Posted March 12, 2009 - 13:39 by Xin Lu
Personal Finance, General Tips, Credit Cards, Consumer Affairs
Today I read about an interesting study done by Rice University on the correlation between trustworthiness and looks. The researchers utilized the popular peer to peer lending site Prosper.com and Amazon's Mechanic Turk. Prosper is a site that allows borrowers to submit a loan application along with personal details and a picture. The researchers took the pictures off over 6000 of these applications and showed them to 25 individuals through Amazon.com's Mechanic Turk and asked these workers to rank the creditworthiness of the people in the Prosper pictures. The results show quite a few startling correlations between looks and creditworthiness.
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Posted January 5, 2009 - 16:11 by Jabulani Leffall
Personal Finance, Budgeting
Forget about the fact that it's a recession. What you do now determines where you will be when the graph trends up again. What if you stopped dropping duckets like you dropped weight from dispensing with carbs? What if you misered up, stored and did without for say just one week or one two-week interval every month? What do you think of that 'Fast Money?'
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Posted September 30, 2008 - 13:15 by Philip Brewer
Personal Finance, Small Business Resource Center
Anybody--but especially frugal people--can be excused for thinking that the whole credit crisis thing is being overblown. After all, we get along without debt. In fact, we strongly recommend that others do so as well. If getting along without debt is the way to go, why make such a big deal over a credit crunch?
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Posted September 19, 2008 - 01:13 by Philip Brewer
Personal Finance
Is there a limit to how much Americans can spend? Clearly there is: All they earn, minus savings and service on their existing debt, plus new borrowing. Since the Bureau of Economic Analysis puts numbers on those very items, it's possible to see just how close we are to the edge. In a fascinating paper, Ron Laszewski does exactly that. The results are rather depressing.
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Posted September 18, 2008 - 03:51 by Philip Brewer
Credit Cards, Consumer Affairs
Everybody learns best in their own way. Some by reading, some by listening, some only by personal experience--and there are always a few who never learn. But, if you're one of the ones who learns best by playing a video game--and you'd like to learn about managing your credit--you're in luck. The Treasury has just launched a new multi-media campaign that includes just such a game.
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Posted August 14, 2008 - 13:25 by Paul Michael
Consumer Affairs
My wife forwarded me one of those “hey everyone, don’t fall for this” emails this morning. I get one from a friend or relative at least once a week, and usually they’re well-meaning but filled with gross inaccuracies or are just completely untrue. However, when I looked to my source for all things BS, Snopes.com, I discovered this one was 100% true. It’s called the Jury Duty scam. It’s a smart, simple con that could clean you out.
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Posted March 23, 2008 - 19:30 by Linsey Knerl
Personal Finance, Credit Cards
Debt is the hottest topic on personal finance blogs around the world. Why? I would venture to guess it is because so many people are drowning in it. The unfortunate truth is that few people care to read about debt until it has already had a negative affect on their financial situation. This can make the final solution to their debt problems even more difficult to hear about.
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Posted March 2, 2008 - 13:53 by Jabulani Leffall
Budgeting
It's amazing how many of us are business people -- dealing with budgets, liabilities, profit, revenue and loss -- who make questionable decisions with our own finances. What's even more amazing is that we often don't approach our own money with the same cold meticulousness and objective impartiality that one needs to run a business. But in this case, you are the business. Get thee to an office supply store immediately.
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Posted February 1, 2008 - 21:56 by Paul Michael
Personal Finance, Consumer Affairs
It was bound to happen. I just thought it would happen over here first. Today BECKY BARROW and JAMES CONEY of The Daily Mail broke the story that banking giant Egg, a household name in Britain, will block over 160,000 customers from using their credit cards. Is this a sign of things to come?
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Posted August 10, 2007 - 13:02 by Linsey Knerl
Consumer Affairs
Gone are the days when debt collectors only hassled the lazy, financially inept, or the completely downtrodden and hopelessly unlucky. More and more consumers are being contacted by debt collectors as part of an attempt to be paid for past due accounts, either for their own debt, debt inherited as a condition of a death in the family, or as a horrible consequence to an identity theft. Whether or not you actually owe the money, the rules are the same. Debt collectors acting as a third-party interest in past-due accounts are bound by the laws of the FDCPA. Learning what they can (and more importantly: CAN’T do) is vital to protecting your rights and preventing undue stress.
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