Joel Toro of Tampa thought he was set for life. Then the phone rang last month. ...more

February 6, 2009

Kevin Bacon may be among the more famous victims of the multi-billion-dollar Madoff ponzi scheme. But some local investors also appeared on a list of other victims released Thursday. ...more

February 5, 2009

It's going to be another cold winter in many parts of the country. Staying warm will likely come at a high cost, with heating bills expected to jump by as much as 25 percent. Those bills may become even steeper during the next few years, if Congress pursues any of the counterproductive energy solutions that lawmakers and candidates have recently touted in their campaigns. ...more

January 4, 2009

Congratulations, Raymond James, you're now the nation's largest investment bank. How? Because every other investment bank bigger than Raymond James Financial Inc. bit the dust last week or agreed to shotgun weddings with larger "commercial" banks that are perceived as more stable - stable by Wall Street standards. ...more

September 23, 2008

Some investments need a plain-language warning sticker that you find on a stepladder or a crib. ...more

September 3, 2008

JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley on Thursday became the latest banks to reach settlements with New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and other regulators as part of an investigation into the collapse of the auction-rate securities market. ...more

August 15, 2008

Never mind. Or, in the words of Merrill Lynch & Co. Chief Executive Officer John Thain, "Our clients have been caught in an unprecedented liquidity crisis. We are solving it by giving them the option of selling their positions back to us." ...more

August 13, 2008

For years, I've been pushing a "boring is better" approach to investing - the kind of strategy that adheres to the belief that so many of us make the wrong decisions when the markets are in turmoil. We're better off deciding on an asset allocation, filling up the baskets and checking it monthly - not every day. ...more

August 3, 2008

Most people who contribute to a retirement plan at work don't have a clue how much they pay in expenses. ...more

July 24, 2008

The credit crunch has driven dozens of lenders out of the student loan market. But a number of new Web sites are trying to sidestep the traditional players, facilitating loans between students and anonymous investors or even friends and family members. ...more

June 4, 2008