Money Crashers: Are We in a Recession?

Back in June, Money Crashers had me rush through an article on the question of whether a recession was on its way. But apparently, it only took a couple of months for that question to become obsolete. They put me back to work answering a new one: Is the recession already here?

Spoiler alert: The answer is a definite maybe. There are different ways to define a recession, and the current state of the U.S. economy fits only some of them. It's possible that we have entered a recession at this point, but it's just too soon to make the call.

But one thing is clear: Times are getting tougher. Inflation remains high, and the Fed's attempts to tame it with interest rate hikes, necessary as they may be, will inevitably bring economic pain. So whether we're already in a recession or not, it makes sense to recession-proof your finances. At the end of the article, I discuss ways to do this (and another of my pieces covers these strategies in more detail).

Are We in a Recession Currently? Could We Be Headed That Way?

 

Money Crashers: Inflation Reduction Act of 2022

I've already devoted one post on this blog to the Inflation Reduction Act and the fact that it could help the U.S. reduce its emissions by 40% from 2005 levels. But I haven't really gotten into the nuts and bolts of how it achieves those reductions. And I haven't even begun to talk about the other provisions in the bill, which are fairly significant in their own right: boosting U.S. industry, controlling Medicare costs, closing some big tax loopholes, and improving tax collection.

If you're curious about all that stuff, my latest piece for Money Crashers can help. It doesn't get too far into the weeds, but it does provide a broad overview of what this new law does, how it could affect you, and what it will cost. (Spoiler alert: It more than pays for itself.)

Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 – What’s in the Bill, What Does It Cost & What Does It Mean for You?

 

Money Crashers: Two recession articles

With all the headlines abuzz about the chances of an upcoming recession, Money Crashers gave me a rush assignment to prepare and/or update several articles on recession-related topics. The first one is my attempt to answer the question of whether we are, in fact, headed for a recession. I explore eight indicators that can point to a possible recession and what they say (spoiler alert: while they're not favorable, they're not conclusive either).

 Is a Recession Coming in 2022? – 8 Warning Signs of Economic Slowdown 

The second is on how to be ready for the recession if it hits — or, more accurately, when it hits, since there's sure to be another recession at some point. This is a full rewrite of my earlier piece on how to be prepared for a recession, covering most of the same topics (emergency fund, budgeting, passive income, investments, debt, employability, insurance), but with updated stats and new organization.

How to Prepare for a Recession - 9 Ways to Protect Your Money & Finances

Money Crashers: Two inflation articles

Just a quick update to fill you in on my two most recent articles at Money Crashers. The first is a quick "explainer" on inflation, a much-discussed topic in the news these days. It covers all the basics about causes inflation, what its effects can be, how it's measured, some historical examples, and the monetary policy tools the Fed uses to combat it. So the next time someone (inevitably) starts grumbling about inflation, you'll be able to join intelligently in the conversation.

What Is Inflation (Definition) – Causes & Effects of Rate on Prices & Interest

One particular form of inflation a lot of people are worrying about is rising gas prices. One way to deal with them is to use a gas savings app, which helps you find the cheapest gas station in your area and fill up your tank for less. For my second piece, I compare the features of six top gas savings apps to help you find the one that's best for you.

The Best Apps to Find Cheap Gas Stations & Save Money On Fuel

Three new articles

Three new articles of mine have popped up in the past week — two on Money Crashers and one at Perch Energy. Two of them fall squarely in the realm of ecofrugality, and the third is only loosely related, but still interesting.

Let's start with the Perch Energy piece: Pros & Cons of Renewable Energy: Advantages Over Fossil Fuels. Anyone who reads this blog knows that renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, and hydropower have many advantages over fossil fuels. They’re cheaper, they’re greener, and they’ll never run out. Transitioning from dirty fossil fuels to clean renewable energy is essential to stopping climate change and building a sustainable future. 

But to meet this goal, there are certain challenges we need to overcome. In this article, I outline the most common renewable energy sources in use today, as well as others that show promise for the future, and explore their pros and cons. I conclude with some practical tips (again, probably already familiar to regular readers) on how to be a part of the clean energy future.

