Anyone graduating from high school in 2020 has had a unique opportunity to see firsthand and very young how life actually works. In life, there are many things to look forward to. There are also many things that no one looks forward to — losses of all kinds, including for many of this year’s graduates […]
Over the course of the past several weeks, the entire world has been through what will almost certainly be an indelible experience of dealing with sudden, drastic, unwanted change. Even many people who had the time, opportunity and determination to prepare for such a scenario found themselves shocked and shaken by the reality of it, […]
It’s all too easy to lose track of the reality that gift cards are cash equivalents. A skeptical consumer might wonder if the companies like it that way. After all, every gift card that’s not fully redeemed is “free money” for them. Gift cards that aren’t redeemed at all are obviously even better. State governments […]
A personal finance blogger recently wrote a post encouraging his readers to beware of financial “experts” offering “contrarian advice.” His point was that there are a lot of people out there trying to make a name for themselves — and, hopefully, get rich — by becoming financial gurus. The catch is that practical advice isn’t […]
A lot of people never balance their checking accounts. They have various reasons that mostly all boil down to the fact that they think it’s a chore that’s okay to ignore. Online banking has made it easier to feel that way. People will say they keep an eye on their account online and that’s fine […]
Writing in The Wall Street Journal’s Wealth Management Report, retired senior editor Carol Hymowitz said there is “no single road map or retirement plan” these days. She seemed to wish there was. Was there ever a “single” tried-and-true retirement road map? It may have seemed that way. “Retirement age” used to be 65. Today 65 […]
In Martin Scorsese’s American Masters documentary about Bob Dylan, Dylan recalls how as a boy he and his classmates had to practice getting under their desks in case of a nuclear attack. According to Dylan, “Our reality was fear that at any moment this black cloud would explode and everybody would be dead. We grew […]
One of the biggest misconceptions about banks involves bank insurance. Specifically, many people believe that the FDIC and SIF insurance they hear so much about covers them for various kinds of losses, sort of like an insurer of last resort. And if the bank insurance won’t cover them, surely the bank will, right? It reminds […]
Clickbait is one of the biggest nuisances on the internet, but the concept existed long before computers. People have been using words to affect other people’s behavior since Day 1. It’s always been up to the individual to be skeptical and doubting, especially when “controversial” ideas are being presented as established truth. A story in […]
A local news network’s website recently recounted an unfortunate story about something that absolutely did not have to end up the way it did. Recently a woman in metro Boston discovered that her longtime housekeeper was embezzling. Specifically, her housekeeper had been forging checks against a checking account that this woman and her husband had […]
