The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) recently ran an article about affluent individuals and families who, despite large six-figure salaries, managed to pile up a huge amount of debt.  They cited one woman who had accumulated $300K in debt despite earning more than $200 a year.  Reader responses, unsurprisingly, were variously indignant, angry, and puzzled.  Many…
Read more

I wrote last year about small business owners who plow most of their savings into their businesses to the exclusion of their retirement and other financial goals.  I had cited a 2006 study by the Small Business Administration that found that only about a third of such entrepreneurs had individual retirement accounts or had made…
Read more

Bankrate.com recently announced the ten best states for retirement.  The list, which includes such rugged spots as Colorado, Utah, North Dakota and Wyoming, was topped by, of all places, South Dakota.  My question: is South Dakota the retirement paradise to which we should all aspire? Before any South Dakotans that happen to be reading this…
Read more

It’s pretty common among married couples for one spouse to take the lead as the family money manager. It’s usually the one with the most interest and/or time to spend dealing with taxes, investments, and household budgeting. Over the last several years I’ve been encountering more and more families where each spouse manages his and…
Read more