A new study by professors at the University of Chicago and Dartmouth reinforces the wisdom of the small print in mutual fund advertisements: “Past performance does not guarantee future results.” The research found that “virtually all actively managed funds” fail to outperform the indexes against which they are compared, and that any success achieved by […]
Archive | Investing
Getting Started With Investing
For help determining how much you may need for your retirement, figuring out your optimal asset allocation, adopting the best process for choosing investments, and choosing among your IRA and 401(K) options, read The Essentials of Investing. For college funding, read How to Help Your Kids Pay for College.
Trying to Catch Up in the Retirement Race
Over half of all employed American adults feel “a little” or “far” behind in their financial preparations for retirement, according to a new survey from TD Ameritrade. The most common explanation? Respondents said they simply have no money left to save after meeting their regular expenses or they started saving too late. Many parents also […]
How Gender Impacts Investor Behavior
Who do you think tends to be better investors: men or women? The latest in a fairly large body of research on the topic sides with women. As reported by The New York Times, a Vanguard analysis of 2.7 million IRA investors found that women were less likely to sell their equity investments at last […]
Retirement Realities Sinking In
American workers are becoming more realistic about their prospects for retirement. The latest annual Retirement Confidence Survey from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) found that nearly 25 percent of all of today’s workers expect to retire at age 70 or older, the highest number expecting such a late retirement since the EBRI started its […]
Recession Lessons: Diversification Still Works
The Great Recession prompted many pundits to declare much of the conventional investment wisdom null and void. But not so fast. An analysis by brokerage house T. Rowe Price (see the article starting on page 15) makes a compelling case that a properly diversified portfolio, including stock market exposure, is still the best route to […]
Money Market Funds Lose Insurance Protection
A temporary program insuring money market funds has expired. However, according to an article in on Kiplinger.com, there’s not much reason to worry about the safety of money invested in such funds. The insurance program was put in place last fall after the Reserve Primary Fund “broke the buck” – that is, the fund’s investment […]
Putting Off Retirement
People’s lack of savings plus the recession has left an increasing number of people realizing they may need to work longer than expected. Understanding that such news may not sound pleasant, a Mainstreet article noted that you don’t have to sign on for an extra 10 to 20 years in order to afford retirement; another […]
Putting Your Money Where Your Values Are
Have you ever taken the time to see what companies your mutual funds are invested in? And do you know what businesses those companies are involved in? According to a U.S. News & World Report article, such concerns have fueled the rapid growth of socially responsible investing (SRI). Numerous SRI mutual funds are now available […]
How to Save for College
The go-to source for information about saving for college has been the aptly named Savingforcollege.com web site. But Morningstar is giving that site a run for its money with a new analysis of the best and worst 529 plans, along with a comprehensive set of articles about the pros and cons of such plans and […]
Your Number
Financial services company ING is heavily promoting a new interactive web site designed to help you figure out “your number” – that is, how much money you’ll need to have saved by the time you retire. I took it for a test ride, and while it gets high marks for user friendliness, it doesn’t help […]