To make the most of your summer savings, do some homework.

FORBES: Summertime and the savings is easy

Start-ups are risky, but a wise job-seeker would do some homework to discover if a prospective employer is backed by patient investors with deep pockets and industry know-how.

ECONOMIST: London��s tech firms

In addition to relying on common sense, investors also need to do some of their own homework to gauge whether a fund and its investment manager are trustworthy.

NPR: Q&A: Madoff Case Puts Spotlight On SEC

Do your homework - some estancias are just private homes that begrudgingly rent rooms for profit, others are campy circuses that bring in buses of camera-snapping tourists - but do not miss a chance to live out your cowboy dreams in the Argentine pampas.

BBC: Where have all the cowboys gone?

In order to counter this inevitability, I gave them all some homework to do at the end of my talk.

FORBES: Grab a Piece of Paper and Draw a Line Down the Middle...

But that may be short-sighted, because for those willing to do homework and take on some risk, the rewards are there.

FORBES: 10 Companies That Prove Stock Picking Is Still Alive

Some are better than others and do their homework better and are more experienced in covering and understanding the military.

FORBES: How David Petraeus Mastered the Media

This is really the time, probably, to do a little homework because there are probably some spectacular opportunities at the moment.

NPR: Floor Trader Describes Wall Street Gyrations

So some interpret calls for greater disclosure as whimpering by investors who did not do their homework.

ECONOMIST: Securitisation

There's been some recent economic data that shows that cities that have a higher percentage of immigrants who do homework - like taking care of kids, taking care of elderly relatives - in those cities where there are more immigrants doing those jobs, you see more women going back to the workplace.

NPR: Immigrants Tend To Complement, Not Replace American Jobs