You may want to be careful before you disdainfully toss away that good for nothing penny next time. A 1795 reeded-edge U.S. penny recently fetched $1.3 million at an auction. The coin made history as the first penny ever to rake in more than a million dollars, according to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required).

Why such a high price? Apparently wealthy investors, anxious about a spiraling dollar and future inflation are bidding up prices for rare coins. They feel more secure about putting their money on these coins than investing in stocks and bonds.

Clearly, the recession is not affecting the coin collectibles industry. Earlier this year a high-end collection of rare half dollars grabbed $1.1 million at an auction.

"Things that are ordinary are not doing well," said John Albanese, founder of Certified Acceptance Corp. in a phone interview. "But the rare coins are one in a million. They are trophy coins and you don't see them everyday."

Wealthy, sophisticated buyers don't mind the high bids because they know if they don't grab the coin when it's available, they may have to wait another 30 years for another chance, he said.

So, if you have always wondered when's a good time to break open that piggy bank, this may be it. Who knows, maybe you'll find that rare penny and your ticket to the millionaire bracket.

Who doesn't have an unmarried friend who lost the house, or at least their investment in the condo, when the relationship went sour?

The key question when buying property together, according to a new book -- "Living Together: A Legal Guide for Unmarried Couples" -- seems pretty simple: Does your legal relationship match your private agreement?

But who wants to have that conversation when you are newly in love, or at least new to nesting?

No one, the book's author admitted to WalletPop.

Bernie Madoff's collection of jewelry, sports memorabilia, furs, and even duck decoys is set to hit the auction block in a U.S. Marshalls-sponsored sale that will raise money to back his victims.

Gaston & Sheehan Auctioneers is handling the sale, which will be at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers at 811 7th Avenue at 52nd Street in New York City.

You can view the 65-page catalog online (PDF file) and, if you just can't live without at least one the several lots of Madoff's Wayne Gretzky cards, fill out the absentee bidding form here. Among the lots to be sold:

• A blue satin with orange trim New York Mets jacket with Madoff's name embroidered on the back (Estimate: $500-$720)
• Three Boogie Boards with "Madoff" written on them in marker (estimated to bring $80 as a lot)
• A 1960 Hofstra University ring with Madoff's initials (Estimate: $300)

In an October 2009 blog post, David Roodman, a research fellow at the Center for Global Development, had no idea he'd set a chain of events in motion that would rock the world of person-to-person lending. But that's exactly what happened when Roodman questioned how the popular non-profit charity, Kiva.org operates.

In the past, celebrities like Oprah Winfrey had extolled Kiva's virtues. But with one seemingly simple blog post, Roodman got donors and interested bystanders asking "where's all that money really going?"

Buy apartments, hotels, land and distressed properties, but focus on infill while avoiding the fringes; hold onto office buildings until the market improves; look for deals in shopping malls, but only in upscale areas.

Oh, and go ahead and grab that Miami Beach ocean-view condo you've had your eye on.

That was the advice to real estate investors from experts in a webcast release WalletPop tapped into this week for the Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2010 Report, co-sponsored by the Urban Land Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

More than 100 banks have failed this year, and even the government acknowledges that many more will probably fold before 2009 draws to a close. In most cases, ordinary citizens who have accounts are protected by FDIC insurance. Yes, there's certainly a hassle involved, especially if you have bills set up on auto-payment with the failed bank, but the FDIC guarantees that they'll make good on your money up to $250,000.

Unfortunately, this guarantee doesn't extend to the interest rates on long-term savings vehicles like certificates of deposit. As this article reports, a growing number of people are losing the high interest rates on their CDs when a bank with which they have money invested folds.

Milan and Florence weighed in at over $1.6 million for a home, on average; Rome just under $1.3 million. And that's dollars, not lira (which, of course, don't even exist anymore).

Also out of reach for many Americans these days are the pink sands of Hamilton, Bermuda, Bucaresti, Romania and Shanghai, all averaging above $1.3 million, not to mention Vancouver and Dublin at $1.1 million -- and Dubai trailing not far behind.

The most expensive market is not in Italy, however. It's in Singapore, where homes average nearly $1.9 million. Coldwell Banker points out that is "10% lower than La Jolla" but fails to mention it is also 10 times the average home value in everyday places like Phoenix, Mobile, Ala, Lexington, KY, and Syracuse, NY.

Time was when the sage advice was to "go west young man" in search of fame, fortune and nifty real estate deals. But in 2009, heading east may be a better idea. At least if you are starting out in the U.S. And, when I say east, I mean like all the way to Poland! Now hold on to your Polish zlotys while I explain this one:

Seems Poland, Krakow in particular, is a darn good place to not only indulge in a sausage or two, but also to buy up chunks of real estate at prices that are down anywhere from 9% to 17%.

