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.
Personal Finance
Take control of your personal finance to be wealthier and happier in life.
Here are 7 Quick Ways to Save Over $100,000
You probably have heard of the latte factor. That little innocent morning latte could cost you tens of thousands of dollars over the course of your working life. If you have trouble saving money for emergency fund, to pay off debt or to invest for retirement, there are some quick ways to save by making small changes to your spending habits. Assuming you plan to retire after 40 more years and that your savings will grow by 7.8% annually, here are 7 quick ways to save over $100,000 during your working life:
- Eating out too much: $207,598
- Taking cabs often: $235,963
- Smoking: $579,957
- Buying coffee every day: $79,085
- Paying for a gym you don’t use: $131,808
- Streaming commercial-free music: $32,919
- Ordering the wine: $151,579
(cnn.com)
Average Worker Needs 1 Million Years to Earn the Wealth of Bill Gates
According to Forbes real-time net worth, the fortune of Bill Gates is worth $76.2 billion as of 5/10/16. People on average hourly wages in the US would need to work for one million years to earn the wealth of Bill Gates, according to financial website THISISMONEY. While the gulf between the world’s wealthiest and the rest of us is widening, the time it would it would take for average earners to earn the wealth of their country’s billionaire is even worse. In Mexico, people in the country would need to work for over 3.8 million years to generate the wealth of billionaire Carlos Slim Helu. In Brazil, it would take a worker there over five million years to earn as much as the fortune of Brazilian billionaire Jorge Paulo Lemann.
Could Gambling be the Secret to Saving When Rates Are So Low?
Jay L. Zagorsky, The Ohio State University
Many interest rates in the U.S. are close to zero and even negative in some parts of the world, like Japan. Not unexpectedly, U.S. savings rates are also quite low as individuals ask themselves: “Why save a lot of money at a bank if I get no return?” This situation has many commentators wringing their hands because low savings rates are a problem for many reasons. Individuals who don’t save face spending their golden years of retirement in poverty, instead of plenty. In addition, people with no savings face financial problems and potential ruin when unexpected large expenses occur and cannot help out their children with large bills like college or a down payment on a first home. In the absence of a rapid increase in interest rates, which appears unlikely, is there anything we can do to change this problem and get people to save more? As odd as it may sound, gambling could be part of the answer. [Read more…]
School Calls Police on Girl Using 2 Dollar Bill to Buy Some Chicken Nuggets at Lunch
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)
New Rules Will Make It Harder to Get a Mortgage If You Carry a Credit Card Balance
Starting June 25 Fannie Mae introduces new rules to make it harder to get a mortgage if you carry a credit card balance. Basically, the new guidelines use trended credit data as a rating system to evaluate borrower’s ability to manage revolving credit card accounts. “A borrower who uses revolving accounts conservatively (low revolving credit utilization and/or regular payoff of revolving balance) will be considered a lower risk. A borrower whose revolving credit utilization is high and/or who only makes the minimum monthly payment each month will be considered higher risk as it indicates the borrower may have trouble making payments in the future.” Kristin Wong on Lifehacker points out that “if you pay your balances in full every month, you’re probably good. If you have a revolving balance, you’re considered a risk, and depending on how much debt you’re revolving, it could prevent you from getting a loan.” (lifehacker.com)
Parents are Pressured to Make Sure Their Kids Succeed
For middle class earning between $40,000 and $100,000, 44 percent could not come up with $400 in an emergency. 27 percent of those making more than $100,000 also could not. This is not poverty. So what is it? Rebecca Rosen on The Atlantic argues the financial insecurity “that has no name” derived from the costs associated with raising children, especially housing and education. Not surprisingly housing and education the biggest sources of debt. American middle class households are falling into circles of financial hell as they are pressured to make sure their kids succeed. Rosen pointed out that “housing and education appear to be two distinct categories of spending, but for many families they are one and the same: For the most part, where a family lives determines where their kids go to school, and, as a result, where schools are better, houses are more costly. This is both cause and effect: Where houses are expensive, the tax base is bigger and schools have better resources, and where schools are better, there is more demand for housing.” (theatlantic.com)
Class Divide is the Strongest Predictor of Air Rage
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)
9 Signs You Aren’t Saving Enough Money
Kathleen Elkins writes on Business Insider: “Earning a lot of money doesn’t necessarily make you rich. At the end of the day, no matter what your paycheck reads, you still have to save and invest your money if you want to accumulate wealth.” Here are 9 signs you aren’t saving enough money:
- You can barely pay your bills each month
- You tell yourself you’ll save more when you start making more
- You haven’t started saving for retirement
- You don’t set aside money for big, upcoming purchases
- You haven’t started investing
- You don’t have an emergency fund
- You spend over 40% of your income on housing
- You don’t track your expenses
- You can’t pay more than the minimum on your credit card balance
Elkins also shows tips on how to improve for each of the shortcoming in the article. (businessinsider.com)
Extremely Wasteful Spending: Some Men Are Paying Women to Beat Them Up
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)
If You Make Less Than $50,000 Per Year, Your Pay Is About to Go Up
“If you make less than $50,000 per year, you will soon be entitled to overtime pay,” said Hamilton Nolan on Gawker. “We are referring here to the Department of Labor’s overtime rule, which is widely expected to be updated some time later this summer. Though we won’t have an official number until the rule is final, it now appears that even if you are a salaried employee or some sort of manager, you will still be entitled to time-and-a-half pay for working more than 40 hours per week, as long as your total salary falls under the threshold.” According to activist Nick Hanauer, “the overtime threshold is to the middle class as the minimum wage is to low-wage workers.” The battle to raise the minimum wage has gotten more attention, but the battle to raise the overtime threshold could have a similar impact. (gawker.com)
Americans Haven’t Gotten a Raise in 16 Years
“Americans haven’t gotten a raise in more than 16 years,” said John Crudele on New York Post. According to Sentier Research, the median annual household income in the US was $57,263 in March 2016, which was 4.5% higher than in March 2015. But this March’s figure is still slightly below the $57,342 median annual income in January 2000. Crudele noted that “Americans are angry because they don’t care about the statistical noise — they care about what they see with their own eyes.” (nypost.com)
Four Ways to Save Money on Your Next Rental Car
When it’s time for you to rent a car, there are four “money-saving hacks” that can save money the next time you book:
- Go off-site: Because of extra airport fees, it’s typically more expensive to rent a car from the airport
- Join the loyalty program: It’s free, and members receive regular emails with offers like free upgrades and discounted rentals
- Skip the extras: Don’t pay for a GPS system if you have a smartphone. Instead of buying rental insurance or a damage waiver, simply book the rental with your credit card
- Always refill yourself: Never take the pre-paid gas option
Not Saving Enough And Getting Divorced are Among the Biggest Financial Regrets
Not saving enough money and getting divorced are among our biggest financial regrets, according to new research by Partnership Group. In a survey that asked 2,000 people what their biggest financial mistakes were, the vast majority (59%) said they wished they had saved more, while 15% said getting into debt was their biggest error. 7% said getting married and subsequently divorced was their biggest financial blunder. This figure jumped to one in ten for the over 40 age group. Mark Stopard, head of product development at Partnership, said: “Indeed not saving enough, especially into a pension, was the main regret for all age groups – a problem which implies that either they do not earn enough or that they don’t have a firm handle on their finances. While it is relatively easy to make minor financial errors, that one in 10 people cite issues around salary and employment levels adds weight to the first argument and is worrying as it suggests that for some ‘mistakes’ are almost unavoidable.” (partnership-group.com)
Consumers Are Paying Less for Groceries Amid Global Glut of Crops
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)
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