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Retirement Planing Tools
(From WSJ article of 11-24-02 by Jonathan Clements) To see how your retirement-spending strategy would have held up historically, go to www.early-retirement.org. The site's calculator will ask you to enter items such as your portfolio's value, what percentage is in stocks, how much you hope to spend each year and how long you think your retirement will last.
To gauge your strategy's likely success, the calculator looks at investment returns since 1871. But the calculator doesn't use average historical rates of return. Instead, it analyzes what would have happened if you retired in 1871, in 1872, in 1873 and so on. It then calculates how often your strategy would have panned out historically.
Suppose you retired with $400,000 invested in a low-cost portfolio of 60% stocks and 40% bonds and were looking to spend $20,000 a year for the next 30 years, with your spending rising each year along with inflation. According to the calculator, that strategy would have succeeded 81.5% of the time. What's success? You died before your portfolio did. Want a second opinion? You can also test your retirement-spending strategy by using T. Rowe Price Associates' retirement-income calculator. To go there directly, type in www3.troweprice.com/ric/RIC and be sure to capitalize the last three letters of the Web address.
The T. Rowe Price calculator asks for key financial information, such as how much you hope to withdraw each month in retirement and how much you have amassed, and lets you pick from among seven possible mixes of stocks, bonds and cash investments. The calculator then analyzes whether your strategy has a decent shot at succeeding.
To judge a strategy's chances of success, the T. Rowe Price calculator uses something called Monte Carlo analysis, which involves testing the strategy in 500 possible market scenarios. As you will discover, the T.Rowe Price calculator is a tough critic and it tends to steer users toward relatively modest withdrawal rates. As you tote up your retirement income, also get a handle on your likely Social Security benefits. To that end, head over to www.ssa.gov/OACT/ANYPIA. Once again, you will need to capitalize the appropriate letters in the Web address.
I would skip the detailed calculator and use the quick version. All you have to do is enter your current age and this year's earnings. The calculator will then estimate the size of your monthly check, depending on whether you take Social Security early at age 62, wait until the normal retirement age of 65 to 67 or put off Social Security until age 70. When should you take Social Security? How much can you safely spend each year in retirement? To answer these questions intelligently, you need some sense for how long you might live. With that in mind, take the quiz at www.livingto100.com.
Free Mutual Fund Screening Tools
(From LA Times article of 3-19-00 by Paul Lim - update on 6-9-01 in italics)
Money Central -- Best free site. Click on the "investor" section, then on "finder" (which may now be called 'Fund Screener'). You'll have to download software from the site, then you can screen based on hundreds of criteria. Among them: investment category, performance, 12-month yield, brokerage availability, Morningstar rating and risk, portfolio turnover, portfolio holdings, the number of stocks or bonds in the fund, sector weightings, and statistical measures such as alpha, beta, R-squared and even Sharpe ratios. Offers a plethora of pre-defined screens to help you identify the best "safe and steady" funds, tech funds, no-load funds with momentum, and funds with a Morningstar upgrade.
Morningstar-- You can screen for most of the basics through the "Fund Selector" section of Morningstar.com for free. And no site has a richer database of funds to mine - and richer info about funds. The downside - to access Morningstar's "Advanced Selector" screening tool, which has all the bells and whistles, you have to become a premium member.
E-Trade -- Not nearly as powerful as MoneyCentral's, but it gets you started. Easy to use and navigate. Select "Power Search." You can search funds based on fund families, investment objectives, historic performance, assets, minimum initial investments, expenses, turnover and manager turnover, alpha, beta, Sharpe ratio and R-squared. All is free but you must register.
Smart Money -- (Screening is free, but this is a subscription site.) Offers many of the features of Morningstar's or MoneyCentral's. One difference: Instead of screening based on Morningstar ratings, SmartMoney.com lets you screen for funds based on the magazine's own proprietary fund-grading system.
Quicken -- Click on the "investing" tab (then to 'Find Top Funds') and you can access "popular searches." There, you can look up the best no-load, low-expense funds; the best funds with total assets of less than $100 million; the best large-, mid-, and small-cap funds; and the best funds with low minimum initial investment requirements.
