Warner Bros.

No figures were available on how many Hogwarts students receive financial aid.

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" raked in more than $475 million globally and $168 million domestically in its record-setting opening weekend. By one calculation, that global total is enough to send 11,000 young wizards and witches to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Centives, a blog run by Lehigh University's Economics Society, calculated the cost of Hogwart's tuition based on the cost of a typical English boarding school plus the items specified in the admission letter Harry receives in the first book of the series. Including items such as "three sets of plain robes" and "one cauldron," as sold on Amazon.co.uk, the economists estimate the total cost for first-year students at Hogwarts at 26,816 British pounds, or $42,752. Read the full breakdown here.

If $42,000 sounds a bit steep, you might want to send your little witches and wizards to Hogwarts Camp in Minnesota for only $25. Southwest Minneapolis Patch reports on two 11-year-olds who started their own four-day Harry Potter camp this summer, complete with Quidditch games, potions classes and choosing wands.

If that is still a strain on your tight wizarding budget, you can download the Harry Potter: Spells iPhone app for $1, reduced from $2.99 to celebrate the release of the final HP movie, Geeksugar.com reports. The app invites you to attend Hogwarts, places you in a house using the sorting hat and helps you practice 17 different spells by drawing shapes on the touchscreen.

The new Money magazine is out with a feature called the “Best Deals on Everything,” although the results are not exactly what you might expect.

The magazine divided its deals into several categories, including cars, tech, food, wine and travel.

In tech, Money magazine experts suggest, among other ideas, taking a look at the Samsung 43-inch plasma TV. As the magazine says, "most people can't distinguish between 720p and 1080p high-definition resolution. Why pay for something you can't see?”

Money's experts also declared that high-end chocolate and fancy sea salts are among the best deals available in the gourmet food category.

As for car deals, according to the magazine, great options include the Ford Mustang, Hyundai Veracruz and BMW X5 35D. 

But here is a reality check: Even with a typically available 14 percent off, the X5 is hardly inexpensive with its base price of $51,000.

There’s a hot debate going on in this country, and it’s not about the debt ceiling.

Our Life Inc. readers had quite a lot to say this week about whether flip-flops, strapless tops, shorts and the like are appropriate for the office.

To some, the thwack of flip-flops and appearance of shorts in the workplace is a sign of a mellow office culture. But others said it’s just flat-out unprofessional to wear the same thing to work that you would wear to the beach.

That’s just one of several topics that got our readers talking this week.

First you got mad at Netflix, then you got on with your movie and TV viewing. A Life Inc. post on alternatives to accepting Netflix’s big price hike drew lots of good suggestions, including one we didn’t even think of: the local library.

And while we’re on the topic of the annoyances, let’s talk about the tax code. A post on suggestions for reforming the tax system started a hot debate about flax taxes, consumption taxes and other ways for make the tax code a little less complex.

Finally, as one reader pointed out, a good way to beat the summer heat and the recession is to get yourself a free Slurpee.  A post about 7-Eleven’s 7/11 Slurpee giveaway got a lot of tongues wagging, and mouths watering.

Employee Benefit Research Institute

There are benefits to being in a union, literally.

Unionized workers are more likely to have health insurance coverage through their employer than their non-union peers. What’s more, they were less likely to lose their employer-based health insurance coverage during the recession than workers who aren’t in a union, according to a new study.

The Employee Benefit Research Institute crunched numbers from the U.S. Census data. They found that in 2009, 80.4 percent of unionized workers had health insurance through their job. That was a slight drop from 2007, when 82 percent of union workers had coverage through their employer.

By contrast, 52.2 percent of non-union workers had health insurance coverage through their job in 2009. That’s a steeper drop from 2007, when 55.9 percent of those workers were getting health insurance through an employer.

The numbers are even starker if you include people who were covered as a dependent on other health care plans. Then, 91 percent of union workers had health care coverage through an employer, while 70.6 percent of non-union workers had an employer-based health plan.

The No. 1 reason workers said they were uninsured was because they couldn’t afford the health care plan and had therefore declined it, according to the report. The second most common reason was that their employer didn’t offer a plan.

It’s not necessarily surprising that unionized workers would be more likely to have health insurance, since that’s the kind of benefit unions are likely to push for.  But unionized workers make up just a small part of the overall work force.

