When it comes to our parents, we tend to assign value by how much we spend. Don't believe me. Let's compare Mother's Day to Father's Day.

They are calling it Ketchup Gate, and it has military wives seeing red. Last week, Rajiv Chandrasekaran wrote an article for the Washington-Post which, on its surface, seemed to suggest that military families take advantage of taxpayers.

Whenever I urge people to stop being serial auto-loan consumers, I get bewildered looks. I mean it. Pay cash for your car and make the math work in your favor.

We can deny it if we want, but we love to be entertained watching shows about people derailing their lives. Throw in an underlying theme of the rich versus the poor and the ratings soar.

The Great Recession has done many bad things to many people. But perhaps one aftermath that has been beneficial is the increase in multigenerational households.

My husband can't throw anything away. I realize this could be viewed as a good thing (I guess he'll keep me around, too), but sometimes his closet and bathroom drawers look like an episode of Hoarders.

My trusty Volvo wagon served our family well for 13 years, but after 106,000 miles it finally gave up the ghost. My wife just completed graduate school so we weren't ready to commit to a new car payment.