| Introduction |
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1 | (6) |
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What's New in This Edition |
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2 | (1) |
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How This Book Is Different |
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2 | (1) |
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3 | (1) |
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4 | (1) |
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5 | (1) |
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5 | (2) |
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PART 1 GETTING STARTED WITH FUNDS |
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7 | (50) |
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Chapter 1 Making More Money, Taking Less Risk |
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9 | (14) |
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Introducing Mutual Funds and Exchange-Traded Funds |
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10 | (1) |
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Making Sense of Investments |
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11 | (2) |
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Lending investments: Interest on your money |
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11 | (1) |
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Ownership investments: More potential profit (and risk) |
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12 | (1) |
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Surveying the Major Investment Options |
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13 | (6) |
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Savings and money market accounts |
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13 | (1) |
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14 | (1) |
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14 | (1) |
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Overseas/international investments |
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15 | (1) |
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16 | (1) |
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Gold, silver, currencies, and the like |
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17 | (1) |
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17 | (1) |
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18 | (1) |
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18 | (1) |
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Reviewing Important Investing Concepts |
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19 | (4) |
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Getting a return: Why you invest |
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19 | (1) |
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Measuring risks: Investment volatility |
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20 | (2) |
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Diversifying: A smart way to reduce risk |
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22 | (1) |
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Chapter 2 Fund Pros and Cons |
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23 | (16) |
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23 | (4) |
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25 | (1) |
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Open-end versus closed-end funds |
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25 | (2) |
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27 | (8) |
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27 | (3) |
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Funds save you money and time |
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30 | (1) |
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Fund diversification minimizes your risk |
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31 | (1) |
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Funds undergo regulatory scrutiny |
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32 | (1) |
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You choose your risk level |
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32 | (1) |
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Fund risk of bankruptcy is nil |
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33 | (1) |
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Funds save you from sales sharks |
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34 | (1) |
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You have convenient access to your money |
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34 | (1) |
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35 | (4) |
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36 | (1) |
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37 | (2) |
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Chapter 3 Funding Your Goals and Dreams |
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39 | (18) |
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Acting Before Researching: The Story of Justine and Max |
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39 | (2) |
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Lining Up Your Ducks Before You Invest |
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41 | (5) |
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Pay off your consumer debts |
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41 | (1) |
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Review your insurance coverage |
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42 | (1) |
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Figure out your financial goals |
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42 | (1) |
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Determine how much you're saving |
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43 | (1) |
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Examine your spending and income |
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43 | (1) |
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Maximize tax-deferred retirement account savings |
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44 | (1) |
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Determine your tax bracket |
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45 | (1) |
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Assess the risk you're comfortable with |
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45 | (1) |
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Review current investment holdings |
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46 | (1) |
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Consider other "investment" possibilities |
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46 | (1) |
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Reaching Your Goals with Funds |
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46 | (11) |
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The financial pillow --- an emergency reserve |
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47 | (1) |
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The golden egg --- investing for retirement |
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48 | (4) |
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The white picket fence --- saving for a home |
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52 | (1) |
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The ivory tower --- saving for college and higher education |
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52 | (5) |
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PART 2 EVALUATING ALTERNATIVES TO FUNDS |
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57 | (32) |
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Chapter 4 Selecting Your Own Stocks and Bonds |
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59 | (10) |
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Deciding to Choose Your Own Stocks and Bonds |
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59 | (7) |
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Beware the claims of stock-picking gurus |
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60 | (4) |
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Know the drawbacks of investing in individual securities |
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64 | (1) |
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Understand the psychology of selecting stocks |
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65 | (1) |
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Picking Your Own Stocks and Bonds |
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66 | (3) |
