When making your financial plans, it’s important to consider the wealth-eroding effect inflation can have. Inflation reduces your purchasing power, and it can mean that today’s dollar won’t go as far in future years. Essentially, inflation guarantees that what you save now won’t be worth as much in real terms a couple decades down the road. As a result, it is important to plan ahead, and make moves now to help you so that your earnings will be high enough that you are still ahead — even after inflation takes its toll. Here are 3 ways to reduce your exposure to inflation:

Some investments can help you beat inflation. If inflation runs at an annual 3%, and your annualized return is 6%, then you come out ahead. Your mone

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The dollar weakened ahead of a meeting of European officials later in the week as expectations build for a positive outcome. Greek Prime Minister Papandreou has already coined the outcome as a make-or-break event for the zone although he doesn’t seem to know much more than the rest of us. In the meantime investors continue to flood back into equities, inspired by strong earnings growth adding to pressure on the dollar where an earlier positive mood is falling by the way side.

Euro – The euro continued on a second day of gains as dealers felt assured that an EU summit on Thursday would deliver some sort of lasting resolve for the Greek debt situation. In Read more…

Apple’s solid profits failed to take away investors’ concern about the political wrangling in the U.S. over raising the nation’s debt ceiling, needed for the world’s largest economy to stave off default.

In afternoon trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 0.09% higher and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.21%. The Nasdaq, however, fell 0.17%.

Apple’s stock rose to another record on its stellar quarterly earnings reported yesterday.

“There was some profit-taking this morning, but it’s over now,” Frank Lesh, a futures analyst and broker at FuturePath Trading LLC in Chicago, told Reuters. “Right now, the U.S. debt deal is the re

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• No data of any note focusses Euro market on Thursday’s emergency summit

• Interest hikes in UK and a cut in Australia – whatever next?

There is a distinct lack of macro data due to be released today and therefore the markets attention will no doubt return to events in the Eurozone as rifts among European policy makers further undermine the Euro. Investors will be anxiously awaiting the outcome of the emergency summit on Thursday and Friday. Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor , has warned that she will only attend if there is going to be an agreement on a new rescue plan for Greece and that she also wants private investors to make a major contribution.

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When you consider the cost of checking in your luggage, Andrew Gaules invention seems very appropriate. Although some people would never want a coat with pockets for cargo, people who need just a little extra space for their travel supplies can find refuge in the Rufus Roo.

Andrews unique coat offers fliers some extra space for travel supplies when they cannot afford the cost of an additional bag, reports Mail Online.

But I got fed up of seeing people having to pay a lot of money to check their bags, or completely repack all their luggage at the check-in just because they inadvertently fell foul of the rules.

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New Zealand stocks fell for a ninth session, after a warning by Standard & Poor’s that there was a one-in-two chance the U.S. could have its AAA credit rating cut, sapping investors’ appetite for higher yielding, or riskier, assets. Pumpkin Patch Ltd. led decliners, while Argosy Property Trust rose.

The NZX 50 Index fell 3.17 points, or 0.1%, to 3,406.38, and declined 1.4% on the week. Within the index, 25 stocks fell, 17 rose, and eight were unchanged. Turnover was $129.7 million.

The ratings agency’s decision to place the world’s biggest economy on negative watch comes as Democrats and Republicans disagree over lifting the U.S. governm

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Popular Science:

The future of wallpaper is: glowing? That’s Philips’ vision for the future it seems, as the company is teaming with Kvadrat Soft Cells to create a kind of luminous textile for the consumer market that will essentially embed adjustable LEDs in an acoustic panel that can be hung on the wall to provide ambient lighting like an active piece of artwork, or even be used as a wallpaper to bathe entire rooms in soft tones of the user’s choosing.