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)

A national sales tax on Black Friday purchases?

Nov 24, 2011
Cornell economics professor Robert Frank is proposing a national sales tax on all purchases made between 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day and 6 a.m. on the following Friday. Would you support it?
Home Depot advertises Black Friday sales on its website.
homedepot.com

Starbucks aims for job creation with new program

Nov 24, 2011
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz discusses how the coffee company is going to tackle the U.S. jobs problem by helping finance microloans to American small businesses.
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz speaks at an event in New York City.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Getting Personal: Money and your parents

Nov 24, 2011
Tess Vigeland and Marketplace's economics editor Chris Farrell answer listeners' personal finance questions.
iStockphoto

'Make the Bread, Buy the Butter'

Nov 24, 2011
We learn what's cheaper -- and tastier -- to make at home and what you should just buy from the grocery store.
Homemade bagels are cheaper than store-bought ones. Jam and butter, just buy at the store.
Tess Vigeland/Marketplace

A bricks-and-mortar bookstore in an online world

Nov 20, 2011
These days getting a book to read just takes a few clicks on your e-reader or computer. But author Ann Patchett argues that real, physical bookstores are still necessary today.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The dismal science of love and marriage

Nov 20, 2011
Marriage is no walk in the park. So authors Paula Szuchman and Jenny Anderson analyzed romantic relationships through the lens of economics to find solutions to everyday marital issues.
"Spousonomics: Using Economics to Master Love, Marriage, and Dirty Dishes" by Paula Szuchman and Jenny Anderson.
Courtesy of Random House

Piggy Bank Award: Dumpster diving for diamonds and platinum

Nov 18, 2011
A husband slogs through a dumpster to recover a lot of monetary and sentimental value.
Anna McGuinn's hand and her 1.5-carat diamond engagement ring.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

'Cash Mobs' try to boost small businesses

Nov 18, 2011
A group in Cleveland is organizing crowds to ambush local businesses with sales.
A close-up of the front of a U.S. 20-dollar bill lit with an ultra-violet light. $20 was the weapon of choice for a "cash mob" in Cleveland.
Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images

Can you handle a credit card?

Nov 17, 2011
They look like innocent pieces of plastic, but high interest rates and fees can ravage your wallet and your credit score. We talk to a financial expert about how to deal with credit cards responsibly.
Financial expert Carmen Wong Ulrich says credit cards aren't bad --  until you start looking at them as free cash.
iStockphoto

A Simple way to bank

Nov 17, 2011
The new website Simple wants to consolidate all your financial products -- like checking and savings accounts, CDs -- to help you avoid fees and maximize interest rates for savings.
A screen shot from the website Simple
simple.com