Comments
- Okay Dave. Sorry we couldn't help!
- Hi David. I'm emailing you now.
-Jim
- You can get to all of those interviews here:
http://www.thetakeaway.org/tags/flotilla/
Thanks for listening!
-Jim (digital editor)
- I assume that baby picture is Todd, not President Obama.
- Richard, you're right. We updated the copy. Thanks!
- Thanks for all the great comments! We'll read as many as we can throughout tomorrow's radio show and later in the week.
-Jim (digital editor).
- We got this comment from Carla in Baltimore a few months ago:
"I remembered being bullied by a former manager when I worked at a local hospital and it was a very very harmful experience. You should talk about how childhood bullies become adult manager bullies."
We'll try to include this on air!
-Jim (web editor)
- Lise, here is Beth's answer. Thanks for the question!
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Hi Lise,
So glad you’re enjoying the series. Congratulations on attacking your credit card debt. You’re absolutely right to be trying to reduce the cost of that debt. If you can even get that rate down to 12%, you’d save $1,000 in interest, and pay off your card three months faster. Get that rate down to 10% and you’d save almost $2,500 and pay off that card in about three and half years.
In terms of how to get a lower rate: call your lender and ask if they will lower your rate. (Stress that you pay on time—if that’s true—and say politely but firmly that you’ll consider moving to a lower rate card if they don’t bring down your rate.) If the first person you speak with says no, ask for a supervisor or call back and start the process over again. Then compare the interest rate they offer you to the rates on other cards available to you. (The way to shop around for credit cards is to look into credit card offers at websites like www.cardratings.com or www.indexcreditcards.com.) If you do qualify for a 0% offer, that makes sense, but be very careful to read the fine print! Sometimes they will charge you sky-high interest rates on future purchases, so know what you’re getting into. You didn’t mention your credit score (and we’ll be talking about scores on April 7), but improving a score could also mean you’ll qualify for better rates. The simplest way to improve your score is to keep paying those bills on time. So, if you keep up good financial habits, in a year you might have a better score and thus be likely to get even better offers.
Best of luck,
Beth
- Thanks for your question, Douglas (and everyone else who asked). Unfortunately, we didn't have time for every question, but you can hear Secretary Duncan's response in the audio (which is online now).
-Jim (web editor)
- Hey there. The podcasts are definitely still going. We recently changed the format of our podcast offerings, so that may have been the problem. We now offer every story on one main podcast, complete with detailed description -- we even added two original offerings! - all of which can be accessed on our podcast page (click "Podcasts" above, or paste this into your browser: www.thetakeaway.org/podcasts).
Thanks for the feedback and apologies for any difficulties you've had with our the format transition!
-Jim (web editor)
- Shawn: At your suggestion, we reached out to Prof. Bell and told her about your comment. Here is her response.
-Jim (web editor)
The problem is much deeper than just saving money. It’s much deeper than that. Savings would help, by all means. But it is an issue of the type of job, particularly minority women, black and Hispanic women, in the industries that they’re in. For example, the service jobs don’t provide any wealth-generating ability. There are no big bonuses, they are not structured to build wealth; they come and go.
Many of these women are living on the edge themselves. Supporting not just themselves, but extended families, not just in this country, but in other countries.
Many are doing part-time work as well, so they’re not getting any help to build wealth.
We can give advice, but the reality is the cash flow is extremely uncertain. It’s not there. These are generational jobs, if you will. While we can get an Ursula Burns, the CEO of Xerox, they’re few and far between. I wish I had a solution, but this is something that we have to look at from many perspectives: employment, culture, education. So this is an interlocking systematic problem.
It is not as simple as giving a step-by-step answer. It requires deeper thought and policy.
- Bud, you're right! We'll correct. Thanks!
-Jim (Web Editor)
- Robert, the discussion was specifically about married couples, rather than just couples who date. Thanks for your comment!
-Jim (web editor)
- The hosts mistakenly said on air that there was an online feature about the best and worst Olympic costumes. We were unable to post that feature due to a complication with the images, so sorry if you were expecting to see it.
-Jim (web editor)
- Just to clarify, the guest, Col. Randall Larsen, is not affiliated with the U.S. Dept of Homeland Security. Rather he is the director of the Institute for Homeland Security at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
Thanks for your comment!
- Hi Deborah -- We took submissions via Facebook or email.
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