Work + Money

Source: Savvy Resolutions You Should Make This Year

The best way to stick to New Year's resolutions (or any type of resolution, for that matter) is to keep it simple. You may wonder how you can streamline such a complex process - there are so many possible resolutions to commit to! The answer is easy: just pick one resolution. Read on to see our suggestions and pick your favorite.

• Drop Your Daily Deal Habit: This year, resolve to drop your daily deal habit. Buying coupons can be extremely addictive, because sometimes the deals are just too tempting. But oftentimes, you'll end up doing something that you never planned on doing in the first place and trying restaurants that you had no intention of trying to begin with. The problem with buying deal after deal is that you might forget about them if you're not carefully keeping track of them, and you may end up losing money when the coupon expires. Do yourself and your budget (not to mention your inbox!) a favor this year, and u

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If you just aren't feeling it this year, don't despair. Surely you realize you're not the first to lose motivation so soon after you made those new year's resolutions. A British printing company, Parker-Holliday, created a series of posters in the 1920s around a fictional character named Bill Jones, whom "all workers were meant to emulate." The savvy advice was aimed at "that era's cubicle-farm set," but the messages are still relevant today. See if Bill Jones can do for you what he did for your parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents back in the day: - By Meredith Carroll

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If you send e-mail, post updates on Facebook, check your bank account balance online, or do most anything that requires the Internet, you're at risk of being hacked.

In fact, last August, Mat Honan, senior writer for tech magazine Wired­-someone presumably well aware of the dangers of hacking-got hacked. He lost data from his iPhone, iPad, and MacBook, including all photos of his one-year-old daughter. "My entire digital life was destroyed," he wrote on wired.com. Luckily, embracing the Luddite lifestyle isn't your only option. These five simple steps can greatly reduce your chances of being hacked.

1. Be aware of what you share You don't have to delete your Facebook or Twitter account to say safe, but posting birth dates, graduation years, or your mother's maiden name-info often used to answer security questions to access your accounts online or over the phone-on social-media sites makes a hacker's job even easier.

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By Robert Frank,CNBC.com

You don't have to be the Earl of Grantham to own your own British country estate. But it helps to have a royal-sized fortune to burn.

With this week's season premiere of the third season of "Downton Abbey," we decided to take a look at what it costs to buy, own and maintain a grand estate in the U.K.

Rupert Sweeting, head of the Country Department of Knight Frank in London, said that the biggest costs of owning a country estate are the staff. He said that for a "moderate-sized" 1,500 acre spread, you'll need a butler, cook, secretary, groundspeople and cleaning staff.

"And for hunts, you need gamekeepers, one or two at the very least," he said.

Total annual cost for the staff would be anywhere between $600,000 to $1 million a year.

Then there all those leaky roves and crumbling gargoyles. Everyday repairs on your estate or castle will set you back another $100,000 a year or so.

Renovations are the big ticket item. Sweeting said most owne

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By Jane Wells, CNBC.com

Not every coffee company born in Seattle is a winner. Tully's, a 20-year-old chain founded in the Emerald City, filed for Chapter 11 last fall. The chain had trouble competing in the shadow of Starbucks, and it filed for protection reporting $3.7 million in debts and very little cash.

Much of its debt is owed to Green Mountain Coffee Roasters which owns Tully's wholesale and roasting businesses.

The remaining part of the company - retail stores, agreements with franchisees and the coffee sold in grocery chains - is in need of a cash infusion immediately.

Actor Patrick Dempsey is one of several parties bidding to buy Tully's out of bankruptcy at an auction Thursday.

Dempsey told the Seattle Times he'd like to save the 500 jobs at risk. "I've always loved this city, and with the purchase of Tully's Coffee, I plan to spend a lot of time in Seattle - and the stores connecting with the community and growing the Tully's brand."

Other reported bidders incl

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