Category Archives: Debt
Tell the CFPB What You Think About Earned Wage Access
Earned wage access apps have been around for a long time, under a variety of names. Minus the app part, they predate the invention of the smartphone. The concept of earned wage access is that employers tally up how much money an employee has earned at the end of each workday and keep a… Read More »
Don’t Count on an Inheritance to Get You Out of Debt
Yes, your financial situation is better than some people’s. You own a house, and you have never missed a mortgage payment. You have a job, and your employer withholds taxes and pays the after-tax amount into your bank account through direct deposit; you rarely get an unpleasant surprise on payday, and at tax time,… Read More »
What Can Underconsumption Tell You About Your Financial Problems?
Online content, from gloom and doom news stories to aspirational videos by influencers, has a way of amplifying our negative emotions. Everywhere you click, someone is trying to make you feel like everyone else has more money than you do, that your financial problems are your own fault, and that everyone is judging you… Read More »
Can ABLE Accounts Bring You Financial Relief?
Managing your finances in today’s economy is a challenge, even if you are healthy and steadily employed. You never know when the next price increase or natural disaster is going to throw off the delicate balance that enables you to live from paycheck to paycheck, with a few cents left in your bank account… Read More »
Are Subscriptions the New Junk Fees?
One of the fundamental rules of business is that companies charge customers as much money as they can get away with charging them. The difference between the amount of money needed to cover the cost of a product or to provide a service and the amount you pay is the company’s profit, so businesses… Read More »
Tread Carefully With Good Debt
You know you are rich when you can divide your debt into good debt and bad debt. There is an old saying that circulates widely in debt-free lifestyle content that says that if you have zero debts and you have ten dollars in your pocket, you have a higher net worth than most Americans. … Read More »
3 Frugal Habits to Get You Through Another Lean Summer
The summer equinox happened so recently that the daylight still stretches well into the evening, which is great if you are so young that the thing you dread most is another long school year. For many grownups, though, summer is the most stressful time of the year. The time until payday seems to drag,… Read More »
Pembroke Pines Is the Credit Card Debt Capital of Florida
Yes, credit card debt is a problem for everyone. The combined credit card balances of all account holders in the United States adds up to more than a trillion. Not all of it is evenly distributed, though. The most expensive cities tend to have the highest credit card balances. Credit card debt does not… Read More »
Is Credit Card Debt Forgiveness Real?
Debt forgiveness is usually not as simple as it sounds. It occurs when a lender declares that a borrower no longer owes a certain amount, despite that the borrower has not repaid that amount. In other words, it is a case of a debt getter smaller on its own, just as late fees and… Read More »
What Happens When Affordable Housing Promises Fall Apart?
Living paycheck to paycheck is stressful enough when employment is the source of your paychecks, even if those paychecks come through the gig economy. You can temporarily relieve your stress about money by searching for more gigs; even if a particular day’s search does not yield a new paid gig, it at least makes… Read More »