As soon as I was 18, I couldn’t wait to do two things: buy a lottery ticket and get my own credit card. I lost my first $10 and gave up on the former, but I didn’t even have to try to get the latter. I got a phone call merely a few weeks after my birthday with a survey from a credit card company — they wanted to issue me my own card. Ten minutes on the phone and one week later, I had that little piece of plastic magic in my hand — and a whole new mess of troubles.

Financial advisers wisely push the idea of keeping a few months worth of money in savings as one never known when an unfortunate event may occur that demands a significant sum of money. They tend to overlook, however, the importance of the change cup, which can come in extra handy for times when you need a few extra bucks, fast.

This is the followup to our interview with Thrive CEO and Founder, Avi Karnani and Lead Scientist, Matt Wallaert. In our first installment, which you can read here, we talked to them about their work in financial literacy, competition with popular money management site, Mint and how they differ from other financial service companies. In this installment, we’ll find out more on behavioral budgeting and how it works, and how Thrive is working to make banking a better service industry.

As you may be aware, Congress just passed a credit card reform bill that helps protect consumers, such as you and I, from the big bad credit companies. Although this bill has gotten almost unanimous support from law makers, there have been a few who aren’t happy with the new regulations.

Take Edward Yingling (CEO of the American Bankers Association), for instance, who stated that it would “undermine the availability of credit” by restricting individual institutions’ ability to price credit against risk. Oh. my. god. You mean banks would actually have to only give credit to people who can manage it?? The horror!

After speaking to various older coworkers and family members, I’ve come to the realization that it’s not only the younger generations that need a crash course in personal finance — many of the ones closing in on retirement need a refresher course too.

Vanguard has a cool new video series up on their website right now which talks about how to make the most of your investing ventures. Their reassuring voice couldn’t come at a better time, considering many people’s hesitancy to trust the market right now. Keep on reading for their four part video series which focuses on controlling your investment costs, managing risk, choosing the right investments, and the benefits of long-term investing.

It’s that time of year when the weather turns crisp and the proud citizens of New York bundle up in their winter gear. But before we head off into the mother of all holiday seasons, let’s take a look retrospective look back at some stories from the past month. Here are some of our favorite posts from around the net, as well as our more popular stories from October in this month’s Mashup.

Obtaining credit scores has always been an enormous hassle. You go to Annual Credit Report and request it, then you get it and it shows you the report – but not the score. That’ll be an extra $8. The sheer amount of hoops you have to jump through just to get something that should come free of charge has reached a whole new level of ridiculous. But fear not, for today is a new day. And Credit Karma has forever changed the way you’ll get your credit score; making it quick, simple, and best of all free.

Quicken — the guys behind some of the most popular finance tools in the home and workplace today — has finally learned from the Internet start-ups what the people want: Free Personal Finance Management. And they’ve launched Quicken Online to feed the starving masses.

Many people think bill consolidation is synonymous with financial defeat – happening when you aren’t able to pony up the cash for your monthly credit card statement. But the truth is, bill consolidation can be the catalyst that propels you to really tackle that growing pile of debt. Bill consolidation has been a huge boon to my financial wellbeing, and it can do the same for you. Keep on reading for six reasons why debt consolidation can make a huge difference in your finances.