Greed is Good - These immortal words spoken by movie arch-villain (and business school student uber-hero) Mr. Gordon Gecko, in the movie Wall Street, started myself and many other traders on a lifetime journey discovering the financial markets.

Most traders start out full of greed, feeling like masters of the universe. This feeling is only reinforced if the trader is lucky enough to have a big winner or series of wins right out the gate.

Unfortunately, the winning streak ends and the trader begins his real market education.

Most get washed out, quitting at the first sign of adversity. Although "greed is good" made a great line in the movie, the reality is far different for the vast majority of traders. Greed kills is much more applicable for the active market participant. On the other hand, greed is an essential component for successful trading.

It may sounds like an inherent contradiction - Greed Kills yet greed is essential for success? I will explain in this article.

It's Important to Realize There are Two Types of Greed

There are two different types of greed. The ego-driven greed and the controlled greed. Ego driven greed

Michael Bell is a young lawyer on the fast track. He has maxed out annual contributions to his 401(k) over the past four years. Now he faces a choice: Should he continue to contribute to his traditional 401(k) -- which saves him more than $5,000 a year in state and federal taxes -- or should he switch to a Roth 401(k), which offers no upfront tax breaks but promises tax-free income in retirement?

Bell, who works for a law firm in Washington, D.C., wants to make sure his retirement account is as large as possible and hesitates to give up the current tax break. "But there's a good possibility that tax rates will increase in the future," he says. "Maybe the Roth 401(k) is a more appropriate approach."

Tax Hedge

James Lange, a CPA and attorney in Pittsburgh, agrees that Bell, 34, is a good candidate for a Roth 401(k). "If he is going to be in the same tax bracket or higher when he retires, which is quite likely, the Roth 401(k) is the best way to go," says Lange, author of Retire Secure (Wiley, $24.95; www.paytaxeslater.com). Even if tax rates are slightly lower when Bell retires in 30 years, the Roth 401(k) would still be a better choice because of the potential for three decades of tax-free earnings, says Lange. In a traditional 401(k), your earnings also grow unfettered by taxes, but all of your withdrawals (including your earnings) are taxed at your ordinary income-tax rate.

Just as investors should diversify their retirement assets across a broad class of stocks and bonds, they

Betting isn't the only money issue surrounding March Madness, the NCAA Division 1 Men's Basketball Championship.

The traits of the tournament's best teams can make your personal finances worthy of winning a trophy.

Here are lessons about money you can learn from watching the games:

1. Good Coaching Creates Success

The teams that make it to the tournament have talent, but they also have good coaching. The coaches are able to get the most out of the talent and make them better as a team than they are as individual players. They also instill goals and a winning attitude in the players to achieve the most that they can.

You should also have a personal finance coach, whether that be someone actively helping you out or an author that motivates you to do the right things to get your finances in order through books and other media.

There are many to choose from, but having someone to coach you along the way will make the financial

Consumer confidence plunged to a five-year low Tuesday as tight credit markets, rising prices and worsening job prospects weigh on American consumers. But Gerri Willis is here to give us reasons for optimism.

1. Low mortgage rates

This is good news for homeowners who want to refinance into a fixed rate loan.

Today, the traditional 30-year mortgage rate is less than 6%, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. And if you have an adjustable-rate mortgage, Fed rate cuts will make your adjustment less painful.

If you have a home equity line of credit, you will also see your interest rate decline. A majority of HELOCs are tied to the prime rate. And those rates have fallen as the fed cuts rates.

And there's also good news out there if you are in the market for a jumbo loan. Traditionally, rates on jumbo loans - mortgages up to $417,000 - were high because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac couldn't purchase loans over that amount.

But thanks to the economic stimulus package that passed in congress, that limit is raised to $729,000

For a brief moment this week, the housing crisis took a back seat to another once hot-button economic issue: the financial health of Social Security.

