It takes more than fierce faith to answer a call to religious service. You also have to be debt-free. It’s a logical requirement – you’ll struggle to make necessary loan payments if you’ve taken a vow of poverty – but it’s also emerged as a significant obstacle to people hoping to join religious orders. A 2011 Georgetown… Read More

Hitting big in Vegas, winning the lottery, inheriting a fortune and inventing the next billion-dollar idea can be paths to financial freedom. Unfortunately for most of us, our own path instead requires some smart decision-making, discipline, budgeting and real work. No matter the size of your paycheck, your financial moves can make a big impact… Read More

Today the Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and 15 states announced a slew of lawsuits against companies and individuals for allegedly misleading homeowners and illegally charging them for foreclosure relief that never came. The lawsuits are result of “Operation Mortgage Mismodification,” a joint investigation effort that revealed scams that cost consumers millions of… Read More

Applying for a mortgage? Do your fees and rates appear to be a little higher than what you see advertised? If yes, there could be several key factors driving up the cost of your mortgage that you may not know about. These additional mortgage-pricing factors can make your mortgage cost more. Don’t be fooled by… Read More

Identity theft is far more common than you may think. In fact, 16.6 million people experienced identity theft in 2012, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. That means 7% of people over the age of 16 have experienced identity theft. Protecting yourself from this crime is a serious matter and there’s no shame in being obsessive about… Read More

A change to the federal student loan program this month presents a huge opportunity to borrowers who have defaulted on their loans from the government. Loan rehabilitation allows borrowers to return to current repayment status, access the benefits offered to borrowers in good standing and have the default removed from their credit history. With changes… Read More

Credit card security has been in the news a lot lately, with high-profile data breaches at several major retailers. To be clear, there is nothing that credit card users could have done to prevent the loss of their credit card data after they used it to make a purchase. Nevertheless, there are several steps that… Read More

At first I was annoyed when I moved into a new apartment and was told I couldn’t set up the Internet myself. Moving comes with a very long to-do list, and I’m happy I could take care of most of the items in a matter of minutes, like starting utilities and changing my address. As… Read More

The excitement of innovation tends to overshadow the plight of its victims, but for people whose jobs are becoming obsolete, technological advances can be a little terrifying. Many jobs that existed centuries or just decades ago seem like quaint pieces of history, but inventions like automated machinery, modern refrigeration and mouse traps also represent the… Read More

Goodwill Industries International is investigating a series of apparent data breaches at its stores across the country, KrebsOnSecurity reports. If confirmed, it would be the latest in a slew of credit-card data breaches at major U.S. companies in the last several months, including P.F. Chang’s, Michaels, Sally Beauty Supply, Neiman Marcus and Target. What We… Read More