This week’s investing term is all about investment decisions motivated by tax implications. It’s called tax selling and as the name suggests, it’s when an investor sells an asset at a loss, in order to pay less taxes when he sells an asset at a profit. The way this works is that the U.S. tax code allows individuals to use an investment loss to offset capital gains taxes on profit making asset sales.

The process is also commonly called “harvesting capital losses”, because it often involves the purposeful selling of a losing investment for the explicit reason to gain a tax advantage.

Tax selling is perfectly legal, but there are a few restrictions:

• Any assets sold for a loss must have been owned by the investor for at least 30 days prior to being sold.

• The investor cannot purchase assets of a same type within 30 days of the assets being sold.

So, you can’t buy shares in a small cap fund, sell them 29 days later at a loss to harvest the capital gain tax offset, and then buy shares in the small cap fund 15 days after you sold them. Violation of either of these restrictions is called a wash sale, and that is illegal. This 30 day limitation is often referred to as the 30-day wash sale rule.

Tax selling usually occurs in December, but keep an eye on the market as some are speculating there will be an increase in tax selling as the Bush tax cuts expire at the end of this year, and tax rates rise again.

• Investing Term Tuesday - January Effect. In honor of just closing the books on January, I thought it might be nice to examine the January Effect. The January Effect is an investing term that refers to a general increase in the stock market during the month of January. This effect is typically attributed to an increase......
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In honor of just closing the books on January, I thought it might be nice to examine the January Effect.

The January Effect is an investing term that refers to a general increase in the stock market during the month of January. This effect is typically attributed to an increase in buying caused by the addition of employees yearly bonuses being contributed to their 401(k) plans, and also due to investors getting back into the market after having sold in the previous December for tax purposes.

It is said that the January Effect affects small caps more than mid or large cap stocks, though this has been less pronounced in recent years as investors learn about and anticipate the January Effect.

It is also considered less important as there is less cause to sell laggard stocks for tax purposes, but that may change as taxes increase on investments and investment income.

Let’s hope it’s not a hard fast rule when we look at the S&P’s performance for this past January:

… and there IS hope: Check out this MarketWatch article on why January’s loss doesn’t automatically doom the rest of the year.

• Investing Term Tuesday - Tax Selling. This week's investing term is all about investment decisions motivated by tax implications. It's called tax selling and as the name suggests, it's when an investor sells an asset at a loss, in order to pay less taxes when he sells an asset at a profit. The way this works......
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• Investing Term Tuesday - January Barometer. The January Barometer is based on the theory that the performance of the S&P 500 during the month of January is indicative of how the market will perform for the year. For example, if the S&P 500 is up for January, the January Barometer states that the stock market as......

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With thousands of mutual funds to choose from, picking the “right one” can be a daunting task. Most investors know not to fall for a short term hot streak – one or two years isn’t a long enough track record to show superior skill of the management team over sheer luck – but where should you start?

Step 1.  Figure out what you really need.

To be a successful investor, be it in mutual funds, hedge funds or whatever, you need to determine what your objectives really are and what asset allocation you’ll need to meet those objectives. And sorry to tell you this, but “to get rich” is not an objective.

Objective.

For your objective to be meaningful and achievable, it needs to be specific. If you can determine exact numbers, then you’re off to a great start. But even if the numbers are not exact or may even be unknowable, you can still use that as an objective.

For example, if your objective is to have $25,000 in 5 – 7 years for a new car, then you have a defined timeframe, and target amount. From that you can then figure out how much you can invest over that time  frame and see how much return on your money you’ll need to get there. (There are calculators for this kind of thing).

Even if your objective is a bit less knowable, say saving for retirement, you can use ballpark figures for determine the “best guess” for what you’ll need 15, 20, even 30 years out from today. The key is knowing that this is just a guess, based on current trends. In the case of retirement planning you reevaluate your goals and assumptions on a regular basis, every 5 -10 years for example.

