Investing

This year, holiday spending from Black Friday to Cyber Monday may hit a record as consumers try to maximize the weekend’s deals.
Stores try to tempt you with discounts, but these are not necessarily the best prices of the year, according to shopping experts.
Here’s what not to buy on Black Friday and how to snag the lowest price overall.

By most accounts, Black Friday and Cyber Monday promise some of the lowest prices of the season.
And in 2023, more people than ever plan to take advantage of the five-day shopping event that begins on Thanksgiving Day and continues through the following Monday, according to the National Retail Federation’s annual survey.

This year, holiday spending during the Thanksgiving week may hit a record as consumers try to maximize the weekend’s sales, a separate Deloitte Black Friday-Cyber Monday survey found. 
However, these are not necessarily the best deals of the year, according to Julie Ramhold, a consumer analyst at DealNews.com.
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According to WalletHub’s holiday shopping survey, 35% of items at major retailers will offer no savings compared to their pre-Black Friday prices.
A separate analysis of previous Black Friday sales found that 98% of the deals were the same price or cheaper at other points during the year. None were cheaper on Black Friday alone.

Stores try to tempt you with discounts, but “I don’t know that Black Friday has the same level of value that it did years ago,” Ramhold said.

What not to buy on Black Friday

Typically, Black Friday is a great time to find rock-bottom prices on fall clothing — including flannels, denim, boots and accessories — and televisions, like a Samsung 75″ smart TV now on sale for less than $600 at Best Buy. 
This year, there are also particularly good deals on smartphones, including Apple’s newest, iPhone 15, Ramhold found.
With toys, however, it could pay to hold out until those items are further discounted later in the season. “Unless it’s one of the hottest toys, which may sell out, you can wait until December,” Ramhold advised.

Exercise equipment, cosmetics, jewelry and bedding tend to be marked down more in January, while furniture and mattress deals are often better over other holiday weekends throughout the year, such as Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends, Ramhold said.
Some discounts may have already come and gone. Promotions across a range of categories, including apparel, appliances and computers, were significantly higher in October this year than in the same month in 2021 and 2022, data from Adobe Analytics shows.

How to get the lowest prices of the season

A Black Friday sale sign in the cosmetics and fragrance department of the Macy’s flagship store in New York, US, on Friday, Nov. 25, 2022.
Jeenah Moon | Bloomberg | Getty Images

A price-tracking browser extension such as CamelCamelCamel or Keepa can help you keep an eye on price changes and alert you when a price drops. Honey will alert you to lower prices elsewhere and scan for applicable coupon codes.
Consumer-savings expert Andrea Woroch recommends stacking discounts, for example, combining credit card rewards with store coupons and then using a cash-back site such as CouponCabin.com or Rakuten to earn money back on those purchases.
Finally, take pictures of your receipts using the Fetch app and earn points which can then be redeemed for gift cards at retailers such as Walmart, Target and Amazon.
For more on Black Friday sales, check out NBC Select’s recent roundup of the best early Black Friday deals. More

Your Money

We all know divorces are not uncommon in the U.S.
Some of the most public splits over the years have included those of celebrities such as Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise, and most recently, Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner.

In 2021, there were nearly 700,000 divorces — both celebrity and not — across the 45 states that gather this data. During that same time, there were about 2 million marriages.
But not everyone has the financial stability of a movie star. And divorces don’t come cheap.
An uncontested divorce can cost between $1,500 and $5,500 on average, while a contested one can set you back anywhere from $40,000 to $140,000, according to Elizabeth Douglas, founding attorney and CEO of Douglas Family Law in New York. If the case goes to trial, Douglas said, the cost can be even higher.

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Here’s a look at more coverage in CNBC’s Women & Wealth special report, where we explore ways women can increase income, save and make the most of opportunities.

“The more complex it is, the more hours that are required: hours by the lawyers, hours by the appraisers, the business evaluators, the crypto hunters, the forensics, the forensic accountants, the forensic psychologists, whatever it may be,” she added.

Divorce entails big financial, life changes

With divorce comes a lot of life changes — significant ones.