Moving on to the Money Crashers articles, the one more directly related to ecofrugality is Buy Nothing Project – What It Is, Rules, How to Start and Participate in One. The Buy Nothing Project is a lot like Freecycle, but with a different platform and different rules about who can share what with whom. And the nice thing is, there's no reason you can't be a member of both. Check out the article to learn how the Buy Nothing Project was founded, how it works, and how to try it for yourself. 

The other Money Crashers piece is Market Economy – What It Is & Characteristics of Free Enterprise Systems. It's not related to ecofrugality as such, but it does provide context for the system within which we make our ecofrugal choices, and how it can work for and against us. It's a basic primer on how markets work, what they do well, what they do poorly, and how they compare to the alternatives.

Environmental Sustainability piece for Perch

A quick update here to let you know about another piece I did for Perch Energy, this one on the topic of environmental sustainability. 

Sustainability is sometimes described as “saving the planet.” I think this is misleading, because our planet survived for billions of years before humans existed, and it'll continue to survive after we’re gone. It's more accurate to frame sustainability in terms of saving ourselves—ensuring that our species can survive and prosper long into the future. And since we don’t have another planet to move to, environmental sustainability means preserving the resources on this planet that we need to live and to thrive. 

So how do we do that? That's what the rest of the piece is about. It provides a simple illustration of how sustainability works, some examples of what we're doing now that isn't sustainable, some goals we must meet in order to achieve a sustainable future, and some examples of barriers we must overcome to get there. 

Environmental Sustainability: What It Means & Why It Matters

Money Crashers: Hyperinflation

Money Crashers recently recruited me to write an article they wanted turned around in a big hurry. Earlier this week, Jack Dorsey — chief Twit at Twitter and occupant of the corner office at Square — tweeted that the hyperinflation was coming "soon" to the U.S. and would “change everything.” This, apparently, caused a big enough stir that the editors thought we'd better cash in on it quickly with an article about hyperinflation.

In my piece, I cover how economists define hyperinflation, some notable examples from world history, what causes it, and what it can do to the economy. I use a hypothetical example to illustrate how out-of-control price growth in the U.S., could affect spending and saving, debt, businesses, investments, and government spending. (Short version: it's very, very bad.)

So does that mean it's time to panic and put everything into Bitcoin, as Jack suggests? Absolutely not. The modest inflation we're seeing at the moment — about 5% over the past year — is certainly higher than it's been in the past couple of decades, but it's far from the highest it's been in my lifetime, and it's not even remotely like the nightmare scenario of hyperinflation. And there's been essentially nothing to indicate that's about to change.

Yes, inflation is rising, and yes, there are things you can do to protect yourself from it. (I've already covered some of them in previous articles.) But hyperinflation is not, repeat not, happening now, and is not remotely likely to happen in the near future. Get a grip, Jack.

Hyperinflation - Definition, Cause, What Happens to Investments and Debt

One last chance for a price on carbon

This week we got some very bad news about climate change. The latest report from the IPCC tells us that, no matter what we do, the earth is going to continue to get hotter for at least the next 30 years. We're in for overall warming of at least 1.5 degrees Celsius, complete with life-threatening heat waves, crop-destroying droughts, increasingly powerful hurricanes, coral reef die-offs, and one to two feet of sea level rise. And that's the best outcome. If we don't take immediate and dramatic action to curb carbon emissions and start drawing down existing carbon — within the next four years — we could see warming of up to 4 degrees, which is pretty much game over.

But there was also some good news: our government is closer than ever before to doing something about it. The budget bill that just passed the Senate includes plans for a clean electricity standard, tax incentives and research grants for renewable energy, and tariffs on goods from countries with weaker emissions standards.

However, there's one piece that's missing: a carbon fee.

As I explained last year, this is an incredibly simple and powerful idea to reduce carbon emissions by simply making them more expensive. It requires no complicated government oversight and allows polluters to choose their own approach to reducing emissions, using existing technologies or developing new ones. It would let the market find the most cost-effective solutions automatically. And better still, the money collected from the carbon fee could be distributed directly to taxpayers as a carbon dividend, offsetting the increased costs of fuel (while still giving consumers an incentive to cut their usage and save still more). So it helps the climate and puts money straight into your wallet. Who could say no to that?

