http://www.articlealley.com en-us editorial@articlealley.com I recently read a financial advice column that began with the premise that putting money away for retirement was extremely difficult because "its hard to part" with money for a future need. What's wrong with this picture? Money saved for retirement ... http://www.articlealley.com/article_90004_19.html 28th September 2006 Since the advent of 401(k) plans, employees have been empowered to take responsibility for their retirement assets by controlling the placement of their investment dollars. Over time, many employees have been ill-equipped and uncomfortable in making those... http://www.articlealley.com/article_79799_19.html 07th August 2006 Here's the issue. You bought a stock umpteen years ago that is now worth 10 times what you paid for it, but in the last 5 years its trading price seems to be super glued to the wall. You have always been a proponent of "buy and hold" and this stock seems ... http://www.articlealley.com/article_71978_17.html 13th July 2006 My Aunt Betty's closest companions have always been her cats. Ever since I was a boy, my family never traveled to the Midwest to visit just Betty. It was always Betty and Roscoe or Betty and Fluffy. She's always loved those feline friends and, as age crep... http://www.articlealley.com/article_60244_18.html 05th June 2006 Delta Widget, Inc. has just made you a tender offer to buy back its shares of stock, which you bought from your broker a few years ago. The stock price hasn't grown as expected and the tender offer is just slightly over market value. It's tempting to take... http://www.articlealley.com/article_52606_19.html 11th May 2006 So Uncle Harry's estate has finally been settled and you have been blessed with both his extensive wardrobe and a tidy sum of his investment portfolio. Harry was not only the sharpest dresser in the family, but the financial guru as well. Now, if you c... http://www.articlealley.com/article_41252_19.html 03rd April 2006 If you are looking for some education money for yourself or your spouse, or your children or your grandchildren, and you have not reached age 59½, consider a withdrawal from either your traditional IRA or your Roth IRA, without having to pay the 10% addit... http://www.articlealley.com/article_35275_19.html 12th March 2006 Low interest rates and relatively easy access to mortgage money are just two factors that have caused a boom in residential real estate prices over the past few years. This phenomena has caused a number of analysts to ask whether a national "housing bubbl... http://www.articlealley.com/article_27945_33.html 09th February 2006 Forget fundamental research, put aside those technical charts and, by all means, turn off those cable business programs. If you really want to know what's going to happen in the stock market, all you need to follow are a number of urban legends. Starti... http://www.articlealley.com/article_21960_19.html 03rd January 2006 Here are some of the changes in contributions and compensation limits that are in place for 2006: IRA Contributions: For those eligible, the 2006 maximum allowable contribution for a traditional IRA is $4000. This is the same for Roth IRA contributi... http://www.articlealley.com/article_20356_19.html 20th December 2005 There must be a touch of inflation in the air, since a few clients have been calling with questions regarding I Bonds. With the low inflationary environment of late, there hasn't been a lot of press concerning I Bonds. But since we don't know what evil lu... http://www.articlealley.com/article_18018_19.html 02nd December 2005 One of the holy grails of investing is the ability to achieve a decent return without volatility. After all, I think we all learned somewhere along the line that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. To say we are a long way from ac... http://www.articlealley.com/article_16303_19.html 18th November 2005 One of the best indicators of corporate health is the Free Cash Flow (FCF) of a company and, unlike some other indicators, it is relatively easy to understand. Think of FCF as the deposit you put in a savings account after paying your regular monthly b... http://www.articlealley.com/article_14868_19.html 10th November 2005 Increasing yield - while maintaining an appropriate allocation - is often a difficult trick for trustees of living trusts. But one tool you can pull out of your kit is the "Dogs of the Dow," a contrarian strategy designed to potentially increase yield and... http://www.articlealley.com/article_12604_19.html 17th October 2005 Let's face it, you're on a roll. After getting down to your attorney's office to sign the new Living Trust and then diligently tracking down your assets to fund the trust, you should be congratulated. You're one of the responsible ones - 70% of the people... http://www.articlealley.com/article_11478_19.html 06th October 2005 Picture one of those clubs where only the real heavyweights need apply. In the library the old aristocrats, General Motors and JP Morgan, are dozing in their leather chairs. On the terrace, a late luncheon is underway for those who have only improved thei... http://www.articlealley.com/article_11477_19.html 06th October 2005 When an individual investor wants to roll up his sleeves and do some research in the pursuit of the next big winner in the stock market, the place many start is in the small cap sector. As with the other capitulation sizes (capitalization is a stock's ... http://www.articlealley.com/article_11475_19.html 06th October 2005 If you're like many investors who squander those small dividend checks from your stock portfolio, a Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRP) might be just what you need. Just as its name implies, a Dividend Reinvestment Plan allows you to reinvest some or all of ... http://www.articlealley.com/article_11473_19.html 06th October 2005 Much like the middle child, mid-cap stocks have long struggled to find their identity. Carved out from the upper echelons of the small caps and the lower end of the large caps, the mid-cap sector has a rough definition of stock with a market capitalizatio... http://www.articlealley.com/article_11470_19.html 06th October 2005 A common problem I often see when working with living trust beneficiaries and trustees is the lack of attention in rethinking income strategies in the event of the grantor's death. When the grantor of a living trust dies, the trustee (especially a fami... http://www.articlealley.com/article_11469_19.html 06th October 2005 Whether helping the kids with a down payment on their first home, paying the premiums on a life insurance policy in an irrevocable trust, or moving appreciated assets to a younger generation, annual gifting will touch the lives of millions of Americans. B... http://www.articlealley.com/article_11468_18.html 06th October 2005 Volatility of income can be as much a concern as volatility of growth, perhaps more so since income is an immediate need. Therefore, it makes sense to say that a strategy to stabilize income is a necessary component of portfolio management - and "bond lad... http://www.articlealley.com/article_11467_19.html 06th October 2005 If you're choosing investments based on total returns over specific time periods (i.e., 1yr, 3yrs, 5yrs, and 10yrs) without assessing the risk, it's time to add another component to your selection process. Standard Deviation and the Sharpe Ratio are tw... http://www.articlealley.com/article_11466_19.html 06th October 2005