Podcasts from the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau The goal of the podcast is to educate, inform, and engage students, parents, and practitioners with tools and resources created to help them make more informed financial decisions. This podcast will help listeners with tips and strategies to find their inner financial intuition, one money topic at…
Month: December 2020
Making New Year’s resolutions? Keep them small and achievable
Here are strategies to consider: Don’t rely on motivation “New Year’s is when many people feel motivated to make changes, including making saving for retirement a priority. But motivation can dissipate quickly, as anyone who has joined a gym in January and stopped going in February knows.“ Instead find ways to “shrink your goals…
Robinhood investing anyone?
Robinhood is an investing platform geared to millennials to make investing look so easy, fun, and sexy… The New York Times reports: “the company has also faced intense scrutiny for its practices.” “The app has become a favorite of young and inexperienced investors, enticed by no-fee trading, offers of free stocks and an engaging user…
Why I’m not a fan of gift cards
OK. It’s too late to reverse the flood of gift cards given in lieu of more sensible gifts for this Christmas. On Wednesday, December 23 Suzanne Kapner, writing for The Wall Street Journal, reported on the huge increase in gift card purchases this season. “Gift-card purchases in the first week of December were twice the…
Have you ever heard of "debt parking"?
It’s ‘Debt Parking’: When Fake Debts End Up on Your Credit Report “The F.T.C. recently took its first legal action to stop the fraud. Consumers may not know the debts are on their reports until they apply for a loan.” Thanks to The New York Times writer Ann Carrns for exposing this despicable practice by…
Get your free credit reports today
Due to the unemployment and financial stresses resulting from COVID-19 Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion provide free weekly online reports through April 2021. Go to https://www.annualcreditreport.com You will be asked for your name, address, birth date, and social security number. If you’ve lived at your current address for less than 2 years you will be asked…
Lawmakers with stock holdings vote in ways that juice their portfolios
“Amid calls for stricter regulation of congressional stock ownership, researchers find that financial self-interest outweighs party, ideology and other factors in policy decisions” according to Washington Post reporter Christopher IngrahamDecember 20, 2020. “A series of well-timed stock trades early in the pandemic brought Justice Department scrutiny on at least five U.S. senators this year over…