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Tag Archives: Personal Finance

Treated Like a Criminal at Checkout? Don’t Put Up With It

By J B | Published: April 6, 2010

Credit card fraud is a serious issue, and retailers and credit card issuers have enacted a number of measures to help protect your identity and their bottom-lines. But the backlash of tighter security is that many common citizens are needlessly being treated like potential criminals. The ever-shifting rules for credit card security make it difficult [...]

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Honor and Ethics: Does America Need a “Lending Code?”

By J B | Published: November 3, 2009

Last night, my wife and I watched “A Night to Remember” on TCM. For those who haven’t seen it, this is a starkly different take on the Titanic than you may remember from the recent James Cameron version. There’s no epic Celine Dion anthems, no naked Kate Winslett and it’s about 60 minutes shorter, too. [...]

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What Your Credit Card Says about Your Personality Type

By J B | Published: October 14, 2009

Photo: szlea You may think that your vanity credit card with pictures of puppies or your alma mater’s mascot is what helps the cashier at the grocery store peg your personality, but in reality, the features and terms of your credit card are far more telling. Of course, no one but you and your issuer [...]

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Shopping for a New Credit Card? Consider Credit Unions

By J B | Published: October 14, 2009

Yesterday, we briefly discussed some of the recent drawbacks of debit cards, which elicited an interesting comment Dawn from Getting Nine Hundred: because she gets her card through a credit union, she doesn’t get the deception and the hassle (paraphrase). Dawn raises a very valid point, and one that bears deeper examination. At a time [...]

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Required Math for Credit Card Users

By J B | Published: October 14, 2009

Sometimes the best stumps for reform come from the mouths of jesters. Consider this bit from Maria Bamford: I really think that before giving me a credit card they really should have given me a math test. Like a series of story problems: Question Number One: If Maria works as a comedian for $100 a [...]

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Nickled and Dimed: The High Cost of Banking While Poor

By J B | Published: October 14, 2009

You load sixteen tons, and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. Saint Peter, don’t you call me, ’cause I can’t go; I owe my soul to the company store… That’s the chorus to an old coal mining song first recorded by Merle Travis in 1946. When he talks about the [...]

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Millionaire by 60: The Compounding Power of Index Funds

By J B | Published: October 14, 2009

So they’re saying it’s a buyer’s market but you, like most, are without a grocery list when it comes to stocks. Learn how to play it safe, relatively speaking, by focusing your attention and cash into one of the most consistent stock investments you can – index funds. (Oh, and make yourself rich in the [...]

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