The Takeaway. The point to take away from all of this is that your objective (amount and time frame) will be a key component in determining your risk level and asset allocation. You can (and should) invest more heavily in stocks for retirement which is decades away than for the objective that’s 5-7 years away.

Asset Allocation.

Put simply, an asset allocation is which types of investments you choose to put your money in, and in what proportions.

Different types, or classes of investments carry with them different levels of risk and average return. Bonds, for instance, are typically less risky than stocks, though that is a generalization since there are subclasses of stocks and bonds that can be very similar in terms of risk and reward.

Key points of concern are correlation (how much one investment be behaves like another), volatility, and risk.

The Takeaway. Some studies have shown that asset allocation alone is responsible for up to 90% of your total return, so be sure to study up on this stage and know what you’re doing.

Step 2. Picking mutual funds.

Since this article is about mutual funds, I will focus on that aspect of an asset allocation. But remember – if your investment goals are short term, then mutual funds may not be right for you.

Searching for a mutual fund.

If you have an idea of what type of fund you’re looking for, say a small cap stock fund, and you’d like to see what mutual funds fit that category, you can use Kiplinger’s Fund Finder. This tool allows you to select broad categories (like small cap stock funds) and narrow the results by a host of criteria, including:

• 1,3 or 5 year return.
• Morningstar rating.
• Return in a down market (i.e. worst loss).
• Expense ratio.
• Turnover ratio.
• Length of time the current management team has been in place.

And much more. It’s very handy for gathering a list of mutual funds to choose from, but you still need to do some comparison work, but more on that in a minute.

Gathering information on a specific fund.

Once you have a list of funds, or maybe you’re looking for details about a specific fund in your 401(k), you can use FINRA’s Fund Analyzer to get the specifics about a fund.

These results include average return of a given investment amount over a specified period of time, and the total expenses. It also provides a breakdown of the allocation within the fund, investment style of the fund (i.e. growth, vs value, etc..) the Morningstar rating and much more.

Some thoughts on past performance not guaranteeing future results…

By now I’m sure you’ve heard that familiar phrase of investment marketing: “Past performance is not a guarantee of future return”, or something similar. It’s usually uttered as a means of protecting themselves from costly liability in court situations, but it is also a significant thing to bear in mind when picking a fund.

The thing to remember is that just because a fund had a rip-roaring 3 years does not mean it’s going to continue to rip and roar its way up the charts for the next 3 years. Maybe it was a small cap stock fund and the economy has just come out of a recession. If that’s the case, then you can expect those returns to level off a bit as the economic cycle matures and investors seek blue chip companies over small cap.

But long term performance can be a good indicator of a fund’s quality. Look for good for funds with good performance over a 5-10 year period.

Some thoughts on volatility…

Volatility is simple a measure of how much the fund’s price jumps around; it’s a measure of how much of a roller coaster ride the fund is. The lower the volatility, the smoother the ride, but not necessarily the higher return. The thing to keep in mind with volatility is that it doesn’t matter how bumpy the ride is if you don’t need the money for another 20 years. In other words, volatility is less important for long term investments.

Some thoughts on Managers…

Things you’ll want to know about the fund’s manager include:

• Does the manager admit mistakes?
• Does the manager respect the investors?
• Does the manager sound too greedy?
• Does the manager know what he’s talking about?
• Is the manager personally invested in the fund? (that’s a good thing)
• Does the manager stick to his stated strategy?

One last thought about fees…

Not all funds are created equal, and one of the biggest defining characteristics of a fund may be its fees. All other things being equally, higher fee funds will perform worse than lower fee funds. But things are rarely equally and the thing you need to find out is whether the higher fee fund significantly outperforms its peers over an extended period. In other words, is it worth the extra money? If it’s just doing the same as an index fund, it’s not worth the money.

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According to Burton G. Malkiel, a Princeton economics professor, and Charles D. Ellis, author of ‘Winning the Loser’s Game,’ the only difference between them and Warren Buffet is that Warren Buffet hasn’t made these mistakes.