The Social Security trustees issued their annual report Tuesday, and it showed how soon the system will run into trouble.

The problem is well-known: Funded by taxes on workers' wages, the Social Security system currently takes in more funds than it has promised to pay out to retirees. And the federal government has been borrowing those surplus funds over the years. But that surplus is shrinking, and eventually the system won't be able to pay out all of the promised benefits.

The trustees estimate that by 2017, the funds going in to Social Security will be less than the benefits promised.

The government will cover the difference by paying back the surplus it borrowed plus interest, which could be a problem, given other big-ticket items that lawmakers want to fund in the next few years. Namely, reforming the Alternative Minimum Tax and extending some or all of President Bush's tax cuts.

By 2041, the trustees have estimated that the trust fund - that is, the money the government owes the system - will be tapped out and in-coming funds would cover only 78% of promised benefits.

"Whereas Social Security has been helping to prop up the budget, it will become a diminishing resource,"

NEW YORK (AP) -- Bear Stearns Cos. Chairman James Cayne on Thursday dumped his entire stake in the embattled investment bank for $61 million as it appears closer to a takeover by JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Cayne sold 5.66 million shares for exactly $10.84 a share on March 25, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. His stake was once valued at about $1 billion when the stock was trading at $171.50 per share.

His stake at one point plunged to about $27 million when JPMorgan announced nearly two weeks ago it would acquire the No. 5 U.S. investment bank for $2 per share. JPMorgan later upped that offer to $10 per share, and agreed to acquire 39.5 percent of the company without a shareholder vote to block any rival offers.

On Thursday, Bear Stearns Chief Executive Alan Schwartz said in a letter filed to the SEC that the company will issue 95 million shares to JPMorgan within the next 10 days as part of the takeover deal. He said the latest agreement was "essential to maintaining the company's financial stability."

In addition, Schwartz said Bear Stearns is able to bypass shareholder approval because "securing stockholder approval would seriously jeopardize the financial viability" of the company. About one-third of the company's shares are owned by Bear Stearns' 14,000 employees.

Cayne, who serves as non-executive chairman, was said to be unhappy about the deal struck to sell the

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The economy nearly sputtered out at the end of the year and probably is faring even worse now amid continuing housing, credit and financial woes.

The Commerce Department reported Thursday that the gross domestic product, or GDP, increased at a feeble 0.6 percent annual rate from October through December. The reading, unchanged from a previous estimate a month ago, provided stark evidence of just how much the economy has weakened. In the previous three months, the economy had a sizzling 4.9 percent growth rate.

The GDP measures the value of all goods and services produced in the United States and is the best barometer of economic health.

Many economists say they believe growth in the current January-through-March quarter will be even weaker than the 0.6 percent figure from late 2007. A growing number says the economy actually may be shrinking now. Under one rough rule, the economy needs to contract for six straight months to be considered in a recession. The government will release its estimate for first-quarter GDP in late April.

"The economy just kept its head above water" in the fourth quarter, said Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at Global Insight. "We think that GDP will decline, albeit slightly, during the first half of 2008," he said. "The first half outlook is bleak."

Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, in an interview with The Associated Press, said, "We know the first

In their new book "Fiscal Fitness," fitness guru Jack LaLanne and investment adviser Matthew J. Rettick team up to offer "8 Steps to Wealth and Health" that they believe will help readers live well into their retirement while having enough money to enjoy it.

According to a statistic in their book, 57 percent of seniors have assets below $5,000, or less than the cost of one month of nursing home care. And only 19 percent of elderly people claim assets equal to three or more years of the average cost of nursing home care.

"The problems we have in America with obesity and the fact that we're just eating up Medicare and Medicaid with medical expenses because we're not in good shape amounts to a national catastrophe," says Rettick, CEO of Nashville, Tenn.-based Covenant Reliance Producers. "The No. 1 fear used to be dying shortly after retirement. But that's been replaced by the fear of outliving one's assets."

