Welcome to Money As If, the personal finance newsletter for people who are simply too seated.

Today’s show:

— Jeanine

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It’s been a few weeks since the GOP’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA) officially became a law and turned into the big old money elephant in the room.

I’d love to continue ignoring this thing in our weekly chats, but I’ve been covering some of its provisions for various news outlets and know its effects on the nation’s personal finances are not insignificant.

So, yes, OK, let’s talk about OBBBA and some of the major ways it’ll affect your money.

OBBBA makes the 2017 tax cuts permanent and introduces several new tax deductions that could help you come January through April next year.

H&R Block has a pretty thorough explainer of all the bill’s tax code provisions and caveats, but these are the big changes that are likely to appeal to most Americans.

There’s also a new above-the-line tax deduction for car buyers that I covered from Investopedia, which lets you deduct up to $10,000 in auto loan interest each year through tax year 2028 if you’re financing a new domestically assembled vehicle.

It covers more cars than you may think (about 60% of the vehicles sold in the U.S. complete assembly here) and will save most eligible taxpayers about $200 to $400. Just don’t get suckered into a bad financing deal with the hope of recouping that money from Uncle Sam.

The big headline is that OBBBA will effectively kick close to 12 million Americans off of Medicaid and Obamacare over the next decade or so, largely by introducing onerous work and administrative requirements that make it harder to qualify for and keep subsidized coverage.

But, honestly, everyone — including people on employer-sponsored plans — should expect their health insurance to get significantly more expensive. The U.S. health care system is a delicate, interconnected network held together by gauze and band-aids. A butterfly waves its wings in Washington, D.C., and, yup, the whole thing shakes.

Medicaid cuts, for instance, are likely to lead to hospital closures, which will likely lead to higher hospital prices, which likely lead to higher health insurance claims, which will lead to health insurers raising policyholders’ out-of-pocket costs — and that’s not the only pressure being applied to premiums.

Insurance, after all, is pool, too few or too many sick applicants and the people left swimming have to pay the difference. So what can you do?

OBBBA cut funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in half, but, if we’re speaking candidly (and we are), the agency has been dying a slow death since former Congressman, hyper-critic, and one-time hedge fund co-founder Mick Mulvaney rolled up as acting director with a box of donuts back in 2017.

It’s unfortunate because, prior to that moment, the CFPB had done some great work, targeting, banning, and minimizing the spread of deceptive financial products and practices, such as dual-tracking, overdraft protection, and deferred interest.

I remember covering the agency’s early efforts back in 2011, and it’s essentially the reason financial products even have disclosure boxes, and every credit card review on the Internet reads like a pharmaceutical ad:

Overkill, perhaps, but also effective and, without the CFPB at full capacity, consumers will have to police their financial relationships more closely, a consequence I discussed with Kimberly Palmer at NerdWallet recently.

So what can you do?

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Or maybe it’s good (bad) marketing? Either way, these brands are getting attention for all the wrong reasons.

🚀 $0.35

the per-hour price for whatever Astronomer — the DataOps platform that made headlines after its CEO and HR lead were caught canoodling at a Coldplay concert — does. (Please, allow Gwyneth Paltrow to explain.)

🥴 $48

for face shapewear (yup, that’s right; it’s shapewear … for your face), the latest release from Kim Kardashian’s SKIMs. Sold out, despite its internet-haters.

👖$59.95

for a pair of Sydney Sweeney’s good jeans, the object of a polarizing (to say the least) ad campaign launched last week by American Eagle.

👟 $118

for a pair of Toto’s elevator sneakers, which make their wearer 2.4 inches taller, seen on problematic Bravo reality star Jax Taylor during The Valley’s first reunion episode.

🤖 $198

the price of Guess’s Eco Vera Chevron dress, modeled in Vogue by an AI-generated model created by marketing agency Seraphinne Vallora.

🧙 $2,100

the highest asking price on eBay for one of the Wicked dolls, recalled by Mattel after it was discovered to include an adult website URL on the packaging.

Nowadays, most financial takes are boilerplate. These aren't.

And, finally, today, in what are we even doing here anymore?

So I know this is a thing that luxury brands do where they stick their label on a piece of plastic and charge a gazillion dollars for it — in this case, a women’s gaffer bangle in matte transparent (?) that Balenciaga is selling for, oh, $1,190 — but, well, it’s still a piece of plastic and they’re charging a gazillion dollars for.

Got questions, comments, receipts, tips, thirst traps, etc. you’d like to share? Send them to [email protected].

_{This article is for educational purposes only. We don’t recommend or advise individuals to buy, not buy, sell, or not sell particular investments or other assets, as everyone’s circumstances are different. Also, it’s your money and ultimately up to you to decide the best use for it.}