The Sun's Financial Diary

Like a lot of Americans across the country right now, my neighbors have put their house up for sale.  They want to downsize and lower their monthly mortgage payment.  The house has been on the market for a few months now.  It’s a good size house, is well maintained and is in a desirable neighborhood [...]

“I want (fill in the blank)!”
If you’re a parent to young children, you’ve undoubtedly heard your little one utter this phrase many times.  Plus, it probably most often occurs at some pretty crowded locales such as the grocery store or Toys ‘R Us where the level of parental shame can be at its highest.  At [...]

Is the economy finally starting to turn around? If you pay attention to what the Fed is doing, you might get the impression that the answer to that question is yes.
But it’s more important to first take a look at exactly what the Fed’s been up to. A couple of weeks ago, the [...]

Last year, President Obama finally pushed legislation through Congress that is aimed at protecting American consumers from the unscrupulous practices of credit card companies.  This week, the new credit card law finally takes effect.
On Monday, February 22nd, the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act (the CARD Act, for short) begins guarding credit card users [...]

As news surfaced that some of the nation’s biggest financial institutions would be paying out record bonuses to executives in 2009 (AIG drew particular fire for planning on dishing out $165 million) following the federal government’s half trillion dollar TARP bailout, a growing and increasingly vocal movement of U.S. taxpayers are letting it be known [...]

Like about 100 million people across the country, I spent my Sunday evening watching Super Bowl XLIV between the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints. I didn’t have a particular rooting interest in either of the teams although I did enjoy the feel good fairy tale ending for the city of New Orleans. [...]

Warren Buffett is in the news again!
Well, I suppose in the world of Wall Street, Warren Buffett never really leaves the news but the information that came out of Omaha, Nebraska this past week is particularly noteworthy.
On January 26th, it was announced that Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett’s holding company, would be replacing Burlington Northern Santa Fe, [...]

One of the more intriguing stories coming out of Capitol Hill recently has been the struggle over whether or not Ben Bernanke will (or perhaps more importantly should) be nominated for a second term as Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
To briefly recap events, President Obama announced in late 2009 that he would nominate Bernanke for [...]

Listen to almost every politician and you’ll likely hear a similar theme coming from their mouths – lower taxes. And why not? Telling taxpayers that you’re going to lower their tax bill is how you win elections.
But there’s a stark reality that America is facing right now. The low tax rates that [...]

The name “529” has become synonymous with college saving since the account was created back in 2001. It’s become so synonymous that many people will likely assume that the 529 is the only account out there geared specifically towards saving for college. Not only is it not the only college savings account out [...]