What Are REITs?

Real estate investments can come in many forms. A REIT is just one of them.

What Are REITs?: "A real estate investment trust (REIT) is a real estate company that offers common shares to the public. In this way, a REIT stock is similar to any other stock that represents ownership in an operating business. But a REIT has two unique features: its primary business is managing groups of income-producing properties and it must distribute most of its profits as dividends." Read more of this guest article.

Asset Allocation is Investing Priority #1

How important is asset allocation? Once the portfolio allocation decision is made, the major determinant of failure of success is locked in. To learn more, read on.

Vanguard - Stock, bond, cash investments: "How to allocate your assets among stock, bond, and cash investments is the most important investment decision you can make. It largely determines how well your portfolio will perform in the long run—and may even play a part in how easily you sleep at night!" Read more of this guest article.

Do You Need a Written Financial Plan?

The bottom line is, people that do not have a formal written financial plan actually have an informal financial plan. This informal financial plan is their historical pattern of financial decision making and financial behavior. When woven together, this historical pattern of financial decision making and financial behavior may be as difficult to change as any other habit. Read more of this article.

The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need

This is a modern day classic personal finance book. Sure, when the book was first published in 1978, he didn't anticipate ETF's, ETN's, or structured products, nor did he foresee day trading or the FOREX craze. Still, through it's many revisions, it's remained true to giving great basic advice to the nth degree. And, the best news is, the basics haven't changed, nor, short of the apocalypse, will they. Read more of this review.

Economics 101 for Investors

When you hear economic news on the telly these days, perk up. As an investor, the message is for you.

Vanguard - Economics 101 for investors: "The direction of the economy certainly matters. It affects the financial markets as well as how safe your job is, how your income may grow, what goods and services will cost you, and how much interest you'll pay to borrow. It's undeniably helpful to know some basics about the economy." Read more of this guest article.

Employee Retirement Benefits Explained

Think you know your retirement plan? Think again.

Employee Retirement Benefits Explained - Kiplinger.com: "Working for a company with a retirement plan does not necessarily mean that you are a member of the plan, or that you will actually get retirement benefits, or that the benefits will be as much as you think. It's important to know what you've got." Read more of this guest article.

Investing in Bonds

I'm always on the look-out for great sources of investment information online. One I've just come across is: Investing in Bonds (www.investinginbonds.com).

While bonds may not be the sexy sister of investment choices, they can make a profound difference in anyone's portfolio.

Types of Bonds: "Depending on your goals, your tax situation and your risk tolerance, you can choose from municipal, government, corporate, mortgage-backed or asset-backed securities and international bonds. Within each broad bond market sector you will find securities with different issuers, credit ratings, coupon rates, maturities, yields and other features. Each one offers its own balance of risk and reward." Read more of this guest article.

What is Investing?

Every now and then I have to explain to prospects or clients that I don't run Gary's Casino. Lucrative as it may be for "the house" to shuttle excited "investors" in and out stocks of dubious value and high risk, for most "investors" this path is often a sucker's game.

Make no mistake, there is a huge difference between investing and speculation. There's an even bigger difference between investing and gambling.

What is Investing? - InvestorGuide University: "The idea behind investing is that money is put to use in such a way that it is likely to turn into more money. This could happen because someone is willing to pay interest to use the money or because the value of whatever security the money was used to buy increases during the period of ownership. Destinations for invested money include savings accounts, stocks, bonds, mutual funds and numerous other investment options." Read more of this guest article.

Get Ready for College

Just over the horizon looms the shadow of concern for many parents: college. When your child is ready, will you be ready?

College saving basics - including Section 529 college savings programs and Coverdell education savings accounts: "Numerous surveys and studies have been published describing how parents prepare for future college costs. You probably don’t need a survey to tell you what you already know:

* Kids grow too fast.
* College is expensive.
* The time to start saving and planning is now.

Your child’s college tuition could be one of the largest expenditures you ever make. And, if you have more than one child, the financial commitment is even greater." Read more of this guest article.

The Financial Markets

Vanguard - The financial markets: "If you watch television news, you’re probably familiar with chaotic scenes of traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the ceremonial ringing of the opening and closing bell. While that venerable institution is an icon of the investing community, it's only one of a number of exchanges in the United States and around the world." Read more of this guest article.

The ABCs Of Mutual Fund Classes

Recent B-Share scandals highlighted one simple fact for mutual fund investors: There's more than meets the eye with respect to mutual fund share classes.

The ABCs Of Mutual Fund Classes: "Although mutual fund companies can have as many as seven or more classes of shares for a particular fund, there are three main types of mutual fund classes that are most popular: A, B and C (also known as A-Shares, B-Shares and C-Shares). Each of these classes has various benefits and consequences." Read more of this guest article.