Below is an infographic on Avenues to Retirement which focuses equally on gold IRAs, annuities and other non-gold related options. You will find it a valuable resource for preparing for retirement.

The time is ripe for financial innovation: new technologies are helping end users skip past gatekeepers and intermediaries to customize their use of financial products. Payments, personal finance, P2P lending, insurance, digital banking, equity crowdfunding, smart contracts, and digital currencies are just some of the areas that are of interest in the fintech landscape. There’s heavy competition in the fintech space and no shortage of moving parts. However, this infographic from DealSunny helps to put most things in perspective.

Like virtual reality, there are 10 other emerging technologies that are finally ready for prime time. Some, like the recent advances in artificial intelligence, have been decades in the making. Others, such as the blockchain, are relatively new phenomenons that are also ready for their time in the spotlight. here they are in today's infographic.

Brexit could be the beginning of a brave new world, in which trade becomes freer and business becomes less burdened by taxes and regulations. The only politician here who is talking about such "radical" ideas is Trump, but he is gaining traction, as did the "leavers" in the UK. There is room for hope.

Love it or hate it, cash is playing an increasingly less important role in society. In some ways this is great news for consumers. The rise of mobile and electronic payments means faster, convenient, and more efficient purchases in most instances...However, there is also a darker side in the shift to a cashless society. Governments and central banks have a different rationale behind the elimination of cash transactions, and as a result, the so-called “war on cash” is on.

By enforcing negative interest rates and fighting a War on Cash, the government will create a huge underground currency market - and the ultimate underground currency will be gold and its sister metal, silver...[which] could cause gold to double or even triple in value.

Gold investors have been slow and cautious to adopt crypto-currencies such as bitcoin seeing them as false competition to real money such as gold and silver. The major argument from gold bugs has been that bitcoin is not backed by anything tangible [but] that has all changed with the recent introduction of Digix - the gold standard in peer-to-peer digital assets because it is literally backed by gold.

You have alternatives for protecting your portfolio, and you can decide when you want to start. Here are a dozen choices.

Do what the smartest country on the globe is doing (China) and buy and hold as much physical gold and silver as you can. Why? Because you will be up the proverbial creek without a paddle if you don't have either metal.

This article presents 10 Dividend Contenders that I considered most attractive based on valuation and forecast long-term earnings and dividend growth. Hopefully, there is something here for every reader depending upon their own unique investment goals and objectives.