Personal Finance Advice and Commentary

Jennie Phipps started reporting on retirement planning 6 years ago, when she and her husband were thinking about retiring. They haven't pulled the trigger yet, but she's still hoping.

Marcie Geffner Marcie Geffner is a freelance reporter, writer, editor and blogger whose real estate, mortgage and banking stories have been published by dozens of major U.S. newspapers.

Kay Bell is Bankrate's tax specialist and served on the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel, which works with the IRS on customer service issues.

Judy Martel is a Certified Financial Planner and the author of "The Dilemmas of Family Wealth." She was previously a senior editor at Bankrate.

Holden Lewis is an assistant managing editor at Bankrate.com who has covered the mortgage industry for more than 10 years. His mortgage blog has earned five national awards.

Sheyna Steiner covers rates and investing as well as a variety of personal finance topics.

Claes Bell has covered banking, autos and a variety of personal finance topics for Bankrate since 2006. He is a co-author of “Future Millionaires’ Guidebook,” available at all major e-book retailers.

Jay MacDonald has been a contributing editor at Bankrate.com for more than a decade, infusing humor and human interest into a broad range of personal finance topics.

Barbara Whelehan is an assistant managing editor at Bankrate.com and has a certificate of specialization in financial planning.

Greg McBride , CFA, is the senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com and has appeared on hundreds of national television outlets and is widely quoted in the press.