Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine back issues from July 2008:
Funds for all seasons.(FROM THE EDITOR)(Editorial)
Jul 01, 2008; ... This month, Knight Kiplinger writes about what the Wall Street Journal is calling "the lost decade." This refers to the fact that Standard & Poor's 500-stock index has returned only 1% annualized since the start of this century and less than that since the market topped in the spring of ...
A close call.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Jul 01, 2008; ... Thank you so much for the warning about the Money Merge Account system ("Ahead," May). I had just spoken to someone at our mortgage company about a new and ...
The Kiplinger 25.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Jul 01, 2008; ... Your recommendation to buy Pimco Commodity Real Return Strategy (symbol PCRDX) is definitely a day late and may cause investors to be more than a few dollars short in the near term ("The 25 Best Funds," May). There can be little doubt that the long-term fundamentals of commodities are ...
Better bill-paying.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
Jul 01, 2008 ... We've made paying bills even easier by putting them on autopilot ("Your Essential Financial Toolkit," May). We prearranged to debit our checking account or charge the amount to a credit card. In the past, we wrote 25 to 30 checks a month; now we write three ...
The benefits of Social Security.(Letter to the editor)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2008; ... Knight Kiplinger suggested in his column that because the FICA tax rate is a flat 6.2%, the Social Security system is regressive ("My Point of View," May). While it is true that the tax is regressive, the benefits are very progressive. Social Security benefits are structured so that ...
Travel insurance.(Letter to the editor)
Jul 01, 2008; ... My company provides international coverage to employers, but I frequently get calls for help from colleagues with a family member who has taken ill abroad ("The Best Travel Sites," May). With few exceptions, Medicare does not pay for care outside the U.S. ...
Correction.(Timing Is Everything)(Correction notice)
Jul 01, 2008 ... Olivia Mellan is a psychotherapist ...
Best strategies to beat rising prices: start by saving on fuel and food, then move on to refinancing your debt.(TOPIC A)
Jul 01, 2008; ... THERE'S NOTHING GOURMET about scrambled eggs and toast. But with the cost of eggs up 30% from a year ago, the price of bread up 16%, and the milk to wash it down up 15%, you'd better be serving breakfast on a silver platter. Prices of some staples are sky-high and climbing, just ...
Expect the dollar to buck up soon: a rally would bring consumers a little relief on prices, but it may not last long.(INTERVIEW)(Interview)
Jul 01, 2008; ... David Hoffman is a managing director and portfolio manager for Brandywine Global Investment Management, in Philadelphia, where he specializes in global markets and currencies. HAS THE DOLLAR BOTTOMED? We think that over the next six to 12 months, there could be a significant ...
Should a rich kid accept a college scholarship?(MONEY & ETHICS)(Column)
Jul 01, 2008; ... Q: I recently heard that a cousin's son is attending our state university free, with a state-funded scholarship for brilliant students. His parents are millionaires and could easily pay the boy's college expenses themselves. Do you think it's ethical for a college to offer such ...
A virtual lock box: store everything from wills to family photos in an online safe.(PERSONAL TECH)(Wells Fargo vSafe)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2008; ... SAY SOMEBODY STEALS YOUR wallet while you're traveling. Wouldn't it be convenient to recover copies of crucial credit-card information and other documents from any computer, anywhere? How about a record of your will, trust documents, medical or tax records--even family photos, favorite ...
Health accounts under fire.(From The Kiplinger Letter)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2008 ... Congress wants to close a loophole in health savings accounts, which would mean more red tape for HSA holders and administrators. HSAs are tax-free if the funds are used for medical ...
What you'll see as airlines merge: expect higher prices and fuller flights--but maybe a free ticket.(FAQ)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2008; ... IN RECENT WEEKS, DELTA and Northwest Airlines agreed to merge (although there are a lot of hurdles to clear before it's a done deal), Frontier Airlines filed for bankruptcy, and four smaller airlines--Aloha, ATA, Eos and Skybus--went out of business entirely. Meanwhile, a coming merger ...
Marvelous.(Stock Watch)(Marvel Entertainment)
Jul 01, 2008; ... Don't bet against a superhero. Marvel Entertainment's new strategy to produce movies in-house paid off big with Iron Man and could usher in an era of more-sustainable earnings. Investors who can stand some volatility should buy the high-flying stock on dips. Watch the big screen for The ...
Job hunting in the internet age: new times call for new methods, including video with your resume.(CAREERS)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2008; ... THE LAST TIME PHYLISE BANNER LOOKED FOR A JOB, SHE USED a headhunter. But as someone who designs online distance-learning programs for a living, she knows the world has changed since she last pounded the pavement. "This is a different type of search," says Banner. "I'm trying to create my ...
