“I thought that the casino had become my personal ATM,” says Adell, author of “Confessions of a Slot Machine Queen.” Early winnings convinced her the casino was where she belonged. She quickly distanced herself from her social circle, foregoing meals with friends and family to spend time gambling. “All I wanted to do was play the slots,” she says; it was all she could think about.

Gambling addiction can grab hold of people and morph them into someone who only cares about their next bet. According to the National Council on Problem Gambling, an estimated 2 million adults in the United States meet the criteria for “pathological gambling,” and 4 to 6 million are considered “problem gamblers.”

For more on gambling addiction, click here to read the article.

Monopoly, that beloved board game you from your childhood, provided hours of entertainment, but it may also have taught you valuable lessons on risk assessment, timing and diversification—all useful tools for investing in the real world. In the eyes of Philip Orbanes, there’s no better financial starting point.

Orbanes, author of the new book “Monopoly, Money, and You: How to Profit from the Game’s Secret of Success,” has spent more than 30 years judging the United States and World Monopoly Championships. He knows how the game is played; now, he’s sharing his knowledge of its intricacies to show what investors can learn from a few hours spent handling multi-colored money and building little green houses.

Click here to read the Q&A with Orbanes and watch him discuss the book in our video interview.

Some 16 percent of online adults use Twitter, according to a 2012 report by Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, yet social platforms offer a region of e-commerce that’s been largely untapped by credit card companies. American Express is one company that’s encouraging shopping on social networks; it launched a program in February that enables its customers to buy products directly on Twitter.

The service—available to those with Amex credit cards and a public Twitter account (prepaid and corporate cards are exempt)—is a simple process. Members sync their credit card to their Twitter account, then they can tweet special hashtags for products they wish to purchase. For example, last month American Express offered $25 Amex gift cards for $15. By using #BuyAmexGiftCard25 in a tweet, customers received a reply tweet from the @AmexSync account containing a confirmation hashtag. The customers had to tweet that hashtag within 15 minutes to purchase the product, which was subsequently shipped to their billing address.

Click here for more on the tweet-to-buy business model and whether experts think it will take off.

Steve and Annette Economides, authors of America’s Cheapest Family Gets You Right on the Money: Your Guide to Living Better, Spending Less, and Cashing in on Your Dreams, may be the definition of shoestring budgeters. The couple acquired frugal-living habits after marrying in 1982. Although Steve was only making $13,000 a year at a printing company, Annette wanted to be home to raise the kids. To make it work, the couple used creative methods to live off one income, such as Annette learning how to sew to make her own maternity clothes. They found that, even on limited financial resources, they could still afford some of the discretionary expenses they longed for; all it took was discipline. “We had to save three months to go out to dinner at Benihana, but we got there,” says Annette.

Thanks to their clever spending strategies, the Economides kept their household of seven financially stable on a shoestring budget. Click here to read how they did it.

For many, it’s not an easy decision, but a number of financial industry experts believe online advising can be useful for a segment of the population that’s largely untapped by traditional wealth-management firms: the lower to middle class. “These websites provide financial advice to people with less money to invest, and at a lower price point,” says Robert Stammers, director of investor education at the CFA institute, a global nonprofit organization of investment professionals. Since traditional firms require clients to have substantial financial assets (some a portfolio size of at least $1 million), many cash-strapped Americans can’t afford to hire a financial adviser.

Targeting that demographic are online-only financial advising startups like Personal Capital, LearnVest, and FutureAdvisor. Click here to read about their approach and why wealth management is moving to the Web.

According to a recent AARP survey, approximately 72 percent of not-retired baby boomers expect to be forced to delay retirement due to a financial roadblock—and half have little confidence they will ever be able to retire. Retirement worries are also echoed among the upper class. Only 46 percent of not-yet-retired boomers with investable assets of $100,000 or more feel confident they’ll be able to afford basic living expenses in retirement, according to a recent survey by Ameriprise Financial, a wealth-advisory firm.

“It can be difficult for individuals to envision a future that is undefined,” says Suzanna M. de Baca, Ameriprise’s vice president of wealth strategies. De Baca describes the average pre-retiree as a “deer in the headlights” when they try to picture their financial stability in the years ahead. However, de Baca says worries about funding retirement make up only a fraction of the anxiety most people nearing retirement experience.

Whether they’re worried about losing their yacht or paying next month’s rent, retirement can prove challenging for any demographic. “A lot of people see the future as full of problems as opposed to possibilities,” says Nancy K. Schlossberg, author of “Revitalizing Retirement: Reshaping Your Identity, Relationships, and Purpose.” Schlossberg says a pre-retiree’s trepidation typically derives from elements they think are outside their control: What will I do with my time? Who am I now that I’m no longer a lawyer (or an accountant or a teacher)? Am I going to fade into oblivion?

For strategies that can serve as antidotes to a pre-retiree’s anxiety, click here to read the article. To watch an interview with Robert P. Delamontagne, author of “The Retiring Mind: How to Make the Psychological Transition to Retirement,” click here.

Surveys over the past decade consistently point to financial arguments as a leading cause of divorce. However, money habits lying beneath the surface of a relationship can create as much—if not more—financial friction.

According to a recent poll by CreditCards.com, the majority of women would terminate a relationship if they discovered their significant other was keeping secrets about their money habits—especially if those secrets had negative consequences for the family’s finances. In fact, the study found women see a partner’s inability to pay routine bills as off-putting as discovering they have a criminal record.

Click here to read why couples don’t always talk truthfully about their finances, and click here to watch a Google Hangout discussing the story.

I spoke with Chappell about how to detect if a child’s identity has been compromised, creative ways identity thieves steal a child’s personal information, and why children are often a better target than adults. Read the Q&A and watch a Google Hangout with Chappell.

While the financial consequences of bankruptcy are disconcerting, the mental burden can be overwhelming, with wide-reaching effects. “It’s important to acknowledge the act of filing bankruptcy can be psychologically difficult, cause stress on relationships, and even be traumatic for a family,” says Joseph Goetz, president of the Financial Therapy Association.

The focus is often on the financial steps—compiling a comprehensive list of debts, hiring an attorney, seeing the case through—but neglecting the emotional aspect can have long-term consequences. Many people who turn to bankruptcy have juggled their debt for so long that they’re emotionally exhausted by the time they’re ready to file. Click here to learn how bankruptcy filers can set themselves on the path toward emotional recovery.

After graduating from Pennsylvania State University, Joe moved back in with his parents in Hillsdale, N.J., for three-and-a-half years. However, his decision to live at home wasn’t a result of not landing a job with the basketball team. “I was always planning to move home for at least a year to try and [save] some money, as to not be living paycheck to paycheck with the cost of rent,” he says.

Many of today’s college graduates follow Joe’s path. An estimated 3 in 10 young adults have moved back in with their parents in recent years, according to a Pew Research Center survey released in March. Saving money is their chief concern, as nearly 80 percent of those currently living at home say they don’t have enough money put away to lead the kind of independent life they want.

Many of today’s graduates—known as “boomerang kids”—are turning to their parents for monetary support. They’ve returned to their childhood homes, hoping that living under their parents’ roof will enable them to find a job and save enough money to move out.However, moving back home can lead to arguments between kids and their parents and can potentially damage their relationship in the long term. Parents who prepare for these challenges before greeting their kids at the front door have a better chance of avoiding these hardships. Click here to read the article.