Frequent readers know that I often complain about the “death of the price tag.” Companies say something will cost X, but it really costs X+Y. Or sometimes, X+Y+Z+1A+2B……etc. Sometimes that means writing about tiny amounts of money that can create large amounts of bad feelings. Like surprise $1 surcharges. A [Keep reading]
It’s that time of year when I play the role of stick in the mud and tell college graduates and other young people that the 20s are by far the best time to save for old age. While groups like Key can give you help financially once you retire, it [Keep reading]
Much has been made of the student loan problem. While you’d be hard pressed to find disagreement that it’s an issue, there is plenty of disagreement about how bad things really are. On the one hand, it’s easy to find stories chronicling massive default rates (12%), oppressive $800-a-month loan payments [Keep reading]
May is the month of Pomp and Circumstance. Of graduation parties, caps thrown in the air and dreams thrown even higher. It’s also the month where many seeds of financial destruction are sown. Student loan borrowers who are graduating have six months to figure out how to start paying back [Keep reading]
It’s a good time to sell a home. Buyers are back to fighting over properties in hot markets. Some sellers find reputable buyers and get quick sales because of it. That means less time sellers need to wait around. Realtor.com says homes stayed on the market 14 days less in [Keep reading]
It’s a great time to be a pay TV consumer. Really. After decades of helplessly paying skyrocketing TV bills (helpless because many consumers were stuck within monopoly situations) the worm is finally turning. New entrants like Verizon’s FiOS and SlingTV have created genuine competition, while the “cord cutting” phenomenon has [Keep reading]
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]
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]
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]
Bob Sullivan