The Motley Fool Staff at Fool.com has compiled a list of six ways that even the most cautious penny-pincher can end up ruining his or her retirement. Here are six things to avoid as you plan for your comfortable retirement:
Missing out on easy opportunities. Most employers provide a variety of ways to help you save for your retirement, such as through offering a 401(k) plan and employer match programs. Participating in your workplace savings program is an easy way to set aside money for your retirement.
Thinking you’ll get to in next year. Retirement has a way of sneaking up on …read more

A few weeks ago, I started following thefool.com’s “This Week’s 5 Smartest Stock Moves,” and although the list reviews highlights from the past week, I thought it would be interesting to see if any of the picks turned out to be good going forward.
The moves below were originally posted by Rick Munarriz on 8/28, and below you will find how they panned out for the week of 8/31 – 9/4.
TiVo (TIVO) – Price when reported by the Fool: $10.00. Closing price on 9/4: $10.41. One-week rate of return: 4.1 percent.
Yahoo! (YHOO) – Price when reported by the Fool: $14.85. Closing price on …read more

I recently read a post on themotleyfool.com entitled The Simple Way to Beat the Market. The author, Dan Caplinger, suggested you can beat the market by trading on analyst upgrades and downgrades.
His chart compared the performance of seven stocks versus the S&P 500 on the same day that analyst recommendations were announced. The sample was taken from March 30 – April 2.
Morgan Stanley (MS), Autozone (AZO), Apollo Group (APOL), The Knot (KNOT) and Mosaic (MOS) were downgraded while Microsoft (MSFT) and Alcoa (AA) were upgraded.
The stocks that were downgraded underperformed the S&P 500 and the upgraded stocks outperformed the S&P 500.
Seems very simple, but …read more

I cringe whenever I hear someone boast about how “green” their 5,000-plus-square-foot home is. I say your home can’t be environmentally friendly when it gobbles up that so much space, and when it requires so much raw material to build.