Here are the best tools we've seen on the Internet to help you maximize your investment returns.  Investing is a very complicated science, so your success can ultimately come only through further careful study of market principles.  Try to develop your investing savvy so you don't have to rely too much on the advice of your broker, who may or may not have your best interests at heart.

Here are a pair of online quizzes to help you determine your "Investing I.Q.":

• Investing IQ Quiz: Are you a King Midas, or a Motley Fool?  Take this quiz and find out.
  
  
• Biggest Investing Mistakes: Learn these pitfalls, so they won't happen to you!

	What To Do Now:   Time to complete:   5 minutes each Money you'll spend:   $0 What you'll get:   A basic investing education Step-by-step instructions:  Take the Investing IQ Quiz. Avoid the Biggest Investing Mistakes. Further Reading: Super Sites for Online Investors, an article at PCWorld.com that lists the most popular investing sites and explains why people use them. Business and Finance Magazines, 90-day risk-free trials available The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need, a top-rated book containing basic investing lessons, available at Amazon.com. Eight Steps to Seven Figures : The Investment Strategies of Everyday Millionaires and How You Can Become Wealthy Too, another top-rated investing book available at Amazon.com. The Wall Street Journal Guide to Understanding Money & Investing, a top-rated investing reference available at Amazon.com.

Back to top
Print "Sunny Money"

Are you curious about how your online stock broker stacks up against the rest?  SmartMoney.com ranks all the brokers in three groups: discount, premium discount, and full-service.  It makes it easy for you to choose a broker, based on what matters most to you.  SmartMoney.com also lets you use a variety of informative online tools at their site, free of charge: Your Portfolio, Map of the Market, Stock Snapshots and more.

	Buy Stocks With The Best Online Brokers   Time to complete:   5 minutes Money you'll spend:   $0 What you'll get:   Rankings of the best brokerage sites Step-by-step instructions:  Check out the SmartMoney.com Rankings to find out which broker is best for you: To possibly gain a sign-up bonus for opening an account with one of these brokers, read the next article. Further Reading: Business and Finance Magazines, 90-day risk-free trials available The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need, a top-rated book containing basic investing lessons, available at Amazon.com. Online Investing, a top-rated book about online investing at Amazon.com.

Back to top
Print "Sunny Money"

It can be a real eye-opener to read some of the longer-range economic predictions out there.  See if you agree with my forecast that we should have relative peace and a fair degree of prosperity until about 2010, followed by a much more troubled decade.

	Read A Long-Range Economic Forecast   Time to complete:   5 minutes to read my forecast; many hours if you want to study futurology thoroughly enough to draw your own conclusions. Money you'll spend:   $0 What you'll get:   An education (a series of "educated guesses," really) on which to base your long-range decisions.  Step-by-step instructions:  Read this Long-Range Forecast.  A new window will open with this page. Continue with the articles below if you want to learn more: Further Reading: Kiplinger.com does a lot of forecasting.  If you search there for words like "forecast" you can get a lot of information.  Here's two interesting articles: Trend Spotting and the more pessimistic Why Bears Growl. Jesse Berst theorized in this ZDNet.com article that the market would crash around September of 2004 (there was no crash, but there was a severe bottoming of the Dow at 7000 in the fall of 2002.) Magazines with a future outlook, 90-day risk-free trials available World Boom Ahead : Why Business and Consumers Will Prosper, a top-rated book that forecasts our economic future, available at Amazon.com. High Tech, High Touch : Technology and Our Search for Meaning, a top-rated book about the implications of 21st-century technology by John Naisbitt (author of the famous Megatrends book.)

Back to top
Print "Sunny Money"

ShareBuilder.com is the Internet's premiere site for Direct Investment and Dividend Re-Investment Plans ("DRIPs"), with over 1600 plans listed.  By investing directly, you buy stocks directly from blue-chip companies, and cut out the brokers and their fees.  It's the perfect site for people with a "buy-and-hold" philosophy (such a philosophy isn't for everyone, but it does avoid burning a lot of money on broker fees.)  At this site, you can research stocks and enroll in direct stock-buying programs on the Web.

