Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine back issues from February 2007:
Did I Make You Money?(investment management methods)(Editorial)
Feb 01, 2007; ... Byline: FRED W. FRAILEY To state the title of this chat another way: If I didn't make you money, it wasn't for want of trying. I've just reviewed the performance of stocks and funds I've recommended to you the past three years. Let me explain how they made out and then leave you ...
Letters.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Areader agrees with Janet Bodnar's comments on imparting the spirit of giving to children. Another reader sides with Jeremy Siegel's take on Wal-Mart. And one of you challenges our ratings of Lexus cars. FAMILY GIVING As Janet Bodnar aptly points out, the key to ...
Shedding Light On 401(k) Fees.
Feb 01, 2007; ... Byline: ANNE KATES SMITH If you're like four out of five 401(k) investors, you don't know how much you pay to participate in your company's plan. You needn't feel like a dunce. New investigations into 401(k) fees show that employers are often in the dark about 401(k) costs, too ....
Quick Facts.(workers participate in 401(k)s plans)(401(k) assets invested in mutual funds)(food products market share)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... 90 PERCENT of workers participate in 401(k)s if employers offer automatic enrollment; only 68% do if they have to choose to join. 86 PERCENT of 401(k) assets invested in mutual funds are in stock funds, 8% are in bond funds, and 6% are in money markets. EIGHT OF THE ...
www: Your Stock's Chatter.(Ahead)(www.instantbull.com)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Want to know what blogs and bulletin boards are saying about a stock you own or are interested in? Go to ...
The Lure of Hawaii.(Ahead)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Employers in booming areas are taking job fairs on the road, looking for skills they can't find locally. For example, recruiters from Hawaii will travel to ...
Wall Street On Sale: Buyout Mania.(Ahead)(Interview)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Steven Kaplan is a finance professor in the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago. Why are so many deals being done? Three things are driving the buyout boom. First is the amount of cash flowing into private equity firms. These investment pools have reported ...
Finance a '50s Revival.(Ahead)(tax abatement on home remodeling)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007; ... Byline: PATRICIA MERTZ ESSWEIN If you're looking to buy or restore a middle-aged home in a close-in suburb, learn whether the municipality offers incentives for renovation. Residents and planners in "first suburbs" from the Seattle area to Long Island realize that to stay vital ...
Check Your Check.(Ahead)(claiming tax refunds online from Internal Revenue Service)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Who couldn't use a $963 check in the mail? On average, that's the amount that awaits 95,746 taxpayers whose refunds have been returned to the Internal Revenue Service as undeliverable. If you know you're due a refund and haven't seen it, Uncle Sam has a service to help you track ...
Who Gets Mom's Precious Heirlooms?(Ahead)(inheritance, employee termination rules)(Brief article)(Column)
Feb 01, 2007; ... Byline: Knight Kiplinger My mother died recently, and my sister removed a few valuable items from her house, claiming that Mom had promised them to her. That might be, but there's no record of it. What should my siblings and I do? By law, everything that belonged to ...
Game the Market.(Ahead)(GameStop Corp.)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Let the other guys battle it out to see whose new video-game console becomes number one. It doesn't matter to GameStop Corp. The retailer sells all the consoles (new and used) and the games to go with them. The stock is near its 12-month high, but strong sales this ...
Surplus Savings.(Ahead)(529 college-savings plans)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Here's a problem most parents would love to have. Thanks to a four-year scholarship, Terra Fox does not need the $20,000 she stashed in a 529 college-savings plan for daughter Katherine Ellis, a freshman at Virginia's Radford University. Now Fox wonders if she should withdraw the money or ...
Organics in Aisle 9.(Ahead)(organic foods)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007; ... Byline: JOAN GOLDWASSER Used to be you had to belong to a food co-op or pay through the nose at the health-food store for organic foods. Now, everything from organic cauliflower to hot dogs turns up at places such as ballparks and SuperValu, Safeway and Wal-Mart. ...
What You Need to Know About Gifts of Love.
Feb 01, 2007; ... Byline: Sean O'Neill 1. Wait too long and you'll pay too much. Flowers, jewelry and fragrances top the list of gifts bought at inflated prices every Valentine's Day, the largest retail holiday after Christmas. For instance, a dozen long-stemmed roses cost an average of $75 at ...
Simplifying Life's Financial Clutter.(Ahead)(Rebecca Sacra and Ron Sacra plan their investments)
Feb 01, 2007; ... Byline: Jeffrey R. Kosnett Rebecca and Ron Sacra have two careers, two pensions, two houses, two grandkids--and ten investment accounts. Rebecca, a teacher, and Ron, a fire-department lieutenant, have about $650,000 in retirement plans, mutual funds, a few stocks and a variable ...