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Chapter 5 Exchange-Traded Funds and Other Fund Lookalikes |
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69 | (10) |
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Understanding Exchange-Traded Funds |
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70 | (5) |
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Understanding ETF advantages |
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70 | (1) |
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71 | (2) |
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Seeing the pros and cons of trading ETFs |
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73 | (1) |
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Identifying the best ETFs |
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73 | (2) |
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Mimicking Closed-End Funds: Unit Investment Trusts |
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75 | (1) |
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Customizing Your Own Funds Online |
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76 | (3) |
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Chapter 6 Hedge Funds and Other Managed Options |
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79 | (10) |
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Hedge Funds: Extremes of Costs and Risks |
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80 | (4) |
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Getting the truth about hedge funds |
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80 | (2) |
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Investigating hedge funds |
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82 | (2) |
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Managed Accounts with Hefty Fees |
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84 | (2) |
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Private Money Managers: One-on-One |
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86 | (1) |
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Robo-Advisors: Automated Investment |
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87 | (2) |
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PART 3 SEPARATING THE BEST FROM THE REST |
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89 | (66) |
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Chapter 7 Finding the Best Funds |
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91 | (16) |
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Evaluating Gain-Eating Costs |
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91 | (9) |
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Losing the load: Say no to commissions |
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92 | (6) |
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Considering a fund's operating expenses |
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98 | (2) |
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Weighing Performance and Risk |
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100 | (5) |
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Star today, also-ran tomorrow |
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100 | (4) |
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Apples to apples: Comparing performance numbers |
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104 | (1) |
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Recognizing Manager Expertise |
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105 | (2) |
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Chapter 8 Using Fund Publications |
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107 | (30) |
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Reading Prospectuses --- the Important Stuff, Anyway |
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107 | (18) |
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109 | (1) |
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109 | (7) |
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Fund management and other fund information |
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116 | (1) |
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Investment objectives and risks |
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116 | (4) |
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120 | (2) |
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122 | (3) |
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125 | (10) |
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Introduction and performance discussion |
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125 | (2) |
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Investment advisor's thoughts |
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127 | (1) |
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Performance and its components |
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127 | (4) |
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131 | (4) |
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Investigating the Statement of Additional Information (SAI) |
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135 | (2) |
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Chapter 9 Buying Funds from the Best Firms |
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137 | (18) |
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137 | (6) |
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138 | (1) |
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139 | (1) |
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140 | (1) |
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140 | (1) |
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141 | (1) |
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142 | (1) |
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142 | (1) |
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142 | (1) |
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Discount Brokers: Mutual Fund Supermarkets |
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143 | (5) |
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Buying direct versus discount brokers |
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144 | (2) |
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Debunking "No Transaction Fee" funds |
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146 | (1) |
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Using the best discount brokers |
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147 | (1) |
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148 | (1) |
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Hiring an Advisor: The Good, Bad, and Ugly |
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149 | (6) |
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The wrong reason to hire an advisor |
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149 | (1) |
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The right reasons to hire an advisor |
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150 | (1) |
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Beware of conflicts of interest |
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150 | (1) |
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Your best options for help |
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151 | (2) |
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If you seek a salesperson |
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153 | (2) |
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PART 4 CRAFTING YOUR FUND PORTFOLIO |
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155 | (152) |
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Chapter 10 Perfecting a Fund Portfolio |
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157 | (22) |
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Asset Allocation: An Investment Recipe |
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158 | (5) |
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Allocating to reduce your risks |
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158 | (1) |
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Looking toward your time horizon |
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158 | (5) |
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Taxes: It's What You Keep That Matters |
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163 | (5) |
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Fitting funds to your tax bracket |
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163 | (2) |
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Minimizing your taxes on funds |
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165 | (3) |
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Fund-Investing Strategies |
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168 | (3) |
