“Elmo understands Elmo can’t get everything Elmo wants, and Elmo’s parents save money to get what they really need like food.”
Borrowing
Is a Credit Card Annual Fee Ever Worth It?
Banks are finally slowing down the push for new credit card customers—certain kinds of customers, that is. The number of direct-mail offers for cards dropped 8 percent in the second quarter of 2009. Even though there’s an overall dip, there’s been a steep increase (28 percent) of offers trying to get consumers with good credit to sign …
Deep in Credit Card Debt? Ask and You Might Be Relieved
Millions of people in credit card debt are getting their terms changed—sometimes meaning they pay no interest—simply by asking.
Are People Gambling Less?
Gambling is widely considered to be recession resistant. When times are tough, people may in fact be more likely to take a chance. Sales of lottery tickets, for instance, were up in most states. So why have state tax revenues from gambling dropped?
It’s Football Season! Bring Your Family to the Stadium for a Mere $759
In light of the way NFL team owners are treating fans—subjecting them to absurd seat license fees that cost tens of thousands of dollars, jacking up ticket prices as much as 90 percent despite the ongoing recession, suing fans who try to get out of multi-year ticket contracts—cheering on a team is starting to feel a bit like rooting …
Credit Scores: Myths Busted, But the System Still Doesn’t Make Sense
Lenders use credit scores to instantaneously evaluate what sort of loan, if any, should be approved for an applicant hoping to buy a car or home or simply get a new credit card. There are tons of misunderstandings as to what makes a good or bad credit score.
Debit Cards vs. Credit Cards: Do You Prefer Debt, Fees, or Both?
Debit cards have been presented as the safer alternative to credit cards. A credit card is something of a temporary loan operation, allowing you to buy things with money you may or may not have, creating a situation in which it’s easy to get into debt. A debit card, by contrast, allows you to buy things using the funds sitting in your …
Affluent Consumers Clip Coupons. Poor People? Not So Much
Some 1.6 billion coupons were redeemed in the U.S. in the first half of 2009. That’s up 23 percent compared to last year. Who is turning all those coupons in to save on purchases? Odds are it’s a suburbanite who is fairly well off.
Which Comes First: Financial Security or Baby?
Biological clocks, steady employment and income, and couples’ relationships are ducks that don’t always line up in nice, neat rows. This is especially the case during the recession. The uncertainty of the economy has pushed condom sales up and birth rates down.
Is It Better to Be Joe College or Joe the Plumber?
Going to college—the best college possible—used to be a no-brainer. But now, in light of the big loans and bad job prospects recent grads are facing, perhaps the equation has changed.
Q&A with David Krueger, Author of “The Secret Language of Money”
People have weird relationships with money. The value we give to currency and wealth goes beyond its mere value to buy and sell goods. Money has meaning. It can make people feel good or bad, envious or inferior, lucky or distraught. People can get emotional about money—and bad decisions are often the result. The concept of money is so …
Look What You Can Buy at eBay and Craigslist: It’s California!
To try and balance the California state budget, the Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger is emptying storage warehouses and rounding up anything worth selling. Lots of things that don’t seem worth selling too, or at least that don’t seem like they’d fetch much money at auction, such as coat racks, box cutters, and belt buckles. No matter. …