January 2025
NBA names Knicks’ Karl-Anthony Towns Eastern Conference Player of the Month for December
Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns was named NBA’s Eastern Conference Player of the Month for December.
Latest on Roki Sasaki’s decision, Red Sox offseason update | Baseball Bar-B-Cast
Jordan Shusterman and guest host Kiley McDaniel discuss the latest on Roki Sasaki’s free agency, the Nationals, Pirates, and Cubs making moves and the latest on the Red Sox offseason with guest Chris Cotillo.
Latest on Roki Sasaki’s decision, Red Sox offseason update | Baseball Bar-B-Cast
Jordan Shusterman and guest host Kiley McDaniel discuss the latest on Roki Sasaki’s free agency, the Nationals, Pirates, and Cubs making moves and the latest on the Red Sox offseason with guest Chris Cotillo.
Latest on Roki Sasaki’s decision, Red Sox offseason update | Baseball Bar-B-Cast
Jordan Shusterman and guest host Kiley McDaniel discuss the latest on Roki Sasaki’s free agency, the Nationals, Pirates, and Cubs making moves and the latest on the Red Sox offseason with guest Chris Cotillo.
My Favorite Renter-Friendly Storage Solutions That Won’t Leave a Mark
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When you rent, the space is your home but it’s not your home, you know? You obviously want to keep it tidy and organized, not only for your own benefit, but so you don’t end up forfeiting a security deposit sometime down the line. The real trouble comes into play when deciding how to do that. In most cases, you can’t remodel or make any permanent changes, but you’re not without options: Here are the best (non destructive) organizational solutions for renters.
Always opt for expanders or tension rods
Plenty of people screw shelving and rods into the walls of their rentals with the understanding that they can patch the holes before they leave, but it’s still not ideal. On move-out day, you have enough going on, so you may not want to go full handyman at a time when you already have to relocate and unpack somewhere else. Expandable organizers are a much better option overall.
Expandable drawer dividers (eight for $29.99) are excellent because they help you follow the rules of the Organizational Triangle. Specifically, they enable you to divide drawers and shelves so you have hyper-specific storage spaces for all your item categories. This is really important for keeping everything in order, but you can do it without permanently installing a thing. The same goes for these expandable tension racks ($24.95), which produce extra shelving space wherever you need it.
Obviously, try to use standard tension rods wherever possible, from hanging curtains to creating a bar for extra clothing or handbag storage, but also consider tension-based shower caddies. If there’s one place you really shouldn’t be making permanent changes, it’s anywhere with tile or ceramic, so these are your safest option for leaving the bathroom exactly as you found it. You can get a four-tiered caddy for less than 20 bucks.
The best shelving for renters
In my many years as a renter, I’ve tried all kinds of shelving units. My problem is I need a lot of storage space, so even though I really like squat ones that don’t take up much room, they’re just not that useful for me and always end up getting really cluttered. I need big ones—but they have to be just the right size. If they’re too top heavy or too light, they need to be secured to the wall, and that’s just not what I’m trying to do in a space that I don’t own.
I love this four-tiered shelving unit from Furinno ($32.99), which I’ve had for four years and have had no problems with. Other units I tried before were the wrong size and would collapse or fall over. These are just sturdy and stable enough to stand on their own without reinforcement. Not once in four years have they done anything to displease me or risk my security deposit.
I am also a huge proponent of cube storage. Square shelving provides smaller holes, so you have to be more specific and intentional about the categories you’re storing, but the heft is evenly distributed and they’re low enough to the ground that, again, they don’t need any reinforcing. My top tip, as someone with too much experience, is to get the ones you do have to screw together, not the ones that slide into external holders. Those are too light and unstable. They will collapse. The ones you screw together, like these from Furinno ($29.99 for five units), are much more stable.
Quality adhesive is the renter’s friend
I have all kinds of cool organizers around my home, attached to walls and under cabinets. They’re attached by adhesive, meaning on the day I leave, I can just pull them right down. I’ve moved and rearranged them a lot and never noticed them pulling at any of the drywall. That’s because I use quality adhesive. I prefer 3M over Command, which I’ve noticed tends to fall down more. You can get over 16 feet of the adhesive for $12.99.