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Market timing versus buy-and-hold investing |
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168 | (1) |
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Active versus index fund managers |
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169 | (2) |
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Putting Your Plans into Action |
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171 | (8) |
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Determining how many funds and families to use |
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172 | (1) |
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Matching fund allocation to your asset allocation |
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173 | (2) |
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Allocating when you don't have much to allocate |
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175 | (1) |
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Investing large amounts: To lump or to average? |
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175 | (2) |
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Sorting through your existing investments |
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177 | (2) |
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Chapter 11 Money Market Funds: Beating the Bank |
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179 | (20) |
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180 | (11) |
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Comparing money funds with bank accounts |
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180 | (2) |
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Finding uses for money funds |
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182 | (1) |
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183 | (6) |
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Grasping what money market funds invest in |
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189 | (2) |
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Choosing a Great Money Market Fund |
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191 | (4) |
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Understanding why yield and expenses go hand in hand |
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192 | (1) |
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Looking at your tax situation |
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192 | (2) |
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Deciding where you want your home base |
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194 | (1) |
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Keeping your investments close to home |
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194 | (1) |
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194 | (1) |
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Finding the Recommended Funds |
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195 | (4) |
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Taxable money market funds |
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195 | (1) |
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U.S. Treasury money market funds |
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195 | (2) |
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Municipal tax-free money market funds |
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197 | (2) |
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Chapter 12 Bond Funds: When Boring Is Best |
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199 | (30) |
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199 | (2) |
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Sizing Up a Bond Fund's Personality |
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201 | (7) |
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Maturity: Counting the years until you get your principal back |
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201 | (2) |
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Duration: Measuring interest rate risk |
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203 | (1) |
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Credit quality: Determining whether bonds will pay you back |
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204 | (1) |
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Issuer: Knowing who you're lending to |
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205 | (1) |
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Management: Considering the passive or active type |
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206 | (1) |
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Inflation-indexed Treasury bonds |
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207 | (1) |
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208 | (6) |
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Why you may (and may not) want to invest in bond funds |
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209 | (1) |
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How to pick a bond fund with an outcome you can enjoy |
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210 | (4) |
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How to obtain tax-free income |
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214 | (1) |
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Eyeing Recommended Bond Funds |
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214 | (9) |
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215 | (3) |
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Intermediate-term bond funds |
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218 | (3) |
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221 | (2) |
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Exploring Alternatives to Bond Funds |
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223 | (6) |
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223 | (2) |
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225 | (1) |
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Guaranteed-investment contracts |
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226 | (1) |
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227 | (2) |
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Chapter 13 Stock Funds: Meeting Your Longer Term Needs |
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229 | (22) |
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230 | (3) |
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231 | (2) |
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Add regularly to your stock investments |
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233 | (1) |
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Using Funds to Invest in Stocks |
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233 | (5) |
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Reducing risk and increasing returns |
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234 | (1) |
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Making money: How funds do it |
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235 | (1) |
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Seeing your stock fund choices |
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236 | (2) |
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238 | (13) |
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Mixing it up: Recommended hybrid funds |
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239 | (4) |
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Letting computers do the heavy lifting: Recommended index funds |
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243 | (2) |
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Keeping it local: Recommended U.S.-focused stock funds |
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245 | (2) |
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Being worldly: Recommended international funds |
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247 | (2) |
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Expanding your horizon: Recommended global stock funds |
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249 | (2) |
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Chapter 14 Specialty Funds |
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251 | (12) |
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Sector Funds: Should You or Shouldn't You Invest in Them? |
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252 | (1) |
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Landlording Made Easy: Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) Funds |
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253 | (1) |
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Profiting from What Everyone Needs: Utility Funds |
