The Civil Life

It’s not clear who’s worse, the people filling out credit card applications after stealing your identity or the credit card companies themselves. At least there is some chance the identity thieves will go to jail after taking over your credit, while the credit card companies enrich themselves legally with hidden fees and exorbitant interest rates. My wife and I signed up for American Express Blue Cash, thinking that we’d be making 5% back on some of our purchases, and intially we did, but not for long.

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The economic slowdown and bad loans have taken a bite out of everyone’s credit score. Even if your credit score hasn’t changed, you’ll find it much harder to get good terms on loans. If your credit score has been significantly lowered, you’ll find it difficult to get loans and you may be locked out of other opportunities, like nice apartment rentals. In this post, we’ll talk about what a credit score is.

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The average cost of a wedding in the U.S. is now around $20,000 — the price of a new car.  It seems wrong to handicap a young couple’s family just when they are starting out with such huge expenses.  We were able to cut our wedding costs signficantly with a few simple steps:

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This blog is for those selfless civil servants who make our government work. A chance to serve our county while receiving a modest but steady income takes the type of person who builds the good life through careful thought, moderation, and a long term outlook that avoids the pitfalls of modern finance. I’ll focus on straightforward methods to stretch your dollar and make good use of your benefits to build a solid foundation for your life outside of work. It’s all about the pursuit of happiness.