Tag: budgeting

Apps like Venmo, PayPal and Cash App make sending money easy, but the convenience can leave senders vulnerable to fraud and overspending. | Northwest & National News
Money

Apps like Venmo, PayPal and Cash App make sending money easy, but the convenience can leave senders vulnerable to fraud and overspending. | Northwest & National News

For college students, sending money to friends has never been easier thanks to peer-to-peer payment apps like Venmo, PayPal and Cash App. But that convenience poses risks, including vulnerability to errors, fraud and the tendency to overspend. As a result, payment apps can contribute to financial stress at a time when young people are learning...
Electric Mandates Have California Truckers Charging Overtime
World

Electric Mandates Have California Truckers Charging Overtime

Dec. 29, 2023 12:52 pm ETCompton, Calif.Electric trucks are supposed to save the world, but they’re wasting Mike Stanley’s time. Mr. Stanley, a longtime trucker whose rectangular beard flows down to his chest, now leads operations in the main Los Angeles office of IMC, a Tennessee-based drayage trucking company that carries cargo to and from U.S. ports and rail yards. Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
How Can Spending Be Up When People Feel Down?
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How Can Spending Be Up When People Feel Down?

Dec. 26, 2023 11:00 pm ETAccording to the Misery Index, Americans shouldn’t be all that miserable. But they might only recently have started to catch on.Invented by the economist Arthur Okun, the Misery Index is the simple summing of the unemployment rate and the inflation rate. It first rose to prominence in the 1976 presidential election, when Jimmy Carter highlighted its high level in his campaign to unseat President Gerald Ford. This came back to bite him: When President Carter was running for re-election against Ronald Reagan in 1980, the index was even higher.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Where Did All the Money Go? The Villain in Your Transaction History
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Where Did All the Money Go? The Villain in Your Transaction History

Listen to article(2 minutes)WSJ’s Personal Finance team presents a series on how to fix your financial life in 2024. First up: taking on lifestyle creep.Anyone trying to figure out why they are scraping by at the end of the year could safely pin part of the blame on inflation. Higher prices have made it easier than ever to miss that other sneaky cause of overspending: lifestyle creep. Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Where Did All the Money Go? The Villain in Your Transaction History
World

Where Did All the Money Go? The Villain in Your Transaction History

Listen to article(2 minutes)WSJ’s Personal Finance team presents a series on how to fix your financial life in 2024. First up: taking on lifestyle creep.Anyone trying to figure out why they are scraping by at the end of the year could safely pin part of the blame on inflation. Higher prices have made it easier than ever to miss that other sneaky cause of overspending: lifestyle creep. Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Glynn’s Take: Squeeze on Australian Households Worse Than Thought
World

Glynn’s Take: Squeeze on Australian Households Worse Than Thought

Dec. 13, 2023 9:21 pm ET|WSJ ProSYDNEY—The squeeze on Australian household budgets appears much worse than thought, with a sharp surge in tax payments adding to the pain already being felt from soaring interest rates.For the Reserve Bank of Australia, which outwardly at least still appears hawkish, the pain being felt across suburbia looks set to quash any remaining thoughts of a further rise in interest rates next year.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Australian Households Coping Well With Soaring Rates, Inflation, RBA Says
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Australian Households Coping Well With Soaring Rates, Inflation, RBA Says

Dec. 7, 2023 9:27 pm ET|WSJ ProSYDNEY—Despite interest rates in Australia rising at a record pace over the last year and half, household budgets have adapted to sharply rising mortgage repayments, and instances of extreme financial stress are scant, according to the Reserve Bank of Australia.“While budget pressures are being widely felt across indebted households, most of these households have managed to adjust to these pressures,” Andrea Brischetto, head of financial stability at the RBA, said Friday.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
UK Retail Sales Remained Weak in November Despite Black Friday Lift
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UK Retail Sales Remained Weak in November Despite Black Friday Lift

Retail sales growth in the U.K. remained weak in November despite a boost from Black Friday, with the cost-of-living crisis continuing to squeeze household budgets, according to the latest British Retail Consortium data published on Tuesday.Total retail sales for the four weeks to Nov. 25 increased by 2.7% compared with the prior month, when it saw growth of 2.5%, the BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor report said. This was above the three-month average growth of 2.6%, but compares with 4.2% growth in November last year.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
American Shoppers Have Plenty of Dry Powder
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American Shoppers Have Plenty of Dry Powder

Americans say they are worried about the economy, and there certainly are reasons to question the staying power of consumer spending. That doesn’t mean they won’t spend heartily this holiday season.The U.S. consumer is in a funk, according to the U.S. consumer. The University of Michigan’s sentiment index, based on a long-running survey of households, remains far below prepandemic levels and lately has been near levels experienced in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Surveys of chief executives haven’t looked much better. And, while forecasters have lately been a little less dour, economists polled by The Wall Street Journal in October put the chances of a recession occurring within the next year at 48%.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818...
How to Buy a Car: Should You Lease or Take Out a Car Loan?
World

How to Buy a Car: Should You Lease or Take Out a Car Loan?

Nov. 12, 2023 10:00 am ETShopping for a car is more fun than paying for it.Once you have settled on a make and model, there are several financial decisions to make: Should you lease? Should you buy? Where should you get a loan, and how long should it last? Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8