Gallup

Americans now expect to work longer

If the date you expect to retire seems to be getting further away rather than closer at hand, join the club.

The average age at which Americans expect to retire has been steadily creeping up since the mid-1990s, and has now reached 67 years old, according to a new Gallup poll.

That’s up significantly from 1996, when people expected to retire at age 60.

The results are consistent with other recent research into the topic, and show that Americans’ retirement plans have been dealt a significant blow thanks to the recession, financial crisis, high unemployment and housing bust.

Still, younger workers are more optimistic than their older peers.

Gallup’s annual Economy and Personal Finance survey, which was conducted in mid-April, found that people who are currently under age 40 expect to retire at age 65. Those who are 40 and over, and not yet retired, expect to retire at 68.

As with many things, the expectation is outpacing the reality. Among retirees, Gallup found that the average age of retirement has held steady at around 60 since 2004, although that’s up from 57 in the early 1990s.

Still, the average retirement age is expected to increase in the coming years. A major culprit appears to be money. The same poll found that more than half of the people who aren’t yet retired don’t think they’ll have enough money to live comfortably in retirement.

Even with a later retirement date you should still be able to enjoy some golden years. The average life expectancy in the United States is 78 years.

Related: More older couples are shacking up, skipping marriage

Fess up: Have you ever told your partner the purse you bought was on sale when really it wasn’t, or pretended you spent $200 on sports tickets that really cost $300?

This week, TODAY.com and Self revealed the results of an online survey about love and money – or, more specifically, when and why we keep money secrets from the people we love.

Our readers had a lot to say about the survey, which found that even though many people think honesty about money is as important as sexual fidelity, it’s not uncommon to fib at least a bit about our spending habits.

Many readers told us that to keep the peace and avoid having to lie about money, they simply keep separate accounts.

“Don't need to, we have our own discretionary accounts for 'fun' spending. He has no say over what I spend mine on, and vice versa,” one reader wrote.

Another reader said it wasn’t an issue for an entirely different reason:   “We've never had enough money for me to have something to lie about.”

Over on our Facebook page, many readers weighed in on how much they feel comfortable spending without consulting their spouse or partner.

One reader revealed her secret to financial success.

“My husband and I created the "$75 rule" when we got married almost 16 years ago,” she wrote.

Another related why hers didn’t work out.

“My ex bought a new van, without consulting me....the next day, I filed for a divorce !!” the Facebook user wrote.

Financial issues can break a marriage, and they can also keep people from getting married. Another popular post this week looked at the growing number of people over 50 who are choosing to move in together without getting married, often because it makes more sense financially.

The story prompted a lot of readers to share their grievances about bitter divorces that had taken a financial and emotional toll. But many readers also told us that they had found late-in-life happiness without official paperwork.

“Marriage makes sense if you plan to raise children. But, my sweetie and I are long past child bearing years. … I feel blessed that after suffering through many miserable grief filled years of a "conventional" marriage, I found my true life partner. We are now enjoying our second decade together. We love each other very much and we and are contented with our ‘unconventional’ marriage,” one reader wrote.

OECD

Americans are getting a better deal on taxes than many other countries.

If you just filed your taxes this month, chances are you’re not feeling a huge amount of goodwill toward the U.S. tax system.

Still, you may want to hold off on those plans to move overseas to avoid the tax man.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development this week released a tax comparison for typical wage earners in it 34 member countries, mainly the world's wealthier, democratic countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Surprise: Most of them are paying a lot more than you.

The OECD report looked at the total labor costs for full-time, private sector workers – that is, gross wages plus whatever taxes the employer is required to pay on that employee’s behalf. Then they calculated how much of that total went to federal, state or regional taxes.

In the U.S., an estimated 29 percent of the average worker’s total labor costs went toward taxes last year.

That’s far lower than Belgium, Germany, Hungary and France, where taxes accounted for about half of an average worker’s labor costs.

There are a few countries where workers are getting more of a tax break. The countries with the lowest tax bills included Mexico, New Zealand and Chile, where just 7 percent of the average worker’s total costs went to taxes.

The OECD found that taxes increased in 26 of the 34 OECD countries last year. The U.S. was one of the few countries to see a decrease because of cuts in Social Security contributions. That offset the end of the Making Work Pay tax credit.

For comparison purposes, the calculations assumed the average worker was single and without children. The OECD did separate calculations for other individuals and families with children in its full report.

Matthias Rumpf, a spokesman for the OECD, said the U.S. ranks lower than average in part because it does not have compulsory health care. That means Americans’ health care costs aren’t included in their total taxes.

The OECD also didn’t include mortgage interest rate deductions in its calculation, in part because it’s difficult to make assumptions about how much a person would pay and thus deduct.

Do you think Americans should be paying more or less in taxes? Discuss it in the comments below or on our Facebook page.

Related:

IRS strikes tough balance as nice bad guy

For identity theft tax victims, paying taxes is a nightmare

Along with a list of breast-feeding’s health benefits for mothers and children, pediatricians often tout an added bonus -- unlike formula, breast milk is free.

Not so fast, researchers say.  Breast-feeding comes with a cost to new moms that is often overlooked, according to a new study published in the American Sociological Review. The study looked at data from 1,313 first-time mothers in the U.S. who were in their late 20s or 30s when they gave birth.

Women’s incomes dropped precipitously when they choose to breast-feed for six months or longer -- and they remained low some five years after the babies were born, says the study’s lead author, Phyllis L.F. Rippeyoung, an assistant professor of sociology and coordinator of women’s and gender studies at Acadia University in Nova Scotia. 

Rippeyoung’s interest in the hidden costs of breast-feeding was sparked by personal experience. When she became a mom, she was flooded with information about the benefits of breast-feeding -- including the suggestion that it would save her money.

 “I thought that it was weird that they were saying it was free,” Rippeyoung remembers. “I was a grad student at the time driving back and forth between teaching and classes, and my milk was drying up since I couldn’t drive and pump at the same time. It was a very difficult thing, but I had to stop breast-feeding. If I’d continued I couldn’t have worked at the same time.”

The data for the new study came from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, which included information about the moms’ jobs and incomes, as well as stats on their family life, including the decision to give their babies formula or to breast-feed for a short duration (less than six months) or a long duration (six months or more).

The researchers found that on average women who breast-fed their babies for six months or longer experienced a dramatic drop in income.  Five years after the birth of their babies, the women were still making about $5,000 per year less than they had before the birth of their children.

One factor that explained much of the drop in income was a reduction in hours -- and this was true even though most of the women in the long-duration group were managers or professionals and said they worked because they liked to.

Rippeyoung doesn’t think that breast-feeding needs to come at such a cost -- and she isn’t advocating that women give it up.

“I don’t think it’s inevitable,” she said. “If there were more ways in which women could combine breast-feeding with working you’d see less of this earnings decline."