There were 14.7 million unionized workers in the United States in 2010, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Union members made up 11.9 percent of the workforce in 2010, compared to 13.4 percent of the workforce a decade ago.

Oh, Netflix.

Did you have any idea what kind of backlash you would be unleashing when you announced new plans and price changes earlier this week, effectively bumping monthly fees significantly for many customers?

Backlash is really an understatement. Tsunami of rage is a more accurate description.

Angry movie and TV lovers, we are here to help.

You may not be able to save money by switching to other plans, but there are ways to get your favorite movies and TV shows without the little red envelope that arrives magically in the mail.

Here are five options:

Try out the competition: Many of you may be thinking of Blockbuster as that brick-and-mortar place you had to walk or drive to before Netflix appeared in your life. But despite its bout with bankruptcy and sale to DISH Network, the rental chain has persevered.

On Thursday, Blockbuster announced a free, 30-day trial to any disgruntled Netflix customer who wants to make the switch to its by-mail service. After that, the service costs $9.99 a month for one disc at a time, or $14.99 a month for two.

You can also stream videos from Blockbuster’s On Demand service, for a fee of around $1.99 to $3.99 per video for a 24-hour period .

Note that Blockbuster's service is not necessarily a better deal. With the new Netflix pricing, customers will pay $7.99 for one movie at a time, or $11.99 for two, a bit cheaper than Blockbuster. Access to Netflix’s on-demand, streaming content costs an additional $7.99 a month, which would be equal to streaming four of the cheapest movies on Blockbuster.

Movies included with the Netflix streaming service are typically older or less popular.

There are other alternatives as well. Amazon.com’s Instant Video program also lets you watch movies or TV shows right away. Fees vary, but are generally between $1.99 and $3.99 per video, including many of the latest releases. You can also choose from a catalog of about 6,000 shows or movies at no additional cost if you are an Amazon Prime member.

Hulu offers some TV shows and movies for free, often with advertising, plus more content if you pay a $7.99 monthly subscription fee.

Watch TV online for free: Many network websites and individual TV show sites offer at least a sampling of their programs for free. That’s a good, frugal choice if you’re not too picky.

Take full advantage of your cable plan and DVR: Many cable companies offer on demand content, sometimes for no additional charge. If you have a DVR, a little digging into the listings may reveal plenty of movies and TV shows that you can record for playback at your leisure.

Check out Redbox: You’ve probably seen the red kiosks outside your local convenience store. Redbox lets you rent DVDs for $1 a day. You can even reserve a movie ahead of time online.

You could (gasp) hoof it over to a local DVD rental store: Yep, a few of them still exist. You may even get the dog walked in the process.

Readers, what other alternatives to Netflix have you come up with? Or are you sticking with the red envelopes despite the price hike?

Here’s one of the ways the recession and financial crisis has changed many people’s lives: They’ll be spending more years at the office.

A new survey of Americans 55 and over finds that those older Americans now expect to retire at age 69, on average. A decade ago, they expected to retire at 64.

The survey of about 1,000 people 55 and over was conducted by Harris Interactive for SunAmerica, which sells variable annuities and other investment products.

So what’s keeping us at the office longer? Blame the recession and weak stock market gains over the past decade. That’s left many people more worried about whether they’ll have enough money to fund their golden years.

Forty-four percent of those surveyed said they feel “secure” about their financial situation these days, compared with 62 percent who felt that way before the recession began.

In addition, 28 percent are currently angry about their financial situation.

Even after they retire, about two-thirds said they would like to continue to do some work. The respondents were almost equally split on whether they would keep working for the stimulation and satisfaction, or would be doing it for the money.

SunAmerica is a unit of insurance giant AIG, which was a key player in the 2008 financial crisis. AIG was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy when it received billions of dollars in federal bailout funds in the fall of 2008. The company has since gone through extensive restructuring.

Martin Poole / Getty Images stock

It’s summertime and the living is easy, but that doesn’t mean your co-workers want to hear the thwack-thwack of your flip-flops coming down the cubicle farm.

A new survey from staffing firm Adecco finds that around three-fourths of Americans think it’s OK for both men and women to dress more casually at work in the summer.

But there’s a big difference between “office casual” and “what I’m wearing to the beach after work.”