You can read more details about carbon taxes in my Money Crashers article on the topic, but according to The Atlantic, you'd be wasting your time. Last month, that publication declared the carbon tax — an idea it described as "straightforward, perhaps even beautiful" and "a particular favorite of the economics profession" — to be officially dead, saying President Biden had demonstrated an "utter lack of interest in passing it" in the face of overwhelming opposition from the fossil fuel industry. This despite the fact that lots of other countries already have them, and Europe is now planning an extra tax on imports from countries that don't.

But it doesn't have to be that way.

See, the infrastructure bill was just the appetizer. The main course is the budget bill the Senate also unveiled its plan for last week. It's going to include a lot of the clean-energy provisions that got cut from the infrastructure bill, and a price on carbon could be one of them — if enough people tell their members of Congress they want it. And you, yes, you, could be one of those people.

It's very simple. Just go to the website of the Citizens' Climate Lobby (CCL) and click on "Take Action" to "Write Congress" or "Call Congress," or both. It will find you the names and contact into of your Senators and Representative and even provide a message to include in your call or email. The CCL suggests wording the request slightly differently depending on whether your member of Congress is a Democrat ("I'm a constituent, and I’m calling/writing to urge you to support and advocate for a carbon price in the reconciliation package") or a Republican ("I'm a constituent, and I’m calling/writing to urge you to enact a federal carbon price so that U.S. businesses can avoid paying Europe’s border tariff and remain internationally competitive"), but either way, it takes five minutes.

If members of Congress are absolutely deluged with requests for a carbon fee, there's still a chance it can make it into the final budget. The CCL calls this the best chance we've had to get a carbon price through Congress in over a decade.

It's just five minutes of your time, and it could make all the difference for the future of our species.

Money Crashers: Income Inequality in America

My latest piece for Money Crashers is one that I really had to sweat over. It tackles a vast and complex issue: the growing gap between rich and poor in America. It took a lot of research and many rounds of editing to get it right.

But I'd like to think the end result is worth the effort. This piece delves fairly deeply into the four biggest questions about the income gap in the U.S.:

• Just how big is it? The short answer is, it's bigger than in most developed nations and still growing. But the article breaks down the answer in more detail, covering gaps in income vs. hourly wages, how income inequality is tied to wealth inequality, and how inequality in this country is inextricably linked with racial inequality.
• Why is it a problem? I explore the many ways inequality is tied to other problems in society (as a cause, an effect, or both). Among other things, I discuss the connection between high levels of inequality and high rates of poverty; how inequality can both cause and be caused by poor education, high crime rates, and poor health outcomes; how inequality can erode social trust and, at high levels, general happiness; and the case for and against inequality as a drag on economic growth.
• What's causing it? There are lots of answers to this question, and I can only skim the surface of the biggest ones: technological change, globalization, immigration, "superstar effects" (i.e., a few talented individuals or companies scooping up a big share of the money to be made in a given field), the decline of labor unions, the stagnant minimum wage, extravagant compensation for CEOs and other high-level executives, and other government policies such as tax cuts, deregulation, and the weakening of the social safety net.
• What can be done about it? This is the biggest question, and the toughest to answer definitively. But I point to a few changes that could obviously make a difference, such as changes in the tax code, improvements in education, a higher minimum wage, union-friendly laws, more regulation of the financial sector, changes in immigration policy, and a greater emphasis on full employment at the Fed. You can argue about how much impact each of these changes would have, and even about whether some of them could do more harm than good, but they're all important to include in the conversation.

I won't attempt to claim that this article is the last thing you'll ever need to read about income inequality. But I think I can sincerely claim it would be useful to make it the first thing you read to get a grip on the subject.

