How Newlyweds Paid Off $52,000 in Debt in 18 Months

When Deacon Hayes and his wife Kim sat down to discuss their finances, the newlyweds discovered they had $ 52,000 in debt, including $ 18,000 in car loans, $ 27,000 in students loans, and $ 7,000 in outstanding credit card balances. That jarring realization prompted the Phoenix couple to spend the next 18 months paying it off through a combination of cutting back their spending, selling their belongings...

Read More..

Wall Street retreats, Nasdaq and S&P 500 off 1 percent

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks declined on Monday after a disappointing report on factory orders, retreating from gains in the prior session that left the S&P 500 at a five-year high and the Dow above 14,000. Investors also grew wary on political uncertainty in the euro zone, leading to a sharp rise in Spanish government bond yields. Chevron and Wal-Mart were among the biggest...

Read More..

Goodell: New Orleans 'terrific,' despite blackout

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says New Orleans was a "terrific" Super Bowl host and that the Superdome power outage that delayed the game for 34 minutes will have no effect on the city's future bids to host the league's championship.Goodell says, "The most important thing is to make sure people understand it was a fantastic week," and that it "will be remembered as one of the great...

Read More..

Following Super Bowl, Beyonce announces world tour

NEW YORK (AP) — Beyonce was just warming up at the Super Bowl: The singer has announced a world tour.“The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour” will kick off April 15 in Belgrade, Serbia. The European leg of the tour will wrap up May 29 in Stockholm, Sweden.The tour’s North American stint starts June 28 in Los Angeles and ends Aug. 3 in Brooklyn, N.Y., at the Barclays Center.It was also announced Monday that...

Read More..

Analysis: Higher U.S. bond yields could impede economic recovery

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A rough couple of months in the U.S. bond market has lifted interest rates off record lows and now could impede a slow economic recovery heavily dependent on cheap money to keep going.While stocks have surged to near-record levels from five years ago, an accompanying rally in the $ 11.6 trillion U.S. Treasury debt market appears to have run out of steam and bond prices have dropped...

Read More..

"Great Rotation"- A Wall Street fairy tale?

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street's current jubilant narrative is that a rush into stocks by small investors has sparked a "great rotation" out of bonds and into equities that will power the bull market to new heights. That sounds good, but there's a snag: The evidence for this is a few weeks of bullish fund flows that are hardly unusual for January. Late-stage bull markets...

Read More..

What comes now for NFL after tumultuous season?

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Super Bowl closes a tumultuous year for the NFL.Suicides by former NFL players. Thousands of others filing concussion lawsuits. New studies linking football to brain disease. Still no testing for human growth hormone. The specter of other purported performance-enhancing products — deer-antler spray, anyone? — being peddled to players.A pay-for-pain bounty scandal. A lockout...

Read More..

Hillary: Secretary of empowerment

Girls hug U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a 2010 tour of a shelter run for sex trafficking victims in Cambodia.STORY HIGHLIGHTSDonna Brazile: Clinton stepping down as Secretary of State. Maybe she'll run for presidentShe says as secretary she expanded foreign policy to include effect on regular people She says she was first secretary of state to focus on empowering women and girlsBrazile:...

Read More..

Stevie Wonder headlines pre-Super Bowl concert

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Applause and approval greeted Stevie Wonder as thousands stood for hours to hear his pre-Super Bowl concert that also featured guitarist Gary Clark Jr.Escorted on stage late Saturday by his daughter and backup singer Aisha Morris, Wonder performed several of his hits, including his opening song, “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You).”That was followed by “Master Blaster,” Michael...

Read More..

Ron Johnson Concedes: J.C. Penney Isn’t Apple

Okay, so Ron Johnson is not the god of retail.Even with his reputation for retail wizardry at Apple (AAPL) and Target (TGT), everyone knew it would be hard for him to work his magic at J. C. Penney (JCP). Instead of hawking cool, high-margin tech products for the hipster fan base of Apple, Johnson has to deal with busy moms, screaming kids, and the the broad swath of humanity that just wants a cheap...

Read More..