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Take steps now to save on your taxes
Don't wait until next March or April to start thinking about your tax return. By taking some easy steps before the end of 2002, you may be able to save money when you submit your tax return in a few months.
By GAIL MARKSJARVIS / Pioneer Press Columnist
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Are joint accounts insured differently?
Q. This is in reference to FDIC insurance. It is my understanding that if you have a joint account -- husband and wife -- totaling $200,000 in the same bank in one account, each person's money is insured up to $100,000. In essence, the entire $200,000 is protected. Am I right?
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Couple facing reality of a dwindling portfolio
Q: What can we do now that we are nine months away from retirement and all our money is in stocks and our portfolio keeps dwindling? My wife and I should have diversified a few years ago, but with the market rising like a rocket we gambled and lost. What should we liquidate first? The good stocks that haven't dropped much, or the worst and take our knocks?
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Rebalancing portfolio works by minimizing risk
Q: I have a portfolio of mutual funds made of value, growth, blended, foreign and bond funds. I also have some fixed income in money market and savings bonds. I maintain a fixed percent in each of these areas by rebalancing occasionally. I've heard that rebalancing one's portfolio can add an additional 2 percent to 3 percent per year. I've also heard that rebalancing once or twice a year is optimal.
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Investing outside retirement accounts
Q. I have paid off my consumer debts and can boost my retirement-account contribution to the maximum allowed. I now invest $100 a month into each of two separate mutual funds outside my 401(k). Should I invest in an IRA or something different? Although I am still in my 20s, I would like to retire by age 50.
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BY ERIC TYSON,
Columnist,
11/21/2002 08:01 PM PST)
'Callable' CD rates may be attractive, but misleading
These are sad times indeed for nervous, yield-hungry fixed-income investors. If you want the ultimate in safety, the answer is federally insured bank savings that guarantee you'll get your principal back.
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By Jeff Brown,
Inquirer Columnist,
11/21/2002 07:53 PM PST)
Dumping IRA for tax break may be dumb
So now they're telling us to give the boot to the old Roth IRA?
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By SUSAN TOMPOR,
Detroit Free Press ,
11/20/2002 11:40 AM PST)
Will you be ready to retire?
Consider this: The average American needs to save at least $230,000 to be able to draw $1,000 a month to supplement Social Security benefits and fund a comfortable retirement.
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By Eileen Alt Powell,
Associated Press,
11/19/2002 05:09 PM PST)
Housing eating up families' salaries
Many more low- and moderate-income working families are spending at least half their salaries on rent or mortgages, according to a study released Tuesday by affordable housing advocates.
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GENARO C. ARMAS,
Associated Press,
11/19/2002 04:05 PM PST)
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Market downturn forces online investors, brokerages to adapt
Recent years have seen stock trading, banking, credit card applications, insurance and loan shopping gain major footholds with Internet users. But online investing, which roared into the new century as a killer application for the Internet, lately has slumped like a dog on the Dow.
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