Personal Finance Articles

The United States federal government has been shut down since Tuesday.  Thousands of workers are furloughed, national parks and monuments are closed, and Congress is still getting paid.

What’s worse is this may not be the biggest crisis the US faces this month.

Later in October — or early November at the latest — the Treasury department will hit the “debt ceiling” and max out its credit line.  The debt ceiling is a legal limit placed on the Treasury by Congress that says the US cannot have more than X amount of debt.  That amount right now is $16.699 trillion.

Both parties have said they will have no part in a United States default on debt due to not raising the debt ceiling, so that’s encouraging.  Yet each day that rolls forward means we are getting closer and closer to not being able to make our minimum payments on all of our obligations.  If we default expect widespread chaos in financial markets, Treasury bill interest rates, and the value of the dollar.

Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

Maxing out your credit cards, too? Can’t seem to control how much you spend? Here are some articles to help you out:

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The price of gold took a big hit a few weeks ago.

In the last 30 days the price has dropped from a high of $1,606 to a low of $1,360.  The drop was significant and only over a few day period.  The price has since rebounded a bit to $1,453 but that is still a drop of $153 or 9.5%.

Those that are pro-gold used it as an opportunity to buy even more while detractors pointed out the instability in the price of the commodity.  If you were able to snag more gold at $1,360 you have since earned a return of 6.8%.

No matter how you feel about gold you need free cash available to be able to purchase some. That means taking care of your finances, which these articles will help you do:

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Today is Selection Sunday and college basketball teams around the country are anxiously waiting to learn their fates.

Will it be that coveted last spot in the NCAA tournament?  Or relegated to the NIT?  (Sure, playing in any tournament is nice, but the NIT pales in comparison to the real deal.)

If you are like me and your team is sitting in the first four out list (as of time of this writing) you see a lot of similarity to financial issues.  My team, the University of Tennessee, is on the outside looking in.  They lost in their conference tournament when a win would have likely locked up a bid to the NCAA tournament.

Instead they lost, but even with a loss they aren’t completely out of the running.  They are just reliant on a bunch of other teams losing in order to propel them into one of those last few spots in the tournament.

Don’t we often run our finances this way?

We miss doing things right and do just enough.  We cut corners, and suddenly find ourselves reliant on someone or something else to save us.  That might be a relative lending us money or just hoping that our employer continues to employ us.

Don’t live your financial life like a NCAA basketball bubble team. Take control of your finances with some of these great reads:

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File this under things I’ve never heard of.

The state of Michigan has announced it plans to take over the city of Detroit due to massive cash flow and financial issues for the city.  The city government has 10 days to appeal (which I am assuming they will do), but the state seems pressed to take over operations.  In the event the state takes over they will put an emergency manager in place who has the authority to make drastic changes for the city to include voiding contracts with unions.

While the takeover isn’t official, it underlines the point that we all need to manage our finances.

Despite a comeback in the auto industry after the Great Recession the financial situation within Detroit has not improved.  The city has issued new debt to cover its obligations, and we all know how swiping our credit card to pay for things we can’t afford works out.

Avoid spending more than you earn — like Detroit did — with some of these tips:

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