One thing that could help is if more companies offered on-site day care and allowed women time to visit their babies during working hours, she said.

“If there’s going to be a push for women to breast-feed then we need to take into account all of the costs,” Rippeyoung said. “And the responsibility for raising the children shouldn’t be solely borne by women.”

Van Gogh would be proud. Companies across the country are trying to inspire employees to find their inner artist, or at least their inner doodler.

It’s doodle mania at companies such as Facebook and Zappos, as employers search for ways to transform complex business issues and concepts into easy-to-digest drawings, according to a recent Wall Street Journal article.

“Firms are holding training sessions to teach employees the basics of what's known as visual note taking,” the story explained. “Others, like vacation-rental company HomeAway Inc. and retailer Zappos, are hiring graphic recorders, consultants who sketch what is discussed at meetings and conferences, cartoon-style, to keep employees engaged.”

Is this just the latest dotcom gimmick?

The Journal article cites a study that was published in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology saying doodlers are able to retain more information than their nondoodling counterparts. But maybe it’s just because doodlers aren’t as busy as their coworkers who don’t have time to doodle.

The idea of bringing the doodle into the workplace has been gaining traction since doodling guru Sunni Brown’s Ted Talk on the benefits of workplace doodling last year. “Doodling has a profound impact on the way that we can process information and the way that we can solve problems,” she said during the speech.

Brown, who's the author of the forthcoming book “The Doodle Revolution," teaches people on how to use doodling in the workplace.

Here’s an excerpt of her speech:

“Under no circumstances should doodling be eradicated from a classroom or a boardroom or even the war room. On the contrary, doodling should be leveraged in precisely those situations where information density is very high and the need for processing that information is very high.”

It’s safe to say the doodling business strategy will probably be relegated to profitable web-based firms that have enough workers and time on their hands to draw up a storm while they're brainstorming. Most employers who have cut their workforces to the bone during the tough economy will be hard-pressed to send their limited staff to workplace easels.

“In my opinion, this has limited use,” said Cassi Fields, an organizational psychologist and owner of business training and assessment company Fields Consulting Group. “At the end of the day, if you have to make a serious presentation and have to have serious output in most situations you’re not going to present a doodle.”

And Fields is concerned about employees potentially doodling inappropriate images or doodling a coworker or manager in an inappropriate way. "This could become the next inappropriate thing on Facebook," she quipped.

Indeed, art is in the eye of the beholder.

That said, it’s never a bad thing to bring more creativity and art into the world, and employers have to be rewarded for thinking outside of the box on this one. But the question is, if a worker ends up cutting off his or her ear, can they collect workers’ comp? 

Thursday is Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work day, although perhaps you didn't notice.

The annual event, started 20 years ago as a way to expose girls and young women to workplace and career opportunities, has attracted less attention in recent years.

Perhaps it’s another thing to blame on The Great Recession and slow economic recovery. The high joblessness that has plagued the  economy for five years has left many parents without work.

It’s also left those who are lucky enough to have a job nervous about holding onto it. That may mean it's not a great time for your child to say something embarrassing to your boss, spill soda on the keyboard or keep you from getting a day’s worth of work done.

There’s also the matter of how work has changed. Even two years ago, The New York Times noted that many kids already see their parents working a lot, because so many people now take their work home.

There have also been other criticisms of the event. Julie Drizin, director of the Journalism Center on Children and Families, wrote this week that she wouldn’t be participating after realizing that people who work long hours in low-wage jobs probably aren’t able to, either.

“I’ve come to believe that Take Your Daughters And Sons to Work Day is largely a feel-good exercise for the privileged,” she wrote.

Of course, many will participate. Carolyn McKecuen, president of the Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day Foundation, said that while some organizations have stopped participating, other companies have joined.

She doesn’t think there has been a big drop in participation, although she conceded the group has not done an exact accounting.

That’s partly because the organization, an offshoot of the Ms. Foundation, has itself been hit hard by the recession. It now operates on about a quarter of its former budget because of a drop in big donors.

McKecuen said some have used the day to speak frankly about the current economy. She said she has heard of unemployed parents getting together with their children to discuss how to write a resume and look for a job.

Times have changed since the event began 20 years ago solely for girls, later expanding to include boys.

McKecuen, who has two boys, thinks including both genders has been valuable.

“Guys need to know if they want to be a nurse they can be a nurse. They don’t have to fly a plane,” she said.

“The reason we started this has changed very little over the years,” she said. “It was designed to expose youth to what (their parents) do in their lives during the workday, and the demands and the possibilities in the workplace.”

Farnoosh Torabi

Some people think about saving for retirement in their twenties, others start contemplating rocking chair resources after they hit the big 40.

With a recent report that Social Security funds are dwindling, folks of all ages are wondering if they'll have enough to retire comfortably. 

What ever age or type of saver you are, the key is coming up with an action plan, advised personal finance expert Farnoosh Torabi, who was on hand Wednesday to answer readers' retirement money questions during our weekly live web chat.

A poll of readers who participated in the chat found only 11 percent are sure they'll have enough funds to enjoy those golden years; while 33 percent said they definitely won't have enough money, and 56 percent weren't sure.

How much should you be socking away? asked one 40-plus reader.

“Had you been consistently saving since your twenties, I'd say 10 percent would be enough,” maintained Torabi, author of “Psych Yourself Rich: Get the Mindset and Discipline You Need to Build Your Financial Life”, and host of "Financially Fit" on Yahoo. “But if you've just begun saving in your forties, you should be as aggressive as you can be by putting about 15 percent towards your employer's 401(k), or more, and opening up an IRA or two to supplement the 401(k).”

For the 20-something wondering how she should start and worried about paying hefty commissions, Torabi had this advice:

“I would 100 percent recommend doing two things: Invest in your company's 401(k). Contribute 10 percent or at least enough to benefit from the full match your company may provide. Second, open a Roth IRA. You can open one up at any brokerage - Fidelity, Vanguard, Charles Schwab. The cheapest way to open one is probably going to a local credit union or your existing bank and opening a retirement account there. I have one with ING Direct, as well. No brokerage fees!”

Here are some more highlights from the Q&A with Torabi:

Bobby asked:

“Hi, I'm 68 years old with no retirement or pension funds, just $20,000 I've saved up over the years in the bank. I just got fired from my job as a factory worker because my entire left side got paralyzed after a stroke and I have no education at all besides a high school diploma, so what should I do with my money to maintain myself? Should I invest it in stocks or gamble it away in Vegas, because they're both just as risky aren't they?”

Torabi’s advice:

“Vegas is beautiful this time of year, but I would encourage you to continue to save that $20,000 and -- are you collecting disability? Check out this site to learn how to get compensated: http://www.ssa.gov/disability/.”

