If you look at investing in terms of an athletic event, it’s more of a marathon than a sprint. So as an investor, you can learn a few things from marathoners.

First, be prepared. Marathoners train for months, and sometimes years. As an investor, you can prepare by learning about different asset classes and risk factors.

It’s not so easy being a college kid these days. The job market for recent graduates has been shaky while, at the same time, students are leaving school with more debt than ever before. If you have children who will someday be attending college, should you be worried?

You might indeed have cause for concern. Americans now owe more on student loans than on credit cards, according to the Federal Bank of New York, the U.S. Department of Education and other sources. For the college class of 2011, the most recent year for which figures are available, the average student loan debt was about $26,500, according to the Institute for College Access and Success’s Project on Student Debt. 

  Once again, it’s time to make some New Year’s resolutions. This year, in addition to promising yourself that you’ll hit the gym more often, learn a new language or take up a musical instrument — all worthy goals, of course — why not set some financial resolutions?

    In the past few years, Americans have done a pretty good job of whittling down their debt load. If you’re in this group, you may now have a chance to use your lower level of indebtedness to your advantage  — by investing for the future.

Submitted by Gary Coon

Here’s a disturbing statistic: One out of every five Americans over the age of 65 has been victimized by a financial scheme, according to the Investor Protection Trust, a nonprofit organization devoted to investor education. If your parents are in this age group, should you be concerned? And can you help them avoid being “scammed” so that they maintain control over their finances?