Under the 1974 headline, "Look At All Those Beautiful, Scantily Clad Girls Out There!," this profile in Forbes magazine captures Warren Buffett's personality and chronicles the singular path he cut through the investment world. Though the piece is 34 years old, it sheds light on the man behind Berkshire Hathaway as the company's shareholders meet this weekend in Omaha, Neb.

Robert Lenzner and Evelyn Rusli will be reporting from Omaha all weekend. You can find the latest on the shareholders' meeting here.

How do you contemplate the current stock market, we asked Warren Buffett, the sage of Omaha, Neb.

"Like an oversexed guy in a harem," he shot back. "This is the time to start investing."

The Dow was below 600 when he said that. Before we could get Buffett's words in print, it was up almost 15% in one of the fastest rallies ever.

We called him back and asked if he found the market as sexy at 660 as he did at 580. "I don't know what the averages are going to do next," he replied, "but there are still plenty of bargains around." He remarked that the situation reminded him of the early '50s.

Warren Buffett doesn't talk much, but when he does it's well worth listening to. His sense of timing has

HOUSTON (AP) -- Don't expect motorists to sympathize, but Exxon Mobil Corp. says gasoline prices didn't do it any favors in the first quarter.

Still, the world's largest publicly traded oil company said Thursday it earned $10.9 billion to start 2008, the second-biggest U.S. quarterly profit ever. The smaller Marathon Oil Corp. said its profit rose 2 percent to $731 million, well ahead of Wall Street forecasts.

As in the past, the extraordinary results from Exxon Mobil prompted critics to insist the company and other major oil producers were profiting at the expense of frustrated consumers, who are paying more than ever to drive. Indeed, retail gas prices on Thursday rose to a new high above $3.62 a gallon.

But because gasoline prices have not kept pace with oil's stunning ascent to triple digits, Exxon Mobil and other big oil companies have seen far lower margins from refining and selling gasoline and other petroleum products.

That's because Exxon Mobil and others don't produce enough oil to satisfy their refining operations, so they have to buy crude at market prices too.

Exxon Mobil said earnings at its refining and marketing arm were off 39 percent in the most recent quarter, one reason overall results fell well short of Wall Street's lofty forecasts.

Year over year, however, earnings for the Irving, Texas-based company rose 17 percent, lifted largely

Benefit Reductions Are One Possibility, Even for Part-Timers

It is no secret that more Americans are working past retirement age. And as economic pressures mount, the decision to remain in the work force -- or return after retiring -- might be less about choice and more about necessity. Regardless, many professionals don't want to stop working -- they just want to work less.

But what workers with defined-benefit pensions and those who already have tapped Social Security benefits might not realize is that there are significant financial disincentives that make working into retirement age a tricky proposition.

Without understanding where the financial time bombs lie, many older workers could find their Social Security payments reduced and their pension-plan-payout rates at serious risk, says Chantel Sheaks, a principal at Buck Consultants, an employee-benefits and human-resources consulting firm.

"People want to move forward and forge new careers, but they don't want to be penalized," says Jeri Sedlar, an expert on the aging work force and author of "Don't Retire, Rewire."

A company's pension benefits typically are based on a worker's salary at the time of retirement. Say you retire as a full-time employee earning $120,000. Your pension payout is based on that salary. But if you

If prices keep rising, you may need to think differently about a few things. Have you seen the price of milk lately? It's up 13% since last year.

The pain isn't only at the supermarket, however. Hospital costs are up 8%; gas, 33%; and prices overall climbed 4% (vs. less than 3% annually over the past decade). Plus, with the Fed pumping money into the economy, the price pinch probably isn't improving soon.

No wonder inflation ranked as the No. 1 financial worry in a recent CNN/Money poll. While we're nowhere near the 1970s - yet - it's a good time to review how inflation changes the rules.

Rule 1: You can lose by saving

A one-year CD now pays 1.97% a year on average. At 4% inflation, you lose 2% a year before taxes. Best strategy: Shop for top savings rates. Keep bond and CD maturities short.

Rule 2: Stuff beats paper assets...on paper

When inflation is high, tangible goods - gold, oil, gems, art, wheat, even canned tuna - tend to have an edge over securities, especially bonds.

Reason: Because of their rarity, beauty or usefulness, these items have an intrinsic worth that doesn't