This site's 100,000 registered users get a lot for their money:

• View "Plan Summary" pages, showing minimum and maximum investments, plan features and fees.
  
  
• Buy fractions of shares, rather than a minimum purchase of 100 shares.
  
  
• Automatically invest money from checking accounts, without having to place an order.
  
  
• No account or investment minimums.
  
  
• Dollar based investing: Pick the dollar amount you want to invest in every week or month in the 2,000 largest stocks and index funds on the NYSE and NASDAQ exchanges.
  
  
• Online everything: account statements, confirmations and notifications.
  
  
• Low transaction fees: $4 per recurring transaction, or $12 for "All You Can Build".

Here's how to sign up for ShareBuilder:

	How To Buy Stocks Directly From Companies   Time to complete:   30 minutes Money you'll spend:   $4 for recurring transactions What you'll get:   An easy reinvestment plan Step-by-step instructions:  Click here:  ShareBuilder.com.  A new window will open with this page. Continue to follow the online instructions. Further Reading: A DRIPS article at The Dollar Stretcher covers DRIPs and how you can save time and money with them. Business and Finance Magazines, 90-day risk-free trials available The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need, a top-rated book containing basic investing lessons, available at Amazon.com. Online Investing, a top-rated book about online investing at Amazon.com.

Back to top
Print "Sunny Money"

The well-regarded InvestorGuide.com Weekly Newsletter contains links to the most important stories of the past week, downloads of useful investing software, and forecasts of future trends.  You can get a daily evening newsletter, a weekly newsletter, or both.

Forbes.com is another good newsletter source: they'll send you a mid-day investing newsletter with links to daily Forbes stories.

	Receive Investing Newsletters By Email   Time to complete:   2 minutes Money you'll spend:   $0 What you'll get:   Free Investing Newsletters Step-by-step instructions:  Take any or all of the following steps: Sign up for newsletter(s) at InvestorGuide.com. Click here:  Forbes.com Newsletters. Further Reading: Super Sites for Online Investors, an article at PCWorld.com that lists the most popular investing sites and explains why people use them. Business and Finance Magazines, 90-day risk-free trials available The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need, a top-rated book containing basic investing lessons, available at Amazon.com. Online Investing, a top-rated book about online investing at Amazon.com.

Back to top
Print "Sunny Money"

To use a stock screener, you need to have a fairly good grasp of investor words and strategies.  If you're a novice investor, you may wish to skip individual stocks and invest in an "index fund".  An index fund buys into many different stocks and essentially goes up or down with the overall market.  Even expert investors often find it difficult to outperform index funds.  The Vanguard Index Fund is a popular low-cost choice.

Sites such as MSN Money and Yahoo! Finance offer free stock and fund screeners to help you screen stocks and funds using your own criteria.  These tools are fairly simple to operate, yet sophisticated enough for nearly any investor.  You can see another good stock screener and a mutual fund screener at Morningstar.com.

	Find The Best Stock Bargains With A Stock Screener   Time to complete:   2-10 minutes per screen Money you'll spend:   $0 What you'll get:   A good list of good stocks or funds to consider Step-by-step instructions:  Visit the screeners listed above and determine which one best suits your needs (personally, I've always found the MSN Money screener to be the deepest and most helpful.) Experiment with the screeners to learn how to search for stocks that fit your investing philosophy. Further Reading: Super Sites for Online Investors, an article at PCWorld.com that lists the most popular investing sites and explains why people use them. Business and Finance Magazines, 90-day risk-free trials available The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need, a top-rated book containing basic investing lessons, available at Amazon.com. 24 Essential Lessons for Investment Success: Learn the Most Important Investment Techniques from the Founder of Investor's Business Daily, a top-rated book available at Amazon.com.

