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If you’re the parent of a child already attending or about to enter college, you probably have a lot on your mind. That’s understandable. College is an exciting time of life, full of big choices and exciting opportunities. But let’s face it, it’s als...

Dear Dave, My parents have always been bad with money, and recently they lost their home to foreclosure. They found another place to live, and they both work, but since the foreclosure my dad has been asking me for money on a regular basis. He tries ...

Dear Dave, When is it okay to have a little fun, and buy things you want, when you’re following the Baby Steps plan? — Kaitlin Dear Kaitlin, The time for a little fun is after you’ve completed the first three Baby Steps. Baby Step 1 is saving $1,000...

The $140 billion drop in the value of General Electric’s stock price during the past year gets the full human interest treatment in the Wall Street Journal. I don’t want to minimise the deep individual suffering of those who had their retirement savi...

Dear Dave, My husband and I are just starting Baby Step one of your plan. Prior to this, we told my two nephews we would buy them laptop computers for college. They don’t get a lot of encouragement or support from their immediate family, so we try to...

The combination of a long bull market, high valuations, rising interest rates and increased volatility can make investors nervous about putting money to work in the market. But many of those sitting on cash missed out on huge gains in stocks. There a...

When I started out as a strategist more than 30 years ago, I had the arrogance of youth, a long-term investing horizon and less wealth to worry about. Those three qualities worked well then, but not so much now. I have the wealth to enable a comfort...

Dear Dave, I’ve started your personal finance course in high school, so I’m asking this for the entire class. What happens to your debt if you pass away with no relatives or heirs to take responsibility for what you owed? — Elizabeth Dear Elizabeth,...

The return of volatility in the first quarter versus 2017 was our focus last week. Some interesting pushback followed the premise that prices seem to ignore news sometimes and at other times hang on every headline. My explanation: most people have th...

Dear Dave, How do you sell a vehicle with a lien amount that’s higher than the actual value of the car? — Michael Dear Michael, First, you need to find a way to cover the difference between the amount of the lien and what you can get for the car. Le...