poverty line

NBC's Today profiles one American family living just above the poverty line, but quite happily and comfortably. Watch author and self-professed cheapskate Jeff Yeager's take on such extreme thriftiness to see if you can learn anything from Jennifer and Michael, who claim to have found a simpler, more satisfying existence.

College football and basketball players are getting played instead of getting paid: Though they bring in the big bucks for their institutions of higher learning, more than 8 out of 10 of those FBS student-athletes are living below the poverty line, according to a new study.

The Great Recession officially ended in mid-2009, but a recent Census Bureau report shows that, for the average American family, 2010 only brought increased misery: Household incomes plummeted last year, while the number of people living in poverty rose sharply to an all-time high.

Today the federal minimum wage increased 70 cents to $6.55, as the second phase of a series of moves meant to bring the minimum wage up over a three year period. The "raise" will affect roughly 1.7 million workers or 2.3% of hourly workers, which means that collectively the cost of employing all...