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.
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Jason, thanks for the mention! I appreciate it.
You’re welcome! Thanks for the great post.