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254 | (1) |
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Factor Investing and Factor Funds |
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254 | (1) |
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Arming for Armageddon: Precious Metals Funds |
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255 | (2) |
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Crypto Funds: Pathway to Digital Riches? |
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257 | (1) |
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From Energy to Metals: Clarifying Commodity Funds |
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258 | (1) |
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Hedging: Market Neutral (Long-Short) Funds |
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258 | (1) |
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Matching Values to Investments: ESG Funds |
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259 | (4) |
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Evil is in the eye of the beholder |
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261 | (1) |
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Ways to express your social concerns |
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262 | (1) |
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Chapter 15 Working It Out: Sample Portfolios |
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263 | (24) |
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264 | (10) |
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Starting from square one: Melinda |
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264 | (2) |
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Silencing student loans: Saanvi, the student |
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266 | (2) |
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Living month to month with debt: Mobile Marcos |
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268 | (1) |
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Competing goals: Gina and George |
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269 | (3) |
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Wanting lots and lotsa money: Pat and Chris |
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272 | (2) |
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Changing Goals and Starting Over |
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274 | (8) |
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Funding education: The Lees |
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274 | (2) |
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Rolling over (but not playing dead): Rafaella |
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276 | (1) |
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Wishing for higher interest rates: Nell, the near-retiree |
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277 | (2) |
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Lovin' retirement: Noel and Patricia |
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279 | (3) |
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Dealing with a Mountain of Moola |
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282 | (3) |
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He's in the money: Cash-rich Carlos |
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282 | (2) |
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284 | (1) |
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285 | (2) |
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Chapter 16 Applications, Transfers, and Other Useful Forms |
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287 | (20) |
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Taking the Nonretirement Account Route |
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287 | (10) |
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Filling in the blanks: Application basics |
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288 | (5) |
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Buying into brokerage accounts |
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293 | (4) |
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Preparing for Leisure: Retirement Accounts |
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297 | (7) |
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Retirement account applications |
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297 | (3) |
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What to do before transferring accounts |
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300 | (1) |
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Filling out transfer forms |
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301 | (3) |
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304 | (1) |
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Finding Help for an Overwhelmed Brain |
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305 | (2) |
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PART 5 KEEPING CURRENT AND INFORMED |
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307 | (60) |
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Chapter 17 Evaluating Your Funds and Adjusting Your Portfolio |
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309 | (18) |
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Deciphering Your Fund Statement |
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310 | (3) |
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Trade date or date of transaction |
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310 | (1) |
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310 | (1) |
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311 | (1) |
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Share price or price per share |
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312 | (1) |
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Share amount or shares transacted |
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312 | (1) |
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Shares owned or share balance |
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312 | (1) |
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313 | (1) |
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Interpreting Brokerage Firm Statements |
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313 | (1) |
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314 | (1) |
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Account transaction details |
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314 | (1) |
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Assessing Your Funds' Returns |
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314 | (10) |
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Getting a panoramic view: Total return |
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315 | (1) |
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Focusing on the misleading share price |
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316 | (1) |
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317 | (2) |
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Assessing your funds' performance |
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319 | (5) |
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Deciding Whether to Sell, Hold, or Buy More |
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324 | (1) |
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324 | (1) |
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Dealing with fund company consolidations |
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325 | (1) |
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Tweaking and Rebalancing Your Portfolio |
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325 | (2) |
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Chapter 18 The Taxing Side of Mutual Funds |
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327 | (16) |
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Mutual Fund Distributions Form: 1099-DIV |
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328 | (4) |
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Box 1a Total ordinary dividends |
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329 | (1) |
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Box 1b Qualified dividends |
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330 | (1) |
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Box 2a Total capital gains distributions |
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330 | (1) |
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Box 3 Nondividend distributions |
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330 | (1) |
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Box 4 Federal income tax withheld |