Income Inequality in America – Definition, Causes & Statistics

Money Crashers: Gender Pay Gap – Negative Effects of Inequality & How to Fix Wages

Just a quick update here: my article on the gender wage gap has now been split into two. The first one, at the original URL, covers the size of the pay gap and what causes it. This new one explains why the pay gap is a problem for society and what can be done to fix it.

Gender Pay Gap – Negative Effects of Inequality & How to Fix Wages 

 

 

Money Crashers: Two health insurance articles

Money Crashers has popped up two of my articles in the past few days. Both deal with the topic of health insurance, but from very different angles.

The first article is a broad overview of the Medicaid program: how it works, who is helped by it, what its critics (on the left and right) have to say about it, how justified those criticisms are, and what could be done to make the program more sustainable in the future.

What Is Medicaid – How It Works, Criticisms & Future

The second piece is about private health insurance — which, for most of us, means workplace health plans. It walks you through the complex process of choosing the right plan for yourself and your family, from the general (how health insurance and health insurance marketplaces work) to the nitty-gritty details of comparing types of plans, costs, and coverage.

How to Choose the Best Health Insurance Plan for Your Family

Hope this information is helpful for you during this season of peace, joy, and open enrollment.

Money Crashers: Loyalty programs and Inflation vs. your retirement savings

Two more of my articles have just gone live on Money Crashers. The first is one I started ages ago that languished for a while in the editorial loop before they decided to bring it up to date and publish it. It's all about store loyalty programs: which stores have them, what their benefits are, and what, if anything, they cost. I review all the top-rated loyalty programs from department stores, drugstores, eateries, supermarkets, and specialty stores to determine which ones deserve a spot on your crowded keyring (or phone).

12+ Retailers With the Best Customer Loyalty Programs

The second is a companion to my earlier piece on the effects of inflation. This one focuses specifically on how inflation affects your retirement portfolio and what you can do to minimize its effects. I explain how to adjust your retirement plans for inflation and how to increase both your contributions and your rate of return to make sure you keep up. The piece covers the investments that pay off best in the long-term (mostly stocks, especially those that pay dividends), those that make the best hedges against inflation (such as real estate and inflation-adjusted bonds), and those that aren't necessarily good choices (commodities, precious metals, and art).

How to Combat Inflation’s Negative Effects on Your Retirement Savings

 

Money Crashers: Living on the Minimum Wage – Is It Possible in 2020?

Five years ago, I published a Money Crashers article on the Live the Wage Challenge, which I had taken in the summer of 2014. I wrote about the parameters of the challenge; the experiences of politicians, bloggers, and others who had taken it; and the limitations of the challenge as a way to understand the difficulties of living on the federal minimum wage, which at that time had not been increased in six years.

Fast-forward to 2020: The minimum wage is still stuck at $7.25 per hour, and my editors at Money Crashers think it would be a bit more relevant to show how difficult it is for real people to live on this amount today. Hence, the piece has undergone a complete rewrite. Instead of talking about the self-imposed challenge of living on an imaginary minimum-wage budget for one week, it's now about the real challenges of trying to do it for a whole year.

I've created a fictional minimum-wage worker, called Kai (the most neutral-sounding name I could think of, allowing you to picture a man or a woman of any age or race) who makes the minimum wage, 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, with no time off for vacation or sick leave. The piece goes through Kai's budget piece by piece, showing what they pay for taxes (which, yes, minimum-wage workers do have), housing, utilities, transportation, food, health care, and everything else — and how it leaves them with essentially nothing for emergency or retirement savings. And, since Kai is only one imaginary person, I also look at some media profiles of real people living on minimum wage to show what they have to do to get by.

I'm rather proud of this new piece, and I would go so far as to call it a must-read for anyone who really wants to understand the current debate over raising the minimum wage. 

Living on the Minimum Wage – Is It Possible in 2020?

Money Crashers: 7 Effects of Inflation & How to Protect Yourself From the Consequences

Economists agree that the U.S. is now officially in a recession — the most severe one in most people's lifetimes. What they disagree on is what its long-term effects will be. It could be quick and brutal or long and grinding; it could permanently damage some industries while boosting others; and most puzzling of all, it could cause the dollar to either grow or shrink in value. A recent "Planet Money" episode explains how the current recession could lead to either runaway inflation, in which your money is worth measurably less each week than the week before, or deflation, in which both prices and incomes sink through the floor. Both of which are very, very bad.