Max Funds -- (Fund Max-o-mizer evaluates funds.) Lets you search for "undiscovered" funds - those that are too new or small to have a ticker symbol, and thus don't get listed in most newspaper mutual fund listings. (Also tool for fund 'overlap'. Slow site.)
Analysts Tracker Sites
(From WSJ article of 6-26-00 by David Runk)
Validea ranks analysts at Wall Street firms, plus financial columns, publications and journalists. Tracks more than 4,500 stock pickers, relying on recommendations they make in newspapers, magazines and in online publications. Ranks pickers based on the average performance of their picks over a given period, from a week to a year, going as far back as 1995. Investors can look up data on a specific analyst, view overall rankings or rankings by industry.
www.bigtipper.com (a dead link on test of 6-9-01) offers links to the day's stock picks from CNBC, CNNfn and Bloomberg, with summaries of each stock picker's main points, as well as to tips from print publications. Allows investors to look at stocks by sector and see what are the most talked-about stocks, and calculates returns based on $1,000 invested in each stock on the day of the recommendation.
BullDog Research uses data collected from Wall Street firms by I/B/E/S International, a financial information company (not from the media). Ranks analysts by the accuracy of their earnings estimates and their stock-picking performance.
Mutual Fund Expense Calculators
(From WSJ article of 11-1-99 by Aaron Lucchetti)
SEC Easy to navigate, but isn't linked to a fund database. Only takes a few keystrokes, including plugging in a specified expected return and holding period, to get to the point at which the calculator spits out how much the mutual fund is going to cost, including the forgone earnings.
Personal Fund The site breaks down fees into almost all imaginable components. Explains the tax impact of holding funds for different lengths of time. Linked to a fund database provided by Lipper. It also lists cheaper alternatives to the fund being analyzed.
FinanCenter No database link. Among its features, it can calculator how long it takes to recover your fund costs, using hypothetical investment returns. (I could not navigate to a point at this site to 'input' data and do searches. It appears to be only an advertisment as of 6-9-01.)
Morningstar Not great for picking a new fund, but tracks the expenses of funds already bought. You plug in the fund names and purchase prices, it plucks the relevant cost data out of its data base and then gives an average expense ratio for your portfolio. Range of costs covered does not include forgone earnings on fees, transaction expenses and taxes.
Smart Money Uses interactive sliding scales and pie charts to reflect expense ratios and sales loads. It doesn't give the customized, detailed information available elsewhere. All calculations cover just three time periods (1yr, 5yrs, 20yrs) and are based on a $10,000 investment.
Quicken Lets you vary the initial investment amount and compare three different funds at once.
Salary Surveys
U.S Dept. of Labor Occupational Outlook Handbook
Jobs Smart salary survey links
Salary surveys by Abbott Langer
BLS-Career Guides and Outlook Handbook
Bond Quotes
*Requires registration
Real Time Stock Quotes
| InterQuote* | Quote.com | WW Quotes* |
Tax News and Information
| Digital Daily-IRS News | Joint Tax Comm-Blue Book |
| Today's Tax News |
U.S. Economic Reports
U.S. Stock Exchanges
| AMEX | Company links, market summary data. |
| CBOE | Chicago Board Options Exchange. |
| CBOT | Chicago Board of Trade. |
| CME | Chicago Mercantile Exchange. |
| KCBT | Kansas City Board of Trade |
| NASDAQ | Current graphs, quotes, news. |
| NASDAQ | Nasdaq Newsroom |
| NYSE | Links, stock quotes, mkt summaries. |
| NYCE | New York Cotton Exchange |
| NYME | New York Mercantile Exchange |
| PSE | Philadelphia Stock Exchange |
International Markets
| Italian Stock Exchange | London Stock Exchange |
| Madrid Bolsa | Montreal Exchange |
| Paris Bourse | Stockholm |
| Oslo Stock Exchanges | Swiss Exchange |
| Tel Aviv Stock Exchange | Tokyo Stock Exchange |
Whisper Number Sites
(From LA Times article of 6-21-00 by Josh Friedman)
| Earnings Whispers | Jagnotes | Street IQ |
| The Whisper Number | Whisper Number |
Hosts to Corporate Conference Calls:
(From WSJ article of 8-11-00 by Stacy Forster and Carrie Lee)
Broadcast.com
StreetFusion
Investor Broadcast Network (Vcall)
Corporate Communications Broadcast Network (CCBN)
Bestcalls provides a directory of coming conference calls and maintains archives for those that have already happened. It lists schedules for about 2,000 companies.