Patience pays off.(MY POINT OF VIEW)(Decade overview)(Column)
Jul 01, 2008; ... No doubt about it: The first decade of the new millennium--the '00s, which I call the aughts--has not been kind to investors who take an indexed approach to owning blue-chip U.S. stocks. // With 18 months still to go in the decade, Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, which mostly tracks ...
Keep the best company.(OPENING SHOT)(stock markets and global companies)
Jul 01, 2008; ... What if you had the opportunity to join the world's most exclusive golf club (say, Augusta National)--or buy a house in a beautiful neighborhood, or send your kids to the best college, or buy a fabulous car--at an affordable price? The choice would be yours alone. No one could keep you out ...
What we value.(DISCOVERING VALUE)(value investors)(Column)
Jul 01, 2008; ... A walk down any supermarket aisle makes it clear we live in a world of increasing product specialization. To break into a new market or grab more of an existing one, companies launch a dizzying array of new products in ever-more-specific categories. Want your soda with more caffeine or ...
Building your own pension plan: make like the pros and diversify beyond stocks.(PORTFOLIO DOCTOR)(Joe and Susan Buchanan)
Jul 01, 2008; ... OUR READERS WHO: JOE AND SUSAN BUCHANAN, 37 WHAT: BOTH IN TECH SALES WHERE: RALEIGH, N.C. MARITAL STATUS: MARRIED, NO CHILDREN SYMPTOM: JOE AND SUSAN WON'T GET PENSIONS. WHAT CAN THEY DO TO ENSURE A SECURE RETIREMENT? THE ...
Earn 8% or more: from tankers to pipelines to real estate stocks, we've uncovered the investments with the best yields.(INVESTING)
Jul 01, 2008; ... INVESTORS IN SEARCH OF HIGH INCOME HAD THE RUG PULLED OUT FROM UNDER them this past year. A frantic rush to buy Treasuries, despite obscenely low yields, undermined the value of other income-oriented investments, including junk bonds, mortgage securities, municipal IOUs and even some ...
Great stock funds on sale: investing in a closed-end fund is an easy way to buy assets on the cheap.(INVESTING)
Jul 01, 2008; ... MOST CLOSED-END FUNDS DWELL IN RELATIVE OBSCURITY. After the funds are launched, sponsors spend no money to market them and brokers don't promote them to clients. And that's a pity because there are many excellent closed-end funds, and many that invest in stocks are selling at prices well ...
A hot investor's 3 top picks: his investments have returned 30% a year for 20 years, so listen up.(INVESTING)(Bob Auer of Auer Growth fund )
Jul 01, 2008; ... WHEN BOB AUER TALKS stocks, it pays to listen. He seeks "wildly growing" companies selling at cheap prices. To be more specific, he'll look at a company only if its profits are expanding at a minimum annual clip of 25% and its stock sells for 12 times earnings or less. By now ...
Stocks Buffet would love: he didn't ask us, but we found five great companies that fit his criteria.(INVESTING)(Warren Buffet)
Jul 01, 2008; ... WARREN BUFFETT'S SWEET TOOTH WAS OLD NEWS LONG before he signed on as a partner in Mars's deal to buy Wrigley for $23 billion. Buffett bought See's Candies more than three decades ago for Berkshire Hathaway, the company he heads, and Dairy Queen is another prized possession. Coca-Cola and ...
Big pharma: too cheap to pass up: everyone, it seems, hates the drug industry. That makes this sector a contrarian's dream.(INVESTING)(Pfizer Inc., Merck and Company Inc., and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.)
Jul 01, 2008; ... BIG PHARMA IS IN NEED OF a miracle cure. The major pharmaceutical makers are so beaten down that, in some cases, it's the dividends, rather than future blockbuster products, that are propping up the stocks. Take PFIZER. As of mid May, the stock was down 28% over the past year ...
Active ETFs are hamstrung: the first five are out. Expect a flood of additional funds despite their limitations.(INVESTING)(exchange-traded funds of PowerShares and Bear Stearns )
Jul 01, 2008; ... TO MOST INVESTORS, THE beauty of exchange-traded funds is that they're simple to analyze, dirt-cheap to own and immune from manager mistakes--all the things that most mutual funds are not. The introduction of actively run ETFs hacks away at all three of these advantages plus introduces ...
Look ahead, not behind.(PROMISED LAND)(investments)
Jul 01, 2008; ... Investing through the rearview mirror is one of the worst mistakes we make. Most investors tend to view the recent past and reflexively extrapolate that a trend--any trend--will continue. A hot fund will stay hot. Soaring fertilizer stocks will reach the sky (with the help of--what ...
