Guides
Playbooks for the days nobody prepares you for. Each one is complete on its own: the steps, the order, the words to use, and the numbers to call, with the date each number was last checked.
- How to freeze your credit in 15 minutes (and for a child, a parent, or someone who has died)
Freeze your credit at all three bureaus for free, online, in about fifteen minutes. Then the variants nobody explains: a child under 16, an adult you hold power of attorney for, and a parent who has died.
About 15 minutes online, or an afternoon by mail
- What to say when a lender says there are no hardship programs
The hardship ladder: five rungs, in order, from the first phone call to a regulator complaint, with the exact words for each. Works for credit cards, mortgages, car loans, student loans, medical bills, and utilities, and explains what each program is usually called.
One prepared phone call, about 30 minutes; the written rungs take a week or two
- How to find every subscription you're paying for (and cancel the ones you forgot)
A one-hour audit that turns twelve months of statements into a list of everything that charges you automatically, what each costs per year, and a decision on each. Includes the four places subscriptions hide and what to say when a company makes cancelling hard.
About an hour, once; ten minutes a year after that