To help prepare its readers for both possibilities, Money Crashers updated its article on deflation, and it fell to me to tackle the one on inflation. I explain how inflation can be both helpful and harmful — on the one hand, raising prices so your money is worth less, but on the other, boosting incomes so you have more of it. And I outline how inflation can affect all aspects of your financial life —cost of living, income, the job market, government benefits, debt, savings, and investments — and how to plan for these effects so you get more of the upside of inflation and less of the downside.

7 Effects of Inflation & How to Protect Yourself From the Consequences

Since this is a fairly big topic, there are two other articles on inflation coming out soon as well: one on the causes of inflation and one devoted specifically to protecting your retirement portfolio from inflation. Keep an eye out for those in the near future.

Money Crashers: 4 new articles

In the past two days, a whole bunch of my backlogged articles that have been sitting on Money Crashers' back burner have popped to the front. Here's a quick rundown of what you can now find on the site to inform and entertain you:

12 Best Financial Podcasts About Money, Business & Investing in 2020

Money Crashers already had articles about the best personal finance books and TV shows, but none about the most modern medium for learning about financial topics, podcasts. This piece remedies that, providing a roundup of the 12 most useful podcasts for learning about a variety of topics: general personal finance, business, investing, and FIRE (for Financial Independence Retire Early).

Podcasts are handy because you can listen to them hands-free while you're doing something else, like driving or doing laundry. I personally like to turn one on every day while I shower. When I started this piece, I didn't have one for every day of the week, so I took advantage of the research process to explore several and discovered two new favorites, "Planet Money" and its shorter sister podcast, "The Indicator," which are now part of my regular rotation. (I liked the one episode of the Tim Ferris Podcast I listened to as well, but it's far too long for me to tune in every week.)

10 Inexpensive Yet Romantic Valentine’s Day Date Ideas

Money Crashers has evidently learned its lesson since the time it published one of my holiday articles a mere three days before Christmas, when Hanukkah was already over. It's now fast-tracking all pieces that are time-sensitive, which means this roundup of tips for inexpensive Valentine's Day dates is actually out in plenty of time for Valentine's Day. It counters the advertisers' messages about what a romantic date "should" be (a lavish dinner at a four-star restaurant, a weekend getaway at a charming B&B, a hot-air balloon ride) with budget-friendly options for dining and entertainment, whether you're looking for a night out on the town or a cozy evening at home.

10 Ways to Enjoy a Romantic Weekend Getaway for Less

Continuing in the romantic vein, this article on romantic weekend getaways had been in the pipeline since last August, but the impending arrival of Valentine's Day finally gave Money Crashers and incentive to push it out of the "to edit" folder where it had been languishing for months. So if you've been thinking this year's Valentine's Day weekend would be a nice opportunity for a romantic getaway with your partner, but you just don't think you can afford it, this article comes right on time for you. It explains how you can plan the weekend getaway of your dreams on a tighter budget by thinking outside the box about where you go, how you get there, and what you do while you’re away.

Estate & Inheritance Tax – Threshold, Rates & Calculating How Much You Owe

And now for something completely unromantic: estate and inheritance taxes. As the old saying goes, nothing's certain except death and taxes, and nobody likes either one. However, the combination of the two — estate and inheritance taxes — is easier to avoid than most people realize. Both the federal estate tax and state inheritance and estate taxes (in the states that have them) are steeply progressive, hitting only the richest of the rich. And even for them, it's possible to minimize the tax with careful planning. Here, I explain in detail how the federal estate tax works, what is and isn't included, the difference between an estate tax and an inheritance tax, which states have each kind, and how to plan ahead so that taxes will hit your heirs as lightly as possible. (Personally, I'm on board with the 50 percent of Americans who think the estate tax has already been cut too much and we really need to push it back up a bit — but I'm willing to concede that until the government gets around to doing that, there's no reason to make your heirs pay more than they actually have to.)

