Author Archives: Jay Butchko
Home Equity Investments
Summer is almost over, and you are in desperate financial shape. Your bank account balance is in the double digits, and you are hoping against hope that it stays that way until your next meager paycheck gets deposited into your bank account. Your credit card is just one set of interest charges away from… Read More »
Recent Trends in Florida Bankruptcy Cases
By some indications, the economy is doing well, but everyone you know is dragging themselves through life under a dark cloud of financial stress. Nearly a quarter of the American workforce is marginally employed. Yes, they get a paycheck, but it is through gigs, or else through a part-time job where the hours are… Read More »
Is Positive Rent Reporting Too Good to Be True?
The credit reporting bureaus must have missed the memo about “positive vibes only.” If all the other soccer moms have used their last ounce of strength to keep a smile on their faces for the duration of soccer practice, they cannot expect to get any relief when they log onto the Zoom meeting for… Read More »
Crafting a Realistic Debt Repayment Plan
When you live from paycheck to paycheck, so much of your energy goes to worrying about whether you have enough money to pay the bills that are due this period. You rarely have time to make long-term financial plans. In fact, even though you keep making payments, your debt burden might be getting bigger… Read More »
Credit Limit Increases
It is an unpleasant truth that the lending of money ultimately benefits lenders more than it benefits borrowers. Lenders have less to lose when they choose not to lend than borrowers do when they choose not to borrow. If a lender doesn’t lend, they keep the principal of the non-loan and only lose out… Read More »
Quick, Temporary Fixes for Your Summer Financial Crisis
Most of the financial advice you find online is geared toward people a few tax brackets above yours. You can only participate in the debt snowball or debt avalanche method if there is any room to trim expenses from your budget and put the extra money toward debt repayment. You are already living from… Read More »
Multigenerational Households Are Not a Magical Solution to Your Financial Problems
When you kept living in your empty nest after your children grew up and moved out, you thought that you were making the best financial decision of your life. Every month, your mortgage got closer to being paid off, and your savings got bigger. With both spouses working, you belonged to the enviable elite… Read More »
Rebuilding Your Finances After Gambling Addiction
In desperate financial times, people tend to rely on gambling as a source of income. Sometime in the 1990s, when Las Vegas was beginning to cultivate a family friendly image where you were as likely to return to your hotel room with your young child and an oversized teddy bear she had won at… Read More »
Autopay: Friend or Foe?
Sometimes you feel like you work all the time, and yet your work is never done, and you never have enough money to pay all your bills. During the closest thing you have to free time, such as when the checkout line in the supermarket is moving slowly, you look up short videos and… Read More »
Addressing Your Debts in Preparation for Retirement
Anyone who says that you cease to be in demand after you turn 40 is not thinking about things from a financial perspective. When you reach middle age, everyone in your family looks to you as a source of financial stability. You are the one with a well-established credit history, so younger family members,… Read More »