4 Totally Depressing Things Workers Say About Retirement

"Too often financial stress and the weight of uncertainty surrounding one's ability to accomplish their goals can cause them to remain inert and unwilling to look truths about their financial future in the eye," says Michael Liersch, director of behavioral finance for Merrill Lynch. "Recognizing that these challenges are in most instances not insurmountable, and admitting to one self that there are behavioral changes that can be made to address them, are simple but critical first steps. From there, even small, positive actions today can have a significant impact on improving near- and longer-term financial wellness."

BY Brian O'Connell

Evaluate Your Business Idea

Knowing the investment of time, money and emotion that goes into starting and building a business, you’d be well advised to follow these steps to get some insight into what lies ahead...

There’s no guarantee that one’s business will succeed – there are so many factors that one has to take into account. However, if you have scrutinised your business idea and put it through a thorough "reality check" before launching into it, your chances of failure are substantially less. Too often, entrepreneurs get caught up in the excitement of a prospective opportunity, and fail to take a step back to work through the finer details. Knowing the investment of time, money and emotion that goes into starting and building a business, you’d be well advised to follow these steps to get some insight into what lies ahead...

Three Things I’ve Learned From Warren Buffett

I’m looking forward to sharing posts from time to time about things I’ve learned in my career at Microsoft and the Gates Foundation. (I also post frequently on my blog.)

Last month, I went to Omaha for the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting. It’s always a lot of fun, and not just because of the ping-pong matches and the newspaper-throwing contest I have with Warren Buffett. It’s also fun because I get to learn from Warren and gain insight into how he thinks.
Here are three things I’ve learned from Warren over the years:

7 Rules Of Life