Author Archives: Jay Butchko
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 »
Autopay Can Make Your Debt Problems Worse
Even before productivity advice became ubiquitous on the Internet, you could buy books at FedEx Office, which was then known as Kinko’s, about how to be more productive. The authors, who presumably wrote the books quickly, productive as they are, would advise you to automate the tasks that you could automate. These days, it… Read More »
Does Debt Relief Work?
Your debts keep getting bigger, even as your income stagnates. You are in a bad enough financial situation that the old adage about earning more and spending less is no longer helpful. You already spend all your free time working, and all your money goes to housing, utilities, groceries, gas, childcare, and debt payments…. Read More »
Is Depending on Your Parents Financially More Expensive Than Borrowing?
The cheap shots about how young adults are in debt because they blow their entire paycheck on avocado toast and almond milk lattes are so out of date that one rarely hears them anymore. First, the working adults who joyfully blew their first paycheck on an extravagant brunch with their friends are no longer… Read More »
More Than Half of Americans Cannot Afford Necessities
On paper, it looks like the economy is doing great, but your lived experience tells you otherwise. You are not the only person who is struggling financially, even though the social media influencers and multilevel marketers who stand to make money off of your loneliness and insecurity would like you to think that you… Read More »
Student Loan Collections Represent a New Nightmare for Social Security Beneficiaries
Americans of all ages are staring down a long future of financial insecurity, and we did not get here overnight. Student loan payments may not be the biggest financial burden in terms of dollars and cents, but they are a pain point because of the unrealized dream that borrowing money for college would lead… Read More »
Beware of Dealership Cloning
On Memorial Day weekend, car dealerships turn up the charm and roll back prices as much as their budgets will allow. These days, cars are so expensive that, even if you trade in your old car and use the proceeds for a down payment on the new one, you will probably have to finance… Read More »
