Your Money

What does your retirement portfolio look like?

You've probably got a 401(k) or other workplace savings plan, and hopefully you've been contributing enough to collect your employer's match. And unless your plan has a "directed brokerage" option that lets you invest your savings in stocks, you probably have your money in mutual funds or in something that generally acts like a mutual fund, maybe with a name like "managed pool" or "separate account."

A dividend is?a portion of a company's earnings that the firm pays directly to its shareholders. If The Tattoo Advertising Co. (Ticker: YOWCH) is earning roughly $4 in profit per share each year, it might decide to issue $1?per share annually to shareholders, then use the rest of the money to help build the business. If so, it will probably pay out $0.25 per share every three months.

For months now, I've been using Motley Fool CAPS to evaluate the Wall Street wizards who rate stocks, and gauge the likelihood that those ratings will pan out. In recurring columns like "Get to Know a Guru," we met the unsung heroes (and villains) of Wall Street. In "This Just In," we put the experts to the test, determining whether their upgrades and downgrades are worth the virtual paper they're printed on.

Bouncing a check can lead to ridiculous charges. Just by going a few dollars over your available balance, you can end up spending hundreds in overdraft fees.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Most of us haven't had to seriously answer that question in a long time. We have the careers we have, and maybe we like them and maybe we don't, but in most cases, we’ll keep doing some variation of what we're doing now until we retire.