LaTonya asked:

“I am not sure if I am putting enough away for retirement. My husband and I both have jobs with pensions and health benefits at retirement (30 years). In addition to our pension contributions we have a Roth IRA that we contribute the max to each year. Is it safe to depend on our pension and not contribute more to private retirement accounts?”

Torabi’s advice:

“I never like to put all my eggs in one basket! And while you still have a pension (and that's so amazing!) I would try to diversify my savings -- you never know what could happen to those pensions or whether they'll be enough. It's always best to have a separate IRA to, again, diversify your savings and allow for multiple income streams in retirement.” 

For a full look at out web chat with Torabi go here:

The all-in-one Brother MFC-J430w is a combination printer/scanner/copier/fax.

Printers have a propensity to gulp expensive ink, displaying low-ink alerts like a drunk holding up an empty glass to a bartender. If you’re going to support this habit, it’s nice not to have to spend too much on the printer itself. Choose carefully to avoid the slowest, thirstiest models and get the highest possible quality for $100 or less.

Below are Cheapism’s top picks for affordable all-in-one printers. These models can scan and copy as well as print, delivering more for the money than a basic inkjet.

• The Epson Stylus NX430 (starting at $70) prints crisp text and high-quality photos with realistic color, according to expert reviewers. It has a compact 15.4” x 12” x 5.7” footprint for those tight on space. (Where to buy)
• The Brother MFC-J430w (starting at $60) boasts an automatic document feeder that can scan or copy more than one page at a time. It also functions as a fax machine -- you know, in case you conduct business with anyone in the 20th century. Experts applaud this printer’s speed and say text is its strong suit. (Where to buy)
• The Canon Pixma MG5320 (starting at $100) features a high-resolution scanner and wins praise for photo printing even on faster settings, perhaps no surprise from a company known for cameras. This printer can handle more paper than any other model on our list. (Where to buy)
• The HP PhotoSmart 5510 e-All-in-One (starting at $80) promptly produces sharp text and vivid photos, according to reviews. Consumers find it easy to set up and use, and the touch-screen interface is unusual at this price. (Where to buy)

These are all inkjet printers, as opposed to laser printers with higher capacities and faster print speeds. Be wary of manufacturers’ advertised speeds. A number like 30 pages per minute may be accurate, but it’s almost certainly measured using only black ink on the draft quality setting. You can expect about five or 10 pages of high quality color printing per minute from an inkjet model.

Most low-cost multifunction printers have flatbed designs that require you to flip open the lid and lay flat whatever you want to copy or scan. These machines can accommodate everything from a driver’s license to a book but process only one page at a time. The Brother MFC-J430w also features an auto document feeder to make quick work of multipage jobs. If you plan to scan photos, note the maximum scan resolution, measured in dots per inch. The Canon Pixma MG5320 has one of the highest among budget printers: 2,400 x 4,800 dpi.

Wi-Fi capability, once uncommon at this price point, has become a must-have feature. All the printers on our list can connect wirelessly to any computer in your home or office. This is easy to set up, reviewers say, but if you prefer to use a cable, our picks have USB 2.0 interfaces as well. That option can come in handy if you run into any issues with your router.

The printers on this list all have efficient designs that earn the government’s Energy Star designation. Just don’t forget to recycle those ink cartridges.

More from Cheapism:
Cheap multifunction printers
Cheap digital photo printing
Cheap Seattle restaurants
Cheap wireless routers

Mike Blake / Reuters

A pair of elderly couples view the ocean and waves along the beach in La Jolla, Calif. More couples over 50 are living together (minus the marriage certificate) and for many money is a big factor.

Shacking up. It's not just for the kids anymore.

The number of people over age 50 who are living together romantically has more than doubled in a decade, from 1.2 million in 2000 to 2.75 million in 2010, according to an analysis of government data done by Bowling Green State University.

The 50-plus group represents nearly one-third of the approximately 7.5 million people of all ages who were living together in 2010, the researchers found.

But while young people tend to be testing the waters for marriage, experts say older people aren’t necessarily living together as a step toward tying the knot. They're doing it for the money.

“(They want to) enjoy many of the benefits of marriage without the burdens,” said Susan Brown, a professor of sociology at Bowling Green State University in Ohio who led the research.

Older couples may want to protect their individual nest eggs so they can pass the inheritance down to their kids. They also may not want to jeopardize a pension, Social Security payment or other benefit they are receiving because they are divorced or widowed. And they may not want to be financially responsible for the other person’s health care bills.

Some also may have a “been there, done that” mentality about marriage, Brown said. Her research found that 71 percent of older couples living together were divorced, and another 18 percent were widowed. On the other hand, she found, older people who end up remarrying are disproportionately widowed. (Brown has done other research looking at the surging divorce rate among older Americans.)

Tom Blake was 53 when his third marriage ended, and after the divorce was finalized he knew he wanted to start dating again. But he didn’t want to get married for a fourth time.

“I wasn’t looking for marriage, but I definitely wanted a relationship that was comfortable, enjoyable and non-confrontational,” he remembers.

Blake, who owns a deli in Dana Point, Calif., found that dating after age 50 was much harder than he had expected. His experiences eventually became fodder for a column and website that he’s been writing for almost 18 years.

Now 72, he’s been living with a woman for 11 years. They split their expenses evenly but keep their finances separate, an arrangement that he says has served them very well.

“What I learned for my own self was that I did not need to be married to be happy,” he said.

Some people prefer to keep their financial lives even more separate. Blake said he also hears from a lot of older people who are in long-term, committed relationships but don’t live together. He said some do that to keep the peace with their kids or grandkids who don’t like the idea of a live-in relationship.

Brown, the sociology professor, said the “living apart together relationship” is one she also knows exists but has had trouble quantifying.

“They’re very committed to each other (but they) don’t want to give up the autonomy that they have,” she said.

Although economics play a major role in these late-in-life relationship decisions, Brown said there are also noneconomic reasons older couples aren’t getting hitched.

Brown said some older women want a live-in relationship, but there’s something about actually getting married that seems stifling.

“They’ve taken care of one husband and raised one family, and they don’t want to do that again,” Brown said. “And they feel that if they get married that’s the underlying expectation.”

Click above to see a larger image that you can read.

TODAY.com and SELF.com Tuesday released results of an extensive survey we conducted earlier this year on relationships and money.

As we reported earlier, 37 percent of men and 56 percent of women acknowledge having lied to their partner about money.

Here are some other details from the survey of 23,000 online participants:

• More than 34 percent of men and women who have kept money secrets say it's because they disagree with their partner about where to spend the money.
• 32 percent of women said they have hidden purchases from their partner, compared with only 17 percent of men.
• More than 25 percent of women said they would pretend something was old when it was actually a new purchase, compared with about 8 percent of men.
• The poll found that about 70 percent of women and 63 percent of men thought that honesty about money was as important as remaining monogamous.

For a visual representation of our findings, click on the image above.

