So what is the next meltdown?  This article in MSN suggets it’s credit cards.  Definitely a possibility.  But I think there are two other bigger problems.  This is a neat rundown of debt 2006-2008.
First, the average debt of consumers is $16k when averaged over people who don’t have credit cards, pay in full, and carry [...]

[Read more →]

A very cool article by MP Dunleavy talks about people getting serious about getting out of debt.  They are putting their debt as she put it, on a “Diet”.  The articles starts out talking about a woman who got out of debt before but then fell back into debt.  So how’d she do it?
Sherry Matulock [...]

[Read more →]

I read all the time people asking on blogs, message boards, and even in real life, “Should I reduce my retirement contributions to pay off debt?”  I cannot emphasize what a HORRIBLE statement that is.
It’s funny that when getting out of debt, people view retirement as free money to be cut and used for debt repayment.  [...]

[Read more →]

Can you live without credit? Yes, but honestly it’s not fun.  Even bad FICO score is better than no credit score.  When you have no credit history or score, people and businesses don’t know what to make of you.  They are unable to predict what sort of risk you are.  You end up paying A [...]

[Read more →]

About 7 years ago someone stole my identity and opened up a cellular phone account with Spring in Chicago, Illinois.  At the time I was living in San Diego, California. I was a bit shocked. Apparently Sprint did not inform me that someone working for them had been selling information for people to open new [...]

[Read more →]

I’m going to write about MP Dunleavy again because she asks a very interesting question in “Is debt your destiny?”  She asks this question seriously and I think it’s a valid question.  She says that you know debt is wrong, are tracking your spending, yet are still mired in debt.  Why?
She suggests one reason is [...]

[Read more →]

Should we be allowed to walk away from foreclosures?  On savingsadvice financial forums a poster called “foolfromAZ” asked the question if he should allow his home to be foreclosed upon.  I’ll post the details and discuss what his options are and if they are viable and perhaps we can all weigh in.
FFA bought at the [...]

[Read more →]

I noticed a lot of people are very focused on getting out of debt.  They are “gazelle” intense and snowball or snowflake their debt out of their lives.  But what happens “after debt”?
When people become debt free does their lives change?  Are they able to revert back to their free spending ways or has their [...]

[Read more →]

People wrote in to Money Magazine complaining about the “raw deal” that is overdraft fees.   People were complaining that they were hit with multiple fees because checks they had expected to clear had bounced.  The problem?  They didn’t have money in their checking accounts to cover some of the checks in the first place, which [...]

[Read more →]

Is money a “dealbreaker” in relationship?  If you meet a great person and found out after a few months of dating, they had massive student loans, some credit card debt, and a car loan; is that a deal breaker?  Would you run for the hills or stick around?
It was an interesting question posed on a [...]

[Read more →]