Wealth

WHY WOULD a couple risk so much - respect and even freedom - for furs, furniture and a fedora? This was the question that came to my mind when I read the federal charges against Jesse L. Jackson Jr., the former congressman from Illinois. He pleaded guilty Wednesday to misusing about $750,000 in private campaign funds. Jackson's wife, Sandra Stevens Jackson, who resigned her seat on Chicago City Council, reached an agreement with the U.S. Attorney's Office to plead guilty to one count of tax fraud.

Student loans have come to represent a potential debt crisis of their own, as graduates with ever-more-costly degrees enter a workforce with high unemployment and pinched wages. For student borrowers and their families, the Project on Student Debt has a site with research reports on the issue, along with practical consumer information and links to loan-forgiveness programs, including the newer "pay as you earn" plan. The site is part of the nonprofit Institute for College Access and Success, funded by the Ford Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and other charities.

PITTSBURGH - Late last year, representatives from one of the world's largest energy companies went to the home of Lydia and Sam Mast. The company planned to drill a gas well on an adjacent property and needed to test the Masts' water. By November, the access road had been paved and the rig was drilling day and night into the shale formation thousands of feet below the Masts' seven acres in Lawrence County. "That was the first I knew there was a company called Chevron," Sam Mast said.

Saving money is hard, experts say, because you don't relate to your "future self. " Saving would be easier if you had more sympathy for that far-off old person that you are becoming. An "Investing 101" post in the Breakout section of Yahoo Finance, includes a video demonstrating one of several web tools that alters a photo of your face to show what you might look like at retirement age or beyond. The gimmick is meant to get people to identify with who they will be years from now - and to give that old person money.

Retirement accounts don't always last until retirement. That's a sad fact due, in many cases, to withdrawals and loans that many people take from IRAs and similar accounts. A study shows that $70 billion a year is withdrawn from retirement accounts by people who say they need the money to pay current bills, according to an NBC report posted here at CNBC.com. For those individuals, the long-term cost is staggering. That money - and the compound interest it would have earned - won't be there when retirement comes.

Weekly Rankings Each week The Inquirer college basketball staff will rank the City Six teams No. 1 through 6 and compare those rankings to those of the fans. STAFF VOTERS Staff voters are Joe Juliano, Keith Pompey, Mike Jensen, John Quinn, Marc Narducci, Gary Miles, Gary Potosky, and Jim Swan. FANS' RANKINGS Vote how you think the city's six teams should be ranked at philly.com/city6. Give a ranking from 1 through 6 for each of the teams. Results will be tabulated from Wednesday through Tuesday each week.

Q: What's the definition of "market share?" - E.M., Victoria, Texas A: The useful online glossary at investorwords.com provides a good definition: "The percentage of the total sales of a given type of product or service that are attributable to a given company. " Consider smartphone- operating systems, for example. According to Kantar Worldpanel Com- Tech, in the United States, Apple's iOS recently held a 53 percent share of the market (up from 36 percent a year ago), versus 42 percent for Android, 3 percent for Windows and less than 2 percent for BlackBerry OS. Recent global data from IDC for "smart" connected devices (which include smartphones, PCs and tablets)

When Inquirer readers have been asked to single out neighbors exemplifying citizenship in the best sense, the list grows and grows. In the run-up to selecting a Citizen of the Year on Sunday for the ninth time, that's been just as true as ever. The field of contenders reveals any number of candidates worthy of the honor. These nominees of readers and the Editorial Board are working to make their communities safer for children, reaching out to those in need, fighting homelessness, beautifying the landscape, assuring the right to vote, and preserving educational choices and the city's cultural heritage.