If you are launching or expanding your business into the Chinese market, a multilayered brand can be a key component to your success. A great brand name tells people what your company does and why you do it better than others. It tells a story about you that transforms your brand into a broader picture: the business, the product, the service, but first and foremost, the promise you make to your customers.

In the Chinese market, the many varied characters in the language make branding a challenge and an opportunity. Each character in the Chinese language has “multilayered” connotations. Even the slightest change in pronunciation can greatly alter the meaning of a word. Such a multilayered nature gives plenty of space for creativity (and constraints). In fact, multiple-meaning words can better convey brand values. More…

When I was a teen, my uncle suddenly and unexpectedly passed away. He had meticulously taken care of the finances for his family and left my aunt with a solid financial foundation. This didn’t take away the pain of his being gone, but his preparation eliminated additional stress in my aunt’s time of grieving. Today, she is still reaping from what my uncle sowed by having his finances in order. More…

When looking for a business to start or a service to offer, take a lesson from history: Mine for a little gold, if you want, but make your main business the tools behind the trend.

During the many gold rushes throughout the United States in the late 1800′s and early 1900′s, only a handful of the thousands of gold prospectors hit the mother lode. But nearly all of the providers of mining tools made their fortunes. That’s a difficult concept to grasp at first. For one thing, it is much less glamorous. It can also be a slower and much more predictable road to wealth, but it is often more lucrative. More…

Many retailers, restaurants and businesses are struggling to keep their doors open, and you’re in a great position, sitting pretty generating profits with your Internet ventures. Wear your wealth well by investing in local mom and pops you want to see stick around.

Here are five easy ways you can give back to other businesses in your community: More…

Want to make an investment that always pay high returns and never enters a down market?

Invest yourself.

You have time, talents and TLC to invest in your family, neighborhood, and community. They need you, and you need to take that time to connect. Investing yourself in people, places, and causes you love generates the kind of wealth that money can’t buy. More…

Setting goals is vital to getting to the “big picture” of your personal finances or any other area of life. If you’re discouraged about the economy and, in particular, your finances, it’s time to re-evaluate. What can you do for the rest of the year to set new goals and achieve them?

“The two hardest parts of achieving a goal [are] planning and follow-through,” says Greg Helmstetter, CEO of myGoals.com, a company that provides goal-management services for corporations and large organizations and offers a web-based goal-setting application for everyone. More…

Author and investing professor Leland Hevner recently noticed a trend among his college-level investing students: Many are retirees or nearing retirement age and have used financial advisers for most of their investing life. They show up in his classroom lost and bewildered, after suffering significant losses of the savings they planned to live on after retirement. Now they need to learn a new strategy. More…

It’s a well-known belief that you should never rely on your emotions, your “gut feelings,” when making investment decisions. If you “feel good” about a stock, that isn’t enough to ensure it will be a profitable piece of your portfolio. But does scientific research back up that belief? Absolutely. More…

Editor’s Note: Phil DeMuth is a psychologist and investment adviser who has written for The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, the Louis Rukeyser Newsletter, the Journal of Financial Planning, and forbes.com, as well as Human Behavior and Psychology Today. He also co-authors the “Yes, You Can” series with Ben Stein. The pair’s most recent critically acclaimed book, Yes, You Can Supercharge Your Portfolio! released last year. WEALTH magazine asked DeMuth what makes a smart investor and what anyone should be doing with their assets now.

WEALTH: How is your own portfolio doing after last year’s crash? What do you see happening in the market now? More…

If you want to move a portion of your financial assets into gold, there are several ways to do it. Gold can be a solid segment of your investments, but buyers need to know what the current price of gold is in order to know how much overage they are paying in mark-ups and dealer add-ons.

Generally, if you buy gold without fancy packaging and directly from mints or wholesalers, you’ll pay less than if you buy from retailers or the post office (because the gold has changed hands twice, and the middleman had to be paid). Also, the more gold you buy, the better the price. As your volume increases, the retail price should go down. More…