Send us your comments below, or on our Facebook page.

Related:

How much will you spend before consulting your partner?

Sometimes we keep money secrets, survey shows

Looking to unload your home? Trying to buy a new one? Everybody knows that "cozy" means shoebox-sized and "lively" means that the neighbors will probably keep you up with their jug band, but what about things like "American style" and "kid-friendly"?

Real estate expert Barbara Corcoran came by to be your realtor-to-English translator.

Unique = Bad news. Decorated or built by oddballs.
Needs a little TLC =  It's falling apart.
Kid friendly = It's a mess.
American style = ANYTHING. Basically, that the house is "in America" and potentially decorated in poor taste.
Country living = It's in the middle of nowhere.
Home office = The toilet is in the middle of the living room.
Move-in condition = Please move in, let's go, we need money and the house has been ransacked.

Ever end up checking out something scary because you didn't see through the advertising lingo? What's your craziest open-house story? Tell us in the comments.

Julieanne Smolinski is a TODAY.com contributor. She has lived in a lot of "unique" places.

More: Want to look better in pictures? Just look to the left
21 of the most annoying pet peeves, ever

TODAY.com/SELF

Most people talk to their partners before making major purchases.

When it comes to spending money, some couples tell each other when they buy a bag of chips. Others don’t think to consult their spouse or partner until they’re eyeing a designer handbag.

As part of our online survey on financial infidelity, TODAY.com and SELF.com asked readers how much money they’d spend using a joint bank account or credit card before asking their spouse or partner.

For most readers, the bar is somewhere between the bag of chips and the handbag.

Of the nearly 22,000 people who answered the question, about 36 percent said they would feel comfortable spending $50 to $99 before consulting their spouse or partner. Another 22 percent said the bar is between $100 and $499.

About 28 percent of readers said they check in with their spouse about every single purchase, no matter how small. Only about 6 percent said they never tell their spouse how much they spend on anything.

The results were similar for men and women.

Experts say the threshold that couples set for spending money has a lot to do with how much money they are making. Still, it’s a good sign when a couple has a general idea of when to check in with one another.

“If you have a couple that’s fairly healthy about money, they each … tend to know when this is the kind of thing I shouldn’t do without my spouse knowing,” said Scott Stanley, a research professor at the University of Denver and co-author of the book “Fighting For Your Marriage.”

But Stanley said that kind of communication can go too far.

“I think it’s a bad idea for one person to feel like they have to account for every little impulse purchase,” he said.

Instead, he thinks couples should give each other the freedom to spend some amount of money on things they enjoy without asking permission – as long as it’s not for something like sex, drugs or gambling.

Jillian Phillips and her fiancé had barely begun dating when they began talking about money.

“We were very open about finances from the start,” said Phillips, 29. “I would say within two months we were talking about school loans and checking accounts and where we wanted to be in the next 10 years.”

Yet despite that openness, Phillips admits that she often does not tell her partner the whole truth about her spending habits, and that puts her in good company.

A detailed online survey conducted by TODAY.com and SELF.com found that 37 percent of men and 56 percent of women acknowledge having lied to their partner about money.

Phillips and her fiancé have never fought about money and have had a joint checking account for several years to pay for shared living expenses. It’s one reason she thinks their relationship has worked so well.

Still, Phillips admits that she’s keeping money secrets. Those $150 boots? She’s likely to fib and tell her husband-to-be she got them on sale for $100 –  even though she bought them with her own money.

“I feel guilty, for some reason, when I come home with a new pair of boots or a new bag,” she said. “I always say that I got it on sale even though that’s not true 98 percent of the time.”

More than 23,000 people responded to the TODAY.com/SELF.com survey, and about two-thirds told us that, in a relationship, honesty about money is as important as sexual fidelity.

Yet many admit to keeping money secrets.

The survey found that women are nearly twice as likely as men to hide purchases or receipts from their partner, with nearly one-third of women admitting to the practice.

In addition, about one-fourth of women said they’d pretended something was old that was actually new (“What? This old thing?”) or said they’d bought something on sale when it wasn’t. Only about 8 percent of men had done those things.

When asked why they keep money secrets, about one-third of women reasoned that they earn money, so they deserve to spend it. About one-third said they disagree with their partner about what to spend money on.

Those were also the most common answers men offered for why they keep money secrets.

Experts say that when it comes to marriage and serious partnerships, financial compatibility is important.

“Since the 1970s, we’ve had this idea of marriage being about a soulmate,” said Bradford Wilcox, director of The National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, “(but) beneath that idea there’s still this idea, for most people, that money matters in sort of guiding and sustaining a marriage.”

Still, Wilcox said, not all money secrets are equally problematic when it comes to marriage.

For example, he said, fudging the truth on how much you spent at Banana Republic or Best Buy would not likely carry as much weight for most spouses as having a one-night fling.

On the other hand, a long-term pattern of hiding money or having secret credit cards could signal deeper rifts, and perhaps even be a sign that the individual is preparing to leave the marriage or relationship. And that could be as damaging as a one-night stand.

“Financial fidelity is a lot more gray, and sexual fidelity is a lot more black and white,” Wilcox said.

Sex and money do have something in common: They are two areas where one partner has the capacity to devastate the other.

“Those are the two domains where they do fundamentally function based on trust, (and) those are the two domains where, once you’re really hooked on somebody in life, they can completely ruin you,” said Scott Stanley, a research professor at the University of Denver and co-author of the book “Fighting For Your Marriage.”

Stanley said financial issues are often a major cause of stress in relationships, and the economic woes of the past five years, including high unemployment and collapsing home prices, have certainly strained many marriages.

Still, he said, couples may argue about money because money, like child-rearing, is something couples deal with day-to-day.

“I think it gives the impression that money is the cause of divorce, but money comes up every day. Something about kids comes up every day,” he said.

He thinks the fact that couples may disagree about money is less important than how they fight and whether they are able to communicate openly despite their differences.

People with very different philosophies about money may have a hard time making it. Stanley said couples who are planning together for a financial future, such as by sharing accounts or saving money together for retirement, tend to have a better chance of success than those who keep finances separate because they have fundamentally different views about money.

Wilcox said his research also has found that struggling with debt is generally a bad thing for relationships, while saving for the future – whether it’s retirement, vacation or college expenses – is generally a good thing.

“That’s a good thing in part because your assets give you a sense of a future together,” Wilcox said.

Phillips, who lives in Chicago and works as a publicist, suspects that her fiancé actually has an inkling about the money secrets she’s keeping. She also doubts he would care that much about how she chooses to spend her money. Although the couple has a joint account for shared expenses, they keep their own accounts for individual expenses such as clothes.

And yet she honestly doesn’t know if she’ll shed her habit of fibbing about her spending, which she said she picked up from watching her own mother do the same thing.

“I would like to say that it would change,” she said.

