Like a tornado, the recession hits unevenly. One house might get turned into splinters, while another is left untouched. Similarily, one friend can still be afford salads and Starbucks for lunch every day while the other has to brown-bag it. The Double-X blog asks its readers, “how do friends in newly different socioeconomic strata adjust?” Answer: most of the time, they don’t.
money
How To Save At An Amusement Park
By 6.12.09
For those of us thinking about hitting an amusement park this year, Smart Money has some suggestions for how to save some money including:
Hey, America: You Lost $1.3 Trillion!
By 6.11.09
Feeling poorer lately? You are! A new government report says that $1.3 trillion dollars of American wealth was vaporized in the first quarter of 2009.
Woman Hides Life Savings In Mattress, Mattress Taken To Dump By Helpful Daughter
By 6.11.09
A woman in Israel hid her life savings—she says nearly $1 million dollars—in her mattress. Her daughter bought her a new mattress as a surprise upgrade and threw it out. Dump employees are now searching on behalf of the family while security has been hired to keep out treasure hunters, but they don’t know which of the two city dumps it was taken to. We imagine it’s the one where the rats are all wearing tiny gold rings and toasting each other with little glasses of champagne.
Is It Worth It?
By 6.10.09
Kiplinger has a fun, albeit relatively easy, quiz that asks if various financial transactions are worth the cost — if you should you pay a little extra upfront in hopes of saving money — or hassle — in the future. In it they offer the following situations:
WaMu Saddles Credit Card Theft Victim With Thousands In Fraudulent Charges
By 6.10.09
Someone stole reader A’s WaMu credit card number and racked up thousands in fraudulent charges, and now WaMu wants A to pay for it. The fraudsters also made a PIN request for a cash advance over the phone, and WaMu said that phonecall orginated from A’s parents house. Because of this, which A says is impossible, WaMu demands A be responsible for the charges. He’s written letters and called executive customer service and it’s gotten him nowhere. His crappy story, inside…
By 6.10.09
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Bond traders say stock traders are wrong, the Fed will not increase interest rates this year. [Bloomberg]
Dirty Credit Report Scuttles Job Prospects
By 6.9.09
Dan Denton was about to get a much-needed job. Then the recruiters saw his blemished credit report and took away their offer.
The Maid Is Stealing Your Checkbook
By 6.9.09
Identity theft is rising in the recession, according to a Brooklyn public defender I talked to at a party this weekend. Most often the crime starts with the perp stealing the victim’s checkbook, he said.
Older Drugs Can Be Just As Good And Cheaper
By 6.9.09
Newfangled doesn’t necessarily mean that much better, especially when it comes to taking medicine. Getting prescribed the latest and greatest pill could mean you’re paying more when there’s a perfectly good drug out there that can do the same job, minus the jacked-up new drug patent cost. Vanguard says:
BP Points Out Their Gas Same Price Whether Cash Or Credit
By 6.9.09
Spotted this sign on a Brooklyn BP gas pump last night, taking pains to point out that they are charging customers the same price whether they use cash or credit. Interesting, because last year around this time we ran a few stories about gas stations who doing the opposite. The thing is, credit card companies charge merchants various transaction fees to process the cards. If retailers can’t assess those fees to the customers who actually incur them, the business has to raise prices on everything for everyone.
Pay Off Debt Like You're Training For A Marathon
By 6.8.09
How is paying off all your loans and becoming debt-free like training for a marathon? JD, a personal finance blogger who is training for a marathon shares his tips. For instance, running first thing in the morning is a lot like the idea of “paying yourself first.” To wit:
Investments Are Down – Won't You Hire A Poor Trust-Funder?
By 6.8.09
It’s the end of an era. The parentally-subsidized idle urbanites of New York aren’t getting the fundage they used to, and they have to get paying jobs now. Or move in with their parents. (Here I thought living with my parents after college was too much parental subsidy.) While Gawker’s coverage of this story is not to be missed, let’s look at it through a Consumerist lens, shall we?
The Good, The Bad And The Ugly Of Fixing Credit Report Errors
By 6.8.09
A great way to improve your credit score is to get rid of errors on your credit report that are dragging you down, but how do you start?
On The Rise: People Blowing Up Their Own Cars
By 6.8.09
Nothing salves buyer’s remorse like a match in a fuel tank. Citing National Insurance Crime Bureau figures, a Los Angeles Times story says car owners are resorting to nefarious means to put an end to burdensome car loans. In the first quarter of the year, suspicious fires or arson were up 27 percent for the first quarter of the year and cases of intentionally destroyed cars shot up 24 percent.
Interest Rates Will Rise Within The Year, Markets Bet
By 6.8.09
As growing global economic optimism begins to build, the market is betting that the Fed will raise interest rates by the end of this year. This will mean mortgages will get more costly and credit card APRs will rise, but the interest you make off your savings account will go up. [Bloomberg] (Photo: Ben Popken)
Give Yourself A Financial Stress Test
By 6.5.09
Why let banks have all the fun? Run the numbers on your own personal finances, suggests a certified financial planner in the Dallas Morning News, and see whether or not you’re prepared for disruptions like a layoff or sudden interest rate increase.
