As featured in The Wall Street Journal, Money Magazine, and more!

October 2011

Citibank to Charge $20 a Month for Checking Account

by Luke Landes
Citi Checking Account Piggy Bank

For the last few years, savers have been punished by banks offering low interest rates. If that weren’t enough, banks now want depositors to pay for the privilege of putting money in a bank. In the world until recently, banks sought depositors because they used the public’s money to increase lending to borrowers who were ... Continue reading this article…

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Occupy Wall Street Protests: Money is Power

by Luke Landes
Occupy Wall Street Protest

As every fourth graders knows, the United States Constitution begins, “We the people…” In the years following adoption of the Constitution, there have been movements to include more classes or types of human beings into that “people” represented by the federal government. The basic rights guaranteed by the core philosophy of the government once applied ... Continue reading this article…

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Traveling First Class for the First Time

by Luke Landes
Continental Airlines Logo

After using the Continental Airlines OnePass Plus Card as my primary credit card for personal and travel spending for the past year, and the resulting accumulation of miles in Continental’s frequent flyer program, I decided to cash in. For 35,000 points, I was able to upgrade the round-trip ticket from Newark to Chicago. I would ... Continue reading this article…

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How to Handle Meeting Hundreds of Colleagues

by Luke Landes

My experience with the first Financial Blogger Conference This past weekend has been a whirlwind. On Friday, for the first time I took advantage of using accrued frequent flyer miles to upgrade to first class on Continental. I will write more on that experience later. For now, I want to concentrate on what happened after ... Continue reading this article…

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Personal Balance Sheet, September 2011 ($342,242, -7.1%)

by Luke Landes

Each month, I publish a financial report to help me track the progress along my path to gain financial independence. This is a long-standing tradition at Consumerism Commentary, with relatively significant updates going all the way back to July 2003. I have made some changes over the years in how these numbers, including the net ... Continue reading this article…

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Podcast 128: What to Ask the Person in the Mirror

by Luke Landes

Today on the Consumerism Commentary Podcast, Bryan talks with Robert Steven Kaplan, the author of What to Ask the Person in the Mirror. Rob Kaplan has spent his life studying leadership and the qualities of a great leader. He and Bryan discuss the three questions any organization needs to ask itself before it can succeed, ... Continue reading this article…

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Spirituality and Money: Turning, Reconnecting and Giving

by Luke Landes
Fall Foliage

This article is written by Consumerism Commentary’s columnist, Ellen Cooper-Davis. Ellen’s column will look at the role of spirituality within the context of personal finance. For an introduction to this column, see Ellen’s first article, The Pastor and the Purse. Your feedback is welcome. In the Jewish tradition, we are in the midst of the ... Continue reading this article…

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About Consumerism Commentary

by Luke Landes

Welcome to Consumerism Commentary! This website was one of the first blogs to focus on money from a personal finance perspective, and Luke Landes (also known as Flexo) was the first blogger to share monthly financial updates, such as his net worth statement, with no restrictions. Consumerism Commentary is now a premier personal finance blog ... Continue reading this article…

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