Articles in ‘Investing’ 
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Crafting Your Personal Budget
The “B” word is reentering the economic fray. Budget is a top search on Google, as debt-ridden Americans frantically hunt down ways to create a manageable personal budget. Each week on Bank of Mom & Dad I present our ladies with a personal spending plan or budget…
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Is It a Good Time to Buy a Second Home?
Most of the country – approximately 71% according to a recent Gallup poll – agree it’s a great time to buy a home, thanks to low interest rates, more inventory, the $8000 tax credit for first-timers and low prices. But what about a second home? Is that going too far, since the “new normal economy” [...]
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Why (I think) It's Better to Own
For generations we’ve pledged allegiance to home ownership. Our parents, teachers and presidents told us it would be our ticket to wealth, prosperity and happiness. It’s partly why I bought a place in Manhattan five years ago. But that sentiment is, for obvious reasons, changing. Our recent housing debacle has erupted into a [...]
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Time's Ripe for Virgin Homebuyers
Your parents have been on your case about buying a house. Your best friend just quit flushing money down the toilet (read: paying rent) and finally settled on a cute starter-home with a huge yard and finished basement just 20 minutes from the city. What’s holding you back? Never-before seen deals under $200,000 are flooding [...]
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Shelter From the Storm
Here’s my latest column for Entrepreneur Magazine.
Grab a copy today on newsstands!
It’s hard to imagine a more tumultuous market year than the one that’s about to wrap. Financial headlines in 2008 repeated billions of dollars in write-downs at the major banks, rounds of corporate layoffs and a slipping-and-sliding stock market. While it may not get [...] -
Boiling Down the Bank Drama
You’re reading about Bank of America buying Merrill Lynch for $50 billion and Lehman Brothers filing for bankruptcy protection. What does it mean to you and your money? Here’s my crib sheet …
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Be Careful With Your Company's Stock
If the failures of Enron and Bear Stearns weren’t proof enough that you should never, ever be too vested in your company’s stock, we’re learning Lehman’s workers risk losing some $10 billion in losses from their Lehman stock holdings. The investment bank’s reportedly about to file bankruptcy.
Here are my Do’s and Don’ts of investing in your company’s stock, [...] -
Rescue Yourself From Foreclosure
Here’s the deal, or new “New Deal,” as it’s being called: Congress is expected to give the green light to a sweeping housing and mortgage reform plan that pledges to bail out the roughly 400,000 homeowners with failing loans. (And P.S. Last month the nation’s foreclosure rate soared 7% to one in every 483 [...]
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A Piece for Our Parents
Could it be that pre-retirees are so clueless about their financial needs during retirement because it’s just too gosh-darn depressing to think about? To back track, a recent report from insurance giant MetLife found that 50 percent of soon-to-be retirees aged 56 to 65 underestimate how much money they’ll need to maintain their present lifestyle [...]
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On CNN This Afternoon — A Real Estate Tip
I was on a fun, all-female panel of financial and housing experts today on CNN’s Issue #1 Show hosted by Gerri Willis and Ali Velshi. Melissa Cohn of Manhattan Mortgage, Amanda Gengler from Money Magazine and I too on viewer emails about personal finance and real estate. Here’s one I’d like to share here:
I am [...]
