By TIM GRANT, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Although nothing in this world is certain but death and taxes, even the funeral industry is getting squeezed by the recession.

For Pittsburgh-based Matthews International Corp., one of the world's leading suppliers of caskets and bronze cemetery markers, that's brought challenges and opportunities.

Gut instincts can be a reliable guide when falling in love, making friends or deciding whether or not to respect or trust someone. Yet when it comes to making investment decisions, it often pays to have second thoughts about first impressions.

While many workers are concerned about where they stand in today's topsy-turvy job market, middle-aged employees are especially worried that it would be difficult to find a comparable job if they were to become unemployed, according to a recent survey by ThirdAge, a social networking Web site for baby boomers and mid-lifers.

Millions of low-income families rely on check-cashing companies, money orders and payday loans to handle basic financial needs -- costly services that can undermine tight household budgets -- even as evidence shows many are receptive to buying on layaway and even contributing to retirement savings plans.

Credit-card companies love college students.

They're either cramming their mailboxes with pre-approved offers or setting up booths on campus, offering free T-shirts to any undergrad who will sign on the dotted line.

While love conquers all in romance novels and movies, when money problems rear their ugly heads in marriage, Cupid doesn't always stand a fighting chance.
Newlywed couples who underestimate the strain that bad money habits can cause on a marriage may make themselves more vulnerable to failure.

Target-date mutual funds are marketed as a safe and easy path to retirement planning, but their recent poor performance is raising questions about the "set it and forget it" style of long-term investing.

The poor and middle class aren't the only ones sweating bullets over their ability to retire when their working days are done. Even the wealthy are worried about their financial future, according to a recent study.

Stunned by falling home values and rising foreclosures nationwide, mortgage lenders have become more critical of the appraisal process and begun insisting the assessment of a home's worth be far more rigorous than it used to be.

Stunned by falling home values and rising foreclosures nationwide, mortgage lenders have become more critical of the appraisal process and begun insisting the assessment of a home's worth be far more rigorous than it used to be.