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Tag Archives: debt

Tuesday Top 5: Books on Personal Finance

Welcome to this week’s edition of our Tuesday Top 5, Econ4U’s weekly tips post to help you manage your money in five easy steps.
Amazon.com may be the best thing that ever happened to those of us who don’t want to be seen perusing the self-help section of the local bookstore. If you’re in need of a [...]

Credit-Card Debt and Keeping Up With the Joneses

Hannah’s post yesterday on how to get out of credit-card debt referenced the Federal Reserve’s most recent Survey of Consumer Finances, which is full of fascinating data about which households are the most likely to be in debt.
Overall, 46.1 percent of American households reported holding debt on credit cards. But a look at who is [...]

Tuesday Top 5: Getting a Handle on Consumer Debt

Welcome to this week’s edition of our Tuesday Top 5, Econ4U’s weekly tips post to help you manage your money in five easy steps.
I was recently reviewing the Survey of Consumer Finances, published earlier this year using data from 2007. I thought it was interesting that only 46.2 percent of American households reported having credit-card debt, [...]

Wrapping Your Head Around 12 Zeroes

Suffice to say, a trillion of anything is a lot. Since most people we’ve talked to aren’t entirely clear on how big it really is, for visual learners (like myself) we put together these graphics to illustrate the enormity of a trillion dollars.Â
Want more visualizations? MightyBargainHunters.com has even more ways to wrap your head around [...]

A New Trend: Credit Card Amnesty

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.

Money Columnist Opens Up About Personal Debt

New York Times economic columnist Edmund L. Andrews got real with his readers this week and shared an enormous secret: Even personal-finance experts aren’t immune to poor money management.
In an article adapted from his upcoming book, he explains how easy it was for him to get in over his head in debt, starting with buying [...]

Dodd Credit Card Reform Bill Close To Passage

A credit card can be a convenient way to manage your expenses, or an expensive way to rack up debt and exorbitant fees. If the U.S. Senate passes the credit card reform bill it’s considering this week, that could change. The bill would overhaul a lot of the regulations governing credit card agreements, and has [...]

This Is Not a Post About Jessica Alba

April 15th has come and gone, but taxes are still very much in the news these days. The passage of a new $3.5 trillion budget (and the projected $1.75 trillion deficit) has a lot of people talking about the taxes we’ll need to pay all of this money back.  In that vein, I was checking [...]

A Fun Way to Manage Your Debt

For those who have debt, paying off credit card balances, repaying college loans, and trying to figure out the best strategy for the mortgage  can seem like a pretty tall order. As we have reminded you here at Econ4U, getting out of debt is completely achievable, so long as you have a plan and educate [...]

Does Financial Health Determine Happiness?

A new study from Princeton University suggests that feeling financially stable is as important a factor for happiness among women as having a high income.
Tayla Miron-Shatz, a researcher at Princeton’s Center for Health and Well-Being, surveyed nearly 1,000 women of various ages and incomes about relationships, work, finances, and overall well-being. Participants were also asked [...]