By SIMON CONSTABLE
If you've had enough conspicuous consumption this holiday season, consider giving the gift of financial savvy.
Skip the chocolate Santas and the big TVs; instead get your family some stocking stuffers that might just put them on the road to financial security. They could be the gifts that keep on giving.
Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Some holiday traditions are worth skipping. For instance, take the one when you note with horror that the price of your mutual fund has plunged for no apparent reason.
"You hear that a lot around December," says Russel Kinnel, director of mutual-fund research at Morningstar Inc. "People tend to freak out."
If the battering is limited to your fund, chances are the meltdown is illusory: This is the time of year when many funds pay out capital gains they've racked up by selling portfolio securities. When the payout is big, that immediately leads to a big drop in the fund's price, or net asset value. The larger the payout, the bigger the swoon. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Now is not the time to let yourself be suckered into getting back into stocks.
Sure, the markets had a couple of spectacular days last week, but don't let that fool you into thinking all is well again with the world. It's not. There's still plenty of uncertainty out there. Yes, the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished Friday up 1.3% for the week, one of the Dow's better showings in months. But the week before was one of its worst in years. And the Dow is still down 5.7% for 2011.
The Nasdaq Compsite is also down 9% for the year, and the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index is off 10%.
That's exactly why you need to stay cautious right now. In all likelihood, things will get worse before it's all done. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Ouch! The euro’s causing so much pain these days it’s hard to remember why I ever loved it. But I did.
Like many Europeans I had great hopes for the single currency. How could I, especially when it’s increasingly clear that it can’t work in its current form? Hope got the better of rationality, not just for me but for many others. For more read here.
