Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine back issues from February 2008:
The Power of an Idea.
Feb 01, 2008; ... Byline: FRED W. FRAILEY Doggone, Andrew Tanzer was right! Andrew is my colleague who came back from the Value Investing Congress in New York City a year ago and remarked that each time a presenter talked fervently about a stock, you could see attendees hunched over their ...
Letters.(Letter to the editor)
Feb 01, 2008 ... A reader suggests a better way to pay for graduate school, without breaking the bank. Another reader tells how he flushed out a covert bank service fee. And in North Dakota, Medicare Part D premiums aren't just rising--they're going through the roof. Making money free and clear ....
A Cushion for Uncertain Times.
Feb 01, 2008; ... Byline: ANNE KATES SMITH SCARCELY A DAY GOES BY that doesn't raise new questions about the strength of the economy and the durability of the stock market. Each news bite is scrutinized intensely, and a bipolar stock market soars one day and sinks the next depending on the ...
A Wild Ride Will Get Even Wilder.
Feb 01, 2008 ... Geoff Considine, trained as an atmospheric scientist, provides portfolio-management software to advisers and others through his Boulder, Colo., firm, Quantext. STOCK-MARKET VOLATILITY SEEMS OUT OF CONTROL. WHAT IS THE VOLATILITY INDEX, ALSO KNOWN AS THE FEAR INDEX, AND WHAT CAN ...
3 Offers for a Business.(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008; ... Byline: KNIGHT KIPLINGER Q: My siblings and I own a business that was founded by our late father. It's been struggling, and we've decided to sell it. The highest offer, by far, is from a private-equity investor. The middle offer is from a direct (and tough) ...
Pop Goes a Bubble.(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008 ... SOME INVESTORS MAY BE sweating over the gyrations in stocks and bonds, but others are fretting about the latest fashion statement in calfskin or crocodile. Ladies with portfolios--er, closets--full of the latter have come to view them as storehouses of value, much the same way an Old ...
Clarity, Brevity at Last.(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008 ... Put off by tomelike mutual fund prospectuses? You're in luck. Easy-to-read summaries are on tap for 2008. The plain-English booklets will boil down fund objectives, costs, strategy, risks, ...
The Pitfalls of the Mortgage Bailout.(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008; ... Byline: MATTHEW MOGUL THE PLAN AIMS TO PREVENT a wave of expected foreclosures by allowing troubled homeowners facing interest-rate hikes in the next two years to keep their low, introductory rates for up to five more years. The Bush administration says that as many as 1.2 ...
Career Crossovers.(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008; ... REENA BAMMI AS JOB SEEKERS, WE'VE BEEN REMARKABLY LOYAL TO OUR industries. About 60% of professionals with new jobs stayed within their industry during the third quarter of 2007, according to a recent survey. That put the year on track for a record-low level of ...
Big Enough Blue.(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008 ... Investors worry that financial firms, representing one-fourth of sales for International Business Machines, will trim orders. But resilient, recurring revenue from services and software is 73% of sales. A global presence ...
Designing Your First 401(k) Plan.
Feb 01, 2008; ... Byline: JEFFREY R. KOSNETT STEVEN LEIBENSPERGER AND the 401(k) savings plan are contemporaries. Steven, 24, is a graphic designer who's just starting his first full-time job. The 401(k), 27, is America's most popular retirement vehicle, with 50 million participants holding $2.7 ...
Stocks on My Short List.
Feb 01, 2008 ... Byline: JAMES K. GLASSMAN You can't stop reversion to the mean. Starting in 2003, my picks of the ten best stocks for the year ahead beat Standard & Poor's 500-stock index by a wide margin--an average of 18 percentage points each year. Alas, in 2007, the law of averages caught ...
The Virtues of Vice Stocks.
Feb 01, 2008; ... Byline: THOMAS M. ANDERSON BY THOMAS M. ANDERSON HARD TIMES WON'T STOP GAMBLERS FROM BETTING, PARTYGOERS FROM DRINKING AND smokers from puffing. In fact, economic turbulence might give them even more reason to indulge. That makes so-called sin stocks, or shares of ...
Target Funds Under Fire.
Feb 01, 2008 ... WHAT'S DESTINED TO BECOME THE MOST POPULAR RETIREMENT-SAVINGS INVESTMENT is sporting a bull's-eye. A growing chorus of critics have put target-date funds in their cross hairs, accusing them of being inflexible, too risky or too hidebound. Oh, yes, naysayers also say the funds lull you into ...
