Maybe it's because a journalist, but the way I know I'm in a good conversation is that I unconsciously start to reach for my notepad, because everything we're discussing fascinates me so.

On the one hand, I want to take notes on what we're talking about — maybe they're telling me about an awesome vacation they took or maybe I'm telling them about my relationship with my family.

But on the other hand, I want to record those subtle strategies they're using to guide the interaction. How did I wind up gripping my chair in suspense? Or, how did they get me to open up like that?

I imagine I'm not the only one who's had these questions. So I turned to some Quorathreads for insight into the most common behaviors that make someone a pleasure to talk to.

Read on to find out what those excellent conversationalists do — and how you can start emulating them.

SEE ALSO: 10 ways to get better at small talk

1. They learn what you care about — and let you talk about it

Quora user Rajesh Setty says it's important to allow your conversation partner to reveal what interests them.

"You will be tempted to interrupt and share what you care about every now and then," he says. "The trick is to hold off and focus on the other person first. You will get your chance."

In fact, recent research suggests that talking about yourself is inherently pleasurable; it stimulates the same reward centers in the brain that are lit up by sex, cocaine, and good food. So it makes sense that people would feel positively about a conversation in which they held the spotlight.

2. They show their emotions

Max Lukominskyi writes:

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of emotions during the dialogue. While talking, accompany your words with corresponding gesture and feelings. Meanwhile, as a listener show your reaction and let your partner know how you feel about what she says.

Research backs him up: One study found that people who suppress their emotions are often perceived as less likable than those who express their feelings.

3. They find something they have in common with you

Brian Blose recommends that you "find ways to transition conversations to areas of mutual interest."

Blose says he often starts out by asking what his conversation partner does for a living; other times he mentions a new restaurant he visited.

"You might have to try a few topics before you find something you have in common."

Psychological research helps explain why this strategy might work — according to the similarity-attraction effect, we tend to gravitate toward people who are just like us, and especially when we share similar attitudes and values.

Model and tabloid star Christie Brinkley is looking to offload her Hamptons home.

It's a 19th century bay-front beauty, and Brinkley is looking to score a cool $25 million for it. She last listed the home in 2010 for $15.75 million. She's done some remodeling since then, but still needs some work, the listing agent told the Wall Street Journal. She originally purchased the home in 2004 for $7.15.

The home is quite large, close to all the best Sag Harbor has to offer, and has tons of waterfront property, which all contribute to the asking price.

Enzo Morabito of Douglas Elliman has the listing.

SEE ALSO: Nobody wants to buy the world's largest log cabin — and now the price has been slashed by $20 million

DON'T FORGET: Follow Business Insider's lifestyle page on Facebook!

Georgian columns greet you upon approach to Brinkley's Hamptons home.

Inside, the decorations are extremely nautical but not overly pretentious.

The home is located in the sought-after enclave of Sag Harbor, a premiere location in the Hamptons.

As you've probably heard by now, NFL ratings are way down this season. Just this past week, Monday Night Football was down 24% from last year. Afternoon games on both Fox and CBS are down by double figures, too.

Earlier this week The Atlantic's Derek Thompson pointed to four reasons to explain the decline: the election (obviously); an increase in cord-cutting; what he calls the "technological explanation" (basically that platforms like Twitter, fantasy football, and the RedZone channel make the traditional viewing experience less entertaining); and that football is simply getting worse.

The first two explanations are virtually inarguable, and I'm inclined to agree with Thompson re: the technological explanation, even if – as he notes — it's hard to really quantify how much something like Twitter chips into TV ratings. It's that fourth explanation that is the really concerning one. 

Take a look at the schedule of games this week: there are two, maybe three games that are really worth tuning into if you aren't a diehard fan of a particular team. The Falcons at the Seahawks is one, and the Cowboys at the Packers is another. Maybe you can toss the Bengals at the Patriots in there, though the Bengals are 2-3. The three night games (Broncos at Chargers; Colts at Texans; Jets at Cardinals) are all duds. 

If you haven't heard, we're in Peak TV (we're also in peak "Peak TV"), and there's too much other stuff to watch that's flat-out better than these games. 

And the problem is even greater than scheduling. According to FiveThirtyEight, there are only four teams with a 10% or greater chance to make the Super Bowl: the Vikings (15%), the Broncos (14%), the Steelers (12%), and the Seahawks (10%). The Patriots make the AFC Championship basically every year and yet they have just an 8% chance to make the Super Bowl.

It feels as though we know earlier than ever that most teams are going to be fine, but not especially exciting. That's worrisome. Too much parity inevitably means too many boring games. And that's something that's not going away when the election is over. 

Anyway, I had my best week of the year last week! 

All lines, as always, courtesy of Vegas Insider.

Last week: 9-5

Season: 41-37-1

Denver Broncos (-3) at San Diego Chargers (Thursday, 8:25 p.m. ET)

My defining betting strategy: not going to overthink it!

