Author Archives: Jay Butchko
Welcome Back, Junk Fees?
We have all heard that most of the laws that affect our daily lives are state laws, not federal ones. Floridians wear it as a badge of pride that we can get a driver’s license without having to parallel park. Florida is less 420 friendly than California but more 420 friendly than Alabama. A… Read More »
The Tyranny of Depending on Your Parents Financially
You don’t dare complain about it out loud, because people will judge you. These days, everyone is quick to judge you just for existing, no matter who you are. This is weighing heavily on you, though. You don’t earn enough money to make ends meet, so your parents float you a few hundred dollars… Read More »
Say Goodbye to Your Housing Stability
Hurricane season has not even officially started, and it is already shaping up to be a soul-crushingly stressful summer in South Florida. Almost every source of financial stability that we have come to take for granted, meager as they were, has fallen away from us. First, the federal program that prevents air conditioning shut… Read More »
Bouncing Back After a Late Payment on Your Credit Report
If you can still convince yourself and others that your financial hardships are temporary, count your blessings. If you paid one of your bills late last month but paid it on time this month, you are in a better financial position than most. Despite this, if you genuinely felt financially stable until an unexpected… Read More »
Can Overwork Kill You?
This week, the Forbes website has published another article about karoshi, a phenomenon in which relatively young people who work long hours die suddenly. “Karoshi” is a Japanese word that means “overwork death.” If you scroll down the list of Google search results, you will find that, for almost as long as magazines have… Read More »
Will the Resumption of Student Loan Payments Tank Your Finances?
If asked to describe the effect that the COVID-19 pandemic had on their finances, most people would not use the word “relief.” For the wealthiest and most educated people in society, the pandemic gave us a glimpse of how to live modestly and avoid lifestyle creep. We went for walks and cooked from scratch… Read More »
Meet the Not Not-Poor Florida Seniors
As you tread carefully on an icy sidewalk on your way to work and think about how fragile your old bones have become, it is easy to look forward to retiring in Florida. Spending your retirement years is not all sunlit walks on the beach, though. The horrors of a retirement in Florida go… Read More »
All Work and No Credit Score Boost
It isn’t fair. When you are rich, you can borrow as much money as you want, but when you are working hard and struggling to pay your bills, no one will lend to you. Lack of credit history is stopping a lot of people from getting loans. This is understandable if you are young… Read More »
The Generation That Savings Forgot
Journalists love to throw shade at Generation Z, the age cohort born between 1997 and 2012, for doing things differently from how their elders did them. Whereas Baby Boomers and Generation X dreamed of a summer vacation where they could make out with someone special in the car at the end of a date,… Read More »
Home Repairs Can Break the Bank for Tenants
The list of ways in which housing is unaffordable just keeps getting longer. Qualifying for a mortgage loan now seems like a pipe dream for everyone except the wealthiest people. If you are lucky enough to own your house and keep up with the mortgage payments, then the list of things that need repair… Read More »