Latest News About Personal Finance
U.S. banks were robbed more than 4,000 times last year, according to the FBI. If you witness a robbery, security experts say, your first priority should be to avoid making a bad situation worse. Margarette Burnette of NerdWallet summarized some tips from the experts to keep yourself safe. Here are 5 steps to take if you’re in a bank robbery:
Natalie Pompilio reported for AP: “Philadelphia became the first major American city with a soda tax on Thursday despite a multimillion-dollar campaign by the beverage industry to block it. The City Council gave final approval to a 1.5 cent-per-ounce tax on sugary and diet beverages. The tax is set to take effect Jan. 1. Only Berkeley, California, has a similar law. Soda tax proposals have failed in more than 30 cities and states in recent years, including twice in Philadelphia. Such plans are typically criticized as disproportionately affecting the poor, who are more likely to consume sugary drinks.”
According to the experiments published in the journal Social Influence, people who shop at — or even stand near — luxury stores are significantly less likely than others to help those in need. Catey Hill writes on MarketWatch: “The researchers concluded that shopping in or being near a luxury store likely primed people with ‘environmental cues of materialism,’ which then ‘increased self-enhancement and competitive values’ which, in turn, decreased ‘trusting and benevolent behavior and a sense of being concerned about and connected to other people,’ the authors write. In other words, the luxury stores made people feel more materialistic and self-centered, which meant they were less likely to help other people.” (marketwatch.com)
With cashless payments gaining popularity, cash was used in Britain for fewer than half of all payments by consumers for the first time in 2015. Cash made up 45.1% of payments in 2015, compared with 64% in 2005, and is expected to fall to just a quarter by 2025. As cash will be replaced with payments by contactless cards, consumers need to cautions about spending. Research from Drazen Prelec and Duncan Simester of the Sloan School of Management at MIT shows that consumers spend more money when using a credit cards rather than cash. (theguardian.com)
Hal Hershfield, University of California, Los Angeles and Abigail Sussman, University of Chicago writes:
The first few months of a new year can be a stressful time financially. The Christmas holidays typically lead to depleted savings and higher credit card balances, while tax season is right around the corner. Unfortunately for most us, this isn’t a seasonal dilemma but a chronic problem that brings anxiety throughout the year. Indeed, as many as 44 percent of American households don’t have enough savings to cover basic expenses for even three months. Without a savings cushion, even regular seasonal expenses like holiday celebrations may end up feeling “unexpected” and lead households to turn to credit to cover costs. U.S. consumers currently hold US$880 billion in revolving debt, with an average credit card balance of almost $6,000. The picture is even more dire for lower-income households. So how can we turn this around? [Read more…]
Due to the state’s decision to gradually raise its minimum wage to $15, more companies are looking into automation to reduce cost. To deal with the rising minimum wage, the fast-food chain Wendy’s plans to start automating all of its restaurants. The company said that self-service ordering kiosks will be made available across its 6,000-plus restaurants in the second half of the year. Wendy’s President Todd Penegor said it will be up to franchisees to decide whether or not to adopt the kiosks in their stores. The minimum wage for all 258 Wendy’s restaurants in California will gradually rise to $15 and automation and eliminating certain jobs are the solution for cost reduction. In the meanwhile McDonald’s also tests its own self-service kiosks. (investors.com)
After deciding it doesn’t want to promote predatory lending practices that are harmful to consumers, Google decided to ban ads for payday loans on their ads systems. “Research has shown that these loans can result in unaffordable payment and high default rates for users so we will be updating our policies globally to reflect that,” Google’s product policy director, David Graff, writes in a blog post. Payday loans often come with extremely high interest rates if they aren’t paid back immediately, which can push people further in debt. Georgetown’s Center on Privacy and Technology notes in a statement, “Payday lenders profit from people’s weaknesses — particularly poor people and people of color. Every time someone clicks on those ads, search engines profit, too.” Of course Google will lose the revenue from the banned ads, but it will earn more trust from visitors for its other ads. Payday loans will be banned from Google globally starting June 13th.