The pick: Broncos -3 

Cincinnati Bengals (+9) at New England Patriots (Sunday, 1:00 p.m. ET)

Do we take Tom Brady for granted? He's 39, missed the first month of the season, and in a "rusty" performance looked like the best quarterback in football. At this point I'm mentally preparing myself for 10 more years of his dominance. 

The pick: Bengals +9

Baltimore Ravens (+3) at New York Giants (Sunday, 1:00 p.m. ET)

The Giants are riding me into the ground, but I'm picking them again this week. 

The pick: Giants -3 

One thing is for sure, electric skateboards are way cooler and way more fun than those ridiculous hoverboards.

I spent some time with the new second generation electric skateboard from one of the biggest names in the business, Boosted Board, and I'm not looking forward to returning it. 

The new board improves on the original with a few useful and meaningful new features, and it's an absolute blast to ride. That said, it's an exciting blast. It's $999 for the base Single model, and up to the Dual+ for $1,499.

Check it out:

SEE ALSO: 9 insane laptops you never knew existed

The new Boosted Board electric skateboard comes with new features over the first version, like a replaceable battery, an extended range option, and water-resistant electronics.

RAW Embed

The wireless remote pairs quickly and easily with the board itself, and you use it go forwards, as well as backwards for braking.

RAW Embed

You can set different levels of power depending on how proficient you are. The higher the level, the more sensitive the remote, and the faster you can go. 

You can go up to 18 to 22 miles per hour, depending on the model. 

The Boosted Board gives you the control you craved when you first tried riding a skateboard.

The Boosted Board basically addresses everything I didn't like about regular skateboards. I remember thinking when I first rode skateboards that I wished I didn't have to kick to maintain speed so I could simply cruise and enjoy the ride. And going downhill was never fun because I had little control of my speed.

The remote takes care of the accelerating and braking you did with your feet on a regular skateboard. There's a trigger that activates the board's electric motor, and you roll the remote's wheel up with your thumb to accelerate, or down to brake.

It would be hard to overestimate the importance of the Levante SUV for Maserati. The brand came back to the US over a decade and and half ago, but since the financial crisis and amid an SUV boom, it's been selling only stylish luxury sedans and sexy GT sports car.

That will all now change, and it couldn't happen at a more important time for the Italian automaker, part of the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles empire. It's down at the bottom of the luxury sales hierarchy in the US, with a puny 0.1% overall market share (Porsche sells five times as many vehicles annually).

The Quattroporte and Ghibli sedans have their fans (me, for example). But in the US and increasingly China, you really need a strong crossover offering. Porsche established the template for an automaker that had never built an SUV crossing that river in the early 2000s when it created the Cayenne, a hugely successful vehicle.

Now Maserati has taken the same plunge.

We first saw the Levante when it was revealed at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show and later in the flesh at the New York auto show. Now we've actually spent some time behind the wheel. It was a relatively brief, two-hour run from a working farm and restaurant, Blue Hill at Stone Farms, about an hour north of New York to Bear Mountain.

This wasn't enough time to fully evaluate the vehicle — we'll get a crack at that later — but we formed some early impressions. And those impressions were good.

Read on:

SEE ALSO: The Levante is Maserati's first SUV — here's what it's like to drive

I arrive at the driving site. It's the rustic Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, home to the well-known and highly regarded Blue Hill restaurant.

The scenery is spectacular. This is a working farm. There are cows and sheep in the fields, a beekeeping area, and lots of farming plots and pastures.

Gorgeous. A fine day to drive and Italian luxury SUV.

Kia's new Telluride car looks like a high-end luxury SUV, and the South Korean automaker has a few original touches up its sleeve.

Kia hasn't said whether the Telluride would actually go into production, but it boasts some really impressive technology inside. That includes therapeutic lighting it says will help treat jet lag, and a system for rear passengers to choose media by just swiping their hand.

The company debuted it earlier this year in Detroit at the North American International Auto Show. We checked it out last week at the Orange County Auto Show in Anaheim, California.

Here's what it's like.

SEE ALSO: Here’s what we saw at the OC auto show

The Telluride is a full-size SUV that can comfortably seat seven passengers. One of the first things we noticed, of course, were the "suicide" doors in the back, making it easier for people to get in and out.

Inside are three rows of seats. If you happen to score the middle row, however, you can enjoy seats that fold down nearly flat and have fold-away footrests.

"The Telluride's theme is all about technology," Kia says, showing "what a large luxurious SUV may look like in the future."

By any number of measures, Washington’s Russia policy has failed. While ostensibly suffering from diplomatic and economic isolation under a US-led international sanctions regime, Moscow has succeeded in challenging a wide range of American interests, most notably in Ukraine, Syria, and cyberspace.

Coming up with a new approach on Russia should therefore be a top priority for either President Hillary Clinton or President Donald Trump soon after Jan. 20, 2017. So far, however, neither candidate has offered a vision that goes beyond the failed tropes of the past, with Clinton painting Russian President Vladimir Putin as a cartoonish villain and Trump viewing Moscow as an ally in-waiting.

