Over a few weeks earlier this year, the stock of a struggling gaming electronics company — GameStop — shot up from about $4 a share to almost $500. Quite a ride. Some thought it would go to $1,000 and borrowed money to buy more shares. Plenty of people wished they somehow had gotten in on […]
Commercials pushing products with scare tactics always make me skeptical. So a recent radio commercial for a monthly-fee service offering to protect homeowners from home title fraud got my attention. While other kinds of scams and frauds are all too common, no one seemed to be talking about home title fraud. So I decided to […]
A while ago, there was an article in The Wall Street Journal about something that had been becoming more common, more annoying and increasingly expensive — mandatory fees. After the coronavirus fades, chances are those fees will be back. The article, “A backlash brews against fees,” focused on what may be about the most hated […]
“Caveat emptor” is Latin for “Let the buyer beware.” Which means buyers needed to beware thousands of years ago and buyers still need to beware today, especially when shopping online. Because some things online are changing … for the worse. One example: It is now abundantly clear that online reviews have been corrupted to such […]
The other day, the owner of a local business came in to work and discovered he had apparently been laid off. It came as something of a surprise, since he knew for sure he had not laid himself off. He had not laid anyone off in many years. But his human resources manager had an […]
A customer came in to talk to Canton Co-operative Bank Branch Manager April McKee. He had received an email that seemed a little off and wanted to get an objective second opinion from her. April was able to reassure this gentleman immediately. “Between the email itself and what he told me, the email just sounded […]
As a banker and someone who uses the internet a lot, I have become increasingly alarmed about the extreme lack of privacy people have online. The spotlight today is on Venmo. Venmo is convenient. It’s easy. It’s time-saving and popular. There’s a lot I like about it, but Venmo’s “public by default” settings mean that […]
In How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, Dilbert creator Scott Adams makes the case for a list of skills he believes all adults need a “working knowledge” of in order to live a successful life. By success, Adams says he is talking about an overall happiness — something, he writes, “good […]
Though the coronavirus is very much still with us, as the months go by and many things are starting to feel more normal again, some people are looking around and asking, “What now?” While no one saw the coronavirus coming just the way it did, looking for ways it might be possible to benefit in […]
News reports are covering stories about lenders and landlords offering forbearance to homeowners and tenants who can’t pay their mortgage or rent because of the pandemic. Some people are starting to wonder whether they can hold off on paying their mortgage or rent too. It’s a fair question. No one wants to miss out if […]
