Tempted to spend lavishly and spontaneously this holiday season? Looking for someone to blame? Leave the three wise men out of it.Yes, they launched the tradition of bestowing expensive gifts at Christmastime, and more than 2,000 years later, we’re ...

Humans are creatures of habit, and a lot of us creatures are in debt.What habits got us there? How did we fall into a life of anxiety over credit card bills, paying off loans and avoiding calls from debt collectors?It was largely a matter of habit. ...

For most, a credit score is background noise in a busy life of more pleasant pursuits. Then we want to acquire something important and expensive — a house, a car, an engagement ring, even a debt-consolidation loan — and that credit score becomes the main ...

You don’t have to be a millionaire to know what achieving that financial ranking means.Being a millionaire means you have crossed a huge economic threshold. Doors open. Opportunities are offered. Rewards are granted. You aren’t invulnerable, but you ...

Paying credit card bills can feel like fighting a fire. You put out one flame and another pops up. Eventually, you just want to get away from the flames.A lot of people think the best way is by filing bankruptcy, mainly because they can escape without ...

For most Americans, going carless is unthinkable. You need one to buy groceries, take kids to school, visit a doctor’s office and see friends and family from time to time. Unless you have a very good friend willing to serve as your chauffeur, living without ...

A drowning person wants somebody to throw them a life preserver. People drowning in student debt might have just been thrown a bowling ball.The government’s new student loan watchdog is ill-suited for the job, critics say. That doesn’t mean you’re ...

When you graduate from college with a costly, new diploma, instinct tells you to latch on to the first decent job offer an employer throws your way, and then whittle down your student loan debt as best you can.But what about investing those first earned ...

With Donald Trump being credited or blamed for virtually every imaginable good or ill (depending on the observer, of course), we in the world of personal finance and debt management can’t help but wonder:What do regular folks make of the president’s ...

About 55 million Americans don’t have emergency savings, so it follows that when emergencies happen, they turn to payday loans.Approximately 12 million consumers use payday loans and typically pay $15 for every $100 borrowed. The annual percentage rate ...