Category: personal finance

Closing Prices for Crude Oil, Gold and Other Commodities (Nov. 15)

Benchmark U.S. crude oil for December delivery rose $1.05 to $86.92 a barrel Tuesday. Brent crude for January delivery rose 72 cents to $93.86 a barrel. Wholesale gasoline for December delivery fell 1 cent to $2.52 a gallon. December heating oil rose 10 cents to $3.64 a gallon. December natural gas rose 10 cents to…


Household Debt Sees Biggest Jump In 15 Years As Americans Rely More On Credit Amid Soaring Inflation

American households saw their debt jump the most in 15 years in the third quarter, due to a surge in credit card use and mortgage balances. Debt accumulated during that period shot up by $351 billion for the largest quarterly increase since 2007, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Nov. 15….


How to Stretch Your Dollar When There Is High Inflation

High inflation rates have hit almost everything this summer—and it does not look like they will come down anytime soon. Most people’s income has not kept pace with it, and it has become necessary for many people to try and make their dollar go further. CNBC reports that 63 percent of Americans are living paycheck…


The Fine Print: Deal With It!

Just recently, U.S. consumer debt (that’s everything except mortgages) hit $16 trillion. Of course, that fact is often buried in the fine print, where most of us don’t pay attention. Or, if we do, we have no idea what that means. So what is a trillion? It’s a million million, a thousand billion or 1,000,000,000,000….


Investing: Don’t Give up on Developing Markets

By James K. Glassman From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Most investors today worry about inflation and the response to it from the Federal Reserve, but it’s time for a longer view. If you’re buying stocks for gains over the next 10 years or more, you need to imagine the contours of the future. A July report…


Closing Prices for Crude Oil, Gold and Other Commodities (Nov. 14)

Benchmark U.S. crude oil for December delivery fell $3.09 to $85.87 a barrel Monday. Brent crude for January delivery fell $2.85 to $93.14 a barrel. Wholesale gasoline for December delivery fell 8 cents to $2.53 a gallon. December heating oil fell 2 cents to $3.54 a gallon. December natural gas rose 5 cents to $5.93…


Falling Meteorite FTX Scorches Crypto Landscape

After several months of calm in the crypto industry, characterized by a role reversal in which equities were highly volatile and cryptocurrencies flat and boring, a familiar if tragic drama reminiscent of Icarus is now playing out. This week saw the dramatic failure of FTX, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, and the ignoble…


10 Things to Do If You Are Laid Off

Whether or not you expect it, a layoff is traumatizing. Through no fault of your own, one minute you’re employed—and the next minute you’re signing up for unemployment. Besides the emotional devastation, there’s the financial hit you’re about to take. How do you deal with a layoff? Here are 10 things you can do to…


The 80% Solution

Provided that your basic life needs for shelter, food and clothing are being met, more money is not going to make you happier. I know, that’s hard to believe, but it’s a proven fact. What will make you happier is learning how to manage well the money you have already. Today, I want to give…


Good Reasons to Resist BNPL

By Emma Patch From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Propelled by inflation and the pandemic-driven convenience of online shopping, Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services have become as commonplace as hand sanitizer in a shop entryway. Since 2018, the number of BNPL users in the United States has grown by more than 300 percent per year, according…