Track-It Personal Finance

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- With Black Friday -- the day after Thanksgiving and official start to the holiday shopping season -- just days away, if you haven't started shopping yet, now would be a good time to finalize a game plan and check your... Read more

WASHINGTON -- Hundreds of new jobs in phantom congressional districts. Nearly 500 new teaching jobs in a Chicago school district that employs only 290. Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- For Benjamin Cohen, August arrived like a bear this year, tearing into both his life and his finances. Read more

WASHINGTON -- Rising unemployment is forcing more people to lean on their credit cards to make ends meet. Times are a-changing in the credit card industry, however, and it's becoming more costly and more risky to flash the plastic. Read more

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Three South Carolina men accused of bilking people out of more than $80 million lied about how they would invest their money, so it doesn't matter if investors knew it was risky, prosecutors said Thursday. Read more

DES MOINES, Iowa — The federal government has decided to abandon a Bush administration plan that would have permitted mutual fund companies and brokerage firms to offer investment advice to 401(k) customers. Read more

DES MOINES, Iowa — If you had a good mix of stocks and bonds in your retirement account and you left it alone through the market madness of the past year, more than likely you're in good shape now. Read more

"Come out from under your security blanket and go take risks with your investments."

You'd be hard-pressed to find a Federal Reserve official who would speak in such brash terms. Yet a comment by Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald Kohn in a speech Monday, in effect, conveyed just that. Read more

DALLAS -- The J.C. Penney Co. Big Book is dead -- a victim of shoppers' growing reliance on the Internet. Read more

NEW YORK — This holiday season, a leaner budget might clarify which people truly make a difference in your life. The challenge will be figuring out how much to tip them. Read more