Typically that means one home turning into two, and the same goes for the electricity, cable, internet, grocery bills and cars, in addition to rent or a mortgage. There’s also the cost of moving, buying new furniture, setting up those different utilities accounts, doing your taxes independently, separating your health insurance and possibly selling the shared home or homes. And that’s just the beginning.
This major life change might cause time lost at work, the need for therapy and, if there are children involved, more child care. Speaking of children, there can also be custody to figure out.
John Norman worked in law enforcement for more than 20 years and was retired in 2019 when he separated from his now ex-wife. They lived in Ithaca, New York.
“We went through a completely unnecessary custody battle; I had to hire an expert witness,” Norman said. “I was without my kids for a year.”

Norman estimates this life event cost him between $172,799 and $191,000. He still owes $120,929 and $39,747 of that is credit card debt.
Meanwhile, money hadn’t been a problem for him and his family prior to the divorce. “We had extra money,” he said. “We bought a boat for the kids … then there was this custody battle and it just drained all of my accounts.”

How to hold down divorce costs

While it might not be easy to prevent a divorce, it’s certainly a lot easier to prevent a divorce from being costly and putting a significant financial burden on your family.
Prenups are one option — Douglas even believes they’re romantic. “You get to protect someone while you still love them, before you hate them,” she said. “And you get to divide and save money for both of you early on.”
“The best piece of advice I can give anybody is, you’re never going to negotiate a more favorable divorce for both parties than when you love each other,” Norman added.
The reality is that while it might be scary to rip off the bandage and get divorced, you don’t have to stay married to someone just because you don’t have the money to split up. Everyone has options, and there are people, organizations and resources that can help.
Watch the video above to learn how you can prevent a costly divorce. More

ETF Strategist

Whether you’re a new or a seasoned investor, exchange-traded funds are one option for your portfolio.
You can use them for tax efficiency, asset allocation and other investing goals, experts say.
“ETFs have come a long way over the past 15 to 20 years,” said Barry Glassman, founder and president of Glassman Wealth Services.

Morsa Images | Getty Images

Whether you’re a new or a seasoned investor, exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, are one option for your portfolio, depending on your goals and risk tolerance, experts say. 
ETFs are a wrapper for individual assets such as stocks and bonds, similar to mutual funds. However, many ETFs have better tax efficiency and lower expense ratios than mutual funds, driving many investors to make the switch.

“ETFs have come a long way over the past 15 to 20 years,” said certified financial planner Barry Glassman, founder and president of Glassman Wealth Services in McLean, Virginia. He is also a member of CNBC’s Financial Advisor Council.

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In 2022, investors sold more than $900 billion from mutual funds and poured roughly $600 billion into ETFs, according to Morningstar data. The net difference was the largest on record.
With the continued shift underway, we spoke with experts from CNBC’s FA Council to find out how they’re using ETFs in client portfolios.

Tax efficiency is the ‘most attractive feature’

If you’re investing in a brokerage account, capital gains and dividends trigger taxes yearly, compared to your pretax 401(k) or individual retirement accounts, which defer taxes until you withdraw the funds.
“The most attractive feature of an ETF is that most don’t distribute capital gains at the end of the year,” Glassman said.

The most attractive feature of an ETF is that most don’t distribute capital gains at the end of the year.

Barry Glassman
Founder and president of Glassman Wealth Services

By comparison, certain mutual funds have year-end capital gains distributions, particularly those with large outflows, which require managers to sell off holdings.
For Cathy Curtis, a CFP and founder of Curtis Financial Planning in Oakland, California, ETFs provide “more control over the tax impact” for investments in a brokerage account.
“Being in California, a very high tax state, this is an important part of my practice — helping clients to minimize taxable income,” she said.

How ETFs help diversify portfolios

ETFs can also be used to balance risk with reward in your asset allocation strategies.
You can think about ETFs as part of either a core portfolio or a satellite portfolio, according to Marguerita Cheng, a CFP and CEO of Blue Ocean Global Wealth in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
ETFs with exposure to broad-based indices, such as the S&P 500, can be a part of your core portfolio, providing stability because the fund follows the general movement of the index. Kamila Elliott, an Atlanta-based CFP and co-founder and CEO of Collective Wealth Partners, said her firm uses ETFs primarily for core positions in its portfolios.
By comparison, ETFs in satellite portfolios provide opportunities for diversification, which lessens exposure to any singular asset or risk. For example, Cheng pointed to a client interested in opportunities in the video game industry who was able to identify a video game ETF that suited their interests. 
Since you can’t guarantee the next big industry winner — including in the video game industry — ETFs in this role can be less of a risky bet than individual stocks, but they still have the potential for large losses and gains.

