A lot of advice on savings focuses on little, day-to-day things: Making your own coffee instead of buying Starbucks; buying generic instead of brand-name; eating out less; and occasionally biking instead of taking the car.

That’s fine, and it can help trim the fat from your budget. But for real savings, it’s often necessary to step back, look at your life holistically and ask yourself some painful questions.

Books like Jeff Yeager’s The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Road Map to True Riches and Thomas Stanley’s classic The Millionaire Next Door point out that it’s big decisions that save big money.

Instead of trading down to a cheaper car, what would happen if you sold your car and took the train or biked? Read full article…

The “wage gap” between men and women – often said to be the equivalent of women earning 77 cents for each dollar a man earns – turns out to be a little more complicated, according to figures from the Labor Department. In terms of median weekly earnings for full-time workers in 2009, women aged 45 to 55 fared the worst, earning only 73.6 percent of equivalent men’s earnings.

For women aged 25-34, on the other hand, the gap was much smaller, at 88.7 percent of their male peers’ earnings, and women aged 20-24 had the best situation of any female demographic, pulling in 92.9 percent of the earnings of men in their age group.

While the pay gap will remain galling for women (and men) young and old, the Labor Department figures suggest that improvement may be on the way. Read full article…

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) — Sales of Johnson & Johnson pain relievers are plunging amid repeated recalls, with an eighth that expands callbacks for products like Tylenol and Motrin IB just announced.

That’s an embarrassment for a company that set the standard on how to do it correctly when it rushed to pull bottles of Tylenol off the shelves in the early 1980s.

Market research firm SymphonyIRI Group says sales of J&J’s pain reliever pills fell 56 percent in the month ending June 13, compared to a year earlier. Sales in the smaller category of liquid pain relievers, such as Children’s Tylenol, fell 96 percent.

It’s tens of millions lost and a big hit to its reputation.

The company on Thursday recalled 21 lots of over-the-counter drugs sold in the U.S. a

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When public-use computers in Elkhart County were scarce for those trying to file for unemployment benefits, a Goshen business made computers available on Sundays — a day the store was usually closed.

Goshen businessman pledges store’s site, computers to help unemployed

Filing for unemployment benefits just got easier for people in Elkhart County Watch the story

Community response was positive and plentiful, as many people came to Premier Rental Purchase to file their unemployment claims on Sundays.

David Lane, a Premier Rental sales assistant, was instrumental in spearheading the effort.

Now a nonprofit, national trade organization, Association of Progressive Rental Organizations, has named Lane its 2010 Employee of the Year for his efforts to help the unemployed in Elkhart County. <

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NEW YORK (AP) — IPhone users can now insure them against loss or accidents, but Consumer Reports says it isn’t worth it.

The AT&T authorized policy has a $12 monthly fee and a $199 deductible for the latest iPhone model.

Replacing a phone can be costly. Although the iPhone 4 costs $199 or $299 with a two-year contract with AT&T, customers would need to pay the full retail price of $599 or $699 to replace a phone in the middle of the contract.

Repairs aren’t cheap, either. One Apple retailer and repair shop in New York charges $149 to replace a cracked screen and $99 for a broken microphone or charging port.

But an insured owner who loses a phone after one year would have paid $144 in fees on top of the $199 deductible. T

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