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Get the Best Financial Advice from the Internet

Oct 12, 2004

Get the Best Financial Advice from the Internet

Layne Aurand
No-Load Fund Investor
Ryan M. Flemming
Armstrong, MacIntyre & Severns, Inc.
Eric Jacobson
Morningstar, Inc.
Gary Schatsky, Esq.
ObjectiveAdvice.com
Sam Stovall
Standard & Poor's

Special from Bottom Line/Tomorrow


here's a wealth of financial information on the Internet. But how do you find the best Web sites? We asked five top financial experts to point us to the sites they find most useful and tell us why. All the sites listed below are free, although many have a charge for extra features.

Ryan M. Flemming, vice president and managing director, Investment Analysis, Armstrong, MacIntyre & Severns, Inc., a financial planning firm in Washington, DC, likes...

www.fool.com. This site is famous for teaching people how to be their own personal financial managers. It encourages and empowers them to do the necessary research. The site has links to every financial Web site imaginable and some great guides for improving your financial well-being.

An additional charge for a one-year subscription to The Motley Fool Money Advisor is $199. With this you can get personalized objective advice and a financial helpline.

Best feature: "60-Second Guides" on topics such as opening an IRA and choosing a broker.

www.morningstar.com. The fund-rating service Morningstar is a great place to start your research on investments -- stocks, mutual funds, closed-end funds and annuities. It has an excellent "College Savings Center" with special reports, including information about 529 plans.

Additional charge for premium membership that includes analysts' reports on 1,000 stocks and 2,000 funds, plus exclusive alert services, is $115/year.

Best feature: Ratings for more than 2,000 funds to help you compare one fund against another.

www.kiplinger.com. The Kiplinger site is particularly rich with information on financial-planning topics related to its newsletters, such as Tax Letter, Retirement Report and Agriculture Letter. It contains a number of financial calculators and other helpful tools.

Best feature: "KiplingerForecasts.com," which is updated several times a day. News about gross domestic product, interest rates, unemployment, housing and retail sales. $84/year.

Eric Jacobson, senior analyst and fixed-income editor, Morningstar, Inc., Chicago, recommends...

www.smartmoney.com. This is a useful site with lots of good information and tools. Highlights: Breaking financial news and analysis and commentary on trend-setting stocks and tax matters as well as articles on mutual funds and personal finance.

Additional charge for the service "Smart Money Select" is $109 per year. You get real-time price quotes, market analysis and "Fund Map 1000," where you can see which fund categories, fund families and individual funds are ahead of the pack, based on 18 different criteria.

Best feature: "This Week from Barron's," which comes out the same time as Barron's.

www.sec.gov. At this site, you'll be able to look up a variety of reports and filings from companies. For stocks, you can access 10K (annual) and 10Q (quarterly) reports. For mutual funds, you can do prospectus research, obtain annual and semiannual reports, and 13D reports that show who owns more than 5% of a fund.

Best feature: Company filings and forms.

www.investinginbonds.com. Sponsored by The Bond Market Association, this site covers Treasuries and municipal, corporate and mortgage-backed securities. There are investors' guides and a bond glossary, plus links to more than 400 sites with market and price information for all segments of the bond market.

Best feature: Seven simple steps to learn about investing in bonds.

www.economist.com. Learn more about the role of the world in the marketplace. Special sections on science and technology, finance and economics, and business, together with data on world markets.

The charge for premium content is $69/year to get full access to the content of The Economist before it hits the newsstands.

Best feature: Financial news from Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Layne Aurand, statistician, No-Load Fund Investor, Ardsley, New York, singles out...

http://finance.yahoo.com. On this site you'll get more than basic information about the vast majority of funds. You'll also receive many analytical tools allowing you to compare and contrast performance, cost, etc. -- without any annoying registration.

The charge for "MarketTracker," which provides streaming real-time quotes and market coverage including upgrades and downgrades, is $9.95/month.

Best feature: "Investing Ideas" from TradingMarkets.com, Morningstar.com and others.

www.schwab.com. You don't need an account to access much of the information targeted for customers of this discount brokerage. Its mutual fund screener lets you search for specific funds based on criteria such as performance, expense ratio and investment category. (However, the "Schwab Equity Ratings," which give you an objective way to evaluate more than 3,000 stocks, is restricted to customers.)

Best feature: "Market Insight" button connecting you to "Workshops," which features investing workshops and self-paced courses.

Gary Schatsky, Esq., president, ObjectiveAdvice.com, a financial advisory firm in New York City, favors...

www.cbsmarketwatch.com. This site offers real-time financial news, personal portfolio tracking (including allocation analysis, company financials, charting and relevant news to help you track your portfolio), stock quotes, expert commentary and personal financial features on topics such as mutual funds, life and money, retirement, real estate and taxes.

Best feature: Commentary from daily-featured columnists.

www.moneycentral.msn.com/home.asp. Features of this comprehensive investment site include "My Money," a customized snapshot of your finances, stocks and related news. Another section called "Investing" includes a portfolio manager that tracks investments, market reports, breaking news, stock quotes and ratings, a mutual fund screener and directory.

Best feature: A link to CNBC TV providing market news and stock picks.

www.money.cnn.com. This site, from CNN and Money magazine, covers markets and stocks, company news, the economy, world business, technology, mutual funds, personal finances and more. "Money 101" is an interactive course in managing your finances and "Calculators" has a mortgage refinance calculator.

Best feature: Commentary from Lou Dobbs.

Sam Stovall, senior investment strategist, Standard & Poor's, New York City, directs investors to...

www.fidelity.com. This site, which is not restricted to Fidelity mutual fund shareholders, has stocks and mutual fund recommendations from Standard & Poor's and Lehman Brothers, an archive of articles, portfolio tracking and asset allocation.

Best feature: Under "Brokerage Research Tools and Resources" find links to "Market News and Analysis," "Mutual Fund Research" and interactive tools to compare stocks, track the Dow and more.

www.bloomberg.com. This provides a quick stop to get world, financial and earnings news as well as news archives, stocks on the move and the IPO center. At Bloomberg University, register for their free on-line investing classes.

Best feature: News and commentary.

www.businessweek.com. This extremely comprehensive site has S&P investment outlooks (picks and pans), and a free S&P stock report every day. The site has market outlooks, sector outlooks and economic analysis. "Special Reports" and "Video Views" give timely investment advice. There is an archive of articles and the BW 50 (which are the S&P's 500 best performers).

Best feature: "Today's Market," which links to a free S&P stock report, market movers, market snapshot and "S&P stock picks & pans."