The Best Stuff Written About Money in 2018

Below youll find a sampling of finance-related articles and podcasts I found thought-provoking or enraging or both in 2018.

I think they give a good overview of where America is now.

Many highlight injustices or parts of the system that need fixed.

Others put our personal finances into perspective with the larger forces shaping them.

If theres a through line, its this: Our personal finances are largely anything but purely personal.

Been Down So Long It Looks Like Debt to Me

by M.H.

College was not a right or a privilege but an inevitability on the way to a meaningful adulthood.

What an irony that the decisions I made about college when I was seventeen have derailed such a goal.

The reason for all this?

An outstanding vet bill of $89.89.

Heres What I Learned.

And if a hospital says no?

If it wont change the facility fee code, or doesnt offer a prompt payment discount?

The patient is essentially stuck.

In those situations, there isnt anything a patient can do to stop them.

The Salesman Wasnt Pleased.

Then youre on the hook.

If these meals didnt catch lots of people, salespeople wouldnt keep paying for them.

Heres How Hes Doing It.

Its not just that the federal government is doing away with regulations and laws that benefit ordinary Americans.

If you get ripped off, its on you.

by Hidden Brain

Scarcity takes a huge toll.

It robs people of insight.

And it helps to explain why, when were in a hole, we sometimes dig ourselves even deeper.

Well, that system is only valuable if theres someone else on the other end to buy that home.

For many Americans especially in rural suburban areas theres no one else to buy those homes.

So, youve paid into this system, youve paid off your home, but its worthless.

But at the same time, both work and parenting have become more demanding.

People want to eat the rich.

Its Marie Antoinette times all over again.

(And read co-host Aminatou Sowswork diary in the New York Timesfor some money #inspiration.)