Your health and your finances are intertwined, the book insists, and lack of physical and fiscal fitness is all about risk. Follow these 8 steps, the authors say, and you'll be ready to leverage your longevity.

8 steps to fitness

1. Eat Right: Long-Term Insurance for Your Body

NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil prices soared more than $4 a barrel Wednesday as two big market drivers -- lower than expected fuel inventories and another slide in the dollar -- had traders buying in force for the first time in a week.

Prices rose across the energy spectrum, marking a reversal in sentiment from last week when falling demand for oil, gasoline and other fuels and a strengthening dollar pulled oil down nearly 10 percent from a record near $112.

The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said Wednesday that gasoline and distillate supplies, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, dropped much more than forecast last week, while crude oil inventories were unchanged. Analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had expected crude supplies to rise by 1.7 million barrels.

Investors were already buying oil before the release of the report; the falling dollar, which was hurt Wednesday by disappointing economic data, again raised oil's appeal as a hedge against inflation.

Light, sweet crude for May delivery rose $4.68 to settle at $105.90 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

"The bullish inventory report on top of the concerns about the dollar is just exacerbating the move that

For as long as I can remember, adding the phrase "like a girl" to the end of whatever you were saying was a put-down, an insult, something to come to fisticuffs over. Little boys the world over hated being told that they, for example, "threw like a girl." I'm not defending the statement, and as a member of the fairer sex, I certainly don't agree with its intent, but hey, that's been the case from the playground on up.

When it comes to investing, though, you could do a whole lot worse than learning to "invest like a girl." And that's why I'd bet Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B), wouldn't get offended if I told him to his face that he invests like a girl. In fact, he'd probably thank me (and perhaps slip me a box of See's Candies). Hang on to see why -- and stay tuned for our soon-to-be published book on this very topic.

What makes Buffett Buffett
What is it that makes Warren Buffett such a consistently phenomenal investor? Is it that he's zigging and zagging along with the market's every move? Is he trading all the time, buying this and selling that, racking up taxes and commissions all the while?

No, no -- what makes Warren Buffett the investor whom every investor wants to be like is that he approaches investing differently from the way most men do. He's patient and does thorough research. He waits for the right price to buy. He seeks to never sell the companies he invests in. He's the anti-trader, if

Paying taxes is never fun. Once you retire, though, this irksome obligation becomes especially painful. Rather than sharing a portion of your earnings, you'll be sending Uncle Sam a piece of the hard-earned savings you were banking on to carry you through your golden years.

It's surprising, then, that tax planning is often overlooked by retirees. "It amazes me how much time people spend picking investments, pouring over stock reports and mutual fund reports, but they don't think about taxes," says Dean Barber, owner and chief investment officer of Barber Financial Group in Lenexa, Kan. "I always tell them, it's not important how much money you make, it's important how much you get to keep."

Take, for example, Social Security income. It's a benefit funded by taxes that you pay throughout your working life, yet once you start receiving it, you could get taxed yet again. "Seniors hate that worse than anything," says Ed Slott, a Rockville Centre, N.Y.-based certified public accountant and author of "Your Complete Retirement Planning Roadmap." The pain could be substantial: Generally speaking, you owe Uncle Sam tax on up to 85% of your Social Security benefits once half of your benefits and the rest of your income — including dividends and interest on taxable investments and withdrawals from tax-deferred accounts, such as IRAs — exceed $34,000 for a single filer or $44,000 for a married couple, filing jointly. (Click here for more details.)

The good news is that some careful planning could help reduce the hit. Here are five smart (and perfectly

Spring has sprung, an old children's poem goes, which means many people are knee-deep in spring cleaning -- scrubbing floors, clearing out the garage and tossing all the clutter that's gathered over the winter months.

It's also an ideal time to consider sprucing up your financial life.

