Helpful Internet Links

Helpful Internet Link for Financial Information on the Internet Personal Finances and Money

Last time, we focused on the Stock Market Web sites. In the area of personal finances, that was only one aspect of managing one's money. There is good financial information and advice on the Internet, but as with the investments Web sites, one should use discrimination and caution.

As always, consider the source, educate yourself, set your goals then, go with the reliable and well-known and with what you understand. Time is money. So, today I will be brief and point you to just a few reputable Web sites. Here they are, in no specific order.

http://www.fortune.com/
The Home Page of Fortune magazine=s online contribution features articles, news items, free newsletters, a query box to start a search within the Web site and the ubiquitous Stock Market stats. You are invited to subscribe or mine the data Fortune used to create its premier list, plus America's Most Admired Corporations, Best Companies to Work For, Global 500, and more.

Fortune offers practical advice on finance and strategy for your small business, provides research materials and analytical tools, challenges you to a "stock picking" tournament and has a page dedicated to its archives listed by date with the title of the article next to it for ease of selection.

http://www.money.com/
Money magazine's online offering is similar to Fortune's, but the arrangement of the Home Page, though more streamlined in appearance, offers a more varied link selection and appears easier to navigate. One of its tools' heading is "Find the Best Rates;" it applies to mortgages, credit cards, car loans and more. Besides tools, it has areas on insurance, investing, real estate, retirement, taxes.

You can order a gift subscription online from Money's site, subscribe for yourself or get a risk-free issue. The site brags of a unique interactive tool to use before you make a trade, for an instant snapshot of activity in big-block trades in hundreds of listed stocks. One of its links is to track the after-hours market; you'll also find links to personal finance books and tax software.

http://www.smartmoney.com/
Smartmoney.com is jointly owned by Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, and Hearst Communications, Inc. The Home Page is heavily slanted toward the Stock Market, Mutual Funds, investment research and tracking. The center column features articles, two of which (as of 5/12/99) were "Finding the Cheapest Long Distance Plan" and "priceline.com: Really Big or Really Bloated?"

Down the Home Page, you'll find links to news in the center column; it is flanked on the left by the Answer Center with many links such as College Planning, Insurance, Debt Management, Estate Planning; in the right column, there is an invitation to participate in the listed User Services, followed by links to Business Services.

On the SmartMoney Tools page, there are interactive tools for each of several financial areas. Some of these tools are "How much should you save?" (College), "SmartMoney One asset allocation system" (Investing), "Time vs Risk" (Retirement), "Should you refinance?" (Home Buying), "How much disability?" (Insurance), "Should I consolidate?" (Finance), "Math Cheat Sheets" (Calculators).

You can also put the Internet to use with a good financial management program such as Quicken or Money. Besides getting help to keep track of your money, you may want to use the software to do online banking or to update the prices of your investments. Quicken's Web site is at http://www.quicken.com/; and, Microsoft, who owns Money, has http://moneycentral.msn.com/. Both offer valuable information.

NOTE: Use the "BACK" function of your browser to return to your point of origin. If you spot a dead link, alert the author by e-mail marked as such in the Subject.