SpendingHabits

Barack Obama may have said, "There are no red states or blue states, just the United States," but when it comes to our online shopping and bill-paying patterns, there are some notable divides in our habits.

A few weeks ago, we asked DailyFinance readers for their best tips for putting your financial house in order. First, we covered saving, but spending in the right way is just as important. Here are some of your best suggestions for managing how your money flows out.

Like all behaviors, your buying habits reflect your background, experiences and psychological makeup. But those things don't have to control your financial future. Here are some emotional states that drive people to make poor purchasing decisions, and some advice on how to keep those emotions from sending you to the poorhouse.

There's a persistent assumption going around about what happens after one retires -- your spending shrinks. Sure, your house may be paid off by then, and you may be able to ditch some work-related expenses. But that's not the full picture.

U.S. consumers put shopping on hold in October following the back-to-school season. MasterCard Advisors' SpendingPulse, a data service, showed year-on-year declines in spending on items including flat-panel TVs and major appliances, The Associated Press reported. The lull may continue until the...

While the federal government continues to try to pull us out of the recession by spending money it doesn't have, on a personal level Americans have dramatically tightened their spending patterns, especially those Americans that have a lot of money. According to a new Gallup poll, In August we...

PayPal just officially launched its Student Account program, a way for parents to give money to their kids -- and track where it's going every step of the way. Parents can open a PayPal account, then establish up to four PayPal sub-accounts for their kids (ages 13 and up) , transferring funds into...

Six months ago, the country's saving rate was 0.8%, meaning the typical American saved $8 of every $1,000 of after-tax income. Now, it has more than quadrupled, to 3.6%, so we now save $36 of every $1,000. That's still nowhere near the 50% savings rate in China but, according to American...