Find out your credit score

Time it takes: 7 minutes

Know how lenders see you. Take seven minutes to download a free credit report at annualcreditreport.com. (For year-round monitoring, get a report from one of the three major credit bureaus every four months.) If you spot an error, notify the bureau (online, by phone or by mail) and the creditor (call and also send a letter). You won't find your credit score here, so when you request a report from Equifax, pay $7.95 for your FICO score, the most commonly used score. The range is 300 to 850 - 700 and above is good.

Raise your credit score

Time it takes: 8 minutes

It takes time to recover from major credit lapses, but you can do two things fast that will improve your credit score. Both will lower the size of your outstanding debt as a percentage of your total borrowing power.

1. Pay down a balance. 2. Call your issuer and ask for a higher credit limit. And don't spend it

NEW YORK (AP) -- Gas prices rose back to $3 a gallon at the pump Friday, following rising futures prices on concerns about tight inventories and potential supply disruptions.

But oil prices fell Friday, reversing earlier gains after weak figures on new home sales ignited fresh concerns about the economy. That gave traders a green light to lock in profits from oil's recent rally.

Light, sweet crude for February delivery fell 62 cents to settle at $96 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Despite Friday's swoon, oil prices have risen 5 percent in a little more than a week.

Retail gas prices, which typically lag the futures market, are widely expected to rise to new record highs in the spring. Analysts think futures investors are anticipating big gains by buying now, driving futures -- and thus pump prices -- higher.

"They're all jumping on the gasoline bandwagon," said Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service, who predicts pump prices will peak between $3.50 and $3.75 a gallon in the spring. The Energy Information Administration recently predicted prices will peak above $3.40 a gallon

NEW YORK (AP) -- Town governments, school districts and other municipalities looking to borrow money got a new option Friday when trying to insure their bonds: billionaire investor Warren Buffett.

Buffett's formation of a bond insurance company provided some validation to an industry that has been battered by fears of collapse in recent weeks.

"If I was thinking of investing in financial guarantors, this would give me comfort," said Donald Light, a senior analyst with Celent. Light owns Berkshire Hathaway shares.

Though analysts said the move by Buffett provides a stamp of approval for the broader business model, which has recently come under fire, shares of Buffett's newest competitors were hammered Friday.

"Any capital new to the space for reinsurance would be a net positive," said Steve Stelmach, an analyst with Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co., in an interview. But if Buffett "uses capital simply as competition, it is a negative," Stelmach said.

MBIA Inc. fell 15.9 percent to close at $18.74 Friday, while Ambac fell 13.8 percent to $25.12. Earlier in the session, MBIA shares hit a 52-week low of $18.43.

The New York Insurance Department expedited the licensing for Berkshire Hathaway Assurance Corp. The state's insurance superintendent, in a statement, said the state was doing what it could to help insurers

Find out how much you need to save each month to reach $500,000, $1 million of $2 million by age 65.

The road to $1 million starts early, but if you're a late bloomer, help is at hand. The information below shows how much you need to save each month to accumulate $500,000, $1 million or $2 million by age 65, along with strategies for achieving that goal. At age 25, you're starting from scratch. At ages 35, 45 and 55, we assume you already have money in savings, on which you're earning 8% annually.

AGE 25

You've saved: $0
To reach $500,000, what you need to save per month: $143
To reach $1 million, what you need to save per month: $286
To reach $2 million, what you need to save per month: $573

Get help from Uncle Sam: You may qualify for a retirement-savings tax credit of 10% to 50% of the amount you contribute to an IRA, 401(k) or other retirement account. The credit can reduce your tax bill by up to $1,000. To qualify, your income must be $25,000 or less if you're single, $37,500 or less if you're

NEW YORK (AP) -- When Citigroup warned in early November that it was likely to write down its portfolio by $8 billion to $11 billion in the fourth quarter because of exposure to bad loans, investors recoiled at the size of the losses. Some now say those early estimates appear drastically understated.

Citigroup Inc. could write off as much as $18.7 billion in the fourth quarter, wrote Goldman analysts William F. Tanona, Betsy Miller and Neil C. Sanyal in a note to investors late Wednesday. If it does, they say, the bank may be forced to lower its dividend by 40 percent.

Citi has about $55 billion in exposure to subprime mortgages, about $43 billion of which are collateralized debt obligations, or CDOs, that have mortgages underlying them.

"We still believe it will be a couple of quarters before the current credit crisis is fully digested by the markets," the Goldman analysts wrote.

Already, Citi has been propped up by a $7.5 billion investment from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, a sovereign wealth fund that in late November bought a 4.9 percent stake in the bank.

