It’s well-documented that people cut loose and spend more when they’re paying with a credit card rather than cash. Scientists refer to this as a “decoupling of purchase from the pain of payment” — essentially, we don’t perceive credit cards as “real money.” But a new study takes this observation a step further by postulating that we …
Psychology of Money
8 Money Habits That Separate Doers From Dreamers
When it comes to securing financial security, are you a doer or a dreamer? By definition, financial doers have a better shot at reaching their retirement goals. No real surprise, they also have a much better shot at raising …
America’s Love-Hate Relationship with Wealth
I’ve been on the road for the past two months, mostly in Bolivia and Peru, where I was pretty off the grid and didn’t keep up with the news. So I arrived home to find a strange phenomenon: Protesters “occupying” Wall Street. And …
Workers With Bad Credit Aren’t Less Ethical
Nearly half of all companies check the credit reports of at least some prospective employees during the hiring process, according to the Society for Human Resource Management. This is a daunting statistic for many job-seekers, …
Nice Guys’ Credit Scores Finish Last
If you’re cranky, selfish, rude or all-around disagreeable, your grouchiness comes with one big silver lining: You’re likely to have better credit than people who are affable, friendly and otherwise pleasant company.
The NBA Lockout and the Economy: An Overstated Impact
The NBA lockout keeps eating away at the regular season, like the revolting tapeworm that it is. Regular season games had been scheduled to start last week. Now all November games have been canceled. As the stalemate drags on,
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Fashion Faux Pas: When Regular Deals Beat Flash Deals
Flash sales and daily deals from the likes of Groupon and Gilt succeed in two key ways: First, the big, prominently featured discount off the original retail price gets consumers excited by the prospect of a great value; second, …
Why You’re Probably Financially Better Off Than You Feel
There’s no question that for many (if not most) Americans, today’s economy is challenging for numerous reasons we need not list. For a lot of people, though, their sense of economic vulnerability is greater than their actual …
Daily Deals: More For the Rich Than the Poor, More About Spending Than Saving
The main selling point for Groupon, LivingSocial, and other daily deal vendors is how much the consumer saves through the use of discounted vouchers. But a couple of new studies demonstrate a point that should be obvious, but …
McRib Fanatics and the Amazing Power of Limited Availability
The bizarrely dedicated fans of the McDonald’s McRib sandwich are overjoyed that the barbecue-sauce-soaked boneless pork patty treat is returning for a limited time to all U.S. Golden Arches locations. But are McRib devotees …
Married Couples Know Less About Their Debt Than Single People
A new study published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York took a sweeping, multi-year look at data about the debt Americans carry and how much we know about those debts. One strange finding: Single people are much better at …
What Your Supermarket Knows About You
The global financial crisis of 2009 hit consumers hard. Two years later, and they’re still reeling. Spending is down across the board, and even the more affluent are watching their pennies. In this fearful climate, retailers …