ETFs are ‘a little bit more intentional’

“[ETFs] just can be really powerful because clients can be a little bit more intentional,” Cheng said. 
Compared to mutual funds, ETFs allow you to decide where to invest your money with a greater focus on matching personal interests and needs, Cheng said. Noncore ETFs are often specific to certain sectors, stocks or niche focuses, such as food system sustainability during climate change.
To complement core ETFs, Elliott said she typically uses mutual funds “in the developed markets, emerging markets and ESG space.”
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Life Changes

Last November, the Biden administration rolled out a new process for the discharge of education debt in bankruptcy court.
The new guidelines were aimed at making it easier for struggling borrowers to get a fresh start.
Consumer advocates say only borrowers in extreme financial distress should consider bankruptcy.

Entrance to the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, June 1, 2008.
Richard Levine | Corbis News | Getty Images

For decades, it was nearly impossible for student loan borrowers to walk away from their debt in bankruptcy court. That’s now changing.
Last November, the Biden administration rolled out a new process for the discharge of education debt in bankruptcy. The U.S. Department of Justice worked with the U.S. Department of Education to implement the new guidelines aimed at making it easier for struggling borrowers to get a fresh start.

In the first 10 months of the new process, student loan borrowers have filed more than 630 bankruptcy cases, a “significant increase” from recent years, the departments said in a Nov. 16 statement.
“The vast majority of borrowers seeking discharge have received full or partial discharges,” they said.
Here’s what borrowers should know.

Why are student loans harder to discharge than other debts?

Congress has set a high bar for discharging student loan debt in bankruptcy.
In the 1970s, lawmakers — responding to concerns by policy makers and pundits that students would rack up debt and then try to ditch it in court — added a stipulation that student loan borrowers needed to wait at least five years after they began repayment on their loans to file for bankruptcy. That waiting period was later upped to seven years in the Crime Control Act of 1990.

Eventually, these waiting periods were done away with, but borrowers with federal or private student debt needed to prove their loans posed an “undue hardship” to discharge it. Borrowers also must make their case in a separate “adversary proceeding” outside of the standard bankruptcy process, which is timely and expensive.
“Many student borrowers recognize they won’t be able to find success and, therefore, they won’t even try,” a lawyer and student debt advocate said in a statement for the American Bar Association in 2021.

How does the new process make it easier?

Under the new process, student loan borrowers complete a form to assist the government in evaluating their discharge request. The government compares a debtor’s expenses to their income, using existing IRS Collection Financial Standards. If the borrower’s expenses equal or exceed their income, the Justice Department likely concludes that the borrower lacks a present ability to pay.
A borrower’s future ability to pay and record of “good faith efforts,” including trying to contact the U.S. Department of Education for assistance and working to maximize their income, are the two other major considerations.

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The government may decide a borrower’s payment issues are likely to persist if they have a severe disability, are over the age of 65 or have been unemployed for at least five of the last 10 years, among other challenges.
If the Justice Department doesn’t believe a full discharge is necessary, it may recommend a partial one.
“It makes it easier for student loan borrowers to qualify for bankruptcy discharge by clearly setting out the policy,” said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.

When should a borrower consider bankruptcy?

Consumer advocates say only borrowers in extreme financial distress should consider bankruptcy. Depending on the type of bankruptcy you pursue, that information can stay on your credit report for up to 10 years, making it a challenge to buy a house, apply for other types of loans and even to rent an apartment.
Before moving forward with a bankruptcy, borrowers should look for other relief options, Kantrowitz said. Federal student loan borrowers have several ways to reduce their debt burden, including payment plans with $0 monthly payments and economic hardship and unemployment deferments.

