Housing is likely to be one of your biggest retirement expenses. One way to approach your search for the ideal overseas retirement haven is to focus on retire-overseas choices where housing is cheap.
It's important to note that, for these bargain rents, you won't be getting a palatial or luxurious abode. I'm limiting my picks to places where you could rent something modest and cozy but reasonably outfitted from a North American's perspective. Here are five places where you could rent for as little as $500 per month...............read more here

What happens now that it's Tax Day and you know you can't file your income tax return on time?
You could simply ignore the problem and hope the Internal Revenue Service doesn't notice. Not a good idea. If you have filed before, the IRS will notice, and you will probably pay penalties.
You could always panic.
Or you could use Schnepper's easy, short-term fix: File for an extension. It's a snap.

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If you live in San Antonio, you may want to go easy on those credit cards for a while. Same thing for many other Texans and lots of people living in Florida or Georgia.Residents of those areas dominate a newly released list of the 25 U.S. cities that had the most credit card debt at the end of last year. Many people may have overdone it during the holidays and are still dealing with the aftermath, according to the study by Experian, a financial and information services company best known by consumers as one of the three major credit bureaus in the U.S."The message is that you need to be aware of the balance that you're carrying, and you need to make sure that you can carry it with some comfort," said Rod Griffin, Experian's director of public education. "Any kind of financial hiccup could be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back."

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Couples who work hard all their lives often eagerly look forward to retirement. But working for 30 or more years doesn't guarantee that you will be able to retire comfortably. Here are five common retirement planning errors that generally torpedo your ability to retire.

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"America’s Cheapest Family" says you might save $700 a year with one painless step 




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Tax hikes on the wealthy are a key part of the president’s proposal to slash the nation's debt.
Forcefully rejecting Republican budget cutting plans, President Barack Obama on Wednesday proposed lowering the nation's future deficits by $4 trillion over a dozen years with a package that includes reducing spending on politically sensitive health care programs and raising taxes on high-earning Americans.
The president recommended trimming the growth of Medicare spending, cuts in defense, an overhaul of the tax system to eliminate many loopholes enjoyed by individuals and corporations, and an end to Bush-era tax cuts for wealthier Americans.
"We have to live within our means, we have to reduce our deficit, and we have to get back on a path that will allow us to pay down our debt," Obama said in a combative speech at George Washington University.

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Easy ways to boost your credit score

Make these moves and you'll have a good score. Guaranteed.
Does improving your credit score seem daunting? It doesn't have to be. Taking a few small steps now can mean the difference between a 550 and a 780. Follow these tips to see your score improve.

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After about a year and a half of marriage, my husband and I have finally unpacked the boxes of his stuff and our wedding gifts that had piled up in every corner of our apartment. In doing so, we organized the whole place -- finding a home within our home for all our "new" things while purging the old.
Through the whole process, we've unearthed a veritable trove of potential income sources littering our former wasteland. If you invest some time in spring cleaning, be sure to take stock of these six possible treasures disguised as trash:

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First Person: How We Cut Our Monthly Spending by $500

When tough times hit the Hopkins family, they made drastic changes to their spending

Just like at millions of other households in America, the Great Recession hit my home like a runaway train. A few years ago, I sold a small business and took a job as the national credit manager for a franchised business. My better half was working for a marketing firm, and I still was a landlord for a few investment properties. We were living a good life, and then almost overnight we were both unemployed. I was selling off properties and barely making enough to cover the mortgages. Unable to land new jobs and drawing two unemployment checks, we decided that we had to cut costs before they dried up our savings. Our cost-cutting session started with a walk around the house. We found areas where we could cut costs. We trimmed about $500 per month by focusing on just five things.


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