This weekend, Marketplace Money’s host Carmen Wong Ulrich calculates the cost of homeownership with a first time home buyer.  Jennifer wants to buy, but does the math and her motive align with the investment?  Plus, what do you do with $500,000 in a savings account?  When you meet a fee-only financial planner, how do you prepare yourself to get the most out of that conversation?  Author Amy Tan talks pickles and soup.  Eating out shaped the way she lives money.  And Carmen also gets a guide to rating charities. 

This weekend, newly minted Marketplace Money expert Carmen Wong Ulrich looks ahead to the holidays, gives listeners guidance, and even holds up to a lightning round of personal finance questions. Five minutes of fast and furious answers about paying off debt, buying a home, and starting a small business. We hear from a professor who went undercover as a worker in check cashing branch and what she learned from the experience. Carmen hosts a roundtable with a rabbi and Christian woman about what the relationship between money and religion is, and what it should be.  Plus, Vanguard Founder John Bogle shares how his family shaped his money philosophy. 

This weekend, personal finance expert Carmen Wong Ulrich debuts as the new host of Marketplace Money. We’ll have a round-up of personal-finance headlines in the news and a discussion on how keeping secrets about money affects relationships. Plus, a debate about whether or not marriage should be viewed as a financial contract. We’ll answer questions about credit card debt, early retirement and the role credit history plays in personal identity from our listeners.

This week: Money Secrets. Shhh…. Secret bank accounts.  Hidden credit cards.  Hard to find investments.  Fifteen percent of Americans—with merged finances—admit to having a financial account their partners don’t know about.  We talk with two listeners who have squirreled away money.  Also, a conversation with Carmen Wong Ulrich, the new Marketplace Money host.  She talks about why we keep secrets and also answers listeners questions.  Plus,  your brain on money.  Poverty, wealth, and decisions:  Surprising new research about the mind’s financial eye.

This Week: Financial Health.  Money can motivate us in all sorts of ways.  Change your job.  Pick one house over another.  And in some instances, change our behavior.  We spend time this week with two folks who have done that:  using money to lose weight. Workplaces are also getting into the act.  Using financial carrots and sticks to encourage healthier lifestyles for their workers.  Plus, how should we learn about personal finance?  With schools?  And get some answers to these personal finance puzzles:  When should you put a home on the market? What’s the math behind taking money out of your portfolio if you don’t want go back to work?

This Week: The Fed & the 401(k). President Obama nominated Janet Yellen to be the next Federal Reserve chair. We take a look at that news in the context of one area where the Federal Reserve matters: interest rates and housing. And, more than 70 million Americans have retirement accounts at work. In the last few years, there have been more lawsuits filed by workers against their companies and the plans they administer. What should you know about your 401(k)? A primer on the questions to ask your administrator about fees and performance. Plus, an update on the health care exchanges. Then, Marketplace’s Chris Farrell answers your personal finance questions, including when to buy life-insurance.

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. And yearning to move… up. Isn’t that idea of economic mobility central to who we are as Americans? So what does it mean now? Is there a glass floor, preventing people from improving their lives? Plus, a look at foreign and domestic adoptions. What you should look for in an agency? What should you prepare for in terms of costs? Perspectives from a family and a social worker. And, lots of you wrote in asking this question…How do you fix an error on a credit report. Are all errors worth your time?

Set a budget. Save for retirement. Plan for college savings. But how do those rules fit with your circumstances? This week, we feature conversations that go beyond the fine print of personal finance. What type of college savings account works best? A look at the differences between a Roth IRA and a 529 savings plan. When should you think about buying a home? How does that influence what you save for retirement? Plus, prepare yourself for a fee battle. What you can do to get the upper hand on hidden costs.

The American Dream. What does that even mean now, anyway? We’ve spent the past few weeks trying to figure it out and asking people about their dreams. Getting educated, making a home, and retiring comfortably. A slew of experts helped us build a financial roadmap of sorts:  from where you are now to where you want to be. This week’s show follows up with you. What you wrote us, what you wanted more information about, and what stories you shared.  Plus, economic policy often shapes how you pay for those big dreams. We look at the role of the Federal Reserve.