A numbers guy defies emotion: Hennessy Focus buys cheap, growing companies, then dumps most of them in a year.(INVESTING)(Neil Hennesy)
Jul 01, 2008; ... NEIL HENNESSY, WHO RUNS HENNESSY Focus 30, takes the emotion out of investing. He doesn't meet with the top brass at the companies he invests in, and he rarely samples their wares. So what has propelled Focus 30 to the top of the charts among funds that invest in midsize-company ...
Cheap wins every time.(MUTUAL FUNDS)
Jul 01, 2008; ... I've developed an admiration for Jack Bogle's thoroughness. The founder of the Vanguard funds will explain nine ways to Sunday why it's important to consider costs when you select a fund. He'll make his case first from one perspective, then he'll take another angle that leads to the same ...
Dodge & Cox goes global: the firm's fifth fund will combine the best of its domestic and international funds.(INVESTING)
Jul 01, 2008; ... INVESTING IN A NEW MUTUAL fund is usually a crapshoot. But if any new fund deserves the benefit of the doubt, it's DODGE & COX GLOBAL STOCK. It's only the fifth fund from Dodge & Cox in the firm's nearly 80 years of existence. Based in San Francisco, Dodge & Cox has achieved ...
Brazil boosts T. Rowe's emerging-markets fund.(THE KIPLINGER 25 UPDATE)
Jul 01, 2008 ... T. ROWE PRICE EMERGING MARKETS Stock continues to shine. Over the past year, it has outpaced the MSCI Emerging Markets index by four percentage points. Managed by Chris Alderson, with help from analysts and portfolio managers around the world, the fund has profited from some sound country ...
Buy Pimco's black sheep: the bet is that a top shop's junk muni fund will recover quickly.(INVESTING)
Jul 01, 2008; ... PIMCO IS WIDELY REGARDED as one of the nation's best bond-fund managers. Led by Bill Gross, its funds have delivered outstanding long-term records. More recently, they dodged the subprime-mortgage mess. So what a surprise to find a Pimco bond fund near the bottom of its category. ...
Save $5,363 on sneaky fees: companies collect billions by nickel-and-diming you. It's time to stop letting them get away with it.(MONEY)(Cover story)
Jul 01, 2008 ... THINK YOU'VE NEVER BEEN CHARGED A SNEAKY FEE BY YOUR BANK, BROKER, CREDIT-CARD issuer or cell-phone provider? Then you haven't looked at your bills very closely. The Internet has made it easy to comparison shop with a few clicks, so companies find it tougher to raise prices. As a result, ...
Cash in on your life: it's easier now to sell a life-insurance policy for immediate cash. But it's not always a good idea.(MONEY)
Jul 01, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] KENNETH SAHS, 71, FACED A ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME DECISION last year. His $500,000 convertible term life insurance policy would soon expire. Sahs could drop it and get nothing or convert it to universal life, a form of cash-value insurance, and take on $12,000 ...
Secret ways to boost your social security: four legal strategies for adding as much as $12,000 a year to your retirement income.(MONEY)
Jul 01, 2008; ... SOME RETIREMENT DECISIONS ARE IRREVERSIBLE. BUT many retirees will be happy to learn that choosing when to start collecting Social Security benefits is not one of them. // When John Rothenhoefer, 70, found out that he could increase his Social Security benefits by about $1,000 a month by ...
The home-equity door slams shut: anxious lenders are freezing lines of credit. Borrowers are in a fix.(MONEY)
Jul 01, 2008; ... THIS PAST JANUARY, LISA and JR Falkenhagen opened a letter from Countrywide Financial informing them that, effective immediately, they could no longer withdraw funds from their home-equity line of credit. The reason: a significant decline in their home's value from the appraised value when ...
Children mean business.(MONEY-SMART KIDS)
Jul 01, 2008; ... Summertime and the living's too easy, judging by the flood of e-mails I get from bored and broke 11- and 12-year-olds. "What can I do to make money for an iPod Nano?" "Do u think that selling water at soccer games is a good idea?" "I have a future career as a pro skateboarder but I don't ...
Where savers can find high rates: despite the Fed's recent interest-rate cuts, you can find a high-paying account--if you know where to look.(MONEY)
Jul 01, 2008; ... THE CALENDAR MAY SAY July, but the climate for savers has definitely cooled down. Last summer, yields of 5% or more were plentiful. Now, rates of 3% to 3.5% are common. But don't despair. Savings and checking accounts at online-only banks, such as HSBC Direct, ING Direct and ...