(From Washington Post article of 10-15-00 by Fred Barbash)
Radio Wall Street - Question-and-answer sessions between analysts and companies (also called Investor Broadcast Network - but different URL than one listed above)
On24 Financial Network - Question-and-answer sessions between analysts and companies
Investor Sites
| 123jump | News and original analysis on foreign and domestic markets. |
| AAII | (Amer Assoc of Individual Investors) Education and strategy. |
| AARP | Calculators for retirement planning, college saving, asset allocation and a few other topics. The worksheets are free and easy to use. |
| ADR | JPMorgan info on 400+ ADRs, including direct-purchase plans. Stock charts, earnings estimates. Search by company, region or industry. |
| AmerBanker | Financial news, by subscription. |
| A.Millionaire | (Armchair Millionaire) Learning-by-example tools, model portfolio, 5 Steps to Financial Freedom, investor forums. |
| Annuity.com | Annuity sales and information. |
| An. Scout | Annuity sales and information. |
| An. Shopper | Annuity sales and information. |
| BankChannel | Thomson Financial Banking and finance news. |
| BankRate | (Bank Rate Monitor) Mortgage, savings and loan rates. (slow site) |
| B Investing | (Better-Investing.org) Nonprofit for investment clubs and individuals |
| Big Charts | Charting and research site. Info from Marketwatch. |
| BizLaw Today | Business and labor law news. |
| Brk Direct | Annuity sales and information. |
| Bond Mkts | Up-to-date bond quotes from the Bond Market Association |
| Briefing.Com | Sector ratings and analysis, an economic calendar, and intraday charts |
| Bulldog | Reports from 3000 Wall St. analysts from 350 firms |
| Business Wire | a major distributor of company press releases |
| Buyandhold | Lists direct stock plans and dividend-reinvestment plans. |
| CE Funds | Provides discounts and portfolio data free on closed-end funds |
| Clearstation | Investment research, combining technical analysis, fundamentals, and community sharing. |
| Complaints | (investingcomplaints.com) Independent consumer advocacy group. Helps you find the right people to complain to about your broker, and provides education and message boards. |
| Cyber Invest | Guide to and links to major sites. |
| Daily Futures | News, quotes and market info on the commodity futures market. |
| Daily Rocket | Insider news, stocks predictions. |
| Daily Stocks | Financial supersite with 100's of links. |
| Direct Access | Direst Corporate-bond sales to small investors |
| DKR | Tokyo, Asian and Global forecasts, done on the 15th, in pdf. |
| Drip Investor | Info on direct-purchase stocks and dividend reinvestment plans |
| EBN | Europe's 24-hour business news channel |
| Emerging | (Emerging Portfolio) News and analysis on Latin America, Asia, eastern Europe, Africa and Middle East |
| ETF Connect | Sift closed-end funds by their discount characteristics, strategies and other fundamental parameters |
| FinanCenter | 100's of calculators |
| Fin Forum | News and info from Canadian financial markets |
| Financial Web | Stock Detective (scams); Small Cap Investor (growth stocks); and Wall Street Guru (picks) |
| Fin. Engines | Free forecast for retirement savings, customized recommendations to achieve objectives. |
| First Call | Earnings scoreboard highlighting positive and negative surprises, and revisions by analysts |
| Fitchibca | Credit ratings - including preferred stock credit ratings |
| 401 Kafe | Answers to faq's on 401(k) plans, news and tips |
| 401k.com | From Fidelity, 401(k) plan basics, retirement calculators. |
| Fund Alarm | Monitors mutual funds for "sell" signals |
| Gainskeeper | Keeps track of trading info and portfolio changes so that investors can easily calculate capital-gains taxes and losses. |
| Gold-Eagle | News on gold, silver and other commodities |
| Green Money | Socially responsible investing |
| Holt Stock Rpt | Collection of stock indices and financial info |
| IBC Data | Lists highest-yielding money-market funds and cds. |
