Personal Finance Daily: Birth order may affect your job prospects

Personal Finance Daily SEPTEMBER 23, 2011 Birth order may affect your job prospects By MarketWatch Don't miss these top stories:  Where small houses mean brisk sales How birth order can affect your job 5 tips for long-term investing as markets shudder A pop quiz on credit scores Poverty isn't just a game Your birth order may have some effect on which career you choose — and how much money you end up earning. According to a new CareerBuilder study, those who are born first usually go into government, information technology, engineering and science. Middle children, meanwhile, often go into law enforcement, firefighting, construction, education, and personal care. Those born last often choose art/design/architecture, editing/writing, information technology and sales. And only children tend toward information technology, engineering, nursing and law enforcement. Read Ruth Mantell's On the Job column today for more, plus don't miss Amy Hoak's video on a new-home development that's bucking the housing-market trend and finding strong home-buyer demand — so much so that home prices there are rising — thanks to smart designs. And read our series of investing stories today for more on how to protect yourself and your money from the current financial-market storms. That CareerBuilder study certainly fits my family, at least partly. My daughter is an only child and is studying to be a nurse, and I'm a second (and last) child and I chose editing and writing. However, my first-born brother chose real estate. Two out of three. —Andrea Coombes , Personal Finance editor How birth order can affect your job, salary Not only did your big brother steal your Halloween candy throughout childhood, but as an adult he probably makes more money than you, too, say recently released survey findings. Read more: How birth order can affect your job. Where small houses mean brisk sales The housing market is a bust, with builders struggling and new-home sales sunk in the mud. But that's not the case at one development in suburban Chicago, where prices are rising due to strong demand. Why? It's all in the design. Amy Hoak reports.  Watch: Where small houses mean brisk sales. A pop quiz on credit scores Get out your pencils: Lew Sichelman quizzes readers on credit scores. Read more: A pop quiz on credit scores. INVESTING 5 tips for long-term investing as markets shudder With shock waves roiling the financial markets worldwide, investors are seeking new ways to protect their portfolios from the next upheaval. But they may be ignoring the best weapons in their arsenal: straightforward strategies for managing money that, over time, boost returns. Read more: 5 tips for long-term investing as markets shudder. Market noise deafens investors' long-range hearing Every business day, morning and afternoon, some VIP rings a bell to signal the beginning and end of the trading day on the New York Stock Exchange. If only someone would ring a bell to herald bull and bear markets. Market noise deafens investors' long-range hearing. Is stock market replaying decade of the 1930s? Some in the investment arena have been drawing analogies to the 1930s for several years now, but especially recently. And that decade actually contained one of U.S. history's most powerful bull markets. Read more: Is stock market replaying decade of the 1930s? The six safest stocks around Yikes! This is a crash. We're down more than 20% from the peak earlier this year. People are panicking. Investors are dumping what they can. How much worse can it get? Plenty. Read more: The six safest stocks around. Tune out the fear and panic The world is ending. You heard me. Europe is going to default. The U.S. will go into a depression, the dollar will shrink to nothing, Congress and Barack Obama will continue to fight in the Coliseum while us citizens shout and roar from the stands, and stocks will go down forever. To zero maybe. Read more: Tune out the fear and panic. ECONOMY & POLITICS Charting the week's data on the housing market Several housing market indicators were released, including some that actually were even positive. Still, there's a huge amount of ground to cover before housing market conditions return to normal. Read more: Charting the week's data on the housing market. Government shutdown threat looms larger Washington is facing a heightened threat of a government shutdown in just a week as the Democratic-led Senate rejects a House-passed funding bill. Read more: Government shutdown threat looms larger. Solyndra execs stay silent before House panel CEO of bankrupt firm invokes Fifth Amendment in congressional hearing called to examine federal loan guarantee that the company secured. Read more: Solyndra execs stay silent before House panel. G-20 pledges to stand behind Europe Finance ministers and central bank governors of the Group of 20 major economies say they will work in a coordinated fashion to put an end to the latest financial crisis engulfing Europe. Read more: G-20 pledges to stand behind Europe. Clinton Global Initiative getting things done Unlike the elite World Economic Forum where high-ranking executives and policy makers arrive via private jet and tell you what is wrong with the world, the Clinton Global Initiative tells you how to solve problems. Read more: Clinton Global Initiative getting things done. Poverty isn't just a game Jenny Nicholson is tired of hearing how the poor are poor because they make poor choices, so Al Lewis invites us all to see what kind of choices we make when it's our turn to be flattened by the economy. Read more: Poverty isn't just a game. Get the latest news on our mobile site: http://www.marketwatch.com/m MarketWatch has sent you this newsletter because you signed up to receive it. To ensure you receive this newsletter in the future, please add marketwatchmail.com to your list of approved senders. Sent to: kumaresan.selva.blogger@gmail.com Unsubscribe | Subscribe Copyright 2011 MarketWatch, Inc. All rights reserved. MarketWatch, the MarketWatch logo, and BigCharts are registered trademarks of MarketWatch, Inc. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy (updated 6/26/07). MarketWatch - Attn: Customer Service, 201 California St., San Francisco, CA 94111