Personal Debt

Inequality's Rising, But It's Not The Kind You Think

The Huffington Post | Alexander Eichler | Posted 05.02.2012

Read More: Auto Loans, Income Gap, Debt, Video, Earning Gap, Consumer Debt, Income Inequality, Student Debt, Inflation, Wage Gap, Wage Stagnation, Credit Card Debt, Debt Inequality, Personal Debt, Business News

There's a gap between America's richest citizens and everybody else. And that gap has been growing larger for years. No, it's not income inequality...

Read Whole Story

Student Loans Could Be America's Next 'Debt Bomb,' Report Finds

The Huffington Post | Jillian Berman | Posted 02.08.2012

Read More: Business News, Obama Student Loans, Video, Personal Bankruptcies, Bankruptcy, Student Loans, Student Loan Debt, Personal Debt, Bankruptcy Attorneys, Business News

Growing numbers of Americans are finding themselves bankrupt, with their college diplomas partially to blame. Slightly more than 80 percent of ban...

Read Whole Story

What To Do When You're In Debt

Posted 01.25.2012

Read More: Debt, Credit Score, How-to-Get-Out-of-Debt, Credit Cards, Debteye, Personal Debt, Financial Advice, Women News

Kevin Yu | The Daily Muse If you've recently found yourself buried in debt, you're probably hoping to shut your eyes and make it all disappear. And...

Read Whole Story

Americans Grossly Underestimate Their Own Credit Card Debt

The Huffington Post | Alexander Eichler | Posted 12.21.2011

Read More: Debt, Video, Credit, Dodd-Frank, Great Recession, Financial Literacy, Credit Card Defaults, Credit Card Debt, Credit Cards, Financial Education, Personal Debt, Business News

Americans grew wary of credit-card debt during the recession, a time when no one was eager to try to live beyond their means. But in the past two year...

Read Whole Story

Legalized Loan Sharks

Don McNay | Posted 09.28.2011

Read More: JP Morgan Chase, McNay Settlement Group, Citigroup, Richmond Kentucky, Loan Sharks, Payday Lenders, Financial Reform, Bailouts, Kentucky, Don McNay, Vanderbilt, Citizens for Responsiblity and Ethics, Gary Rivlin, Working Poor, Structured Settlements, Screw Andrews, Bank of America, Poverty Industry, Broke USA, Wealth Without Wall Street, Ohio, Newport Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, Million Dollar Round Table, Banks, Legalized Loan Sharks, American College, Too Big to Fail, Personal Finance, Personal Debt, Business News
Don McNay

"Financial reform" is a boon for people in the payday loan business. When people fall out of the world of traditional banking, they are still going to need bank-like services. Payday lenders will be in position to fill the gap.

Read Post

How To Reduce Credit Card Interest to Zero Percent With No Effect on Your Credit Rating

Nicholas Carroll | Posted 09.27.2011

Read More: Lower Interest Rates, Interest Rates, Short Payoff, Credit Cards, Credit Rating, Debt Advice, Debt Payoff, Debt Payments, Credit Card Debt, Personal Debt, Debt Credit Card, Business News
Nicholas Carroll

Several of the big banks will now take the initiative after you miss two payments in a row, and offer either a short payoff deal or severely reduced interest rate. You don't have to call them; they send the offer to you.

Read Post

With Budgeting, Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Jason Alderman | Posted 09.26.2011

Read More: Budgeting Calculators, Automatic Bill Payment, Personal Budget, Personal Savings, Personal Debt, Business News
Jason Alderman

Budgets are a lot like diets: No single approach works for everyone; overly complicated plans rarely work for long; and sometimes it takes a few tries before you get it right.

Read Post

How One Woman Paid Off $30,000 In Credit Card Debt

Wallet Pop | Geoff Williams | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Mbna, Bank of America, Debt, Credit Card Debt, Paying Off Debt, Debt Free, Personal Debt, Cash Call, Business News

Lori Meyer has been debt-free for more than two years. For the 37-year old former teacher, it's a feat she once thought impossible. "Between credit ca...

