For most of us, our home is the biggest purchase we’ll ever make. And our mortgage payment is usually the biggest slice of our monthly budget. When you consider that most mortgages are taken out with a 30-year term, the idea of carrying that much debt for that long can be pretty daunting — especially when you do the math on how old you’ll be when the last payment is sent to the bank. And to top it all off, there’s the total interest you’ll end up paying, which can be staggering…

Smartphones are everywhere these days — and they can be a useful and valuable tool to help you save big. Here's a roundup of apps that you can use to budget and shop your way to greater savings. Most are available across multiple platforms at low to no cost.

When you’re risking not just money but perhaps future comforts at retirement, it can be hard to feel good about trusting either a single personal advisor or the faceless advisory groups of big investment firms. But there is a middle ground, and it’s been around for more than a century. Investment clubs are groups of up to 100 individuals who meet regularly to pool resources and pick investments for the group. They share the burden of research, make joint decisions about investments and share the rewards (and the losses).

Making improvements to your curbside view doesn’t have to require a second mortgage. Here are some simple, low-cost ideas to help your house put its best face forward.

What’s the saying, “hope springs eternal”? It seems that every time spring rolls around, we get motivated to clear out the cobwebs and do some serious decluttering. Why not take that opportunity to make a little money at the same time? We think you’ve earned it after all that work spring cleaning. Here are eight ways you can turn clutter into cash.

Graduation from college is a happy time for you and your family, with loved ones waving you down the road to a brighter future paved by a college education. But soon you realize that between you and your new life stands a mountain of debt that must be climbed — your student loans.

Now that you’ve got the old-school job tools down pat, amped up your networking efforts and picked up some great interview tips, it’s time to examine some new-school approaches. As a creature of the digital age, you have some resources available to you that didn’t exist in your parents’ day. Employment sites, for example, provide a host of resources for the modern-day job seeker. Here are a few to check out:

Graduation day is right around the corner, and now you’re about to star in your own reality show. In other words, things are about to get real – very real — especially when it comes to your finances. Not only will those handy student loan checks stop coming, but you’ll actually have to start paying them back soon. Congratulations! Welcome to the job market and the rest or your life.

So you're a fan of Star Trek and managing money. Have you ever wondered what kind of investor you would be in the Star Trek universe? Take this short quiz and find out if you'd be most likely to trust your portfolio to Kirk, Spock, or McCoy.

You may be old enough to remember a time when traveling by air was a signature experience. Seats were wider, planes less crowded, all bags flew free and passengers were served real, hot meals — sometimes with actual silverware. Oh, and the security check involved walking through a metal detector for .07 seconds.