The other day as I was going through my monthly process of paying bills, I noticed one of my credit cards suddenly had an increase in the minimum payment by double. Additionally,
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 weig
Today a new rescue program called the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF) was announced by the Treasury and Federal Reserve to support owners of securities backed by
If there are two pieces of financial advice that get hammered more often than any others, they're "Get out of debt" and "Put enough in your 401(k) to get any corporate match." Wi
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 str
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 Econ
Yesterday Henry Paulson decided to use the power given to him by the housing bailout bill to officially take over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This is a decision that has a huge im
Today my friend sent me an article titled "We Have Met the Enemy" by Knight Kiplinger, the Editor in Chief of Kiplinger publications. It is a blunt article pointing out that Americ
They don't call it "retail therapy" for nothing. Uncontrolled, emotional spending has a lot in common with other addicitons and eating disorders. One of these shared traits is the
Have good credit? A low APR on your credit cards? Always pay your bills on time? That's not going to stop your credit card company from jacking up your rate whenever they feel like
In the past few decades the Ad Council has been running an ad with the tag line "Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk". This ad campaign has been instrumental in decreasing drunk
Self-sufficiency is producing the actual stuff you use--your own food, your own clothes, etc. It's not a common lifestyle. Most people chose instead to follow the path of self-re
One of the bugaboos of the financial doom-and-gloom crowd is the worry that foreigners (China in particular, but also oil exporting countries in the Middle-East, and others) might
The government is letting people think that it's okay to make bad choices. The Treasury is rewarding bad behavior and the consumer is learning nothing except to keep up the
Among the fraction of the population who manage to put money aside, many view their investments through the lens of retirement. They've got a number in mind--call it $X--enoug
This week is officially America Saves Week 2008. This is a campaign started in 2007 by many government agencies and private entities to encourage Americans to save because the per
The Federal Reserve just cut the interest rate by 0.75% between two official meetings! This is the largest cut since 1982 and it was like an adrenaline shot to the sagging stock ma
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