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Tess Vigeland

Former Host, Marketplace Money

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Tess Vigeland was the host of Marketplace Money, a weekly personal finance program that looks at why we do what we do with our money: your life, with dollar signs. Vigeland and her guests took calls from listeners to answer their most vexing money management questions, and the program helped explain what the latest business and financial news means to our wallets and bank accounts.

Vigeland joined Marketplace in September 2001, as a host of Marketplace Morning Report. She rose at o-dark-thirty to deliver the latest in business and economic news for nearly four years before returning briefly to reporting and producing. She began hosting Marketplace Money in 2006 and ended her run as host in November of 2012. . Vigeland was also a back-up host for Marketplace.

Prior to joining the team at Marketplace, Vigeland reported and anchored for Oregon Public Broadcasting in Portland, where she received a Corporation for Public Broadcasting Silver Award for her coverage of the political scandal involving Senator Bob Packwood (R-Ore.). She co-hosted the weekly public affairs program Seven Days on OPB television, and also produced an hour-long radio documentary about safety issues at the U.S. Army chemical weapons depot in Eastern Oregon. Vigeland next served as a reporter and backup anchor at WBUR radio in Boston. She also spent two years as a sports reporter for NPR’s Only a Game.

For her outstanding achievements in journalism, Vigeland has earned numerous awards from the Associated Press and Society of Professional Journalists. Vigeland has a bachelor's degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She is a contributor to The New York Times and is a volunteer fundraiser for the Pasadena Animal League and Pasadena Humane Society. In her free time, Vigeland studies at the Pasadena Conservatory of Music, continuing 20-plus years of training as a classical pianist.

Latest Stories (863)

What makes us open our wallets

Dec 23, 2011
What is it about consumers that drives us to want so much stuff? You could blame Madison Avenue, but marketers alone can't make us open up our wallets to spend. Tess talks with author James Roberts about why we buy.
Consumer spending is up, but we can't just shop our way to a recovery.
Michael Nagle/Getty Images

What's on the menu for next year?

Dec 21, 2011
Tess talks with David Lazarus, Kathy Kristof, Liz Weston and Chris Farrell about what we might be able to expect in 2012.
iStockphoto

Cashless apps: Shopping without a wallet

Dec 16, 2011
New apps are allowing consumers to use their smartphones to shop and not have to carry a dime. We take one out for a road test.
New apps are allowing consumers to use their smartphones to shop and not have to carry a dime.
Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Taking the Card Case out for a spin

Dec 16, 2011
Tess takes her newly downloaded Card Case app for a spin into the real world.
Card Case allows you to pay for goods and services without you pulling out wallet.
Courtesy of Square

Piggy Bank Award: For a year of sound advice

Dec 16, 2011
We gathered our regular personal finance advisers to give the gift of saving.
iStockphoto

Effortless spending

Dec 15, 2011
Credit cards made spending easy. Now a number of new smartphone apps make it even easier. How to buy, buy, buy, without even reaching for your wallet.
Apps can convert your smartphone into a credit card.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Image

Going cashless isn't the end of the world

Dec 15, 2011
Some people believe that as society uses less cash, we get closer to the End of Days. Tess Vigeland asks a priest whether we should be worried about credit cards and apps that allow you to spend freely without even opening your wallet.
What does the Book of Revelation really say about a cashless economy?
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Piggy Bank Award: An homage, in oils

Dec 9, 2011
One fan expressed her love for our show, and hopefulness about the economic future, in a painting.
"Bacon and Eggs: A Recession Painting" by Suzie Baker
Suzie Baker

Building a digital legacy for your children

Dec 9, 2011
One father discusses why he bought a digital trust fund for his newborn daughter.
Creating a "digital trust fund" may help junior in an increasingly wired world.
Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images

The economy, then and now

Dec 9, 2011
Long-time L.A. Times financial columnist Tom Petruno shares what he has learned about economics and personal finance in his 30-plus years covering the markets.
A trader on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images