In a study conducted two years ago, researchers discovered that the working poor in America (that is, those whose household incomes total less than $13,000 per year) spend nine percent of their yearly income ($645) on lottery tickets.
That figure is startling.
A Better Way To Play
Most of us know on a rational level that playing the [...]

With the economy mired in a seemingly endless recession, millions of Americans have found themselves burdened by consumer debt. There are, however, some signs of recovery.
First, the good news. According to Federal Reserve figures reported by the Wall Street Journal, consumer revolving debt, which typically involves credit cards, dropped by almost $100 billion in the [...]

The question of whether or not to borrow money to make a purchase to a simple formula: borrow money to buy things that go up in value.
It’s no secret that Americans have a lot of consumer debt – that’s why so many of us are underwater on our mortgages and why record numbers have filed [...]

One symptom of the down economy is hitting people where they can feel it most: apparently, wage garnishment has increased significantly in recent months, and, according to a recent New York Times article, leaving some Americans even more strapped for cash than they already were.
What Is Wage Garnishment?
If you fall behind on your bills, your [...]

Even the most trusting among us understand that people who are trying to sell us something may not be completely honest. But it still seems like for every scam uncovered and prosecuted, several more are hatched and sprung on unsuspecting consumers.
Still, understanding why we tend to buy into scams may help us avoid them in [...]

The auction web site Swoopo.com may initially seem like a hotspot for amazing bargains – the front page includes products like laptops, digital cameras, and Windows 7 software. And the prices are astonishingly low: with a little more than four minutes left on the bidding clock, a MacBook Pro was going for less than a [...]

We all know that credit is tight right now, which means credit card issuers aren’t bombarding Americans with quite as many free offers for credit cards as they did in years past. Getting credit may be the first step in building credit, but that may not be a good enough reason for you to co-sign [...]