Struggling borrowers should talk with a nonprofit credit counselor before filing for bankruptcy, he added.
Lastly, after President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel up to $20,000 in student debt was struck down at the Supreme Court, Biden started a new effort to forgive education debt. One of the groups that may qualify are those in financial hardship.
“This may include many borrowers who are thinking about filing for bankruptcy,” Kantrowitz said. “So, they may want to wait to see what happens.”Don’t miss these stories from CNBC PRO: More

Just one month before the holiday season kicks into high gear, 60% of adults said they are living paycheck to paycheck, according to a new LendingClub report.
Yet consumers still plan to overspend during the holidays, other reports show.
We are in a period of “hyper-consumption,” says Jacqueline Howard, head of money wellness at Ally Bank.

Shoppers expect to overspend during the holidays

The LendingClub report was conducted in October, just one month before the holiday season kicks into high gear.
This year, holiday spending during the Thanksgiving week may hit a record as consumers try to maximize the weekend’s deals, according to a 2023 Deloitte Black Friday-Cyber Monday survey. Spending over the week is expected to jump 13% from last year, with shoppers shelling out $567 on average, Deloitte found.

Barbie dolls (R) are displayed for sale ahead of Black Friday at a Walmart Supercenter on November 14, 2023 in Burbank, California. 
Mario Tama | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Even as credit card debt tops $1 trillion, almost all — or 96% — of shoppers said they expect to overspend this season, according to a separate TD Bank survey.

Half of consumers plan to take on more debt to pay for holiday expenses, another report by Ally Bank found. Only 23% have a plan to pay it off within one to two months.
Some 74% of Americans say they are stressed about finances, according to a separate CNBC Your Money Financial Confidence Survey conducted in August. Inflation, rising interest rates and a lack of savings contribute to those feelings.
That CNBC survey found that 61% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, up from 58% in March.

Many households have tapped their cash reserves over the past few months, LendingClub and other reports show. More than one-third of consumers plan to dip into their savings even more to cover holiday spending, LendingClub also found.
“While consumers have found a way to manage through inflation, it’s concerning that many plan to tap into savings, and even exceed their budgets, to finance their holiday purchases, which may leave them vulnerable to an unexpected emergency,” said Alia Dudum, LendingClub’s money expert.

‘Hyper-consumption comes from not being mindful’

Consumers are increasingly adopting a “mentality of hyper-consumption,” said Jacqueline Howard, head of money wellness at Ally. That’s particularly true over the holidays, when families typically overspend on gifts.
“Hyper-consumption comes from not being mindful,” she added. “Consider what makes the most sense in terms of your well-being.”
Howard recommends a value-based budget approach when it comes to budgeting for holiday purchases — “if your priorities are family and travel or other experiences, have that guide your spending,” she said.
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A Starbucks store is seen inside the Tom Bradley terminal at LAX airport in Los Angeles, California.
Lucy Nicholson | Reuters

Earnings season has a way of revealing which companies can thrive despite near-term headwinds and enhance shareholder returns in the long run.
With dividend-paying stocks, investors will want companies that have the strong balance sheets and cash flows needed to provide steady payments to shareholders. Analysts can dig through these details and identify stocks that could boost returns through dividends and price appreciation.  

Keeping that in mind, here are five attractive dividend stocks, according to Wall Street’s top experts on TipRanks, a platform that ranks analysts based on their past performance.

EOG Resources

Crude oil and natural gas exploration and production company EOG Resources (EOG) is first on this week’s list. On Nov. 2, EOG reported market-beating third-quarter results. It also announced a 10% increase in its regular quarterly dividend to 91 cents per share and a special dividend of $1.50 per share.
Additionally, EOG increased its cash return commitment from 2024 onwards to a minimum of 70% of annual free cash flow from the previous target of at least 60%. Considering just the regular dividends, EOG’s dividend yield stands at 2.9%.
Following the print, Siebert Williams Shank analyst Gabriele Sorbara reiterated a buy rating on EOG with a price target of $172, citing the company’s “blowout quarter” that exceeded expectations across all metrics. Commenting on the subdued Q4 2023 guidance, the analyst reminded investors that EOG has a long track record of beating its guidance on production, capital expenditure and costs.
The analyst noted the hike in EOG’s cash returns commitment and also pointed out that this year’s total cash returns (dividends plus share buybacks) are tracking at $4.1 billion, representing about 75% of its estimated FCF of $5.5 billion.      

