Washington Post’s Singletary celebrates 25 years of writing personal finance column

Michelle Singletary

Washington Post personal finance columnist Michelle Singletary writes about what she has learned from writing the column for 25 years.

Singletary writes, “I’ve also come to realize that money missteps are often rooted in childhood traumas or, in many cases, from being overindulged.

“I studied behavioral economics, which made my advice more practical and reasonable. Because people are human, what works on paper doesn’t always work in practice. When it comes to money, many people are prone to irrational behavior.

“Sure, it may make more math sense to pay off debts with the highest interest rate. But, behaviorally, when people pay off smaller debts first, they experience an immediate triumph, and that can energize them to become aggressive in getting rid of the rest of their debts.

“I no longer underestimate the power of marketing, which conditions Americans to be consumers. Masterful marketing campaigns encourage overspending and the accumulation of debt.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.