What would you tell the 30-year old divorcee with 30k of debt?

Jason writes:
I’m 30.
Just divorced. Not fun.
$30k in debt. Freaking me out.
I have an old 401k that I rolled over from a previous company into Sharebuilder. Value $8,500.
I’m very inclined to withdraw the cash with penalty and pay off a higher interest credit card (13%). I know that mentally and emotionally it will make me feel [...]

The point of being rich

Maybe it’s the holidays, but today instead of ranting and screaming at someone on this site, I decided to dig up one of my favorite posts:
What are we doing on this site?
Yes, I read my own posts sometimes.
Anyway, for those of you who haven’t been around since the early days, I wrote that on [...]

17-minute interview about credit unions, money, and the economic crisis

Last week, I recorded an interview about credit unions, money, and the economic crisis with George Hofheimer at the Filene Research Institute, which studies consumer finance and credit unions. George and I met when I spoke to credit union executives a couple of years ago.
Here’s the interview in streaming MP3 form, plus a transcript below.

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The Truth: What Obama and McCain won’t tell you about your money

After watching the debate tonight, I figured I’d translate what both candidates were saying. Sorry I’m not as politically correct as them, but I hope this is informative.
Things will get a lot harder before they get better.
All the predictions about the recovery taking until “at least the end of the year” are horseshit. In [...]

My 3-minute video response: What you can do about today’s economy

Yesterday a bunch of you left comments and sent me emails about what’s going on in the economy. Here’s a quick video I did to answer some of them. Check it out and see my notes below.

Worst screen capture ever?
0:01 — Intro: We’re going to talk about what’s happening with the economy, asking the right [...]

I saved $2,500 by buying 2 items abroad. Is that un-American?

My post on why we’re all hypocrites about our weddings was one of my most popular.
So since one of my friends just got engaged, I thought you’d find this interesting. When I had dinner with him last night, I asked him how the wedding planning was going. He told me that to save money, he’s [...]