Staff Writer

Bill Fay

Bill “No Pay” Fay has lived a meager financial existence his entire life. He started writing/bragging about it in 2012, helping birth Debt.org into existence as the site’s original “Frugal Man.” Prior to that, he spent more than 30 years covering the high finance world of college and professional sports for major publications, including the Associated Press, New York Times and Sports Illustrated. His interest in sports has waned some, but he is as passionate as ever about not reaching for his wallet.

When is it time to retire

When Should I Retire?

By Bill Fay | January 8, 2015

There was a time when no two words were more closely associated with each other than “65” and “retired.” The two were a couple for so long they were interchangeable.…

People standing in front of wall with Loan Forgiveness forum concept pasted on wall

Comparing Student Loan Discharge & Loan Forgiveness

By Bill Fay | October 28, 2014

The terms “student loan forgiveness” and “student loan discharge” are used interchangeably for a good reason: They both mean you are no longer responsible for what is left of your…

Student Loan Options

Best and Worst Student Loans: Pros and Cons

By Bill Fay | September 10, 2013

  The pros and cons of student loans are a hot topic for college administrators, students and parents as each side grapples with ways to absorb the soaring cost of…

Debt Glossary

By Bill Fay | August 7, 2013

Debt consolidation is a sensible solution for consumers overwhelmed by credit card debt. It can be done with or without a loan. Consolidation cuts costs by lowering the interest rate…

Debt Board Game Thumbnail

Credit Card Debt Analysis

By Bill Fay | June 27, 2013

Credit card ownership begins as a privilege — the ability to make purchases before providing the funds to pay for the purchases — but can quickly devolve into a web…

manage debt goal

Manage Your Debt

By Bill Fay | May 1, 2013

Being in debt can be an overwhelming and debilitating experience. But there are smart, proven ways to manage your debt and bring you back into sound financial health. Take the…

Student Internship Desk and Computer

Internships

By Bill Fay | April 16, 2013

An internship is a temporary position that provides on-the-job training in a student’s major or career goal. The student generally works in professional settings while being supervised and monitored by…

Closeup of young African American man sitting at table trying to understand such great sums in his bills

Understand Your Debt

By Bill Fay | March 26, 2013

Debt consolidation is a sensible solution for consumers overwhelmed by credit card debt. It can be done with or without a loan. Consolidation cuts costs by lowering the interest rate…

family at the beach

Family & Debt

By Bill Fay | March 26, 2013

Choose Your Debt Amount Consolidate Debt in Minutes AVERAGE COST OF A WEDDING IN THE U.S. $0 AVERAGE COST OF A DIVORCE IN THE U.S. $0 AVERAGE CONSUMER DEBT PER…

Women surprised to see her score on the Credit Score Grader

How Good is Your Credit Score?

By Bill Fay | February 25, 2013

Buying a house or a car? Taking out a loan? Select your 3-digit score to learn about how lenders see your credit score range and what you can do to…

Businessperson pushing paper documents away and working with digital documents on computer instead

Tax Preparation Services

By Bill Fay | February 19, 2013

Filing your taxes is an important civic duty and a vital part of keeping the country running smoothly. It’s something everyone has to do each year by April 15, but…

Black football leans against three, gold edged books, unifying symbols of sports, academic, and learning achievement

Athletic Scholarships for College Students

By Bill Fay | February 12, 2013

Every year, millions of parents pay to place their children in youth sports programs in hopes the child eventually will develop the skills need to earn a coveted athletic scholarship…

Illustration of job applicants shoving their resume through a laptop

Searching for a Job

By Bill Fay | February 11, 2013

With the advent of social media and an increasingly digital society, job hunting today isn’t just about writing cover letters and filing out the usual template-style resumes. Modern-day job hunting…

Find out the different types of taxes and how they affect you

Types of Taxes

By Bill Fay | February 7, 2013

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.” One can argue about the extent and quality of the civilization…

Disabled woman on the phone reading a letter sitting on a couch in the living room at home

Social Security Disability Insurance – SSDI

By Bill Fay | January 28, 2013

If you experienced a significant physical or mental condition that prevents you from doing your job, you may qualify for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits. SSDI is a government…

Retirement planning Business team hands at work with financial reports and a laptop

Retirement Plans

By Bill Fay | January 24, 2013

Saving money for retirement is important for ensuring long and comfortable work-free years. It’s all too common for people to assume they are too young to begin saving or underestimate…

Photo of business people sitting in lobby with files in hand waiting for interview

21st Century Job Market

By Bill Fay | January 21, 2013

Society is constantly changing, and the professional world has been forced to adapt with it in order to keep up. Improvements in technology, changes in everyday interactions and rising living…

Here are a few blue book prices for the doctor office

Doctor Visit Costs

By Bill Fay | January 10, 2013

New procedures, medication and treatment options have vastly improved the medical profession’s ability to diagnose and cure disease, repair damage from accident or injury, and test for ailments and conditions…

Minimum wage written on blackboard behind rising stack of coins

Minimum Wage

By Bill Fay | January 5, 2013

The federal minimum wage is the lowest hourly wage an employer can legally pay, with some exceptions. Nearly 1.6 million Americans, 1.9% of hourly workers, make the federal minimum wage…

ObamaCare and Associated Costs

By Bill Fay | January 3, 2013

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), also known as ObamaCare, was signed into law on March 23, 2010. It is the federal government’s most comprehensive overhaul of the…

Chalkboard with guide on how to survive inflation

How to Survive Inflation

By Bill Fay | July 22, 2022

With a nod to Mark Twain, inflation has replaced the weather as the thing everyone talks about it, but nobody seems to do anything about it. Until now. Not that…

Employee resigning from his job

The Great Resignation: Why Is It Happening?

