Is kiplingers a good magazine to learn about investing?

Re: Is kiplingers a good magazine to learn about investing?


Really? I know hardly anyone who matches that description. My husband got his own scholarships and worked, his parents didn't pay anything. (He's doing pretty well now.) My parents paid some -- the minimum amount required by financial aid, and sometimes less than that -- and I got financial aid and scholarships for the rest, and worked. I'm a stay-at-home mom now (plus do some home-based freelance work), but before that I was doing pretty well professionally. Neither of us lived at home.

Anyway, that's just us, but what you describe in quite rare in my experience. Doesn't mean it doesn't happen, but EVERY success story? Nah.

26 is nothing. Rather than more anecdotes, first result of "average age of college students" in Google:



http://www.back2college.com/library/faq.htm

Notice that's "25 years of age or older" -- you won't even be considered an "adult learner" until then.

If you're considering investing, investing in your own college education would really seem to be first on the list.

I agree with Sozobe - the best investment you can make is in yourself and your ability to get a good job.

Back to your original question - any good library will probably have five or six investment magazines. Kiplingers will almost certainly be one of them, and it is a good magazine. My two favorites are Forbes and Smart Money. What I'd like to suggest is you block out a few hours a week to read several of these magazines. The first few times will be frustrating, and will probably raise more questions than answers. But as weeks go by it will slowly start to make sense. And there are many A2Kers who would be happy to answer specific questions you might have.

There are also a few good television shows that can help you get started. Suze Ormand has a show on PBS on Saturday nights, and Cramer can be informative on CNBC.

Vanguard is a family of mutual funds. They have a very good reputation, and some of the lowest expense fees in the business. They probably have somewhere in excess of 100 different funds, each one designed for a different purpose. There are probably ten or 15 competitors to Vanguard, all equally reputable, and all with the basic same types of families of funds. You can find their advertisements in the financial magazines, and also in papers such as The Wall Street Journal and Barrons. For example, they might have twenty different bonds funds - one investing only in U.S Treasuries, one for high grade corporate bonds, one for medium grade coroporate bonds, one for European corporate bond funds, one for california tax free municipals, and so forth. Then they might have twenty stock funds, each one investing in different size companies (called "capitalization"), growth companies, dividend paying companies, and funds that mirror (or "track") the major indices (a fund that tracks the Standard and Poors 500, a fund that thracks the Dow 30, a fund that tracks the NASDAQ).

For someone just starting out, buying into a fund that tracks a major index such as the S&P 500 wouldn't be a bad way to go. All of these funds have a minimum initial investment, somewhere betwen $1000 to $5000, so the ante might be a little steep for someone just starting out. The mutual fund websites will give you the specifics.

One word of warning about mutual fund companies. they are not a public service - they cahrge you for investing your money. There are two types of mutual fund companies - "load" and "no load". "Load" means they charge you around 5% of your investment right off the top, and sometimes another hit when you sell. "No Load" means they do not charge you anything off the top. The "Load" companies tell you their higher returns more than make up for the up front fee. Let's just say I'm skeptical on this claim.

All mutual funds charge you a yearly percent of the money you have invested with them as a management fee. This might be a low of 0.15% for a stock fund that tracks the S&P 500, to over 1% for an agressive growth fund that does a lot of buying and selling.

One final idea. Many companies have what are called Dividend Reinvestment Plans that automatically reinvest your dividends, plus any additional checks you want to send in to buy more stock. These additional investments can be as low as $50 to $100 depending on the Plan. For many of these Plans you can even make your initial investment through the company directly. The advantage here is the lower ante than for some of the mutual funds. The disadvantage is the lack of diversification. To get details on any of these Plans, go to the Company Website. Someweher near the top there will be a link that says something like "Investor Information". Click on it, and follow the links to the Plan details. General Electric, and Proctor and Gamble are just two of the companies doing this, just for example. There are hundreds more. This is how I started ionvesting years ago - it's gratifying to see the balances go up every quarter.

Good luck and have fun.

after reading kiplingers i picked up the economist forbes and money as well, its definitely not hard to understand when i have the information, i just really dont have information readily available.

i wish i would have picked ones of these up when i was about 16, i would say with a high amount of confidence i would definitely not be in the same financial situation.

i would actually have had a goal to put all that money i ended up wasting towards.

one thing, why the F-U-C-K don't they teach about investing in schools? if i would have any or easier access to this kind of information, i cant stress how much easier my life would have been.

Im guessing ill do like half in a vanguard fund , 25% in something more solid, like a cd, imaybe a bond, (i havent remembered all the lingo and acronyms yet and what they are for)

and probally like 25% in cash, ing had a pretty high rate when i looked last.

its wierd, its like i actually am seeing the light in a grim financial situation.
It almost feels like a calling. i get to read info, assess it, then decide the best course of action.

i want to say its almost like im gaining real control of my finances, just from the knowledge ive gained.

Now i just need to increase my income.

And who knew? i just found out that offices everywhere are waiting for my almost OCD like skills. i didnt know being good at computers and organzing things was actually a skill i could pitch.

well see! thanks for the replies.