From our heroes at Information Is Beautiful, a Tetris-inspired re-imagining of the Billion-Dollar-o-Gram.

The man behind the Your Money column in the NYTimes gives a fast-moving and really useful explanation of debit and credit cards. Understanding the difference and some features of each can potentially save you a few hundred bucks a month – money you can surely put to much better use.

Feed your head, not your bank’s overdraft fee collectors.

The Wall Street bull gets a handmade sweater.

Because it’s got to be an especially cold January if you’re in Manhattan and made of metal.

click to see the full-size version

Woah! There sure are a lot of billionaires in America. And at least one of them has been doing a great job of living within his means… Bill Gates tops the list of American billionaires for the 13th year in a row.

Maybe it’s time to start that software company you’ve always dreamed of…

ilovecharts:

via Kurt White

Check out this Newsweek article about Branson’s new hobby.

Watch out, climate change. The businessmen are coming for you.

photo credit: FlyingSinger

“Let’s assume the odds [of climate disaster] were only 50/50. If you have a 50 percent chance of getting knocked over by a car crossing the road, you’re going to take out insurance, or you’re not going to cross the road.”

and:

“I think the world is moving much more to a world where the business community has to work closely with governments in helping them get a lot of problems resolved. And I’m a strong believer that business should be a force for good, not just a money-making machine for its shareholders.”

Sounds like socially-responsible investing to us.

“Another perspective on the “american education is better than you think” is that many countries test young and track kids into special schools and into specific skill sets. For say, in Germany, one kid may go into a trade skill job and the other may go to school to prep for college. The USA treats every. single. kid. like he or she is college track, and we’re actually KILLING OFF vocational/trade programs. It’s senseless.”

- girlwithalessonplan

What do you think? Should we be preparing every child in America for college instead of investing in vocational schools for students that are interested in them?

“Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.”

(allegedly coined by Brian O’Driscoll, captain of the Ireland Rugby team)

TILE’s take: It’s important to know your financial facts, but it’s even more important to figure out how apply them to your own life.

What’s a few billion here and there?

• Bill Gates net worth: $40 billion
• Amount donated to charity by Americans in 2008: $308 billion
• Wall Street bonuses in 2009: $114 billion
• Interest per year on the U.S. budget deficit: $199 billion

Click to see the whole image.

A monopoly is a company that has control over all sales and distribution of a product – to the extent that no other company can compete with it. For example, if your cable or utility companies are the only sellers of their service and you can’t really choose another company to buy from, they hold a monopoly on that particular service. Remember the game Monopoly? The goal was to own EVERYTHING.

Click to see the whole story.

This guy followed a single $10 bill as it changed hands across Middle America. It’s amazing how far and how fast the bill traveled, but what’s more amazing is that people actually let this writer follow them around until they used the bill to pay for something. Which was sometimes days later.

Click to read: http://bit.ly/eO3hhB