By Bill Fay | February 8, 2022

America has turned into a nation of quitters, though that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Spurred by the COVID pandemic, millions of people have joined “The Great Resignation” that’s happening…

Man handing refund of cash

How to Get a Refund on Your Student Loan Payments During COVID-19

By Bill Fay | May 3, 2021

The rules governing repayment of federal student loans contain so many nooks and crannies that it shouldn’t come as a surprise that you may have missed one created during the…

Envelope containing the third stimulus check

Third Stimulus Check

By Bill Fay | March 10, 2021

The average Joe – not Biden – figures to benefit most from passage of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. Approximately 145 million Americans will receive a third round of…

$15 minimum wage

$15 Minimum Wage Increase: Will It Happen?

By Bill Fay | February 10, 2021

Biden wants the minimum wage – currently set at $7.25 an hour – to jump to $15 an hour by 2025. The increases would be phased in at approximately $1.75…

Joe Biden announces American Rescue Plan

Details on the American Rescue Plan

By Bill Fay | January 14, 2021

President-elect Joe Biden unveiled the American Rescue Plan, a $1.9 trillion war on the prolonged suffering of Americans hardest hit by coronavirus. Included in his proposal: a fresh round of…

Image of newspaper titled Covid-19 Relief Bill with ribbon attached

Covid-19 Relief Bill

By Bill Fay | December 30, 2020

The second COVID-19 relief bill is now law – all 3,126 pages of it. The people in Congress who passed it admit they don’t know what all is in it,…

Second stimulus check on top of the first stimulus check

Second Stimulus Check Update

By Bill Fay | December 29, 2020

If you haven’t looked at your bank account this week, now might be a splendid time. The long wait for a second stimulus check from the U.S. government finally is…

Calendar with dart on second stimulus date

When Will a Second Stimulus Check be Delivered?

By Bill Fay | December 23, 2020

A second stimulus check – the financial gift from the U.S. government to help consumers recover from the economic belt coronavirus gave the American economy – needs only a signature…

Google search bar with phrase student loan benefit

Google Is the Latest Company to Offer Student Loan Repayment Benefits

By Bill Fay | November 3, 2020

If the biggest employee benefit you receive is when your company bothers to fill the toilet paper rolls in the employee bathroom, you might not want to read this: Google…

Woman deciding whether or not to pay down student loans during COVID-19

Paying Down Student Loans Before the COVID Suspension Is Lifted

By Bill Fay | October 28, 2020

If you are paying on a federal student loan, you probably already know that the government CARES Act has provided benefits that suspends payment and interest requirements through May 1,…

Campaign buttons for Trump and Biden

Trump vs. Biden: How Their Plans for Student Loan Debt Compare

By Bill Fay | October 16, 2020

Americans with student loan debt have a $1.6 trillion question on their minds: What would President Trump or a President Biden do about all that money these 45 million borrowers…

Woman applying for a new credit card on her computer

Should I Apply for a New Credit Card During COVID?

By Bill Fay | September 24, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has created record unemployment, erased profit margins, closed businesses and wreaked havoc on almost every family’s money outlook. It has even affected America’s ultimate get-out-of-jail financial symbol…

Sign for VA office

VA Extends COVID-19 Debt Relief to Veterans Through 2020

By Bill Fay | September 15, 2020

Veterans indebted to the Department of Veterans Affairs won a partial payment reprieve this summer that will last at least through the end of 2020. The VA action extends a…

For sale sign in front yard of house

Coronavirus and the Real Estate Market

By Bill Fay | August 14, 2020

Dorothy surely wasn’t thinking of life in a COVID-19 pandemic when she clicked those heels in the “Wizard of Oz” and opined that ‘there’s no place like home.’ But her…

Senator Mitch McConnell at a podium

Details on the HEALS Act

By Bill Fay | August 5, 2020

Congress and the White House are still debating whether the HEALS Act, HEROES Act – or some compromise Act in between – will deliver the next round of coronavirus relief…

Nancy Pelosi at a podium

Details on the HEROES Act

By Bill Fay | July 21, 2020

When the House of Representative passed the $3-trillion HEROES Act on May 15, it all but guaranteed that a second stimulus check would arrive for Americans in need of financial help…

Bankruptcy court with COVID-19 sign

COVID-19 Bankruptcies

By Bill Fay | July 16, 2020

The storm is coming. American consumers will be filing personal bankruptcies in record numbers by the end of 2020. That is the projection from bankruptcy attorneys, bankers and other experts…

Image of the stimulus COVID-19 relief check distributed by President Trump

Stimulus Checks for COVID-19 Relief

By Bill Fay | July 1, 2020

The phrase “stimulus check” is second only to “coronavirus” or “COVID-19” as something to talk about these days and people are definitely talking. About 159 million Americans have received the…

Calendar with July 15 marked as tax day

Tax Season Countdown All Over Again

By Bill Fay | June 30, 2020

Everyone knows the old saying: Time flies when you’re procrastinating. Seems like only yesterday we were breezing past April 15 — the traditional deadline for income tax filing — and…