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A portfolio is simply an investment or group of investments designed to maximize returns while minimizing risk. A mutual fund portfolio is the same thing, an assortment of mutual funds designed to maximize returns based on your personal risk tolerance. To get started planning YOUR mutual fund portfolio:

1. First, evaluate your personal risk tolerance.
2. Next, decide your asset allocation.
3. Then, allocate your cash.

Risk tolerance is your ability to handle (tolerate?) the inevitable declines in the value of your investments (no one needs “help” handling increases!). Ris

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You can diss your boss in public only so many times before he becomes your former boss. John Walsh, acting director of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, learned that lesson the hard way on Friday after President Obama nominated a different bank regulator, Thomas J. Curry, to take over leadership of the agency.

As regular remembers may remember, John Walsh first criticized the Obama administration’s record on financial reform in May, when he told members of the Financial Services Roundtable that newly-passed laws could hit the industry like a “tsunami.”

The following month Walsh did it again, this time in a foreign country. Speak

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Two of the nation’s largest banks are letting people out of expensive mortgages, including people who never asked for the help. Chase and Bank of America are offering some homeowners big reductions on interest rates, and in some cases even lowering the principal of the loans, according to bank statements and a recent story by The New York Times.

The unexpected modifications come even as hundreds of thousands of Americans try—and often fail—to apply for changes that would make their mortgages more affordable.

“I don’t get it,” says Lawrence J. Whit, an ec

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I recently came across two really big—no, make that gargantuan—CARD Act loopholes that no one has made much of a fuss about.

A few weeks ago, I was doing a little “light” reading on Helpwithmybank.gov, which is associated with the Comptroller of the Currency Administrator of National Banks (OCC), and read a Q&A that made me stop in my tracks. It was about what happens when you receive a notice that your credit card’s interest rate (also known as the APR) is going to increase in 45 days.

The question: Can I continue making purchases with my card at the existing rate for 45 days?

The response on Helpwithmybank.gov: “After 14 days, the new rate will apply to further transactions. At the end

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Today’s top news headlines feature the results of a new survey that shows Americans are satisfied overall with their standard of living and reasons low-income families rely on alternative banking services. Plus, find out why many job applicants disapprove of group interviews.

Group Interviews Unattractive To Job Applicants Fortune Many companies are setting up group interviews for positions that involve team-oriented work, a trend that has not been well received by job applicants. Hiring managers say the practice allows them to save time and determine which applicants are well-suited to work in groups under high levels of stress. H

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Banks repossessed $304 billion worth of homes in 2010, and they’re just getting started. Equifax, a national credit bureau, sees no end in sight to a housing recession that’s already dragged on for more than four years, according to the company’s latest housing study.

“Until these foreclosures are processed, the mortgage market will continue to impact economic growth,” Craig Crabtree, senior VP of Equifax Mortgage Services, said in a press release.

Repossessions just continue to rise. Banks repossessed mortgages worth $126.7 billion in 2006 and 2007 combined, Equifax reported. Soon afte

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