But if Citi must write down the value of its portfolio by more than it estimated back in early November -- a

WASHINGTON (AP) -- More than 3 million people will have to wait until February to get their tax refunds because of Congress' late fix to the alternative minimum tax, the IRS said Thursday.

Congress put a one-year freeze on growth of the alternative minimum tax last week, shielding many middle- and upper-middle income taxpayers from first exposure to the tax. But Congress' late action means the Internal Revenue Service won't be able to start processing five AMT-related forms until February, delaying potential refunds for those people until that month.

Between 3 million and 4 million people filed in January for their 2006 taxes using those forms, with many expecting a refund, the IRS said. The average refund was $2,324, the agency said.

"We regret the inconvenience the delay will mean for million of early tax filers, especially those expecting a refund," acting IRS Commissioner Linda Stiff said.

As many as 13.5 million people will have to wait until Feb. 11 to start filing with the five AMT-related forms, but the IRS said filing patterns show only between 3 million to 4 million of those people file during the early tax season anyhow.

The IRS was able to reprogram its computers to begin accepting the seven other AMT-related forms when

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. factories saw orders for costly manufactured goods rise only marginally in November -- falling short of expectations for a much bigger gain and underscoring the strains on the economy from housing and credit problems.

The Commerce Department reported Thursday that orders for "durable" goods -- products expected to last at least three years -- increased by just 0.1 percent last month. The tiny rise came after durable-goods orders fell by 0.4 percent in October. Economists were hoping for a larger rebound -- a 2.2 percent increase -- in new orders placed at the nation's factories in November. Still, the November rise marked the first increase in durable-goods orders in the last four months.

In other economics news, more people signed up for unemployment benefits last week, a sign that the job market is softening as the economy loses speed.

The Labor Department reported that new applications for unemployment insurance rose by a seasonally adjusted 1,000 to 349,000. Economists had expected new filings for jobless benefits to dip to around 340,000 for last week.

"Now that business spending is also losing momentum, the risk of recession is mounting," said Michael

NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil futures rose Thursday after the government reported larger-than-expected declines in crude and heating oil inventories.

In its weekly inventory report, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said oil inventories fell by 3.3 million barrels last week, more than double the 1.3 million barrel decline analysts expected. Inventories of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, fell by 2.8 million barrels, much more than the expected drop of 800,000 barrels.

"(Heating oil) stocks are just plunging," said Stephen Schork, a trader and analyst in Villanova, Pa.

Crude and heating oil supplies have declined more than expected for several weeks running, exacerbating a perception that supplies may be inadequate to meet winter demand.

Light, sweet crude for February delivery rose 65 cents to settle at $96.62 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after rising as high as $97.79. Heating oil futures for January delivery rose 3.91 cents to settle at $2.6803 a gallon.

Oil prices also rose on news of the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and a vow

After holding onto its gains for the past week, the US dollar finally came under pressure today, It fell against the Euro, the Japanese Yen, the Australian, New Zealand and Canadian dollars. The only currency it did not drop against was the Japanese Yen, which benefitted from overall carry trade demand. Does this mean that the rally in the dollar over? Probably not. Despite the rebound in the EUR/USD today, the currency pair still remains within its 1.43 to 1.45 trading range. Even the AUD/USD and NZD/USD are capped below resistance. Next week, trading should be exceptionally quiet which means that a break of these resistance levels is unlikely.

According to the latest reports from the Commerce Department, the US consumer spent more than they had made during the month of November, with personal spending rising by 1.1 percent and personal income rising by only 0.4 percent. This caused personal savings to dip into negative territory for the first time in 15 months as disposable income fell to -0.5 percent. Lowered savings and increased spending is not a promising recovery strategy for a country which already has huge government deficits, but the Commerce Department stated that the increase in spending was a much-needed boost for the dragging economy. US consumers are on a spending frenzy with the savings rate hitting its lowest level since Hurricane Katrina in August of 2005. The core inflation rate is also growing by 2.2 percent year-over

NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. home prices fell in October for the 10th consecutive month, posting their largest drop since early 1991, according to a key index released Wednesday.

The record 6.7 percent slide in the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index also marked the 23rd consecutive month that prices either fell or grew more slowly than the month prior.

"No matter how you look at these data, it is obvious that the current state of the single-family housing market remains grim," said Robert Shiller, who helped create the index, in a statement.

The previous record decline was 6.3 percent, recorded in April 1991. The index tracks prices of existing single-family homes in 10 metropolitan areas.

It is considered a strong measure of home prices because it examines price changes of the same property over time, instead of calculating a median price of homes sold during the month.

Home prices could fall another 10 percent over the next 12 to 18 months before bottoming out, said Patrick Newport, an economist with financial consultancy Global Insight, in an interview.

