Category Archives: Debt Relief
How to Pinch Pennies When Pennies Are No Longer a Thing
There was a day in the recent past when the United States Mint minted its last penny. While you are more likely to find people who know that date in Philadelphia than you are elsewhere, the disappearance of the humble copper penny from daily life has been a gradual process. The days of penny… Read More »
What Good Is Affordable Housing If No One Can Afford It?
Everyone is broke these days, and being broke is always painful, no matter the specifics, but being rent-burdened is a special kind of pain. When you apply to rent an apartment, the property management decides that they can trust you to pay rent on time if your monthly income is at least three-and-a-half times… Read More »
Car Ownership Is Painfully Expensive, Even When Car Dealers and Mechanics Are Honest
If you can remember when a car payment on a five-year loan was affordable, you are officially old. Today, five-year auto loans are for people who are so rich that they can afford home mortgages with a repayment term of twenty years or less. Seven-year loans are the new normal, and even many of… Read More »
Hope for Pennsylvania Residents Struggling to Pay for Air Conditioning
The summer has gone on long enough that we are tired of the heat, but not yet long enough that we are ready to start counting the days before school starts. We have another month before school buses become a common sight, and even longer before we can comfortably sleep without air conditioning. It… Read More »
Emergency Coping Strategies When You Can’t Pay Your Bills
You tried everything to stretch your budget as far as it would go. You clipped coupons and charged your grocery purchases on buy now pay later (BNPL). The last time you spent money on entertainment was years ago; your idea of fun is watching free YouTube videos, ads and all, at the public library…. Read More »
Death by a Thousand Unfulfilled Zelle Promises
The fact that young people are far less materialistic than their parents were at their age must be something to celebrate. Owning a house in the suburbs and two cars was once an attainable goal, but if we are being honest, it always left the people who achieved it just as lonely as they… Read More »
War Is Bad for Your Wallet
If you are of the generation that has the attention span for such things, you can watch the talking heads on the news debate about whether what is going on between the United States and Iran in 2026 qualifies as a war. There are even some corners of Philadelphia to which the Washington, D.C…. Read More »
Don’t Lose Your Passport Over Unpaid Debt
Traveling internationally with your children is a dream for many families. Even if you can only afford to take them on one international trip during their childhood, it creates a lifetime of memories; they might text you about these memories later, while doing a study abroad semester in college, for example. Preparing for the… Read More »
Can Simple Interest Mortgages Save You Money on Interest?
When you hear the phrase “simple interest” in the context of something that you must repay, it is natural to think that you are getting the best of all possible worlds. You remember learning about simple interest and compound interest in school. With simple interest, you only pay interest on the amount you originally… Read More »
Should You Let ChatGPT Access Your Bank Account?
We have all heard the horror stories about people who trusted chatbots with their deepest secrets, and the chatbots’ responses had devastating consequences for the emotions, physical health, or financial situation of the humans who confided in the chatbots. This is because, while chatbots can produce natural sounding language, and sometimes even speak in… Read More »