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images file

Consumer Reports says it's clear the auto repair industry needs to do a better job.

No one likes to take their car to the repair shop. It’s costly and inconvenient. But a new survey by Consumer Reports finds that many customers have some other serious gripes.

The magazine contacted 5,400 subscribers to learn what upsets them. About three-quarters said they were “completely satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the repair work on their vehicle.

Of those who were not happy, 38 percent cited high prices. This was a more common complaint for dealerships than for independent shops.

Consumer Reports calls it "troubling" that more than a quarter (28 percent) of the unsatisfied group said their car's problem was not properly fixed. And for this one, it didn't matter where the repair was done. The gripe was reported at the same rate for dealers and independent shops.

Jim Travers, an associate editor with Consumer Reports Autos, says it’s important to check the car before you drive away.

“Make an issue of it right there,” he advises. “Don’t leave before you’re comfortable that you’ve been taken care of properly. If you leave, you start to diminish any chance that you’re going to get recourse.”

Other top gripes
Twenty-one percent of those who were less than satisfied said they were not happy that it took longer than expected to complete the work. Eighteen percent said they had to bring the car back because the repair did not “hold up.” For both of these gripes dealers and independents shared the blame almost evenly.

Consumer Reports says it’s clear the auto repair industry needs to do a better job.

“They’ve got some pretty dissatisfied customers out there,” Travers says.

And unhappy customers often take their business elsewhere. Almost a quarter of customers contacted by Consumer Reports said they’d switched shops in the past five years because of service problems. Almost half of that group said the negative experience was at a dealership, a third said it was an independent shop, and a fifth named a franchise chain similar to Midas or Sears.

Repair shops might also want to pay special attention to how they treat their female customers. Thirty percent of the women who switched to another shop said they felt the staff tried to take advantage of them because of their gender.

“If you do find a mechanic that you’re comfortable with hang on to them,” Travers says, “because you’ve got a real find there.”

Consumer Reports tips for getting a repair performed properly:

• Describe the problem fully. Give the shop as much information as possible. Write down the symptoms and when they occur. If possible, talk directly to the mechanic who will be working on your car.
• Don’t offer a diagnosis. Avoid saying what you think is causing the problem. You may be on the hook for any repairs the shop makes at your suggestion, even if they don’t solve the problem.
• Request a test drive. If the problem occurs only when the car is moving, ask the mechanic to accompany you on a test drive.
• Ask for an estimate. And have them contact you for approval if the repair will cost more than the estimate.
• Ask for evidence. If you’re not comfortable with the diagnosis, ask the shop to show you the problem parts. Worn brake pads or rusted exhaust pipes are easy to see. Don’t let the mechanic refuse your request by saying that his insurance company doesn’t allow customers into the work area.

More information: High prices and poor repairs lead top car service gripes

The latest Mommy Wars hoopla on the presidential campaign trail centers on a Mitt Romney statement: “I want individuals to have the dignity of work.”

Romney recently defended his wife’s decision to be a stay-at-home mom and never punch a clock, but in a past speech called for welfare moms to earn a paycheck because of the dignity earning money provides.

Politics aside, the candidate’s declaration about the benefits of paid work opens up an important question. Does earning a living provide individuals with dignity?

“In American culture, it is very difficult to substitute the kind of honored dignity that comes with paid work,” said Katherine Newman, a sociologist and the dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins University.

“There’s a premium we place on people in the work world; not that there isn’t tremendous effort put into raising a family,” said Newman, author of “Falling from Grace: Downward Mobility in the Age of Affluence.” “But our society has always defined being in the work world as essential to being a respected adult, and this is self reinforcing.”

Of course, any mother – including Ann Romney – will tell you that parenting is hard work. But in our society, we tend to value paid work differently than difficult tasks that do not come with a paycheck.

Jeremy Carter of Polara Studios

Janie Marsh, an excon who found dignity in work

Janie Marsh, 43, from McMinnville, Ore., is a prime example. She battled drug addiction and alcoholism for 20 plus years, living in the woods and behind dumpsters until ultimately ending up in jail at 36 for a host of charges including stealing cars.

She eventually went through drug treatment, took employment classes at Goodwill Industries, and landed a job in landscaping. “I had never mowed a lawn in my life,” she said.

But, she added, “the first time I saw those lines on the lawn, and a paycheck, it was the greatest feeling. It reconnected me with my community I’d been estranged from. It gave me back my dignity.”

Dignity is hard to define. Merriam-Webster defines it as: “The quality or state of being worthy, honored, or esteemed.” And The American Heritage Dictionary’s meaning says it’s “the presence of poise and self-respect in one’s deportment to a degree that inspires respect.”

The idea of dignity -- according to one extensive study on the topic, “A Taxonomy of Dignity,” by a University of Toronto researcher published in the online journal BioMed Central in 2009 -- “has been criticized for being vague and contradictory.” But the study defined “dignity of self” as “a quality of self-respect and self-worth that is identified with characteristics like confidence and integrity and a demeanor described as dignified.” 

So does employment really help bring about self-respect and self-worth?

Of the list of dignity promoters in the University of Toronto study, being self-sufficient, doing the job right, and working with others were among a list of many contributors to dignity.

“This is why I’m an enduring fan of Roosevelt,” said Newman, about President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who championed the New Deal giving the unemployed jobs during the Great Depression. “He put the nation to work and understood that it's more important that people have jobs, no matter who’s providing them jobs, because if you’re not working you don’t feel you’re whole.”

But Stephen Balzac, a professor of organizational psychology at the Wentworth Institute of Technology and author of “The 36-Hour Course in Organizational Development,” said not all work promotes dignity.

“In general, jobs have the potential to provide people with dignity, defined as greater confidence, feelings of success, and a sense of control over one's life,” he said. “However, for the job to do that, it must be appropriately constructed to increase motivation and self-worth. Jobs that are seen as pure drudgery provide little dignity.”

Not everyone agrees.

Jim Gibbons, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries International, said dignity could be found in the most menial jobs.

“You can probably say there are a lot of high-paid consultants out there who aren’t feeling dignity in their work,” he pointed out. “It depends on the person, and it depends on the culture of an organization.”

Karen Dillon, co-author of the forthcoming book, “How Will You Measure Your Life?,” and contributing editor of the Harvard Business review, said it’s all about what makes you happy and makes you feel good about yourself.

She’s reluctant to use the word “dignity” in this context because she believes “it’s a simplistic way of looking at it.”

A baseline need has to be met by work, she continued, such as being able to support yourself and putting food on the table.

But no matter what an individual’s economic status, she added, the key is how you feel at the end of the day. “Did they feel like something mattered and did they feel they were valued?” she said.

When Diane Johnson was newly married, in her twenties, and working as a broker, she pondered leaving the work world and focusing on starting a family but a friend at the time told her you need to "understand what work means" and told her to read the passage about work in Kahlil Gibran’s ‘The Prophet.’”