Of course, it’s more than that but since you and I (or Malkiel and Ellis for that matter) don’t have any chance of acquiring Buffet’s DNA, we’ll focus on this list – in the spirit of accepting what cannot be change, and having the courage to change the things that can be changed.

6 investing mistakes to avoid:

• Overconfidence
• Following the Herd
• Timing the Market
• Assuming More Control Than You Have
• Paying Too Much in Fees
• Trusting Stockbrokers

By way of proof of Buffet’s unique investment acumen and, more importantly, his ability to focus and remain true to his core investment philosophy, Malkiel and Ellis cite two prime cases when Buffet was tested by the markets and prevailing “common knowledge”.

Case number One was when Buffett avoided the dot com bust of 2000, simply because tech stocks fit neither his investment style, or his philosophy. But he held firm to his approach, even when it was called outdated by the rest of the investment world. As a result, his portfolio avoided much of the carnage that befell those more “enlightened” investors.

Case number two was when Buffett avoided mortgage-backed securities and derivatives in 2005-2006, because he found them too complex and “opaque”. As a result, he avoided the worst of the damage caused by the economic collapse that ensued.

In regards to the list above, you can see how Buffett’s sense of humility, and discipline have kept him from making many of the mistakes out lined in more detail in Malkiel and Ellis’ original article.

Burton G. Malkiel, Princeton economics professor and author of ‘A Random Walk Down Wall Street,’ and Charles D. Ellis, author of ‘Winning the Loser’s Game,’ have teamed up to write ‘The Elements of Investing.’

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Millions of Americans own mutual funds in their 401(k) plans, and many others own them in their IRA’s or even in a taxable, non-retirement account. But many people don’t have any idea of how to really compare the funds that are available to them. Here’s a hint – it goes beyond simply finding the highest return for a given time period (Ex: 1, 3,5 or ten years).

Kyle’s post is a great explanation of how to compare mutual funds, and their associated indexes. He explains how to compare apples to apples, and not apple to oranges (all mutual funds are not created equal!). He also explains the basics of knowing which index to compare a fund’s performance to, and why. And lastly, he explains how to compare two mutual funds – and more important, how not to.

So what are you waiting for? Head on over and give him a read.

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The January Barometer is based on the theory that the performance of the S&P 500 during the month of January is indicative of how the market will perform for the year. For example, if the S&P 500 is up for January, the January Barometer states that the stock market as a whole should end the year up as well.

In practice, the January Barometer produces a slightly better than 50% success rate. However, if an investor simply uses the January Barometer when determining whether to invest, he is doing little more than timing the market.

Even worse, he’s timing the market with a very insensitive timing mechanism, since the theory bases the prediction of market performance for an entire year on the performance of a single month.

Also, any gain that may be had by blindly following the January Barometer theory can be quickly erased by a false prediction of a bull market for the year ahead.

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Here’s a list of some investing insight I’ve learned over the years that I hope will help accelerate the beginning investor’s road to wealth.

1. Don’t go all in at once.

If you have a lump sum of money to invest and you are doing so when the market is going down, don’t just use it all at once to buy shares. Instead, split that lump sum into 3rds and buy at periodic intervals as the market goes down. The idea is that you simply cannot time the market effectively, so don’t bother.

Instead, you’re dollar cost averaging on the way down and spreading your money out like scatter shot instead of a single bullet. By doing so, you will improve the chances of hitting near the lows with at least some of your purchases.

2. Don’t be paralyzed by taxes.

Often times, individual investors hold on to a winning stock because they don’t want to pay the taxes on it, only to have waited too long and find they rode the stock back down to loser territory.

It’s an understandable course of action, after all when an activity is taxed, people do that activity less than when it is not taxed. But you have to get past that and realize that even at a 42% tax rate, you still have a 58% profit.