As for what I use it for, let me count the ways. I have an entire “organizational wall” that includes individual sunglasses holders, racks for belts and hats, and bottle storage for things like sunscreen and hairspray. I also use adhesive hooks all over the apartment, as well as adhesive towel and utensil organizers in the kitchen.
All of these are inexpensive, coming in under $20, and give me hyper-specific organizational options for all of the things I need to store without doing any damage to the property. All that said, I don’t recommend adhesive shelving. Any large shelf you have to stick to the wall runs the risk of crashing down. That’s not worth it to me, so I stick to shelving units and smaller wall-based organizing tools.
How to Watch Pornhub Even If It’s Blocked In Your State
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The internet is changing rapidly, and adult entertainment is no exception: Porn sites operating in 17 U.S. states must now verify that their users are adults with a government-issued ID or some other suitable method of proving their identity—which is not necessarily something you want to do every time you visit an adult site. In response, Pornhub, as well as other sites under parent company Aylo, have gone dark in each state in protest. As such, many users across these states are now searching for the best VPNs (virtual private networks) to install on their devices so they can still access the site.
As of Jan. 1, three states—Florida, Tennessee, and South Carolina—now require sites like Pornhub to ensure visitors are adults. They join a list of states that includes Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah, Texas, and Virginia—all of which have lost access to Pornhub and Aylo sites. Georgia will join this list in July, once its similar law is enacted. Louisiana is the only state with one of these laws Aylo works with, utilizing the state’s digital license program, “LA Wallet,” to verify users. If you attempt to load the site in one of the other 17 states, however, you’ll see, in part, something like this message: “[Age verification] bills have failed to protect minors, by driving users from those few websites which comply, to the hundreds of thousands of websites with far fewer safety measures in place, which do not comply.”
These laws are not going without challenge. Pornhub sued Texas, for example, but blocked the site in the state once the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the law. For its part, Pornhub says the Texas ruling will, “impinge on the rights of adults to access protected speech” and that age verification generally, “is not an effective solution for protecting users online.” The company wants to see age verification handled at the device level. As for the federal appeals court, it pointed to the age verification needed to buy old-fashioned, printed porn: Not applying the same rules to online content “implies that the invention of the Internet somehow reduced the scope of the state’s ability to protect children,” wrote Circuit Judge Jerry Smith in the ruling. The Supreme Court will hear the case later this month.
How to watch Pornhub if it’s blocked in your state
Whatever your position on age verification laws, remember that the best VPNs can connect your computer to a server in a different part of the world—making it look like you’re located somewhere other than where you actually are.
That’s just the start, though, when it comes to the benefits of installing a VPN. These software tools hide your browsing activity from governments, law enforcement agencies, and whoever is providing your internet. Generally, VPNs make it harder for companies to track you, and give you more security and privacy (though not total anonymity) online.
With that in mind, Lifehacker has covered the best free VPNs, the best paid VPNs, and the best free VPNs for Android in the past, but I’d like to highlight a couple of recommendations here—if you want more suggestions for your internet browsing needs (adult site-related or not), follow those links above.
The best free VPN: Proton VPN
Proton VPN doesn’t put any bandwidth restrictions on free accounts.
Credit: Proton
Credit: Proton
We’ve written in glowing terms before about how good the free Proton VPN is, and it’s a great pick if you don’t want to spend anything. Its appeal starts with Proton itself: It’s committed to privacy, was started by scientists in Switzerland, and is siloed from the big tech names (like Google, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft). It’s a name you can trust.
There are also surprisingly few restrictions for a free VPN. The two main limitations are you can only connect from one device, and you don’t get to choose which country’s servers you connect to. That’s it—it’s not painfully slow, like a lot of free VPNs. If you do need more flexibility in your VPN connections and features, there are paid upgrades available too.
Add in the ease of use you get with Proton VPN, the support for a broad range of devices, and the reliability you get from servers around the world, and it’s difficult to beat in terms of a free VPN. Sign up here for a Proton account, if you don’t already have one.
The best paid VPN: NordVPN
You can connect to more than 60 different countries with NordVPN.
Credit: NordVPN
Credit: NordVPN
You’ve got a lot of excellent options to pick from when it comes to paid VPNs, and there’s no app that’s far and away above the others—but we’re going to highlight NordVPN here, which we recently compared to ExpressVPN. It’s fast, it’s flexible, and the software it offers across multiple platforms is more polished and intuitive than with a lot of its rivals.
