At the retail store, most sales staffers are understandably focused on the sale, not the return policy. So it’s often totally up to the consumer to investigate where the store’s policies fall on the spectrum from downright stingy …
Retirement TIPS: Never Outlive Your Money with Inflation-Protected Bonds
What if you were about to retire and could put all of your savings in a single, ultra-low-risk investment with near certainty that you would never outlive your money? Well, maybe you can with Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities.
Credit Card Applications More Transparent, Still Not Terrific
A study published by credit card comparison site CardHub.com last week shows that while the Credit CARD Act of 2009 has helped make the thicket of fine print and legalese somewhat easier to navigate, it’s still a jungle out there. The site’s 2011 Credit Card Application Study looked into the application materials that the 10 biggest …
NYC Financial Fitness Workshop on October 1
Readers in the New York City area may be interested to know that TIME Moneyland is a proud media sponsor of a Financial Fitness Workshop being put on by the New York University School of Continuing and Professional Studies and the Financial Planning Association of New York on Saturday, October 1 at the NYU School of Law in Manhattan’s …
Should the Eurozone Become a ‘United States of Europe’?
Europeans back from summer vacation this week may be wishing they’d stayed on the beach. Stock markets in Germany, Italy, and France all dropped about 5% Monday, after the so-called “troika” of European institutions (the …
Are Parents Changing Kids’ Diapers Less Often to Save Money?
Joining the ever-growing list of odd economic indicators that includes the hot waitress index and men’s underwear index, here’s one that might be called the diaper rash index. Over the past couple of years, sales of disposable …
There’s a Groupon for Everything, Including … College?
The daily deal model works well with restaurants, spas, and other small, service-oriented businesses. But Groupon and other daily deal sites are constantly branching out, experimenting with specially discounted vouchers for …
Got the Post-Vacation Blues? Don’t Worry—You’ll Get Used to Them!
As vacation season ends for many of us — bringing, for some, a sense of dread about the return to workday (if not actual employment) routines — we thought we’d offer a bit of encouragement, which might also help you make the …
Historical Walt Disney, Tammy Wynette and Civil War Homes
A home with a guitar-shaped pool. An estate that once included a personal movie screening room for none other than Walt Disney. And the house where abolitionist John Brown was hanged. Take our virtual tour of these historic homes …
Is the Government Going to Lower Everyone’s Mortgage Payment?
It’s been about two weeks since the Obama administration floated the idea of a massive mortgage refinance, and there seems to be little consensus on whether the plan would provide a boost to either the economy or the housing market.
The plan is to allow the millions of homeowners who have government owned mortgages to refinance those …
Hey Kids of Baby Boomers, Forget About Your Inheritance
The heirs of wealthy Baby Boomers shouldn’t be assuming that they’ll be inheriting a pot of gold when their parents pass away. Less than half of millionaires who are members of the famously selfish generation—boomers, not their …
Three Takeaways of Today’s Market Decline
A toxic jobs report, a federal lawsuit against banks, Euro-debt troubles and a run to safety are all threatening stocks today — and likely for the rest of the week, too.