Last week, the NPR show This American Life marked the anniversary of the housing-credit crisis by updating its entertaining report on the events that led to the collapse of the credit markets last year. Read the full article

Don Dion, writing in TheStreet.com, has included UMM and DMM on his list of the "10 Most Dangerous ETFs." Technically, they're not ETFs, but that's a minor quibble. Going beyond the criticisms I offered of MacroShares Major Metro Housing Up (UMM) and Major Metro Housing Down (DMM), Dion comments: Read the full article

Annuities have a bad reputation. They’re insurance contracts, which means they’re necessarily complicated. Often, they involve lots of hard-to-understand fees. And variable annuities, in particular, have earned a really bad reputation. Still, there is evidence that some form of annuity could be useful for many retirees. Read the full article

Home mortgage interest has been a tax-deductible expense on Federal tax returns since 1913. But in a report issued recently, the General Accounting Office (GAO) has recommended that the IRS do a better job of enforcing the rules that apply to the mortgage interest deduction. Read the full article

Figuring out which cell phone plan to buy can be a huge pain. There's no point in paying for services that you don't use, and if you pick the wrong plan, you're stuck for as long as two years unless you pay a termination fee. Over at the Flowing Data blog, there are some graphs that help simplify the process. Read the full article

I don’t often write this sort of advice, but here’s my household risk management recommendation for the Fall: get your flu shots. Read the full article

The Federal Reserve’s latest “beige book” report offers a few encouragements on the state of the New England economy. Read the full article

Each year, contribution limits on 401(k)s, IRAs and other retirement plans are adjusted to keep up with inflation. However, because of a quirk in the rules that define how limits on 401(k) and pension plan contributions are calculated, it’s possible that 2010 limits on these plans could actually decline from current levels. Read the full article

About 50 million people own 401(k)-type retirement plans, and the percentage of workers with defined-benefit (pension) plans has been dwindling for years. One problem with 401(k) plans is that many plans don’t disclose their fees openly. That would change if Congress moves forward with a bill currently awaiting action in the House of Representatives. Read the full article

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