Back to top
Print "Sunny Money"

You need to pay capital-gains taxes when you sell investments that have risen (or "appreciated") in value (i.e. real estate, stocks and bonds.)  Here are some suggestions to help you reduce your capital-gains taxes:

	Know These Tax-Cutting Investment Tips   Time to complete:   Varies Money you'll spend:   $0 What you'll get:   Big tax savings List Of Capital-Gains Savers:  When you sell your residence, you don't have to pay up to $250,000 of capital gains taxes (rising to $500,000 for joint returns.) Instead of selling stock, borrow money against it with a margin loan  from your stock broker.  You'll get the use of the money without having to pay taxes (but... you'll have to pay interest on the loan.)  There is no set payment for a margin loan -- you can just let the interest grow if you need to.  You can borrow up to 50% of your stock portfolio's value, and up to 90% of the value of your bonds. You can donate appreciated stock to charity.  The charity then avoids the capital-gains tax, while you take the full stock value as a tax deduction.  You might try a DPGA  (Deferred-Payment Gift Annuity), in which case you will get payments later in life, in exchange for your deductible gift to the charity.  It's a good idea to ask your financial planner about DPGAs. You can offset capital gains with capital losses.  For example, when you sell stocks for a gain, sell some of your "loser" stocks for a loss, so you won't have to pay taxes on the gain. Related idea: Do what's called a "wash sale": you can sell a losing stock for a loss, wait 30 days, then rebuy the stock.  The loss gives you a tax deduction, and you wind up with the same portfolio. When your heirs inherit your assets, they don't pay any tax on capital-gains appreciation prior to the date of your death. If you sell assets in a year when you are in the 15% tax bracket, your capital-gains tax will be only 10% instead of 20%.  Try to restructure your income to make some years income-rich and other years income-poor, so that you'll sell stock in a year when you're in the 15% tax bracket. Take advantage of the long-term capital-gains tax rate (20% for assets held longer than one year.)  The short-term capital-gains tax is higher: if you're in the 28% tax bracket, you'll pay 28% capital-gains tax. You can exchange real estate investments for other real estate of equal value.  Example: You want to own a ranch, but you don't have enough money to pay for it.  You do own a few acres of farmland, but you don't want to pay capital-gains taxes on its sale.  If you can exchange the farmland for the ranch, you can avoid the capital-gains tax. Here's another common technique: if you sell an investment property and reinvest in another investment property within 180 days, you'll pay no capital gains tax. You can defer capital-gains taxes with plans like IRAs, 403(b), 401(k), 457, Keoghs, and SEPs.  The capital gains are taxed as ordinary income when taken out of the account.  Distributions cannot be made before age 59.5 without a penalty, and must be made by age 70.5. If you bought shares in one company at two different times in the past, always sell the stocks that were purchased at the higher price, to minimize capital gains tax. Further Reading: Super Sites for Online Investors, an article at PCWorld.com that lists the most popular investing sites and explains why people use them. Tax Magazines to help you save on taxes, 90-day risk-free trials available. Getting Started in Tax-Smart Investing, a top-rated book now available at Amazon.com.  The new tax laws give you added tax-saving investment opportunities, this book shows you the legal tax strategies available, including business ownership and estate planning tactics. The Trader's Tax Solution: Money-Saving Strategies for the Serious Investor, a top-rated book to help you reduce tax liability and be better prepared once tax preparation time rolls around.

Back to top
Print "Sunny Money"

I know someone who tried day trading three times.  The first time, it took two weeks to lose $17,000.  The next time, it took two months to lose $17,000.  The first attempt drained away money four times faster, but the second attempt was really the greater failure because four times as much time was wasted!  The third time was better:  this person broke even over two weeks, before quitting to go sailing and do other important things.