A reprieve on student loans.(New Grads)(federal Stafford loans)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2008; ... Student borrowers who still have federal Stafford loans with variable interest rates (those issued before July 2006) just got good news. Your interest rate--one rate applies if you start payments during your six-month grace period; a slightly higher one applies if you start repayment ...
Don't be spooked.(ASK KIM)(retirement savings)
Jul 01, 2008; ... I am 52 years old. I have $22,000 in my 401(k) plus $10,000 in an IRA, and that's all of my retirement savings. My quarterly 401(k) statement showed a loss of $2,000. I can't afford to lose that much. My money is divided among UBS International and four T. Rowe Price funds: Balanced, ...
Paying the college bills.(ASK KIM)
Jul 01, 2008; ... My son starts college this fall. Which account should I tap first to help pay the bills--a custodial account, his 529 college-savings plan or a taxable account? Kannan Sreedhar Richmond It all depends on your tax situation. If you're eligible for the Hope ...
Stolen identity?(ASK KIM)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2008; ... My wallet was stolen recently, with my driver's license in it. I canceled all my credit cards immediately, and I've been checking my accounts daily to make sure there are no fraudulent charges. What's the best way to check that my identity has not been stolen and that no accounts have been ...
Head start on retirement.(ASK KIM)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2008; ... I am 17 years old, and I just learned about Roth IRAs. I will be getting a summer job and know that I can invest in a Roth. But what happens once I finish working for the summer? Can I still invest in the Roth? Will the account stay the same until I find another job? Michael Y. ...
Can I rent a car if I freeze my credit?(CREDIT CARDS: Q&A)
Jul 01, 2008; ... Q: If I freeze my credit report to prevent identity theft, will I be able to rent a car? I know that some companies check your credit report as well as your credit card. If you decide to freeze your credit report, you can still rent a car this summer and pay with a credit card ....
Top-yielding money-market accounts.(MONEY)(Table)
Jul 01, 2008 ... <Pre> TOP-YIELDING MONEY-MARKET ACCOUNTS 30-day yieldMinimumTAXABLE MUTUAL FUNDS to May 7investment 1. Dreyfus BASIC Money Market * 2.97% $25,000 2. Morgan Stanley ActiveAssets ...
Top-yielding certificates of deposit.(MONEY)(Table)
Jul 01, 2008 ... <Pre> TOP-YIELDING CERTIFICATES OF DEPOSIT Recent Minimum6-MONTH annual yield amount 1. Corus Bank (Ill.)3.75%$10,000 2. Nexity Bank (Ala.) ([dagger])...
Yield benchmarks.(MONEY)(Table)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2008 ... <Pre> Month- Year- YIELD BENCHMARKS Yieldago ago U.S. series EE savings bonds ([double dagger]) 1.40% 3.00%3.40% U.S. series I savings bonds 4.844.28 ...
The best cities to live work and play: these ten great places will only get better.(LIVING)
Jul 01, 2008 ... OUR APPROACH THIS YEAR TO PICKING THE TEN BEST CITIES IN WHICH TO LIVE AND work was simple: Look for places with strong economies and abundant jobs, then demand reasonable living costs and plenty of fun things to do. When we ran the numbers, some of the names that popped up made us do a ...
What you need to know about saving on gas: a few simple steps will slash the cost of keeping a full tank.(LOWDOWN)
Jul 01, 2008; ... 1. PREPARE FOR PROLONGED PAIN AT THE PUMP. High gasoline prices are finally persuading U.S. drivers to keep a lid on consumption. But the price of gas keeps soaring--thanks to rising global demand, speculators and the weak dollar. In the past five years, the cost of gas has risen 139%, ...
Electric cars get a jolt.(DRIVE TIME)(new generation of electric cars)
Jul 01, 2008; ... Automakers haven't faced a year this dismal since 1998, so the 2008 New York Auto Show was predictably subdued. That is, until the Mitsubishi public-relations folks told me I could take a spin in their concept electric vehicle, called the iMiev. The iMiev looks kind of like a Volkswagen ...
Learning to be an un-consumer: Perry, 44, a marketing manager, co-founded The Compact, a group that avoids unnecessary consumption. Two years later, it has more than 8,000 followers.(MY STORY John Perry, San Francisco, California)(Interview)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2008; ... HOW DID THE COMPACT BEGIN? Over dinner, nine friends and I decided to go an entire year without buying anything new besides food, medicine and hygiene products. If we needed anything else, we would borrow it or buy it secondhand. WHY BOTHER TO PUT YOURSELVES THROUGH THIS? We ...