In a new survey, more than one-third of adults say they are now saving less than last year, and 33% have no emergency savings whatsoever. The numbers get scarier for African Americans and Hispanics: 54% and 47%, respectively, report no rainy-day savings and are “one flat tire away from financial disaster,” says the survey’s spokesperson.
Borrowing
204 Money Tips: Ways to Find Jobs, Get Free Shipping, Avoid Debt and Impulse Purchases, and More
Also: tips for cutting back on what you pay for everything from groceries to toys to your first home.
Careless Consumerism: How You’re Really Spending Eight Times as Much as You Thought
“If you choose to spend a dollar today, you are actively choosing not to have four dollars, or six, or even eight later.”
The Short-Term Loans That Keep You in Debt for the Long Haul
If you’re in a jam, payday loans promise to be a quick-fix solution. In exchange for absurd interest rates equating to 450% and up, a borrower can get a short-term loan that’ll be paid back in the near future (once the borrower reaches “payday”). While the terms may seem outrageous enough for consumers to want to avoid these loans …
How to Erase $70K in Debt and Save $1 Million
You can accomplish both through the same simple formula.
Credit Cards: New Annual Fees for Customers Who Can’t Close Their Accounts
A small portion of Bank of America credit card customers will soon be hit with all-new $59 annual fees. Who, exactly, will be assessed the fees? For the most part, it’s the customers who will find it the most difficult to walk away from their accounts.
What Ever Happened to Overdraft Outrage?
Who would voluntarily pay $38 for a $3 cup of coffee? Apparently, tens of millions of American bank customers—that’s who.
Consumer Phrase of the Day: ‘Sexually Transmitted Debt’
“A new national survey a different kind of STD that couples must worry about. Turns out if you marry someone who has debt and doesn’t tell you about it, you may pay the price for years to come. Plus, if your spouse is financial promiscuous while you’re married, you may be on the hook to pay off your spouse’s secret spending. The …
6 Explanations for Why Americans Can’t Save Money
What’s to blame for the falling national savings rate? Experts point to a range of reasons Americans just can’t (or won’t) save, including income inequality, the collapse of housing values, the disappearance of pensions, the rising costs of education and health care, and the iPad.
119 Money Tips: How to Avoid Investment Scams, Fake Consumer Reviews, Supermarket Rip-offs, Horribly Lame Valentine’s Gifts, and More
Also: the best-ever personal finance books, and tips for saving on everything from weddings to the latest gadgets.
Personal Finance Guru Q&A: ‘The Ten Commandments of Money’ Author Liz Weston
Liz Weston, author of a new personal finance bible of sorts, issues this key point in as straightforward a way as possible: “Anybody with a high school education can figure out the basics of money.”
‘Payment Due’ for a Debt You’re Not Required to Pay Off
Why would a bank contact a customer about credit card debt that’s 10 years old—long past the statute of limitations allowing lenders to sue in order to collect?