Read Whole Story

Paddling Down the River Denial

Anne Butterfield | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Personal Debt, Climate Change Denial, Carbon Emissions, Global Warming, Denver News
Anne Butterfield

We are overconsuming and despoiling our world. Many continue to numb themselves from facing the quickly worsening condition of our climate.

Read Post

Credit Card Max-and-Walk: Consumers Learn How to Game the Banks

Nicholas Carroll | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Credit Card Delinquency, Debt, Credit Card Defaults, Credit Card Debt, Student Debt, Personal Debt, Business News
Nicholas Carroll

Now that understanding banks' credit card red flags is spreading, banks are facing a wave of consumers who have learned a bit about the mathematics of default detection -- enough to circumvent the algorithms.

Read Post

Fiddling While Rome Burns

David Coates | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Federal Debt, Personal Debt, Paul Ryan, Homeowner Debt, Debt, USA Trade Policy, China Trade Policy, Free Trade, China Debt, Trade Policy, Politics News
David Coates

The main debt problem currently besetting the U.S. economy is not primarily a debt problem at the federal level, no matter what Paul Ryan claims or implies. It is a debt problem at the level of people's personal finance.

Read Post

Debt Relief Scam Report: GAO Calls Practices 'Fraudulent, Deceptive And Abusive'

Los Angeles Times | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Broke, Economic Crisis, Gao, Debt Relief, Main Street, Debt, Gregory Kutz, Financial Trouble, Credit Cards, Personal Debt, Government Accountability Office, Business News

A new report by undercover government investigators bolsters longstanding concerns that companies promising to help consumers overwhelmed by credit ca...

Read Whole Story

Soldier in Iraq Loses Home Over $800 Debt

Mother Jones | Nick Baumann | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Debt, Iraq Veterans, Foreclosure Crisis, Homeowners Association, Petty Debt, Iraq Soldiers, Foreclosure, Michael Clauer, Personal Debt, Business News

Michael Clauer is a captain in the Army Reserve who commanded over 100 soldiers in Iraq. But while he was fighting for his country, a different kind o...

Read Whole Story

Go on a Spending Diet

Jason Alderman | Posted 11.17.2011

Read More: Credit Score, Personal Debt, Personal Budget, Automatic Bill Payment, Personal Savings, Journaling, Economy, Healthy Living News
Jason Alderman

Anyone who's ever tried to lose a few pounds knows that not every diet works for every person. Similarly, it may take a few tries to find a system for managing your personal finances.

Read Post

College Students are Using Credit Cards for Tuition

Bob Samuels | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: University, Student Debt, College, Financial Aid, College Tuition, Higher Education, Credit Cards, College Debt, Student Loans, Personal Debt, For-Profit Colleges, College News
Bob Samuels

Adding insult to injury, a transfer of wealth and opportunity is being made from lower- and middle-class families to upper-class families through merit-based financial aid.

Read Post

Americans' Retirement Savings: 43% Of Americans Have Less Than $10K For Retirement

CNN Money | Chavon Sutton | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Savings-Rate, Debt, Retirement Funds, Saving for Retirement, Economy, Retirement, Economic Recovery, Retirement Plans, Saving Money, Savings, Recession, Personal Debt, Retirement Planning, Roth IRAs, Ira, Business News

The percentage of workers who said they have less than $10,000 in savings grew to 43% in 2010, from 39% in 2009, according to the Employee Benefit Res...

