Over on The Billfold, a writer named Paulette Perhach published an excellent short piece about what she’s termed “financial self-defense” or, more euphoniously, a “Fuck Off Fund.” That is: the money you may need at any given moment to get away from your job, partner, or life. You need one. We all need one.
I bet Tennessee Republican Sen. Bob Corker feels very bashful after accidentally failing to disclose millions of dollars earned since becoming a senator in 2007. Especially since he is a high-ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee! That is so embarrassing for him!
Everything is going great! will be my last words, just as they are for so many others—right before Satan’s pitchfork sails through the space between my back ribs, pierces my heart and lungs in one sanguine grab, and I am hauled away, bobbing like a chunk of sirloin on a kebab, down all the flights of stairs to hell,…
Frugality is good. Saving money is good. But unless you’re in a tough financial spot, making your friends and family uncomfortable by holding your personal budget over their heads is not good. The problem is, a lot of us have trouble avoiding this.
The other day, a friend told me that she and her husband had separated. I wasn't surprised; they've been pretty unhappily/indifferently married for more than a decade, but was sad for her nonetheless. When I asked what finally prompted the split, she listed off numerous small things (as it usually is, I find with…
Most teens with jobs spend their earnings on clothes, music, movies, and other fun stuff instead of saving it for rainy-day expenses or a college education.
Great idea alert! New York City mayoral candidate Christine Quinn would like to make education affordable to all, and thus wants to give upper middle class Manhattan parents the right to take out subsidized loans in order to pay for their children's pre-kindergarten & oh my god what even is this dumb country we live…
It is each generation's hope that the next will do better. But a new study claims that your financial status while growing up affects you for life — which explains why some people make impulsive purchases even when the economy is bad.
Reproducing is like super low rise fit-n-flare glitter jeans: so 10 years ago.
It's hard not to trust the business acumen of a Girl Scout. As a group, they're tiny, well-organized, well-dressed and run a once-a-year racket with their cookie pushing, which, at $3.50 a box is nothing to scoff at. Still, a recent survey conducted by the Girl Scouts of the USA found that 88% of girls (not just…
You! High-powered woman! When you consider your biggest fears, what gets top billing? Death? Small spaces? Losing everything except a whole bunch of bags and becoming a bag lady? According to a recent survey, the chances of you responding "Oh, god — the bag lady one. Definitely the bag lady one" are much higher than…
Isn't it bizarre that not particularly long ago a whole bunch of women just assumed they'd grow up to be housewives? Wives! Just in a house! Wifing around! ALL THE TIME. This isn't news, I know, it's just what women of a certain class did. For years and years and years and years and years and years, the expectation…
It's almost Halloween! Time to spend all the money we earned in October to get half-naked and binge on shitty candy. Seems reasonable, I'm into it. And so is half the United States, apparently. According to the Washington Examiner, Americans spend over $8 billion (BILLION) dollars a year on Halloween crapola. That's…
Everybody knows that raising a child is a more expensive way to live than, say, being childless—especially in a city. But just how costly is it? How much do you need to earn to do a decent job as a parent while still feeling like you have some financial breathing room? According to one woman, her $400k-a-year…
The first sentence in this recent Wall Street Journal piece sounds sad and irrational:
A survey by FINRA, the largest independent securities regulator in the US, has found that, overall, women pay higher interest rates on credit cards than men by .5%. The half a point may look small, but means that over the course of a lifetime, women could be paying as much as thousands of dollars more to borrow money…
Despite the fact that she and her ex-husband failed to make payments on a mortgage loan dating from 2007, Ike Lochte is determined not to rely on her son (or any of her other children) for financial assistance. A spokeswoman for the Steve and Ike Lochte — who filed for divorce in 2010 — explained that the Lochtes,…
The first part of a kid's life, it's all hands on deck. It's go-go gadget-every-part-of-your-entire-being, with round-the-clock obligations. You're sure you'll feel more relaxed once they can hold their head up, but now they just have a head that can thud onto tile floors. It'll be easier when they can crawl, you…
Given the national debate regarding birth control coverage, it's increasingly clear that many people have no idea how much it costs it to own a vagina — folks are getting up in arms about the idea that the pill could set uninsured women back about $1000 a year, but in the grand scheme of things, that's nothing. Do you…
In a story that's depressing for everyone involved, Good Morning America has learned that Whitney Houston was on the brink of financial ruin at the time of her passing with banks attempting to foreclose on two of her homes. Since her death, sales of her music have skyrocketed, amassing a multi-million dollar sum of…