Goldman Sachs spent years buying hundreds of thousands of subprime mortgages during the real estate boom, packaging them into high-yield bonds. Now that the bottom has fallen out of the property market, the Wall Street behemoth finds itself in a different role: taking homes away from Americans defaulting on their loans.

That's according to a lengthy investigation by McClatchy Newspapers . The report says there are hundreds of cases in which subsidiaries of Goldman have sought to contain bondholder losses by foreclosing on properties and evicting delinquent borrowers.

Peer-to-peer lending marketplace Lending Club just announced several new features for investors who use the service which can help them earn an average return of 9.67%.

The new features, which went live this morning, make it easier than ever to find the types of loans you want to invest in and create a diversified portfolio based on how much risk you want to take.

The new investor experience provides you with more information and the ability to filter on several factors to find loans that appeal to you. For instance, if you want to avoid a specific type of loan such as home improvement projects, you can exclude them from your loan search. Another welcome filter will show only loans that have been approved for funding.

On a recent episode of Shark Tank, inventor Cactus Jack was faced with two offers that would yield him $180,000 for his product, a device that makes it easier for heavy people to do push-ups.

Barbara Corcoran, taken with this big guy with a big personality, offered to give him the cash -- provided he lose 30 pounds. Otherwise, she said, who could take a weight-loss guru seriously? If he didn't lose the weight, he'd lose the deal. (Watch back episodes of the ABC show at this link.)

"There's no way in hell he's losing 30 pounds," kvetched fellow Shark Kevin O'Leary after Cactus Jack had left the room. "The 30 pounds is gonna keep it off the table forever."

Flash forward. Months later, Cactus Jack has flown to New York City from Iowa to meet with Corcoran and hash out the future of his business. Critical to the next stage is the big test: Has he lost the weight contingent to the deal?

Corcoran invited WalletPop to her penthouse office for the big moment. At stake: A comically large novelty check made out for $180,000, and potential infomercial involvement by TV impresario Kevin Harrington.

Was this medical check-up a photo op for the media? Of course it was, but it was fun. And did this larger-than-life guy prove Kevin "Mr. Burns" O'Leary wrong? Watch and see.

It was a moment worth $6,000 a pound.

Home repair contractor Kaile Warren had a rags-to-riches story that was enviable. The former homeless home improver credits "divine intervention" with giving him the idea for a home improvement company and brand name that would ultimately place him on a national stage that included appearances on Oprah, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and the CBS Early Show, to name a few.

But according to an investigative report by USA Today, Warren has all but crashed and burned taking more than a dozen investors with him who poured an estimated $4.5 million into his Rent-A-Husband chain of home improvement franchises.

Today, Warren is reportedly more than $3 million in debt with assets of just $145,000, faces investor complaints, one lawsuit, and investigation by the Maine Division of Securities.

Here's a video by USA Today on the story:

Gayla Bentley made quite an impression Tuesday on ABC's Shark Tank. She's a big lady with a big vision: to create the first globally successful luxury fashion line for women of size 12 or larger. In fact, now that she's got the investment she needs, you may be hearing from her again.

WalletPop's Jason Cochran talked to Bentley about her success in obtaining the capital she needs to bring her garments to a wider market, and we got the video interview on tape as part of our popular AfterShark series.

As the ninth episode of ABC's Shark Tank unspooled, we met Dan Mackey. When he saw that California was dumping sugary sodas from the schools, he realized there was an opening for something organic and low-glycemic, with no high fructose corn syrup: his Chill Soda.

"A lot of people have great ideas. It's just a matter of doing something about it," he told us. And he's right about that. He only wanted $50,000, but for just 10% equity. Using agave nectar, it has about half the calories of the regular sodas on the market. Right away, the pitch started to go flat, when Kevin O'Leary asked what was the one thing that marked the ability to sell in the market, and Mackey was apparently too nervous to answer. "Distribution!" O'Leary said. "Sorry, I thought that was a given," Mackey said, and then said he already had a distributor working away, although he had only sold 250 cans. "You're getting in on the ground floor of this." You could hear a cricket in the Tank until Daymond John pressed a little more, and Mackey clarified: That was 250 thousand cans, worth $175,000 in sales. "I'm a marketing guy. I'm not in the beverage industry," he said, and the Sharks knew it was time to go for blood. "You should never have ever told me that you do not know that business. I'm out," said Daymond John.

WalletPop's Jason Cochran caught up with Dan Mackey for our popular AfterShark series: