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Category Archives: Personal Finance

Are Black Friday’s Steep Discounts Worth It?

Black Friday is only a week away, and for avid bargain-hunters, it nearly ranks as a holiday in its own right. Retailers count on the Christmas shopping season to comprise the bulk of their sales for the year — and in 2009, when retail sales have been particularly dismal, Black Friday will be more important [...]

Tuesday Top 5: What to Look For on Your Credit Report

Welcome to this week’s edition of Tuesday Top 5, our weekly tips post to help you manage your money in five easy steps.
Today we walk you through the all-important credit report, and what to do if you find inaccurate information on it. Your credit report plays a major role in determining your credit score, so it’s [...]

Tuesday Top 5: Things to Consider Before You Get a Mortgage

Greetings and welcome to this week’s edition of our Tuesday Top 5, our weekly tips post to help you manage your money in five easy steps.
The deadline for that juicy $8,000 new homebuyer’s credit is rapidly approaching, but how do you know if you’re ready to own a home? Ask yourself the following five questions to [...]

When You Should Convert to a Roth IRA

Regular readers of personal-finance blogs are well-aware that they should have a Roth IRA, a type of retirement account funded by after-tax dollars that lets your savings grow tax-free. With all their money-saving benefits, Roth IRAs seem to be as popular a topic on money blogs as avoiding the ubiquitous $4 latte.
Even still, most young [...]

Tuesday Top 5: How to Retire as a Millionaire

Welcome to this week’s edition of our Tuesday Top 5, our new weekly tips post to help you manage your money in five easy steps.
Today we tell you the five things you need to know if your end goal is retiring a millionaire. Sound like a pipe dream? It’s not if you start early enough.

Think you [...]

Luxury denim meets the recession

In this day of high fashion, it seems almost quaint to speak of an inexpensive pair of faded Levi’s jeans. Indeed, for proof that jeans have moved far beyond their role as the outfit of the working man, check out this Wall Street Journal article on “The Rise of Power Jeans.”
As designer denim became every [...]

Frugality Now, Prosperity Later

Are you ever accused of being a cheapskate? If so, you have something in common with Linda Beech, a columnist for The Garden City Telegram, who wrote her latest opinion piece on why she bought a used car (instead of a new one) for her teenage daughter:
Years ago, when I had two small children and my [...]

Why isn’t college LESS expensive during a recession?

It has been difficult to pick up a newspaper the past week without seeing a story on the rising cost of college tuition; these articles from the LA Times and the Washington Post are representative.

College costs are in the news because of the College Board’s “Trends in College Pricing 2009” report, which  I would encourage [...]

Tuesday Top 5: How to Write a Will

Welcome to the inaugural edition of Tuesday Top 5, our new weekly tips post to help you manage your money in five easy steps. This week, we show you how to stop putting off one of the most important duties you have to protect your dependents in the event of a tragedy: Writing your will.
You [...]

The Demise of Microsoft Money

I may be late to the party but I only just learned that Microsoft has discontinued its game-changing Money software. I’ve been using Money for years to track my spending, retirement allotments, taxable investments, and savings accounts all in one tidy package. But unfortunately for me and Microsoft, the advent of free budgeting websites has [...]