By Dan Caplinger
The Motley Fool

Retirement savings took a huge hit during the financial crisis and market meltdown five years ago, with savers of all ages feeling the brunt of plunging markets. But members of Generation X -- those born between 1966 and 1975 -- suffered the worst declines in their net worth from the crisis and saw the least recovery in the years that followed.

As a result, Gen-Xers are in bad shape when it comes to retirement readiness, as a recent study from the Pew Charitable Trusts concluded. With only enough financial resources to replace half of their pre-retirement income, the key question for Gen-Xers on the whole isn't how financially secure their retirement will be, but rather whether they'll be able to retire at all.

By Matt Brownell
Daily Finance

Are you such a big fan of "The Vampire Diaries" that you write your own stories about the denizens of Mystic Falls? Well, Amazon (AMZN) wants to publish your work -- and it wants to see you get paid for it. The company announced Wednesday that, for the first time, authors will be able to make money on their fan fiction under a new venture it's calling Kindle Worlds.

Fan fiction describes that under-appreciated genre of writing in which amateur authors make use of an already-established fictional universe, often from a TV or book series. At heart, it has always been a way for devoted fans to explore and share "what if" questions about their favorite characters -- sometimes filling in background, other times going far outside the established canon: What does Hermione do on summer vacation? What if Buffy got turned into a vampire? What if Admiral Adama and President Roslyn met The Doctor from "Doctor Who"?

By Caroline Bennett
Daily Finance

Women in the workplace -– it's a hot topic in the business universe right now. For that, you can thank Sheryl Sandberg's girl-power-infused book "Lean In," or the ever-increasing number of female executives taking charge of major corporations, like Yahoo's (YHOO) CEO Marissa Mayer or IBM's (IBM) Ginni Rometty.

Just recently, Warren Buffett weighed in on women in business in a column for "Fortune" magazine. In it, the beloved Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) (BRK.B) chairman and 'Oracle of Omaha' detailed his faith in the power of women in business.

Behold the Woman Behind the Curtain

Buffett writes in his signature simple and eloquent way. But he didn't pull punches about the uneven playing field women have faced -- and still face -- as they make their way in the world. The deck is stacked against women starting at a very early age, Buffett says, going on to register his distaste for the "brainwashing" that many highly talented women are forced to experience: "The moment I emerged from my mother's womb," he writes, "my possibilities dwarfed those of my siblings, for I was a boy! ... at every turn my sisters would be told ... that success for them would be 'marrying well.' I was meanwhile hearing that the world's opportunities were there for me to seize."

Buffett equated the strange double standard being placed on women as a "fun-house mirror." He even saw its twisted side effects in the insecurities of his friend Katharine Graham, the powerful CEO of the Washington Post. Thankfully, however, he realizes this mirror is cracking, and that his daughter would "laugh and smash it" if one was put in front of her.

A key to equality could be found, Buffett says, if women realize men are equally insecurity-ridden, not unlike the Wizard of Oz. "Pull the curtain aside," he says, "and you'll often discover they are not supermen after all. (Just ask their wives!)"

Plenty of studies have shown that men and women think and act in different ways, but when it comes to credit card debt, both sexes demonstrate bad behavior.

NextAdvisor.com recently compiled research on men, women, and credit card debt that reveals that while women are more likely to carry balances on their credit cards, men are more likely to take out cash advances.

The study covered a single year in people's personal finance lives. Here are some of the ways credit-card-carrying men and women differ, and how their behavior can be damaging to their financial well being:

By Matt DiLallo
The Motley Fool

Let's face it, as the market continues to plod higher, it's getting tougher to find interesting stocks to buy. Way too many stocks in the market today are priced at a premium with years of future growth priced in. That's why I've been looking at companies that haven't risen lock-step with the market. One name that caught my attention is PotashCorp.

Our CAPS community has awarded the company the treasured five-star rating, with 4,768 bulls far outnumbering just 169 bears. I must admit, I was an early CAPS bull; unfortunately, that hasn't served me well as PotashCorp has underperformed the market by 58% since I gave it the green thumbs-up. That being said, this relative underperformance could mean that there's a lot of room for the stock to move higher. Let's take a look at three keys to success that just might make it the best stock to buy in the market today.

By Bruce Watson
Daily Finance

How much is a lunch worth?

On June 7, the answer will become clear as Warren Buffett will place a meal -- and a few hours of his time -- on the auction block. For several years, the legendary investor has donated a lunch at New York's Smith and Wollensky steak house to the highest bidder, with proceeds from the auction going to the Glide Foundation, a charity that works with San Francisco's homeless. And, if recent trends continue, this year's auction will once again break a record.

Buffett's lunches are famously expensive: Since 2008, they have fetched a minimum of $1.6 million per meal, and last year's auction set a new record with a top bid of $3,456,789. Then again, while the prices seem astronomical, it isn't hard to see how they could prove profitable -- after all, who better to offer investing tips than the famed Oracle of Omaha?

When it comes to pricey dates, Buffett takes the cake, but he's hardly the only celebrity who can fetch a fortune for a few hours of his time. On the less expensive end of things, a meal with Minnesota Viking Chris Kluwe recently went for $4,050, and a dinner with teen heartthrob Josh Hutcherson went for a mere $2,250 -- a bargain for some deep-pocketed fan of The Hunger Games. And, like Buffett, Kluwe and Hutcherson have used their time to support their favorite causes: Hutcherson's time went to help Abby Marsh, a young woman who was injured in a car accident, while Kluwe's meal raised money for Vote No, a group that fought against Minnesota's anti-gay marriage amendment.

But if Hutcherson and Kluwe represent relative bargains, who takes the upper end? Charitybuzz, a New York-based fundraising group, regularly auctions off dinners with some of the country's highest rollers. Here are their top-earning meal companions:

By Eamon Murphy
Daily Finance

Last week, the United States Supreme Court delivered a unanimous decision that was hailed by some as a major victory for intellectual property rights. Others worried about the implications for agriculture, the very foundation of civilization; and in the background -- not raised by the nine justices, whom a recent study called "friendlier to corporate interests" than any court since 1946 -- was the question of prices for farmers and consumers.

The case was Bowman v. Monsanto Co. (MON), in which the court held that an Indiana farmer infringed on the biotech giant's patents when he planted genetically-modified soybean seeds not purchased from the company.

The seeds had been designed to withstand application of the herbicide glyphosate, which Monsanto markets as Roundup. Farmers who plant such "Roundup Ready" crops are required to sign an agreement with Monsanto stipulating that they will buy new seeds from the company each year, rather than using the products of the plants' reproduction.

By Bruce Watson
Daily Finance

Forget eating at home or forgoing your daily Starbucks run: According to a recent survey, the biggest money saver in your life is in your pocket. In April, market research firm Harris Interactive, working with ClickSoftware, a mobile management firm, concluded that smartphone owners saved an average of $12,000 per year by using the handy little machines.

The key to these savings lies in apps: By enabling users to perform tasks like checking email and browsing the web from any location, smartphones can save people a fair bit of time. In fact, according to the survey, people who use their smartphone to check email save an average of 35 minutes per day. Those who use it for web browsing saves an average of 33 minutes, those who use weather apps save 17 minutes, those who use map programs save 24 minutes, and those who use calendar apps save 23 minutes.