An elderly woman in my community learned not too long ago that she needed dentures. She had enough money to pay for the new teeth, but she discovered that her funds, while technically hers, couldn't be touched. The bad guy in this pitiful case was an insurance company, which had capitalized on an ingenious way to make money off an easy mark. What the woman with the bad molars had bought was an equity indexed annuity. Promoters ... [full story]

Thirty-seven billion dollars is a nearly unfathomable amount of money. If you counted each dollar bill of that fortune, it would cripple your wrist and consume years of your life. As most of you know, that's the stunning sum that Warren Buffett recently announced he would be donating to mankind. The money will primarily flow into the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is hellbent on eradicating diseases from Third World countries. Much of the ... [full story]

Inflation has spooked Wall Street. Fearful of inflation, the stock market has lost its traction and is behaving like a kid careening down a slip and slide. These inflation worries have prompted plenty of 60-somethings to wonder if a box of Raisin Bran will someday cost them $49.99. Not everyone, however, is perspiring at the prospects of price spikes. The inflation willies have opened up a new marketing opportunity for investment firms and insurers that would ... [full story]

One of the rituals of buying a house or refinancing a mortgage is signing a stack of paperwork. The time it takes to slog through these documents can seem interminable, but can you imagine how time-consuming the process would be if you actually read the stuff you were signing? My husband and I are as guilty as probably the rest of you. In the past, when a notary has shoved papers across our dining room ... [full story]

If you owe money on your home equity line of credit or if it feels like you have a gazillion payments left on an adjustable rate mortgage, you are probably feeling the pain of higher interest rates. Perhaps you obtained your loan when lenders were bragging that rates hadn't been so low since the Cuban missile crisis. Unfortunately, the killjoys swept up the confetti many months ago. Yet many homeowners are surprised at how quickly their once-great ... [full story]

(NewsUSA)- More employers are educating workers on 401(k) plans - from the benefits of tax-deferred growth to the importance of consistent saving. However, research shows that employees are still in the dark when it comes to investing their assets. According to a recent study by human resources firm Hewitt Associates, most employees didn't rebalance or re-allocate their 401(k) portfolios in 2004. Only one in six actually made a transfer within their 401(k) accounts that ... [full story]

(NewsUSA) - Most Americans lack basic understanding when it comes to their credit score and personal finance, according to the results of a survey by consumer advocacy group Consumer Action and financial services provider Capital One. The survey polled 1,002 American adults. It gauged respondents' knowledge of the basics of personal finance like budgeting, saving habits and credit principles. More than one-third reported they do not use a budget to manage their family's expenses; over 30 percent ... [full story]

(NewsUSA) - Many investors tend to focus on selecting the right stock to buy and choosing the perfect time to buy and sell. But some experts say these factors are a sure-fire way to damage portfolio performance. According to Roger Ibbotson, chairman and founder of Ibbotson Associates and a professor in the practice of finance at the Yale School of Management, what really drives performance over the long term is asset allocation - the assignment of ... [full story]