A reader called last week with an interesting question: Should he sell his Series I U.S. Savings Bonds, on which the yield reset to zero percent as of May 1?

My answer: probably not. There certainly are drawbacks to the current…

Even before President Barack Obama signed credit-card reform into law, banks were already trying to impose annual fees on more of their cardholders. The evidence comes from Synovate’s Mail Monitor, which tracks direct-mail solicitations.

The number of credit-card offers dropped by…

Where attitudes toward money are concerned, opposites really do seem to attract. Many couples have settled into roles where one spouse is, at least in relative terms, the tightwad and the other is the spendthrift.

Now a trio of researchers, from…

For some of us, compound interest and the time value of money are pretty basic concepts. But for a majority of Americans, according to a new study by professors from Dartmouth and Harvard, they’re about as foreign as Greek or…

The Securities and Exchange Commission issued an advisory last week pointing out the pitfalls of using a debit card to tap your 401k. I had no idea that any employers were offering such a dangerous add-on, but it seems that Bruce…

The next two weeks are an unusually opportune time to buy Series I Savings Bonds, both the Wall Street Journal and Savings Bond Advisor say. If you buy before May 1, you’ll earn 4.28 percent for the next six months. The rate…

The broker-sold version of the Missouri Saving for Tuition plan is no longer on Morningstar’s list of worst college-savings plans. In releasing this year’s list, the analysis firm says:

… one of 2007’s worst, Missouri’s MOST 529 Advisor Plan, made its way off the…

Americans aren’t terribly well prepared for retirement anyway, and rising health-care costs make the situation worse, Boston University’s Center for Retirement Research finds in a new study. Fully 61 percent of households are at risk of not being able to…

A new fee study by Joseph Hurley’s SavingforCollege.com finds that Illinois’ Bright Start is among the least costly college-savings plans. In fact, among plans that are available nationwide, only Ohio’s CollegeAdvantage  has lower costs than Bright Start. (Louisiana, Utah, Oregon and Kansas have cheaper options…

When I urged people to save their “stimulus” checks, not spend them, I had no idea that my advice would strike a sympathetic chord with the majority of Americans. But according to a survey just released by American Century Investments,…