Recent Blog Posts
How to Boost Your Credit Score While Living in a Rented Apartment
One of the unpleasant truths about personal finance is that the rich get richer every time they borrow money and every time they make an installment payment toward repaying it, while the rest of us diligently pay our bills every month, usually exhausting our entire paycheck in the process, while our credit score barely… Read More »
Beware of Earned Wage Access
If you have ever taken out a payday loan in person, you would choose almost any other way of borrowing money, if it were available to you. Anything is better than taking a long bus ride when you are exhausted after work and then walking to a poorly lit strip mall with bright neon… Read More »
Paying Down Your Debts One Day at a Time
Getting out of debt is a marathon, not a sprint. The only way to pay off your debts all at once is to receive a windfall such as a lottery win or an inheritance, or else to take out a debt consolidation loan. The first only happens if you are extraordinarily lucky, and only… Read More »
Budgeting Out Loud Is a Prosocial Way to Get Out of Debt
Being broke is lonely, but it doesn’t have to be. Most of us are living paycheck to paycheck, but hardly anyone talks about it. Somehow, it is more socially acceptable to talk about the big splurges that you wish you could afford than about the instant ramen noodles that await you after the long… Read More »
How Can Young People Help Their Families Build Generational Wealth?
Some people start thinking about building generational wealth when their children are born or when they start to think seriously about having children. They stress about providing a financial cushion so that their children can have an easier time getting established financially as adults and, simply, to grow up in an environment where financial… Read More »
What to Do If You Can’t Pay Your Taxes by Tax Day
No one really looks forward to Tax Day. It is with Schadenfreude that we watch judges threaten celebrities with jail time after the celebrities fail to fulfill their millions of dollars of tax obligations. Being one of the lucky few who get a tax refund is a double-edged sword. It means that you are… Read More »
The Good Enough Mortgage Loan
When people set the intention to improve their credit scores, the goal is usually to qualify for a loan that is currently out of their reach. Home mortgage loans are the grand prize. Owning a house gives you financial stability and generational wealth in ways that other things you can buy on credit do… Read More »
3 Middle Class Debt Traps
If you are living paycheck to paycheck on a household income of more than $100,000, you are in a better financial position than many. It certainly beats having a lower household income and not even being able to keep up with your bills. The reason that so many gainfully employed people find their entire… Read More »
Social Media Accounts and Your Business Bankruptcy Case
Court decisions issued over the past 15 years are full of evidence of the ways in which social media has destroyed interpersonal relationships and the reputations of individuals and companies. If a time traveler read court decisions that reference social media activity, though, it would also be obvious to him or her that social… Read More »
Reaping the Benefits of Lower Cost Mortgages While Avoiding the Risks
Yes, it is possible to get a mortgage when your credit score is lower than 670. Some lenders will even consider your application if your credit score is as low as 620. Your options will be limited as far as the amount you can borrow, though. With less-than-optimal credit scores, the interest rates on… Read More »