The most common US policy responses to Russia — from both Republican and Democratic administrations across three decades — have depended either on the hope that Moscow can be fully defeated or that it can become a friend and fellow democracy. But Russia is not a democracy, nor is it democratizing, and although Russia may be in secular decline, it is a major power on the world stage.

The next president needs to accept that Moscow cannot simply be defeated or contained in the emerging multipolar, globalized world order. It must be engaged through a comprehensive balance of cooperation and competition.

The next president will have to persuade Moscow to cooperate where cooperation is needed on things like preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) while limiting room for Russia to maneuver where its interests largely oppose American ones, such as in Syria. And this new US policy must also recognize that tensions with Russia do not divide neatly along the lines of geography or individual issues, and that even shared interests will seldom overlap entirely.

The goal should involve constructing a web of interactions, both cooperative and competitive, that yields the most beneficial balance for our national interests. But above all, rather than setting out to defeat or transform Russia, a new US approach should deal with Russia as it really is.

SEE ALSO: How the US's nuclear weapons compare to Russia's

Understand That It’s Not Just About Putin

The next president must begin by abandoning the two axioms that have plagued Washington’s Russia policymaking for the last 25 years: The first, that Moscow opposes the United States because of the Kremlin’s undemocratic politics. And, secondly, that areas of agreement between the two countries can be walled off from areas of conflict.

It’s also essential to recognize that America’s problems with Russia aren’t solely because of Putin: They’re geopolitical. Neither Putin’s departure nor broader regime change in Russia will resolve this challenge.

Putin stands squarely within centuries of tradition in Russian strategic thinking, and his foreign policy enjoys overwhelming elite support while resonating with the public. Geopolitical competition of some dimension is inevitable among major powers with strategic interests stretching across the globe, regardless of what politics they practice at home.

 The next administration needs to break with its predecessors and realize that relations with Moscow can’t simply be compartmentalized into areas of cooperation and disagreement. American actions on one issue will influence Russia’s assessment of US approaches on other issues.

The George W. Bush administration, for example, unsuccessfully sought to insulate counterterrorism cooperation following 9/11 from competition with Moscow in the former Soviet space. Barack Obama’s administration hoped to continue cooperation on nuclear security even as overall relations deteriorated sharply.

But that, too, failed, evidenced by Russia’s skipping the US-sponsored nuclear security summit in April and suspending the Plutonium Disposition Agreement because of “hostile” American actions last week.

After 1991, successive US administrations attempted to integrate Russia into the West by encouraging its transformation from a totalitarian Communist state into a free-market democracy. At a time of Russian weakness following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Washington also reshaped the structure of Europe by enlarging NATO and supporting the expansion of the European Union.

But as Moscow regained its geopolitical strength and expanded its ambitions under Putin, Russia pushed back against US efforts, first in the former Soviet Union, then in Europe, and more recently in the broader Middle East. After 25 years of US and European efforts, Russia has made it clear that it is not interested in integrating into the West and that it is prepared to challenge the United States along a broad front, even by interfering in domestic US politics.

US policy must adapt to new challenges, and Washington may need to give ground on other, lesser priorities. For example, if forced to choose between securing cooperation on nuclear nonproliferation and supporting pro-Western political change in Russia’s neighborhood, a tactical withdrawal on the latter may be necessary to preserve a larger victory on arms control.

In other cases, Moscow’s actions that directly threaten vital US interests will demand that Washington impose costs in proportion to the threat, such as supporting NATO allies when Russia deploys its forces or conducts provocative military exercises along their borders.

Stop Ukraine From Becoming a Frozen Conflict

Russia’s aggression against Ukraine was the tipping point for the tensions and mistrust that define the US-Russia relationship today. Washington used the pressure of international sanctions and diplomatic isolation to compel Moscow to withdraw from Ukraine.

But the Russians responded with countermeasures of their own, and the resulting reciprocal sanctions and warring narratives now combine to block even basic diplomatic engagement.

Making any sort of diplomatic progress with the Kremlin will first hinge on how the next US president interprets Moscow’s motivations in Ukraine: Is Russia primarily holding Ukraine hostage because of its fear of Western encirclement and regime change?

Or is Putin exploiting Ukraine’s vulnerability for his government’s political and territorial aggrandizement? The answer is most likely a combination of both, but from a policy perspective it makes sense to operate on the basis of the more positive interpretation, while hedging against the chance of being wrong.

In many respects, the hedge is already in place. NATO has decided to rotate new forces through the Baltic States and stepped up planning for various contingencies involving conflict with Russia.

The West’s support for political and economic reform in Ukraine — to help build a competent democratic state and raise standards of living — is another important part of the strategy. But a solution to the crisis in Ukraine will need more than preparing for the worst-case scenario.

A voluntary Russian withdrawal from Ukraine depends for now on the highly flawed Minsk II peace deal signed in February 2015 by France, Germany, Russia, and Ukraine. Despite Minsk’s obvious imperfection, it has two key features that cannot be abandoned: a legal and political commitment undertaken by major European powers and Russia and military de-escalation on the ground linked to a sustainable political process for ending the conflict.

