A popular prescription in the personal finance domain is to increase or maximize annual contributions to 401(k)s or similar retirement plans. However, one of the best financial decisions I’ve m

I’m not sure what happened last night. I was tinkering around on the Web, just surfing news, and lost track of time. When I looked up, it was midnight. Not good when you have to wake up at 4:30

Recently, the government’s Pay Czar, Kenneth Feinberg, “suggested” that outgoing Bank of America (BAC) CEO Ken Lewis should take home $0 in salary for 2009, and receive a bonus of e

Albert Einstein once said that the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Through that lens, the current course of fiscal and monetary po

Frank Stronach, chairman and founder of Magna International (MGA), launched his empire by making 300,000 sun visor brackets for General Motors. The rest, as they say, is history.Nine years after the

Getting kicked down stairs at a small home-improvement company made Kenneth Langone rich and has saved millions of do-it-yourselfers big bucks.In 1978, the legendary investor got into a tiff with the

Bank overdraft fees that can turn a cup of coffee into a $40 expense disproportionately hit the young and the poor, consumer groups are complaining to Congress.Last year, overdraft fees -- charges wh

1. The Economic Crisis Takes a Virulent TurnThe word credit comes from the Latin "credere" which means "to believe, or to trust." That's really all you need to know about the mode

Minus the rain and the massive pile of leaves I had to deal with in my backyard, it was a terrific weekend. But as usual, it seemed just a little too short.Asian stocks rose overnight. The Hang Seng

On Friday, as I pulled together thoughts for my syndicated column, I pinged Scott Reamer to ask him a question. He informed me global central banks and government agencies have thrown upwards of $30