CNNMoney put together a list of “America’s Biggest Rip-offs,” which include things like text messages (marked up 6500% with some cell plans), college textbooks (which cost the average student $900 a year), and popcorn at the movies (no surprise here, they charge nine times what it costs to make it). But for every rip-off, there’s usually …
Sign of the times: Liquor sales rose moderately in 2009, with the biggest growth among cheap brands like Popov vodka.
It is estimated that by June, about 10% of all homeowners with mortgages will owe more than their homes are worth. With strategic defaults on the rise, many homeowners who actually do keep paying the mortgage each month are increasingly feeling like suckers. Are we headed for a mass default?
Since last September, a group of women have been on a fashion fast, refusing to buy any article of clothing for 12 months. What have they learned so far from The Great American Apparel Diet, as the experiment’s called? For one thing, giving up clothes shopping is much easier than giving up wine.
Visiting a chiropractor for a routine adjustment might be viewed by your insurer as a sign of some “underlying medical condition,” and give justification for jacking up your rates by as much as 25%.
“Cognitive fluency,” in psychologist phraseology, is the human tendency to prefer things that are familiar and easy to understand. This tendency plays into just about every decision you make—what you deem beautiful, what political messages resonate, what products earn your loyalty (and dollars), and so on. It’s even been shown that the …
Take it from a business journalist: Don’t listen to stock tips from business journalists. Also, don’t invest like an average Joe (or Jane).
If recent consumer spending is any indication, the best bottled water is … cheap bottled water.
As one writer recently found out firsthand, once you succeed in bargaining and realize how easy it is and how much you can save, it’s hard to go back to paying retail.
Well, probably not anyway. It’s just that your toilet paper could very well be getting smaller.
And that’s after numbers dropped off due to the recession. In 2006, 18- to 34-year-old Americans—a group known as “super fans” who have accounted for half of all visits to some fast food franchises—ate burgers, fries, nuggets, and other drive-thru favorites almost 19 times a month.
What you think you know about credit cards and debt may not be true.