Abandoning either element would practically guarantee that eastern Ukraine will become yet another frozen conflict. Although Washington is not a signatory to the deal, the United States can help incentivize Minsk for Moscow by linking specific sanctions relief to concrete Russian steps it can implement to sustain a cease-fire, withdraw heavy military equipment from the zone of conflict, and return control of Ukraine’s side of the border with Russia to Kiev.

Have an Honest Talk About Europe

For better or worse, Moscow retains sufficient power to shape the security environment in Europe. In this realm, the task for the next president in shaping US policy will be to insulate European allies against Russian action in the short term while laying the groundwork for a more durable European security framework, with Russian participation, in the long term.

The next administration’s most urgent and immediate goal should be to maintain the integrity of NATO as the guarantor of European security. In light of Russia’s threatening behavior, many of its neighbors look to the transatlantic alliance, and the United States in particular, for the necessary commitment of manpower, hardware, and political will.

Washington must also bolster NATO’s collective defense capabilities, not simply by spending more, but by coordinating efforts and expenditures far better. US leadership in this arena is essential, and American credibility in Europe will be judged not just by what is said and done on the continent, but by Washington’s performance in managing security commitments globally, such as in East Asia and the greater Middle East.

Enhancing the forums in which Russia and the West participate, like the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the NATO-Russia Council, even if they can’t resolve or even manage disagreements, is a necessary step toward preventing conflict.

The OSCE, still the only fully inclusive security organization for North America, Europe, and the entire former Soviet space, has an important role to play. Washington should seek to re-launch talks with Moscow and its place in the European security architecture through the body in an unofficial, second track format.

Where these discussions will end up is an open question. But the next administration will have better chances of reducing tensions and building a stable security order in Europe by allowing Russia’s legitimate security interests in the region to be heard.

Now that new music comes out every Friday — though not always on every streaming service — it can be hard to know where to find the next great song.

To help you out, Business Insider compiles this rundown of the best new music you can stream right now.

This week, Kings of Leon released their seventh studio album, and the hip-hop duo NxWorries (Anderson .Paak and Knwledge) debuted a stellar collection of tracks. 

Check out this week's best new songs:

SEE ALSO: The best album of every year since 2000, according to critics

Kings of Leon — "Find Me"

"Find Me," a propulsive arena-rock song, stands out on the largely mediocre "WALLS," the first album in three years from Kings of Leon. 

RAW Embed

Spirit Club — "Broken Link"

Spirit Club, an indie-rock trio led by Wavves' Nathan Williams, mix garage rock with psychedelic and electronic influences on their outstanding new single, "Broken Link."

Youtube Embed:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/H59cofliDw0
Width: 800px
Height: 380px

Solange — "Cranes in the Sky (Kaytranada DJ Edit)"

Montreal's Kaytranada adds his trademark bass-led production to a great song from "A Seat at the Table," the critically acclaimed new album by Solange (Beyoncé's younger sister) that's worthy of repeated listening. 

RAW Embed

Visiting Ikea can tear the strongest of people apart — but the food can bring them together.

Many people may not know that every Ikea location has its own full-service restaurant.

In addition to serving iconic Swedish meatballs, the restaurant offers numerous dishes served in an elevated cafeteria style with a Swedish twist. 

Business Insider decided to visit the local Ikea in Brooklyn to peruse the furniture giant's smorgasbord of culinary offerings — no assembly required. 

SEE ALSO: We went to Red Lobster for its 'Endless Shrimp' promo and stayed for 8 hours — here's what happened

Ikea's restaurant opens at every morning at 9:30 a.m. We arrived around 10:30.

We were shocked to see how spacious and inviting the cafeteria is. Unsurprisingly, the decor was all Ikea — bright, minimal, and practical. The views, however, were exceptional: the Statue of Liberty to the west, and the soaring skyscrapers of downtown Manhattan to the north. 

Breakfast was in order. Incredibly, everything on this tray cost a grand total of $7.37 — including tax.

We decided on the $2 Swedish-American breakfast, which includes eggs, sausage, home fries, and Swedish pancakes with a side of lingonberry jam. We also grabbed two pastries, and four drinks: coffee, chocolate milk, and two Swedish-inspired juice boxes. Notably, the coffee was just 75¢ with free refills. That could very well be one of the best caffeination deals in Brooklyn.

For $2, the Swedish-American breakfast was solid.

The eggs exceeded expectations. They are smooth, dense, and avoid being a watery mess as cafeteria eggs often are. Ikea falls short with the home fries, which are under seasoned — a dash of salt and pepper would go a long way. The sausages are on par with most diner side sausages: flavorful, but not memorable. 

The star of the dish is the lingonberry jam, served with the Swedish pancakes — or as they say in France, crepes. The pancakes themselves are light, buttery, and thin, but they don't sparkle without the aid of the delicious jam. It brings a pleasant pucker to the palate and helps the whole meal punch above its $2 weight class.

Today, a third of the planet's food goes to waste — enough to feed two billion people. 

That food is wasted at every stage from farm to table, sometimes just because of how it looks.

