Is the recession over? Does it matter?

It's easy to get caught up in the financial news of the day. And lately, the financial news has been all about the recession.

It's over! Some economists have told us.

It's not over! Others have told us.

But in the end, does this matter to you or me? How does this change our daily activities? It really shouldn't. If you're job hunting, keep at it. If you're trying to sell your house, keep it nice, and follow the same rules you would otherwise. In both situations, you may need to bump your activities up a notch in a down economy, but don't let the news dictate how you handle your individual situations.

Really and truly, do what you would in any other economy.

If you must, read all about it here:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/09/26/economy.poll/index.html

How much money would make you feel wealthy?

By Dan Danford

We've often tossed around the word wealthy in our offices, with some of our folks saying we shouldn't use it, because those who are don't like to talk about it, and sometimes, they don't even feel wealthy, even though they may be. And those who aren't wealthy are jealous. It's a tainted word, really, wealthy, and all the various subsets of it - wealth, etc.

So this story caught my eye today, even though it's from a few days ago. CNN Money did an interesting story on how much money it takes for us to feel wealthy, complete with a handy calculator to tell us where we fall for our income and age. It's a fascinating story, and the calculator is particularly intriguing. Plug in your age and annual salary and it will tell you what the median net worth is for your age, and then the median net worth for your salary. Take a look and see where you fall.

And you tell us: how much would it take for YOU to feel wealthy?

http://money.cnn.com/2010/08/09/news/economy/wealth/index.htm

Real estate mistakes that can cost you

This week on Twitter, we're providing home improvement tips. Your home is your largest investment, and you need to care for it both for that reason and just so you can enjoy living in it a little bit more.

CNN has a great article today about the buying process that lists six mistakes people make that can cost you during the purchasing process. Here's a link to the article. Read through it and make sure you cover all your bases next time you're buying a house.

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2010/autos/1004/gallery.Costly_homebuying_mistakes/index.html