Student loan interest rates are going to go up. At least, that’s what the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau expects. With the intention of helping borrowers better calculate the costs of their educations, the CFPB Student Loan Ombudsman Rohit Chopra published an explanation of what to expect. The CFPB estimates interest rates for federal loans will… Read More

As part of your financial plan, it’s important to think about what would happen to your family if you were to die. Life insurance may be something you explore as a way to cover final expenses, replace your income or pay off debts. To determine if life insurance is right for you at this stage… Read More

There’s nothing wrong with looking for an easy solution to your problems — except for when your quick fix is a waste of time. You can find a lot of tips for improving your credit by searching the Internet, but they’re not all accurate, and some can actually hurt your credit score. Here are a… Read More

As airlines and hotels continue to decrease the value of the points and miles they offer through their co-branded credit cards, cash back remains the reward of choice for many cardholders. And credit card issuers understand their customers’ need for a simple program that offers the one reward that no one will likely ever have… Read More

Take a moment to consider how you would feel if your neighbors, friends and family knew all the details of your finances. Maybe you wouldn’t care — there are in fact people who go around bragging about their credit scores — but most people don’t talk about their money situation for at least a couple… Read More

Americans are becoming a bunch of tightwads. Despite economic improvements, consumers increasingly favor saving over spending, according to Gallup’s April 3-6 Economy and Personal Finance poll, and individuals’ preferences aren’t tied to whether they expressed financial concerns or confidence in the economy. It seems we’ve simply had a change of taste. That change didn’t come… Read More

Want a quarter-million-dollar house? You’d better have phenomenal credit. When you’re looking for a home loan, one of the top concerns is the interest rate, and the better your credit is, the lower that rate will likely be. But your credit score can have a lot more to do with your mortgage than loan approval… Read More

There are people out there who expend a lot of energy in the quest for a totally meaningless perfect credit score, which I’ve written about elsewhere. Most people know it’s important to have good credit, but they don’t want to spend too much time worrying about it. The good news is that you can be… Read More

I received an unexpected email from a friend today with a Google doc attachment. It was a friendly note, so friendly that I did consider clicking on it — even with about 20 years experience watching all manner of hacker tricks.  Fortunately, I stopped and asked a simple question, which is almost always enough to… Read More

Our society values hard work. At least, that’s often what we’re led to believe: From a young age, we’re told to study hard so we can get good grades, get a decent education and reap the benefits it comes with. We’re motivated by the belief that we’ll be rewarded for our efforts. Credit is the… Read More