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331 | (1) |
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331 | (1) |
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When You Sell Your Fund Shares |
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332 | (5) |
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Introducing the "basis" basics |
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332 | (1) |
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Accounting for your basis |
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333 | (2) |
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Deciding when to take your tax lumps or deductions |
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335 | (1) |
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Looking at fund sales reports: Form 1099-B |
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336 | (1) |
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Getting help: When you don't know how much you paid for a fund |
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337 | (1) |
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Retirement Fund Withdrawals and Form 1099-R |
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337 | (6) |
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Minimizing taxes and avoiding penalties |
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338 | (2) |
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Making sense of Form 1099-R for IRAs |
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340 | (1) |
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Withdrawing from non-IRA accounts |
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341 | (1) |
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Understanding form 1099-R for non-IRAs |
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341 | (2) |
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Chapter 19 Common Fund Problems and How to Fix Them |
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343 | (10) |
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343 | (1) |
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Troubleshooting Bungled Transactions |
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344 | (1) |
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Specifying Funds to Buy at Discount Brokers |
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345 | (1) |
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Making Deposits in a Flash |
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346 | (1) |
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Verifying Receipt of Deposits |
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347 | (1) |
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Transferring Money Quickly |
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347 | (1) |
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Losing Checks and Applications in the Mail |
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348 | (1) |
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Changing Options after Opening Your Account |
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348 | (1) |
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Making Sense of Your Statements and Profits |
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349 | (1) |
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349 | (1) |
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Finding Funds You Forgot to Move |
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350 | (1) |
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Untangling Account Transfer Snags |
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350 | (1) |
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Eliminating Marketing Solicitations |
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351 | (1) |
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Digging Out from under the Statements |
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352 | (1) |
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Getting Older Account Statements |
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352 | (1) |
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Chapter 20 Information Sources: Fund Ratings and Forecasters |
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353 | (14) |
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Entering Cyberspace: What the Internet Is Good For |
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354 | (1) |
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Understanding Online Perils |
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355 | (1) |
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356 | (6) |
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Looking into market timing and crystal balls |
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357 | (1) |
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Keeping them honest and providing new fodder: The Hulbert Financial Digest |
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358 | (1) |
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Using bogus rankings, token awards, and mystery testimonials |
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359 | (1) |
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Pitching a product: Filler and ads in newsletter form |
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359 | (1) |
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Investing newsletter Hall of Shame |
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360 | (2) |
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Getting In on the Good Stuff |
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362 | (5) |
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Investment Company Institute |
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362 | (1) |
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362 | (3) |
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365 | (1) |
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Securities and Exchange Commission |
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366 | (1) |
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366 | (1) |
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366 | (1) |
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367 | (24) |
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Chapter 21 Ten Common Fund-Investing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them |
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369 | (6) |
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369 | (1) |
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Failing to Examine Sales Charges and Expenses |
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370 | (1) |
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370 | (1) |
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371 | (1) |
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Getting Duped by "Advisors" |
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371 | (1) |
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Falling Prey to the Collection Syndrome |
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371 | (1) |
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Trying to Time the Market's Movements |
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372 | (1) |
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Following Prognosticators' Predictions |
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372 | (1) |
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Being Swayed by Major News Events |
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372 | (1) |
|
Comparing Your Funds Unfairly |
|
|
373 | (2) |
|
Chapter 22 Ten Fund-Investing Fears to Conquer |
|
|
375 | (6) |
|
Investing with Little Money |
|
|
375 | (1) |
|
Investing in Uninsured Funds |
|
|
376 | (1) |
|
|
|
376 | (1) |
|
Missing High Returns from Stocks |
|
|
377 | (1) |
|
Waiting to Get a Handle on the Economy |
|
|
377 | (1) |
|
Buying the Best-Performing Funds |
|
|
378 | (1) |
|
Waiting for an Ideal Buying Opportunity |
|
|
378 | (1) |
|
Obsessing Over Your Funds |
|
|
379 | (1) |
|
Thinking You've Made a Bad Decision |
|
|
379 | (1) |
|
|
|
379 | (2) |
|
Chapter 23 Ten Tips for Hiring a Financial Advisor |
|
|
381 | (10) |
|
Communicator or Obfuscator? |
|
|
381 | (1) |
|
Financial Planner or Money Manager? |
|
|
382 | (1) |
|
Is Your Focus on Market Timing and Active Management? |
|
|
383 | (1) |
|
|
|
383 | (2) |
|
Fees: What's Your Advice Going to Cost? |
|
|
385 | (1) |
|
How Do You Make Investing Decisions? |
|
|
386 | (1) |
|
What's Your Track Record? |
|
|
386 | (2) |
|
What Are Your Qualifications and Training? |
|
|
388 | (1) |
|
What Are Your References? |
|
|
389 | (1) |
|
Do You Carry Liability Insurance? |
|
|
389 | (2) |
| Appendix: Recommended Fund Companies and Brokers |
|
391 | (2) |
| Index |
|
393 | |
