Making a good living is tough these days. But precisely how tough it is may depend on where you live. Earning a decent wage, staying ahead of inflation and coping with taxes are some of the challenges American workers face. If they can succeed at all of this and actually enjoy their jobs, it would...  Read more

What better use of some of the life skills Mom has given you — notably, money management and cooking — than to make her a thrifty and tasty brunch for Mother’s Day? We asked chefs, bloggers and other foodies to share their favorite fabulous brunch dishes. All are cheap, and most offer kids some opportunity...  Read more

A few years ago, it seemed that everyone you bumped into was selling on Etsy, the online marketplace for handmade items. For many crafters, Etsy was one of the best ways to make money, as it allowed them to reach a global audience. Etsy remains a popular place to buy and sell arts and crafts, but...  Read more

Just because you’re broke this Mother’s Day doesn’t mean you can’t do something great. Here are some of our favorite ways to treat your mom for Mother’s Day without breaking out your piggy bank. Make Her Something Making mom something says more than a store-bought present ever could. For a crafty person, there are boundless...  Read more

For years, each of the 50 states had its own ideas about what kids should be taught from kindergarten up through 12th grade. The result: a hodgepodge of standards and guidelines that differed each time you crossed into another state’s border. In 2010, when the Common Core State Standards—basically an agreed-upon list of concepts for each...  Read more

Last month, PBS’s Frontline aired a blockbuster episode on America’s retirement system. You can watch the whole thing free online. It features some of my heroes, like Vanguard’s John C. Bogle, and some of my favorite financial writers like Helaine Olenand Jason Zweig. The show argued that America’s self-directed retirement system—the 401(k) and similar products—is complicated, expensive, and rife with...  Read more

FH Healthcare Care Cost Estimator (iOS) Tackles: Mystery healthcare costs. The Healthcare Cost Estimator, by the not-for-profit group Fair Health, helps you understand the cost of medical and dental procedures, how insurance works, and how to compare providers. It draws from its database of hundreds of millions of insurance claims to show you prices in specific...  Read more

No matter how frugal a food-budgeter you are, eating on a $1.50 a day—the amount a person living in extreme poverty has to spend on their food—isn’t easy. Having just completed the Live Below The Line challenge, a campaign that tasks participants with eating on $1.50 a day, for five days, to raise funds to...  Read more

One of the rights afforded to us under the Fair Credit Reporting Act is the ability to challenge information on our credit reports with which we do not agree. I addressed several methods of disputing credit entries in this Mint article. The dispute process is free and normally takes less than a month. There is some...  Read more

Online shopping has really changed the way we buy. If we want a new outfit, new book, or pretty much anything else, we no longer have to go to a physical location to pick it up. As technology has evolved, so have the opportunities for shopping on a budget. Today, there are plenty of apps...  Read more