income

Once again, 24/7 Wall St. has examined the OECD's report on life satisfaction. And once again, the United States fails to make the top 10 happiest nations in the world. Which countries do? Some may surprise you.

Is the U.S. tax code designed to be confusing? At more than 70,000 pages, its complexity is hard to overstate. But forget its size: Even in its most basic terms, the IRS seems determined to muddy the waters. To help you out, we've unpacked a few of the most weaselly weasel words.

Americans' incomes rose last month by the most in nine months, a hopeful sign for the economy after a year of weak wage gains. But consumer spending was flat.

Mitt Romney paid a lower tax rate on his $21.6 million income in 2010 than the average U.S. family. It's no secret how: He made his money from investments, not wages. But even people who favor low capital gains taxes might not approve if they understood more about a neat little income category he benefited from called "carried interest."

More than half of those recently polled by Gallup said an income of no more than $150,000 would qualify that person as rich. When asked how much money per year would be necessary for them to consider themselves "rich," 53 percent mentioned an income of $150,000 or less, and 71 percent said an income of $300,000 would be enough.

The news from the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis was mixed Wednesday. Consumer spending rose in October, but just barely. Incomes were up a bit, but savings did too. And employment figures were just conflicted.

Thanksgiving's still two weeks away: You're getting ready for Black Friday, not April 15. But all those one-day deals pale next to what you could save on your taxes by taking a few smart steps before Dec. 31.

State unemployment insurance provides money to out-of-work adults, but for most people, those checks are hardly enough to cover the bills. Enter IncomeAssure, a supplemental unemployment insurance policy that lifts your benefit to 50% of your former income for 24 weeks. Is it a product you should consider?

If all you need is $5 worth of expert help, Fiverr has your number. For the price of a fast-food combo meal, this online marketplace will connect you with someone to proofread your business plan, repair an HTML bug, or whatever you might need. With 500,000 listings, it seems almost any service can be sold in $5 increments.

It's a contentious personal finance debate: To stay out of debt and get rich, should we focus on controlling our small purchases, or put most of our effort into making the big gains in areas like earnings? DailyFinance asks three of the Web's most popular personal finance bloggers for their views.