Experiences

The TRUTH about Meal Replacements

I used to be interested in things like sugar-free food and MSG but lately I've decided it's better to avoid all that junk for basic, simple whole-foods.

Buy now, pay later is a troublesome type of phantom debt, experts say

Buy now, pay later is a troublesome type of phantom debt, experts say

Some types of debt can haunt you.

“Buy now, pay later” loans, especially, can be hard to track, making it easier for more consumers to get in over their heads, some experts say — even more than credit cards, which are simpler to account for, despite sky-high interest rates.

Over the holidays, the use of installment payments hit an all-time high, up 14% year over year, according to Adobe’s latest online shopping data.

Buy now, pay later is now one of the fastest-growing categories in consumer finance, according to a separate report by Wells Fargo.

NPR

December U.S. inflation up 3.4% : NPR

Inflation ticked up a little in December on the back of higher costs for housing and car insurance.

The overall cost of living in December was up 3.4% from a year ago, a slightly larger increase than the 3.1% rate in November, according to data from the Labor Department on Thursday.

The cost of motor vehicle insurance rose 1.5% in December from the previous month, marking a 20.3% increase compared to the previous year.

The cost of housing accounted for more than half the monthly increase in consumer prices. Food and energy prices were also up in December. The so-called "core" inflation rate, which excludes food and energy prices, was 3.9% last month.

NPR

Researchers find a massive number of plastic particles in bottled water : NPR

Microscopic pieces of plastic are everywhere. Now, they've been found in bottled water in concentrations 10 to 100 times more than previously estimated.

Researchers from Columbia University and Rutgers University found roughly 240,000 detectable plastic fragments in a typical liter of bottled water. The study was published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.