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Tess Vigeland

Former Host, Marketplace Money

Tess Vigeland was the host of Marketplace Money, a weekly personal finance program that looks at why we do what we do with our money: your life, with dollar signs. Vigeland and her guests took calls from listeners to answer their most vexing money management questions, and the program helped explain what the latest business and financial news means to our wallets and bank accounts. Vigeland joined Marketplace in September 2001, as a host of Marketplace Morning Report. She rose at o-dark-thirty to deliver the latest in business and economic news for nearly four years before returning briefly to reporting and producing. She began hosting Marketplace Money in 2006 and ended her run as host in November of 2012. . Vigeland was also a back-up host for Marketplace. Prior to joining the team at Marketplace, Vigeland reported and anchored for Oregon Public Broadcasting in Portland, where she received a Corporation for Public Broadcasting Silver Award for her coverage of the political scandal involving Senator Bob Packwood (R-Ore.). She co-hosted the weekly public affairs program Seven Days on OPB television, and also produced an hour-long radio documentary about safety issues at the U.S. Army chemical weapons depot in Eastern Oregon. Vigeland next served as a reporter and backup anchor at WBUR radio in Boston. She also spent two years as a sports reporter for NPR’s Only a Game. For her outstanding achievements in journalism, Vigeland has earned numerous awards from the Associated Press and Society of Professional Journalists. Vigeland has a bachelor's degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She is a contributor to The New York Times and is a volunteer fundraiser for the Pasadena Animal League and Pasadena Humane Society. In her free time, Vigeland studies at the Pasadena Conservatory of Music, continuing 20-plus years of training as a classical pianist.

Latest from Tess Vigeland

  • A man holds up some credit and debit cards
    Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

    Some people want to climb to the top of Kilimanjaro; Chris Peplinski just wants a perfect credit score.

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  • Wealthy couple on a gleeful shopping spree
    iStockPhoto.com

    We asked you about your spousal finance arrangements, and here are your varied answers.

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  • Hand sticks pin into balloon with $100 bill.
    iStockPhoto

    Interest rates could change again soon. To prepare for inflation or deflation, Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Zweig suggests considering the personal consequences for each.

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  • The shadow of a house key falls over a mortgage application form.
    Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

    Marketplace Money host Tess Vigeland talks with Kai Ryssdal about why people aren't taking advantage of historically low mortgage rates, whether it's affecting home prices at all, and who is refinancing right now.

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  • A brickstone lane stretches forward in a cozy suburb.
    activerain.com

    About 150 million Americans live in the suburbs — enough of the population to warrant a full-on cultural study. Tess Vigeland talks to Mindi Love, director of a new Kansas City museum dedicated to a scholarly look at suburban life.

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  • Iris Bess (left) and Steve Ostrowski, both 38. Bess has laid from a $50,000-a-year HR job and works odd jobs. Ostrowski quit his six-figure job as an ad salesman in the publishing industry to get his MBA and hasn't gotten a job since.
    Josh Rogosin/Marketplace

    Two unemployed families share the same anxieties and concerns, even though one is black and working class, the other middle class and white.

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  • Gold Class Cinemas
    Josh Rogosin

    Why would anyone pay $29 to see a movie? Tess Vigeland and a few of her friends visit a new theater in Pasadena, Calif. — Gold Class Cinemas — to find out.

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  • University of Louisville President James R. Ramsey turned down a $314,858 bonus last year.
    Tom Fougerousse / University of Louisville

    A Chronicle of Higher Education survey shows the median salary for a public university president rose to $436,000 last year, up 2.3% from the previous year. The Chronicle's Jeff Selingo shares the details of the survey with host Tess Vigeland.

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  • Work/retirement crossroads sign.
    iStockPhoto

    Jonathan Clements, former personal finance columnist for the Wall Street Journal, says recessions can be great times for retirement. He shares his view with host Tess Vigeland.

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  • "2009," set in coins.
    iStockPhoto

    Friends of Money — Liz Pulliam Weston, Jason Zweig, Knight Kiplinger — join Tess Vigeland in recapping the biggest financial news of 2009, as well as the money lessons learned and ignored throughout the year.

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