Budgeting is the financial equivalent of eating your vegetables. It may seem unpleasant, even grueling, but it’s ultimately good for your financial health.

Budgeting is also unpopular. Bankrate’s latest Money and Mental Health Survey shows that less than one-third (29%) of Americans reviewed their budget during a 30-day period between mid-...Read more

When we dropped off our daughter at the airport in January for her semester abroad in Paris, I took a picture as she walked through the TSA security line, and my heart felt caught in my throat.

We would be separated by an ocean and 4,000-plus miles for more than four months — our longest stretch of time apart since she was born. When I was a ...Read more

CHICAGO — A chatty animated amphibian starring in videos for Bad Bunny’s recent album has launched the Puerto Rican crested toad — an endangered species native to the island — into newfound fame, following years of quiet, collaborative conservation efforts involving Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo.

“They’re kind of famous now,” said ...Read more

MIAMI — Stew — a big pot of it — with onions, potatoes and bell peppers. Maybe a little bit of meat, if they’re lucky, Jackie Brown muttered, chewing over potential dinner ideas for her family as she surveyed the produce refrigerator at the Feeding South Florida food bank in Pembroke Park on a recent afternoon. She was planning a week of...Read more

Wondering if this begonia can provide you color for the entire garden season? Well, you are Surefire shootin' straight. The commercial landscape industry is showing the Southeast that this is one tough flower for home or business and the award-winning Surefire series is leading the way.

There are four colors in the series: Surefire Red, Rose, ...Read more

WINDOM, Minn. — His brown eyes stare directly at the viewer, not as a challenge, but as their equal.

At a time when immigration stings are breaking apart families, sweeping innocent and guilty alike into their net, the young boy’s gaze conveys a humanity that will not be denied.

“I’m NOT illegal,” he has written on the wooden back of...Read more

I spent a recent Saturday morning at St. Catherine of Siena, a beautiful, sun-filled Catholic church in my hometown — a building I drove by more times than I can possibly count but had never stepped inside before May.

When I was growing up, we attended a tiny Lutheran church the next town over — a building that changed hands almost a decade...Read more

If you are thinking about baby names you may want to make sure the names you have in mind are legal in your state.

Each state has its own naming laws and at least 11 names have been previously banned in the United States, according to USbirthcertificates.com. A list of guidelines and requirements rule out other possible names as well.

The ...Read more

STONE HARBOR, N.J. -- Lenore Tedesco doesn’t need to venture far to witness sea-level rise. She tracks its relentless advance from her window at work.

Tedesco, executive director of the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor, stood by the nonprofit’s large conference room window in late May, surveying an expanse of salt marsh known as Scotch ...Read more

At the Library of Congress last month, Roberto Díaz was playing on an exceedingly rare viola. What didn’t cross his mind, he says, is just how much the hunk of maple and spruce clutched beneath his chin was worth.

Which is perhaps a good thing.

The Tuscan-Medici viola from the workshop of Antonio Stradivari was recently valued at $30 ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS ― When is a pencil not just a pencil?

When it’s on John and Amy Higgins’ lawn across from Lake of the Isles, is 20 feet tall and gets an annual public sharpening that draws crowds of more than 1,000 people.

The giant pencil, known as LOTI Pencil, will get its fourth annual sharpening on Saturday afternoon. The event kicks off...Read more

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- It’s four minutes past opening time Thursday, and I’m in line for Indian Land, South Carolina’s latest sensation. Swig soda shop is still more than a quarter-mile away.

It’s been a week since the new drive-thru drink spot opened off Worldreach Drive, initially backing up traffic clear onto Charlotte Highway.

Swig ...Read more

Happy Pride Month, advice-seekers! We’re getting gay this June by answering LGBTQ+ questions. As always, send your dating/sex/relationship que(e)ries to redeyedating@gmail.com.

Dear Anna,

My girlfriend and I (both 28, together for three years) have a solid group of friends from college and work, but we're the only queer couple in the bunch. ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — Reem Helou was listening attentively. It was the last day of her menu planning class in the Community College of Allegheny County's culinary program.

Her professor, Charles Wallander, an adjunct instructor and advisor at the school, was going over the final assignment, which was due before the stroke of midnight that night.

"If ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A California city is the best place in the nation to raise a family, according to WalletHub.

The personal finance website recently released its list of the Best and Worst Places to Raise a Family in the United States in 2025, based on factors including housing costs, recreation opportunties and the quality of local schools...Read more

I find myself still pondering the surprise announcement from Warren Buffett, age 94 and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, that he is retiring because he was "beginning to feel his age."

I keep wanting the man to expand. Specifics on "feeling his age" would be helpful and greatly appreciated.

He did say he noticed he was operating at a different speed...Read more

I am breaking my behavioral advice column format for the first time since I started writing it in 2014.

The normal format of answering questions about how adults can teach kids to be better people will return next week.

I have never broken format because, in my lifetime, there has never been a topic in education that was so important to the ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- It was enormous, weighed 13 tons and seemed to be unmovable.

But one day in 2002, workers hoisted up and lifted away the steel, copper and bronze “Scroll” sculpture in front of the old Minneapolis Public Library at 10th Street and Hennepin Avenue downtown.

Ever since, Joe Hoover has been wondering where it went.

The old ...Read more

Q. We are in co-parenting counseling and my ex will tell a story that is almost the exact opposite of what happened. She’s so wrong! I have the text messages to prove it! The counselor is our referee, and we have made no progress. How can two people have such vastly different perceptions of what went on? What’s good ex-etiquette?

A. I’m ...Read more