You see the ads for this kind thing on the cable channels in the wee small hours of the morning. Buy gold or silver as a hedge against bad economic times. But many of the companies touting gold or silver are really only making one entity rich: themselves.

Here’s what you need to watch out for:

1. The Bait Frequently, these companies use deceptive marketing to make you think you’re getting gold or silver at only a slight mark-up over the current market value.
2. The Switch Once you are actually speaking with a salesperson, they will try and switch you to investing in “collectible coins.” You’re told that these are appreciating much faster than gold or silver.
3. The Catch Often you will be sold coins at a markup so high, you will never recover what you’ve paid.

One of the oldest adages in investing is true here – invest in what you know. If you don’t know about collectible coins, don’t invest. Or seek out a local expert in your area and consult with them face-to-face.

1970: Jimi Hendrix performs for an audience for the last time. He headlines the Open Air Love and Peace Festival in Fehmarn, Germany. Less than two weeks later, he will be gone.

Yes, it really happened! Bill Murray has portrayed a Marvel super-hero. The year was 1975 and Marvel was trying to expand from Saturday morning TV into the world of radio. So they spent $47,000 on a Fantastic Four radio series.

Murray was a struggling comic who had migrated from Chicago to New York. He was already working on The National Lampoon Radio Show, but picked up extra work when he was cast as Johnny Storm a.k.a. The Human Torch!

The shows were all adaptations of the very early issue of the Fantastic Four comic books of the early 1960’s. They were narrated by none other than Stan Lee himself. They are the cheese fest you would expect with all of Lee’s breathless, over-the-top prose and Murray faithfully shouting the Torch’s catchphrase “Flame on!” in every episode.

Sadly, the series lasted only 13 episodes and earned a paltry $22,000.

Oh, John Belushi was up for the part of the Thing, but was turned down.

A year later, Murray replaced Chevy Chase on the second season of NBC’s Saturday Night (it wouldn’t become Saturday Night Live until near the end of the second season). And the rest is show biz history!

Now that we're in the 21st Century, I'm sure we all recognize how true the view from 1952 was!

As we grow older, many of us begin experiencing trouble sleeping through the night. If you find yourself waking up in the dark multiple times during the night, try these “sleep hacks” to getting a good night’s rest:

1. Stay in the Dark – If you do wake up, don’t turn on a light, check your cell phone, or get up to watch TV. This can mess up your internal clock and make you more likely to wake up at the same time the next night.
2. Upgrade Your Bedding – Is your pillow worn out or uncomfortable? How long has it been since you replaced your mattress? New bedding may be your ticket to dreamland!
3. Stick to a Schedule – Our internal clocks are not as adjustable as they once were. Try and keep your bed time and the time you rise the same – 7 days a week. (No matter how tempting it may be to sleep in on Saturday morning.)

1968: John Lennon departs England for Germany, where he will begin filming his only non-Beatle related movie role, as Pvt. Gripweed in How I Won the War.

While this Richard Lester-directed comedy about World War I has been largely forgotten now, Lennon loved the old fashioned glasses worn by his character. He continued to wear them and touched off a fashion craze for wire-framed glasses that has never really gone away.

1952: At a birthday party for her cousin, Bubba, eight-year old singing sensation Gladys Knight forms a back-up group consisting of Bubba and two other cousins. They name themselves The Pips after another cousin (and their manager), James “Pip” Woods.

1970: The very first of the phenomenon known as “bootleg” records, a set of outtakes from Bob Dylan, called The Great White Wonder, reaches a sales peak of 350,000 copies.

While most well-known bands from The Beatles to Led Zeppelin will have bootlegs of their material released through the years, it is the concert performances of The Grateful Dead and Bruce Springsteen that provide the highest number of bootlegs.

1978: George Harrison marries Olivia Arias, a secretary at his Dark Horse Records company.

1956: 19-year old Jerry Lee Lewis arrives at Sun Records in Memphis to audition for a recording contract. Jerry is disappointed to discover label owner Sam Phillips in on vacation in Florida. Engineer Jack Clement has Lewis cut a demo recording anyway.

When Phillips returns from vacation, he likes what he hears and hires Jerry to work as a singer and session musician.