Posts filed as “Investing”
Do-it-yourself retirement v the plan that guarantees your income for years
A new idea in California could wrest retirement away from the financial industry and guarantee income for generations at risk
There is a long-running idea in American life that all trends start on the west coast and move east. When it comes to the subject of retirement planning, let's hope that's true.
The do-it-yourself revolution in retirement savings has left the United States on the verge of a crisis; 30 years of...Read more.
Should You Buy Royal Baby Memorabilia?
Buy this memorabilia if you want a physical memory of the royal baby’s birth. But don’t purchase any of it thinking you will make a mint....Read more.The McDonald’s Worker Budget And The Tyranny Of Personal Finance
A quick note about that McDonald’s budget for its employees published earlier this week by the website Think Progress …. There is a genre of personal finance writing I like to call “when rich people tell poor people how to live.” This is when, as I’ve reported in the past, you see men and women in ...Read more.Whose side is your financial adviser on, anyway? | Helaine Olen
Not everyone who gives financial advice in the US has a duty to actually help those who have no sense of their financial best interests
Does your financial adviser have a legal duty to give advice that's in your best interests? The chances are that you think the answer to this question is "yes."
Chances are, you're wrong.
Not everyone who gives you financial advice has a duty to actually help you. The...Read more.
Whose side is your financial adviser on, anyway? | Helaine Olen
Not everyone who gives financial advice in the US has a duty to actually help those who have no sense of their financial best interests
Does your financial adviser have a legal duty to give advice that's in your best interests? The chances are that you think the answer to this question is "yes."
Chances are, you're wrong.
Not everyone who gives you financial advice has a duty to actually help you. The...Read more.
Enron’s Jeffrey Skilling May Get Out Of Jail Sooner Than Expected
While you were distracted by sequestration, increasing unemployment numbers, plans to cut Social or ’s ever-growing baby bump, the U.S. Department of Justice announced last week they were contemplating reducing former Enron CEO Jeffry Skilling’s 24-year sentence in the slammer for his role in the failure of his firm. Enron? Remember Enron? It seems so ...Read more.Groupon’s Fired CEO Andrew Mason Sends Memorable Goodbye Letter To Staff
I want to take a moment to salute Andrew Mason, the co-founder and now former CEO of . Whatever else one thinks of his tenure, Mason set a new standard for exiting a job with grace, humor and a commendable lack of finger pointing. In a note Mason sent to employees announcing that he’d been ...Read more.Wal-Mart Emails Reveal Customers Under Financial Stress
One wonders if executives at Wal-Mart Stores ever studied the business wisdom of Henry Ford....Read more.Student Loan Debt And The Wedding Bell Blues
According to recent research, women with student loan debt might be said to have a case of the wedding bell blues....Read more.How Much is that Hip Replacement in the Hospital?
Here’s a fun fact for the week of the Westminster Kennel Club dog show: you are much more likely to get an answer to the question “How much is a hip for that doggy in the window?” than to “How much is that hip in the human hospital?” Or at least that’s one conclusion you ...Read more.About Helaine Olen
I am the voice of The Bills, a column about the intersection of money and life, at Slate. At Inc., I contribute to the Spread the Wealth personal finance column. My work on politics, economics, workplace culture and women’s issues has been published in numerous other print and on-line publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Salon, Pacific Standard, and The Los Angeles Times, where I wrote and edited the popular “Money Makeover” feature.
I'm the author of the critically acclaimed book Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry, and The Index Card: Why Personal Finance Doesn’t Have to be so Complicated, which I co-wrote with Harold Pollack.
What else? I’m a passionate bibliophile, a fan of 1970s pop music and a lover of rummage sales. I live in New York City.
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