Yahoo! Finance - Mutual Funds Center: The Magic of Compounding

Yahoo! Finance - Mutual Funds Center: The Magic of Compounding: "The magic of compound interest is simply a combination of time and rate of return. Let us begin by taking a truly long-term look at the financial markets. Complete data tracing the returns of financial assets are available beginning in 1872. I use primarily the Standard & Poor's 500 Composite Stock Price Index (and a predecessor index prior to 1926) as the measure of common stock returns, the long-term (20-year) U.S. government bond as the measure of bond returns, and the 90-day U.S. Treasury bill as the measure of the returns on cash reserves. "

Mutual Funds for the Rest of Us

Mutual Funds for the Rest of Us: "Talk about taking a good idea and running it into the ground. Mutual funds are supposed to be the ultimate simple solution for investors who don't have the time or interest to choose and track individual stocks. The concept couldn't be more straightforward: invest in a stock fund and you become a shareholder in a diversified portfolio of dozens of stocks overseen by a professional money manager; or, plainer still, you can go with an index fund that merely tracks an overall market barometer such as the Standard & Poor's 500. "

The Best Funds for Entry-Level Investors

The Best Funds for Entry-Level Investors: "Morningstar.com
The Best Funds for Entry-Level Investors
Tuesday April 5, 7:00 am ET
By Christine Benz
Although many of us wouldn't want to have to live through our high school days again, one of my friends has a different idea. He wouldn't mind being 18 again, but he'd like to go back in time armed with everything he knows now: how to talk to (and listen to) women, how to whip up a quick meal when hungry, and, most importantly, the value of savoring every day with few real responsibilities."

Financial Planners: How To Pick A Good One�And Why The Best One Might Just Be You

Financial Planners: How To Pick A Good One And Why The Best One Might Just Be You: "Finding a Financial Planner
Financial Planners: How To Pick A Good One And Why The Best One Might Just Be You
By Suze Orman
Look, I know how much we've become a nation addicted to contract labor. What past generations did for themselves, we now "outsource" to someone else without a second thought. Our lives seem so busy and stressful we are willing to pay someone to do just about everything but brush our teeth for us: someone to clean the house, another to tend the garden, the kid down the block to shovel the snow, an auto mechanic for the oil change, a nanny for afternoon carpool, a dog walker to make sure Fido gets his exercise."