FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) -- The dollar briefly sank to a record low against the euro on Thursday for a second successive day amid speculation that the U.S. central bank will cut interest rates amid turbulence in financial markets.

The euro rose to $1.3927, topping the record $1.3914 reached the previous day. It then settled back to $1.3887 in early afternoon European trading and was below the $1.3908 it bought late Wednesday in New York.

A higher euro makes goods from the 13-nation euro zone more expensive for customers elsewhere, and cuts into manufacturers' profits if they try to keep the dollar price of products constant. While it makes U.S. exports cheaper, it cuts the spending power of Americans visiting Europe.

The euro has benefited from healthy economic news in the euro zone and the European Central Bank's campaign of gradual interest rate increases.

However, its current strength is widely seen primarily as a result of problems afflicting the dollar.

The subprime mortgage crisis in the U.S. and signs of economic frailty, particularly weak August jobs data, have prompted speculation that the Federal Reserve will

HONG KONG (Reuters) - U.S. investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE:BRK-A - News) continued to shed its stake in top Chinese oil producer PetroChina Inc (HKSE:0857.HK - News), selling about 92.66 million shares in late August for US$136 million, according to a regulatory filing in Hong Kong.

The sale of the shares at an average price of HK$11.473 follows Berkshire's sale of 16.9 million PetroChina shares in late July.

The sale cuts Berkshire's holding of PetroChina's (NYSE:PTR - News) freely tradeable shares to 9.72 percent, or 2.05 billion shares, from 10.16 percent.

PetroChina's share price has risen about 35 percent over the past year on high oil prices and vigorous Chinese demand, although domestic rivals CNOOC Ltd (HKSE:0883.HK - News) and Sinopec Corp (HKSE:0386.HK - News) have seen stock price rises of 56.5 and

By your mid-40s, you've worked for at least two decades and, with any luck, built a nice nest egg. Now, don't blow it.

"Around that time you should be shifting from accumulating assets to preserving assets," says Sue Stevens, director of financial planning at Morningstar (NasdaqGS:MORN - News) and president of financial planning firm Stevens Portfolio Design in Chicago.

One of the challenges for 45-to-55-year-olds is managing very large expenses such as college education and perhaps health care for an elderly parent -- that's why they're often called the Sandwich Generation. "Most people don't realize how much life is going to cost them," says Holly Isdale, head of Wealth Advisory Services at Lehman Brothers (NYSE:LEH - News) Investment Management in New York. In particular, many folks underestimate the cost of retirement, she says. You also need to get a handle on disability costs.

Once you've assessed future liabilities, Isdale recommends keeping your estate plan simple. She sees many people who choose exotic or complex strategies find that their accountant and attorney haven't coordinated with each other and accounts don't get placed in the proper trust. "An estate plan will fail if you haven't done