| ICI | (Investment Company Institute) Mutual Fund sales stats by category |
| Immediate An. | (ImmediateAnnuity.com) Annuity sales and info. |
| Ind Investor | (Individual Investor) growth stock oriented site |
| Index Funds | Search funds by type of index, expense ratio and minimum investment. Brief description of each index, including what stocks are in it. |
| I N O | Equities and derivatives info. Free news, analysis and market data. |
| Invest In Bonds | Investor education from the Bond Market Association |
| Invest Simple | Investing Made Simple - a long web page on pasive investing |
| Invest Strategy | 'Investment Strategies for the 21st Century' - an on-line book by Frank Armstrong |
| I B N | Investor Broadcast Network: conference calls and other audio content geared specifically to individual investors |
| Internotes | Direst Corporate-bond sales to small investors |
| Investor.Net | Quotes, charts, links |
| Investor Guide | SEC filings, stock splits, share buy backs |
| InvesTools | Stock screens on factors such as insider ownership, price-to-book ratio and dividend yield |
| IPO Central | IPO tracking from Hoover's and Edgar's. Lists planned IPOs and tracks recent ones. |
| IPO.Com | Offers filing, pricing and aftermarket information, which can be e-mailed to you in a weekly newsletter |
| IPO Maven | Latest filings and pricings, gainers and losers, company stories and performance within sector |
| IPOnet | Info on IPO's |
| J.P. Morgan | Currency and financial indices, risk management |
| Market Gems | For the short-term and the day traders |
| Market Guide | Stock-screening, with price charts, a what's hot/what's not list and Company of the Day |
| Mkt Player | Uses historical earnings estimates to help investors predict the performance of stocks. |
| Mkt Voyager | Global market info, news, charts, message boards and other tools. |
| MGFS | (Media General Financial Services) earnings info, which they get from SEC filings, free |
| MicroCap1000 | Daily and weekly recaps for small caps, spotlights on individual stocks and sectors, analyses from fund managers and analysts. |
| Monday Mag | Business web e-zine |
| Moneynet | Subscription Reuters investment news site |
| Money.net | Streaming real-time quotes. Customize the 14 available columns to track and sort up to 50 securities or indexes |
| Money Page | Guide to banking and financial information |
| MoneyWorld | Financial information for British markets |
| Motley Fool | Company message boards, Dow theories |
| Multex | Provides scores of research reports, many of them free |
| Multexinvestor | 'Best place on Web to get reports from a wide variety of sources' says Barrons. Research providers include S&P's, MarketGuide, Robertson Stephens and Prudential Securities-Equity. Many are free. |
| Muni Resource | Info on municipal issues from R.R. Donnelley |
| Mutual Funds | Fund news, chat rooms, fund screening |
| MF Interactive | Same as above, different address |
| MF Channel | Updates using 'push' technology |
| MFEA | (Mutual Fund Education Alliance) |
| NAREIT | (National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts) |
| Nikkei Net | News taken from several Nikkei financial publications, updated 24 hours a day. |
| NetStockDirect | Lists direct stock plans and dividend-reinvestment plans |
| NoLoadStocks | Newsletter by Charles B Carlson - model portfolios, and news on stock splits and dividends |
| OCR | Outercurve Finance- free technical analysis of 25,000 stocks. Market data, graphs, research and news, portfolio tracker. |
| Online Investor | Stock research & data, Tips on how to use it |
| Options | (www.888option.com) Options info, education, glossary, quotes and calculators |
| Option Source | Options info and faq |
| Overlap | Shows the percentage of overlapping securities in two funds. $165/yr. |
| Personal Fund | Andrew Tobias' site that helps you evaluate your mutual funds |