My 10 Stocks for 2007.(Column)
Feb 01, 2007; ... Byline: James K. Glassman For the fourth year in a row, the performance of my annual list of stock picks was--well, there's no better word for it--spectacular. And I keep getting better. Most years since 1995 (I took a hiatus for three years), I have offered readers of the ...
The Best of the Behemoths.(large US mutual funds evaluated)
Feb 01, 2007; ... Byline: Andrew Tanzer and Katy Marquardt In the mutual fund arena, it's hard to claim that bigger is better. Too many funds lose a bit of flexibility and agility as they put on weight. Yet tens of millions of Americans have part of their wealth tied up in these heavyweights, and ...
Nuclear Ambitions.(Investing)(forecasts, stocks of nuclear utilities)
Feb 01, 2007; ... STOCKS | A long-maligned energy source generates investment opportunities. By David Landis It's been more than 20 years since Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, and nuclear power's long winter is finally beginning to thaw. Rising prices for oil and natural gas are making atomic ...
Who Needs Funds? Buy the Fund Company.(Investing)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Byline: David Landis The stock market's ongoing vitality is good news for investors, but it's even better news for money managers. Fees that asset managers collect are typically a percentage of the funds they handle, so a rising market means higher asset values--and more ...
Wild and Seriously Wacky ETFs.(exchange-traded funds)
Feb 01, 2007; ... Byline: KATY MARQUARDT The ever-expanding universe of exchange-traded funds is starting to look like an amusement-park fun house, filled with surprising--and sometimes, scary--sights behind every door. Consider an ETF that focuses on stocks that are popular among corporate ...
Can We Afford to Grow Old?(Democratic Congress will take up important issues including immigration, energy policy and the deepening crisis in the Middle East)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Byline: Knight Kiplinger The new Democratic Congress will take up a number of important issues in the coming two years, including immigration, energy policy and the deepening crisis in the Middle East. But all these issues pale in comparison with one that Congress has refused to ...
Real Estate Goes Global.(investments)
Feb 01, 2007; ... Byline: Jeffrey R. Kosnett The bull market in hotels, offices and malls knows few boundaries. Consider that in 2006 through early December, European real estate securities jumped an average of 53% in dollar terms, while Asian property shares rose 28%. Both gains handily exceeded ...
The Long and Short of It.(hedge funds management)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007; ... Byline: Andrew Feinberg I.'m thinking about starting a hedge fund, which will permit me to sell stocks short, so I am networking like crazy in an effort to do it right. I sheepishly tell people that I'm a plain-vanilla guy who rarely sells short--that is, bets on a stock's price ...
Managers Who Eat Their Own Cooking.(funds managers investment)
Feb 01, 2007; ... Byline: Thomas M. Anderson Jeff Arricale and David Giroux wanted to show clients they were committed. The duo plowed all their retirement savings into T. Rowe Price Capital Appreciation after they took over the fund's reins last July. "As our shareholders' fortunes rise and ...
The Kiplinger 25.(portfolio management method)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... How you assess Oakmark Select depends on how you classify the fund. Manager Bill Nygren looks for stocks that trade at a big discount to a firm's underlying value. Compared with other funds that invest in large value stocks, Select is mired in a three-year slump. But Nygren has lately been ...
Money Mover.(Western Union Corp. services forecast)
Feb 01, 2007; ... Byline: THOMAS M. ANDERSON Immigration probe blasts Western Union [stop] Company faces slower U.S. growth [stop] Powerful brand hopes to prosper worldwide [stop] Oops, wrong era. Western Union delivered its last telegram February 2, 2006. Today's Western Union, based ...
Cut Yourself from the Herd.(price-earnings ratio )(trends of budget deficits )(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007; ... Byline: ROBERT FRICK The questions in Ken Fisher's new book, The Only Three Questions That Count (John Wiley & Sons, $28), seem cryptic. They boil down to: What do you think you know that you don't know? What can you know that others can't know? And, in a bow to the relatively ...
Rankings: Top-Performing Stock Mutual Funds--One Year.(Investing)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007 ... RANKINGS: Top-performing stock mutual funds--one year HOW TO USE THE TABLES: Diversified funds are categorized by the average market value of their holdings. Funds that invest in stocks of all sizes are included in the Midsize category. Investment Style describes the kinds of ...
Retirement Saving Made Easy.(congress passed legislation for 401(k) plans)
Feb 01, 2007; ... Byline: Mary Beth Franklin Saving for retirement is about to get a whole lot simpler--so simple, in fact, that in the near future about the only thing you'll have to do to keep your retirement saving on track is show up for work. What has changed? Landmark ...