“We maintain our Buy rating on its track record of execution and shareholder returns with its cash rich balance sheet (~$5.33 billion) providing differentiation and optionality,” said Sorbara.
Sorbara holds the 434th position among more than 8,600 analysts on TipRanks. The analyst’s ratings have been successful 46% of the time, with each rating delivering an average return of 10.9%. (See EOG Resources Financial Statements on TipRanks). 

Coterra Energy

Another energy player, Coterra Energy (CTRA), recently announced better-than-anticipated third-quarter earnings. The company raised its 2023 production guidance, driven by faster cycle times and strong well productivity.
In Q3 2023, Coterra returned $211 million to shareholders, including $151 million via dividends and $60 million through share repurchases. Overall, the company’s year-to-date shareholder return of $839 million represents 91% of its free cash flow.
Management reiterated its commitment to return over 50% of its annual free cash flow to shareholders through its annual regular dividend of 80 cents per share and share repurchases. Based on just the regular dividend, CTRA offers a dividend yield of about 3%.  
Mizuho analyst Nitin Kumar, who ranks No. 124 out of more than 8,600 analysts on TipRanks, thinks that in a quarter where several exploration and production companies have attributed their strong volumes to improving operating efficiencies, CTRA still stands out in his opinion as its beat-and-raise performance was driven by both well timing and productivity.
Further, he highlighted that the company raised its 2023 oil production outlook by 3% compared to peers who increased their guidance by about zero to 1%, on average.
Kumar reiterated a buy rating on CTRA stock with a price target of $42 and designated it a top pick, noting, “CTRA returned ~84% of 3Q23 FCF via its dividend and buybacks, and is on track to return ~80% of 2023 FCF (vs. target of 50%+).”
Kumar’s ratings have been profitable 63% of the time, with each delivering an average return of 17%. (See CTRA Technical Analysis on TipRanks)

Crescent Energy

Kumar is also bullish on another dividend stock: Crescent Energy (CRGY), an independent energy company that develops and operates oil and natural gas properties. On Nov. 6, the company announced its third-quarter results and declared a quarterly dividend of 12 cents per share, payable on Dec. 4. CRGY offers a dividend yield of 4.6%.  
Commenting on the third-quarter results, Kumar said that CRGY reported an oil-driven production and EBITDAX (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and exploration expense) beat, with lower capital expenditure.
Kumar noted that following Crescent’s two Western Eagle Ford acquisitions, the company is already displaying impressive capital efficiency improvements, realizing about 20% drilling and completions well cost savings compared to the prior operator. This suggests an incrementally better 2024 outlook compared to the company’s preliminary soft forecast, the analyst said.  
“Moreover, the company is further demonstrating it can deliver on its acquisition-driven model in the public market arena, which should give investors additional confidence in the strategy,” said Kumar.
In line with his bullish stance, Kumar reiterated a buy rating on CRGY with a price target of $19. (See CRGY Insider Trading Activity on TipRanks)

Diamondback Energy

Diamondback Energy (FANG) is an oil and natural gas company focused on assets in the Permian Basin in West Texas. On Nov. 6, it delivered better-than-projected third-quarter results. Also, the company announced a base dividend of 84 cents per share and a variable cash dividend of $2.53 per share, both payable on Nov. 24.
Diamondback said that the base and variable dividends combined indicate an annualized yield of more than 8%. It is worth noting that FANG also enhanced shareholder returns through share repurchases worth $56 million in Q3 2023.  
In reaction to the results and dividend announcement, RBC Capital analyst Scott Hanold said that Diamondback’s execution remains strong. He added that the company’s shareholder return strategy is differentiated, noting, “FANG quickly pivoted to higher levels of dividends, but was still able to execute buybacks and among the lowest relative points during the last quarter.”
The analyst noted that the company repurchased shares worth $1.9 billion at an average 6% discount to market prices since the start of 2022. He pointed out FANG’s discipline to purchase shares only during periods of significant price disconnects from the stock’s intrinsic value.
Hanold maintained a buy rating on FANG stock and raised the price target to $175 from $170 to reflect stronger free cash flow and stock buybacks executed at accretive value point. He ranks No. 16 among more than 8,600 analysts on TipRanks. His ratings have been successful 64% of the time, with each rating delivering an average return of 24.4%. (See Diamondback Hedge Fund Trading Activity on TipRanks)

