Personal Finance and Investing

It is no secret that there is an explosion of debt collection related to student loans and it is fairly common knowledge that student loan collectors have some greater powers than a typical collector has on a credit card debt or medical debt.

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The California High Speed Rail Authority has reason to be thankful this week as the U.S. Department of Transportation gave it another $900 million, keeping hopes alive for the state’s rail program. That means the feds have given the state a total of about $4.5 billion which, when matched with state bonds (which can only be sold when matched by other money) brings the authority’s total funds to $9 billion.

I have written any number of times that this project is simply doomed.  Eit

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Payday loan companies are often accused of being “legal loan sharks” with astronomical interest rates as high as 5,784.3% APR being cited*. However, the latest data from payday loans lender speedeloans.com has revealed that their customers pay an average of 1% interest a day on payday loans – less than the equivalent daily rate than some banks charge for an unauthorised overdraft.**

Gary Miller-Cheevers, CEO of speedeloans, comments: “While there are some unscrupulous payday loan lenders in the UK marketplace, it is important for people to note that not all companies are the same. Read more…

It seems like a basic thing, but I can see how easy it would be to think,

Oh, well, my wife doesnt need to know about this expense, Ill just put that on my old checking account from before we were married

For me this is a big deal.

As someone who struggled to hide investment losses for years from family and friends, Im trying to be as open as possible with my wife about our financial situation.

We use Mint.com and all of our accounts are linked to it (savings, lending club, etc).

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