When faced with the choice between enjoying the moment and planning for the future, the squirrel knows what to do. Do you?
Investing
Certainties in Life: Death, Taxes, and an Onslaught of Springtime Tax Deduction Tips
Advice on overlooked tax deductions, tax deductions you think you can take but really can’t, the best (and worst) DIY tax-prep services, and more.
Do You Invest the Same Way You Drive a Car?
In both cases, when you are overconfident and take a lot of chances, you’re bound to crash. And when you refuse to ask for directions, it’s really hard to get where you want to go.
Savings Tip Mania
One list is never enough. So here are 13 money-saving lists: 178 tips in total.
Warren Buffett’s Boring, Brilliant Wisdom
Warren Buffett is old. He can’t keep up with the times. He’s famously cheap, and wears dorky grandpa glasses and bad suits. Even his seemingly cool nickname, “The Oracle of Omaha,” sort of sounds like a hokey phrase coined in the Roaring ’20s, or perhaps in ancient Greece. But as he’s proved time and again—like last year, when net …
Why Buying a Foreclosed House on the Cheap Is Harder Than You Think
The truth is that there are a lot more buyers and a lot fewer homes on the market than you’d expect.
The Customer Service Confrontation: What to Say to Get Fees Waived
“Pretty please” probably isn’t going to cut it. You want to be polite but firm, knowledgeable but not a know-it-all. And when the time comes, you might have to threaten to close your account—and it’s best if you mean you’d actually do just that.
Shout Out: “The Best Places to Buy an Old House”
In its annual roundup, This Old House features some affordable neighborhoods—and not only in Detroit.
How Homeownership Is Like Marriage
There are forces that eagerly want you to enter these institutions—the federal government with homeownership, nagging family members with marriage, and society as a whole for both. You hear over and over that entering into these commitments is the fulfillment of a dream. But neither homeownership nor marriage is right for everyone. And …
Fighting Words from the Visionary of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency
“Without a watchdog in place, the big banks just keep slinging out uglier and uglier products.”
Q&A: Bad with Money? It’s Not Your Fault
Even before you got your first piggie bank, you may have been witness to events that permanently affected your relationship with money—including, obviously, how you spend it. These events might be quite dramatic, like your father losing his business, or more mundane, such as being teased at school for wearing ragged hand-me-down …
How NOT to Invest Your Money
Take it from a business journalist: Don’t listen to stock tips from business journalists. Also, don’t invest like an average Joe (or Jane).