The section changed her mind and now, as she nears her 50^th birthday, she said she’s happy she stayed in the work force, ultimately starting her own communications company. 

The passage from the piece by Gibran, a poet and artist, that touched Johnson most:

“Always you have been told that work is a curse and labor a misfortune. But I say to you that when you work you fulfill a part of earth's furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born.” 

Damian Dovarganes / AP

Warehouse customers who believe that bulk shopping is smart shopping may have a point.

Every month, Parthie Orth visits the Costco Wholesale warehouse in Yonkers, N.Y., to pick up a few staples for her family. 

“I’m planning to buy a lot of food today,” Orth said. "I buy the organic chicken and the organic meat. I’m also a huge proponent of the frozen lasagna.”

While some of the items on her list may seem routine, the amount she is looking is to spend is not.

“I’m looking to spend about $1,000,” she said. “I stock up.” 

 CNBC.com: Extreme retail experiences

Warehouse clubs are not your garden variety big-box store. The three most popular warehouse chains in the United States — Costco , Wal-Mart's Sam’s Club, and BJ’s — are sparsely decorated and starkly lit; products are unceremoniously displayed on shipping pallets. Many clubs don’t take coupons and some accept only a few major credit cards: Sam’s Club accepts only Visa and Discover. Costco stores accept American Express credit cards, and Visa and MasterCard debit cards. Items are sold in limited sizes and usually come in bulk packaging. Yet despite their drawbacks, warehouse clubs are popular; the three stores combined have more than 122 million members.

Membership in these club stores does not come free; each requires you to pay before you purchase a single item. Sam’s Club charges $40 for basic membership, BJ’s $50, and Costco $55. Each of the three clubs also has a premium membership tier that costs about double and pays members a small amount of cash back based on their annual purchases. 

Customers may believe they’re paying for a chance to save money, but some experts think membership fees actually cause consumers to spend more.

“Right after you join a warehouse club, the first thing you think is, ‘How am I going to earn back that entry fee I just paid?’” said Brian Wansink, a professor of consumer behavior at Cornell University. “It creates a spending, but also a justification mentality.”

As a result, Wansink says, you’re going to spend more so that you feel like you’re saving more.

CNBC.com: Box-store weddings

“We have this basic view that buying in bulk is cheap. We clearly come home with a lot more stuff; we end up spending more because we are motivated to save money.”

That doesn’t trouble warehouse club member David Ziobro, who shops at the Edison, N.J., Costco. He said he believes his savings justify his membership fee. Even though Ziobro spent $262 on items ranging from chocolate chip cookies to grill cleaner to drill bits he picked up on impulse, he says he’s confident he’s still getting a good deal.

“Yeah, without a doubt my membership pays for itself,” Ziobro said. “I figure I save at least 10 percent to 15 percent overall.” 

Warehouse customers who believe that bulk shopping is smart shopping may have a point. According to a Consumers' Checkbook survey published by the not-for-profit Center for the Study of Services, BJ’s prices were on average 29 percent lower, Costco’s 30 percent lower, and Sam’s 33 percent lower than the largest supermarket chains.

The survey found that a family that spends $150 a week at a conventional supermarket could save $2,270 a year when shopping at BJ’s, $2,344 a year when shopping at Costco, and $2,571 when shopping at Sam’s Club. 

The money saved at warehouses comes at the expense of selection and convenience.  Warehouse clubs carry a relatively small array of items in a limited range of sizes. The Consumers' Checkbook survey found that warehouse club shoppers would only be able to find about half of the products they buy at their regular supermarket. BJ’s carries roughly 7,200 individual items, Sam’s club about 4,900 items, and Costco around 4,000.

CNBC.com: Cheap eats keep them coming back

When compared to the average supermarket, which carries about 50,000 items, and the average Wal-Mart, which carries about 100,000, warehouse club members are at a disadvantage in terms of selection. Because of this, the survey noted, consumers would still need to supplement their trip to a warehouse club with a trip to a supermarket.

Orth knows that pitfall of warehouse clubs firsthand. While she ended up spending $550, slightly more than half of what she expected, she still needs to make another shopping trip.

“Even though I spent over $500, I probably will have to go to the grocery store tomorrow,” Orth said. “My mother-in-law always says that the frustrating thing about going to Costco is that you can spend hundreds of dollars, but you still come home with nothing to eat for dinner.”

CNBC's Carl Quintanilla and the Street Signs team discuss Costco's business model, ahead of CNBC's "The Costco Craze" documentary.

Discuss this story on Facebook.

This article, "Does it pay to be a warehouse club member?," first appeared on CNBC.com.

Here’s another thing to blame on the weak economy: The transition of the humble garage sale into an extreme enterprise.

This week at Life Inc., we wrote about communities that were cracking down on extreme garage sales, in which people are hawking goods every weekend or selling so many items the streets are clogged with traffic.

Some readers complained that law enforcement officials who are trying to curtail such extreme yard sales are ruining a good thing.

“That just goes to prove the government is trying to take over our freedoms whichever way they can,” one reader wrote on our Facebook page.

But others lamented that clogged streets and the constant presence of appliances on the front lawn can’t be good for anyone’s property value.

“No one needs to have a yard sale every weekend. I wouldn't want that in my neighborhood. These people are taking advantage of the situation. If they are doing it weekly then they are running a business. … Really, it's the old case of a few morons ruining it for everyone. Don't blame the city governments for actually doing their job,” one commenter said.

Speaking of jobs, here’s yet another thing to pin on the weak economy: The rise of extreme job interviewing.

In another Life Inc. post this week, we wrote about companies that are asking people to interview as many as 10 times for the same job.

Some readers defended multiple job interviews, saying it sometimes takes time for a company to assess whether they’re picking the right person for the job. Others said it shouldn’t take that long.

“10 interviews is just plain stupid- if the company isn't sure by about the 3rd interview then what's the point?” one reader wrote.

The job interview issue may be vexing in part because we all seem to want it all: A successful career, great kids, a strong marriage.

We also reported this week on a survey finding that young women now are more likely than young men to place high importance on a successful, high-paying career. But 18- to 34-year-old women don’t appear to be willing to sacrifice the personal for the professional; they also were more likely than men of the same age to place high value on kids and marriage.

More than half of the nearly 6,500 readers who took our poll said they place equal value on marriage, kids and career.

“To feel complete, I needed all of the above. And I was fortunate enough to achieve them all. Go for it!” one reader wrote.

But some readers noted that having it all sometimes means making sacrifices along the way.

“As a female professional with kids I've made professional and financial sacrifices to be a good parent. Just too much to do both full scale,” another reader wrote.

When we think of foreclosure, we tend to think of the tremendous financial toll it takes on adults. But a new report sheds light on the millions of children who are having their lives thrown into disarray by the crisis as well.

