Scams are always abundant in this day and age, but COVID-19 has quickly brought about societal shifts full of financial and economic uncertainty and of scared and vulnerable people, and scammers are already working the cause. Scam artists are always looking for opportunities to steal money and data from people and businesses, especially financial institutions. And this time is no different.
Credit scores are a big deal. They’re used to determine if you can buy or rent a house, get a car, or even some jobs. FICO is implementing extensive changes to credit score calculations that will affect millions of Americans. An estimated 40 million Americans will see their score drop by 20 or more points, and equally as many might see as large of an increase.1
The Teslar team had an amazing time in Orlando, FL last week at the ICBA Live conference! Conference attendees Joe Ehrhardt, CEO, Account Executives Colin Savells and David Hamrick, and Director of Marketing, Courtney Martin sat down to discuss their favorite parts of the event.
With a growing number of companies implementing work-from-home policies to prevent the spread of COVID-19, it looks like many of us will be working from home for an indefinite amount of time. While many people are used to part-time or fully remote work, this is a bit of a culture shock for those of us who are used to our office setting. We’d like to share some tips for a more productive workday from people who have successfully worked from home for years.
Travel bans are in place, schools are closed, sport activities have been cancelled. Large parts of the economy have been shut down, and it came as a complete shock to many people. The fear of the unknown is driving a lot of these shifts, but Senior Fellow at the Harvard Global Health Institute, Olga Jonas, a pandemic economist, says everything happening so far is as anticipated.
Jobs in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) fields have grown faster than the overall growth of employment in the U.S. Since 1990, overall employment has grown 34 percent while STEM jobs have grown 79 percent, according to data from Pew Research Center.
Research by The National Center for Women & Information Technology shows that, as of 2018, 57 percent of professional occupations are held by women, but only 26 percent of the 17.3 million people working in these fields are women. Needless to say, women in tech are the minority. I had the opportunity to chat with April Wolfe, a member of our Install team at Teslar to talk a little bit about what it’s like to be a woman working in the technology field.
There are two types of relationships with technology: digital immigrants and digital natives. Digital immigrants are those who have integrated into technology and did not grow up with it, like today’s older generations. Digital natives are younger people, mostly children and adolescents, who were born into technology. As digital natives are entering adulthood, we’re seeing a shift in the “American Dream.” Young people are becoming more and more detached from tradition. Less people are getting married, buying homes, having children, attending church, or joining political parties, among other things.
We’re getting a lot of mixed messages about a coming recession. On one hand, the Gross Domestic Product is higher than expected and the unemployment rate is at a historic low. We’ve been seeing a lot of economic growth that suggests we’re headed in the right direction. But on the other hand, many experts suggest we are at risk for a recession.
“Fintech” is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as “computer programs and other technology used to support or enable banking and financial services.” This takes shape in a broad array of products and services.
Traditional thinking says that the risk banks make lending to small companies rarely outweighs the profits. Recent relationships between the small business community and fintech startups are causing lenders to reevaluate this line of thought.