The High-Class Problem That Comes With Home Equity
You may feel richer as you pay your mortgage down and home values go up. Using that equity is another matter entirely.
By Ron Lieber
I write about everything under the sun that hits you in the wallet. (Some people call this personal finance, but I find the term bland and off-putting.) I have a special affection for topics that involve large sums of money, opaque pricing and decisions where our emotions can lead us astray. If you’ve noticed me writing a lot about paying for college in recent years, that’s why.
I’ve never written about the stock market or the economy as isolated topics. I look at what those topics mean for everyday people. I’m a proxy for readers who are plenty smart and perhaps numbers-averse — and live in a world where nonexpert individuals are increasingly forced to make big-dollar decisions in arenas that are complex either by design or neglect.
I’m the author of “The Price You Pay for College” and “The Opposite of Spoiled.” I helped launch the Personal Journal section of The Wall Street Journal in 2002 and wrote the Green Thumb column when the Saturday edition of the newspaper began in 2005. I joined The Times in 2008 and have won the Gerald Loeb award — business journalism’s highest honor — three times for my work since then.
I live in Brooklyn with my family, including my wife and colleague Jodi Kantor.
Back when Twitter was more useful, I practiced a public form of self-advocacy in an effort to lead by example, calling out corporate bad actors that I had found wanting in my own life as a consumer because of their dumb rules or obtuse systems. But I never use my platform or position for personal gain — and if I sense that a company or its representatives have figured out what I do for a living, I don’t accept compensation or refunds from them. Instead, I ask that they use my exchange with them to improve their processes for others. My reporting did lead to The Times firing Equifax; that was super fun. You can learn more about The Times’s ethics policy here.
Email: lieber@nytimes.com
Threads: @ronlieber
Instagram: @ronlieber
LinkedIn: Ron Lieber
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