Recent Blog Posts
It Pays to Pay With Cash
If you wait long enough, all of your favorite old-fashioned habits come back in style. After decades of nothing but dark denim on store shelves, faded jeans are making their first appearance since a time so early in the 90s that no one in Florida had heard grunge rock. Now that the babies who… Read More »
Coping With Unexpected Financial Setbacks in Retirement
Perhaps you heard that, after much media hype, Florida abolished permanent alimony. Pursuant to the new law, all alimony awards have an automatic end date, and alimony obligations cannot last longer than the marriage did. Therefore, if you got married at 25 and divorced at 50, the court can only order you to pay… Read More »
Reverse Mortgages
Loneliness is an essential feature of the American experience and has been such at least since the days of the Beat Generation. One of the most obvious signs of this loneliness is that the only correspondence you get, whether in the form of email or postal mail, is from people who want to make… Read More »
New Regulations for Buy Now Pay Later
The best thing about buy now pay later (BNPL) is that it is so easy to make purchases on credit, and, in theory, they are interest free. The worst thing is that it is so easy to buy things that you cannot afford, and therefore to fall behind on payments. Optimists might say that… Read More »
Seniors and Mortgage Debt
For decades, Florida has been an attractive destination for retirees, but it has changed a lot since today’s old geezers were young. In the 1980s, tiny anole lizards scurried across the sidewalk everywhere you went, but iguanas were only in zoos, but today, the sight of enormous green lizards lounging in the trees or… Read More »
Here Come the Zero Down Payment Mortgages
The signs of financial catastrophe are all around us. Grocery prices have not decreased much since the worst days of the pandemic. Well-paying jobs are beyond anyone’s hopes. Today, you are lucky if you can get a low-paying job and supplement it with gigs; most of us have no choice but to cobble together… Read More »
Can You Discharge Student Loans in Bankruptcy?
The good news is that everyone has the right to discharge unpayable debts in bankruptcy, but the bad news is that not all debts are eligible for discharge. In general, it is easy to discharge debts that you owe to private lenders, such as credit card companies and hospitals, but if the creditor is… Read More »
Short Refinances
In the Netherlands, the interest rates of home mortgage loans gradually decrease over the term of the loan, such that the mortgage refinances itself. If American consumers had that option, they would likely choose it whenever it was available, but we are unlikely to see Dutch style mortgages here anytime soon, because the mortgage… Read More »
Why Is It So Hard to Open a Bank Account?
The signs that life isn’t fair are everywhere, but never are they more obvious than when you go to a bank and ask to open a bank account. You show the teller your photo I.D. You bring pieces of mail showing that your bills have been getting mailed to the same address for at… Read More »
Can Your Debt Problems Prevent You From Opening a Bank Account?
You may have seen personal finance vloggers field questions from consumers who are stressed out about how their low credit score is stopping them from getting car loans and is making their credit cards more expensive. To you, this sounds like high class worries. These people who are worrying about what they can and… Read More »