Changes to benefits hidden in the Con-Dems’ budget will hit those suffering with serious illnesses hardest. Plans to change the way working tax credit is calculated will leave people diagnosed with cancer or any other serious illness up to £20 a week worse off – and will deny them hundreds of [ Read More → ]

WASHINGTON — Reveling over a new milestone in his presidency, a triumphant Barack Obama on Wednesday signed into law the most sweeping overhaul of lending and high-finance rules since the Great Depression, adding safeguards for millions of consumers and aiming to restrain Wall Street excesses that could set off a [ Read More → ]

NEW YORK — If you had hoped to do a midyear checkup on your personal finances, there’s still time to make sure you’re ready for the rest of the year. Here are five places to start: 1. Spending — Take a look at your spending plan from the beginning of the [ Read More → ]

Don’t feel like clipping coupons? Unwilling to sacrifice lifestyle to save a buck? Unmotivated to budget? No problem. Tap into the world of lazy savings, set-it-and-forget-it ways to keep more cash in your pocket without depriving yourself: Get dining rewards: Register your credit and debit cards at iDine.com for free and [ Read More → ]

The Associated Press WASHINGTON — The International Monetary Fund is calling for the United States to make a stronger effort to curb its budget deficits. The IMF said Thursday that in addition to cutting government spending, the Obama administration will have to consider raising taxes to get the U.S. deficit down to [ Read More → ]

In my online discussions, I often get questions from couples. Q. I’m getting married next summer and my fiance and I are in a lot of debt. We live together and have two kids. There is a breakdown in communication when it comes to finances. I’ve recommended we talk [ Read More → ]

For countless Americans struggling to make their mortgage payments, the problems have just begun. Although a loan modification or foreclosure might let them put their housing problems behind them, millions will be dogged for years by a credit score so tarnished by the housing debacle that lenders will want to avoid [ Read More → ]

To get a sense of the job market new college graduates face, consider the latest crop of nurses from Santa Rosa Junior College. Just eight of the 55 students are leaving with job offers , and that’s considered good news. Last year, no graduates of the California community college’s associate degree [ Read More → ]

The U.S. government debt is rising inexorably, according to the conventional wisdom in Washington, and the political system is too paralyzed to take unpopular actions to rein it in. Privately, many policymakers take it as a given that the situation will change only when the nation faces a Greek-style fiscal [ Read More → ]

The Oregon Legislature’s Emergency Board on Wednesday grudgingly approved six new positions — two permanent and four temporary — and a $2.6 million budget increase for the Public Employee Retirement System to upgrade a computer system and comply with new legislation. Senate Bill 897, passed in the last days of [ Read More → ]