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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)

AARP challenges HUD on reverse mortgages

Mar 11, 2011
Tess Vigeland talks to Jean Constantine-Davis, a lawyer with the AARP Foundation, about the AARP's lawsuit against the U.S. housing department.
The shadow of a house key falls over a mortgage application form.
Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Future retirees beware: Biased investment advice

Mar 11, 2011
Tess Vigeland talks to Washington Post columnist Michelle Singletary about what people should be aware of when they receive advice on their 401(k) plans.
Retirement egg
iStockPhoto

Getting Personal: Starting a business, new investing rules

Mar 10, 2011
Tess Vigeland and David Lazarus of the Los Angeles Times answer your questions about the new rules of investing for twenty-somethings, starting a business and an update on a previous caller and his dream convertible.
Getting Personal
Marketplace

Wisconsin lawmakers agree on one thing

Feb 21, 2011
And this final note. Lawmakers in Wisconsin continued their stalemate over budget cuts today. They're now in week two of protests over a plan to...

A habit of learning about money early

Feb 21, 2011
We all know the three "r's" for school: reading, writing, and arithmetic. But some education advocates want to add another mandatory piece of school curriculum: personal finance.
Sammy Rabbit talks to students at KIPP Raices Academy.
Josh Rogosin/Marketplace Money

The psychology of why we hide purchases from our spouses

Feb 5, 2011
A recent study reveals that 80 percent of married couples hide purchases from each other. But why?
Tedd Keith sits in the latest car he bought and hid from his wife Mindi -- it's a 1931 Ford Model A Tudor.
Josh Rogosin/Marketplace Money

VIDEO: What's In Your Wallet, Los Angeles?

Jan 7, 2011
A couple of years back the Wall Street Journal had this great blog feature called "What's In Your Wallet." No relation to the Capital One ad slo...

What popular culture tells us about wealth

Dec 25, 2010
In reality, there may not be many of us who actually know someone who is rich. Instead, we get all our perceptions of wealth from popular culture -- TV, movies, books, the Internet. Tess Vigeland takes a look back at the trends of wealth throughout entertainment's past.
Kim Kardashian. Reality TV like "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" has become a way for many in America to perceive wealth.
David Livingston/Getty Images

What $250k gets you: Rodeo Drive vs. Rodeo Road

Dec 25, 2010
A walk down Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills is a lot different from walking down the similarly named Rodeo Road, which is just six miles away in South Los Angeles. UCLA public policy professor Michael Stoll takes us on a tour of the two neighborhoods.
Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, Calif., is an icon of wealth in the U.S. Six miles away at the corner of Rodeo Road and Crenshaw, it's a different story.
Stephen Hoffman/Marketplace

Apparently, Americans are getting wealthier

Dec 9, 2010
And this final note, one that is hard to imagine for millions of Americans still looking for jobs....