5 Ways to Bet on a Sinking Dollar.
Feb 01, 2008; ... Byline: ANDREW TANZER AND ELIZABETH ODY FERNANDA CALFAT/GETTY IMAGES FOR CONTRARIANS, RECENT reports that supermodel Gisele Bundchen no longer wanted to be paid in constantly depreciating dollars was a sure sign that the greenback's long slide was nearing an end. ...
RIMM Means Really Incredible Market Moves.
Feb 01, 2008; ... Byline: ANNE KATES SMITH THE GLOBAL, ROUND-THE-clock workforce depends on Research in Motion, the maker of the ubiquitous BlackBerry. Now a major force among smart phones, the BlackBerry combines voice and data functions in a single, streamlined gadget. For better or worse, some ...
Insured Munis Take It On the Chin.(municipal bonds)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008; ... Byline: DAVID LANDIS THE LATEST INNOCENT BYSTANDERS CAUGHT IN THE SUBPRIME-mortgage crossfire are holders of insured municipal bonds. These normally safe bonds have top triple-A ratings because their issuers bought insurance that guarantees payment of principal and interest. ...
Money Funds: Still Safe After All These Years.
Feb 01, 2008 ... Byline: JOAN GOLDWASSER EVERY FEW YEARS, IT SEEMS, a new financial crisis threatens the money-market-fund industry's nearly perfect record for stability. In 1994, it was the bankruptcy of Orange County, Cal. In 1997, it was the Asian contagion, followed a couple of years later ...
My Forecast for 2008.
Feb 01, 2008; ... Byline: JEREMY J. SIEGEL Nobody knows for sure what will happen in the coming year, but the demand for predictions is so high that I will throw mine into the ring. Let's start with the economy. There will be no recession in '08. The economy will start the year slowly, with the ...
It Sounds Like a Good Idea, but...
Feb 01, 2008 ... THE MUTUAL FUND INDUSTRY loves to adapt the hard-to-explain strategies of Wall Street for funds aimed at you and me. But sometimes these concepts can be so challenging that the real question is whether the funds are worth the hype. In most cases, probably not. The latest example ...
Riding the Big Stocks.
Feb 01, 2008 ... It's been so long in happening that it reads like a misprint. But finally, large companies are whupping small companies in the stock market--something that hasn't happened since 1999. This may be the beginning of a long run for funds that invest in large companies, as more investors take ...
You're Gonna Love Those Yields.
Feb 01, 2008; ... Byline: ELIZABETH ODY ON THOSE DISCOMFITING DAYS when the market forgets which way is up, there's nothing like a little cold, hard cash. To collect more of the green stuff, consider investing in a fund that sells covered call options. These funds employ a relatively conservative ...
The Kiplinger 25 Update: The New Guy at Price Growth Makes His Mark.
Feb 01, 2008 ... ROB BARTOLO IS PUTTING HIS STAMP on T. Rowe Price Growth Stock. Bartolo, who previously co-managed Price Media & Telecommunications, took the reins of Growth Stock in October, replacing Bob Smith. Bartolo says he boosted the $27-billion fund's positions in Apple, Google and Nintendo, all ...
Foreign Markets Roar On.
Feb 01, 2008; ... Byline: ELIZABETH ODY INTERNATIONAL STOCKS COASTED through 2007 relatively unharmed by the murmurs of a bear market that spooked Wall Street. As of mid December, foreign stocks stood poised to beat U.S. stocks for the sixth year in a row--the MSCI EAFE index returned 15% ...
Best Values In Public Colleges.
Feb 01, 2008; ... Byline: JANE BENNETT CLARK IT COULD JUST BE THE BEST PUBLIC COLLEGE YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF, WITH PRICES SO low that it's a steal even for out-of-state students. SUNY Geneseo, a small liberal arts college in western New York, boasts top students, a scenic campus, strong programs ...
The '08 Race to Fix Health Care.
Feb 01, 2008 ... Byline: KIMBERLY LANKFORD PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFULS have outlined detailed plans to reform the health-care system--so detailed that just trying to understand them can give you a headache. And, not surprisingly, Democrats and Republicans approach the issue from opposite sides of a ...
A Head Start on the Road to Riches.
