For years, I wanted to write a book on personal finance and financial literacy. I finally found the time and wrote my take on what people need to understand in order to be effective with money. I have gone back and forth about whether to publish the manuscript through traditional means, self publish, etc. I … Continue reading Free guide to personal finance
Category: borrowing
Misleading statistics on college debt forgiveness
Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are promising massive cancellation of student debt. There is around $1.5 Trillion in outstanding educational debt and 1-in-8 Americans are currently paying off educational loans. These loan forgiveness plans are promoted in the name of fairness, broader opportunity for the middle class and working class, and reducing inequality. The costs … Continue reading Misleading statistics on college debt forgiveness
‘IRAs for all’ vs. college debt forgiveness
Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have proposed massive college debt forgiveness programs. I am not in favor of these proposals, largely because of the general unfairness of having taxpayers subsidize people who have attended expensive private colleges or made other costly personal education choices. This is unfair to families that scrimped and saved or made … Continue reading ‘IRAs for all’ vs. college debt forgiveness
Conformity and Consumption
A vast array of analysis suggests that Americans are making poor financial decisions that have the potential to lead to extreme future regret. We are consuming way too much and saving too little. One of the best ways to understand why we are acting this way is societal pressure to conform. On one hand, we … Continue reading Conformity and Consumption
The evolution of personal finance
The ways that people earn money, spend, borrow, and invest are all changing quickly. We are experiencing the greatest changes in personal finance since the start of the industrial revolution. To thrive in the new economy, people need to know far more and be disciplined and proactive in managing their finances. In this post, I … Continue reading The evolution of personal finance
The fairness of college debt forgiveness
On April 21st, I published a blog post arguing that educational debt forgiveness is largely untenable, even ignoring the cost. As it happened, I had already written the post when presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren announced large-scale debt forgiveness as a major part of her platform. There are myriad problems with debt forgiveness but the most … Continue reading The fairness of college debt forgiveness
Tallying the ultimate costs of debt
Carrying debt can have costs far beyond the interest paid, something that few people fully appreciate. Debt repayment has substantial opportunity costs, which means that there are decisions that are unavailable because you are repaying debts. A substantial component of these opportunity costs relates to tax benefits. Lost tax benefits The single most important opportunity … Continue reading Tallying the ultimate costs of debt
Public policy and student debt
The United States has a growing problem with student debt. The total of all outstanding student loans is now above $1.5 Trillion. Politicians and others have proposed solutions to managing educational debt, but there is too little discussion of the practicalities. There is no question that we have a major problem and that many young … Continue reading Public policy and student debt
Geoff Considine on Finance and Economics 