Archive for March 2009

 
 

Best of the Online Brokers

Fidelity, with a wide array of investment choices and a terrific Web site, takes top honors.

From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance:

Low commissions are great. Free trades, which some online brokerages offer, are even better. But most investors want more from their discount broker. They want a Web site that’s easy to use, tools that clarify the markets, access to stocks across the globe and some guidance when they need it.

Click here for the entire article.

 

A Gift Registry for College Savings

Mark your grandchild’s birthday by giving a chunk of tuition.

From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance:

Finally, a birthday gift that’s fiscally responsible. Instead of giving children more toys, DVDs or video games, family members and friends can easily contribute toward a child’s college kitty.

Read more here.

 

Wall Street Goes Negative

A quota for analyst sell recommendations may mean better stock research from brokers.

From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance:

Big brokerage firms are still trying to wipe away the stain of the tainted stock research they foisted on investors during the Internet bubble of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Back then, as it turned out, some analysts hoping to win investment-banking business for their employers were praising stocks in public that they were dissing in private. Although some of the most egregious conflicts have disappeared since regulators in 2003 forced Wall Street’s major players to improve their research, the system is still dubious.

Click here for the entire article.

 

No More Sneaky Fees

Beat back investment fees.

From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance:

Making a buck on your investments is tough enough without watching your profits nibbled away by fees that are pesky at best and punitive at worst. The best way to avoid them is to deal with firms that offer the best value for the services you want.

Click here for the entire article.

 

Giving with Strings Attached

A guide to making sure your gift accomplishes what you want it to.

From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance:

A donation to your favorite charity is more than a gift or a tax break — it’s an investment. Pick an inefficient charity and your contribution will be eaten by administrative costs and fund-raising expenses. You can attach strings to your gifts, but a targeted gift that misses the mark (or is diverted) will cause you financial grief.

Click here for the entire article.

 

Learning to Be an Un-Consumer

John Perry, 44, a marketing manager, co-founded The Compact, a group that avoids unnecessary consumption. Two years later, it has more than 8,000 followers.

From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance:

Question: How did The Compact begin? Perry: Over dinner, nine friends and I decided to go an entire year without buying anything new besides food, medicine and hygiene products. If we needed anything else, we would borrow it or buy it secondhand.

Click here for the entire article.

 

You’re Smarter Than They Thought

Rather than sell, most people hang on to their funds during periods of market turmoil.

From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance:

You’ve probably heard this grim fairy tale: Plunging stocks provoke jittery investors to yank money out of mutual funds. In their rush to the exits, these saps miss the first wave of the next bull market. Eventually, as the sting of their losses wears off, they realize their stupidity and jump back into stock funds just as the bear is about to pounce again. And the vicious circle of market mistiming goes on. Frightening indeed, but not necessarily true.

Click here for the entire article.

 

Not-So-Simple College Savings

529 employer benefits can cost more if you don’t ask the right questions.

From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine:

It sounds like a great perk. You invest in a college-savings plan selected by your employer, and contributions are automatically deducted from your paycheck. Result: a no-sweat college kitty. Unfortunately, it’ not that simple.

Click here for the entire article.

 

Should I Prepay My Home Equity Loan?

Does it make sense to sell mutual funds to prepay a home-equity loan?

From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance:

The Question: Does it make sense to sell mutual funds to prepay a home-equity loan?
The Answer: Jeremiah Bodner is well on his way to a junior membership in the millionaire’s club. The 34-year-old bachelor owns a condo and two rental properties and has saved $285,000, including $100,000 in retirement accounts. Bodner, who lives in Berlin, N.J., makes $72,000 a year as a social studies teacher and on the side runs a vending business selling hot dogs at a local flea market. “When everyone else is having fun on the weekends, I’m working my stands,” he says.

Click here for the entire article.

 

There’s No News Like Fluffy Biz News

Keeping it light is Fox’s strategy for challenging CNBC.

From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance:

Fox business network takes fluff to a whole new level, even by the standards of cable news. Watch the channel’s Happy Hour show and get business tips from the Mannheim Steamroller band’s Chip Davis from a bar in New York City’s Waldorf-Astoria hotel. Or listen as America’s Nightly Scoreboard rates the chances that a new book by comic Sacha Baron Cohen (better known as Borat) will succeed.

Click here for the entire article.

 

« Older Entries