You get lots of features with NordVPN, from split tunneling to DNS customizations to support for the super-private Onion network. While you can easily use the software with just a couple of clicks (or taps), there are numerous advanced features available if you want to dig a bit deeper—you can even have a dedicated IP address (though it costs extra).
Pricing for NordVPN starts at $11.95 a month, but you can get some pretty significant discounts if you pay for a year (or two years) up front. That’s enough to get you up to six simultaneous connections, and you can sign up here to register and download the apps.
What Happens to Your Debts When You Die
So, you’ve died. Congrats, you’re finally debt-free! Unfortunately, things are now a bit more complicated for your relatives. When someone dies, their debts don’t simply disappear. Instead, for the most part, they become part of the deceased person’s estate—the collection of all assets and liabilities left behind. Understanding how these debts are handled is crucial for both estate planning and managing inherited responsibilities. Let’s take a look at what exactly happens when you die with debts to your name, and what you can do to ensure your family members are not left with an unwelcome surprise. And, of course, none of this is legal advice—it’s simply an overview of what happens, generally speaking, to your debts when you die.
First off, the probate process
After death, the estate goes through probate. This is the legal process where an executor is appointed to manage the estate, assets are identified and valued, valid debts are paid, and remaining assets are distributed to heirs. During probate proceedings, any outstanding debts must be settled using property and funds from the estate. Heirs receive no inheritance until debts are settled.
Most states require debts to be paid in this order:
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Funeral expenses
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Estate administration costs
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Federal taxes
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Medical bills from final illness
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Secured debts
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Unsecured debts
If the estate lacks funds to pay all debts (aka an insolvent estate), debts are paid according to priority order. Lower-priority creditors may receive partial payment or nothing, while remaining debts typically die with the deceased.
Some assets bypass probate and are protected from creditors. These include life insurance proceeds, retirement accounts with named beneficiaries, assets in living trusts, and property held in joint tenancy.
Types of debts and what happens to them
Now that we know the order of debts that need to be paid, let’s take a look at how different types of debt are handled.
Federal student loans
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Automatically discharged upon death
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Death certificate must be submitted to loan servicer
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Private student loans may have different rules; some require payment from the estate
Credit card debt
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Paid from estate assets
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Not inherited by family members unless they are: co-signers on the account, joint account holders, or required by state law (in community property states—more on that below)
Medical bills
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Estate is responsible for payment
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Family members generally not liable unless they signed financial responsibility forms or live in states with specific filial responsibility laws
Mortgages and home loans
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Property can transfer to heirs, but the mortgage remains
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Options for inheriting family members are to assume the mortgage and continue payments, refinance the loan, or sell the property to pay off the debt
Car loans
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Similar to mortgages, lender may allow loan assumption by qualified heirs
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Vehicle can be sold to satisfy the debt
Impact on family members
The good news is that relatives are not typically responsible for repaying the debt of someone who’s died, unless:
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They’re a co-signer on a loan with outstanding debt.
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They’re a joint account holder on a credit card. (Note: This is different from an authorized user.)
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They’re a surviving spouse and your state law requires spouses to pay a particular type of debt.
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They’re the executor or administrator of the deceased person’s estate and your state law requires executors or administrators to pay an outstanding bill out of property that was jointly owned by the surviving and deceased spouses.
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They’re a surviving spouse and you live in a community property state that requires surviving spouses to use jointly-held property to pay debts of a deceased spouse. These states include Alaska (if a special agreement is signed), Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin.
If there was no co-signer, joint account holder, or other exception, only the estate of the deceased person owes the debt.
Preventive measures
While you can’t plan for an unexpected death, there are steps you can take now to protect heirs from debt complications. The most obvious step is to maintain adequate life insurance. Even if you’re young and healthy now, you could still need a plan. Make things easier for your loved ones by keeping detailed financial records and regularly updated beneficiary designations. Finally, consider creating a living trust, and consult with estate planning professionals.
If you’re the family member of someone who recently left debt behind them, consider consulting a probate attorney. Don’t automatically pay debts from personal funds, and always request debt verification in writing while keeping detailed records of all communications.
Debt settlement is tricky enough while you’re alive. Understanding what happens to your debts when you die is the best way you don’t leave a mess for your estate once you’re gone. For more, here’s how to talk to your kids about your estate plan now.