Personal finance advice, ideas - Money Magazine

Cool gadgetry for your car

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:21:15 EDT

Your car may not be new, but its gizmos can be - for as little as a few hundred bucks.

The trouble with annuities

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:17:31 EDT

With the uncertainty of the market these days, a lot of investors are running for cover with their retirement funds. No wonder sales of fixed annuities surged 74% for the first three months of 2009, according to research association LIMRA.

5 steps to a quick home sale

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:10:52 EDT

1. You have to seriously undercut the competition

Get waterfront living for a lot less

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:45:32 EDT

Affordable oceanfront property can be hard to find. But you can buy a sweet lake house for under a million. Here are four of them on the market now.

Money's Two Cents blog

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:00:10 EDT

Best way to find a home loan

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 03:51:31 EDT

When the easy money was flowing, you could get a great deal on a mortgage from just about anyone. But in today's credit-challenged world, all the avenues for finding a mortgage come with their own set of problems.

3 ways to dodge rising fees

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:16:45 EDT

Why fees are up: President Obama just signed off on major reforms. Card issuers aren't happy. They're doing everything they can to make money off you before the regs kick in next year. What you're getting socked with: Up to 3% extra for foreign goods you buy in dollars (such as a ticket on Air France). Balance-transfer fees are up too: Several issuers have raised them as high as 5%.

Plenty of savings, no investing strategy

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 04:45:44 EDT

The Aquinos live by a simple rule: "If we can't pay for something, we don't buy it," says Liz, 34. In the eight years she and Tony, 36, a systems engineer, have been married, the couple have socked away more than $400,000.

Home security for less

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 06:29:11 EDT

The combination of a deep recession and widespread law-enforcement funding cuts will most likely spell a banner summer for burglars. If your house makes a good target - it's upscale, off the beaten path, and in or near a city - an alarm system is your best defense, according to Temple University economics professor Simon Hakim, who studies security and policing. Installing one will reduce your risk of a break-in by two-thirds. To determine what you really need, follow the guidelines below.

Do the right thing in a recession

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 07:15:22 EDT

In a tough economy you may face some hard decisions when it comes to money and your relationships with family and friends. Our ethics experts weigh in on how to handle some particularly thorny dilemmas.

How the crisis is changing you

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:37:08 EDT

Lynne Goldberg's staffing business in Northfield, Ill., has seen revenue drop by half during the recession. Her husband, an attorney, is still working. But money is tight. Goldberg, 60, aims to trim $20,000 from their budget by paying off credit cards, refinancing the mortgage, shopping less, and having the dog groomed half as often.

Surviving a layoff

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:34:43 EDT

Last fall Carl and Brenda Clay thought they had their financial life under control. After years of struggling to support themselves while Carl got a Ph.D. in molecular medicine, they were finally earning enough to start paying down student loans and credit card debt and saving in earnest for retirement.

Can you afford a career switch?

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:27:00 EDT

Kevin O'Leary struggled with a mid-career crisis. After more than a decade producing TV ads, he wanted out. But what next?

11 ways to save money now

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 10:35:48 EDT

Rethinking your estate plan

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 10:30:07 EDT

When Les and Anna Glowacz made an estate plan five years ago, they felt confident they'd be able to pass a sizable chunk of assets to their offspring. But after the economy went south, "everything changed," says Anna, 55, a pharmacist.

The price of faith

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:21:11 EDT

Ask Abbi Perets about financial pain, and she starts talking about grape juice. Specifically, she's referring to the half-gallon bottles of grape juice that her local grocery sells for $9 each.

7 new rules of financial security

Thu, 07 May 2009 14:23:43 EDT

In a world turned upside down, you must re-examine basic assumptions.

Europe on sale

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:01:29 EDT

When the dollar sank to a record low against the euro last July, many Americans decided that a trip to Europe would have to wait for another time. That time may have arrived.

When home prices hit bottom

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:33:53 EDT

Call it the Great Housing Paralysis of 2009. If you're hoping to buy your first home or invest in a second one, you're probably sidelined, unsure when to jump in. If you want to sell, you're thinking it may be better to wait. And even if you don't plan to either buy or sell anytime soon, watching one of your biggest assets tank is about as much fun as being chased by hornets. When will the pain stop?

Buy oil stocks now. Really.

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 15:26:18 EDT

It was only a year ago that commodity investments were all the rage. Oil prices were on their way up to $145 a barrel, from as little as $50 in 2007. With red-hot numbers like that, the financial services industry cranked up the marketing machine. Advisers touted commodities as an essential new asset class, right up there with stocks and bonds. New exchange-traded products let you track the price of oil and other commodities. In the first six months of 2008 a record $2.7 billion flowed into commodity-based funds, according to Morningstar.