Dory Devlin, Shine staff’s Blog
By Dory Devlin, Shine staff Last updated: Wed Aug 26, 2009 8:38am PDT-
So, with all the credit card law changes afoot, you've probably gotten quite a few notices from your credit card companies. Maybe you've learned that your credit card limit has been reduced, or that your payment due date has changed, or that a new fee has been added. If it's leading you to wonder whether you should be shopping around for a new credit card, this New York Times article has some good pointers on how to find out if that is a good option. Read More »
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The Cash for Clunkers programs has ended, and there will be somewhere between 700,000 and 800,000 new vehicles on the road because of it, and the same number of older, presumably gaz-guzzling models off of them.The program has been deemed a success, though car dealers are still waiting for their reimbursements from the government ($3,500 or $4,500 for each car). They are crossing their fingers that a very finicky computer system will actually be working today, the deadline for submitting the (13-page!) applications for each cash-for-clunker exchange.
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Tempting as this program was, we didn't really pursue whether our 100,000-plus-mile van qualified, knowing we would still save more in the end if we get a few more years out of our trusty family steed. But, oh, how my heart skipped a beat when I read about a simillar $300 million program to encourage we sluggish, skeptical consumers to buy energy-efficient appliances. Read More »- Let’s talk: Comment (19) | Blog
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Over on Yahoo! Finance, Laura Rowley has taken some pretty bold action: She has cut her family's cable cord, knocking out basic cable from their lives and their monthly budget. The first sentence of her "Why I Canned the Cable" column is the kind that sends shivers down the spines of my children:
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"This week I went cold turkey and eliminated our cable television service entirely -- even the basic channels," the Money & Happiness columnist writes.
The money savings are not the primary reason she did it, though if you check your cable or satellite bill you know it's a good chunk of cash. Read More »- Let’s talk: Comment (115) | Blog
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You wouldn't know it by the thick heat enveloping much of the country, but summer is careening to an end. Which means the last of summer parties are around the corner, along with the sense that maybe, just maybe, you've run out of interesting things to talk about.
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We're here to help. Read More »- Let’s talk: Comment (1) | Blog
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Have you noticed that the due
dates for your credit card payments have changed? If so, this is
why: The new credit card bill, at least parts of it, goes into
effect this week, bringing some new protections to consumers. Of
course, that doesn't mean that credit card companies won't
try to… Read More »
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We can accept summer's fast slide to its inevitable end a little easier now that Season 3 of "Mad Men" has begun.
AMC/ Jon Hamm as Don Draper in
It promises to be a year of wild upheaval -- America, 1963 -- which will irreversibly shake up the lives of the show's early 1960s Madison Avenue characters. The season opener spent a lot of time setting up what's to come, but one overriding theme offers a familiar view into today's workplace. Read More »- Let’s talk: Comment (3) | Blog
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When
all your life's savings as well as your family's
investments are wiped out with the exposure of Bernard Madoff's
Ponzi scheme, you have to get creative to earn some cash quickly.
That… Read More »
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For all of the talk about Julie & Julia--Meryl Streep's dead-on channeling of Julia Child's trademark trilling voice and joi de vivre, the fact the Child was not impressed by Julie Powell's Julie/Julia Project blog--this is the thing that stands out: Julia Child was 40 when she started cooking and in her 50s when Mastering the Art of French Cooking became a hit with American housewives and her TV chef career took off...
Sony Pictures/ Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia
Both women find their way, their salvation, their life, through cooking. Yet the true inspiration from both of their stories is not if you cook, good things will happen; it's in the doing--the day-to-day work, plugging away at something that grabs your gut and heart--that leads to something good, maybe even breathtaking success. Read More »- Let’s talk: Comment (54) | Blog
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Eunice Kennedy
Shriver died today, and we can be sure she will not be
best remembered as the sister of President John F. Kennedy, and
Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy. Her life's
work will see to… Read More »
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Wow. Surely we knew that banks make some nice bucks dinging customers with fees when they spend more than what is in their accounts or mistakenly think a check has cleared when it has not. But the Financial Times reports that U.S. banks are set to earn $38.5 billion this year in overdraft fees alone, and that overdraft fees account for three-quarters of all fees charged by banks. Read More »
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