In fields, unpicked, "ugly" produce is left to rot. In grocery stores, workers reject blemished (but edible) fruits and veggies. And in our own homes, we ignore leftovers and throw out perishables before they've expired.

Food waste is a moral issue — as National Geographic points out, this wasted food could feed the 800 million people who are starving worldwide twice over. Earlier this year, the magazine looked at data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and found that some food items are wasted more than others.

In celebration of World Food Day on October 16, which serves as a day of action against hunger, here's a look at how different food categories rank in terms of waste. The percentages indicate the portion of the world's total food waste that each food category represents.

SEE ALSO: The 'Seamless for food waste’ lets you eat at buffets for as little as $2

7. Milk, yogurt, and cheese — 17.1%.

6. Chicken, beef, and pork — 21.5%.

5. Lentils, green peas, chickpeas, and seeds that make oil — 22.1%.

Instagram Embed:
http://instagram.com/p/BCMHU-ZgNZq/embed/
Width: 800px

You can learn a lot from a tweet.

Especially if that tweet is from New York Times columnist, author, and financial planner Carl Richards.

He's made a career out of exposing and analyzing what he calls the "behavior gap"— the gap between what you should do with your money and what you actually do.

In his "napkin sketches," he boils these insights down to a few drawn lines that are simple enough to fit on a napkin. He's gathered many of these in his books, and via his site, Behavior Gap. In anticipation of his next book, on overcoming imposter syndrome, he's also launching a free email course on November 1.

Below, take a look at nine sketches Richards has shared with his 24,000 Twitter followers, covering everything from psychology to financial advisers to why there's no such thing as a dumb question about money.

SEE ALSO: Learn everything you need to know about personal finance from 11 simple sketches

Tweet Embed:
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/783823618086211584
Cut Yourself Some Slack https://t.co/Zbed215EASpic.twitter.com/Mupthxp8me

In an episode of Behavior Gap Radio,Richards explains a recent realization: "Any time there is extra — time, money, or energy — I spend it. You know what I mean? I don't reinvest it."

He refers to this extra as "slack in the system," and explains that it applies equally to energy, time, and money. When there's a day off, a rest, or a budget surplus, he's always viewed it as a reward. 

"I realized that space in the schedule, blocks of unstructured time, is not a reward for doing good work," he says. "If you want to do good work for a long career, it's not a reward, it's a prerequisite. You have to build slack into the system in order to continue to do creative work for the long haul."

When it comes to money, Richards says, traditional budgeting advice usually revolves around creating scarcity: making the most of every dollar, keeping your checking account low to keep you afraid of overspending. However, building some slack into that system, realizing that "just because it's there doesn't mean it has to be spent," Richards says, "was a huge breakthrough for me."

"Next time you find yourself with a little bit of slack in your system," he advises, "you could do two things: You could say, 'Ok, this is what I've worked so hard for. It's a reward. I'm going to take a day off.' But I think you should flip it on its head and say, 'I've got to take this time. This slack has to be in the system, as a prerequisite for continuing to do the type of work I do.'"

Tweet Embed:
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/784091044652716038
When it comes to our money, there are no dumb questions. https://t.co/7nee9DezK2pic.twitter.com/SYjVHzVy6x

"While humility is a virtue in all parts of life, when it comes to making smart decisions with money, it serves as a vital layer of protection," Richards writes in The New York Times. "When it comes to our money, there are no dumb questions."

Tweet Embed:
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/785590710644899841
When to Care More About the Return OF Your Money https://t.co/3wukISLJAYpic.twitter.com/m6jEib0Nf7

Richards writes in The New York Times that when a friend asked his advice on how to invest so the money would definitely be there in three to five years, when it was time to buy a new house, Richards advised keeping it out of the market — and his friend felt that it was "wrong" to work so hard for that money and then let it "sit there doing nothing."

Reflecting on this reaction, Richards writes:

"In a situation like this one, it's helpful to recall and repeat Mark Twain's advice to be more concerned with the return of our money than the return on our money. For things that are really important and less than five years away, like buying a house or taking a big trip, the return doesn't matter. All we care about is making sure the money is there when the time comes.

"So I'm over the idea that a big pile of money has to generate a big return. We could invest that money, but we'd also have to accept that three years from now, all the money might not be there. Any investment could come back later, but maybe not in time for the big, emotional goal we set. I'm betting at that moment, we'd feel even worse about less money or no money than no gain."

In football, perhaps more than any other sport, there is a hierarchy of positions in terms of both real and perceived importance to the team.

Because of that there is a huge disparity in how well NFL players at different positions are compensated.

Below, we take a look at the NFL players who will make the most money this season at all 18 of the primary positions, from quarterback to long snapper, using data collected from Spotrac.

Long snapper: JJ Jansen — $1.6 million

Team: Carolina Panthers

2016 earnings breakdown: $885,000 salary, $700,000 signing bonus

Career earnings: $7.4 million

One thing to know: After going undrafted in 2008, Jansen is now in his eighth season with the Carolina Panthers. He is signed through 2020 and if he completes his contract, his career earnings will reach $11.3 million.

