worry. Everywhere you look, there is aspirational content about borrowing strategically so that you can improve your credit score and apply for an affordable mortgage, but this content makes the false… Read More »
Keeping Your Car in a Bankruptcy Case
Filing for bankruptcy can simplify your life by making your eligible debts disappear quickly, as in a chapter 7 case, or by combining them into one monthly payment, as in a chapter 13 bankruptcy filing. It can also make life more complicated, and not only because it stays on your credit report for a… Read More »
Should You File for Bankruptcy With or Without a Lawyer?
Most New Year’s resolutions fall apart quickly, especially those where you resolve to make permanent changes to which you can recommit on a daily basis or those where the outcome is largely outside your control. For example, most of the people who resolve to never eat junk food again do not make it past… Read More »
Debt Does Not Have to Define You
You have probably never told anyone how much debt you are in. If you did, they would probably understand perfectly why you are in debt; it is the same reason that everyone, including your interlocutor, is in debt, namely everything costs money. Teachers and journalists lament that no one reads anymore, but well-written stories… Read More »
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 »