It began with high energy costs. Soon thereafter, the housing industry - particularly in Hernando County - came to a screeching halt. ...more

January 31, 2009

During your working years, you put money away, hoping that it will grow enough to help provide you with a comfortable retirement. But once you retire, haven't you reached your goal? You don't still need to invest for growth, do you? ...more

January 30, 2009

Time is running out for parents, grandparents or perhaps a rich uncle to buy one of Florida's prepaid college tuition plans at today's prices. ...more

January 24, 2009

Many families could only stand by and watch as their 529 college savings accounts plunged along with the stock market in 2008. ...more

January 17, 2009

Ronald Ward, a certified financial planner with Ward Financial Services, said with the volatile financial markets he keeps an open door policy at his Sun City Center office. ...more

January 14, 2009

The way the streetcar system is bleeding money, city taxpayers could well find themselves in the streetcar business in a couple of years. ...more

January 11, 2009

As I sit here typing this little epistle my TV tells me that the price of crude oil on the market is below $40 per barrel. This tells me that the price at the local pumps should be dropping, right? I was right, the price has dropped at some pumps in Avon Park and maybe elsewhere in the county but not in good old Sebring. ...more

January 11, 2009

Florida's population growth crawled to a near standstill last year, in part the result of a national recession. ...more

January 5, 2009

NEW YORK - Should auld acquaintance be forgot? Or maybe shredded? ...more

December 29, 2008

Retailers are expected to have one of the worst holiday seasons in years as consumers cope with job uncertainty and the nerve-racking stock market, which lost $10 trillion in value between October 2007 and November. ...more

December 25, 2008