Fullback: Ryan Hewitt — $2,100,000

Team: Cincinnati Bengals

2016 earnings breakdown: $600,000 salary, $1.5 million signing bonus

Career earnings: $3.5 million

One thing to know: Only seven fullbacks in the NFL will make at least $1 million this season.

Punter: Marquette King — $5.3 million

Team: Oakland Raiders

2016 earnings breakdown: $1.4 million salary, $250,000 signing bonus, and $3.6 million in other bonuses.

Career earnings: $8.2 million

One thing to know: King was a wide receiver and a kicker in high school. While at Fort Valley State University, King was originally a wide receiver. However, he was eventually told by the coaching staff that he would lose his scholarship unless he become the team's full-time kicker, according to The New Yorker.

It’s conventional wisdom by now that Americans aren’t saving enough for retirement. Recent studies have shown that many Baby Boomers might have to live on a mere $7,000 to $9,000 a year during their golden years, based on their current savings (not including Social Security).

If that’s not discouraging enough, financial planners say Americans are making plenty of other retirement missteps. Here are 19 other mistakes you could be making while planning for retirement.

SEE ALSO: 5 dumb decisions that put you at risk of going broke in retirement

1. Planning to stay in the family home

About three in five retirees decided to stay in their home for their golden years, according to a TransAmerica Center for Retirement Studies survey. But that may not be the smartest decision says James Bryan, principal of Cahill Financial Advisors. Rising upkeep costs, renovations and property taxes could make the house too expensive to manage.  The house also may not be suitable for aging in place. “People don't want to let go because they feel like they are betraying the memories,” he says.

Related: The Retirement Cost That 80% of Americans Aren’t Ready For

Solution: Add up the money you’ve spent on your home over the last five years and divide by 5 to get a snapshot of your annual costs. Then, increase that number by 2-5 percent to account for inflation. If it’s too costly for you to handle, consider downsizing or moving to a senior community.

2. Counting on working in retirement

About seven in 10 Millennials, more than half of Generation Xers and over a third of Baby Boomers expect to work during their golden years, according to a recent survey from Scottrade. But there’s a good chance that that won’t happen, according to the TransAmerica survey. Three of five recent retirees said they were forced to stop working sooner than planned because of job issues, health concerns or family responsibilities.

Solution: Plan your second or third career while you’re still on your first. Learn a new skill or a new language and don’t hesitate to take a few online courses – just for the fun of it.

Related: How to Retire Comfortably While You’re Still in Debt

3. Banking on an inheritance

Only about 11 percent of people in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 received an inheritance. And the windfall for many wasn’t big enough to offset a lack of retirement savings. The median inheritance was $11,340, according to a studyfrom Ohio State University’s Center for Human Resource Research. “Your rich aunt might leave it all to charity,” says David Schneider of Schneider Wealth Strategies. “Your parents may not have as much as you think or could spend their money down on long-term care expenses.”

Solution: Talk with your parents about their estate planning and how it might affect your personal finances. Otherwise, save as if you won’t receive any inheritance. If you do get one, create a savings plan for it. The Ohio State study found that adults who get a windfall end up spending, losing or donating half of it.

Because I regularly test cars, I spend a huge amount of time listening to music in them — probably more time than I do at home.

The days of the good-old AM/FM radio, or the era when a stack of cassette tapes was all you had to satisfy your listening needs, are long gone.

Powerful, multispeaker audio systems are now custom-designed and perfectly integrated with a vehicle's infotainment setup. You can literally listen to anything except cassettes and and vinyl records in your car (CD players, however, are beginning to vanish).

And in luxury cars and SUVs, premium audio offerings are a common option. 

That option can cost thousands of dollars. And for the most part, it's worth it. Because most premium systems make use of careful audio design to position speakers, include subwoofers, and combine excellent amps with superior speaker build quality, listening to music in your car can be better than listening at home.

Over the past two years, I've experienced just about every automotive audio system out there in the marketplace. Here we're comparing four of the best.

Obviously, when listening to music in a vehicle, you will be using a variety of media: terrestrial radio, satellite radio, CDs, MP3s, Bluetooth streaming, and streaming audio services such as Pandora, Spotify, and Tidal. You may also be using USB inputs or an AUX jack, so the quality of your source audio will vary. 

Rather than getting into dicing and slicing that, I've tried to describe these systems more generally, in terms of their overall sounds quality. But for the most part, I've found that plugging into the AUX jack gives me the best modern audio (although some experts maintain that the USB port is better), and that using CD-player input still offers the best sound.

Also, with the exception of a single more downmarket system that I discuss, these audio offerings are all well-engineered have speakers galore. The individual components are of a high baseline quality.

So let's zero in on what's important. How do these systems sound?

SEE ALSO: Maserati has hit a home run with its first SUV

BOSE: We've experienced Bose systems on a variety of vehicles, but we often find them in General Motors cars, like Cadillacs and Corvettes.

HOW DOES IT SOUND?

