Linda Stern

Despite deep discounts, it's going to be a mean season for holiday shopping.

How to make the most of your benefits package.

Baby boomers, it's time to play catch-up. All the 50-somethings who'd been religiously plowing money into their 401(k) plans just got slammed with the trifecta of trouble—sinking stock, tight credit and a lousy housing market.But there are a host of strategies for catching up in a hurry.

There are reasons retirees flock to Florida, beyond the beautiful beaches or loving attention from presidential candidates. It's the tax structure. There's no income tax; prescription and over-the-counter drugs are tax-free; and retirees can claim an annual homestead exemption as high as $50,000 against their personal property taxes.Stark differences in tax policy between one state and another have many retirees on the move.Several states exempt pension income and Social Security from income...

Retirees who have been carefully feeding their 401(k) and individual retirement accounts for years face a psychological hurdle when they have to switch gears and start withdrawing money.

Depending on your age, what you should do now.

Warren Buffett is betting on a turnaround. Should you?

Getting a loan is harder, but it's not impossible.

Insulating yourself from Wall Street's meltdown

Debt collectors resort to new tactics

Nine easy ways to beat inflation.

Everyone loves a long, hot shower. But it's becoming increasingly difficult to justify one. Fortunately, a handful of companies are looking at ways to cut water consumption while saving the experience.

We do love our leisurely showers. But some entrepreneurs aim to cut water consumption while saving the experience. Enter the Quench from Australia's HydroCo.

Lost luggage, security checks, extra-bag fees and spilled shampoo make suitcase stress one of the worst parts of traveling, but Flylite thinks it has the solution.

Are high gas prices killing the family road trip?

How to make the most of your 'stimulus' check.

Scientists at MIT are about to produce the world's first robotic opera. "Death and the Powers," now in rehearsal at the school's media lab, is a story about an inventor who wants to live forever and decides to download himself into his household belongings.

Teens may not know much about big business, but they sure know about cell phones. A Dutch firm is now sending high-schoolers into corporate settings to tutor technologically challenged workers.

Writing checks isn't enough. The new style of philanthropy is hands-on and disciplined.

Can't remember if you took your medicine? Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a sensor necklace that can record when its wearer has swallowed pills, and send reminders if necessary.The MagneTrace relies on tiny magnets embedded in specially designed pills.

Scientists at MIT are about to produce the world's first robotic opera. "Death and the Powers," now in rehearsal at the school's media lab, is a story about an inventor who wants to live forever and decides to download himself into his household belongings.

Well-stocked minibar? Check. Extra-deep pillow-top mattress? Check. Now, if only there were someone in this hotel to just read you a bedtime story.For every traveler who's ever had those thoughts, there's Hyatt's new Andaz Liverpool Street Hotel in London, which claims to be the first with a reader in residence.

What to do—and what not to do—in the downturn

The best new card offers are reserved for small-business owners.

Every parent knows toddlers have short attention spans, especially when it comes to toys: they quickly tire of what they just got and want new stuff. But who can afford that?

The advertising industry is always looking for the next big idea. So here's one that spans more than five acres: London-based Ad-Air Group is placing gigantic flat ads in deserts and farm fields adjacent to airports.

Plants liven up a workplace: They clean the air, cheer cubicle dwellers and entice customers into cafés, stores and spas. But they take up floor space. The solution?

Betting on the weather may not sound like a business plan, but it's what farmers, ski resorts and utilities do all the time. Now they're turning to new financial products to hedge the risk. "Every November or December we get nervous," says Eliot Peyser, CEO of Manhattan's Weatherproof Garment Co.

So, how are you doing? It used to be that you were OK if you earned the equivalent of your age in thousands, but success has become a lot costlier and more complicated since then.

There's nothing hoboesque about the Adriance family's 4,000-square-foot summer home in Maine. Except that it's built out of shipping containers—the part of trucks used to transport goods across the oceans.