Crash Survival Zone

The stock market’s damage has already been done. And if you’re one of those people near or already in retirement, you already know you’re going to have to work longer, save more or spend less.

But what should you do right now with the money you have left? Should you wade back into the stock market, [...]

Don’t get too excited about signs of life in the economy. Some days it seems there’s good news everywhere: home sales ticking up, slower job losses, the Dow turning positive for the year. But all that misses a looming reality. American consumers, whose overspending largely got us into this mess, are still under massive pressure, [...]

The figures are staggering. Unemployment at 8.9 percent. Record new unemployment claims. By one measure, unemployment and underemployment at 15.6 percent.

Hardworking families are struggling to get by, and too often, they don’t know where to turn for help.

That’s where the Unemployment LifeLine comes in. It’s a one-stop guide that links workers to the resources in [...]

By Joseph Marr Cronin and Howard E. Horton

The public has become all too aware of the term “bubble” to describe an asset that is irrationally and artificially overvalued and cannot be sustained. The dot-com bubble burst by 2000. More recently the overextended housing market collapsed, helping to trigger a credit meltdown. The stock market has [...]

As assets, homes provide only modest annual returns in the long run.

There’s the usual talk about what the latest Case-Shiller house price data mean for the next short term move in the real estate market. Has housing bottomed? If not, has the rate of decline slowed? And when will we see an upturn?

Human nature likes [...]

It’s an appealing fantasy: Start a blog. Watch it take off. Then, quit the office life, sit at home, and live off the advertising revenue.

But successful, moneymaking blogs elude most people who try to start them. The vast majority of blogs, written primarily for family and friends, attract fewer than 50 page views a day [...]

The New York attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, sued two large debt settlement firms Tuesday, saying they engaged in fraudulent and deceptive business practices and false advertising.

The suits seek to enjoin the two firms, Nationwide Asset Services and Credit Solutions of America, from many of their business practices, including charging customers before any settlement work [...]

The next financial crisis—yes, we saw it coming.

By Mark Gimein

If several years before the financial and credit crisis hit someone had told you that the housing market was preposterously overvalued and derivatives were headed for cataclysm, would it have been worth paying attention to? The answer’s pretty clearly yes, ain’t it? Of course, some of [...]

In this recession, it is better to be old. Being young has some advantages, too.

But being in the middle of the spectrum — in your 30s or 40s — seems to be the worst place to be.

The Pew Research Center released a poll of Americans this week that found people over 65 were generally suffering [...]

As the U.S. descends from its decades-long, debt-fueled, free-spending high, Americans are finding ways to save more money. In March, the average person saved 4.2% of disposable income, compared with just 0.2% a year earlier. Thanks to a deep recession, our buy-it-now-and-buy-it-big culture is moving into a lower gear, at least temporarily.

Downshifting on consumption is [...]