Credit card companies have never been as understanding as your middle school librarian, you know… the one who offered amnesty on late payments at the end of every school year. But with a record number of credit card defaults in May and new rules making it harder for banks to charge based on risk, the New York Times is reporting on a new trend of credit card companies settling delinquent accounts for substantially less than the amount owed.
Megan McArdle wrote this poignant article for The Atlantic this morning about how to nurture your friendships and relationships when you’ve lost your job and your former social life starts to look expensive. Her trick to staying afloat instead of going into debt for late night drinks or Chinese takeout? Telling friends: “I can’t afford [...]
After rejecting a proposed plan, a U.S. Bankruptcy judge has ordered disgraced NFL quarterback Michael Vick to submit a new bankruptcy agreement by July 2nd. Vick (who was once the highest paid player in the NFL with a 10-year $130 million contract with the Atlanta Falcons) is just one of a number of celebrities and [...]
Why is there a kidney shortage? Nobel Prize-winning economist Gary Becker claims it’s because there’s no market for them, since the buying and selling of organs is illegal. Or put differently, when the maximum amount of money you can get in return for a kidney is $0, the demand is always going to be higher than the supply.
Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s personal finances were a hot topic last week, after disclosure forms revealed that she has nearly $16,000 in credit card debt, and owes another $15,000 to her dentist. There’s no shortage of discussions in the blogosphere about whether having that kind of debt is responsible behavior (see positive, negative). But [...]
Today, The Wall Street Journal has a post about a boarding school in Massachusetts that is attempting to increase financial literacy among students by setting up a classroom as a mock stock market trading floor. The story notes the need for financial literacy among students — especially in the current economic crisis — and refers [...]
According to USA Today, the sum of all U.S. personal and federal government obligations is now $63.8 trillion, or $668,621 per American household: $121,958 of the total are personal obligations – mortgages, credit cards, student loans, etc. $546,668 are federal government obligations – Medicare,SocialSecurity, retirement benefits, etc. These are scary sounding numbers (as the 3000+ comments on the USA [...]
Savings.com compiled this list of 30 deal-hunting Twitterers who post useful advice about where to find good deals on household purchases. Econ4U wanted to go a step further, so we went exploring and found 12 of the most prolific personal finance gurus (both big and small) on the popular social networking website: OnTheMoney — from CNBC’s personal finance program of [...]