Money Crashers: 7 Things You Need to Do Now to Prepare for the Next Recession

Earlier this week, as I was looking at the traffic report for my Money Crashers articles to see which topics seemed to be the most popular with readers, I noticed something interesting: For the past several months, my story on getting help in a financial emergency received far and away more hits than any other. And that was interesting, because the article had first come out two years ago, and it certainly wasn't hugely popular at the time. But around mid-2018, it started creeping up the ranks, from 3% of all site traffic to 4%, then 5%, and now over 7%. Clearly, some time in the past year or so, more and more people have felt the need to know about this.

To me, this looked a lot like a sign that, no matter what the official jobs numbers say, there's definitely some weakness in the economy. And right around the same time, I read a New York Times editorial by Paul Krugman—who was, let us not forget, one of the only economists to see the subprime mortgage crisis coming before it hit—indicating that he thinks so too.

And so I dropped a line to my editor and suggested that the article I'd written last year on how to prepare for a recession, which they'd been sitting on for several months, probably should be published now—because if we waited much longer, it could be too late to do anyone any good.

So here it is: my take on how to weatherize your life to ride out the coming economic storm. It talks about how to:

1. Improve your employability, so you'll be less likely to lose your job and/or better equipped to find a new one
2. Develop extra income streams, which will help you get by if your income declines
3. Increase your emergency savings, so you can survive a period of unemployment if necessary
4. Reduce your expenses, so you won't have to tighten your belt in a hurry later on
5. Pay down debts, so you won't have to struggle to pay them later on
6. Increase your insurance coverage, so a disaster won't bankrupt you
7. Adjust your investments, not to make them "recession-proof" (which is neither possible nor desirable), but to make sure you're not risking more money than you can afford to lose

Read all about it here: 7 Things You Need to Do Now to Prepare for the Next Recession

Three more Money Crashers articles

Money Crashers is continuing to crank out all those articles of mine it's been sitting on for the past few months. Three more have come out in the past couple of days, all on very different topics.

The first piece deals with a subject you've seen me cover here many times before: repairing your old stuff so you don't have to buy new stuff. One of the main tenets of the ecofrugal lifestyle, which is pretty much meant to be exactly the opposite of the dystopia in Brave New World, is "mending is better than ending," so we try to keep our stuff working as long as possible. We've successfully repaired all kinds of small items, including books with detached covers, ripped jeans, and Roman shades, but we're most vigilant of all with big items that cost us big money to begin with. We're rigorous about maintaining our home, car, bike, computers, and appliances so that we can squeeze as many years of useful life out of them as possible.

In this Money Crashers article, I explore this topic in detail. I explain which items it's most important to maintain if you want to save money in the long run, and how to do it.

6 Things You Should Maintain & Take Care of to Save Money Long-Term

The second article is about a newer topic that's been making news recently: universal basic income, or UBI. This radical new government benefit would simply give a flat payment to every single American adult each month, with no strings attached. Tech billionaires say this will be necessary in the face of the widespread unemployment they say is certain to occur as machines replace humans; politicians  argue that it's better than our current system of government benefits because there are no bureaucratic hoops to jump through, and no social stigma attached to accepting a benefit that everyone else is getting to. But opponents point out that UBI would be enormously expensive and wasteful, giving benefits equally to beggars and billionaires.

In this piece, I delve into the history of UBI, previous experiments with it around the world, the arguments for and against it (and the extent to which they're supported by the data), and the chances it will ever become a reality in the United States. And I examine a couple of alternative forms of aid that could offer many of the benefits of UBI with fewer drawbacks.

What Is Universal Basic Income & Could It Work in the U.S.?

And finally, I'm back on familiar ground with the subject of flooring choices for your home. This article is about the pros and cons of the most popular flooring choices, so it doesn't cover the paper floor technique we used in the downstairs room, but it explores the relative merits of hardwood, engineered wood, bamboo, ceramic tile, laminate, vinyl, linoleum, cork, and carpet. For each one, I cover such considerations as how it looks, how it feels underfoot, ease of installation, durability, cost, and, where appropriate, environmental considerations. (This last item apparently really annoyed one reader, who called the information useless and said, "I would floor my house with skins from baby seals if it looked good and added value to my house." I'm assuming, perhaps optimistically, that the majority of readers will not share this viewpoint.)