Flip-flops are the biggest office “don’t,” with 71 percent of adults surveyed saying the footwear is inappropriate for work. That’s slightly more than those who think miniskirts are inappropriate office wear, according to the Adecco survey.

Strapless tops and dresses were also slightly lower on the list, with 66 percent saying that they were inappropriate.

A little over half said that shorts are also an office no-no.

Are bare toes really more inappropriate than bare shoulders? It appears that it’s not so much the toes as the footwear itself that is such an office annoyance. Only 31 percent of respondents were opposed to open-toed shoes in general.

It should also be noted that far more women than men are against miniskirts and strapless tops.

The telephone survey of 1,000 adults was conducted in June.

Related content:

Say hello to the season of shorts (even at the office) 

Today Money financial expert Carmen Wong Ulrich joined us for a live Web chat Wednesday to answer your questions.

Here’s one of her answers to questions from the live chat. (See below for the full Q&A and video of Carmen’s TV appearance this morning.)

Marsha asked:

“Carmen, I have been getting phone calls about refinancing my home mortgage under a Federal program... is this a legal program or a scam? I'd really like to refinance, but my bank said I am not able to with them.”

Carmen replied:

“Marsha -- a great question. I can't tell for sure it's a scam without a name but, chances are, I'd stay away from folks who approach you by phone. Instead, shop around at a site like Bankrate.com to see who's offering what rates with mortgages -- if you have great credit and ample equity, you shouldn't have to pay 6 percent right now. It helps if you have a great relationship already with another bank, say, where you have your cash savings or credit cards. Approach them and be proactive instead of taking calls. Best of luck! Smart move.”

Here’s the full chat archive:

If you have a question for our TODAY Money experts, submit it here.

To sign up for an e-mail reminder for our next chat, click here.

Our pals over at Cheapism recently took a look at two bastions of discounting – Costco and Sam’s Club – to see which of the big two members-only, bulk discounters is worth the price of admission.

The verdict: Cheapism said both were exceptional deals, and much cheaper than going the traditional supermarket route. But Sam’s Club, a unit of Wal-Mart, won out by the slimmest of margins.

What made it such a close race? The folks at Cheapism said that in their shopping cart test, Sam’s Club was nearly $12 cheaper overall, but that was partly because Costco offered some items in larger quantities. By unit cost, Costco was 3.6 percent cheaper.

What’s right for you? It depends on what you would be using the membership for. In its final verdict, Sam’s Club got higher marks for things like pharmacy and electronics, while Costco was the victor in areas such as auto services and online shopping.

Mike Groll / AP

Gas prices have come down from their spring peaks but are still over $3.50 a gallon in most places.

The summer travel season is in full swing and you might be looking for ways to save on gas prices that are still well north of $3.50 a gallon in most parts of the country. You probably are already aware that Wal-Mart is discounting fuel prices by 10 cents a gallon through the end of the September, but other retailers have jumped in as well, trying to lure shoppers by giving them a bit of relief at the pump.

Andrea Woroch, a consumer-savings expert, points out a few opportunities:

Drug store chain CVS is offering a free $10 gas gift card to members of its ExtraCare Rewards program who buy $30 worth of selected products by Aug. 28.  

Kellogg’s is offering a $10 gas card in exchange for 10 cereal box UPC codes in a deal that lasts through Dec. 31. The limit is five per household, so if you eat a lot of cereal, you can get $50 in gas cards.

Kroger is partnering with Shell to offer a discount of 10 cents a gallon to anyone who has 100 points on its rewards card. The discount rises to $1 a gallon for 1,000 points. This one gets a bit complicated, but basically you can get 100 points by buying $100 in groceries.

Want more tips to save money on gas? Our friends at Bankrate offer these ideas:

• Choose an unbranded gas station. “Gas stations that are not affiliated with a specific oil company or gasoline brand often have cheap gas prices per gallon because they purchase excess gas from multiple oil companies.”
• Use your smart phone.There are lots of apps and website to help you find cheap gas through crowdsourcing, including Automotive.com, FuelMeUp.com and GasBuddy.com.
• Pay cash. Some gas stations offer a substantial discount for leaving the plastic in your wallet.

Share your own gas-savings tips in the comments field below.

Courtesy of Alain Pinel Realtors and Pacific Union International

Welcome to your home in the wine country.

