Including: Do you regularly run into people who make you wonder how they can afford an iPhone?
Earnings Keep Pushing Stocks Higher
The flurry of second quarter earnings reports is officially underway — aluminum producer Alcoa reported earlier this week that it was back in the black and that things were looking up. Another positive report came from transport titan CSX, which said that its business was chugging along nicely with 2nd quarter coal shipments up 7%. …
Are You Overpaying for your 401(k)?
Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research Center has a study out this month about the cost of 401(k) plans, and they have found another flaw in the nation’s defacto retirement savings system: It is overpriced. So not only do 401(k) plans not meet the needs of the average American, they aren’t cost effective either. I wrote about …
Coming Soon: Smaller, Cheaper Pay TV Packages?
The average cable TV customer gets (and pays for) 118 channels, yet watches only 17. Consumers may soon have alternatives to this inefficient, costly, and far-from-ideal situation.
Foreclosure: A Letter from the Front Lines
With rare honesty and touching insight, a veterinarian in northern California discusses what it’s like for her family to lose their dream home to foreclosure—and she blames herself at least as much as the economy for their predicament.
It’s a Deal: Buy One, Get One Free Eyeglasses
Now through July 25, at EyeBuyDirect.com, you’ll get a free pair of prescription eyeglasses with each paid pair. The cheaper of the two is the freebie, and there’s a minimum order requirement of $14.95.
The Latest Disturbing Unemployment Statistic
Right now, there are six times as many people who have been unemployed for at least 99 weeks as there were three years ago.
Q&A with Trent Hamm, Author of ‘The Simple Dollar’
“The trick is to just make sure you’re not spending a lot of money on stuff you don’t use or appreciate very often.”
Is China a debt junkie?
We’ve all by now learned about the dangers of too much debt. The U.S. is paying the price for an explosion of consumer debt. Europe is struggling with too much sovereign debt. Now one of the big questions facing China is whether or not Beijing’s policymakers are about to get their own lesson in the perils of debt-driven …
In Praise of Small Homes
The median home size is now a bit over 2,000 square feet, which is down from 2,309 square feet in 2007. But even 2,000 square feet is more space than most families need, and homeowners should understand that size matters: You obviously pay more upfront for a bigger home, and huge, sprawling houses are also more expensive to heat, cool, …
How to Be a Savvy Estate Sale Shopper
More foreclosures—especially among the rich—mean more estate sales, and more potential for smart shoppers to snag antiques, furniture, and fixtures at well below market value.
Creating not just jobs, but good jobs
Richard Florida’s recent piece in the FT, “America needs to make its bad jobs better,” presents a pretty interesting argument, one that a nation so focused on job creation might want to keep in mind. Florida points out, as plenty of others have before, that the sorts of service-sector jobs the U.S. is on track to create the most of in …