I don't encourage you to day trade, but anyone who does should remember the first law of making money:  preserve your capital.  Some day traders even believe that's all they really have to do.  They can lose money on 70% of their trades, but if they exit those losers early and then keep the winners until their run-up is done, their experience is that they can make money.

I've never made much money day trading, but having seen the financial disasters that can befall hopeful day traders up close and personal, I can definitely advise you on how not to day trade:

	How NOT To Day Trade   Time to complete:   None, if you decide not to day trade Money you'll spend:   $0 if you don't day trade What you'll get:   Nothing, but at least you won't lose any money. List Of Money-Losing Day Trading Principles:  Don't Prepare Yourself: Don't go to seminars on day trading, and don't waste much time using "paper trading" or freely available computer simulations.  A smart person like you can just skip the preliminaries. Come up with a really complex "system" right off the bat.  You'll need to consider every market factor to compete with the big boys.  Always do a lot of complicated analysis before entering or exiting a position. Expect to become a success instantly, or at least very soon.  There's no reason why a smart guy like you can't succeed immediately (even though 80% of day traders ultimately fail and most of the rest get off to a very rocky start.) Start your day trading career by making big trades of $10,000 or more.  You've got to risk money to make big scores soon, right?  Besides, it's more exciting to make big trades-- love that adrenaline rush! Don't spend much time developing any skill in anticipating the likely direction of stocks before you start day trading. Don't get access to real-time market quotes, because stocks don't usually fall all that fast. Use a stock broker to day trade.  Don't bother using a fast Electronic Direct Access Trading service, or at least an online service like AmeriTrade that allows fast trades. Don't find a mentor-- you're smart enough to go it alone.  And don't use proven methods that have definite rules. Don't Use Your Common Sense: Risk much or all of your capital on someone else's day-trading advice.  Analysts are smarter than you so they're probably right.  That hot tip you got is almost sure-fire! Trade low-volume stocks.  You're pretty sure they'll go up, so it doesn't matter that they'll be hard to dump if they go down. Don't keep detailed records of your trading results to analyze your track records; nor should you print out and study any stock charts of actively traded stocks. Before buying a stock, don't look at the spread between the Bid and Ask (what you will buy the stock for, and what you'll get paid when you sell it.) It's usually less than 1%. Hold positions overnight.  It's a pretty safe world, so the market's not likely to go down. Don't let your winners run:  if a rising stock starts to dip, that's a sign it's about to stab you in the back and ruin your profits. There's no need to maintain discipline in adhering to sound day-trading principles.  If you see a hot stock, throw your principles to the wind and ride that baby! Rest assured that any real-life character flaws you may have (i.e. undisciplined, overly emotional, lazy , greedy, prideful, pessimistic, impatient) will not rear their ugly heads and affect the quality of your day trading.  Financial matters can be totally separated from your day-to-day personal character. Above All, Don't Cut Your Losses: Be willing to risk more than 1% of your capital on your day trading positions.  If a stock drops one percent, that's a sign it's just about hit the bottom and will soon go back up! Be proud enough of your stock picks and your wonderful perceptiveness that led to their selection:  hold on to your pride even when your stock goes down. Don't set stops to automatically sell a stock when it dips lower than you thought it would.  You're smart and disciplined enough to handle it all manually. Trade against the trend:  if the market is going down, so what?  Your well-considered pick is likely to be the exception. Get emotionally involved in your stocks, even when they go down. Don't set a daily limit for your day trading losses.  The market's bound to turn around at any moment, and besides it's exciting to stay in the market and keep making risky trades. Further Reading: Traders101.com, a site for beginning day traders. Investing Magazines to help you learn day trading. Getting Started in Tax-Smart Investing, a top-rated book now available at Amazon.com.  The new tax laws give you added tax-saving investment opportunities, this book shows you the legal tax strategies available, including business ownership and estate planning tactics.

Back to top
Print "Sunny Money"

Copyright (c) 1998-2007 Ark Royal Software. Legal Notice, Disclaimer and Terms Of Use