Why you don’t need life insurance to protect against your child’s debt
It's easy to tell someone to save for their children's college, but higher education costs more than double since the 1980s
These articles … they are all the same. They open with bereaved parents, moms and dads dealing with the death of a young adult child. There is Angela Smith, whose son Donte Newsome, 25, was murdered in 2008. Or David and Rose Prior, whose son Andrew, 23, died after getting...Read more.
Missing jobs create a hole in the lives of the unemployed
Long-term consequences of unemployment will have a ripple effect, causing income and net worth loss decades in the future
Since the start of the Great Recession in December 2007, the American economy has lost 8.7m jobs. While economic growth has resulted in the creation of more than five million new positions, that's still almost three million short of the number of jobs needed.
All those missing jobs didn't belong to numbers,...Read more.
Do as I say, not as I do: Michelle Rhee and the public education paradox
Education activist argues for radical change in public schools but sends her children to private school, like many other officials
Our personal finances play an all-but-unspoken role in how our children are educated. In the United States, we fund public education via local property taxes. This means the more expensive the neighborhood real estate, the more likely that the children living there will attend a school with decent teacher-student ratios and...Read more.
Why the federal budget can’t be managed like a household budget
Not all budgets are created equal – even if politicians say they are. The fed is much better off when it is short on cash
Today in homespun homilies that are out-and-out political hokum, we're going to take on the case of why so many of us believe the federal budget should be managed just like our household finances.
This old saw is routinely trotted out by politicians looking to give themselves...Read more.
Enron’s Jeffrey Skilling May Get Out Of Jail Sooner Than Expected
While you were distracted by sequestration, increasing unemployment numbers, plans to cut Social or ’s ever-growing baby bump, the U.S. Department of Justice announced last week they were contemplating reducing former Enron CEO Jeffry Skilling’s 24-year sentence in the slammer for his role in the failure of his firm. Enron? Remember Enron? It seems so ...Read more.Should you pay off your US student loan debt quicker than scheduled? | Helaine Olen
Don't get ambitious about your student loan bill. Build up a decent-sized emergency fund first
So you want to pay down your student loan debt quicker than scheduled. Should you?
When my editor assigned me this piece, I called Zac Bissonnette, the twentysomething financial guru and author of the New York Times bestseller How to be Richer, Smarter and Better Looking Than Your Parents. Zac, who I consider a friend and,...Read more.
America’s silent freelance army
The US last calculated the number of contingent workers in 2005 – how can we structure better policies without hard data?
What kind of job do you have?
No, I don't mean what do you do for a living. Do you have a job, a regular position with set days and hours? One of those old-fashioned things that comes with – at least we hope – health insurance, retirement benefits, vacation and sick...Read more.
Cyprus is no reason to hide your money
Right-wing pundits are scaremongering over fears the US will be the next Cyprus, which is is totally out of the question
My late Tante Bessie had a bank account. In fact, she had more than one. Like a lot of people who lived through the Great Depression as adults, she didn't really trust the banks. She liked to spread her Social Security and pension checks around.
Just in case all those...Read more.
Sheryl Sandberg is the ultimate good girl careful not to upset those in power
The good girl myth states that women only have to behave themselves and play by the rules to win in the workplace
Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook, is perpetuating the "good girl" myth.
The good girl myth states that women only have to behave themselves and play by the rules, and then they'll get everything they want. In 2010, Sandberg declared in a 15-minute TED talk that women...Read more.
The economic plan to rob grandma’s bread basket | Helaine Olen
Republicans insist the government is spending too much on social security. Their solution? Something called chained CPI
Here is one of the problems in retirement planning: you can go along for years, faithfully using retirement calculators, re-balancing your stock market investments, reading your estimated social security payouts, just sure you are on track and – well, poof! – the rules of the game can change in an instant.
And, apparently, the United...Read more.
About Helaine Olen
I am the voice of The Bills, a column about the intersection of money and life, at Slate. At Inc., I contribute to the Spread the Wealth personal finance column. My work on politics, economics, workplace culture and women’s issues has been published in numerous other print and on-line publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Salon, Pacific Standard, and The Los Angeles Times, where I wrote and edited the popular “Money Makeover” feature.
I'm the author of the critically acclaimed book Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry, and The Index Card: Why Personal Finance Doesn’t Have to be so Complicated, which I co-wrote with Harold Pollack.
What else? I’m a passionate bibliophile, a fan of 1970s pop music and a lover of rummage sales. I live in New York City.
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