Money Matters

As college tuition and contributions to college savings funds rise, experts are again examining the value of higher education and wondering if the cost is a good investment in someone’s future.

For decades, many groups have highlighted the pay disparities between men and women, and a new report from the American Association of University Women pointed out just how big the earnings gap is.

You might think teenagers worry about nothing more important than their Friday night plans, but it turns out they’re worried about their financial futures, too — and they’re already incredibly pessimistic.

High school proms are getting mighty expensive — and we’re not just talking triple digits, either.

With 15-year mortgage rates at an all-time low of just 3.11 percent, many people are thinking about making a home purchase. But where you buy could determine how good the investment will turn out to be.

Could cold hard cash soon be about as necessary as a pay phone?

A lot of people are hurting these days because of the slow turn of the global economy. Few places are making them feel the pain of painfully slow growth more than the gas pump. But that doesn’t mean relief can’t unexpectedly happen.

News broke on Monday that Facebook had acquired the popular photo-sharing service Instagram for the princely sum of $1 billion in cash and stock. It’s the biggest purchase in the history of the world’s largest social network, and it made new multimillionaires of Instagram’s chief executive and the company’s handful of employees.

As gas prices rise, consumers often consider switching to smaller, more fuel-efficient cars. But while those cars are usually less expensive than their bigger counterparts, increased demand has resulted in higher sticker prices.

Finding out you’re being audited by the IRS can be pretty scary, especially when you have to meet with an auditor in person. But what if you could deal with the whole mess via video-conferencing from the comfort of your own home?

While educational debt is generally thought to be the problem of younger people, new data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reveals a startling fact: Americans ages 60 and over collectively owe $36 billion in student loans.

Are the days of paper checks numbered? According to several news reports it seems that to be the case. For example, a new pilot program in Georgia is mailing debit cards to people instead of tax checks in attempt to phase-out paper checks.