Economist and part-time advice guru Tim Harford uses the cutthroat principles of economics and capitalism to help guide you through life's little quandaries.» E-Mail This     » Add to Del.icio.us Read more about Priceless Advice From 'The Undercover Economist'...

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The costs of home Home ownership is an expensive endeavor (Photo: flickr.com) For most people, the greatest monetary expense they will take on during their lifetime is that of buying a home. Despite the fact that mortgage costs are tremendous. From ubiquitous idiomatic expressions like “home is where the heart is” to classic exclamations the caliber of ...

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A crime of a different color Image from wikispaces.com Most of the payday loan related crimes I write about involve petty thieves pointing guns in people’s faces and taking off with a bunch of cash. Today, however, I came across a payday loan crime of a different type. I don’t know if this guy was giving out fax ...

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Before you jump to an answer or nasty comment, please give me a chance to elaborate. Recently, I ran across an interesting article in the Bogleheads Wiki titled Placing Cash Needs in a Tax-Advantaged Account. Essentially, because of the way the U.S. tax code works it can often be better to ...

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Photo:uniinnsbruck Whether you are heading to school for the first time or going back for another year, you’ll quickly have to face a sad paradox. College is expensive and students are perpetually broke. Forget tuition and room and board, the cost of textbooks, software, transportation, and just about everything else is enough to put any aspiring ...

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