But let’s be clear – I’m not saying you could ignore taxes, only that you shouldn’t allow their implication to paralyze you into inaction.

Taxes should be an important part of your investment planning. For example, you want to be aware of the kinds of assets you hold so you don’t keep tax free, municipal bonds in a tax deferred account.

3. Broken stocks are OK, broken companies are not.

A stock’s price is a function of the quality and value of the underlying company, over the long term. This means that if you are looking to hold onto a stock for the long term, say 5-7 years, you should avoid stocks of broken companies and instead look for stocks of good quality companies that have suffered a temporary decline in stock price. Eventually the market will recognize the superior quality of the company and reward the stock price. Conversely, stocks of broken companies become broken stocks over time. An example of this might be Johnson & Johnson in the fall of 2008. The stock price suffered because the market as a whole crashed, not because the company was in poor shape. GM stock on the other hand suffered because the company was bankrupt and has no upside potential.

4. No one ever got rich panicking.

The key to success is simple to understand, difficult to practice – have a plan. You will never be a successful investor if you “just wing it”, “play by ear” or perform in a host of similar colloquial cliches.

Instead, you need to have a plan for when to buy and when to sell each and every stock you hold. Once you have your plan, use Stop Order and Limit Order to take the emotion out of your buying and selling.

5. Diversification is essential.

There have been a lot of pundits pointing out that diversification didn’t help in the 2008-2009 crash, but that while that is true, it’s not as important as it may at first seem .

Firstly, the 2008-2009 crash is not the norm and you’re far more likely to encounter situations where diversification would protect you than you are to experience another such crash.

Secondly, the only things safe in the 2008-2009 crash were cash and (maybe) commodities. If you want to prepare for a 2008-2009 style crash you should diversify some of your holdings into these asset types. But if you held most of your portfolio in them most of the time, you would lose in the long term.

6. Buy and hold is not “set it and forget it”.

Buy and hold investing is great for retirement savings, but even then you need to pay attention. Too many people mistake “Buy and Hold” for some similar sounding marketing gimmick from Ron Popiel.

“Set it and forget it” in the investing world is simply neglect, and it will catch up with you sooner or later.

Instead, you should periodically create a list of your holdings and rank them , that way you will have a course of action and always know where your holdings stand regarding buy, sell or hold.

• How Much Do Mutual Funds Really Cost? Q. How much does it cost to own a mutual fund? A. More than you think. Most investors know about a fund's expense ratio, and use that attribute for comparing various funds before buying. But there are a host of hidden costs that are much more difficult to uncover for......
• My 401(k) is Over Its Pre-Crash Value! I braved my last 401(k) statement yesterday and lo and behold, what to my wondering eyes should appear but a fully reconstituted 401(k) balance! It got pretty ugly around November of last year, and I quite frankly stopped looking. But that doesn't mean I ignored it completely. I ramped up......
• Healthcare Stocks Ripe for Growth: MEDICAL RECORDS. This is a continuation of the Healthcare Stocks Ripe for Growth series this week. Yesterday, I profiled the Biotech company Gilead Sciences. This week is the medical record keeper, Quality Systems. Quality Systems (QSII) Regardless of whether the Obama administration gets public healthcare legislation passed, one thing you can count......
• Investing Term Tuesday: Champagne Stock. Champagne Stock is slang for a stock that has appreciated dramatically. Champagne stocks make shareholders a great deal of money, usually relatively quickly. Champagne stocks are also commonly part of an industry or sector that is experiencing a bubble. This term derives its meaning from the habit of individuals who......
• Beware Target-Date Funds! Target-date funds were supposed to be the ultimate idiot-proof investment vehicle for retirement savings. The idea is that asset allocation is the single most important factor in determining investing success, and most people get it wrong. Many others never even try because they find the concept too daunting. Many people......

