Consumerism Commentary

This week, Consumerism Commentary is matching your charitable donations up to $4,000. Here are the details.It’s time again for checking in with the state of my finances. Although a few months ago, I changed the format to isolate my “side business” from my personal finances, I&#8...

One thing I’ve always half-lamented, though lamented more in the past when my funds were a bit tighter, is the office holiday gift exchange. I’ve participated in everything from the Secret Santa to the grab bag to the system in which you can ruthlessly steal the gifts selected by your...

Flexible Savings Accounts (FSAs) are often offered by companies to help their employees save money by setting aside income from paychecks to pay for health-related expenses without being taxed. For many Flexible Savings Account holders, the deadline for using the funds set aside is the end of the...

Much like the wildly popular and probably successful Cash for Clunkers program earlier this year, a portion of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is being allotted to a program for upgrading older, energy wasting appliances.None of the important details have been released yet, such a...

Announcement: We have decided to extend the period for matching your charitable contributions through the end of this week. Contribute to your favorite charity this week and forward your contribution receipt to us. We will donate a matching amount to the World Food Programme. Here are the complet...

Announcement: As I mentioned last week, Consumerism Commentary is matching your charitable contributions during the remainder of November. Please read this for more details.A few years ago, we discussed medical tourism. Every visitor who expressed an opinion would visit or have visited a foreign ...

The first guest on today’s Consumerism Commentary Podcast is Jim Sharvin, a Certified Public Accountant affiliated with the California Society of CPAs. Tom Dziubek and Jim discuss how consumers can protect themselves when buying and using one of the most popular holiday gifts, gift cards.Af...

On behalf of myself, Smithee, and Tom Dziubek, to all those who celebrate today, have a happy Thanksgiving...

On behalf of myself, Smithee, and Tom Dziubek, to all those who celebrate today, have a happy Thanksgiving. I will be spending the day with my girlfriend’s family in New York. Although there’s nothing that makes one day of the calendar inherently more special than any other day, Thank...

Over the past couple of weeks, six finalists have been auditioning for the opening of “staff writer” at Consumerism Commentary. Each is providing two guest articles to share with readers. After the six writers have shared their guest articles, readers will have an opportunity to provi...

The open enrollment period for my company’s 2010 benefits came to a close yesterday. My procrastination came to an end when I logged into our benefits management website, reviewed the options one last time, and decided to stick with the same plan I’ve had since I joined the company, a...

Over the past couple of weeks, six finalists have been auditioning for the opening of “staff writer” at Consumerism Commentary. Each is providing two guest articles to share with readers. After the six writers have shared their guest articles, readers will have an opportunity to provi...

This post is part of the one day blog event “The Spectrum of Personal Finance.” In this event, comic book nerd Brian of My Next Buck, will discuss 8 different emotions (taken from the Green Lantern comic series) and relate them to personal finance. Here at Consumerism Commentary we ...

We told you back in July about the Credit Card Fair Fee Act of 2009. To summarize: Visa and Mastercard skims a percentage of the retail price every time you use a card to buy something. It’s called an “interchange fee”. Allegedly, U.S. merchants pay up to six times more for this...

Over the next couple of weeks, six finalists will be auditioning for the opening of “staff writer” at Consumerism Commentary. Each will be providing two guest articles to share with readers. After the six writers have shared their guest articles, readers will have an opportunity to pr...

Many retailers — those who have survived the rough economy — have struggled this past year. Companies are looking forward to the holiday season because they know consumers are in a tough position, too. Here is how it works: the economy is recovering, but unemployment is the last piece...

On today’s Consumerism Commentary Podcast, Tom Dziubek speaks with Renaud LaPlanche, co-founder and CEO of LendingClub and Rob Garcia, senior director of product strategy for the same company. The LendingClub teams discusses the benefits and drawbacks of peer-to-peer lending as an alternati...

Earlier this Fall, the IRS was offering an amnesty program for offshore tax cheats to come forward and admit their wrongdoing, thereby getting a more lenient punishment.Nearly 15,000 Americans who knew they were cheating came forward and admitted their bad behavior. From Reuters:While IRS officia...

The United States must be approaching the end of the recession when economists begin offering their retrospectives. Even if the data are pointing to an end to the recession, in technical terms, the economy is a long way from recovery. Just look around at the people out of work. Even those who hav...

Over the next couple of weeks, six finalists will be auditioning for the opening of “staff writer” at Consumerism Commentary. Each will be providing two guest articles to share with readers. After the six writers have shared their guest articles, readers will have an opportunity to pr...

My Honda Civic has an option for cruise control. Unfortunately, most of my driving currently takes place on the New Jersey Turnpike and local highways during rush hour and construction, so I rarely have an opportunity to activate this feature. In the slim occasion I find myself driving on a deser...

Over the next couple of weeks, six finalists will be auditioning for the opening of “staff writer” at Consumerism Commentary. Each will be providing two guest articles to share with readers. After the six writers have shared their guest articles, readers will have an opportunity to pr...

A year ago, a group of investors offered $20 million to buy the Pontiac Silverdome, the seldom-used, dome stadium that used to be the home for the Detroit Pistons and Michigan Panthers. The deal eventually fell through. In a sign of the state of the commercial real estate market, the winning bid ...

Over the next couple of weeks, six finalists will be auditioning for the opening of “staff writer” at Consumerism Commentary. Each will be providing two guest articles to share with readers. After the six writers have shared their guest articles, readers will have an opportunity to pr...

The Credit CARD Act of 2009 instructed the Federal Reserve to enact new regulations for gift cards. I have a love/hate relationship with gift cards; they’re convenient gifts to give when you know the recipient is a fan of a certain store. Unfortunately, the past few years have seen restrict...

When I was a new college graduate in 1997, I got my father to co-sign on a credit account so I could buy a computer. It was a shining white beautiful Gateway 2000, it probably cost around $2,000 (you kids and your $300 computer deals!), and it came with an interest rate of 26.9%.Around the same t...

Over the next couple of weeks, six finalists will be auditioning for the opening of “staff writer” at Consumerism Commentary. Each will be providing two guest articles to share with readers. After the six writers have shared their guest articles, readers will have an opportunity to pr...