I didn’t like Florida that much when I lived there in the 80s and 90s. It sounds like it’s gotten worse.

They have been talking about making a show about the academy since the mid 90s. I’m optimistic about it.

The main benefit of a 529 is its gains are sheltered from taxes. If you’re in high school or college, you probably don’t pay a high tax rate, if any. I like a 529, but I wonder if it would be simpler for you to save in a regular bank account. There’s nothing wrong with the 529, though, if it’s not too complicated to set up.

I am unclear about this issue. Are the liability lawsuits related to the chemical companies misrepresenting the risks? Or are there cases of someone doing something risky with pesticides, but the party engaging in risky behavior has no money so they go after the deep pockets?

The dealership or whatever bank they partnered with turned you down for a loan. Another bank might say yes, especially a bank that you’ve been using for other services for a while and if you’re making some down payment rather than borrowing the full price of the car.

I generally think car loans are a bad idea. If you have to drive a junky car while you save up money to upgrade, they may actually have done you a favor by saying no because you avoid interest payments and you avoid the risk of having to make payments during a situation where you lose you job or have some other unexpected expense.

Part of the goal is to have access to currency that’s usable outside the US.

For that I like BTC and physical gold coins.

The dollar crashing isn’t my only concern here - the US is going full Nazi, so being able to quickly gtfo is a big motivator right now.

I am hoping that trend doesn’t continue, but I think it’s wise to be prepared. I’m hoping in that unlikely scenario we would be able to stay under the radar and move our wealth offshore.

We have kids in 9th and 10th grade. If the trend from the last four months continues for another year, which I think is unlikely, we will encourage them to go to school abroad in a stable country. But I’m afraid President Reagan was right that “if we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth.”

I agree with @davel@lemmy.ml. Don’t put too much effort into preparing for economic disasters, beyond normal recessions. Invest in good businesses that create value serving their customers. Have an emergency fund in interest-bearing savings account that’s easy to access.

Is the issue that you have given the govt electronic access to a particular account? You could revoke their access. If you’re really paranoid, you could change it to a different account in the same institution. I know there’s a lot of insanity in Washington, but I don’t see a scenario where it leads to errors where they wrongly take money from an account that you gave them access to for tax payment purposes.

I think a HYSA is the way to go. You could put some of it in stocks, but certainly be prepared for that portion of your car fund to go down. The stock market has done great in recent years, not something you can count on continuing.

I have heard this all my life, going back to the 80s. There are always high-interest loans that unsophisticated and desperate people take out. I don’t think there’s some unique new problem.

Your income is >> 4 * rent, so you should be fine. Is it in the US? USD$500 rent sounds very cheap, unless you’re renting just a small room.

Are the cards the problem? If you used other methods of payment, e.g. paper checks and cash, would you have the same problem. If so, find the root cause of the problem. If the cards are the problem, I would stop using them and forgo the bonus points. Maybe that costs you hundreds of dollars a year, but think of forgoing them as a bank “fee” that you pay in exchange for simplicity.

All of these groups, academia, the wealthy, attorneys, union members, leadership at public companies are all just people. You can’t look at the actions of members of those groups and dismiss everyone in them. It’s not a question of those groups or people. There are just people who have to have to support liberal democracy.

So far the political instability has not affected personal finance, but it will if we (everyone without regard to group membership) don’t respect basic rights and the law.

This is interesting, but I wonder about its credibility considering the author commends JD Vance, who is far from a libertarian.

I would be concerned about a period of higher than normal inflation like the 70s. The Fed does a good job keeping inflation around 2%. Recently it spiked briefly to around 8% but immediately came down to just above 3%. It seems possible we could see a period of inflation near 8% for several years in a row.

I am unclear what to take away from this. It says nominal consumer debt is at and all-time high, but it’s not if you consider real (inflation-adjusted) numbers. It says the ratio of debt payments to disposable income is low compared to recent decades.

So it seems, contrary to the article’s title, that there hasn’t been a furious pace of change in consumer debt.

It sounds like communist “reeducation camps”. I know the far-right claims to hate communism but they’re a lot alike in that they want control over people’s lives.

That’s not something to joke about in these crazy times. It’s disgusting.

ask for proof of ownership from the debt collectors.

I agree with this. If it turns out you really do owe the money and you have a little money offer to settle if they’ll give you something saying the amount settles the debt in full. If they don’t have proof you owe the money, I would ignore them.

they are throwing out the mainstream press in favour of OANN and Breitbart from the Pentagon for example. They are building a “new media”, pushing thousands of random influencers and podcasters to drown out established news outlets.

It’s new that politicians take conspiracy zines seriously. It’s up to the people not to take them seriously and be suspicious of any politician who prefers them over journalists.

Trump is extorting CBS for billions just because he can.

I head he effectively took a bribe of millions by their settling a bogus lawsuit. Decades ago this would have been a huge scandal. Anything where a politician even appears to use the office to get money in their pocket looks horrible to me. I don’t understand why MAGA supporters abide this.

Institutions are being actively dismantled, some could resist, but the OPM is in serious peril. They are basically planning to replace everyone and building a new state apparatus.

I do not approve of the illegal way in which they’re doing it, but I have long wanted to decrease the size, intrusiveness, and cost of government. I want government to be more nimble. I have hope that they’re doing this because an illegal blitz, sold to the masses who pay little or no income tax as being anti-anti-bigotry, is the only practical way to shrink government. That’s me hitting the copium hard. It could be an effort to consolidate power.

We’ll see what he’ll do once he sees that Canada won’t do an Anschluss.

If Trump threatens Canada militarily, you will be proven right, and my hope will be proven to be unjustified.