Is the issue that you have given the govt electronic access to a particular account? You could revoke their access. If you’re really paranoid, you could change it to a different account in the same institution. I know there’s a lot of insanity in Washington, but I don’t see a scenario where it leads to errors where they wrongly take money from an account that you gave them access to for tax payment purposes.

I think a HYSA is the way to go. You could put some of it in stocks, but certainly be prepared for that portion of your car fund to go down. The stock market has done great in recent years, not something you can count on continuing.

I have heard this all my life, going back to the 80s. There are always high-interest loans that unsophisticated and desperate people take out. I don’t think there’s some unique new problem.

Your income is >> 4 * rent, so you should be fine. Is it in the US? USD$500 rent sounds very cheap, unless you’re renting just a small room.

Are the cards the problem? If you used other methods of payment, e.g. paper checks and cash, would you have the same problem. If so, find the root cause of the problem. If the cards are the problem, I would stop using them and forgo the bonus points. Maybe that costs you hundreds of dollars a year, but think of forgoing them as a bank “fee” that you pay in exchange for simplicity.

All of these groups, academia, the wealthy, attorneys, union members, leadership at public companies are all just people. You can’t look at the actions of members of those groups and dismiss everyone in them. It’s not a question of those groups or people. There are just people who have to have to support liberal democracy.

So far the political instability has not affected personal finance, but it will if we (everyone without regard to group membership) don’t respect basic rights and the law.

I would be concerned about a period of higher than normal inflation like the 70s. The Fed does a good job keeping inflation around 2%. Recently it spiked briefly to around 8% but immediately came down to just above 3%. It seems possible we could see a period of inflation near 8% for several years in a row.

I am unclear what to take away from this. It says nominal consumer debt is at and all-time high, but it’s not if you consider real (inflation-adjusted) numbers. It says the ratio of debt payments to disposable income is low compared to recent decades.

So it seems, contrary to the article’s title, that there hasn’t been a furious pace of change in consumer debt.

That’s not something to joke about in these crazy times. It’s disgusting.

ask for proof of ownership from the debt collectors.

I agree with this. If it turns out you really do owe the money and you have a little money offer to settle if they’ll give you something saying the amount settles the debt in full. If they don’t have proof you owe the money, I would ignore them.

they are throwing out the mainstream press in favour of OANN and Breitbart from the Pentagon for example. They are building a “new media”, pushing thousands of random influencers and podcasters to drown out established news outlets.

It’s new that politicians take conspiracy zines seriously. It’s up to the people not to take them seriously and be suspicious of any politician who prefers them over journalists.

Trump is extorting CBS for billions just because he can.

I head he effectively took a bribe of millions by their settling a bogus lawsuit. Decades ago this would have been a huge scandal. Anything where a politician even appears to use the office to get money in their pocket looks horrible to me. I don’t understand why MAGA supporters abide this.

Institutions are being actively dismantled, some could resist, but the OPM is in serious peril. They are basically planning to replace everyone and building a new state apparatus.

I do not approve of the illegal way in which they’re doing it, but I have long wanted to decrease the size, intrusiveness, and cost of government. I want government to be more nimble. I have hope that they’re doing this because an illegal blitz, sold to the masses who pay little or no income tax as being anti-anti-bigotry, is the only practical way to shrink government. That’s me hitting the copium hard. It could be an effort to consolidate power.

We’ll see what he’ll do once he sees that Canada won’t do an Anschluss.

If Trump threatens Canada militarily, you will be proven right, and my hope will be proven to be unjustified.

They did it here in Canada to the trucker protestors.

It reinforced the need for non-central-bank digital currencies.
I never understood exactly what they did? Did they freeze all their assets, including stock portfolios, lines of credit, etc? I would have thought that would never happen in the US, but who knows. I wonder if they could freeze access to offshore accounts, e.g. Switzerland. I’m guessing Canadians affected by the freeze have moved a lot of their assets to offshore accounts now.

Credit cards pay out rewards using money they charge merchants on the transaction. The cards discourage merchants from offering a discount for people who pay in less expensive ways, but if you ask you can often get a discount for cash. Typically the cards charge merchants 3% and give you back 2%. Cards are worth it to a merchants such as gas stations but usually not worth it for companies accepting rent. If you rent from an individual, you might get a discount for giving them cash or check, but a company with hundreds of units probably prefers paying the small ACH fees to avoid dealing with physical payments.

I think it is safe. It invests mostly in US gov’t debt, which is considered the safest investment in the world. If the US gov’t defaulted, it would be a disaster for the whole banking system. That hasn’t ever happened, going back to the when the government was founded.

A third of it is in repurchase agreements, which became illiquid during the 08-09 financial crisis. MMFs like this one were in danger of “breaking the buck,” falling in price to some value less than $1 a share. To prevent people from withdrawing their money, worsening the crisis, the government stepped in and insured these funds similar to FDIC-insured bank accounts. The yields dropped to be the same as FDIC-insured bank accounts. I am not sure if they would do that in a similar crisis in the future. So FDIC-insured bank accounts are slightly safer, but they’re both very safe.

If you’re really trying to protect yourself against catastrophe, which I think is much less likely than the risk a healthy person dies of a sudden health problem or an accident, you could keep some gold or silver coins. They have stayed at the same value since antiquity, at least to the extent you can compare modern goods and services to ancient ones.

I think the most likely the despotism and the scenario @HK65@sopuli.xyz describes will not happen. The thing is if they do happen, they are disastrous. It’s similar to how in Russian roulette you’ll probably be fine. I don’t know what level of risk justifies a armed rebellion. At this point an armed rebellion would turn a disaster that might happen into a certain disaster.
I am not saying to appease them or not protest. I am still hoping the US can be saved without violent rebellion.

Protests are not going to work when they’re holding all our money,

To my knowledge they haven’t frozen any critics’ assets, although I put nothing past them.

I believe in the 2nd Amendment, but certainly NOT to overthrow the government for light and transient causes. I don’t take Trump lightly, but he hasn’t turned into a total despot yet. There is grave risk, but there’s also a chance his abuses will lead to reforms that limit Executive branch powers. I think many non-Republicans like our guns as much as Republicans, but we don’t bluster about them and unlike Republicans we don’t rebel because our candidate lost an election.

I liked The Scientist and Engineers’s Guide to DSP.

We don’t want to do it but it is the only way to deal with a bully. I think tariffs are bad for the people of the country that levies them. If another country puts a tariff on things my country sells, I’m for unilaterally disarming. Let the other country’s people enjoy the dubious industry-protecting benefits of that tax, and let us enjoy the benefits of buying whatever is a good deal.

I think it’s nonsense to think that when people freely trade money for goods, the person receiving the money “wins” and the person receiving the goods “loses”. They made the trade because it was good for both parties.

I’m American, and we’re pursing the opposite of what I think is good policy.

This is one of the first claims I remember reading about Star Trek on BBSs linked by FidoNet. It’s funny how it hasn’t changed.