Blog Posts by U. S. News & World Report

By Kimberly Palmer

This list is based on the new book Generation Earn: The Young Professional's Guide to Spending, Investing, and Giving Back, by U.S. News senior editor Kimberly Palmer.

By Robert Schlesinger

Rick Santorum has a message problem, an inability or unwillingness to focus on core issues while emphasizing titillating dead-end ones. Incredibly, I'm not talking about birth control but instead teleprompters.

Campaigning in Mississippi recently, the former Pennsylvania senator asserted that "when you run for president of the United States, it should be illegal to read off a teleprompter. Because all you're doing is reading somebody else's words to people."

On one level, he was attacking former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the (still, really) GOP front-runner. You can hear galled frustration in Santorum's dismissal of "reading somebody else's words." He speaks conservatism as a native but he is being lambasted as too moderate by a coreless conservative of convenience mouthing paint-by-the-numbers platitudes (provided by a campaign speechwriter whose 2008 client was vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin). Somebody else's words, indeed.

[See a

By Deborah Kotz and Angela Haupt

Getting over a broken heart is never easy, especially in the social networking age, when photos of you and your ex in happier times remain plastered on your friends' Facebook pages. Worse, recent research suggests that romantic rejection can cause physical pain in a way that no other negative emotion-not even anger or fear-can.

But it's actually good to go through the insane despair and bouts of endless tears that result from being dumped, contends bestselling author and relationship expert Susan Piver. We should embrace these feelings rather than run from them, she argues in her book, The Wisdom of a Broken Heart. "As unlikely as it may sound, this sorrow is the gateway to lasting happiness," she writes, speaking of her own two-year experience recovering from heartbreak. Piver and other experts described ways to ride through those uninvited waves of grief.

Broken heart on a warning road signal.

1. Make friends with your heartbreak. You may be tempted to try and forge past it,

The Violence Against Women Act, a groundbreaking piece of legislation addressing domestic and sexual violence, was first enacted in 1994 and then reauthorized in 2000 and 2005. Among the measures the act has taken to protect victims and prevent abuse, the law strengthened the legal action taken against perpetrators of domestic violence and provided services, including rape crisis centers, hotlines, and community support programs, for its victims.

Congress is now debating its reauthorization, as the law expired in September, and while it has received broad bipartisan support in the past it has recently come under political fire from some Republican lawmakers who object to provisions which Democrats have added to this year's reauthorization. Critics specifically object to provisions which would expand the law's coverage to illegal immigrants, homosexuals, and American Indians, who would have greater authority to persecute non-Indians who commit crimes against American Indian women.

By Sabah Karimi

When a tough economy is making it hard to make ends meet, it may be time to rework your household budget. Spending less isn't always feasible, so you need to make better choices about what you spend your money on and identify your priorities. Reorganizing your budget can help you get a better handle on your current cost of living and also provide some valuable information about your savings potential. You can only scale back on expenses when you know what you're actually spending money on. During tough economic times, keeping track of your daily purchases can help you spend smarter.

Here are five smart spending strategies when enduring a tough economy:

1. Seek out membership deals. Whether you're shopping for groceries, making a trip to the spa on a regular basis, or planning on traveling a few times over the year, look for membership pricing options to save money. Find a warehouse club that stocks your favorite brands so you can buy in bulk. Most offer

By Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter

Are you a member of the United States Armed Forces? If you are and your military career will end soon, you may struggle with how that experience can transfer into a civilian role. It's not as problematic as you might fear, as long as you stick to some basic guidelines.

The following is a list of dos and don'ts that will help make the transition a little smoother and ensure the skills you learned earn you the recognition you deserve:

1. Don't use military jargon on your resume or during an interview. The people making the hiring decision may not know the difference between a Corporal and an Admiral.

2. Do use civilian equivalents when indicating your role. For instance, say you were a Corporal in charge of Ammunition Inventory Control and had several personnel in your charge to account for how those supplies were dispersed. Consider a civilian title like, "Inventory Control Supervisor." Then, detail your responsibilities in that role as they

By Alison Green

Saying the wrong thing to your boss can really damage your career. From refusing to work with a colleague to bragging about your irreplaceability, here are 10 things you never want to say to your manager:

1. "Can you write that down for me?" When you're talking about the details of a project, writing notes to consult later is great. But you need to take them yourself, not ask your boss to do it for you.

[See The Best Jobs of 2012.]

2. "I just booked plane tickets for next month." Never book time off without clearing it with your boss. There might be a major project due that week, or she might have approved others to have that time off and therefore need you around. Check with her first before you do anything irreversible.

3. "My bad." There's nothing more frustrating than an employee who has made a mistake and doesn't seem to think it's a big deal. When you make a mistake, take responsibility for it, figure out how you're going to fix it, and make it

By Mary Kate Cary

This week might well turn out to have been the turning point in the 2012 election. It started out with both the Washington Post/ABC News and the New York Times/CBS polls showing significant drops in the president's approval ratings. Both were statistically similar samples of Americans polled at about the same time-taken together, it's hard to say either one was a fluke-and both were taken after the Health and Human Services contraception ruling controversy. Why would the president's disapproval numbers be up? Some blame the rising price of gasoline; others say it's because unemployment continues to remain above 8 percent.

I've got a different theory, one that's a little more of a gut feeling. The people I've spoken with lately-both Republicans and Democrats-about the 2012 election have stopped talking about the president's re-election chances, the horserace on the right, or even the latest primaries. They talk about being worried. They're worried about