Personal Finance Articles

For many teenagers, summer means a chance to earn extra cash – but earning money also means he or she can open an individual retirement account (IRA). Minors who have reached age 14 and have earned income are eligible to open a traditional or Roth IRA. Traditional IRAs allow contributions to grow tax deferred until [...]

[Read more →]

Do you want to stay in the fixed-income market but are afraid that a rise in interest rates might erode bond prices? A short-term bond fund may be a good investment vehicle for you. When interest rates fall First, let’s examine how interest rates affect individual bonds. Say interest rates are falling. If you buy [...]

[Read more →]

U.S. Treasury bonds rallied in 2011, as a number of macroeconomic woes, including the European debt crisis, incited worries of a global market meltdown. Does that mean you should consider investing in them? Yes, U.S. Treasuries are appealing. A portfolio of U.S. Treasuries with an average maturity of 20 years rose 28% in 2011, even [...]

[Read more →]

The European debt crisis that arose late last year and has continued since is putting the best-laid investing plans to the test. The reason? Correlation. Correlation refers to how securities or asset classes perform in relation to each other and/or the market. A 1.0 correlation indicates that two security types move in exactly the same [...]

[Read more →]

With April approaching, many investors find themselves racing to meet tax deadlines. If you’re one of them, there are some important details to remember. Tax Deadline: While the Internal Revenue Service began accepting electronically filed tax returns on January 17, there’s plenty more to remember, as many people will be waiting for the April 17 [...]

[Read more →]

So you’ve just inherited an individual retirement account (IRA). If you know how to manage it, you can stretch out the tax breaks for decades. Following are some tips to help you: Don’t Do Anything Until You Know What Rules Apply: Money must be transferred from one IRA custodian to another via what is called [...]

[Read more →]

If there’s one bright spot in the whole real estate market these days, it is the number of properties that are available at very low prices. Many of these properties are priced such that they are suitable as investment properties, to be either bought and resold relatively quickly or bought and kept as rental properties [...]

[Read more →]

If you’re planning to finance a property, be it for a purchase or refinance, you will need an appraisal. The appraisal is done to help your lender determine the value of the property compared to other similar properties in that area. Knowing the value of a property will let the lender know if they are [...]

[Read more →]

The 78 million Americans who make up the baby boom generation started turning 65 in 2011, and almost 30 million of them have a defined contribution retirement plan such as a 401(k) account, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute. That means these near-retirees face an important question: How much money can they afford to [...]

[Read more →]

Full Social Security benefits are available as early as age 65, depending on your date of birth. If you choose, you may receive benefits at age 62, but your benefits will be reduced. Or you can delay benefits until age 70, in which case your benefits will increase. Which option you choose depends on your [...]

[Read more →]