To my ear, Bose hits a very sweet, middle-of-the-road place. I'm not talking about the up-market Panaray version that Bose developed for the new Cadillac CT6, which takes what Bose does well to a new level. 

Basically, Bose car audio systems always sound good, and unlike some other choices, they do it without requiring 1,000-watt outputs (the Panaray setup doesn't even get to 600). Depending on how many speakers a vehicle has, where they're positioned, and whether there are powerful bass speakers, they can sound significantly better than great.

The bass is full and robust, the midranges are well-defined, and the highs are bright. As anyone who has used Bose home speakers or the company's well-regarded noise-cancelling headphones knows, Bose isn't for bass-head listeners.

Rather, its car-audio systems will please the widest range of listeners. Rock lovers, pop lovers, hip-hop lovers, jazz lovers, blues lovers, classical lovers — everyone will be happy. The so-called "soundstage" is clearly presented, with good distinction among instruments or vocals and the position of players. 

BEST FOR: Everything.

ANY COMPLAINTS?

Even the Panaray system on the Cadillac CT6 doesn't quite rise to the sublime register as some other premium systems available in vehicles.

Bose is so broadly good that it misses out on going for it with, say, the detail you might want if you're listening to jazz or the captivating soundstage you might want if classical is your thing.

That doesn't mean a Bose system is in any way mushy. Quite the opposite — you can crank it up with no worry about distortion.

But it's not going to invade your dreams. Instead, Bose car audio will simply never let you down.

Some believe that New Year's Eve sets the tone for the rest of the year. So what better way to celebrate than in some fabulous and exotic locale?

According to travel search engine KAYAK, now is the ideal time to book international New Year’s Eve travel, as historical KAYAK data shows that travelers can score the lowest median prices when booking at the three month, 10 week, and two month window.

Their just-released 2016 Holiday Travel Hacker Guide outlines the most popular New Year's Eve destinations around the world.

Let's take a look at where the world wants to ring in 2017 — and when the best time to book is.

10. Minneapolis, Minnesota

Best time to book: 10 weeks in advance.

9. Guadalajara, Mexico

Best time to book: two months in advance.

8. Lima, Peru

Best time to book: one month in advance.

Everybody's working for the weekend, but how you spend your two days off may say something about how successful you are.

What you get up to doesn't really matter, per se. If you prefer lounging around the house to spontaneous adventures, that's great! You probably need that time to wind down.

When it comes to weekends, the main thing that separates successful people from unsuccessful people is mindfulness.

Are you planning ahead and truly thinking about how to spend your free time?

Here are 11 things that unsuccessful people tend to do over the weekend — and why to avoid them:

SEE ALSO: 18 damaging behaviors of unsuccessful people

DON'T MISS: 12 habits of unsuccessful people

They don't have a plan

Not every minute of every hour of your weekend needs to be planned out, but it's good to have a general idea of what you'd like to do or get done — even if you're just scheduling downtime.

That'll allow you protect your time, and maybe even schedule in some fun events.

They don't make time for loved ones

It can be hard to make time for the ones you care about during the hectic week. Make up for that over the weekend.

They let technology take over

Put away your phone. Shut off your work email — and make it clear to your coworkers that you won't be responding. Don't get addicted to technology.

What we choose to spend our hard-earned money on can say a lot about us.

In an Ask Reddit thread, Redditors were asked, "What is the best purchase you have ever made?" Over 13,000 people responded to share their favorite buys, from a luxury mattress to an HD projector.

Keep reading to see some of their best responses.

Bluetooth earphones

"[These] Bluetooth Earphones. I'll never go back to messing with wires!" - mr_jp

Buy them here:$110

Tools

"Tools. I have an arsenal of tools, but basic hand tools will last a lifetime and have saved me as much money as they've made me." - vigpounder

Kindle

"My wife bought me a Kindle for Christmas one year, and I thanked her politely, while thinking 'Man, she doesn't know me at ALL. Why would ANYONE want to read books digitally?'

"But she had loaded a couple of books on it, and I thought I should be polite and read one.

"I have never looked back. Best purchase ever. I can carry several books around without the weight. If I hear about an interesting book, I can pull out my Kindle and be reading that book 30 seconds later via Amazon." - TheAbyssGazesAlso

Buy it here: $100

Caffeine is the world's most widely consumed psychoactive drug (you can thank globalization and rough Monday mornings for that).

But before we had a Starbucks on every other block, the drink endured years of prohibition and reinstatements, picking up plenty of advocates and critics throughout its existence.  

In his recently published book, Innovation and Its Enemies, Harvard University professor Calestous Juma highlights the some of the early difficulties that the drink faced when early coffee shops opened. Here are a few of them.

SEE ALSO: The founder of Bulletproof Coffee plans to live to be 180 years old — here’s his daily routine

Coffee started out in Ethiopia, then spread to Yemen and the rest of the Middle East in the 16th century. It was known as "qahwa."

Sufi Muslims started drinking "qahwa" in the early 16th century to stay awake during their evening devotionals. Since both laypeople and clergy were in attendance, Juma writes that people likely brought the drink home to integrate into their daily lives. 

