Many people have unwittingly bought into a highly addictive, sensationally-driven religion of doom-and-gloom where every day is a bad day, every war is a possible prelude to World War III, every market correction is a prelude to another financial crisis, every poor economic statistic is proof of a coming collapse. In theory, the above could all be true, and that's why framing any event in such a fashion is so tantalizing. Welcome to the doom-and-gloom "financial-tainment" industry!

Here's an interesting rule of thumb that most retirees and would-be retirees would do well to adopt.

If the past long-term cyclical correlations between interest rates, equities, and commodities were to play out as they have done going back to the 1880s, U.S. stocks and interest rates should continue to rise as commodities either fall or underperform according to a 60-year cyclical pattern model referred to as The Market Map.

The Fed has just released a 200 page study on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2013 that reveals that 52% of the respondents to the survey said they did not have a mere $400 in savings for an unexpected emergency. That suggests to me that over half the county is on a paycheck-to-paycheck struggle. Below are my key findings from the survey presented in a concise easy to understand format.

The U.S. $1 dollar bill has been redesigned many time since first being issued back in 1862. What we almost exclusively use today is the version designed in 1963. The following extremely informative infographic explains what all the different symbols on the dollar mean, who is on the front & back of all the U.S. currencies currently in use and the $500, $1,000, $10,000 and $100,000 (yes, $100,000!) bills that are no longer in production.

Over the past three months, the year-over-year growth in credit card debt has exceeded wage growth in the United States. This is the first time we've seen this trend since the Great Recession.

A near-term market pullback of as much as 10% is likely but we're still in bull market cycle that has just begun to run. There are years left to go on this secular bull market and, indeed, Benjamin Graham's P/E formula implies a 2015 S&P price target of somewhere around 2476 to 2545.

It’s an age-old debate; which is more popular, beer or wine; which is the healthiest; which variety of each is most consumed? So who wins? Find out which alcohol truly makes the world go round in the infographic below.

Contrary to the image we may have of billionaires, many are on a mission to give away their money. This infographic looks at the American billionaires who have signed up to the Giving Pledge, as well as other millionaires and billionaires who have been making relatively large contributions in the past few years.

Ponzi schemes. You’ve heard about them in the news. Charismatic schemers make promises of outsized returns by providing early investors quick returns (made up of money from even newer investors) and then lure thousands of gullible or inexperienced investors into much bigger risks eventually robbing them of million Despite warnings, many people continue to fall for such schemes. This infographic presents the low down on Ponzi schemes.