Feb 01, 2008; ... Byline: AMY ESBENSHADE HEBERT MAYA LEBEDINSKY'S PIGGY bank has seen a lot of action lately. The bank, a gift from her grandmother, came stuffed with a $5 bill shortly after Maya was born. Three years later, that bill has plenty of company. Maya's parents, Cameron and ...
Tax Break for Telecommuters.
Feb 01, 2008 ... Byline: MARY BETH FRANKLIN WHEN BILL RISTOW JOINED IBM as a technical sales engineer last spring, he wasn't assigned to an office or a cubicle. Instead, his employer issued him a laptop so that he could work from his home in Farmington, Minn., drafting sales presentations and ...
When Disaster Is at Your Doorstep.
Feb 01, 2008; ... Byline: KIMBERLY LANKFORD AS WILDFIRES RAGED NEAR his Los Angeles home, CPA Michael Eisenberg finally created a family contact list. "We updated phone and fax numbers and e-mail addresses, and appointed a relative in New York City to be the contact person." That way, says ...
It's Easier to Slide Money Into a Roth.(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008; ... Byline: KIMBERLY LANKFORD Moving money from a 401(k) into a Roth IRA after you left a job used to be a Texas two-step: You had to transfer the assets into a traditional IRA first, then convert that to a Roth. Now you can waltz directly into a Roth. In order to make ...
An Open Door for First-Time Homebuyers.(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008; ... Byline: ELIZABETH ODY ATTENTION ASPIRING HOMEOWNERS: Don't be scared off by rumors that you need a stratospheric down payment and the squeakiest of credit histories to get into a house. A 10% down payment is now the norm, says Jim McMillan, a senior loan officer for JP Morgan, ...
Ask Kim: Mistaken Identity.
Feb 01, 2008; ... Byline: KIMBERLY LANKFORD PETER ROSS When TransUnion recently pulled my credit report, it showed very old personal information and gave me a credit score of zero. I am 48, have an active credit history, and my other credit reports were accurate. When I called ...
Save With a Triple Play.
Feb 01, 2008; ... Byline: JEFF BERTOLUCCI WHEN IT COMES TO BUYING telecom services, Americans just love to bundle up. Three-fer telephone, Internet and TV packages have proved so popular that within three years, 80% of U.S. house holds will have some form of communications bundle, predicts ...
Credit Card: How Do I Cancel My Parents' Cards?
Feb 01, 2008; ... Byline: JOAN GOLDWASSER HOW DO I CANCEL MY PARENTS' CARDS? Q: Both of my parents have passed away. I ran a credit report on them and several credit cards came up. I haven't found the actual cards, and I don't know the account numbers. How can I cancel these cards? ...
Remodeling That Pays Back.
Feb 01, 2008; ... Byline: JESSICA L. ANDERSON BY JESSICA L. ANDERSON AS THE HOUSING MARKET HAS VEERED OFF COURSE, SO HAVE MANY HOMEOWNERS' remodeling plans. Retreating home prices and higher interest rates have made it tougher to borrow against home equity. Uncertainty about when the ...
High Def for Less Than $1,000.(definition)(Product/service evaluation)
Feb 01, 2008; ... Byline: JEFF BERTOLUCCI MAYBE YOUR DEN IS ALREADY filled with the Big Screen, and now you want something less gargantuan for crystal-clear viewing in your bedroom. Or perhaps you don't want your primary living space to be TV-centric. We have the hardware for you. For less than ...
5 Leasing Myths Busted.
Feb 01, 2008; ... Byline: MARK SOLHEIM Leasing often gets a bad rap, and no wonder: Its confusing argot sounds like fodder for a course in high finance, and dealers have been known to slip bad deals past confused car buyers who simply wanted low monthly payments. About 20% of new-car transactions ...
What You Need to Know About Do-Not-Call Lists.
Feb 01, 2008; ... Byline: THOMAS M. ANDERSON 1. YOU'RE STILL ON THE LIST--FOR NOW. The first entries into the National Do Not Call Registry were set to be expunged in the summer of 2008 because the 2003 law stated that all numbers would expire after five years. But the Federal Trade ...
Burned Out in the California Hills.
Feb 01, 2008; ... Byline: PAUL KASSEL AND WALTER G. MEYER HOW DID YOU GET THE WORD TO EVACUATE? At three thirty in the morning, I got a call from my brother Dan, who lives about five miles away. He said, "The flames are right there. You'd better get out." We took 15 minutes to gather up a few ...