As coffee drinking spread, people started opening "coffee houses," which became centers of interaction for men who didn't have anywhere else to converse about politics and philosophy.

"The preexisting public institutions included the ill-reputed wine tavern; the bathhouse, reserved for the upper classes and lacking in entertainment; and the mosque, which allowed only limited exchanges before and after worship," Juma wrote. "None of the existing social venues at the time allowed for the breadth of social discourse that occurred in the coffeehouses."

But the politically powerful found the drink and the coffee houses that served it threatening.

You might have heard that the French Revolution was planned in coffee houses, where members of the so-called "intelligentsia," the class of political thinkers and polemics, gathered to plot their rebellions.

Coffee houses' potential to facilitate the exchange of ideas and information scared leaders long before the French Revolution. In 1511, Khair Beg, a young governor of Mecca, called for the closure of all coffee houses, fearing they'd be centers of secular uprising. Anyone caught drinking or selling coffee at that time was beaten.

During the 1500s, coffee critics used Muslim drinking laws to defend their claims.

Officials in Cairo, which ruled over Mecca at that time, overturned Khair Beg's coffee ban the same year it was issued. But fear of the coffee houses lingered — some saw them as seedy meeting places, similar to whorehouses. 

In 1535, religious critics pointed to Islam's Hanafi laws, which forbade drunkenness, as a justification to ban coffee again. But whether that concept of "drunkenness" included caffeine jitters depended on which school of Muslim thought you subscribed to at the time.

Two Persian doctors also weighed in on behalf of coffee critics in 1611. Juma writes: 

"The two physicians claimed the beverage was endowed with vile characteristics and said the governor should receive 'great glory and abundant rewards' if he opposed the drink, thus appealing to the governor’s desire for legitimacy and power as a ruler."

There are plenty of things you can, theoretically, add to your life to be happier.

Exercise! Gratitude! Spending time with friends! Hooray!

What's more surprising is that there are plenty of things you can take out of your life to be a happier person. Think of it as decluttering your house, except instead of your house, it's your entire life.

To help you kick off the elimination process, we checked out the Quora thread, "What are the things that, if you give up on them, will make your life a lot easier and much, much happier?" and highlighted the best ideas.

Read on to find out which behaviors need to get the boot, stat.

SEE ALSO: 25 simple things to give up if you want to succeed

1. Comparing yourself to others

"The day you stop the comparison of things [t]hat you possess with others, you will be much happier,"writes Quora user Vipul Patni.

Research suggests that there's one key reason why constantly peering over your shoulder is unproductive: You don't get a completely accurate picture of others' emotional lives.

A 2011 study found that people significantly underestimate the number of negative emotions others experience — and overestimate the number of positive emotions they experience.

In other words, there's little point comparing yourself to other people, because you'll probably never know how much they're really struggling.

2. Trying to change other people

Sure, your life might be better if the people around you behaved exactly as you wanted them to. But that's probably not going to happen anytime soon, so focus instead on the things you can control.

As Marissa Russell put it:

"If the person doesn't have a desire to change within them already, you will end up wasting precious time and energy talking to a brick wall. You can't make people grow. Some people have to grow at their own pace and learn the hard way before they start making the right decisions."

3. Fearing failure

Failing, and getting upset about it, is an inevitable part of life. But don't let it consume you.

Gayathri Vijayakumar writes:

"Don't have fear of failing. Its okay if you fail, but don't stop moving. Keep moving forward, don't look back when you should not. Consider each failure as a stepping stone and not stumbling block."

Of course, that doesn't mean ignoring your feelings and charging ahead. In a Psychology Today column, psychologist Guy Winch writes:

"It is important to accept that failure makes you feel both fear and shame, and to find trusted others with whom you can discuss these feelings.

Bringing these feelings to the surface can help prevent you from expressing them through unconscious efforts to sabotage yourself, and getting reassurance and empathy from trusted others can bolster your feelings of self-worth while minimizing the threat of disappointing them."

Not everybody is a people person.

If this sounds like you, your best approach for finding a job could be searching for work where people skills aren't all that necessary.

To find these jobs, we averaged data from the Occupational Information Network, or O*NET, a US Department of Labor database full of detailed information on 974 occupations.

O*NET rates each occupation on a scale from zero to 100 on how much a job requires workers to be in contact with others and how much a job requires workers to be pleasant with others. We averaged these ratings to find which jobs had the highest overall score.

While people who hold these positions aren't necessarily standoffish, the following jobs got the lowest average scores and therefore require minimal good-natured interaction with others:

DON'T MISS: The 20 highest-paying jobs for women

SEE ALSO: 18 college majors that that lead to the biggest pay raises

Foundry mold and coremakers

They make or form wax or sand cores or molds used in the production of metal castings in foundries.

Required sociability score: 58

Watch repairers

They repair, clean, and adjust mechanisms of timing instruments, such as watches and clocks.

Required sociability score: 58

Quarry rock splitters

 They separate blocks of rough dimension stone from quarry mass using jackhammer and wedges.

Required sociability score: 58