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Mortgage rates jump: lock in now, or wait?

Grab one now, or hope for lower rates?

Floaters got sunk this week. Anyone who is in the market for a new mortgage, be it a straight-up purchase or refinance, and was letting their rate float in hopes of locking in at a lower rate instead got smacked with a near quarter point rise in the 30-year fixed rate. According to Bankrate's latest weekly survey (conducted Wednesday morning) the MORE

Health insurance helper returns online

Last summer, when I was writing a story about health insurance options for early retirees, I found an incredibly useful resource for individuals trying to obtain health insurance for themselves and/or their families: a web site run by Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute. The web site, operating under the generic-sounding title healthinsuranceinfo.net, was a collection of 51 exhaustive guides to the rights and options that individuals have for obtaining health MORE

How much cash should you have in your portfolio?

When the markets began to tank last fall, investors fled to cash and cash-like investments. No one cared if yields were paltry. The return of principal rather than the return on principal was the biggest priority.

The result today is that you may hold more cash in your portfolio than during the years leading up to the bear market. According to a recent survey of 401(k) plans by Hewitt Associates, investors MORE

New Treasury Dept. appointee eyes substantive retirement plan changes

The Obama administration brought one of the leading proponents of retirement plan reform into the official fold in late April, signaling the administration is going to push hard to reform the retirement saving plan system.

Mark Iwry has segued from wonk-land (Brookings, and principal at the Retirement Security Project) to become the new senior adviser to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and deputy assistant secretary for retirement and health care policy. Along MORE

Has the next investing bubble begun?

Every month Merrill Lynch (or Bank of America Securities-Merrill Lynch for you scorekeepers) checks in with a bunch of big time money managers to take their bullish/bearish temperature. Collectively the 400 or so global managers in the May survey are pushing the buttons controlling portfolios worth nearly $1 trillion, so we're not talking about a Beardstown lady survey here.

And these pros are getting their bull on. Seventy percent said MORE

Will Fidelity Magellan bounce back?

After losing nearly half its value in 2008, Fidelity Magellan (FMAGX) is finally regaining its stride.  Since the start of the year through May 21, Manager Harry Lange has steered the $21 billion fund to a 13% gain. That return beats the Standard & Poor's 500 index by a whopping 13.5 percentage points, according to Morningstar, which places Magellan in the 10% of its peers.

These are short-term numbers, of course, MORE

Return of the no-down payment loan

You may recall that part of the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed back in February includes a nice fat tax incentive for first-time homebuyers. The new law provides a maximum $8,000 refundable tax credit for first-time homebuyers with modified adjusted gross income of $75,000 ($150,000 for married couples filing a joint return). The hope was that the credit would push potential first time buyers already enticed by lower MORE

Bigger job, same salary

Question: My boss recently laid off a lot of people. As a result, she's given me much more responsibility - but no raise and no better title. Is this fair? She says she won't promote me until she sees how I do.

Answer: Call it a wild guess, but we're betting your boss didn't lay those people off just to be mean. We agree that in a perfect world, an MORE

What credit card legislation means for you

Consumers scored a major victory on Tuesday as the Senate voted overwhelmingly in favor of a bill that restricts unfair credit card practices. The Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act passed by a 90-5 margin. The bill comes on the heels of similar legislation, known as the Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights, that was approved by the House on April 30 in 357 to 70 vote.

So what happens now? MORE

Deconstructing Renovation Costs

It's easy to sell an unwanted bathroom vanity light on Craigslist. But when you're looking to gut the kitchen or bathroom, finding a seller-and arranging delivery-for a tub or stove becomes a bit impractical, so the tendency is to let the contractor come in, demolish, and haul off everything to the dump.

But there's another renovation model to consider: Surgical deconstruction that salvages the material for resale. One of the leading MORE

Obama's Favorite Mutual Fund

Some food for thought from President Obama's current investment portfolio, which was revealed last Friday as part of his government-mandated annual financial disclosure report:

1. There's an old bit of investment advice: If you don't have a lot of money, you invest to build your assets. If you already have a lot of money, you invest to protect them. Well, it's the second part of that statement that applies to our MORE

Credit Card Reform: What Might Have Been

You'd think in a year when major banks received billions in taxpayer aid and face billions more in defaults on credit card debt, tackling anti-consumer practices by credit card issuers would be a slam dunk in Congress. There's certainly been lots of buzz about changes coming to the credit card industry, served up by feisty Democrats eager to show American consumers that they're looking out for the little guy. The MORE

Can we really save $2 trillion on health care?

Move over, The Money You Could Be Saving With GEICO. Obama trumped the poor little fellow with googly eyes when he announced earlier this week that bigwigs in the medical, hospital and insurance industries had pledged to him that they could shave some $2 trillion off our nation's health care costs over the next ten years.

Naturally, any time a government official says he can produce $2 trillion out MORE

Are you deluded about your college savings?

Saving to pay your kid's college bills is beginning to look like a nonstop stint on Survivor: Tocantins. Tuition costs continue to outpace inflation. And public colleges, once considered the affordable fall-back choice, are no longer a sure-fire option, thanks to shrinking government support, tighter budgets and soaring applications. Add in plummeting real estate prices, which have limited home equity loans,  and the carnage in 529 college savings plans, and MORE

When a dealership closes: What it means for you

Chrysler's plan to shut down 789 dealerships, about a quarter of the car company's franchises (see related news story here), may have you wondering: What does this mean for me? Let's break it down like this:

If you own a Chrysler, Dodge or Jeep: Your biggest issue is likely convenience, says Philip Reed, consumer advice editor for Edmunds.com. A factory-backed warranty will be honored at any of Chrysler's remaining authorized dealerships. MORE