Read Whole Story

Tearing Up the Lotto Ticket

Don McNay | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Unlimited Wealth, Small Business, Kentucky Guardianship Administrators, Social Security, Tampa, West Virginia, 9/11, Big Money, Powerball, Huntington WVA, Orlando, Jack Whitaker, Take This Job and Shove It, Personal Responsibility, Florida Lotto, 401k, Millard Fuller, Personal Growth, Aarp, Immediate Annuity, Hangers On, American College, Entourage, Personal Finance, Lakeland FLA, Powerball Jack Whitaker, McNay Settlement Group, Msfs, Pension, Structured Settlement, Mcnay, Chfc, Florida Lottery, Retirement, Habitat for Humanity, Eddie Money, Hurricane WVA, Don McNay, Structured Settlement Annuity, Lakeland, Winners Losers and What to Do When You WIn the Lottery, Clu, Americus Ga, Mega Millions, Vanderbilt University, Abraham Shakespeare, Lottery Ticket, Kathy Trant, Million Dollar Round Table, Son of a Son of a Gambler, Eastern Kentucky University, Jimmy Carter, Banks, Certified Structured Settlement Consultant, Cssc, Annuity, Posse, Entrepreneur, Personal Debt, 9/11 Widow, Business News
Don McNay

Almost all of us have our own "lotto moment." We make decisions about money that will either give us long term security and happiness or bring on pain and regret.

Read Post

Feminomics: Why Gender Matters in Macroeconomics, as in Real Life

Zdravka Todorova | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Debt, National Debt, Gdp, Federal Budget Deficit, Personal-Debt, Family, Business News
Zdravka Todorova

When those who worry in the abstract about the debt "burden" of federal expenditures on our children, they forget that our youth's and children's present is jeopardized by the burden of private debt born by US households.

Read Post

Celebrity Money Meltdowns

Manisha Thakor | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Budgeting, Investing, Debt, Saving, Personal Finance, Bankruptcy, Personal Debt, Business News
Manisha Thakor

Tough economic times have tested the vast majority of Americans -- and that includes celebrities.

Read Post

What's Wrong With This Picture?

Loral Langemeier | Posted 11.17.2011

Read More: Bad Credit, Foreclosures, Small Business, Entrepreneurial-Spirit, Unemployment, Business Ownership, Federal Reserve, Personal Debt, Recession, Healthy Living News
Loral Langemeier

While many are determined to cut expenses and save as much money as they can, they're still missing one gigantic point. Things will never be the way they were.

Read Post

Changing Our Dependency on Credit Cards

Stephanie Neely | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Debt, College Student Credit Cards, Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009, Credit Card Debt, Credit CARD Act, Student Loans, Personal Debt, Chicago News
Stephanie Neely

Now is the time to reduce our credit card addiction. While fees and high interest rates will continue to be a reality, there are steps an individual can take to prevent falling into the credit card trap.

Read Post

The Choice for the G-20

Ann Pettifor | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: US Economy, Unemployment, G-20 Summit, Economic Crisis, Finance Sector, Credit Crunch, Housing Crisis, Personal Debt, Bank Assets, Business News
Ann Pettifor

The hype around the stock bubble will most likely weaken any resolve to deal with the huge challenges posed by an out-of-control finance sector and a failing global economy.

Read Post

Debtor's Revolt?

Marshall Auerback | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Tarp, Bailout, Household Debt, Asset Holdings, Loan Modifications, Securities, Financial Reform, Frank Rich, Richard C. Koo, Post-Bubble Japan, Asset Swaps, Personal Debt, Business News
Marshall Auerback

Once all the TARPs are tidied up and the quarterly profits no longer a revelation, American consumers will still be swaddled in debt. What's to stop them from just walking away from it?

Read Post

Finance 101: Dedicated to Gov. Schwarzenegger

Mary Hall | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Personal Finances, Finance Tips, California Budget Crisis, Personal Debt, Gov. Schwarzenegger, Politics News
Mary Hall

Gather all important financial statements and review what you own, your assets, and what you owe, your liabilities. Look carefully at how you're putting our hard-earned cash to work.

Read Post

The Weird Have Turned Pro

Garrett Johnson | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Government Debt, National Debt, Treasury Department, Debt, The Onion, Hunter S. Thompson, Weird, Wall Street Journal, Personal Debt, Business News
Garrett Johnson

The amount of money required to bail the world out of the current economic crisis, if this crisis plays out at a historical average, is nearly equal to all the private wealth currently in the world.

Read Post