A Week's Worth

• Hopes that the Federal Reserve may lower interest rates spurred a 3.1 percent gain in the Dow Jones Industrial Average last week.

• The fees you pay a professional to manage your money may be hurting you, big time, says author, economist, and mathematician Michael Endress. Using $100,000 as a hypothetical model, he says a pro typically will turn it into about $281,000 over a quarter-century ... after deducting his fees. The return if you invested it "wisely" yourself: $569,000. Wisely means buying low-cost, broadly diversified index funds, Mr. Endress says.

• Doing a job well won't necessarily land you a promotion, so the higher you climb the corporate ladder, the more you might want to schmooze with those on the rungs above you. That's according to an expert at the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies. Why? Because available jobs are fewer as you near the top, and it may not be up to your current boss to decide what your next job is, the expert says.

• First they were OK. Then they weren't. But now résumés of more than one page are acceptable, according to a new survey by Accountemps, the temporary staffing service. Whereas, a decade ago, 73 percent of employers preferred a one-page summary of a job applicant's bona fides, it found that now only 52 percent do. In fact, 31 percent said three or more pages are OK.