9 Best Flooring Options for Your Home & How to Choose on a Budget

Three new articles on MoneyCrashers

After a long dry spell, Money Crashers has just put up several of my articles at once. Here's a quick rundown of what you can learn about:

A Consumer Protection Law That May Hurt More Than It Helps

With interest rates for consumer loans climbing even as interest on savings plummets, some legislators think the solution is to bring back usury laws - this time on a nationwide scale. But the proposed Loan Shark Prevention Act could backfire. By ending high-interest loans, it could cut off all sources of credit for low-income borrowers - or drive them into the arms of genuine loan sharks who operate outside the law. Learn what this act does, how it could affect the lending sphere, and what other alternatives could do more to help low-income borrowers.

Loan Shark Prevention Act – What It Is and How It Would Affect You

A New Way for Scammers to Target You

Ever had some nice people from "the power company" knock on your door, eager to help you save money on your utility bill? Yeah, sorry to disappoint you, but that's a scam. And it's just one of several utility scams making the rounds now. Utility scammers woo you with the promise of lower bills on your water, gas, or electric service - or threaten you with having it cut off. Learn how to recognize these bogus promises and threats for what they are.

6 Home Utility Company Scams to Beware Of (Water, Electric & Gas)

The Best TV Shows About Money (Including YouTube)

Have you ever read a book or an article on personal finance and felt like you just weren't taking it in? Maybe the problem was the format. When your information comes with a healthy dose of entertainment, you're more likely to pay attention and remember it afterward. That's what makes videos (on TV or YouTube) a good way to learn about money. Whether you're interested in choosing investments, starting a business, or just managing your personal finances, there's a show that can help you and keep you entertained at the same time.

7 Best TV Shows to Watch to Learn About Money, Finance & Business

Money Crashers: What Does Gentrification Mean for Neighborhoods?

My latest article on Money Crashers was inspired by one of my favorite podcasts, Science Vs. In a typical episode of this show, the hosts tackle a contentious topic, usually one that's been getting a bit of news coverage recently, and explore the science behind it. It was this show that convinced me non-dairy "schmilks" were better for the planet than milk, and that first clued me in that organic food might not actually be better for the environment. And even when an episode only tells me what I already knew (such as, "Yes, climate change is definitely real and dangerous"), it's fun to listen to.

This particular episode dealt with the topic of gentrification. The questions it sought to address were:

• Does gentrification really force long-time residents out of their homes?
• Are newcomers in gentrifying areas more likely to call the cops on their neighbors?
• Does gentrification provide benefits like more jobs and better schools? And if so, for whom?

This topic interested me because, a year or two earlier, I'd gotten into a heated debate on Medium on this topic. I'd just recently seen an article about a study that found the answer to this first question, contrary to popular belief, is no, and I brought it up in the comments section of the article "Optimization is Gentrification." The author of the original article merely raised a few reasonable quibbles about my comment, but another reader violently attacked it, arguing that I clearly "wasn't from around here" and "didn't know what I was talking about," and that if I believed any study that appeared to show gentrification was anything but an unmitigated evil, I was either "deluded" or "so privileged that nothing could touch me." I kept trying to steer the discussion away from the personal and toward the practical by seeking out and referring to other studies, but she merely slammed me for "citing statistics" at her about a topic that, to her, was deeply personal.

I eventually gave up, realizing that this person had no interest in talking about what I wanted to talk about: the ways in which gentrification could be both positive and negative, and how it might be possible to maximize the positive effects while mitigating the negative ones. But the thing is, even if she wasn't interested in talking about it, I still was. And after listening to the podcast, it occurred to me that I actually had a way of bringing it up that might reach more readers, possibly including some whose minds weren't already made up.

