Articles on Personal Finance

Download the 451-page bailout proposal

Well folks, I hope you have plenty of time on your hands. The initial 3-page document that Bush and Paulson put forward has grown somewhat. It's hardly surprising, considering how

What's the big deal about banks refusing to lend?

Anybody--but especially frugal people--can be excused for thinking that the whole credit crisis thing is being overblown. After all, we get along without debt. In fact, we str

Financial Peace in Hard Times

Six months ago, I had plans. Lots of them. Career plans. Vacation plans. Financial plans. Then everything fell apart. My mother became ill. She had already been ill, having been di

Update on money fund guarantee program

The key thing to know about the Temporary Guarantee Program for Money Market Funds that the Treasury announced 10 days ago is that it only guarantees the money that you had in the

The Highest Yielding "Safe" Investment Now - Tax Exempt Money Market Funds

Last year I wrote an article about how I used my Vanguard Tax Exempt Money Market Fund as a high yield checkings account, and this week I suddenly got quite a few hits for that art

In times like these, separate the want from the need.

I remember saying to my dad, a long, long time ago, that I really needed a whole bunch of He-Man action figures for Christmas. Oh, and Battlecat, too. My dad looked at me, a hopefu

Root cause of the financial crisis

Several times recently, Treasury Secretary Paulson (and many others) have claimed that the "root cause" of the current financial crisis is "the housing correction." This is comple

Shadow Government Statistics - Is the government manipulating numbers to make the economy look better than it really is?

About a year ago I wrote an article about the Consumer Price Index that made some friends say that I am a conspiracy theorist, but apparently I am not alone in believing that the g

Rewriting the Definition of Retirement

Your life map is so clearly laid out in front of you; yet the last piece of the puzzle – retirement – is a fuzzy and often incomprehensible anomaly. With people living longer and s

Me too, Secretary Paulson!

Dear Secretary Paulson: I've looked over the fact sheet on the proposal to give the Treasury the authority to purchase "troubled assets," and although I have some doubts about th

Breathing Easy on the Financial Rollercoaster

In case you hadn't noticed, stock markets around the world have done some crazy things this week. At this point, I think we're all a little lightheaded, wondering if we should be w

Deposit insurance for money funds

Early this morning, the Treasury announced deposit insurance for money market mutual funds, provided that the fund pays a fee. The money to provide the insurance will come from th

Peak Debt

Is there a limit to how much Americans can spend? Clearly there is: All they earn, minus savings and service on their existing debt, plus new borrowing. Since the Bureau of Econ

Need a game to learn to manage your credit?

Everybody learns best in their own way. Some by reading, some by listening, some only by personal experience--and there are always a few who never learn. But, if you're one of th

The Upside of Down

As we watch the markets sink and gyrate, it's a scary time. There's talk of a major recession. While the downsides of a downturn are obvious and very real -- lost work, lost invest

Could the last person to leave America please turn out the light.

I don’t know about you, but I’m more than a little worried by recent economic events. First Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, then Lehman Brothers, and now an $85 billion loan to AIG. So

Money lost in money fund

For thirty years, people have treated money funds as being just as safe as a bank. On the rare occasions when money fund management made a bad investment, they've voluntarily coug

What your house is really worth

There are several things you can do with a house that you own. During the housing boom, most of the attention was focused on two of those things: You could sell it, or you could

Are You and Your Spouse Planning the Same Retirement?

You expect to spend your retirement years living in Costa Rica. Your spouse expects to stay local and join the golf club. And you don’t figure this out until the day before you re

My disgusting fake game show asks "What would you do for money?"

I’ve written before about morality and pride taking a back seat to cash rewards. With today's game shows scraping the bottom of a very deep barrel, it amazes me what people will do