Since 2009, American consumer spending on holiday gifts and expenses has increased annually. In the early fall of 2021, despite fears of higher prices, empty shelves, and a continuing pandemic, Americans told researchers at the National Federation of Retailers that they planned to spend about $1,000 on gifts, food, and decorations over the holiday season, or […]

Start the new year off on the right foot with a fresh look at your financial goals. Let January 1 be the first day that you put into place a brand-new set of achievable benchmarks to master your money, deal with your debt and improve your credit score.  Successful goal-keepers know that financial independence comes […]

The Holiday Industrial Shopping Complex Annual surveys of more than 1,000-holiday shoppers regularly show that, on average, holiday purchases add as much as $1,381 in debt to individual credit cards in the three months leading up to the arrival of the holiday. This is a sum that most people say they can’t possibly pay down […]

What is a cyber scam? The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, or IC3, is the US government’s central public repository for all forms of internet fraud and published their 2020 annual report showing that cyber scams grew in size and scope while citizens were battling the pandemic. IC3 fielded nearly 800,000 complaints in 2020 and said Americans […]