Are we in the third phase of a bull market? Most who will read this article will immediately say “no” but isn’t that what was always believed during the “mania” phase of every previous bull market cycle? With the current bull market now stretching into its sixth year; it seems appropriate to review the three very distinct phases of historical bull market cycles.

Obtaining a second passport and an offshore bank account are crucial parts of an overall diversification strategy, but they are not the only ones. Capturing international opportunities for your investment portfolio also has an important role and one of the easiest ways to do this is to own foreign currencies. Below are my 10 favorite reasons for doing so.

Are we near the end of one of history's great stock market rallies? I don't think so. Yes, prices are in the upper half of their long-term trends, but it's not what you might call "scary-overvalued." There is still plenty of room on the upside before historical precedents are violated. Let me explain further.

We all live extremely busy lives and often don't have the time to find articles that are sufficiently informative and well written to warrant our attention. Below are introductory paragraphs to 7 such articles and infographics. Check them out and decide which, if any, are of interest to you and click on the title to read in full.

The world is heading down the toilet yet demand in the official gold coin market is DOWN drastically. Canadian Gold Maple Leaf coin sales were DOWN 35% - yes, 35% - in the first quarter of 2014 compared to the same period a year ago and American Gold Eagle coin sales were DOWN a staggering 51% - yes, 51% - year over year! What gives?

How much should you tip? Better yet, where in the world can you go to escape from tipping anyone?

Gold peaked in 2011, bottomed in June and December of 2013, and should rally for several, and probably many, years into the future. Here's why.

Never before in the history of the United States have we been faced with the threat of such a great financial catastrophe but, sadly, most Americans are totally oblivious to all of this. They continue to have faith that their leaders know what they are doing, and they have been lulled into complacency by the bubble of false stability that we have been enjoying for the last couple of years. Unfortunately for them, however, this bubble of false stability is not going to last much longer and when the financial crisis comes it is going to make 2008 look like a Sunday picnic. Let me explain why I believe the aforementioned to be the case.

Jim Rickards explains in his new book "The Death of Money - The Coming Collapse of the International Monetary System" why a US dollar collapse could be coming and why gold would probably emerge at the heart of a new global monetary system as the only money that you can really trust.

The struggle over Ukraine has caused Russia to completely re-evaluate the financial relationship that it has with the United States. If it starts trading a lot of oil and natural gas for currencies other than the U.S. dollar, that will be a massive blow for the petrodollar, and it could end up dramatically - and negatively - impacting the average American's current standard of living. Let me explain.