How to be Rich, Happy and Free from Scams

by Beecher Tuttle   Successful traders tend to have very particular personalities . Good ones are compulsive, methodical, intelligent contrarians. Being a great trader, though, that requires you to leave your heart and compassion at home, so says former hedge fund trader Turney Duff. In an op-ed for CNBC , Duff opines on the learned ability of taking emotion out of trading – way, way, way out of it. To the point that you equate catastrophe with opportunity. Duff, who lost his millions to drugs and bad investments, details his maturation, if you will, as a trader. In 1999, he was appalled as colleagues digested the news of the Columbine High School massacre by immediately jumping into a discussion on whether they should go long or short on gun stocks. A half-decade later, as he became a more seasoned trader, Duff focused every minute of every day looking at ways to unlock opportunities in the market as fear of the SARS virus overtook Asia. “And by being in ...

Extinction by asteroid probably isn't something that keeps most of us up at night. But it does at the B612 Foundation , a nonprofit set up by several former Silicon Valley execs to track and deflect asteroids on a collision course with Earth. The group is in the process of raising $200 million to build a telescope that will orbit the sun somewhere near Venus, scanning the solar system for Earth-bound asteroids. If one is spotted, B612 will try to prevent an impact with our planet. But blowing it up Bruce Willis-style isn't a good idea, said Diane Murphy, a spokeswoman for the organization, as that could simply create smaller -- but still problematic -- asteroids. Instead, the group plans to tug it off course using a spacecraft that would fly alongside the rock and exert gravitational pull. "It's the first deep space mission for the private sector," said Murphy. By Steve Hargreaves   @hargreavesCNN  

Everything is a numbers game—and marital infidelity is no exception. According to a recent survey, the average affair lasts six months and costs $444 a month, or $2,664 in total. The survey, conducted by a U.K. retail company researching American spending habits, broke down the expenses incurred in a typical fling, such as hotel bills ($123), dinner and drinks ($162), gifts ($54), and date activities (movie tickets, $69, and "other," $36.) But these estimates may only be the tip of the iceberg. Experts say the cost of an affair is way higher—in fact, the sky's the limit.   "Secret cell phones, airline tickets, secret credit cards, hotel rooms—the costs can be a...

by Sarah Butcher It’s not easy to get a job at Goldman Sachs. As we reported earlier this month, the bank rejects 96% of applicants for its analyst (junior) positions and receives 43,000 applications each year. Most applications to ‘the firm’ are clearly wasted, therefore. How can you establish whether your application to work at Goldman Sachs is destined for electronic annihilation? Before you even bother applying, check yourself against the following points. Any one is likely to be fatal. 1. You think you are God’s gift to banking Believe it or not, Goldman Sachs likes to hire people who are not big-headed. The people who work there are, “smart and humble” according to one of its MBA recruiters . Lloyd Blankfein himself said last year that Goldman doesn’t like to hire people who are full of themselves or think they deserve to work there. “This is not a place that recruits entitled kids,” said Blankfein. Instead, it seems that Goldman likes to hire quietly confide...

By Jim Wang How much cash do you have hidden around your home? If the answer is more than $100, then you have too much cash in your house. We all keep a little money on hand for those rare occasions -- like the times you need cash because the neighborhood kid offers to shovel your driveway or mow your lawn. You want to help the enterprising young child but don't want the hassle of driving to an ATM, so you keep some cash around the house. But if you're hiding money in your home because you don't feel it's safe in a bank , you're making a huge mistake. During the recession, when everyone was panicking because banks were failing, lots of people decided their cash was safer in their home and out of the bank. In reality, that's not true. Here's why: 1. You aren't earning interest on your money. The best financial reason for not leaving cash at home is that you don't earn any interest on your savings. The interest from a bank ...

It is only a matter of time before the stock market plunges by 50% or more, according to several reputable experts. “We have no right to be surprised by a severe and imminent stock market crash,” explains Mark Spitznagel, a hedge fund manager who is notorious for his hugely profitable billion-dollar bet on the 2008 crisis. “In fact, we must absolutely expect it." Unfortunately Spitznagel isn’t alone. “We are in a gigantic financial asset bubble,” warns Swiss adviser and fund manager Marc Faber. “It could burst any day.” Faber doesn’t hesitate to put the blame squarely on President Obama’s big government policies and the Federal Reserve’s risky low-rate policies, which, he says, “penalize the income earners, the savers who save, your parents — why should your parents be forced to speculate in stocks and in real estate and everything under the sun?” Billion-dollar investor Warren Buffett is rumored to be preparing for a crash as well. The “Warren Buffett Indicator...

By David Ning | U.S.News & World Report LP A comfortable retirement without money worries is a goal everyone strives for sooner or later. But even if you don't quite have the motivation to save aggressively for retirement yet, do yourself a favor and don't damage your path to financial independence too severely. Here are a few disasters you need to avoid, which will make your life much easier when you are interested in preparing for your future: Marrying a spendthrift. Marrying a spendthrift is a big no-no if you ever want to amass a solid nest egg. It's incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to save enough for a comfortable retirement unless both you and your significant other are on the same page. In fact, money problems always rank high in the reasons why people get divorced . Getting into credit card debt. Don't swipe your credit cards without thinking it through. Credit card debt can creep up on you, and before you know it you will amass...