So, in my Money Crashers piece on gentrification, I've done my best to explore the issue from every possible angle. I've considered all the claims made about gentrification, both by supporters and by opponents, and examined every study I could find to see which ones were borne out by the evidence. I've delved into gentrification's complicated impact on displacement, culture, property values, local business, schools, and crime, as well as and the problems that non-gentrifying neighborhoods face compared to gentrifying ones. And I've tried to present all this data in a way in as clear and compelling a way as possible.

Here's what I came up with. Like my detractor on Medium, you may not like my conclusions, but you can't accuse me of not doing my homework.

What Does Gentrification Mean for Neighborhoods? – Benefits vs. Negative Effects

Why do I do this?

Yet another paper was published this week—this one by the National Centre for Climate Restoration in Australia—warning that our species could have far less time than we thought to save our civilization from climate change apocalypse. The paper outlines a worst-case scenario in which greenhouse gas emissions peak in 2030, resulting in warming of 3°C by 2050. Sea levels rise by half a meter, with another meter or more expected by 2100; over a billion people are displaced from the tropics, where it's now too hot to survive; water becomes scarce across much of the globe; food production drops and food prices skyrocket; and all in all, there's a "high likelihood of human civilization coming to an end."

The authors concede that this isn't the most likely outcome of global warming, but it's a possible outcome. The only sure way to avert it, they argue, is (with Australian spellings) "a near-term, society-wide, emergency mobilisation of labour and resources, of a scale unprecedented in peacetime, to build a zero-emissions industrial system and draw down carbon to protect human civilisation." In other words, my decision to switch from dairy to almond milk just isn't going to cut it.

So why do I bother? Why, in the face of planet-wide disaster, do I persist in sweating the small stuff—patching pants, carrying my own takeout containers, trying to minimize the water used for dishwashing? Why don't I stop wasting my time whipping up homemade conditioner, and instead focus my energies on lobbying my legislators, who are actually in a position to do something about it—as this article in Quartz recommends?

Well, for one thing, I do lobby my legislators. I've been doing it for decades, in fact; signing petitions, sending letters and e-mails, attending protests, and of course, voting for the candidates who promise to do something about this problem. And so far, at least as far as I can tell, it hasn't made a hell of a lot of difference. Sure, I can urge my particular House and Senate members to vote for a carbon tax or a ban on harmful chemicals, but what good will that do when the White House is occupied by a man who insists climate change is no big deal and the Senate is controlled by a party that bows to that leader's every whim? Even if one of these bills passed the Democrat-controlled House, it would never so much as come up for a vote in the Republican-controlled Senate, and even if somehow it managed to get through both houses, it would surely be vetoed.

In short, I can't control my government's actions, but I can control my own. And when every week brings another news story about how this administration is going to extreme lengths to boost fossil fuel consumption by any means necessary, even if it means hurting our own auto industry, small efforts like growing my own vegetables and hanging my clothes on a line—even if they're essentially meaningless in the grand scheme of things—help me keep myself sane. I may not be able to make a real difference to my country, but I can at least make a difference in my own little corner of it.

But more than that, I don't truly believe my actions as a consumer are meaningless. Indeed, classical economics teaches that the choices of individual consumers, like myself, are the main driving force behind big changes in how "business as usual" works.

Let's take that almond milk as an example. My individual decision to switch from dairy milk to almond milk makes very little difference to the amount of dairy milk or almond milk that gets produced in our country. But add it to all the individual decisions made by other consumers all over the country, and you start to see a significant change—to be exact, a 61% growth in non-dairy milk consumption. And over time, this shift in demand leads farmers to raise fewer methane-belching cows and plant more carbon-absorbing almond trees. (Of course, they also absorb a lot of water, but overall, all the plant-based "schmilks" are much, much better for the earth than cow's milk.)

So, basically, the reason I bother with all the piddling little ecofrugal steps I write about here on the blog is that I really feel like they're my best chance to make a difference, however small. Even if each individual action I take, from using cloth rags to recycling whipped cream cans, is only a drop in the bucket, with enough drops, you can fill up a whole bucket eventually. And by sharing these strategies with you here, I can hope to spread these ideas to a community of like-minded people, and start adding their drops to the bucket as well.