Listing: 2 bedroom, 4 bath, 2 additional guest residences, Cabernet vineyard

Location: Napa Valley, California

Price: $13.75 million

More than 25 years ago, the Ristows thought they knew exactly where they wanted to build their first Napa Valley home. But then a friend showed them a 30-acre plot near Silverado Trail in the Napa Valley and they bought it on the spot. They named it Quinta de Pedras — Portuguese for "place of stones"— because they would have to plant the vineyard on a very rocky terrain.

The Ristows worked with a San Francisco architect to build their dream home, which also includes a pond, pool, tennis court and two guest residences. But the real magic of the property is the Cabernet vineyard, where the Ristows produced their own wine under the Ristow Estate label up until 2004. They used the home as a weekend getaway and hired a vineyard manager to oversee the vineyard.

"The property could be a lifestyle only or for someone who seriously wants to make their own wine and market it," said property realtor Nicki Naylor, of Alain Pinel Realtors.

The drive from the Napa Valley to San Francisco is only about an hour, Naylor added.

Seem expensive? Maybe. But consider the average price for an acre of vineyard land in Napa County is between $70,000 to more than $300,000 according to Dave Holt, owner of Agri-Comm Appraisal in Napa and Sonoma counties.

Listing courtesy of LuxuryRealEstate.com, Alain Pinel Realtors and Pacific Union International

Courtesy of Alain Pinel Realtors and Pacific Union International

View of the pool, vineyard and tennis court

Courtesy of Alain Pinel Realtors and Pacific Union International

One of the bedrooms in the home

Courtesy of Alain Pinel Realtors and Pacific Union International

Living room

Tim Sloan / AFP - Getty Images

You have to give some to get some. That’s apparently the theory behind 7-Eleven’s campaign to dole out free Slurpees to customers on Monday to celebrate the chain’s unofficial birthday: 7/11.

USA Today reports that 7-Eleven expects to give out 5 million, 7.11-ounce Slurpees, or about 1,000 free drinks per store. No coupon needed.

That’s a lot of Slurpees, to be sure. But the paper says that 7-Eleven has found freebies to be very lucrative. The chain’s vice president of marketing Nancy Smith tells USA Today that the same gimmick last July 11 pushed Slurpee sales for the day up 33 percent.

"Slurpee drinkers are some of the most loyal fans we have," Smith told USA Today. "They come here to have fun." And, she said, many of them spend more on other items.

Thus proving there’s no such thing as a free lunch … uh, Slurpee.

Getty Images file

Earlier this year, the Internal Revenue Service’s taxpayer advocate launched a suggestion box. The idea was that all those Americans frustrated with the tax code (which would basically be all of us) could offer our own tips for reforming the tax system.

Now, Daily Finance reports that the taxpayer advocate is sharing some of those suggestions with the public.

Not surprisingly, many people just want the tax code to be simpler.

Others had more detailed suggestions. Some people think the government should drop credits, such as the child tax credit, while others argued that certain things, such as unemployment benefits, should not be taxed.

Do you have an idea for tax code reform? Drop a note in the suggestion box here.

Grocery chain Albertsons has decided to pull the plug on self-checkout lanes in an effort to have more human interaction between its customers and its employees.

Do you like buying and bagging groceries on your own, or would you rather have someone do it for you? Take our poll here.

Americans may complain about the cost of living, but life is actually getting a bit cheaper here compared with the rest of the world, a new study finds.

None of the world's 40 most expensive cities are in the United States, with the top spots dominated by cities in Japan, Australia and western Europe, according to a semi-annual report by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Los Angeles, which somehow ranks as the most expensive U.S. city, is No. 41 on the global list, down from No. 24 six months ago. Chicago fell to No. 44 from 33, and New York is now less expensive than 48 other cities around the world, including Tel Aviv, Israel, and Dublin, Ireland, according to the report.

As anyone can confirm, the cost of living is not actually getting cheaper in the United States, but the global index is calculated in dollar terms, so the weakness of the dollar makes other cities relatively more expensive.

The Economist survey, mainly intended to calculate cost-of-living allowances for traveling business executives and expatriates, looks at the cost of living in 140 cities around the world, assessing prices of more than 160 items including food, clothing, transportation, utilities and "domestic help." The index factors in the cost of executive-level rental housing as well as sales taxes, but not income taxes or home sale prices.

