Money Waggoner
Now might be time to check back into tech stocks
By John Waggoner, USA TODAYBack in 1999, money managers trumpeted technology stocks, arguing that soon there would be microchips in everything from credit cards to Toyota accelerators, and they were right. Unfortunately, they were also about 10 years too early. But today, tech companies are booming, despite a lousy economy and falling prices. It’s not a bad time to take another look at the tech sector, provided you have an exit plan in place.
Investing in mutual fund companies can pay off
By John Waggoner, USA TODAYDo you want to know how to make money in up and down markets? Do you want to know the secret to all-weather profits? Would you like to collect millions of dollars, even in the worst bear market since the Great Depression?
Easy. Run a mutual fund.
That’s why you should consider buying the stock of a company that manages mutual funds.
INVESTING: Steps to take if you fear a depressionREAL ESTATE: › Continue reading
REITs are a surprising bright spot for investors these days
By John Waggoner, USA TODAYYou could hold a rodeo clown convention in most office buildings these days without disturbing the few workers left inside. So why are real estate investment trusts, which buy and sell commercial property, doing so well?
The average real estate fund — most of which invest solely in REITs — has gained 11% this year, vs. a 1.1% loss for the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index, including reinvested dividends. › Continue reading
If a depression is on your mind, here’s what to do
By John Waggoner, USA TODAYWe all have our Anxiety Closets, filled with fears: global nuclear warfare, raging inflation, clowns. Lately, another fear has arisen: depression.
We’re not talking about the psychologically crippling condition, but the economically crippling one. Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman has been the most recent economist to sound a warning about the possibility of a depression.
Could we have a depression? Well, sure. › Continue reading
Preferred stocks a good way to boost investment income
By John Waggoner, USA TODAYWhen you buy a preferred stock, you get treated much better than other shareholders. If you’re a preferred bank stockholder, for example, you get paid interest on your checking account, you never pay ATM fees, and the bank must treat you as a valued customer.
Ha ha! Of course not. But preferred stocks do carry decent dividends and have some modest protections against having those dividends cut — which is one reason › Continue reading
Mutual fund prospectus will explain more about holdings
By John Waggoner, USA TODAYYou should always prioritize your to-do lists. For many people, the list looks like this.
1. Walk the dog.
2. Tidy up the viper pit.
3. Read a mutual fund prospectus.
Unpleasant as it is, however, you really should read your prospectus, as well as the Statement of Additional Information. For investors in target-date funds, the prospectus may soon have new information that might help › Continue reading
Target fund: Set a retirement date, and it does the rest
By John Waggoner, USA TODAYYou may think that there are more interesting pastimes than fretting about your retirement portfolio. Watching ants, for example, or staring at the rug until you burn a hole in it with your eyes.
There’s no shame in that. Fortunately, you can use a target date portfolio and hand the management duties off to a professional. Just be aware that all target-date funds are different, and that ultimately, you’re looking for › Continue reading
It’s never too early to open up a Roth IRA
By John Waggoner, USA TODAYYou’re young. You have a little extra cash this year, and you want to open a Roth retirement account. Go ahead, invest in a really risky mutual fund, your friends say. All the cool guys are doing it. You’ll feel 10 feet tall.
Don’t listen to them. You should invest like an old fogey when you’re young. And if you do, you’ll probably have more money when you retire than those other whippersnappers.
COLUMN: › Continue reading
Financial reform bill unlikely to hurt banks
By John WaggonerIf you were to listen to the banking industry, you’d think that the financial reform bill will kill all lending activity, then once it’s dead and buried, dig it up and kill it again.
In reality, however, the proposed banking reforms are relatively mild, lending remains a profitable business, and bank stocks still have several good years in front of them.
Sponsored by Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., S. 3217 is the name › Continue reading
Reasoning behind buying international funds doubtful
By John Waggoner, USA TODAYYou need an international fund like a moose needs a muffin.
The meltdown in Greece (and Portugal, Italy and Ireland) is relatively predictable: Smaller countries’ stock markets melt down with depressing regularity. But what’s more important is that, for U.S. investors, currency risk adds an extra layer of risk to international stocks, which are already risky enough.
Financial advisers typically recommend › Continue reading