• Advantages and Disadvantages of Investing in Gold Bullion vs. Gold Stocks vs. Gold ETFs Most analysts agree that a well-balanced portfolio should allot a certain amount, somewhere between 5-15%, to gold, depending on your outlook for the economy in the near, mid, and long-term future.  One decision you need to make is how to allocate this portion amongst the several options for owning gold. ......
• Why I Have a Love-Hate Relationship with Earnings Season Sometimes I love earnings season and then sometimes I hate it! If you're wondering why... see Google's 30 point nose dive in the after hours market today. [click image to enlarge chart] For disclosure purposes, I should say that I did not own Google prior to their earnings announcement but......
• Saudi prince buys, but Citi stock plunges - Nov. 20, 2008 Shares of Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) cratered 26%, extending the brutal losses from Wednesday, when the stock lost nearly a quarter of its value. So far this year, Citigroup stock is down 83%. The Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the situation, reported Thursday night that Citi executives were......
• Beaver Mountain, Logan, UT Beaver Mountain is located in: Logan, UT Phone: (435) 753-0921 Website: http://www.skithebeav.com/main.htm About the Resort: This is a resort that should be insanely popular, due to the prime facilities, helpful staff and terrific location, and even though they do get quite a lot of visitors, this is still considered to......
• Making Year End Adjustments to Your Investment Portfolio If you are an investor still contemplating whether to make adjustments to your asset allocations in your investment portfolio, you are running out of time.  We have only a few trading days left in 2008.  You may be looking to harvest some tax losses.  That shouldn't be hard to do.  You could......

A commodity index is an index that tracks a collection of commodities in order to measure their performance.

Commodity indexes are often traded on exchanges, such as the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). By being traded on an open exchange, investors gain access to commodities without having to deal in the futures market.

The value of a commodity index changes daily and is based on the value of the underlying commodities.

There are many commodity indexes on the market, all varying by the types and weightings of commodities being tracked. The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index, for example, is comprised of 19 different kinds of commodities which range from wheat to aluminum.

As with stock and bond indexes, some commodity indexes weight all their holding equally , while others have a fixed weighting approach.

• The One-Minute Portfolio. Here's the ultimate in super-simple investment portfolios, for those who don't have the time or inclination to pick and monitor individual stocks. The One-Minute Portfolio. The One-Minute Portfolio is comprised of just 3 asset allocations: Domestic Stocks, Foreign Stocks and Bonds. Here's a recommendation for each category: 1. Buy America......
• Free Trades From ShareBuilder For All Of 2010 ! ING is offering commission-free trades through its ShareBuilder service for the entire year, when you open an IRA with this promo code. Here are the details: All IRA plans are no-fee plans; no fees for a low balance, no fee for inactive accounts, no annual fee for being a member.......
• Can You Time the Market? This Guy Says He Can. Meet Bob Parish. Mr. Parish lost about 70% of his retirement savings in the 2000-02 bear market, after the tech bubble burst. Feeling burned by his financial advisor, he struck out alone with what he had left and set out to time the market. Timing the market is generally considered......
• A Sample ETF Portfolio for Maximum Income (and Fat, Juicy Yields). With the low fees and wide selection of ETFs, you can now build a portfolio for maximum and minimum fees relatively easily. Here's one such sample portfolio from Kiplinger that allocates 65% to bonds, 35% to stocks. The bond section is spread between conservative, laddered treasures and riskier junk bonds.......
• A Sample ETF Portfolio for Vanguard Fans. The Vanguard family of funds has many fans in the individual investor community. With their dedication to low expense fees, it's no surprise. Much has been made of the drag on performance of high fees, and there is a growing investment community that not only shuns investments with high fees,......

