Broken promises are a theme that runs through the lives of many borrowers of federal student loan borrowers. Their college advisers told them that it would only take eight semesters to graduate, so that, between federal grants and part-time employment, they would only need to borrow a small amount, which they would be able to repay…

The best thing about filing for bankruptcy protection is that it discharges your eligible debts, but the worst thing about it is that you have to start rebuilding your creditworthiness from zero. Secured credit cards are a good place to start, but they have such low credit limits that, if you are living paycheck to…

Young people are understandably in a panic about the economy. No matter how hard they work, they cannot afford anything. A good month is when you can keep up with payments on your buy now pay later (BNPL) installments on last month’s groceries. Your friends would let you stay with them, but your friends’ landlord is strict about…

When you were younger and less wise, you started a business, but within five years, it went the way of most new businesses. Creditors came after you, but you could not keep up with the payments after your business venture folded, and you eventually filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. That was more than eight years ago, and…

You work all the time, but you are still in debt. Economists use the term “the working poor,” but you would never use that term to describe yourself. It sounds like something that supervillains say when peering down from their penthouse retreats at the working poor, trying to tilt their magnifying glasses at just the right…

Unless you are extraordinarily wealthy or extraordinarily disciplined about screen time, you probably keep track of every penny you earn and every penny you spend, but you have probably long since lost count of how much time you spend on the Internet. Your phone might send you an alert on Sunday mornings telling you your average amount of screen time for…

Much like homeownership, a comfortable retirement is looking more and more like an outdated aspect of the American Dream. Most people leave the workforce and start drawing Social Security, not because they have enough money saved to pay their expenses until their 100th birthday, but because they are no longer healthy enough to work, and many of them…

Qualifying for a home mortgage has never been easy; if you want to buy a house, you either need generational wealth or an extraordinary stroke of luck. Today, a disproportionate share of homebuyers have their parents contribute to the down payment, or else the mortgage loan principal would be so big that lenders would refuse to issue the loan.…

Hats off to Amsterdam. It had legalized recreational cannabis long before California did. Maybe it is time for California to borrow another page from the Netherlands’ playbook. Like Amsterdam, California already has bike-friendly streets and a climate that welcomes tourists year-round, and we probably don’t need our own equivalent of Amsterdam’s red-light district. What we do need is affordable housing, and renting…

“Winding up a business that has become insolvent is as easy as ABC,” said no one ever. Closing a business because it has caused too many financial losses for its shareholders is stressful and, somehow, at least as time-consuming as maintaining the operations of a business that is currently viable. Deciding to cut your losses…