The Sun's Financial Diary

Last week, I wrote a post about the $70 night out I had with my husband. In the cheap night out post I knocked myself for spending a week’s worth of grocery money on one dinner and a movie. Luckily, Len Penzo of Len Penzo dot Com stopped by and slapped a little bit of [...]

The Recession has hit many Americans hard. As we get into tax season, many people may not realize that events such as a job loss or new unexpected burdens may have tax implications that need to be addressed on your return. The good news is that the Internal Revenue Service recently announced that it is [...]

It’s common knowledge that everyone should save for and prepare for retirement. Most parents would like to be able to save towards their children’s future college costs as well. Problem is, in today’s economy, the vast majority of household budgets are stretched so incredibly thin, that there’s usually not even two cents left to rub [...]

Ally Bank now has a new CD product, the second new product in as many month. The CD product, called 2 Year Raise Your Rate CD, isn’t entirely because it replaces the current 2-year high-yield CD which has a yield of 2.04% APY as of March 9th. What’s new in this product is the promise [...]

“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.  [...]

I think the goal of almost every single person on Earth is to go through many stages of upgrading his or her life. Remember the car you drove when you were a teenager? Well there is no way you want to drive that car foreve – heck no, you want to upgrade. From the car [...]

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 Fed [...]

A few years ago, I wrote a post about who offers the best deal in both the checking and savings accounts. Back then, 5+% yield on savings accounts and 3+% on interest checking accounts were very common. Now, we know things are totally different. With the Fed fund rates being held at close to zero [...]