What’s one of the country’s top New Year’s resolutions? “Get my personal finances on track.” It competes with “Lose five pounds” and way outdoes “Spend more time with family and friends.” If you get control of your money, you might even find it easier to control other niggling issues (like that extra Christmas weight). Here [...]
Make 2011 your year to simplify. The day I started to practice investment KISS (Keep It Simple, Sister*) was when I finally got control of my financial life. I dropped my broker, quit hunting for hot stocks and mutual funds (losers, all), and put my retirement money on automatic pilot. I chose an easy [...]
How safe are your municipal bonds? That depends on which ones you own. “Muni bond defaults are far more likely to default than at any time in recent history,” says bond expert Alex Anderson, vice president of Envision Capital Management. Most of them will pay, but you have to buy them right.
The danger has been [...]
The government is winding up a major, years-long investigation into insider trading. If the charges prove true, they’ll show that the gains in some mutual funds and hedge funds have nothing to do with brilliant analysis or even luck. The big boys, illegally, got information in advance that pointed to a probable rise or fall [...]
Who do you think picks up the losses on the $500 billion worth of mortgages now in foreclosure or in serious default? The wicked lenders? Sorry, wrong. In more than half the cases, we the taxpayers pay.
Freezes on foreclosures, such as those in effect in at least a quarter of the states, [...]
