Also, is it wrong to take advantage of freebies? And: How much should you be saving for college? (If you’re dropping off your kid at school next week, this is an issue you probably should have addressed earlier.)
Investing
Home Improvement: Easy DIY Projects to Make Your House Easier to Sell, or Just Easier to Live In
By most accounts, the housing market is bleak. Home sales were down more than 25% in July. Declarations are being made that we have witnessed the end of the era in which homeownership was a path to wealth, and also, perhaps more welcomed, the end of ever-bigger McMansions.
Best Financial Decision Ever Made
According to a new survey, Baby Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y all agree that the smartest financial move is … drum roll please …
Cheapskate Wisdom from … an Economist Specializing in Real Estate
“There is no iron law that real estate must appreciate.”
Yikes! Lots of People Trust Pawn Shops and Check-Cashing Operations More than Banks
Why? Mostly because you know upfront exactly how much you’ll pay for the services of a check-cashing company, and there’s no chance of being on the hook for fees after the transaction is done. A bank account is more complicated, requiring the customer to maintain a certain balance—or at least something more than a negative …
Has Your Bank Offered You “Courtesy Pay,” a “Buffer Zone,” or “Debit Card Advance” Services?
These carefully-phrased services sound quite nice, don’t they? But if you read the fine print carefully, you’ll discover that these programs are strategies for banks to collect fees on customers who are careless with their account balances.
The Something-for-Everyone List of Money-Saving Lists
Hey, Frequent Overdrafters! The Banks Want You!
You’re not supposed to spend money you don’t have. But this is what you’re doing when you buy something with a debit card and don’t have enough in your bank account to cover the tab—in other words, an overdraft. Since banks make money when their customers spend money they don’t have, the banks basically encourage customers to do …
Cheapskate Wisdom from … Barack Obama (on Teaching Kids about Money)
“So many of the problems that we see had to do with the fact that just basic calculations about compound interest and — and what that means, you know, kids aren’t taught that. And so what I’m doing now with Malia and Sasha is, you know, they’re getting an allowance. They’re starting to get old enough where they may be able to earn some …
Shout Out: ‘How I Learned to Love Postal Rate Increases’
OK, so this guy may qualify as an Illogical Rationalizer, the type of consumer who spends money with the sometimes-dubious rationale that it’ll save him money in the long run. But you gotta love a guy who has the stones to try to beat the system by impulsively purchasing $820 in postage stamps.
Survey: College Isn’t All That Great an Investment
Last year, 80% of Americans believed that college was a good financial investment. Now, results from the same survey show a sharp drop in confidence in the rewards of higher education, with only 64% of people saying that college is a good investment.
Cheapskate Wisdom … About How Banks Will Adapt to New Limits on Fees
“If you’re a restaurant and you can’t charge for the soda, you’re going to charge more for the burger … Over time, it will all be repriced into the business.”