Marco della Cava on USA Today reported: “Hyperloop One successfully demonstrated Wednesday one key part of how it plans to send people and cargo racing through cushioned tubes at nearly the speed of sound. This transportation alternative, its backers claim, could reduce the journey between Los Angeles and San Francisco to just 30 minutes.” Hyperloop One cofounder and chief technology officer Brogan BamBrogan said, “this is about validating the hardware and software. We’re aiming to hit 400 mph in two seconds.” BamBrogan noted that humans in a hyperloop pod wouldn’t feel the acceleration as it would happen more gradually, eventually hitting close to 750 mph. In the near future, people can save time and money when travel between large metro area such as Los Angeles and San Francisco. (usatoday.com)
The one thing rich parents do for their kids that makes all the difference is that “they can buy their children pricey homes in nice neighborhoods with good school districts,” said Emily Badger on The Washington Post. “Wealthy parents are famously pouring more and more into their children, widening the gap in who has access to piano lessons and math tutors and French language camp. The biggest investment the rich can make in their kids, though — one with equally profound consequences for the poor — has less to do with enrichment than real estate.” Ann Owens, a sociologist at the University of Southern California, explained: “Forty to fifty years of social-science research tells us what an important context neighborhoods are, so buying a neighborhood is probably one of the most important things you can do for your kid. There’s mixed evidence on whether buying all this other stuff matters, too. But buying a neighborhood basically provides huge advantages.” (washingtonpost.com)
According to a report from Market Force Information, Wegmans tops the list as shoppers’ favorite grocery store. Publix Super Markets and Trader Joe’s came in second and third place. The three best grocery chains in the U.S. are all privately-owned companies. The survey was done online with more than 10,000 respondents in February 2016. Trader Joe’s ranked first for cashier courtesy while Wegmans and Publix ranked highest in cleanliness, product selection and specialty department service. Wal-Mart which is the largest grocer in the U.S., ranked last out of the 15 grocers on the list. (cnn.com)
A Houston eighth-grader, Danesiah Neal, was detained and threatened with a felony when she tried to buy some chicken nuggets with a 2 Dollar Bill for school lunch at Christa McAuliffe Middle School. This is just insane! The school officials confiscated the bill and said it was fake. “I went to the lunch line, and they said my $2 bill was fake,” Danesiah told a local ABC News. “They gave it to the police. Then they sent me to the police office. A police officer said I could be in big trouble.” The school officials contacted Danesiah’s grandmother, Sharon Joseph, who gave the bill to the student to ask for confirmation. Then an investigation into the $2 bill led Fort Bend police to the bank to examine. After the bank determined that the bill is real, the issue finally got resolved. What a nightmare for a little girl to be threaten with a felony forgery, which can carry up to a 10-year prison sentence and remains on a student’s criminal record for life, ABC said. (washingtontimes.com)
Class warfare has turned into a political struggle between the 1% and the 99%. Now there’s more evidence that air rage is largely based on seat class, according to a study by Katy DeCelles who teaches organizational behaviour at the University of Toronto. “Something like that makes you very aware of the fact that you are not being treated as special as someone else.” The paper concludes that inequality between seat classes is the largest single contributor to air rage. The effect intensifies, DeCelles suggests, when the travellers file past the high rollers during boarding. Airborne inequality also makes the rich behave worse. “It’s a very strong effect,” said DeCelles. Base on the database involved more than one million flights, DeCelles and her co-author compared flights that had separate first and economy classes with those that didn’t. The strongest predictor of air rage, by far, was class divide. (ctvnews.ca)
Beware of the subscription-fueled future of online shopping, a business model that attracted a billion-dollar bet from venture capital investors. Bloomberg reported about this future of shopping that traps you in a club you didn’t know you join. Hailee Taylor purchased a lingerie item from an e-commerce website called Adore Me for $19.95 but ended up costing her more than $300. Adore Me maintains a subscription model in which it charges users a fee of around $40 a month, even if customers don’t purchase anything. Adore Me isn’t the only shopping portal or service that runs this sort of tactic. “It’s the new thing,” says Francisca Allen, the deputy district attorney of California’s Santa Clara County. “There’s thousands and thousands of companies that do this.” These companies have made it frustratingly difficult to cancel these subscriptions by making you to sit through a one-hour call to the customer representative. “Hundreds of customer complaints against Adore Me and other subscription e-commerce businesses are stacking up at the Federal Trade Commission, according to records obtained by Bloomberg. They follow a pattern: Shoppers believe they’ve been tricked into signing up for recurring credit card charges, often for a relatively small amount that can be easily overlooked in a monthly bill. Then companies make it an exasperating hassle to quit and get a refund.” (bloomberg.com)
As reported on The Sun, men are now paying women to beat them up. “Kinky wrestling fans are splashing the cash on beautiful women… who are being paid to dominate them. Unconventional London agency, Models Wrestling Management, promises to put the strongest and most attractive women in the ring with their male customers. From £150 a session, punters have the option of choosing from a range of services, including bondage, being beat down, fantasy wrestling and competitive-style fighting.” (thesun.co.uk)
Food and gas are some of the required family expenses. Last year consumers got relief at the gas pump and now they got a nice break at the supermarket. As reported on MarketWatch, grocery prices have fallen for the last 12 months. It’s only the fourth time in the past 25 years that the cost of groceries has turned negative. The falling cost is due to a global glut among crop producers and a slower world economy. While the cost of making dinner at home is cheaper, eating out has gotten more expensive. The price of “food away from home” has risen 2.7% in the past 12 months. (marketwatch.com)
