DailyFinance

Frequent travelers know that extra airline fees have become the norm. But resorts and hotels make it even harder to figure out what your final bill is going to add up to. Now, the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection is fighting back on our behalf.

Smart retirees have done everything they could lately to stretch their retirement accounts, but taking too little out of them will get you into big trouble with the IRS. Fail to withdraw your full required minimum distribution, and the penalty you pay to the tax man will be severe.

U.S. banks earned more from July through September than in any other quarter over the past six years. The increase is further evidence that the industry is strengthening four years after the 2008 financial crisis.

U.S. home prices rose 6.3 percent in October compared with a year ago, the largest yearly gain since July 2006. The jump adds to signs of a comeback in the housing market. But month-over-month, prices fell 0.2 percent in October from September, reflecting the end of the summer home-buying season.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wants Massachusetts Sen.-elect Elizabeth Warren to join the Banking Committee. A Senate Democratic official confirmed Tuesday that Warren's appointment was likely, but cautioned nothing was final until the Democratic caucus approves the move.

A federal appeals court has upheld a $319 million verdict over profits from the game show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and rejected Disney's request for a new trial. A jury decided in 2010 that Disney hid the show's profits from its creators, London-based Celador International.

In 2008, R.P. McCabe saw a $1 million investment in real estate disappear, not due to the recession, but a Ponzi scheme that robbed around 700 investors of $100 million. First he got mad. Then he got depressed. Next, he got curious. And then he wrote a novel based on the experiences of his fellow victims: "Betrayed."

House Republicans on Monday proposed a new 10-year, $2.2 trillion blueprint to President Barack Obama that calls for increasing the eligibility age for Medicare and lowering cost-of-living hikes for Social Security benefits.

By 2015, the U.S. Postal Service is expected to be losing money at a rate of $20 billion a year. But the Post Office has a plan intended to help stop the bleeding -- or at least slow it down. Next week, it will begin testing a new same-day delivery service called "Metro Post."

Swiss bank UBS AG is expected to pay more than $450 million to U.S. and British authorities to settle claims some of its employees submitted false Libor rates, the New York Times reported.

Internet radio giant Pandora and giant discounter Big Lots report their earnings; in entertainment, Disney is opening a huge new expansion, while Nintendo is thinking small; and some companies just can give money away fast enough -- as dividends.

What has young and middle-aged workers most worried about their retirement prospects? Essentially, everything -- from health care costs to tax rates to being able to afford to pay for a roof overhead -- according to a recent survey from T. Rowe Price and Harris Interactive.

A 52-year-old Missouri mechanic and his wife claimed their share Friday of the record $588 million Powerball jackpot. Mike and Cindy Hill are taking the lump sum option, which means that after taxes, they will receive about $136.5 million.

Black Friday has been around for decades, but in the last several years, the holiday shopping season has gained a number of additional "special" shopping days. So if you're looking for the right days for deals, (or when to avoid the crowds) here's a run-down of all the retail deal days worth knowing.

Home improvement retailer Menard says it will hire 50 workers from its home base in Wisconsin and fly them to North Dakota to staff a store in Minot, which is near the state's booming oil patch, a region that has more jobs than takers.