The Money Culture War

[This Thursday re-run first appeared September 30, 2009.]

Yesterday’s New York Times carried a column worth reading by David Brooks. It is a little confused, even by the standards of Times columns, but the gist of it is a call to arms for a brand new culture war, this one over money.

I’m all for that.

Brooks starts out by recalling a centuries old idea.

The theory was that great nations start out tough-minded and energetic. Toughness and energy lead to wealth and power. Wealth and power lead to affluence and luxury. Affluence and luxury lead to decadence, corruption and decline.

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Even More Debit and Credit Card Confusion

Time to circle back and discuss the cards, credit and debit, again.

If you are just joining us, I will recap. Debit card transactions now outnumber credit card transactions in America. Frank doesn’t get it. He has used a debit card maybe three or four times in his life. Although he can imagine several special cases in which a debit card would be preferable to a credit card for a person, he can’t wrap his head around the idea that the majority of people fall into those categories.

Wise Bread today ran a feature comparison of credit versus debit cards. Debit cards did not fare well in the head-to-head, besting credit only on the “Which is better for avoiding credit card debt?” criterion.

This, by far, is the strongest argument in favor of the debit card. If it helps you control your spending and helps you avoid credit card debt, then that one feature alone is as precious as gold. If you currently have credit card debt or are trying to get out of credit card debt, then cutting up the credit card and using a debt card is probably one of the smartest decisions you can make.

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House Resale Fees are a Good Thing

On Saturday The New York Times discovered yet another example of evil business fleecing wholesome Americans. Resale Fees That Only Developers Could Love opens with the usual tropes.

Rebecca and Trent Dupaix of Eagle Mountain, Utah, spent a year searching for their dream home. The couple, who have five children, considered 15 to 20 houses before finding “the one.”

But four months after buying the “rock-and-stucco home” the dream turns to a nightmare when

the Dupaixs discovered that their sales contract included a “resale fee” that allows the developer to collect 1 percent of the sales price from the seller every time the property changes hands — for the next 99 years.

Incredibly, the resale fee arrangement was apparently not disclosed to the Dupaixs, something that is either outright fraud or spectacular incompetence on the part of the title company and whoever ran the closing. It can be inferred from the article that the Dupaixs did not have a lawyer.

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How to Bet Against Your Marriage

Happy with your current spouse but concerned that you may not make it to death do us part? It is not an unreasonable fear. According to government data, compiled by, of all agencies, the Centers for Disease Control, about one  third of first marriages end in divorce before their tenth anniversary.

Don’t worry. To paraphrase Apple marketing, there’s a derivative for that. You can now buy divorce insurance. Pioneered by a new on-line outfit called WedLock, it is available in 46 states and the UK.

Here’s how it works. You pay monthly premiums for four years. If you get divorced after that, you get a check to help ease your pain and pay expenses. (Sadly, you cannot bet against the marriages of others.)

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Frugal Friday Back to School Edition

As we all know, the frugalosphere is a seasonal beast. August brought, of course, the usual spate of back to school tips. Most were obvious and ordinary, although Coupon Shoebox did suggest that “If your child is old enough to be earning some money, or if you provide an allowance, you can consider letting him or her buy one or two supplies.” They will thank you someday.

Also possibly seasonal, perhaps brought on by the high temperatures that put us all in thrift store shorts and tank tops, was more than the usual amount of discussion of the intersection of frugality and weight loss.

Wise Bread explained Why Going to the Gym Is a Waste of Money, Time, and Resources by disclosing the little known fact that exercise does not help you lose weight. They cite an article in Time which uses “solid-sounding research and academic experts.” This is good news for the frugal, who need no longer struggle with the conflict between the desire to sweat through “no pain no gain” at the gym and the desire to sacrifice the monthly expense of a membership.

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