Silence the Sales Pitches

If popularity were measured by telemarketing calls and bulk-rate marketing pitches, I’d be the Julia Roberts of junk mail.

One month, I counted 92 telemarketing calls, 17 preapproved credit card offers, and a full recycling bin’s worth of fliers for satellite TV service, foreclosure avoidance help, and consolidation deals.

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Retail Tricks That Make You Overspend

Feelings and finances are as inextricable as the smell of popcorn and the craving for a salty snack. Over the years, we’ve interviewed psychologists, economists, CEOs, and investment analysts about the mood-money connection. Here are a few tricks the brain plays on our basic math skills, and a few examples of how marketers pull our heartstrings to loosen our purse strings. As the old saying goes, buyer beware.

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Spruce Up Your Home to Sell

Anyone forced to move out of a home faces a challenge: How do you get the best price for your humble abode, especially when buyers can be pickier than a diva in a shoe store?

To make your home seem more attractive than all the rest, consider, well, making it seem more attractive than all the rest.

Think of it as one of those home-and-garden television shows — just without the chummy banter among thin, well-dressed designers.

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When’s the Right Time to Sell?

For years, making a killing in real estate was easy. All you had to do was to hold on to your home. People doubled, tripled, and quadrupled their money just by living in hot areas of the country.

We all know what happened next. A few lucky people cashed out at just the right time. As for the rest — we’re still dealing with the aftermath of their stories. And many people are wondering: Did I miss the right time to sell.

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Why You May Not Need to Refinance

Foreclosures, flagging home sales, mortgage-meltdown headlines — and bears, oh my!

The events of recent years have brought the risks of adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) into the public eye. If you’re a homeowner with an ARM, the question of whether you should try to refinance your mortgage can keep you up at night.

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5 Ways to Ruin Your Credit

Just a few false moves, and in no time, your credit reputation starts to suffer. It doesn’t even need to be something extreme, either. Just a late bill payment here or a retail splurge there is all it takes. Woe to the consumers who make a few missteps in a row and find themselves slogging through suboptimal loans (high rates, high fees) the next time they’re shopping for credit.

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How to Shrink Your Home

We homeowners often dream of making changes to our homes. We may envision a remodeled bathroom, for example, or a vegetable garden in the backyard. But a less common sort of home alteration can actually make you richer: Shrinking your home.

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How-To Guide: Spend Smarter

If you want to save some significant coin on your retail expeditions, you first need a game plan. Consider the biggest slices of your spending pie, and practice cost consciousness where it counts: vacations, transportation, holiday and home expenses, and electronics. Really planning a shopping strategy to procure these items could save you some serious cash.

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Get It Done: Save 50% On Your Utility Bills

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the average family shells out about $1,500 annually for utilities. With energy prices steadily rising, that may soon seem like a bargain.

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Why Rich People Really Aren’t Happier

We know that money doesn’t buy happiness. But let’s be honest: More money doesn’t exactly make us miserable, either. The wealthy enjoy an intangible benefit that often eludes the paycheck-to-paycheck worker: a sense of control over their lives. They feel secure in their jobs and less stressed about their futures. But are they much happier than the rest of us wage-earning, ’90s-model-Camry-driving schlubs? Not really.

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