Each Friday I’ll provide five articles or links from the past week that are worth checking out. And this week we have:

What It Takes To Be Great – Research now shows that the lack of natural talent is irrelevant to great success. The secret? Painful and demanding practice and hard work.

Woman Dies at 100, Donates $35.6 Million – A 100-year-old woman who quietly amassed a vast fortune before her death last year left $35.6 million to local diabetes and cancer research.

Republican or Democrat? Market Doesn’t Care – Whichever party comes out on top, the outcome of the midterm election won’t damage stocks. Why? Too many other things are going swimmingly.

Search With Ms. Dewey – A fun, yet unmentioned project Microsoft is working on. Ms. Dewey is interactive and makes searching a bit fun.

Retirement Planning on the Cheap – Retirement planning can be a daunting task. Whether it’s figuring out how much to save or how to manage those savings in retirement, many investors wish they had professional help.