Starbucks

Finally, there is coffee chain Starbucks (SBUX), which impressed investors with its fiscal fourth-quarter beats earlier this month. The demand for the company’s pricier beverages and higher traffic in the domestic market boosted its quarterly performance.  
The company also announced its long-term strategy called “Triple Shot Reinvention with Two Pumps,” which will focus on elevating the brand, bolstering and scaling digital presence, and expanding globally, while unlocking efficiency and reinvigorating partner culture.
Coming to shareholder returns, in September, Starbucks announced a 7.5% rise in its quarterly dividend to 57 cents per share, payable on Nov. 24. Starbucks initiated its dividend payments in 2010 and has increased its dividend for 13 straight years at a compound annual growth rate of about 20%. SBUX offers a dividend yield of 2.2%.
Following the fiscal Q4 results and updates on the long-term strategy, BTIG analyst Peter Saleh reiterated a buy rating on SBUX with a price target of $125. The analyst highlighted the company’s better-than-anticipated global same-store sales growth of 8% in fiscal Q4 and noted that traffic gains and solid operating margin fueled the earnings beat.
“We believe Starbucks has a compelling return profile as its unfolding sales and economic recovery is matched by continued global unit development and stronger shareholder return targets,” said Saleh.  
Saleh ranks No. 504 among more than 8,600 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 58% of the time, with each delivering an average return of 9.10%. (See Starbucks’ Stock Charts on TipRanks) More

Nearly 4 in 5 Americans say they’re trying to improve their credit score, according to a recent NerdWallet survey.
But 50% say they face barriers toward improvement, namely a low credit limit.
“As long as you hit that good-to-excellent range, doors will open,” said Sara Rathner, a credit card expert at NerdWallet.

Solstock | E+ | Getty Images

A great credit score can be important, but improving that number isn’t always easy.
Nearly 4 in 5 Americans say they’re trying to improve their credit score, according to a recent NerdWallet survey. But 50% say they face barriers toward improvement, namely a low credit limit. The website polled more than 2,000 adults in the U.S. in September.

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Increasing your credit score can grant you greater access to new opportunities, such as the ability to rent an apartment or buy a home, or get utilities, experts say. (In some instances, those entities may look at your credit report rather than your score.)
“As long as you hit that good-to-excellent range, doors will open,” said Sara Rathner, a credit cards expert at NerdWallet.

‘Utilization can definitely affect your credit in a big way’

Among cardholders trying to improve their credit score, 15% say that having a low credit limit is a roadblock, according to NerdWallet’s report.
One of the factors that goes into calculating your credit score is credit utilization, or the percentage of the total available credit that you use in any given month, said Rathner. A low credit limit means even small purchases can result in high utilization.
“Credit utilization can definitely affect your credit in a big way,” said Ted Rossman, credit card specialist and senior industry analyst at Bankrate. 

For instance, if you have a $1,000 credit limit, and you spend $500 a month on that credit line, your credit utilization is 50%. 
A rule of thumb is that you should have a credit utilization of 30% or lower, but that can be hard to achieve when you have a low credit limit, Rathner said.
If you have that $1,000 credit limit, $300 doesn’t go that far, she said: “That’s a few grocery bills right there.”
There are ways for you to increase a credit line: First, you can ask your credit card issuer and see if you’re eligible for a boost, Rathner said.
If your income has increased, update your account with your current salary; it could “make you eligible for a credit limit increase,” she added.

Some experts also recommend paying your balance ahead of your statement closing date, because that’s when the lender reports your balance to the credit bureaus.
“Make an extra mid-month payment; knock that statement balance down before it even comes out,” said Rossman. “That will help your utilization ratio, but it also helps if you’re carrying debt.”
Applying for a new card can increase your available credit overall; while doing so slightly lowers your score, that drop is only temporary. 
Yet, sometimes “it’s easier said than done to get a new credit card or get a higher limit,” Rossman said.