• Myths of Hedge Funds WSJ has a great article about Myths of Hedge Funds.Myth #1: Hedge Funds are all the same. There are up to 25 different hedge-fund strategies which include funds invested in equity (both long and short), bankruptcies, mergers and acquisitions, high yield debt, bank debt, currencies, commodities, convertible debt, mortgage backed......
• Weakon 305: Mutual Funds, Intermediate Prerequisites: Weakon 205 & Weakon 235 I've already established a mutual fund is essentially a company you buy shares in that invests money for you.  The mutual fund can be made up of any combination of stocks, bonds, and other investments like futures, options, real estate and so on.  The......
• Using BMI to Calculate Required Weightloss Everyone has heard of body mass index (BMI) and except in muscular people it takes ones height and produces an appropriate weight range... Normal is considered 18.5-25... Over 30 is obese. Calculating BMI is relatively straight forward... Where W is weight in pounds and H is height in inches then......
• 11/5 - ETF Trading - IWM, UWM, EWT, EWY Markets closed a bit higher yesterday and triggered exit signals for EWT and EWY - unfortunately for us, at a loss. We lost 2.18% on EWT and we lost .66% on EWY. Otherwise, we still have full trading positions for any of the remaining etfs we've been following for the......
• More Inflation Fighting Weapons All long term investors need core holdings that will protect against the damaging effects of inflation. Traditionally we have been told that equities in general are the answer to the inflation problem. Now we are not so sure. Based on this doubt, mutual fund companies continue to introduce new products......

A riskless society is a fictional society where the markets of the world are sophisticated enough to anticipate and mitigate any and all risks. While the idea is credited to Dr. Kenneth Arrow and Gerard Debreu, it is similar to one of Einstein’s famous thought experiments, where the thinker hypothesizes an imaginary situation for the purpose of examining various “what if” scenarios. In the case of the riskless society concept, it has led to improvement in theories of risk management.

The idea of a riskless society is based on assumptions of an efficient market which is said to be in equilibrium; a clearly imaginative scenario compared to empirical data of real world markets. Riskless society theories are used by people who study behavioral finance.

• Rate Your 401(k) Plan With BrightScope. Have you ever wished there was a rating system for 401(k) plans? I've had a reason to in the past. I was looking at two job offers recently and one of the things that set the two apart was the benefit package. Obviously, a big part of any benefit package......
• Investing Term Tuesday: Commodity Index. A commodity index is an index that tracks a collection of commodities in order to measure their performance. Commodity indexes are often traded on exchanges, such as the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). By being traded on an open exchange, investors gain access to commodities without having to deal in......
• Investing Term Tuesday - January Barometer. The January Barometer is based on the theory that the performance of the S&P 500 during the month of January is indicative of how the market will perform for the year. For example, if the S&P 500 is up for January, the January Barometer states that the stock market as......
• Mutual Fund Monday - 5 Things To Watch When Choosing A Fund. Picking a mutual fund can be a daunting task, but here are 5 things to look for that I hope will help make the process a little easier. This is part of my weekly Mutual Fund Monday post feature. If you find this interesting or helpful, please read more. 1.......
• Make Your Grandchild a TAX-FREE Millionaire! I just got a Bottom Line Magazine offer in the mail, and thought I needed to blog about this one of the "smart money tip" inside. The tip is titled "Make Your Grandchild a TAX-FREE Millionaire!" and they include this nice chart showing a lump sum investment growing skyward to......

• How I Started Investing In Real Estate src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> In September 2000 i caught the flu and while I was probably well enough to go to work, I decided to take a week off and relax. I spent a whole week sitting in Barnes and Nobles reading all sorts of business and investing books. That week I......
• Pricing the Apple Tablet 2010: How high can they go? [/caption] With the Apple tablet due to be announced next Wednesday, we've been seeing a lot of possible price points thrown around. Will the tablet retail for $999? Or is a $699 or $799 unit in the cards? It's really hard to say because as with all retail, both price......
• Investment Mistakes in a Bear Market This is a guest article by Ray, the owner and primary author of Financial Highway, where he discusses investing, saving and practical money management concepts. You can check subscribe to his RSS feed or follow him on Twitter. Investing seems scary, and investing during a bear market is even scarier.......
• The most powerful business brain-trust ever assembled If you are reading this then you've decided to go for the big picture, you're ready to take in some very big profits and refuse to stay stuck in a small corner, well done and welcome! Here are some facts about the "League of Extraordinary Minds" --53 Of The Most......
• Investing in a Crisis With so much uncertainty currently present in the marketplace, one of the most vital things that you can do to invest safely in a crisis market is simply to learn from mistakes in the past. Certain sectors of the market may seem incredibly attractive in times of a crisis, it......

