Pamela Yellen

Paying for College Without the Pitfalls

Student loan debt now exceeds total credit card debt in the U.S. and about 10 percent of those loans are delinquent. This has led many in the financial media to wonder if the student loan "bubble" will be the next to...

More Tips for Family Financial Harmony

As April 17 approaches and we all take a closer look at our finances -- some of us for the first time since last year's tax return filing deadline -- now is a great time to plan for your future. For some, that means...

Money is the leading cause of marital and relationship troubles.  40% of married couples have serious, recurring arguments about money, according to Matt Bell, author of Planning for Fewer Fights with Your Spouse.

49% of those battles have to do with what to buy or not buy, 33%...

If you're one of the millions of people who set financial New Year's resolutions only to lapse a few days, weeks, or months later, now is a perfect time to reboot.

The process of setting and reaching financial goals should be something we practice year-round, not just at the beginning...

Perhaps this year you'll finally get your financial house in order - roping in spending, slashing debt, maximizing income, and choosing investment and savings plans that actually deliver what they promise.

Whatever you resolve, you must find a way of sticking to your financial resolutions beyond Valentine's Day, past Mother's...

It seems to happen every year -- no matter what we budget, many of us get caught up in the holiday spirit and end up spending more money than we can really afford to.

Here are five tips to keep your holiday spending in check and your budget intact. Use...

Priceless, maybe. But not without a mega-price tag.

So we're told.

Indeed, each year the government reports and the media duly echo the rising, yea staggering, costs of parenthood.

We are recently informed that a typical middle-income family can expect to spend more than $225,000 to raise a child -...

Ghouls, Ghosts and Goblins are so yesterday.

If you want to scare the bejesus out of home dwellers this Halloween, trying dressing up as an IRS auditor or a foreclosure process server.

In fact, an exclusive nationwide online survey conducted this month by my company, Bank on Yourself, finds...

King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden is unlikely to attend.

The awards venue will not be the Blue Hall of the City Hall in Stockholm, and the menu will not include Galantine de canard, Turbot aux truffes or Bavarois au chocolat.

The dress code will be less formal, too. While...

Emoticons dot the Internet universe in the same manner that stars are sprinkled across the night sky. They're everywhere and they come in many shapes, sizes, colors and even languages.

Most emoticons smile, grin or wink from their digital perches....

They're already labeling them, "The Lost Generation."

Millions of 20-somethings and 30-somethings out-of-work, living back at home, postponing or skipping marriage altogether. Hopeless.

The statistics -- released publicly last week, fresh from the 2010 census -- are undeniable. What is arguable, however, is the spin that many pundits and members...

I can't imagine anything worse than starting out along your lifelong career path already tens of thousands of dollars in the hole -- if not worse.

Nationally, the statistics of recently minted graduates who already bear the mark of "Default" upon their credit records is staggering.

Of the 3.6...

Presto chango, I can make your credit card bills disappear forever. Ditto auto dealership interest charges and - in a performance worthy of a curtain call - perhaps even your student and home loan.

This is real consumer credit magic, but without any tricks.

I've done it. A few hundred...

I have two insightful questions for you concerning consumer credit...

1. Will you lend me $1,000 for a year, if I promise to repay you in full and buy you a Grande Pumpkin Spiced Latte at Starbucks for being so considerate?

That's about what an average one-year $1,000 bank CD...

Three cheers for the American consumer.

While our leaders in Washington pay little more than lip service to the need to reduce our nation's debt addiction, Americans by the millions are working harder than anytime in the past 40 years to live within their means.

Far fewer consumers are carrying...

Among the many hundreds of popular board games, I favor the game of chess the most. In chess, two opponents begin with an equal number of game pieces and a million-and-one choices of how to manipulate them to their advantage.

No dice or luck-of-the-draw influences the outcome.  The game pits...

Investors have short memories.

Keeping that in mind, you might want to print this column and save it at the ready.  It is timely reading this week and without any doubt will be again -- sooner than any of us want to admit.

Along with death and taxes, one certainty...

It wasn't supposed to work out this way.

Millions of Americans, who have religiously paid their term life insurance premiums for decades, are confronting a no-win decision:  Drop their insurance now, exposing their loved ones to potential financial disaster in the event of their death; or continue to shovel larger...

What would you call an investment that involves no risk, requires little -- if any -- money to start, is available equally to those who are financially sophisticated and those just starting, grows more valuable each and every year, is a proven career booster and can generate hundreds of thousands...

In my last column, "">Playing Russian Roulette," I spoke about the sheer folly of encouraging those in or nearing retirement to catch-up by investing as much as 40% of their nest egg in the stock market.

I wrote the column in response to recent articles...