Newport said four of the largest groups currently trying to sell homes -- banks holding foreclosed

NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of Apple Inc. hit the $200 mark for the first time Wednesday, as investor confidence in the company continued rising near the end of what has been a strong year for the iPod and computer maker.

Shares rose 15 cents to close at $198.95. They earlier peaked at $200.

Apple shares have traded between $76.77 and $199.33 in the past year, rising steadily since January as investors anticipated and then cheered the release of the company's hybrid cell phone, multimedia player and wireless Internet device, the iPhone. The product went on sale at the end of June.

Apple released a refreshed line of iPods during the year, updating its flash-based Nano model to one that can play videos, and introducing a device called the iPod Touch which is much like an iPhone without cellular calling capabilities.

The company also refreshed its notebook computers during the year.

In a phone interview Wednesday, Caris & Co. analyst Shebly Seyrafi said he wasn't surprised that Apple

CHICAGO (AP) -- Warren Buffett's investment company announced Tuesday it will pay $4.5 billion for 60 percent of Marmon Holdings Inc., a private company of more than 125 manufacturing and service businesses.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc., based in Omaha, Neb., said it plans to acquire the remaining 40 percent of Marmon over the next five to six years depending on future earnings of Marmon, according to a statement released Tuesday by both companies.

Marmon is owned by trusts for the benefits of the Pritzker family of Chicago, the family that developed the Hyatt Hotel chain.

The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008. Before the closing, Marmon said it will make a "substantial distribution of cash and certain assets to the selling shareholders," according to the statement.

Brothers Jay and Robert Pritzker acquired Marmon in 1953 when it was a small manufacturing operation in Ohio, according to the release. In 2002, Jay's son Tom Pritzker took over as chairman.

"Our transaction was done just the way Jay would have liked it to be done -- no consultants or studies," Buffett said in the statement. "I am pleased that over the next five to six years, we will be partnering and

NEW YORK (AP) -- Consumers grousing about soaring gas prices often focus on the big oil companies and anyone else who might profit when it costs more at the pump. But one culprit that doesn't always get fingered when prices rise -- a weak dollar -- could draw more attention in the coming year.

The dollar's slide against other major currencies in recent years has helped drive up prices for energy and food and in turn contributed to the economic hardship some consumers face. A further drop in the dollar in 2008 could spell more trouble.

Dave Minucci listens to the chatter on Wall Street about the flagging dollar but doesn't have to look far to cast his own assessment. A recent home heating bill was $120 higher than at the same time last year. But Minucci doesn't blame lower temperatures; the chill he feels is from higher energy prices and a weaker dollar.

He sees what many Americans may not realize: With commodities from oil to natural gas to grain to meat priced in dollars and becoming more expensive as the greenback falls, consumers have to take more out of their wallets to simply buy the same amount of goods. And a lower dollar can also raise the cost of imported goods -- with the increase often passed along to consumers.

"I think we're in trouble with the weak dollar," said Minucci, who works in the Capital Markets Finance

Making financial decisions is always easy -- after the fact.

And 2007 presented consumers with no shortage of challenges, from a flat housing market to a stock market roller coaster.

If you're like most people, you probably made a few money moves that already have you kicking yourself. Odds are you probably avoided a few financial potholes, too.

Curious how well you did overall? Here are some of the best and worst moves for 2007 in 10 different areas, from mortgages to taxes:

Best and worst moves of the year

1. Mortgages
2. Checking and savings
3. Credit cards
4. Home equity
5. Insurance
6. College financing
7. CDs and investments
8. Autos
9. Retirement
10. Taxes

Investing in stocks, in some ways, is a lot like investing in real estate. Location matters. So when looking for stocks that are likely to be higher a year from now, make sure that you are sticking with the right locations, the right neighborhoods, before committing your hard-earned money.

PowerRatings make it easy for investors to stay out of the bad areas, the industries that are likely to underperform both the market and the average industry going forward. By looking to see which industries have low, "in the red" PowerRatings of 1, 2, or 3 -- and rarely if ever buying stocks from those low-rated industry groups -- investors can save themselves from both a great deal of grief and a poorly performing portfolio.

Our research, looking back on thousands and thousands of simulated trades, supports our aversion to low-rated industries. For example, industries with a 2 PowerRating, since 1995, have provided an average annualized return of less than 6%. By comparison, the average industry has returned 14.61%. And the better industries, the industries with "in the green," high PowerRatings have performed even better. 10-rated industries, for example, have returned upwards of 35% on an average annualized basis.

So when it comes to the "wrong" neighborhoods, industries with low PowerRatings are it.

One of those low PowerRating industries, an industry investors should steer clear of, is the Internet