Since this is the gift-giving season, I thought it appropriate to share the Gift Of Equity in this investing term Tuesday.

The Gift Of Equity refers to the sale of a home to a family member at a price below the current market value. Sometimes it can be a sale to someone the with whom seller has had a relationship previously.

The actual gift of equity stems from the difference between the sale price and the market value – that’s the equity, and it’s being given to the buyer.

It’s perfectly legal and most lenders simply count the equity as part of a down payment on the home. It does require documentation however, in the form of a gift of equity letter that must be signed by both the seller and the buyer.

There may also be tax consequences and it could affect the asset’s cost basis for the home buyer and carry capital gains implication for the seller so be sure to research those aspects if you are considering giving the gift of equity this holiday season.

• 100 Free Trades From Ameritrade. Listen up, investors! If you're looking for free stock trades online, and don't mind opening an account with discount broker Ameritrade, then this could be the deal you've been looking for. Open an account using this link, with an initial deposit of $2,000 and get 100 commision-free Internet equity trades for......
• NLY, a Dividend Paying Trust Worth A Look. With chatter about a bubble in bonds building, it may be a good time to look for alternative sources of investment income. One such source has long been dividend paying stocks, trusts and partnerships. Here are two such dividend plays - one is a Real Estate Investment Trust, and the......
• A Sample ETF Portfolio for Long Term Growth. Here's an all ETF portfolio that's sure to see some volatility. It's geared toward long term growth, and as such it invests heavily in small cap stocks, foreign markets and commodities. The fund total is 90% stocks, 10% commodities and is best left to investors with long time horizons and......
• Are Target Date Funds good, bad or just plain ugly? Target date funds have been in the news quite a lot over the past few years, though the nature of the news seems to have gone from great to bad over that time. Consider that when target date funds were first introduced they were heralded as the pinnacle in the......
• Reliability of Income, the New ROI. The 2008-2009 market crash and resulting bear market have been absolutely brutal to new retirees and soon to be retirees alike. For those in my age set (about 30 years out from retirement) it serves as a poignant lesson of what can go wrong. To Mary Beth Franklin, editor of......

• How To Buy New Houses At A Discount The past week has been terrible for stockholders of sub-prime lenders. Today a major home builder, Toll Brothers reported that its net profit fell nearly 70% in the 1st quarter. There's a major slow-down in many markets across the country. Inventory is piling up and home prices are dropping. However,......
• Making your home appeal to more buyers Houses are often one of our largest assets. So when it comes time to sell, it's a good idea to do everything possible to get the best sales price -- especially in a slow real estate market or during a downturn. But glance through photos of homes that are for......
• Bargain Hunting - Find A Great Price Bargain hunters will find that February is the perfect time to satisfy their quest for a good buy on several different types of merchandise. New, incoming products and older, discontinued products serve to motivate stores to offer prices that make even large ticket items more affordable. The key to finding......
• The US Has A Spending Problem, China Has A Savings Problem Famous economist John Meynard Keynes hated savers. Saving your money was not a good idea in his head. A good citizen would spend all their income to stimulate the economy to extreme efficiency. This is a modern, and twisted, interpretation of the good professor's ideas on excessive saving. From......
• Gold, Oil, Stocks and Bonds: Overvalued Assets? I read a report from Forbes the other day that offered the premise that there are currently four investment categories that are experiencing asset bubbles. Two asset classes in the commodities arena: oil and gold, while two more familiar classes: government bonds and stocks, are deemed overvalued (according to the......