04.17.2008 2:13 pm
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The next two weeks are an unusually opportune time to buy Series I Savings Bonds, both the Wall Street Journal and Savings Bond Advisor say. If you buy before May 1, you’ll earn 4.28 percent for the next six months. The rate…

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04.16.2008 9:12 am
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The broker-sold version of the Missouri Saving for Tuition plan is no longer on Morningstar’s list of worst college-savings plans. In releasing this year’s list, the analysis firm says:
… one of 2007’s worst, Missouri’s MOST 529 Advisor Plan, made its way off…

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02.19.2008 7:54 pm
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Americans aren’t terribly well prepared for retirement anyway, and rising health-care costs make the situation worse, Boston University’s Center for Retirement Research finds in a new study. Fully 61 percent of households are at risk of not being able to…

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02.15.2008 10:59 am
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
A new fee study by Joseph Hurley’s SavingforCollege.com finds that Illinois’ Bright Start is among the least costly college-savings plans. In fact, among plans that are available nationwide, only Ohio’s CollegeAdvantage has lower costs than Bright Start. (Louisiana, Utah, Oregon and Kansas have cheaper options…

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02.08.2008 11:42 am
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
When I urged people to save their “stimulus” checks, not spend them, I had no idea that my advice would strike a sympathetic chord with the majority of Americans. But according to a survey just released by American Century Investments,…

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02.06.2008 10:41 am
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
As the owner of both a Roth IRA and a conventional (that is, tax-deductible) 401k account, I’m an avid reader of articles on the relative merits of saving on taxes now vs. having an account that is tax-free forever. Three Boston…

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01.09.2008 11:42 am
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
A reader named Pat emails me with a question that’s timely, given the current bidding war for bank deposits:
Would you consider doing a column on what considerations the average person should use in deciding where to purchase CDs and…

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12.07.2007 5:51 pm
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
One possible justification for using a stockbroker — as opposed to being a do-it-yourself investor, or working with a fee-based planner – is that the broker may give you good advice about when to buy stocks. Alternatively, he/she may perform…

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10.17.2007 3:46 pm
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
A lot of investing books, good and bad, come across my desk, but few look as dangerous to investors as the one that arrived yesterday. “The Blue Way: How to Profit by Investing in a Better World” has a simple and…

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10.15.2007 2:39 pm
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Wouldn’t it be nice if academic economists and all of their complicated formulas could help you with personal financial decisions? In a new National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, Sumit Agarwal, John C. Driscoll and David Laibson attempt to do just…

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