KIMBERLY PALMER, senior editor and personal finance columnist for US News & World Report, writes the magazine column and daily blog, Alpha Consumer. She appears regularly on CNBC’s On the Money and WTOP-FM, the top news station in Washington, DC. Kimberly holds an MA in public policy from the University of Chicago and a BA from Amherst College. She and her husband just welcomed their first baby and moved from a rented apartment into their own townhouse.
