Auto sales keep setting records, with 2015 seeing the highest number of trucks and cars ever sold (more than 17 million). This is partly because borrowing money to buy cars keeps getting easier. Longer terms, lower credit score requirements, and persistently low interest rates keep enticing Americans to buy new [Keep reading]
Sometimes, people get tired of hearing the same old advice — but they need to hear it again, anyway. Eat healthier. Exercise more. Spend less. And DON’T CLICK ON ATTACHMENTS IN EMAILS YOU DON’T EXPECT. I know, I know, you would never do that. But you’ll be stunned to find [Keep reading]
Here’s all you need to know about the fragile state of the American middle class. An online payday-type lender named Elevate Credit sees the middle class as its target market. “Decades–long macroeconomic trends and the recent financial crisis have resulted in a growing ‘New Middle Class’ with little to no [Keep reading]
A captive consumer is someone who isn’t in a position to bargain and, in turn, could overpay. For example, a traveler purchasing Wi-Fi on an airplane is captive because there’s only one option and a pay TV subscriber is captive if there’s only one cable company in the area, or [Keep reading]
To paraphrase Stalin, $1 trillion is a statistic; an unemployed student loan borrower with a $900 monthly payment is a tragedy. It’s almost graduation season, which means it will soon be time to reveal how special, and record-setting, this year’s college graduates are. Setting records for debt, I mean. Six [Keep reading]
Friend and fellow consumer crusader Adam Levin recently pledge to give $150,000 to the University of Georgia’s journalism school. The donation will help train and inspire young journalists for years to come. It’s exciting news for me because the donation is directly tied to helping young people invent (rescue?) the future of [Keep reading]
When your car’s check engine light flicks on, the first thing that pops into your head is probably “how much is this going to cost me?” But new data show that for newer cars about half the time the problem is often as simple as a loose gas cap. That [Keep reading]
Americans love a good rivalry. Yankees vs. Red Sox. Coke vs. Pepsi. Republicans vs. Democrats. And … leasing vs. buying? Leasing a car is sizzling hot right now. New data show one out of every three new cars is leased. And leasing may very well rule the future, as it [Keep reading]
Buy a pair of boots at an outlet store for $45, when it appears the boots once sold for $180, and you probably think you got a great deal. But what if the $180 price is fake? And the real original price was…..$45? Would you still buy the boots? Or [Keep reading]
A few years ago, my long-time, elderly, live-alone neighbor was taken away in an ambulance. I wasn’t home and heard about it second-hand. At first, I had no idea how serious it was or even where he was taken, but I was really concerned. So I started calling local [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan