The familiar distinction between good debt and bad debt sorts borrowing by what it buys: education and property good, consumption bad. It is a reasonable rule of thumb and it misses the factor that determines most outcomes, which is price. Rate and term matter more than purpose A loan for a sensible purpose at a […]
Saving fails more often as a decision than as a plan. A monthly choice between putting money aside and spending it is a choice you have to win every single time, and the odds of winning twelve times a year are not good. Automation removes the choice, which is the entire point. Move it the […]
A card with an annual fee is not automatically worse than one without. It is a trade: a known cost in exchange for benefits whose value depends entirely on whether you use them. The calculation is straightforward, but it has to be done with your own spending rather than the example in the marketing. Count […]
Point-of-sale financing has become the default rather than the exception. Spreading a cost into instalments is now offered on almost everything, often with no interest, and the decision has been made deliberately frictionless. A short set of questions restores the friction where it is useful. Would I buy this at the full price today? Instalment […]
A credit score is widely treated as a report card on financial virtue. It is not. It is a prediction, generated by a model, of how likely you are to fall behind on a payment in the near future. Understanding that distinction explains most of the behaviour that otherwise seems arbitrary. Payment history and utilisation […]
The 50/30/20 rule divides take-home pay into halves and fifths: fifty percent to needs, thirty to wants, twenty to savings and debt repayment. Its value is not accuracy. Its value is that it is simple enough to apply without a spreadsheet and gives an immediate sense of whether a budget is roughly sane. What it […]
