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The Pros and Cons of Credit Cards 03/12/2018 08:00pm • A 3-inch-by-2-inch piece of plastic holds the power to simplify your financial life -- or ruin it. Whether a credit card turns out to be friend or foe depends on how you use it, says Beverly Harzog, a credit expert and author of "The Debt Escape Plan." "Credit cards are not evil," she says. "They r 5 Signs You Will Never Retire 03/11/2018 08:00pm • Most Americans aren't saving nearly enough for retirement. Some workers who haven't saved fear that they will never be able to retire. However, there may still be time to change course and reach your retirement goals. If you sit down with a financial planner or even a retirement calculator, you shou 10 Factors That Don't Affect Your Credit Scores 03/11/2018 08:00pm • You probably know that having great credit lifts your finances like hot air in a balloon. It allows you to borrow at low interest rates, which saves huge amounts of interest on loans and credit cards. Additionally, having good credit helps your financial life in some surprising ways, including payin 7 Dividend Stocks Yielding 7 Percent and More 03/08/2018 07:00pm • Sharing the profitIn a troubled market environment, some investors have considered selling their stocks. But where are you going to go, considering the bond market is also in turmoil amid rising interest rates? You could park cash in a CD at your local bank, but those returns barely keep up with the $1 billion in unclaimed tax refunds; time running out to claim them 03/08/2018 05:09pm • WASHINGTON — About a million people who failed to file 2014 taxes are sitting on more than $1 billion in unclaimed federal income tax refunds, the Internal Revenue Service announced Thursday. But in order to collect that hefty chunk of cash, they'll have to dig out those old W-2s and file their 3 Reasons to Apply for Scholarships That Offer More Than Money 03/07/2018 07:00pm • Scholarship application essays often ask how winning an award could change your life. It's hard not to just think about the ways money could help with college costs. A $10,000 scholarship, for example, could help you bridge the gap between your savings and a college's cost of attendance. It also co Why We Keep Making the Same Money Mistakes 03/07/2018 07:00pm • In theory, money management should be easy. Finance experts like Dave Ramsey and Mary Hunt say it boils down to spending less than you earn and saving enough for retirement and a rainy day. But in practice, people struggle to master managing their finances. As of December 2017, Americans collective Escape DC? Tackle student loan debt? Get paid to move to rural America 03/07/2018 04:03am • WASHINGTON — Small towns in rural America are facing an economic survival crisis, and some are offering incentives to get people to move there. Take, for example, Loup City, Nebraska, population: 1,000. Loup City has turned farmland into a small neighborhood near town, named John Subdivision, w Amazon Banking Targets Low-Income Shoppers 03/06/2018 07:00pm • Bank investors may have gotten a little bit uneasy this week after the Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) is exploring the possibility of launching Amazon-branded checking accounts for customers. On the surface, it may appear that Amazon is directing its famous disrup What Student Loan Borrowers Need to Know If Gainful Employment Rule Changes 03/06/2018 07:00pm • The gainful employment rule -- which aims to protect student loan borrowers by regulating poorly performing higher education programs -- has a long history of being debated and modified. Now, it's being revamped again. A third and final negotiated rule-making session will be held on March 12 to de Moment of Truth for Treasury Bonds 03/05/2018 07:00pm • This much we all know: There's money in the United States Treasury. But for a certain breed of investors fond of bonds, there's money in U.S. Treasurys: government bonds sold in various yearly increments that can balance out a stock-happy portfolio, especially when the market enters the lair of the 4 Mistakes People Make After Getting Out of Debt 03/05/2018 07:00pm • If you've recently paid off a mortgage or credit card balance that you've had for years, you're probably wary about taking out another loan. Yet new statistics suggest that despite reservations, consumers are taking out new loans anyway. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Center for Bond Investors Need to Know About Maturity, Duration 03/04/2018 07:00pm • Bond investors have lots of data to consider -- from credit quality to call provisions. But two gauges, maturity and its second-cousin duration, may be among the most important as bond owners face the perils of today's rising interest rates. Once the investor has decided between low and high credit What Are Your Options After You Default on Student Loans? 03/01/2018 07:00pm • Everyone knows that when you take out student loans, ultimately, you have to pay back the lender. But what if you start missing a series of payments? It happens more often than you might think. In 2017, the U.S. Department of Education announced that after five years of declines in student loan def Did We Learn From the Global Financial Crisis and Dot-Com Bust? 02/28/2018 07:00pm • Recent market volatility is a sign that many have learned the wrong lessons from the global financial crisis and the dot-com bust. Extremes of fear and greed are apparent, as investors repeat self-destructive behaviors. The "fear of missing out" helped drive January's unsustainably strong surge in