Annual Benefits Enrollment: My Cost Increasing 10%
The open enrollment period for my company’s 2010 benefits came to a close yesterday. My procrastination came to an end when I logged into our benefits management website, reviewed the options one last time, and decided to stick with the same plan I’ve had since I joined the company, an HMO plan offered by Aetna and a dental PPO plan offered by the same provider. Overall, including my other benefits such as long term disability, the cost of the deductions to my paycheck will increase 10% in 2010 over the cost in 2009. Part of this is due to a change in my company’s subsidy formula. In 2009, the company has been paying for a certain percentage of the total c

Thanksgiving on a Budget
Over the past couple of weeks, six finalists have been auditioning for the opening of “staff writer” at Consumerism Commentary. Each is providing two guest articles to share with readers. After the six writers have shared their guest articles, readers will have an opportunity to provide feedback before we select the staff writer. This article is presented by Ray, the owner and primary author of Financial Highway, where he discusses investing, saving and practical money management concepts. Thanksgiving is just a few days away and with the new area of frugality most Americans are

6 Items That Exemplify Conspicuous Spending
This post is part of the one day blog event “The Spectrum of Personal Finance.” In this event, comic book nerd Brian of My Next Buck, will discuss 8 different emotions (taken from the Green Lantern comic series) and relate them to personal finance. Here at Consumerism Commentary we will be looking at Avarice. To view the rest of the event look at the bottom of the page to see the other blogs hosting articles. Conspicuous spending and greed have played a large role in bringing us to the current fledgling economy. People overextending themselves and buyin

GAO Report Seems to Back Up Convenience Stores
We told you back in July about the Credit Card Fair Fee Act of 2009. To summarize: Visa and Mastercard skims a percentage of the retail price every time you use a card to buy something. It’s called an “interchange fee”. Allegedly, U.S. merchants pay up to six times more for this service than merchants in other countries, and are unable to negotiate fees. Generally, this sort of scenario is called a monopoly, but so far the arguments I’ve seen for and against have avoided that word, probably because Visa and Mastercard are different companies. Duopoly, mayb

Is a College Degree Worth the Investment?
Over the next couple of weeks, six finalists will be auditioning for the opening of “staff writer” at Consumerism Commentary. Each will be providing two guest articles to share with readers. After the six writers have shared their guest articles, readers will have an opportunity to provide feedback before we select the staff writer. This article is presented by Debbie Dragon, a full time freelance writer and co-owner of ReliableWriters. Last year, in spite of the recession, the difference in the median earnings between high school graduates and college graduates rose to record hi