There’s good news on the economic front: in July, American consumers cut their debt by $21.6 billion, the largest amount ever on record, according to Yahoo News.
Consumers’ appetite for revolving credit, primarily credit cards, declined by $6.1 billion in July, an annualized rate of 8 percent that followed a 6.4 percent drop in June.
July’s retreat translated into an annualized decline of 10.4 percent. That followed a cut of $15.5 billion in June, or a 7.4 percent annualized drop, and the most since a 16.3 percent decline in June 1975.
That’s great news. But only if the government would do the same …
At Own the Dollar, Hank writes that The Opportunity Cost of Keeping Up With The Joneses Is Too Expensive. He’s got a great story about experiencing the Joneses mentality in his neighborhood and how he’s not getting caught up in it.
MoneyNing offers up How to Break Bad Habits, with a simple but easy-to-implement solution: stick with people who don’t have your bad habit. By spending your time with them, you won’t be as driven to engage in your bad habit.
M is for Money has a post right up our alley: Do You Balance Your Checkbook? Since I rarely (if ever) write checks, I don’t balance my checkbook. In fact, I’ve never once done it, even back in the day.
Thanks to online banking, I can see my balance at anytime I want. That’s good enough for me.
This past week, we participated in the Carnival of Money Hackers, Festival of Frugality, and Carnival of Personal Finance.
Want to see your post highlighted in Weekend Linkage? Contact me to let me know about your newest content. And always remember to subscribe to the latest content via email or RSS.