While you’ve been pretending to read the fine print on everything from your cell phone contract to your Starbucks card, companies have been slipping in legalese that robs you of your rights. A little-understood but rapidly expanding practice called “mandatory arbitration” is replacing your right to sue a company in court — a right many …
consumer finance
It’s Not You, Honey, It’s the GDP: Why a Bad Economy Is Good for Marriages
We’ve written before about the upside of down economies: people grow closer. Now comes word of yet another silver lining in the barrage of depressing economic news in recent years: it might be good for marriages. That’s one of …
The Secret to Memorable Vacations: Keep ’Em Short and End ’Em Sweet
In an earlier post we described research showing that people get more long-lasting satisfaction from money spent on experiences than money spent on material goods. If you read that post and took it to heart — humor us — an …
Why (Bill) Size Really Does Matter
In some Big Apple circles there’s a concept referred to as “The New York City Street Tax.” This isn’t anything official. Rather, the idea is that the simple act of walking through the city—walking through any bustling city, …
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 …
