Losing a job can be one of the biggest financial crises anyone faces during their lifetime. One day, you’re financially stable and the next you’re unsure you can make next month’s mortgage payment. Getting through an extended period of unemployment can be really difficult if you’re not prepared, so when your employer at the very least offers you a severance package, you need to know how to make the most of it.

What Is Severance Pay?

It’s Thanksgiving, which means American families are coming up with creative ways to make eating turkey less boring. Granted, deep frying anything makes it 1,000 percent more delicious, including giant birds, but you might want to consider an alternative this year.

Deep frying turkeys for Thanksgiving is a practice that has been growing in popularity. Unfortunately, it’s also been contributing to the growing number of holiday fires each year. While accidents during the holiday season are inevitable, you can greatly reduce the chance of spending your savings on an emergency instead of Christmas shopping by leaving certain activities to professionals.

Before you rent that deep fryer, take a look at how much holiday fires cost the nation each year (and if you decide to risk it anyway, be sure you at least have adequate home insurance).

Changing careers can be an exciting, but sometimes stressful time. My first post-military job was a learning experience for me. I went from wearing a standard military uniform every day of the week to wearing a suit and tie and commuting twice the distance. The change provided an opportunity for professional growth, but it wasn’t without its trials.

One thing it taught me was that it’s always best to prepare for the changes before they happen. Here are some financial considerations to take into account before starting a new job.

Prospective homebuyers who have also served in the U.S. military have a chance to purchase a home with a VA loan. This special type of mortgage offers veterans access to a federally-guaranteed home loan with no down payment.

The History of the VA Loan

We’ve all heard the saying “money can’t buy happiness,” but maybe it isn’t completely true. A recent study, reported on by the Wall Street Journal, indicates that overall satisfaction with one’s life increases as earnings rise–until you make $75,000 that is.

The study does indicate that an income higher than $75,000 still results in greater life satisfaction; the difference just isn’t as pronounced once you hit that $75,000 mark. However, when you consider that the median household income in the U.S. was $49,777 in 2009, it becomes apparent that a little more happiness could be bought by many of us.

One consumer struggles to build credit without dinging her credit score and Credit Karma gives some honest recommendations:

Photo by thepinkpeppercorn at Flikr

When it comes to following a budget, you hear time and time again how you need to identify patterns of needless spending and then slash it from your balance sheet. Eat at home, rent movies, buy generic, take the bus. However, being a savvy saver doesn’t mean you have to lead a completely dull existence.

Two of the biggest financial goals in most people’s lives is purchasing a home and saving for retirement. So why not kill two birds with one stone by using your home equity to double as your retirement fund? Saving for a house or a comfortable retirement can be hard enough as it is, let alone having to do both, but if you’re willing to incorporate a little home downsizing in your retirement plan, you can have your cake and then sell it to fund your golden years too. However, just because you could do it, doesn’t necessarily mean you should do it.

Using Home Equity to Fund Retirement

To the everyday person, the differences between national and even local banks and credit unions are subtle but important. The key difference, however, is that banks are for-profit and investor owned financial institutions, whereas credit unions are not-for-profit and member owned. As such, credit unions have different bottom-lines, loyalties and tax exemptions than banks. Here are some of the ways choosing a credit union could benefit you, as well as a few reasons why you might want to stick to banks:

Pro: Credit Unions Look After Their Members

How do money rules change when you get married later in life?

Get married in your 20s, and you probably dump all your finances, for better or worse, into one pot. Get married in your 50s, 60s or 70s, and you probably won’t. The later in life you marry or remarry, the more likely you are to keep at least some of your finances separate.

In fact, according to a 1997 Stepfamily Association study, less than 20 percent of remarried couples pool all their finances in joint accounts right away. How couples merge or don’t merge finances, and more importantly, how they communicate about money plays a big part in how their marriage succeeds.