Personal finance for people who want to be great with money — written by the friend who already is.
Fifteen years reporting on fees, scams, and the fine print. Reads the terms so you don't have to.
About Mike
Mike's beat is the quiet stuff that erodes wealth without anyone noticing — junk fees, opaque insurance riders, subscription creep, and the increasingly clever ways financial products separate ordinary people from their money.
On The Smart Money, he'll write the honest teardown: what to cancel, what to dispute, what to escalate, and what to just walk away from.
In their own words
“If the pitch is urgent, the answer is no.”
— Mike Torres, The Consumer Advocate
The money story
Mike started as a small-town consumer affairs reporter and never left the beat. Fifteen years of reader mail taught him one lesson: the same dozen fee patterns, the same handful of scripts, drain more household wealth every year than any market downturn.
Signature playbook
Four categories of quiet fees drain the average household four figures a year. Kill them once, then set a calendar reminder to do it again.
Banking Fees
Overdraft, monthly maintenance, out-of-network ATM, wire fees. All negotiable, most avoidable.
Card Fees
Late fees, over-limit, foreign transaction, cash advance. Call and ask. First waiver almost always granted.
Insurance Riders
Every policy has a rider line. Read it. Half are duplicative of coverage you already carry.
Subscription Creep
The 60-day rule: if you haven't used it in 60 days, cancel today. Re-add later if you miss it.
A taste of the beat
Sample headlines from Mike's desk.
Rules I won't break
The non-negotiables — the things Mike refuses to recommend, no matter how good the pitch.
The weekly dispatch
The kind of financial advice you'd get from a friend who's already figured it out. No hot takes, no leaderboards, no affiliate hustle.