Author Archives: Jay Butchko
Reverse Mortgage Caveats
Anyone who tells you that your finances are simpler after you retire is only telling you part of the story. It is true that you no longer have to spend money on commuting to work or dry cleaning your work clothes, and if you were lucky enough to qualify for a mortgage in your… Read More »
Cute Debt Is Not as Cute as You Think It Is
Did you ever notice how many movies are based on the premise of something cute turning hideous and scary once you spend enough time with it? Those little creatures in Gremlins are adorable until you feed them after midnight. Chucky in the Child’s Play movies is a literal doll. The man-eating plant in Little… Read More »
Are Zero Down Payment Mortgages Too Good to Be True?
If not for low down payment mortgages, most people would never be able to afford to buy a house or condominium unit. Conventional mortgage loans require you to place a down payment of 20 percent of the purchase price of the house; given the prices of real estate today, it is almost impossible to… Read More »
Can Artificial Intelligence Help You Get Out of Debt?
The lucky few human journalists who are still employed are abuzz with ideas for articles about all the ways that generative artificial intelligence can wreck your finances. It can help you cheat your way through college, so that when you graduate and interview for jobs, you have no idea what you’re talking about, and… Read More »
Home Improvement Fraud Charges for Plymouth Township Couple Accused of Swindling Clients
How financially feasible it is to monetize your hobby depends on what your hobby is. Most of the time, you stop deriving enjoyment from your hobby turned business long before your enterprise turns financially profitable. Just ask the poor soul who had so much fun dressing up her dog in cute outfits and taking… Read More »
Paying Your Bills on Time and Still Getting Nowhere
A major part of the reason that your financial situation is not worse than it is gratitude. You are grateful to be employed and to have gigs available, so you work tirelessly at them. You are grateful to be married and to live within walking distance from the supermarket, so you and your spouse… Read More »
The Positive Vibes Only Credit Report?
Journalists, many of them getting paid on a freelance basis, have spilled vast amounts of ink about how much money it costs to be poor. The fact that your credit report only seems to taunt you about your unfortunate financial circumstances, while the rich effortlessly pay down the debts that creditors were happy to… Read More »
Is Improving Your Credit Score As Simple As Asking for a Credit Limit Increase?
Improving your credit score is not as simple as paying your bills on time. People who have consistently been employed since they reached adulthood and have never borrowed money typically do not have enough of a credit history to get an unsecured loan or unsecured credit card; if they can get one at all,… Read More »
Avalanche, Snowball, Desperate Measures, or Intervention?
It is difficult to pay off your debt when the bills keep coming at you faster than you can make payments on them, especially when you live paycheck to paycheck. It is even worse when you rely on the gig economy as your main source of income, and you never know how much you… Read More »
Debt Relief for Aspiring Retirees
Once you reach a certain age, people try to cheer you up about aging. You are only as old as you feel. 50 is the new 40. Life gets better as you get older. The truth is, though, that getting old these days is a different experience from what our parents lived through. The… Read More »