Best Values in Public Colleges.(Your Money)
Feb 01, 2007; ... Byline: Jane Bennett Clark Students pause in respectful silence as the sun melts into the horizon, transforming Sarasota Bay into a shimmering mass of pink and periwinkle-blue ribbons. The spectacle is one of the best perks at New College of Florida, a tiny public institution ...
Online Banks Branch Out.(Your Money)
Feb 01, 2007; ... Byline: Thomas M. Anderson Although the deal hardly seemed irresistible, it still turned Amy DuBois's head. DuBois, a 27-year-old saleswoman in State College, Pa., opened an online savings account in January 2005 at ING Direct when ING was paying 2.33%, or about a percentage ...
Britney Spears Kevin with a Prenup.(Your Money)(analysis of prenuptial agreements)
Feb 01, 2007; ... Byline: Jane Bennett Clark He's a world renowned musician with a billion-plus bucks and a failed marriage. She's a blond pop singer with a flagging career and a failed marriage. Guess what? The blond was the smart one. Before Britney Spears married soon-to-be-ex ...
Are You On the Hook?(credit management)
Feb 01, 2007; ... Byline: KIMBERLY LANKFORD What's one of the fastest ways to wreck your credit score? Co-sign for a loan or a lease. Karen Laubinger discovered that the hard way after co-signing a lease for a house for her 27-year-old son and his family. An unpaid bill from the ...
Rent Now, Sell Later.(Your Money)(home rentals)
Feb 01, 2007; ... Byline: Patricia Mertz Esswein The slump in home prices coupled with the plethora of For Sale signs add up to a double whammy for anyone who has to sell a home. Richard Rogers, an executive with Travelers Insurance, put his home in Overland Park, Kan., in suburban Kansas City, ...
Save a Bundle on Telecom Services.(Your Money)
Feb 01, 2007; ... Byline: Jeff Bertolucci Tying up your telecom services in a single package is the lure many local telephone and cable companies are casting in selected areas around the U.S. For about $100 a month, you can get cable or satellite TV, local and long-distance telephone service, ...
Ask Kim: Cut Your Property Tax.(real estate reassessment)(gift taxes)(cost basis of AT&T stocks)
Feb 01, 2007; ... Byline: Kimberly Lankford The rural county where I live has just reassessed real estate values, and my home's assessment more than tripled, as did most others in the county. The assessed value is now more than my most recent property appraisal. Should I appeal? What information ...
Credit Cards.(Your Money)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007; ... Byline: JOAN GOLDWASSER If you have several credit cards in your wallet, you may not know the interest rate each one charges--especially if you pay the bill in full every month. But what if you carry a balance? Most statements list three interest rates. The first is your regular ...
Rewards for Good Behavior.(Your Money)(Bank of America launches credit card which benefits users)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007; ... Byline: THOMAS M. ANDERSON When is using a credit card good for your health? When insurers and employers give credit-card reward points to coax you into clean living. Bank of America has launched the first card that awards users points for healthful behavior. Earn ...
Backyard Getaways.(Rewards)(construction of backyard rooms, services of shed shops)
Feb 01, 2007; ... Byline: Sean O'Neill Nothing stresses your budget and your nerves like building a home addition. But if you need more space for your hobby or a home business, there's an option besides knocking down walls: backyard rooms. We don't mean bland boxes that could double as lawn-mower ...
ABCs of a Great Car Loan.(Rewards)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Byline: Mark K. Solheim In the Internet age, finding new-car data to use as haggling ammo is easy. But many buyers who spend days whittling the sticker price let down their guard and hand the savings back when they accept a dealer's car-loan rate. It's easy to see why. The rate ...
Personal Trainer on Your Wrist.(Rewards)(use of high-tech toys for workouts)
Feb 01, 2007; ... Byline: Christine M. Varner High-tech toys can lead us down the path to a sedentary lifestyle, so it's only fair that some high-tech toys help reverse the trip. These devices record and measure your workout, and even provide a much-needed shot of motivation. If you ...
Call U.S. for Less.(Rewards)
Feb 01, 2007 ... Byline: Sean O'Neill During a recent trip to Germany and Austria, I called the States five times, using pay phones and charging my Visa card. I returned home to find a $105 bill for a 20-minute call and a $192 bill for all my other calls, which each lasted fewer than ten ...
For Sale: Castle.(My Story)(Interview)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2007; ... Byline: Joan Goldwasser and Brian Colella What inspired you to build a castle? Sitting in my high school English class in 1969, I saw a picture of a castle and decided I wanted to build one. In 1976 I bought three and a half acres of land for about $25,000 and started drawing ...