(That might explain why Los Angeles is ranked as more expensive than New York.)

According to the Economist's calculations:

• A pack of Marlboros that costs $8.99 in New York goes for $15.11 in Oslo, Europe's costliest city.
• A loaf of bread that costs $2.36 in London is $6.48 in Paris (where it probably tastes better).
• A liter of "local" beer costs $6.89 in Tokyo and $1.94 in Berlin (where it probably tastes better).
• A two-course meal for two people should cost about $100 in Tokyo and $250 in New York. (So now you know how much to charge on your next expense report.)

Duncan Innes-Ker, a Beijing-based senior editor and economist for the Economist Intelligence Unit, said the index is most valuable in comparing the overall cost of living for executives considering relocation. By that basic measure London is 23 percent more expensive than New York and Tokyo is 61 percent more. (New York is the base city for the index.) Living in Karachi, Pakistan, costs less than half as much as New York for the same level of goods and services.

Here are the world's 10 costliest cities, according to the index:

1. Tokyo
2. Oslo
3. Osaka-Kobe, Japan
4. Paris
5. Zurich
6. Sydney, Australia
7. Melbourne, Australia
8. Frankfurt, Germany
9. Geneva, Switzerland
10. Singapore

And here are the 10 cheapest of 133 ranked cities:

133. Karachi, Pakistan (cheapest)
132. Tunis, Tunisia
131. Mumbai, India
130. Tehran, Iran
129. New Delhi, India
128. Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
126. Algiers, Algeria
126. Panama City, Panama (tie)
124. Manila, Philippines
124. Dhaka, Bangladesh (tie)

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Expenditures on Children by Families, 2010

We know raising kids seems like a bigger stretch than in previous generations, and now here’s proof.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s recently released 2010 report on the cost of raising a child includes a comparison with what it cost to raise a child in 1960, versus today.

The verdict: In 50 years, kids have gotten 22 percent more expensive to raise.

The USDA says the average cost of raising a child in 1960 was $25,229, or $185,856 in 2010 dollars.

Last year, the average cost of raising a child from birth to age 17 was $226,920.

The calculations are based on the U.S. average for raising a child in a middle-income, husband-and-wife family. The report cautions that the two estimates are not precisely comparable because of recent changes in the methodology for calculating child care costs, but adds that a general comparison is possible.

The estimates do not include college expenses.

The biggest culprits in the cost increase were health care costs, as well as child care and education expenses. Both categories increased in real terms and as a percentage of total child-rearing expenses.

The child care expenses have increased in part because more moms are now in the workforce.

The cost of food is still a major part of the cost of raising a child -- as any parent well knows -- but it has actually decreased in real terms since 1960. Clothing expenses also have decreased in real terms.

Are you curious how much your child -- or potential child -- could cost you? The new report also includes a handy customizable calendar that lets you estimate how much your child care expenses might be. The calculator factors in such things as geographic area, number of kids and household income.

Getty Images stock

Paying for groceries with cash may encourage you to go for healthier options.

The pain of paying in cash can curb spending on unhealthy foods, new research suggests. Shelling out your hard-earned moolah appears to put a crimp in buying "vice products," such as cookies, ice cream, and chips.

Using plastic -- either a credit or a debit card -- at the supermarket led to more impulse purchases of these guilty pleasures.

In the first of several experiments, published in the Journal of Consumer Research, researchers looked at register receipts over a six-month period from a random sample of 1,000 loyal shoppers in one-family households at a Northeastern supermarket chain. (They used single-family households to be sure the same person was doing all the food buying, which is less clear in larger families.)

The researchers looked at what types of foods were purchased in 100 different food categories as well as the payment method. Before analyzing the register receipts, they had other consumers rate foods based on whether they perceived them to be healthy or unhealthy, and impulse buys or planned purchases. 

The study found that payment method appeared to weaken impulse control: Shoppers bought more food items considered impulsive and unhealthy when paying by plastic than when ponying up the dough. Researchers also noticed that consumers who shop on weekends were less likely to be impulsive and tended to stick to a list.

"We were surprised to find that debit cards had the same psychological effect as credit cards," says Manoj Thomas, an assistant professor of marketing at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Although debit cards are equivalent to cash since the money gets deducted from your bank account almost immediately, Thomas says the "mere abstractness of plastic payments can reduce the pain of payment and influence consumer's purchase decisions."

