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

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

Here’s something you won’t hear often – or ever: “Student loans are a privilege.” (I Googled it: Six results.) Considering loans make it possible for millions of people to get a college education, they’re something to be thankful for. Yes, college can be ridiculously expensive, loans often don’t cover all the costs and unaffordable debt is a… Read More

There’s a new bill in the Senate aimed at making student loan payments more affordable. Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) introduced the Dynamic Student Loan Repayment Act on July 16, which proposes an automatic income-based adjustment to monthly payments for loans exceeding $10,000. The effort follows last month’s unsuccessful attempt by… Read More

In America, we believe that everyone deserves a second chance. If you’ve seen your credit suffer due to bankruptcy, joblessness, medical bills or just a pattern of poor decisions, there is always a way for you to re-establish your credit. The problem is that you must obtain credit in order to build it, but it… Read More

In the modern economy, the responsibility for retirement largely falls to the individual. Being educated about this process can mean the difference between spending your retirement in vacation mode and working an additional decade. To secure the future you want, it’s important to plan. The earlier you start figuring it out (and saving!), the better…. Read More

Paul and Joan Ostroff went into debt trying to give their son, Andrew, a shot at getting past a learning disability so that he might be able to go to college. Joan, a preschool and elementary teacher, knew something wasn’t right and that their son had some learning delays. She had the public school evaluate… Read More

Amid reports of looters raiding the crash site of the downed Malaysia Airlines flight in eastern Ukraine, the Dutch Banking Association announced it is taking steps to prevent misuse of the passengers’ credit and debit cards. Of the 298 people who died in the crash, 193 were Dutch. The site of the crash has apparently… Read More

At the start of the foreclosure crisis, struggling consumers got into the trend of trashing their houses. People poured paint on the carpet, let their animals defecate indoors and punched holes in the walls as a sort of retaliation for the banks taking their homes away. In Fort Worth, Texas, a recently evicted business left… Read More