Is It Better to Buy or Rent?. Compare the costs of renting and buying equivalent homes.

Your Money: Colleges Are Not Going Hungry, but Are in Need. Against the real likelihood of financial doom for so many people, what precisely do we owe our alma maters at a time like this?

Cost of Living: Tight Times Even Tighter for Charities. The fallout from the financial crisis is striking nonprofit groups and charities fast and hard.

Your Money: What Happens When Your Insurer Goes Under?. A sort of low-grade fear has set in among insurance policyholders. How can you protect yourself?

Mortgages: How Rates Are Set. Interest rates are often a mystery for many people applying for home loans.

Fundamentally: Market Bottom? For Some Investors, It’s Close Enough. The elusive market bottom may be finally in sight. But don’t count on being able to time the market.

Downturn Drags More Consumers Into Bankruptcy. With their credit cards drained, the latest bankruptcy filers are deeper in debt than those in previous downturns.

New Veterans Hit Hard by Economic Crisis. A combination of factors including unemployment and injury has forced many veterans into foreclosure.

Op-Ed Columnist: The Formerly Middle Class. In this recession, maybe even more than other ones, the last ones to join the middle class will be the first ones out.

On 5th Ave., Discounts Arrive Early. Prices are dropping at stores where people usually wrinkle their noses at the mention of the word “sale.”

Failing Home Economics. As Americans attempt to perform cost-benefit analyses of their needs and behaviors, some are practicing economies that may not deserve the name.

Market Values: Placing Bets on Energy. Shares of many suppliers of oil and natural gas have lost half their value or more in the stock market’s race to the bottom, and may be good buys.

Shortcuts: The Gift Card Comes Wrapped in Growing Risk. You are an unsecured creditor if you are in possession of a gift card. And you may be right to feel pretty insecure.

Unable to Sell Homes, Elderly Forgo Move to Assisted Living. The housing crisis has kept thousands of older Americans from moving into retirement communities.

Your Money: Leaner Holiday Gift Giving, Bountiful in Spirit. At a time when so many people have so much less than they did just a few months ago, there ought to be a way to lessen the gift-giving pressure.

Mortgages: New Good Faith Estimates. After years of debate, federal regulators have decided to revise a key disclosure form required by lenders.

Seeking Solace? You’ll Find Little in the Bond Market. The global credit crisis has shattered the expectations of many investors as some bond portfolios have taken enormous hits.

Motoring: Strategies for Car Shopping in a Time of Tighter Credit. Finance companies have cut back on loans and become stingier with leases. But for consumers, the credit crunch may have a silver lining.

Advertising: The $64,000 Question: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. The economic downturn is renewing interest on Madison Avenue in a marketing mainstay that is particularly popular during tough times: cash giveaways.

Holiday Travel Is Bargain Spot for the Willing. Bracing for a painful holiday season, hotels, airlines and cruise operators are offering deals to entice vacationers.

To Buy Children’s Gifts, Mothers Do Without. Parents, especially mothers, are putting off personal spending to buy their children the latest toys.

In Lean Times, Online Coupons Are Catching On. The effort to find a deal in brick-and-mortar stores has moved online, where a rising world of coupon-clipping has taken shape.

U.S. Consumer Loan Aid Will Trickle Only So Far. The federal government made two big moves to help consumers, but some are ineligible and others will have to wait months before the benefits come.

Food Prices Expected to Keep Going Up. Consumers should not expect lower food prices anytime soon because the prices on most meat and packaged items are holding firm or even increasing.

Cost of Living: The Challenge of Living Within One’s Means. The shift to real-income living demands not only new spending habits, but also a wholly different way of thinking about money.

Mortgages: Lenders Become Proactive. Lenders are asking that anyone with a debt-to-income ratio exceeding 38 percent contact the company that sends the borrower’s monthly mortgage bill.

Strategies: Amid Thorns, a Potential Rose in Small-Cap Value Stocks. Investors with the fortitude to buy stocks these days may want to consider the small-cap value category.

The Holidays Downsized: No Job and Fewer Gifts. In tough economic times, many families look for a way to reframe the season.

The Holidays Downsized: We’re Going to Party Like It’s 1929. An event planner delivers a "winter wonderland" from the 99-cent store.

Officials Vow to Act Amid Signs of Long Recession. With word that the U.S. officially sank into a recession last December, the Fed chairman and the Treasury secretary said they would use all the tools at their disposal.