NEW YORK (Reuters) – In the financial world, arbitrage is a trading strategy that earns profit by exploiting price differences between markets.

By that definition, Dan Prescher is a sophisticated arbitrageur. The 58-year-old makes a decent living as a special projects editor for International Living magazine. But by residing in the village of Cotacachi in the Ecuadorian Andes, he has leveraged his income into a better lifestyle than he would ever enjoy stateside.

NEW YORK, May 17 (Reuters) – In the financial world,
arbitrage is a trading strategy that earns profit by exploiting
price differences between markets.

By that definition, Dan Prescher is a sophisticated
arbitrageur. The 58-year-old makes a decent living as a special
projects editor for International Living magazine. But by
residing in the village of Cotacachi in the Ecuadorian Andes, he
has leveraged his income into a better lifestyle than he would
ever enjoy stateside.

NEW YORK, May 3 (Reuters) – If there is a stock market
superhero these days, it is the humble dividend.

The companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index
doled out a record $281.5 billion in dividends in 2012, and
payouts in 2013 are slated to rise even higher.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – If you were thinking of inviting Marissa Anwar to your wedding, you might want to save the postage. She is not interested.

Nothing personal. It is just that the 29-year-old operations consultant from Waterloo, Ontario, is tapped out. Last year she attended six weddings — some of which actually had two ceremonies, because of different faiths involved — and was a bridesmaid three separate times.

NEW YORK, April 18 (Reuters) – When the housing market went
bust, house flippers went into hibernation. Now, as the recovery
creeps along, bargain-hunters are once again looking for homes
to fix up and resell for a quick profit.

Just take a look at the numbers. Home values are on the
rise, with a year-over-year price increase of 11.6 percent,
according to the National Association of Realtors. Inventory has
cratered to levels not seen since 2005.

NEW YORK, April 11 (Reuters) – With the Dow hitting so many
fresh highs of late, some investors may be dusting off the 1999
bestseller “Dow 36,000,” a book that briefly made “irrational
exuberance” seem quite rational.

Even Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve Board
chairman who coined that description of market sentiment before
the dot-com bust, has mused publicly that stocks are
undervalued.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Time for a pop quiz: If you had to pick one stock to buy and hold for the next 30 years, what would it be?

Okay, pencils down. Not so easy, is it? After all, when you are thinking about 2043, you are not just evaluating metrics such as current price-earnings ratios or 52-week trading ranges. You have to ponder whether a company is even going to exist in three decades’ time.

NEW YORK, March 14 (Reuters) – Need more people for your
office March Madness pool? Call Brad Carlin, he is looking to
enter one.

On second thought, don’t call him.

That’s because in his former NCAA basketball tournament
pool, the professor of biostatistics at the University of
Minnesota crushed his opponents three times in five years.
Carlin was so successful, in fact, that organizers shut down the
pool entirely.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Sandy Harsh never expected to find herself with $16,800 in credit-card debt and her retirement dreams drifting farther away.

Harsh, an IT professional from Tuscola, Illinois, is 62, around the age at which a lot of people start actively planning to retire to a white-sandy beach with a frozen margarita in hand.

NEW YORK, Feb 8 (Reuters) – It is almost time for Alvin’s
massage. After a rubdown, he is off for a personal grooming
session, to make sure he looks his best. Alvin is from Thailand
originally but recently has been hanging out in California, and
this weekend is jetting off to a hotel in New York City.

Alvin is a beagle.

Not just any beagle. Alvin is a champion of his breed, the
recipient of three Best in Show ribbons at dog shows around the
United States. His handler hopes he will compete for the overall
crown at New York City’s famed Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show,
starting this Monday. But being a champion doesn’t come cheap.