Prichard, Alabama, a town of 27,000 on the outskirts of Mobile, stopped paying pension benefits for retired city employees. Yes, you read correctly. 150 retired, seasoned citizens are no longer receiving their monthly pension checks. Is this America’s next economic crisis? States and cities are struggling across the nation because of unbalanced budgets, a decline...
I’ll Have No More Debt, Thank You
I had a conversation with my brother about finances some time ago. We added my family’s combined income (large family). I was blown away to think of how much we made vs. the sheer lack of tangible assets. As Thomas Stanley (author of Millionaire Next Door) put it, we were Income Statement Affluent. You could...
Student Loans: Can we afford ’em?
CNBC recently profiled the student loan crisis in the United States. This year, the nation’s student loan total will top out at $880 billion. That’s nearly $1 trillion. Wow! A whole lot of zeros indeed. Sure, the story focused on those with hard-luck stories. Crisis cases create compelling programs. The average student can expect to...