Personal Finance Advice and Commentary

Here are a few tips for saving money on housing, transportation and groceries.

Banking organizations offer consumers tips to make mobile banking safer and more secure.

Consumers can take a few tips in financial planning from the big-screen stories of the Avengers, Batman and Spider-Man.

Parents need to model good financial habits and start age-appropriate conversations about money with their children.

Prepare for managing bank accounts, credit cards, student loans and retirement savings in the “real world.”

Yesterday, the Financial Times website, FT.com, reported that $13 billion of 10-year Treasury inflation-protected securities were sold at a negative yield of -0.089 percent at this week’s Treasury auction.

The interest rate on these particular TIPS was 0.125 percent; investors paid a premium of $102.23 for every $100 worth of bonds. Paying the extra $2.23 pushed the yield down to -0.089 percent.

Why would otherwise rational people pay for bonds that are, on the surface, guaranteed to lose money? In a word: inflation. TIPS pay more as inflation rises, thanks to the Consumer Price Index-linked component that adjusts the principal twice per year.

Inflation won’t be going away anytime soon, but at today’s interest rates, your purchasing power may be slipping. Inflation can, of course, be a significant drain on the amount you can buy in the future with today’s dollars. To fight that, investors often use government bonds called Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, or TIPS. The inflation

Don’t neglect to factor inflation into your retirement planning because it is almost certain to be a factor. Bill Simon, president and CEO of Walmart U.S., told USA Today that inflation is “going to be serious. … We’re seeing cost increases starting to come through at a pretty rapid rate.” Heaven knows, if Walmart is worried

The search for yield is tough, but is it so tough that investors would flock to bonds with a negative yield? On Monday, they did just that. At auction, $10 billion worth of Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, or TIPS, were snatched up by investors paying $105.50 for the 0.5 percent coupon over five years, the New York