The Latest Debt & Finance Blog

empty desks in front of chalkboard

Student Loan Debt Continues To Make News Over Summer

By Bill Fay | August 15, 2014

When the bell rings to start a new school year, college students, especially the 70 percent using loans to pay for expenses, need to catch up on a few news…

Cindy and Michael Hufnagel

California Couple Learns Financial Lessons the Hard Way

By Bill Fay | March 21, 2014

The phone rang at Michael Hufnagel’s desk nearly every day for three years. Hufnagel is an accountant for a production company in California and phone calls are part of doing…

ITT Tech building

CFPB Sues ITT for Allegedly Exploiting Students with Predatory Loans

By Bill Fay | February 28, 2014

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sent a jolt through the for-profit college industry this week when the federal agency sued ITT Educational Services Inc. for predatory lending practices, saying it…

Origami money heart

Avoiding the Financial Sting of Cupid’s Arrow on Valentine’s Day

By Bill Fay | February 14, 2014

For most men, the goal of Valentine’s Day has not changed since the holiday was more or less invented by the Romans a few thousand years ago. The Romans called…

Man figuring budget on a calculator

Now Frugal Man Needs a Budget as Retirement Approaches

By Bill Fay | February 3, 2014

I stumbled upon one of those online calculators the other day. It’s the one that shows you how well you’re budgeting money for retirement savings, and it returned some distressing…

Financial guru Tarra Jackson offers money advice

High Cost of Keeping up with the Joneses

By Bill Fay | January 23, 2014

There is a family that is famous all over America for maintaining the appearance of wealth for the benefit of others. You know them as the Joneses. They have the…

One hundred dollar bill on top of a credit card

Frugal Man’s New Year’s Resolution: Only Pay with Cash

By Bill Fay | January 8, 2014

I took $20 the other night to the only restaurant I eat at – the one that gives half off everything on Tuesdays – and felt confident I had more…

Senator Elizabeth Warren speaking

Politicians Scramble to Fix Broken Student Loan System as Write-Offs Soar

By Bill Fay | January 8, 2014

Americans are taking out more loans than ever to pay for college and defaulting on them in record numbers. Politicians, most notably U.S. senators Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Jack Reed, D-R.I.…

Gift card display at a store

Frugal Man: ‘Bah, Humbug!’ to Gift Cards at Christmas

By Bill Fay | December 23, 2013

Christmas, as you might imagine, is a tough holiday for people like me. The premise of the holiday is no longer about giving or even receiving. It’s about spending. We…

CashCall mortgage information

CFPB Files Lawsuit Against CashCall for Illegal Online Loan Servicing

By Bill Fay | December 19, 2013

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) sounded the alarm about online loan services, filing a lawsuit against CashCall Inc., for collecting exorbitant amounts of money the bureau says consumers didn’t…

Sources:

  1. Andriotis, A. (2014, August 7) Private College Loans Can Be Cheaper Than Federal Loans. Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/articles/private-college-loans-can-be-cheaper-than-federal-loans-1407430303
  2. Fry, R. (2014, May 14) Young Adults, Student Debt and Economic Well-Being. Retrieved from http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/05/14/young-adults-student-debt-and-economic-well-being/
  3. NA, (2014, July 29) MeasureOne Issues Second Private Student Loan Performance Report. Retrieved from http://www.measureone.com/measureone-issues-second-private-student-loan-performance-report