Recent Blog Posts
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 »
How Much Does Drunk Shopping Contribute To Americans’ Debt Problems?
What is the worst thing you do with your smartphone, the worst app you can open, when you know that you have had enough to drink for one night, but alcohol is no match for revenge bedtime procrastination? Is it scrolling down through your text messages until you find the last message you received… Read More »
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Takes Legal Action Against Debt Collection Company That Engaged In Illegal Debt Collection Practices
The law protects consumers against unfair and abusive debt collection practices by creditors and collection agencies, but despite this, debt collectors still often try to get away with being pushier and less honest than the law requires them to be. Every year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) receives many thousands of complaints from… Read More »