It's not just about tossing out old paperwork; it's about doing the regular maintenance to ensure that you're getting the most out of every dollar. A regular checkup can help you get -- and stay -- on track with your finances.

Spring is an ideal time to schedule in a few hours for your financial review. Clearing out the financial clutter won't just make your life simpler; it could save you some serious cash. Here are five good areas to get started.

Banking

● What to do: Consolidate accounts, streamline with online statements and bill pay, toss old statements and checks.

● Time involved: A solid hour will get the ball rolling, but you may need to follow up during the next few

A diversified strategy and periodic readjustments will help you steer clear of market madness. Tune out all the noise and stick to the game plan.

Question: I generally review my portfolio twice a year to see if I need to make any adjustments. But given that the market has been down in recent months, I’m wondering whether I’m better off waiting until the market rebounds or sticking to my usual schedule. What do you think? –Todd M., Bryan, Ohio

Answer: I assume that when you talk about adjusting your portfolio twice a year, you mean that you’re rebalancing to bring your mix of stocks and bonds back to its original proportions.

And if that’s the case, then the strategy you’ve been following up to now makes perfect sense to me. As different investments earn different returns, your portfolio’s proportions will shift over time. So you periodically need to sell some shares of investments that have done relatively well and plow the proceeds into those that have trailed - or just funnel new money into laggards - to bring your portfolio back to its proper balance of risk vs. return.

Granted, one could argue about which of the many different rebalancing strategies available is the most effective. (I’m a member of the “once a year is enough” club myself, mostly because it’s easy and investors are more likely to stick with what’s simple.) But the most important thing is that you’re consistent

NEW YORK (AP) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s higher offer for Bear Stearns on Monday gave the investment bank control of nearly 40 percent of its ailing rival, blunting the threat that angry shareholders could scuttle the deal.

The $2.4 billion lifeline to rescue the investment house stands a strong chance of success -- assuaging investors unhappy with a $2 per share offer by upping it to $10 apiece. JPMorgan has faced an outcry among Bear Stearns shareholders about the lowball offer, and faced the possibility that rival deals would begin to surface.

Most analysts said a higher bid was unlikely, but some bondholders have reportedly been buying the stock in order to ensure their right to vote for a deal and prevent a bankruptcy that would wipe them out. Bear Stearns' shares -- which hit $160 last year and still traded near $80 earlier in the month -- nearly doubled to $11.25 on Monday.

However, for a company whose market value went from $8.3 billion to about $1 billion in a little more than a week, the revised deal was still not the outcome investors hoped for. It also didn't help out the 14,000 employees -- one-third owners in Bear Stearns -- who have seen the value of their stock holdings plummet and still face the potential of massive layoffs.

"Whether you got $2 or you got $10 was the difference between nothing and nothing," said John Buckingham, chief executive of Al Frank Asset Management, which held shares of Bear Stearns. "For an

With home values tumbling and the mortgage market still in crisis, you'd think that Billie and Rodney Wylde would shelve their plans to build their North Carolina dream home - at least until the market stabilizes.

Not a chance. The thirtysomethings are set to pour the foundation on a 2,100-square-foot farmhouse with a wraparound porch in East Bend, a few miles from where they currently live. Estimated construction cost: $140,000.

The couple hope to be able to move in as soon as November. "All the media talk about is this crisis," says Billie, an elementary school guidance counselor. "But it's actually a very good time to build."

She's right. Behind the dark clouds hanging over the housing market is a very compelling silver lining: The cost of building the home of your dreams is coming down. "If one or two years ago it cost you $300,000 to build a custom home, today it should cost tens of thousands of dollars less," says Jim Haughey, chief economist at Reed Construction Data.

Why? With new-home demand drying up, the price of some construction materials has started to sink like a poorly laid foundation. Framing lumber is now 18% cheaper than it was 18 months ago, while drywall is selling for 40% less.

And because overextended developers picked up too much land during the bubble - and are motivated to