Many worry they’ll hurt their score in the next year

Despite those wins, 58% of Americans are worried they’ll hurt their credit score in the next 12 months, the NerdWallet survey found.
“Makes me wonder what are people planning on doing with their credit,” said Rathner, “or is it because … they’ve been hurt in the past and that fear is being carried forward.”
Amid high inflation and interest rates, people are falling delinquent on credit card payments as well as more subprime auto delinquencies, said Rossman. In the NerdWallet survey, 14% of respondents say not being able to make debt payments is a roadblock to improving their score, while 13% point to not being able to make credit card or loan payments on time as an impediment.
“When people say they’re afraid their score is going to go down, it’s probably because they’re worried about their finances, they feel like they’re going to pay late, or they have more debt than they are comfortable with,” he said.

About 28% of respondents fear they will hurt their score by taking on too much debt and 24% worry about missing a credit card payment, NerdWallet found.
While there are misconceptions as to how credit scores are calculated and variations among multiple scores, it’s helpful to remember cardholders have some agency, Rathner said.
“It’s very tempting to turn your credit score into some sort of score for how you are doing as a person, as an adult,” said Rathner. “If you’re struggling with a low credit score, it’s not because you’re a bad person, it’s because your situation has been tough.” More

By nearly every measure, Americans are financially strained. Yet we’re bombarded by messages to “buy more and more and more,” personal stylist Allison Bornstein says.
On the heels of her viral three-word method and wrong shoe theory, Bornstein has a radical, new idea: “Just because you have the money doesn’t mean you have to spend it.”
Heading into the holidays, here’s how to avoid the temptation to overspend.

Allison Bornstein, author of “Wear It Well”.
Photo: Jennifer Trahan

It’s not often we’re told to buy less, at least on social media.
More likely, we’re encouraged to wear Loro Piana cashmere baseball hats and carry $300 Smythson notebooks like Gwyneth Paltrow in the name of “quiet luxury” and justify such expensive purchases using “girl math.”

That’s in addition to the current “treat” culture trend, which promotes spending money on smaller splurges such as at Starbucks as a form of self-care.
“We don’t need half of these things,” said Allison Bornstein, a celebrity stylist and author of the new book “Wear It Well: Reclaim Your Closet and Rediscover the Joy of Getting Dressed.”
“Take a second to pause,” she said.

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow exits a courtroom in which she is accused in a lawsuit of crashing into Terry Sanderson during a 2016 family ski vacation, Park City, Utah, March 21, 2023.
Rick Bowmer | Afp | Getty Images

By nearly every measure, Americans are financially strained. And yet, we’re bombarded by messages to “buy more and more and more,” Bornstein said.
Bornstein, who has been a style consultant for more than 13 years, encourages her clients to work with what they already own. “It’s just easier to buy something new, but you can use what you have,” she said.  

“You can be more creative and more interesting and so much more economical.”
More from Personal Finance:Quiet luxury may be Americans’ most expensive trend to dateShoppers embrace ‘girl math’ to justify luxury purchasesPaying in cash helps shoppers ‘forget’ guilty pleasures
While some things may be worth the splurge, such as a good coat or expert tailoring, “just because you have the money doesn’t mean you have to spend it,” Bornstein writes in “Wear It Well.”
With her viral three-word method for defining a personal style and wrong shoe theory to shake up the usual combinations, there’s a reason her ideas are resonating, and some of it is due to spending fatigue. “People are tired and left with a pile full of stuff we’ve been told to buy and don’t know what to do with,” she said.

Arrows pointing outwards

Allison Bornstein’s book: “Wear It Well”.
Courtesy: Allison Bornstein

How to avoid overspending

Quiet the noise altogether, cautions consumer-savings expert Andrea Woroch. “The most simple way to dodge temptations is to get off the list by unsubscribing from emails, opting out of text alerts, turning off push notifications in retail apps and unfollowing brands on social,” she said.
In addition, deleting payment details stored online helps create a “purchase hurdle” that forces you to think through your buying decisions, Woroch said.

Otherwise, sleep on it, both Woroch and Bornstein advise. Bornstein recommends adding an item to a wish list before committing to a purchase, and resisting the urge to buy something just because it is on sale.  
“If you didn’t want something when it was full price, you probably don’t want it discounted,” Bornstein writes in her book. “Think of a sale as a bonus,” she said. “When the item you already know that you want is on sale, it’s that much sweeter.”
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