Personal

February 13, 2020 Personal 16 Comments

Trump’s budget could make it harder to stay on Social Security disability insurance

Trump’s budget could make it harder to stay on Social Security disability insurance Though President Donald Trump has repeatedly vowed to protect Social Security benefits, his budget includes big cuts to parts of the program. One proposal could make it more difficult for individuals … Continue reading at cnbc.com How zero-based budgeting can transform your […]

February 11, 2020 Personal 10 Comments

12 Budgeting Tips for New Parents

February 2, 2020 Personal One Comment

Miners Face Funding Squeeze as Green Investing Surges

Miners Face Funding Squeeze as Green Investing Surges CAPE TOWN (Reuters) – As global investors shift away from heavy industry in favor of cleaner sectors, mining companies are losing billions in financing, raising the cost of capital and … Continue reading at money.usnews.com How your portfolio can weather this stock market downturn — plus other […]

January 17, 2020 Personal 17 Comments

13 top-rated bathroom scales: Smart, budget and more

13 top-rated bathroom scales: Smart, budget and more Of the roughly 250 digital options with 4 stars or more on Amazon.com, we’ve narrowed it down to 13 of the best bathroom scales from smart scales with all the frills to the best budget picks. Continue reading at cnn.com Create a personal budget that offers a […]

November 4, 2019 Personal No Comments

Ally Turned Personal Finance Into A Game Of Augmented Reality Monopoly

Ally Turned Personal Finance Into A Game Of Augmented Reality Monopoly Learning about personal finance isn’t the most fun part of growing up, or growing older. Thinking about where to bank isn’t all the exciting either–unless you’re depositing a large sum of money or … Continue reading at forbes.com Kiplinger’s Personal Finance: Cut those streaming […]

August 23, 2019 Personal 14 Comments

Get the gun stocks out! ESG investing can get messy for socially conscious investors

Get the gun stocks out! ESG investing can get messy for socially conscious investors Investing by moral compass is getting more popular — but it’s not always so easy. Take the recent blunder in Vanguard’s US ESG Stock exchange-traded fund. The fund invests in ESG stocks, or companies … Continue reading at usatoday.com Volkswagen says […]

June 8, 2019 Personal No Comments

Personal Finance

May 16, 2019 Personal 14 Comments

Here’s What You Earned Investing In China’s Largest Public Companies

Here’s What You Earned Investing In China’s Largest Public Companies China’s mega-corporations are becoming more mega. And once again, their state-owned banks account for half of the top 10 biggest companies in the world, based on the findings in the latest Forbes … Continue reading at forbes.com What I’ve learned about investing after reporting on […]

There are brokers, and then there are brokers. The best of the breed will answer all questions, and make the process of first-time gold buying less nerve-wracking. Great brokers are also accessible when needed, and quick to call with any new information that affects the value of the investment.

While ranking providers are careful to warn investors that their ratings don't foretell the future, the star system is, unfortunately, used by some investors as if they were reading Consumer Reports to purchase a new drill. Supporters of the ranking approach argue that there's no subjective component to the star rating. It isn't determined by an analyst's review, and can't change simply because the service dislikes the fund's manager or its investment strategy. And that's good.

Performance will vary. Fund performance often falls off and risk levels rise during the subsequent three years after a fund is given an initial five-star Morningstar rating, suggests another recent study by Matthew Morey, a professor at Pace University. One reason for this is that after receiving a five-star rating the size of the fund grows dramatically, which then makes the fund unwieldy to manage, he suggests. Since Morey's study was completed, Morningstar also has changed the way it doles out top rankings to make them more precise. One of the biggest problems with all rating systems is that they are not necessarily predictive in nature. This means they're not really set up to tell you whether certain funds will necessarily do better in the future. For the most part, the ratings indicate how much you might have made and how much aggravation you faced in the process.