Tess Vigeland

Former Host, Marketplace Money

SHORT BIO

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)

Survey: Workers feel jobs are stagnant

Nov 27, 2009
Jim Davis from the talent management firm DDI talks with Tess Vigeland about results from a survey conducted by his company that measured the satisfaction workers felt with their jobs.
Development Dimensions International logo
ddiworld.com

Where it pays to make it from scratch

Nov 24, 2009
Is it worth it to make your own butter? Jennifer Reese explores the most cost-effective approach to do-it-yourself food in her frugal-minded blog, The Tipsy Baker. Tess Vigeland paid her a visit and helped her make bagels.
Blogger Jennifer Reese boiling bagels in her kitchen. Reese explores the most cost-effective ways to make your own food in her blog, "The Tipsy Baker"
Tess Vigeland

Getting Personal

Nov 6, 2009
Business columnist Sheryl Harris of the Cleveland Plain Dealer helps Tess Vigeland tackle your money questions -- from what should be done with old financial documents to how a college student should handle a billing mix up.
Getting Personal
Marketplace

New GI Bill victim of its own popularity

Nov 6, 2009
A new GI Bill took effect this summer. In commemoration of Veterans Day this coming week, Tess Vigeland takes a look at the new bill, the thousands of people who are affected by it, and the backlog it has created.
Veterans display their medals.
Greg Wood/Staff

What to do with your credit cards

Nov 6, 2009
Ken Lin, CEO of CreditKarma.com, talks about how to handle your credit cards, especially now that companies are hiking interest rates, cutting credit lines and imposing new fees.
A credit card is swiped through machine at a Chicago toy store.
Tim Boyle / Getty Images

Talking money back at her old school

Nov 6, 2009
Tess Vigeland pays a visit to her old high school just outside Portland, Ore., to learn how teachers are now instructing students about money, and why more schools don't provide financial education.
Oregon's West Linn High School.
Tess Vigeland

Learning finance with guinea pigs

Oct 9, 2009
Bonnie Nevel and her 9-year-old daughter Rose Newell of Chapel Hill, N.C., share their story about Rose's valuable experience in saving and budgeting.
Bonnie Nevel with her daughter and guinea pigs.
Photo courtesy of Bonnie Nevel

Kids and money: Have you had the talk?

Oct 9, 2009
Personal finance expert and author Beth Kobliner and her 13-year-old daughter, Rebecca, tell Tess Vigeland some of the lessons they've learned in their talks about about managing money.
Newborn babies lay in their beds.
WALTRAUD GRUBITZSCH/AFP/Getty Images

Have we learned from the collapse?

Sep 11, 2009
In the year since the start of the economic meltdown, Americans have been saving more and paying off debts. But have we really changed our ways? Tess Vigeland gets opinions from experts and regular folks.
Counting pennies
iStockPhoto

Is the FDIC too big to fail?

Aug 27, 2009
Today the FDIC announced its rescue fund dropped by 20% in the second quarter. How concerned should we be about the solvency of the FDIC? Tess Vigeland talks to former FDIC chairman Bill Isaac.
FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair announces the bank and thrift industry earnings for the second quarter of 2009 in Washington, D.C. on August 27, 2009.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images