Financial Literacy

How I Squandered My Inheritance at Age 18

Lyn Roman inherited a small trust fund, and spent it all in a year. But the lessons she learned from her mistakes, and how she bounced back from them, have been priceless.

5 Things You Must Know About Mortgages

Even after the housing crisis, many potential buyers still don't know even the most basic things about mortgages. Here are five essential facts about financing a home.

Money Terms to Know: What Are Benchmarks?

A benchmark is just a baseline for comparison, something to measure similar things against. But are you using benchmarks properly in your financial and non-financial life?

Money Terms to Know: Risk and Return

We all know what financial risk is: the chance of losing your cash. And return is what you make on an investment. What many don't understand is the relationship between them.

Financial Literacy Gets a Hip-Hop Makeover

Long filled with messages of outlandish lifestyles and expensive habits, hip-hop has lately been promoting more frugal choices. From "Mo Money, Mo Problems" to the virtues of shopping secondhand in "Thrift Shop," the genre's done a 180.

Money Terms to Know: Cost-Benefit Analysis

At heart, cost-benefit analysis means creating a quantified pros and cons list for any decision -- a process that will usually yield better results than "going with your gut."