A lot of people never balance their checking accounts. They have various reasons that mostly all boil down to the fact that they think it’s a chore that’s okay to ignore. Online banking has made it easier to feel that way. People will say they keep an eye on their account online and that’s fine […]
Writing in The Wall Street Journal’s Wealth Management Report, retired senior editor Carol Hymowitz said there is “no single road map or retirement plan” these days. She seemed to wish there was. Was there ever a “single” tried-and-true retirement road map? It may have seemed that way. “Retirement age” used to be 65. Today 65 […]
In Martin Scorsese’s American Masters documentary about Bob Dylan, Dylan recalls how as a boy he and his classmates had to practice getting under their desks in case of a nuclear attack. According to Dylan, “Our reality was fear that at any moment this black cloud would explode and everybody would be dead. We grew […]
One of the biggest misconceptions about banks involves bank insurance. Specifically, many people believe that the FDIC and SIF insurance they hear so much about covers them for various kinds of losses, sort of like an insurer of last resort. And if the bank insurance won’t cover them, surely the bank will, right? It reminds […]
Clickbait is one of the biggest nuisances on the internet, but the concept existed long before computers. People have been using words to affect other people’s behavior since Day 1. It’s always been up to the individual to be skeptical and doubting, especially when “controversial” ideas are being presented as established truth. A story in […]
A local news network’s website recently recounted an unfortunate story about something that absolutely did not have to end up the way it did. Recently a woman in metro Boston discovered that her longtime housekeeper was embezzling. Specifically, her housekeeper had been forging checks against a checking account that this woman and her husband had […]
The other day, a colleague told me about what seemed to be a public service announcement (PSA) on the radio. It was addressed to young people. Apparently, a young man had received a request for a Venmo payment from someone he knew. Venmo — a mobile payment service owned by PayPal — describes itself as […]
Personal finance expert Suze Orman often speaks about the importance of “expecting the unexpected,” and she’s right. Of course, sometimes people face disasters no one could have seen coming or planned for. But things such as higher property tax bills, “emergency” dental surgery, significant veterinarian bills for pet operations, and car repairs are among the […]
Right now, Experian and FICO are offering what they call “credit score boosting” programs, Experian Boost and UltraFICO. Both are free and supposedly could help an individual increase their credit score by about 10 to 40 points. There are reports all over the internet that might lead you to believe that the credit score boosts […]
It’s called phone spoofing. It’s rampant. It’s all too easy to fall for. And basically it means that to protect yourself, you cannot believe what you see on your Caller ID. Ever. A customer came into the bank to speak with me. His mother-in-law had recently passed away and he was the executor of her […]