The analysis of foreclosure data, prepared for the children’s advocacy group First Focus, finds that as many as 2.3 million children have lost their homes to foreclosure. In addition, the report finds, another 3 million are at risk being displaced from their homes due to foreclosure.

The researchers also say that an additional 3 million kids could be affected by foreclosure because they live in a rental home that is either in foreclosure or at risk of being foreclosed upon. That means more than 8 million children are either affected or at risk.

Julia B. Isaacs, a senior fellow with the Urban Institute and the author of the report, said a foreclosure can hurt children in several ways.

When a school-age kid has to move unexpectedly, it often means that they must switch schools mid-year. Isaacs said other research has shown that kids who switch schools have lower levels of math and reading achievement, even after controlling for other factors such as poverty.

Such moves also are associated with higher rates of kids dropping out of high school, and such a big upheaval can be difficult socially for children.

The parents’ financial stress also can impact the kids. Isaacs said research dating all the way back to the Great Depression showed that when parents are under great financial stress they may be less supportive parents. That, in turn, can lead to social and behavior problems.

“This affects how parents interact with each other and how they interact with their children,” she said.

Isaacs’ analysis used Census data on living arrangements of families combined with estimates of foreclosures by state to come up with the estimates.

Related:

Inside the foreclosure factory: Pushing the files 

Pew Research Center

In a major reversal from the 1990s, young women are now more likely than young men to say a successful, high-paying career is one of the most important things in life, a new Pew Research Center study finds.

The report, released Thursday, found that 66 percent of women ages 18 to 34 said being successful and having a high-paying job are very important or one of the most important things in life. That compares to 59 percent of men that age who said the same thing.

Young women don’t seem to be willing to sacrifice other parts of their lives for their career, however. They were also more likely than men of the same age to say being a good parent and having a good marriage were among the most important things in life.

“They’re not backing away from wanting a successful marriage and wanting to be a successful parent,” said Kim Parker, associate director of Pew Social and Demographic Trends. “They’re saying they want all of those things.”

The most recent research is based on two surveys, conducted in 2010 and 2011, of working-age adults. Pew compared those results to a similar survey done in 1997.

The switch comes at a time when more women than men are getting college degrees, and women have come to make up close to half of the labor force.

Parker said that those changes have perhaps empowered women to want career success and financial rewards more than they used to. But she did not think the findings suggested that young men want those things less than they used to.

“I don’t think it’s saying anything negatively about men,” she said.

The percentage of women placing high importance on a successful, well-paying career has grown by 10 percentage points since 1997, Pew said. For men, it has increased by 1 percentage point.

The percentage of young women saying marriage is one of the most important things in life also has increased, from 28 percent in 1997 to 37 percent in 2010/2011. For men of that age, the importance of marriage has decreased during that time period, from 35 percent in 1997 to 29 percent in 2010/2011.

There was an increase among both young men and young women in the percentage who said that parenting is one of the most important things in life. Still, a higher percentage of women than men put high value on being a parent.

For both men and women, the importance of career and financial success lessens with age. The Pew study found that men and women ages 35 to 64 placed less value on workplace success than their younger peers.

Parker, the researcher, said it’s not clear whether the young women in the survey will remain as ambitious in their careers as they get older.

“It’ll be interesting to see if this plays out for them or if they end up running into glass ceilings or too many challenges in terms of balancing work and family,” she said.

There’s plenty of evidence that women start out virtually on par with men in terms of earnings, but then see their earnings fall behind as they get older.

In 2010, women in their late teens and early 20s earned about 95 cents for every dollar a man earned, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ analysis of median weekly earnings data. But women ages 55 to 64 earned just 75 cents for every dollar a man earned, according to that same data.

Overall, the wage gap between men’s and women’s weekly earnings has narrowed since record-keeping began in 1979. But it has always been generally true that the gender difference in pay was wider for older women than for younger women.

There are lots of theories as to why this is true, even for women and men who choose the same types of professions.

In 2009, University of Chicago professor Marianne Bertrand and her colleagues took a look at men and women who had earned MBAs from the university’s Booth School of Business between 1990 and 2006.

The researchers found that the male and female MBA grads started out earning about the same: $115,000 on average for women and $130,000 on average for men.

But the gap widened substantially as time went on. Nine years later, the women were earning $250,000 on average, while the men were taking home $400,000 on average.

They theorized that a major culprit was motherhood. The researchers found that women were taking more time off work, or not working at all, and also were more likely to be in jobs that paid less.

Major lenders across the country have agreed to follow tough new standards in preparing documents used to foreclose homes.

Do you work for one of those lenders preparing those documents? Tell us your story.

We'll be following lenders progress in coming months as the new rules are enforced. We want to hear from the people who are performing this work to find out how the process unfolds.

If you'd like to help, please e-mail us here and let us know how to best reach you. No responses will be used without your permission. 

It’s no secret that many employees dread performance reviews. What is surprising, however, is that the very people who help promote them in companies dislike them too.

Nearly half of human resources managers don’t think annual performance reviews are accurate appraisals of employee performance, according to a recently released survey by the Society of Human Resource Management and Globoforce, an employee recognition company. 

The poll found that 45 percent of HR leaders thought reviews weren’t good gauges of a worker’s performance, compared to 39 percent last year. The increase points to “a more heightened concern from HR leaders about the shortfalls of traditional performance management,” said Globoforce CEO Eric Mosley. The email survey, taken from December 2011 through January 2012, polled 770 HR professionals who work for companies with 500 or more employees.

“Annual performance reviews continue to be the lightning rod for what’s wrong with traditional performance management,” he added.

The benefits versus the pitfalls of such reviews are part of an ongoing debate in American corporations. But there is no real movement to reassess this often-flawed management tool because it’s been around for years and is so ingrained in the workplace.

Samuel Culbert, author of “Get Rid of the Performance Review!: How Companies Can Stop Intimidating, Start Managing--and Focus on What Really Matters,” is calling for the demise of performance reviews.

Culbert, a management professor at UCLA's Anderson School of Management, is against performance reviews because they can be demoralizing to workers, are not accurate or objective, and they use meaningless metrics.

“If it were God giving me a review that would be fair. But anyone short of God, I don’t think so,” he quipped.

When asked why employers keep administering reviews even though the recent data shows many HR managers aren’t on board, he had a list of reasons.

“Even though they hate getting and giving reviews and know they are bogus, they are comfortable with it,” he explained. “It’s the enemy they know.”

He also believes managers “love the sense of power they get from performance reviews. They like the fact that under the performance review, they are all-knowing. What they say is all that counts. Who doesn’t like that kind of power?”

And in the end, he maintained, it’s the human resources department that gets “much of its power from championing, running and having access to all the reviews. They have a lot of self-interest in preserving this ridiculous, morale-busting and results-damaging practice.”

