ford motor company

The average CEO of an S&P 500 company brings home almost $13 million -- but some earn much more. The AP's list of the 10 highest-paid CEOs highlights where the biggest paychecks went -- and what America's companies got in return.

Thanks to record-low interest rates, consumers with good credit can get 30-year fixed-rate mortgages for about 3.75%. But that's sky high compared to the 0.75% interest IBM is going to pay $900 million worth of corporate bonds.

Victoria O'Hara didn't learn anything about how to manage money growing up. But thanks to help from a relative, she got a financial education, began investing slowly, and parlayed small stock buys into a healthy portfolio. Here's her story:

Recently, 90,000 former Ford workers got an interesting offer: They could trade monthly pension benefits for a lump sum of cash. Are such offers a good deal? That depends quite a lot on who you are.

Given the sluggish recovery and a strapped consumer, you'd expect to see corporate America trudging along, not racing for glory. In fact, the Fortune 500 are thriving as a group.

Thanks to strong new products, hard work, and the American taxpayer, GM continued its profitable ways in the first quarter. The world's largest automaker reported a profit of $1 billion on the strength of its operations in the U.S. and China.

Bad news for GM: The Chevy Volt still isn't selling the way the automaker hoped it would, so it's temporarily halting production of the battery-powered hybrids for five weeks. Worse news for GM: Shutdowns like this only make the Volt a harder sell.

2011 was the most profitable year in General Motors' history. Thanks in large part to the $50 billion government-assisted restructuring it received, GM's U.S. operation is in good shape. So is it ready to fully pay back Washington now? Well, that depends on Europe.

Purchase price is just the beginning of what it costs to own a car. Depreciation, insurance and maintenance costs can vary widely between competing models. But is there any way to estimate all of that in advance? A few experts have taken a stab at it.

Thinking about buying a used car? You might want to do it sooner rather than later. Prices are on track to rise an average of 1.8% in 2012, and used compact cars will go up even more -- nearly 3%. What's going on? And what does it mean for car shoppers?