CHICAGO (Reuters) – Retirees know a lot about what it’s like to be retired, but they often don’t get asked for their advice.

So Reuters decided to go to the source. We asked several retirees what they would tell their 40-year-old selves if they could go back in time. If they could redo retirement, what would they do differently? Here’s what they said.

CHICAGO, March 7 (Reuters) – Retirees know a lot
about what it’s like to be retired, but they often don’t get
asked for their advice.

So Reuters decided to go to the source. We asked several
retirees what they would tell their 40-year-old selves if they
could go back in time. If they could redo retirement, what would
they do differently? Here’s what they said.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Come summer, mutant robots from outer space and flying, caped crusaders will need to make way for a slightly less dramatic comic book character: the number cruncher.

On June 4, SmarterComics will release an 80-page comic-book version of “Financial Intelligence,” a bestseller by co-authors Karen Berman and Joe Knight. The founders of the Business Literacy Institute, which provides financial literacy training, had produced a surprise hit with their traditional-text tome, released in 2006, which offers simple explanations of accounting concepts for managers.

By Lou Carlozo

(Reuters) – This past New Year’s Eve, any impulse I had to ring in 2012 on a high note was drowned out by alarm bells from Uncle Sam.

On that day, my wife and I received separate eight-page letters from the Internal Revenue Service informing us that we were being audited for the 2009 tax year. It was, to say the least, no cause for breaking out champagne and noisemakers. In fact, it seemed like a cruel twist: 2009 was the year I was laid off by the Chicago Tribune after 16 years of full-time employment. I then entered the freelance ranks, where I’ve remained ever since.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – African American donors give away higher percentages of their incomes than white donors, according to a new study.

But they don’t see themselves as big players in the charitable arena, and that presents an image problem, say experts like Judy Belk, a senior vice president for Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.

By Lou Carlozo

(Reuters) – Rich Arzaga owns a luxury home in San Ramon, California, but he’s not betting on it as an investment.

The founder and CEO of Cornerstone Wealth Management, who bought the 5,000 sq. ft. property in 2005 for $1.8 million and has spent $500,000 improving it, considers the abode a wonderful place for his family. But ask him to rate his home — or any home, for that matter — as a financial investment, and Arzaga balks.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – When someone plunks down $2,500 for a dog, you might think they’re investing in a purebred pup, its pedigree stretching back generations. But not Cecile Desmond of Hopkinton, Massachusetts. She was happy to part with that much cash for Percy, a shaggy creature that some hound snobs at this month’s Westminster Kennel Club dog show might label a mutt.

Okay, not just any kind of mutt, but a “Labradoodle,” a cross between a poodle and a Labrador retriever.

By Lou Carlozo

(Reuters) – Energy psychology combines Eastern approaches to mind, body and spirit with Western psychology and psychotherapy, delving into unconscious and subconscious patterns that go back to childhood. So what exactly does that have to do with building wealth and managing your portfolio?

Plenty, says Julie Murphy Casserly, a wealth manager in Chicago who manages about $100 million in assets and is a proponent of a very alternative investing strategy.