Globoforce’s Mosley thinks it’s just a matter of habit for most employers, but he said some organizations are looking for alternatives, including “crowdsourcing feedback.”

It’s basically peer-to-peer reviews in real time, he explained. His company provides a web-based solution whereby employees and managers can nominate each other for rewards for a host of things they do at work, everything from helping out on a project to coming up with a new innovation. All that information is documented in a database, and managers can use the data to assess worker performance over a whole year, without forgetting the many contributions employees made, he said.

If crowdsourcing in the review process does catch on, employees will have more than just their boss’ opinion to worry about come review and raise season. It might be time to start playing some office politics.

Farnoosh Torabi

This is the season when college acceptance letters start coming in the mail and lots of families are trying to figure out how to pay the hefty tuition costs.

With annual in-state tuition costs for public colleges averaging more than $8,000, and private school costs topping $28,000, reports CollegeBoard.org, the thought of covering such an expense can seem hopeless, especially to parents facing budget constraints already.

But never fear, stressed Farnoosh Torabi, personal finance expert, author of “Psych Yourself Rich: Get the Mindset and Discipline You Need to Build Your Financial Life”, and host of "Financially Fit" on Yahoo, who was on hand Wednesday to take online questions from readers during our weekly live chat.

“There is hope if you're willing to be flexible and not rush into the whole college thing,” she said.

“Saving money takes preparation and it takes thinking outside of the box,” she explained. “I will be the first to say that your child doesn't need to head to college right away - especially if the money isn't there. Taking a year off to work, save or enhance your resume with volunteering experiences can boost your chances of not only getting into a good school, but paying for it.”

For those who don’t want to wait, she said, two-year community colleges can be a good starting point. “Smart, talented students are flocking to community college to earn credits, save money and later move over to a full-time 4 year institution,” she noted.

Torabi also weighed in on the question of whether parents should be saving at all for their kids’ education, a topic covered by reporter Allison Linn Wednesday. 

“Some parents see college as a great gift to their children - and if you feel strongly about making this a financial priority, that's great,” she said. “But don't kill yourself trying to send your children to college. Do what you can. Be realistic and involve your kids in the reality. One thing is true, when children bear some of the cost, they tend to appreciate the education more and recognize the value a lot more.”

You can read the full Q&A with Torabi here:

In order to save taxpayer dollars, the city of Fort Worth, Texas, is considering a nonsmokers-only hiring policy, but the proposal has some city employees fuming.

"We put taxpayer dollars into healthcare for our employees," Mayor Betsy Price says. "Anything that might benefit the health ... and make our employees more productive, we're going to look into that."

KXAS-TV's Marc Fein reports.

Discuss this report on Facebook.

The Frigidaire FGF348KS stands out among low-cost ranges with its fifth burner.

One of the more budget-busting trends to come along in kitchens is toward professional-grade appliances. Instead of traditional ranges, which combine a stovetop and an oven, consumers are putting in wall ovens and $3,000 Viking cooktops fit for an Iron Chef. If your cooking style tends more toward Marie Callender than Mario Batali, consider that a quality range can run you less than $600, leaving money left over for those coveted granite countertops.

Below are Cheapism’s top picks for affordable ranges.

• The GE JBS55DM (starting at $495) is an electric model with a large oven and a smooth, ceramic-glass surface that’s easy to clean. Most consumers find it powerful and praise its even cooking. It comes in black, white, and stainless steel. (Where to buy)
• The Hotpoint RB757DPWH (starting at $404) is the only model on our list that boasts a self-cleaning oven. This electric range is capable of boiling water quickly and keeping food at a simmer, according to reviews. It comes in white but is also available in the more yellow-y neutral known as bisque. (Where to buy)
• The Frigidaire FGF348KS (starting at $539) is a gas range with five burners instead of the standard four. Consumers appreciate the oval-shaped fifth burner, heavy grates, and accurate temperatures, reporting that the stove delivers plenty of heat. This white model is also available in stainless steel at a higher price point. (Where to buy)
• The Kenmore 70402 (starting at $360) is a basic gas range with no bells or whistles, but consumers seem satisfied with its performance -- especially given the price. It’s a white model with a broiler drawer that also comes in black. The pricier stainless steel version has a larger window on the oven door. (Where to buy)

In general, a gas stove heats up more quickly and allows you more precise control over the temperature, while an electric model can make for more even heating and easier cleaning. Old-fashioned electric ranges with coiled burners typically cost the least, although models with smooth tops are increasingly popular and may be similarly inexpensive. Induction ranges, on the other hand, have high price tags and require specialized magnetic cookware.

All the ranges on our list are freestanding gas and electric models with finished sides and a backsplash that displays the controls. They measure 30 inches across, the amount of space allotted in most kitchen designs. (Smaller models are relatively scarce, so good luck if you’re outfitting a tiny galley kitchen.) The ovens have at least 4 cubic feet of space inside, enough to cook for four or more people. The GE JBS55DM boasts the largest oven, at 5.3 cubic feet.

A stainless-steel finish tends to add about $100 to the price of a range and may be more prone to streaks and smudges than white and bisque surfaces. However, stainless is an in-demand look that could pay dividends if you decide to sell your house. HGTV advises opting for stainless steel over professional grade to appeal to the masses.

More from Cheapism:
Cheap ranges
Cheap cookware
Cheap swimwear
Cheap running shoes

Chris Newton / Getty Images stock

More than one-third of employers are snooping social networking sites before hiring a candidate.

Attention jobseekers: You probably want to clean up your Twitter feed, lock down your Facebook profile and gussy up your LinkedIn page.

There is a good chance your prospective employer is snooping around about you on social networking sites.

A new survey from CareerBuilder finds that 37 percent of human resource managers are using social networking sites to research potential job candidates, and another 11 percent plan to start.

What’s more, they’re using social media to make hiring decisions.

About one-third of hiring managers who are using social networking sites to screen candidates say they didn’t hire someone because they found something online that raised an issue about the candidate. The most common red flags were inappropriate or provocative photos or information, or something about the candidate drinking or using drugs.

The findings don’t mean you should shutter your social media life completely. A good social strategy could land you a job.

A little less than one-third of respondents said they had found something on social media that caused them to hire the candidate. Those hiring managers said social media gave them a good feel for the candidate’s personality, conveyed a professional image and supported the qualifications they had been given.

CareerBuilder surveyed about 2,000 hiring managers and human resources professionals for the study.

The findings come as more companies are getting aggressive about screening candidates via social networking, even going so far as to demand a candidate’s Facebook password. The state of Maryland recently became the first to ban that practice.

In the CareerBuilder survey, 15 percent of respondents said their employers prohibited using social media to screen candidates.

The issue is coming up with current employees too. A Library of Congress employee recently accused his employer of firing him after learning via Facebook that he was gay.