Color of Money

Every year I like to provide advice to college graduates. By the time I graduated, I had in place some pretty good money habits thanks to my grandmother Big Mama. Because of her, I've made it my mission to pass ...

On my first day as a full-time journalist, I called my grandmother Big Mama to tell her what it was like. My grandmother, who was determined to raise me to be a good money manager, didn't want to hear about ...

My brother Ross recently died of complications from lung cancer. He was 40. Ross left a wonderful personal legacy. He was a good father, friend and coach. He was a dedicated educator who devoted his career to working with children ...

A report just released by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute found that the percentage of the population with employment-based health benefits has been declining, most recently because of the recession.

Looking at former NFL star Warren Sapp's bankruptcy filing, it's hard not to focus on the Florida mansion he owns (18,000 square feet, according to property records) or the number of pricey athletic shoes he's purchased (240 pairs, many still ...

Come graduation time next month, there will be grandparents, many with student loans themselves, sitting at the ceremonies for their grandchildren, who will leave college with their own education loans. Some in both groups will take those loans to their ...

You still have time to get help figuring out and then filing your federal tax return. The deadline to file and pay your taxes this year is April 17. The Internal Revenue Service's Free File program, conducted in partnership with ...

Survey after survey continues to conclude that consumers don't have the best grasp of personal finance issues. There are good intentions behind these surveys. Their purpose is to find out how to create financial literacy programs to help people understand ...

For the past several years, the Internal Revenue Service has offered some relief for people having problems paying their taxes.

I have never been one to take risks on my taxes, but there are some folks who boldly go where most of us would never even try to go. For the second year, the Minnesota Society of Certified Public Accountants ...

We've become a society that shares too much of our personal information — and all that voluntary transparency makes us vulnerable to crooks.

During a recent online discussion, one reader titled his post "Big, big problem." It was not hyperbole. And his problem is one being faced by many adults. They are finding that their parents' finances are a hot mess. Equally frustrating ...

Like so many others, I was stunned to hear about Whitney Houston's death at age 48. You just can't overlook the pleasure Houston's music brought into the lives of so many. Several of her songs could immediately make me tear ...

I've set up the tax table. Every year, my husband and I pull out a white folding table to begin organizing our tax documents that will eventually be handed over to our tax preparer.

In the world of civil penalties, getting a major company to pay a $2.5 million settlement doesn't seem like much, maybe the equivalent of a $100 parking ticket. This is an ouch factor, but not financially devastating.