| Personal Wlth | (Personal Wealth) Subscription investment advice and research including portfolio evaluator, S&P's model portfolios and mutual-fund recommendations, stock screeners and recommended securities. |
| Platt's | Commodities news from Standard & Poor's |
| PRARS | (Public Register's Annual Report Service) Free annual reports. |
| PR Newswire | A major distributor of company press releases. |
| Prophet | Serious technical analysis. $9.95/mo. |
| PS | (Portfolio Science) calculates the dollar fluctuation of portfolios which allow users to figure out the source of the risk in their holdings, based on historic volatility. You can see how the components work together to diversify away risk. |
| Quantum | Lists and info on preferred stock. Fitchibca and Moodys provide credit ratings. |
| R Research | (Rapid Research) Access to 8,000 research reports |
| Risk Grades | JP Morgan spinoff that evaluates actual or anticipated returns on stocks/funds in relation to risk |
| Research Mag | Good (but dated) articles. Great Links. |
| Schaeffers | Educational section for options neophytes, and an in-depth glossary. Options quotes, charts and an options calculator. |
| Scout Rpt Biz | New business and economic sites reviewed |
| SIA | Securities Industry Association - dictionary of financial terms and tools and other interactive features |
| Sixer | Investment-research, market commentary, analysts' ratings |
| Sharebuilder | Lists direct stock plans and dividend-reinvestment plans |
| Smartleaf | Free tools that factor in the costs of taxes, expenses and risk, and calculations about costs of holding or selling shares. "Quick tools" for loss harvesting, reducing investment costs and reducing risk. |
| Sell Signal | Tracks portfolios and gives alerts if you've reached one of your goals or may violate one of them. An educational section explains the site's tools. There's no charge to keep up to five portfolios. |
| Sixer | Proprietary and non-proprietary technical indicators designed to help you judge the health of a security. It makes a lot of market research available. $14.95/mo. |
| Short Interest | Source for free data about short-selling activity |
| StockCharts | Chart views of mkt, technical indicators. Detailed intro to charts. |
| Stock Info | Standard & Poor stock / company information |
| Street Net | Features on specific industries or 'themes' |
| Stock Master | Stock quotes, price graphs and market info |
| StockPoint | Quotes, news, portfolio tracking, basic global market info |
| Stock Smart | News on dividends and detailed sector summaries |
| Stockselector | Valuations, analyst recommendations, profiles and financial results. |
| Stockwatch | Monitors Canadian exchanges and companies |
| Superstar | (Superstarinvestor) Supersite with 100's of links |
| Tech Stocks | Forums on technology, biotechnology, and $5-and-under stocks |
| Timely.com | Stock quotes, price graphs and market info |
| Thomson | (Thomson Investors Network) Current market info and "tip sheets" |
| Tr Direct | (treasurydirect.gov) No commissions when you buy. Charges just $34 if you sell before maturity. A $25 annual fee imposed on accounts of more than $100,000. |
| The Street | Jim Cramer's commentary; and info on mutual funds |
| Upside | Technology site that covers tech stocks |
| Validea | Assesses track records of 'experts' stock picks. |
| Value Engine | Analyzes your holdings and forecasts future returns. |
| ValueInvestor | Free online investment community. You must submit an application including an investing idea and its rationale. Members are expected to present two to six ideas a year. |
| W100 | Quotes on biggest U.S. and Global Co's w/ links to their sites. |
| Wall St City | News, quotes, links to financial newsletters |
| WealthEffect | Helps people create a personal financial plan. Text-and-tutorial-heavy. |
| West WallSt | Economic news and stats from American Express |
| Wright's | (Wright Investors' Service) Profiles of 20,000+ companies |
| Worldly | News, stock quotes and commentary on world markets |
| Your Funds | News and NAV charts |
| Zacks | Company info and searches |