In other words, we don't feel the same sting in the wallet with either type of plastic as we do when peeling off the bucks. But perhaps these spending patterns are more a function of cheapskates versus big spenders?

Researchers investigated this question by observing 125 students doing a computer-simulated shopping task. They observed that tightwads were more likely to buy impulsive products when using a credit card than cash, but payment method had little influence on spendthrifts impulsive buys. Interestingly, payment method had no effect on the purchase of "virtue" products -- healthy foods such as fat-free yogurt or whole grain bread.

"Vice spending is more susceptible to pain of payment," suggests Thomas, the study's lead author. But it's a double-edged sword psychologically: It brings out positive feelings from a visceral desire to consume the product and negatives ones from anticipated regret after eating it.

Virtue products don't elicit these regrets and you can easily justify spending money on them.

So, is a cash-only diet the new secret to a slimmer waistline?

"Those consumers who find it difficult to control their impulsive consumption might find it helpful to use cash instead of plastic," says Thomas. "The self-control related advantages of paying in cash might outweigh the disadvantages for some consumers."

Do you think you make more spontaneous food purchases when paying with plastic?

Joel Boh / Reuters

A new Harris poll shows the top ways consumers are slashing their household budgets. Of those polled, 67 percent are buying more generic products. Brown-bagging lunch is the second most popular way to save. 

More than 20 percent of Americans have stopped purchasing coffee in the morning.

See the full article from DailyFinance.

Our friends at DailyFinance also show you how you can shave a few bucks from your monthly bills.

What are you doing to save money this summer?

FeaturePics stock

By Brooke Lea Foster

Can you be fired for not wearing makeup to work? That’s the question being asked in Britain after Melanie Stark, a 24-year-old sales assistant at the famous Harrods department store in London, resigned under pressure for not wearing makeup. According to the Guardian, at least one manager considered Stark to be one of the store’s best employees.

All employees at Harrods are expected to abide by a two-page “ladies” dress code that stipulates: “Full makeup at all times: base, blusher, full eyes (not too heavy), lipstick, lip liner and gloss are worn at all times and maintained discreetly (please take into account the store display lighting which has a ‘washing out’ effect).”

Stark reported for work au naturel for four years without a word from upper management. That all changed when she was spotted by managers during a “floor tour”; a Harrod’s spokesman says they didn’t see her before then. 

According to reports, Stark’s manager sent her home twice because she was not wearing makeup; on one occasion they sent her to the stockroom. They even offered her a makeup workshop.

"I was appalled,” she told the Guardian. “It was insulting. Basically, it was implying it would be an improvement. I don't understand how they think it is OK to say that.”

Stark was given an ultimatum: Put on makeup or leave. She resigned. She could see how the store could dictate a dress code, but a makeup code is different, she says. You can’t tell someone what to do with her hair or face.

Says Stark: "Make up can change your features completely, especially if I was to wear all of what they were asking. I would look like a different person to me. And I never chose to look like that."

Eve Tahmincioglu, msnbc.com’s careers columnist, joined us for a live Web chat Wednesday to discuss how best to deal with a bad boss.

(Eve’s column on bad bosses appeared earlier this week on msnbc.com.)

Here’s one of her answers to questions from the live chat. See below for the full Q&A.

Patrick asked:
“Is it smart to complain to upper management about a bad boss? Especially in this economic climate? I'm afraid if I say anything I'll lose my job.”

Eve replied:
“If you get nowhere with your boss and you really want things to change, your only option, other than leaving, is going above your manager's head. This is indeed risky, but there are ways to do it without getting everyone angry.”

Here’s the full chat archive: 

If you have a question for our TODAY Money experts, submit it here.

To sign up for an e-mail reminder for our next chat, click here.

Pew Research Center

We know the weak economic recovery hasn’t been much of an upturn for anyone who wants a job. But after a recession that was so tough on men it was dubbed a "mancession," it is women who are having by far the hardest time in the recovery.

From June 2009 –- when the recession was officially declared over --  to May 2011, men gained about  768,000 jobs, while women lost 218,000 jobs, according to a report issued Wednesday by the Pew Research Center.

