Thursday Poll: Debt + MORE

The federal government is lifting the curtain on hospital prices — by handing them out as a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.Data released this week show prices can vary more than $100,000 for the same procedure. Consider this example in Texas, from The Washington Post:Las Colinas Medical Center just outside Dallas billed Medicare, on average, $160,832 for lower joint replacements…

I’m in stocks. If you are too, odds are your neighbor isn’t.
An annual survey produced by Gallup revealed that just 52% of U.S. adults own stocks. This is the lowest percentage ever reported by Gallup, who began tracking this in 1998.
To put this in perspective, U.S. adults have never participated in the stock market at greater than 65% (2007), according to the Gallup poll…

An often overlooked component of retirement planning is Social Security. It’s not that no one knows it’s there – but more that getting reliable estimates of your benefits is something of mystery. In addition, many people believe that Social Security will become “bankrupt,” so they try not to rely too heavily on it as a source of future income…

There are many ways you can help a grandchild or child. There are so many options that people are confused and often procrastinate about helping because they aren’t sure which route to take.
Let’s look at the better options and examine the pros and cons of each.
529 savings plans. These plans provide a large number of benefits…

Don’t you love dining out? The combination of delicious food, fun atmosphere, and no dishes to clean is great. The cost, however, can stretch or ruin your food budget. (See also: Make Your Own Twinkies and Other Secret Recipes by the Food Cloner Dude)
I know what sorts of things I want to eat when I go out, but I wondered what answer I would get most often from coworkers and friends…

Most of our desires last for only a moment or two.
A person might spy a snack that looks good at the checkout and wants it, but if that person waits a few minutes, it’s forgotten.
A person might see a coffee shop drive-thru on the way to work and feels really tempted, but if that person keeps driving, that coffee shop is forgotten a few blocks later…

Hobbies are part of how we express our individuality. In the daily grind of life, they’re also a way we can unwind, have some fun, and do the things we most enjoy. Without this outlet, life would be a lot more stressful. You could say that having hobbies is good for your health and well-being.
On the other hand, hobbies can be downright expensive and a huge strain when balancing your budget: a source of financial stress…

Hello, friends. How are things? It’s been a long time since I wrote regularly at Get Rich Slowly, but you know what? I kind of have the itch to share more stories about personal finance. I’ve been writing about odds and ends at More Than Money, and even delve into money talk now and then…

Editor’s note: Bitcoin has been garnering attention in libertarian circles or among people looking for an opt-out to government fiat currency, but there are still some kinks that need to be worked out before it’s a viable alternative.
Sometimes, things don’t go as planned.
As background, I was approached a few months ago by two young entrepreneurs…

Last week I wrote about how amateur stock picks and even random stock picks have outperformed expert stock picks since January 2012. It is one of the reasons I don’t trust the stock market.
I realize this is not a popular opinion. Talk to any financial advisor or even your parents or grand parents, and they will tell you that I’m an idiot and the stock market is not only perfectly safe, but it’s the key to being wealthy…

No one likes to be unemployed, though many of us have either faced unemployment or will face it sometime in the future. Whether you were blindsided when you lost your job or you knew it was coming eventually, being unemployed means one thing: you are on the hunt for your next job or income source.
Today I want to discuss five things to do if you are looking for a job…

A few instructions:
1. Don’t include mortgage debt, but do include HELOC’s
2. Include 401k loans.
3. Don’t include credit card bills you pay off in full every month.
4. Include school loans, car loans, etc.
5. Participate
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll…

(Guest Post by Skint in The City)
I got to wondering this a couple of weeks back, when I tried to change $200 into sterling pounds. There I was, a trusting soul, taking it to my local bank to exchange. I know, I could have got a slightly better deal by checking out comparison sites for currency conversion, but I wanted it done fast and didn’t think the difference would be so great as to be worth the while…

Which is the greener choice – commercially-farmed food or organically-farmed food? Let’s look at some of the facts surrounding these two methods of producing our food and find out which is the greener choice and how each one compares with helping us save money.
Firstly, we probably need some definitions to clarify the comparison…

Here’s a piece about a 30-year-old guy who wants to retire when he’s 40. Some of the things he’s doing to make this a reality:

Moved from Michigan to Florida since Florida has no state tax income. (FYI, it also has nicer weather.)
Sold his car and takes public transportation. This is interesting to me since he’s a “car dealership service department clerk…

I have never advised my readers to invest in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A).
And it’s not because a single share of the Class A stock costs $164,690 or because I think it is overvalued or because of any of the other usual reasons, for that matter.
The reason is actually quite simple…

When staff writer Sasha introduced Consumerism Commentary readers to Mint.com in 2007, I began to think about the power of massive consumer financial data. As more people signed up for this online service that connects directly to users’ credit card accounts and bank accounts, Mint.com, or any other similar services, would be able to analyze more accurate spending data than government surveys that rely on self-reported data, and possibly even industry surveys…