Money Magazine Special Report

 

The October  issue of Money magazine focuses on retirement issues with its special report 4 Steps to a Great Retirement.  Read the feature on What you need to know about  Social Security in anticipation of our October 21st  meeting with Francine Kollias, the regional Social Security Administration’s Metropolitan Public Affairs Specialist, who will return for a presentation on Social Security’s online services .  

Three additional articles on retirement readiness, stock investments and income security complete the special report.  View the table of contents on the website or borrow the print edition available here at the library.

ETF (Exchange Traded Funds) Resources

Thinking about investing in Exchange-Traded Funds, but don’t know where to start?

The Personal Finance page of  The Wall Street Journal website recently published an article on ETFs that contains  a helpful list of  web resources for the individual  investor.   WSJ calls  it  “a guide to sites that can help fund shoppers research portfolios and find those that fit their needs”.   Yahoo Finance and Morningstar are among the sites recommended as well as some lesser known online resources.

Have a look at the resources and tell us what you think!

The Money Conference 2009

Massachusetts State Treasurer, Timothy Cahill, in conjunction with the YWCA will be presenting a free all-day conference on money management, retirement and investment strategies on Saturday, November 14, 2009 at the Sheraton Boston Hotel. 

This year’s topic will be ” Rebounding from a Recession”.  Registration opens on October 1st.  To register and for more information, visit http://www.themoneyconference.com/index.htm

 

Photo of money (cc) by RichSeattle and republished here under a Creative Commons license.   Some rights reserved.

Take control of your investments!

For more on how to protect yourself when investing, see the article Taking Control, from the Wall Street Journal on June 1.  It has suggestions from regulators, academics and consumer activists on how to be your own financial watchdog.  While the ideas have been mentioned before at our Retirement Planning Club meetings, they certainly bear repeating!

Photo (cc) by  thomas.merton and republished here under a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.

Be Sure to Read the Fine Print

If your retirement portfolio includes guaranteed variable annuities, you may want to look at this June 7th article from the Wall Street Journal, Annuity Fine Print: Guarantees Aren’t Always Guaranteed.  The title pretty much says it all; ”[u]nder some provisions, the insurance company that issued the guarantee can cancel it, or sharply reduce its annual payout.” 

Photo (cc) by  Wade From Oklahoma and republished here under a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.

How to Choose a Financial Advisor

If you decide to work with a financial advisor, “how can you guarantee that your expert is reliable?  The short answer is that you can’t. There are no guarantees. But you can be a lot more sure than many investors are today.”

The Wall Street Journal suggests seven points to consider when choosing an advisor.

How Well Do You Know Bond Funds?

Have you been putting more of your money in bond funds these days?  They can be harder to understand.  Test your knowledge with the Wall Street Journal’s Q&A quiz.

Learn more about Morningstar

Morningstar Investment Research Center, available free at the Newton Free Library, provides independent opinion and data on more than 30,000 stocks and mutual funds.

To learn more about the database, attend a free online training session:

WHEN:  Wednesday, April 29th, at 4 p.m. (Eastern Time).

WHERE:  Anywhere with phone and internet access.

HOW:  To register, send an e-mail to librarytraining@morningstar.com, and mention the Newton Free Library.

Morningstar Investment Research Center*
(In Library Only–also via wireless in the Library)

How to Manage Your Financial Risk

In a time of economic instability, it’s important to minimize risk to maintain financial safety, by analyzing expenses, seeking diversification, and scrutinizing spending.

How to Manage Your Financial Risk is the title of a new publication from Morningstar.  Take a look at it!

April Booklist

Each month reference librarians compile a newsletter of books purchased with grant funds from our Smart Investing @ Your Library grant–click here for our latest edition!  You’ll find previous booklists here.