The Sun's Financial Diary

Jobs have become very hard to come by for nearly everybody in this very tough economy. While things may be better now than 12 months ago, the nation’s unemployment rate is still hovering around 10%  and more people are out of work right now than ever before in this generation. With everything in the business [...]

It’s summer and the weather is great! Well, it’s summer where I am and chances are it’ll reach you pretty soon too. And when it does, you may want to create a backyard tropical paradise so you can get away from it all without spending any money of gas or hotel rooms. Well here are [...]

OK, the good news first. My wife and I are expecting our second child literally any day now. It’ll be our second daughter. We’re over the top excited and can’t wait to meet her! Now for the bad news. This is going to cost us a lot of money. After realizing we were going to [...]

If you’re forking out your hard earned money without doing a bit of preliminary homework than you might as well just start throwing money out the window because that’s what you could be doing. When it comes to my cash – and I’m just guessing here that I’m probably not alone – I want to [...]

With so many folks struggling just to break even in this economy, it seems that everybody could use about all the help they can get. People of all ages and economic situations are having trouble saving enough to afford a comfortable retirement and are being roped into mortgages they are straining to afford. With all [...]

Early last week, when I wrote about Sallie Mae’s latest interest rate adjustment for its high-yield savings account, I mentioned that I was thinking of getting one for myself because the new yield, 1.30% APY, is higher than what I get from my accounts with Ally Bank (1.20% APY) and EverBank (1.26% APY). Actually, I [...]

Rewards programs and loyalty incentives are not the exclusive domain of credit card companies. Many retail establishments are realizing the benefit of offering their repeat customers loyalty-based rewards that are not tied to a credit card and are giving free merchandise, meals and discounts in exchange for them. But how do you know if your [...]

No matter what your age and how much money you do or do not have, it only makes good sense (and cents!) to make sure your money is working as hard – or preferably harder – than you do. Fortunately, making sure this happens is a lot easier than you may think. Here’s just a [...]