How to Properly Dispose of Mail, Credit Cards, and Other Sensitive Documents
.How to Properly Dispose of Mail, Credit Cards, and Other Sensitive Documents
Martha Stewart Living Roxanna Coldiron July 3, 2020
Those who have never experienced some form of identity theft are lucky. According to the Federal Trade Commission, there were 444,602 reports of identity-related fraud in 2018. Identity theft was also up by 24 percent that year. Cybercrime is certainly on the rise, but did you know that thieves can get your data in a much easier way than trying to hack some company's database?
All they need is access to your old mail, credit cards, and debit cards. "Bank statements, credit card statements and other documents that contain your personal information should never be disposed of in an insecure manner," says Debbie Guild, chief security officer at PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.
"By wadding up a document such as a financial statement and throwing it in the trash or disposing of it in another insecure manner, you could be at risk for identity theft."
Should I Tell My Partner About My Dirty Debt Secret?
.Should I Tell My Partner About My Dirty Debt Secret?
NERDWALLET By Brianna McGurran
If you're worried about hiding debt from a spouse or partner, you're not alone. Here's how to come clean.
“I’m overwhelmed by student loan and credit card debt, and I’m embarrassed to admit it to my partner. Should I come clean?”
Some secrets are harmless, like eating the last slice of your partner’s favorite cake. Or saying you’re sick to avoid his aunt’s retirement party.
Hiding thousands of dollars in debt does not fall into the “harmless” category. While having debt is just one piece of your identity, it could directly affect your partner also: Maybe you’re unable to contribute to joint savings or keep up with your share of the bills, or you’ll have a harder time qualifying for a mortgage as a couple.
Can We Print Infinite Money to Pause the Economy During the Coronavirus Pandemic?
.Can We Print Infinite Money to Pause the Economy During the Coronavirus Pandemic?
By Matthew Gault
The Fed prints money. What happens if we printed enough money to make sure everyone keeps their job?
More than 16 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits in the past four weeks. Economists estimate that the jobless rate in the U.S. is around 13 percent, the worst it’s been since the Great Depression. To stave off economic collapse, the Federal Reserve has turned on the money printing machine. It’s going brrrr.
With all these people out of work, businesses closed, and economic activity stagnating, some experts have suggested we can put the economy on “pause” by, essentially, printing infinite money, and giving it to businesses and people to keep things more or less the way they were before the coronavirus pandemic hit.
Checks are on the way to Americans, but that’s cold comfort for people with bills to pay now and who have no idea when, if ever, they’ll get back to work. To get through the crisis, can the Fed just print unlimited money? What are the consequences of just giving everyone enough cash to survive the next few months?
How Money Forever Changed Us
.How Money Forever Changed Us
June 24, 2020 by Lawrence Yeo
During my six years of elementary school, many fads came and went. But there was one fad I remember that not only took our school by storm, but schools all across the country as well. It grew so feverish that after a few months, schools had to actually ban this activity because too many students were getting obsessed with it. If you were an ‘80s or ‘90s kid, chances are you’ll remember it too. I’m referring to the infamous world of pogs:
It’s interesting how money is accepted as an inevitable force in our lives, yet when we take out the concept and wrap it in unfamiliar packaging, it seems weird and dumb.
To the school staff, the whole pogs phenomenon probably seemed silly because they couldn’t understand what could be so compelling about flipping over paper and metal discs. But they wouldn’t think twice at the thought of coming into an office everyday, flipping over documents, and depositing a bi-weekly paper check in a metal machine.
In essence, the kids were doing the same thing the adults were doing: they were accumulating value in the form of a communal good. But because it took the form of something unrecognizable, it was considered dumb rather than profound. In the eyes of the adults, pogs were shittily constructed paper discs that had no intrinsic value, and only held importance because the kids themselves thought they were.
Well, those kids could say the same thing about the way we regard our own currency as well.
Under This New Law, Cryptocurrency Could Become Illegal
.Under This New Law, Cryptocurrency Could Become Illegal
Notes From The Field By Simon Black June 29, 2020 Bahia Beach, Puerto Rico
In early 1775, Benjamin Franklin and his European colleague, Charles Dumas, developed a secret method of communicating with each other.
Dumas had spent years gathering intelligence in Europe to assist the Americans in their revolt against Britain. But the two needed a secure way to pass information across the Atlantic.
So they developed a special cipher-- a crude form of encryption where letters and words were substituted for numerals.
The decryption key changed with every letter; so, for example, in a letter from Franklin dated March 2, 1781, the word “MERCHANT” was written as “23. 3. 4. 13. 6. 14. 24. 18.”
