-What experience do you have? Find out how long the planner has been in practice and the number and types of companies with which she has been associated. Ask the planner to briefly describe her work experience and how it relates to her current practice. Choose a financial planner who has experience counseling individuals on [...]

A Safe Haven for Your Money This difference is the reason behind the first main advantage of bonds: investing in debt, in general, is safer than equity. The reason for this is the priority that debt holders have over shareholders. If a company goes bankrupt, debt holders are ahead of shareholders in the line to [...]

Does an 18% yield sound attractive to you? If so, you may want to consider investing in the wonderful world of junk bonds. As you can see from the accompanying graph, high yield bonds now pay north of 18% a year. The yields have shot up in recent months as a sickening economy has increased [...]

When you first start investing, the number of experts that rush over to help you out with your little portfolio is amazingand, to be honest, just a little confusing. Should you follow the suggestions of the nice man at your local bank branch? Hand over your money to that mutual fund manager your financial adviser [...]

A million bucks. That’s how much money I’m going to have when I retireat the very least. How am I going to do it? Not by flipping real estate, not by playing the lottery and no, not by responding to one of those Make big $$$ at home ads. I’m going to do it the [...]

Many of us would love to become landlords — that is, if it weren’t for those darn tenants. Every prospective landlord hears stories about deadbeat tenants who skip town without paying the rent. And even if you have good tenants, the life of a property entrepreneur isn’t easy. Nothing takes the shine off a potential [...]

If you’re still avoiding emerging markets, it’s time to rethink your position. Yes, these markets can be volatile, but if you want to benefit from the growth of the global economy, you can’t avoid up-and-coming countries. One good reason to pay attention to these upstart economies is their sheer size. The four biggest of the [...]

For starters, you can’t project the past into the future. A fund that makes you 18% this year might lose you 2% next year. Past performance is a lousy predictor of future performance. Burton Malkiel, shows in his great book A Random Walk Down Wall Street that the best funds in the 1970s lagged behind [...]