That’s a switch from the recession of December 2007 to June 2009, a period in which men lost more than 5 million jobs, while women lost just over 2 million jobs, according to calculations based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

The lopsided trend is something we first reported on in January.

Of course, no one is seeing a jobs bonanza, and the meager gains by men aren’t nearly enough to offset the millions of jobs that were lost. The official unemployment rate of 9.1 percent has fallen only slightly from its peak of 10.1 percent in late 2009. And whle men have done better than women in the recovery, their jobless rate is still higher than the rate for women.

Pew researchers say it’s not entirely clear why men are scoring more jobs than women in the recovery. Women have lost more jobs in certain sectors, such as government jobs. Men have gained more jobs than women in two key fields: professional and business services, and education and health services. 

Are you more nervous about losing your job, or more pessimistic about finding a new one, than you were a few months ago? If so, we want to hear from you for an upcoming story. E-mail us here.

Courtesy of Hawaii-Real Estate

Listing: 4 bedroom, 6 bath, ocean-view retreat

Location: Kukio, Hawaii 

Price: $13.9 million

Its Japanese gardens, meditative shrine and separate painting studio are likely to instill a deep sense of tranquility to visitors of this Hawaiian home that offers a full, 360-degree view of the ocean. 

The four-bedroom, six-bathroom house on Hawaii's Big Island was built by a Texan developer in 2008. He purchased the land for $1.5 million and hired Honolulu architect Warren Sunnland to build a home fashioned after the Golden Door Spa, a popular spa founded in California that now has several U.S. locations. 

The 9,000-square-foot house is within the gates of Kukio, a private oceanfront club and residential community that shelters CEOs and other wealthy and famous home owners, Joni J. Metzler of MacArthur & Co. Sotheby's International Realty said last week. 

"It's been named the gold coast of Hawaii because when Christmas rolls around, or like the Fourth of July coming up, there are probably about 50 private jets at the airport," she said. 

The house has been on the market since October and is listed at $13.9 million. Metzler said she's beginning to see more visitors to the community from across the United States because of an increase in direct flights to the Big Island.

This post launches a new weekly feature on real estate listings. To suggest more listings we should know about, send us an e-mail.

Listing courtesy of LuxuryRealEstate.com.  

Photo courtesy of Hawaii-Real Estate

The living room features plenty of built-ins, and a fabulous view, of course.

Hawaii-Real Estate

The pool overlooks the ocean.

Photo courtesy of Hawaii-Real Estate

The tranquil-looking bedroom has floor-to-ceiling windows to take in that view.

There’s a lot of publications out there that rank colleges by various measures of quality, but the Department of Education’s new tool gets down to a more practical yardstick: What’s it gonna cost?

The website allows wide-eyed high school students - and their shell-shocked parents - to sort public and private colleges by tuition rates and net prices (tuition minus average aid received) for the 2009-2010 school year.

It’s an illuminating look at how wildly variable the cost of college can be. Bates, Middlebury and Connecticut College are the priciest not-for-profit four-year schools, with each charging  $50,000 or above. Their fees are higher than most in part because they also include room and board charges, something not all private schools do.

A for-profit four-year institution, Sanford-Brown College, which provides healthcare training, isn’t far behind with tuition and fees listed at around $45,000. (See update below.)

By comparison, public universities seem like a bargain, which the highest tuition rates topping out at around $14,000.

Of course, there are plenty of less expensive options for getting a four-year degree. But many schools are struggling to keep those tuition costs down.

Another area of the tool tells you how fast tuition prices rose between the 2007-2008 and 2009-2010 school years. Some state schools, particularly those in California, saw tuition prices jump by 40 percent or more during that time.

Perhaps the coolest feature of the tool is that it doesn’t just stop with those heading to a four-year college. Another section allows users to see the various costs of vocational programs. Here, too, the results are pretty stunning.

The tuition cost for becoming a cosmetologist could be anywhere from $2,000 to $24,000, according to the website. An electrician program could cost you around $3,000 or around $30,000, depending on the program.

Update: Sanford-Brown tells Life Inc. that it mistakenly provided the cost for the entire program, rather than one year. The school said the average tuition and fees for that academic year was $12,126.

The Department of Education says they’re aware of the error but did not receive notification until it was too late to correct data. A spokeswoman said  the school will have the opportunity to submit correct data next year.