The Marginal Utility Of Money
.The Marginal Utility Of Money
By Mike Piper Published: 16 June 2010 – Updated: 29 May 2019
I know I'm taking a risk by starting an article by defining a term from economics. But please, stick with me. It's not a hard concept to understand, and it directly relates to your financial success.
Utility is a term used in economics to describe how much value or happiness one derives from a good or service. Marginal utility refers to how much additional value/happiness is derived from one additional unit of the good or service. Most goods and services are said to have “decreasing marginal utility.”
“Decreasing marginal utility” sounds like gibberish, but it's actually pretty easy to understand:
You Don’t Have a Savings Account You Have a Dwindling Account
.You Don’t Have a Savings Account You Have a Dwindling Account
Notes From The Field By Simon Black June 25, 2020 Bahia Beach, Puerto Rico
On April 5, 1933 everyone’s favorite fascist, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, signed an executive order which outlawed the private ownership of gold. To justify the seizure, FDR used wartime authorities under the “Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917”. The law was never repealed after World War One, so Roosevelt used it to declare a national banking emergency.
Roosevelt’s order demanded that all Americans must surrender their gold to a Federal Reserve Bank by May 1, 1933, less than a month after he signed the executive order. Gold was a popular form of savings at the time; US dollars were convertible to gold, and many Americans, from wealthy business owners to rural farmers, owned gold as a form of savings.
What If?
.What If?
Richard Quinn June 10, 2020
IT SEEMS THE WORST of this economic crisis may have passed, though the health risks will be with us for some time. What have we learned? For many people, long-discussed financial risks became all too real in 2020.
There are two words that should always be part of our thinking: what if. Those two words aren’t always associated with bad things. What if I win the lottery? I have a plan for that, which varies depending on how much I win and whether it triggers estate taxes. The chance of that plan being needed is, of course, nil.
Most “what ifs” relate to family, money and our future security. Could anything—short of a world war—have done more than today’s pandemic to heighten those concerns? And yet I suspect the current crisis will soon be a dull memory and most Americans will be back to their old financial ways. But for those who want to be prepared for the next crisis, here are eight “what ifs” to ponder:
The 50 Biggest Money Mistakes Household CEOs Make
.The 50 Biggest Money Mistakes Household CEOs Make
By Len Penzo
As this penny illustrates, even the United States Mint occasionally makes money mistakes.
I’m not ashamed to admit I make mistakes. After all, everybody screws up occasionally; for us humans, mistakes come with the territory.
For example, I remember the time I decided it would be great fun to play Wii golf for eight consecutive hours. Unfortunately for me, my middle-aged left shoulder vehemently disagreed — after the fact, of course — and so I spent the next week popping acetaminophen tablets like they were M&Ms. I know.
It can be even more costly when we make mistakes managing our personal finances; I know I still make them from time to time.
Here are 50 of the biggest financial faux pas household CEOs make. How many of these apply to you?
38 Secrets for Financial Success: My Personal Finance Manifesto
.38 Secrets for Financial Success: My Personal Finance Manifesto
By Len Penzo
Awhile back, somebody asked me to summarize my personal finance “playbook” in a blog post. Well … Here it is:
Debt is a form of indentured servitude where people agree to sacrifice a portion of their future earnings in exchange for instant gratification.
ATM machines are the Achilles’ heel of impulsive spenders.
History tells us that all fiat money eventually returns to its intrinsic value: zero. The US dollar is fiat money.
Given a choice, it’s always better to live your life anonymously rich, rather than deceptively poor.
If you have to ask your boss for a raise, then you need to find a new employer.
When in doubt, always choose credit over debit.
It’s almost impossible to effectively manage your personal finances if you don’t track your income and outgo.
What to Do When Money Causes Friend Drama
.What to Do When Money Causes Friend Drama
By Rachel Miller; illustrated by Daniel Zender Jan 15 2020,
When a pal keeps suggesting restaurants you can't afford or making snide comments about your salary, it's time to say something.
Hard to Say is a column about delicate situations and difficult conversations, for people who wish they could hire a ghostwriter for all their texts.
Knowing you have to have a money conversation with someone is stressful. Even fairly straightforward situations can lead to endless procrastination followed by an hour of strategizing with a close friend before you finally text your roommate… “Hey, could I get the rent check from you later today?”
But the anxiety makes sense: a person’s finances can be deeply intertwined with their ego, identity, beliefs, and sense of self-worth. And because talking about money often means communicating a desire or a need, it can leave us feeling very vulnerable.