Using a Computer as Your Financial Adviser
September 28, 2008 – 4:05 pmIf you're new here, you may want to learn what this site is about. Please subscribe to my RSS feed to get latest updates on this blog. Thanks for visiting!
These days, your blinking electronic terminal can be one of your best financial advisers. By purchasing the right computer software, subscribing to an on-line service, or surfing the Internet, you can get assistance in practically every topic in the world of personal finances. Throughout this topic you’ll find references to particular software programs or on-line services that can help you on specialized matters from finding stocks and mutual funds to figuring out how much money you’ll need to retire comfortably.
If you’ve never used your computer to help you manage your money, start simply. Drop by a software store and pick up an electronic banking program such as Quicken 98 or Microsoft’s Money 98 (cost: about $30 to $90), which will make paying your bills practically painless. After typing in the names of those delightful businesses that routinely send you bills –your credit-card issuer, your mortgage lender, your utility companies –Quicken will see to it that your bills get paid on time electronically. You’ll pay an extra $9.95 a month for 20 “checks”. What’s more, the software program will balance your checkbook in five minutes and sort your transactions into categories that will come in quite handy at tax time. It’s especially useful as a way of getting control of your spending. A few taps on the keyboard and you’ll see a pie chart showing you precisely where your money went over the past month or year. Then you can start looking to find a way to make a more appetizing financial pie.
Once you feel comfortable making your computer your financial friend, you can advance to the next category of personal finance software, the broad money-management programs that track your investments, organize your taxes, and show you your current net worth. These programs, such as Managing Your Money, Microsoft Money, Kiplinger’s Simply Money, and Wealth Builder, cost between $15 and $50. Just be sure to get the version that matches your computer: Windows, DOS, or Mac.
The on-line services, most notably America Online and CompuServe, offer a wealth of information about personal finances, including business news flashes. Cost: about $10 a month plus hourly fees of roughly $2 to $35. You can set-up your own investment portfolio on them, too. This way, anytime you want to check to see how your stocks are faring, just call up your portfolio and find out. Perhaps their best feature: the bulletin board, which lets you chat with other people about money. You can use these message rooms to find out, for instance, what people think about a particular mutual fund or whether a certain deal is a rip-off. The on-line services also bring in experts from time to time who will answer questions from subscribers for free. In addition, you can go on-line to read back issues of articles from publications ranging from Business Week to Consumer Reports plus the latest editions of the business pages of newspapers such as the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune.
The next dimension in computerized financial planning is the World Wide Web on the Internet. By landing on the Web, most easily done through a connection from one of the major on-line services, you can browse among a nearly never-ending library of financial data and chat groups comprising people who want to gab about money. Two useful Web sites of all kinds of financial data and calculations are maintained by MONEY magazine (www.money.com) and FinanCenter (www.financenter.com). Some mutual fund companies and other financial services firms, such as Fidelity and Vanguard, have their own Web sites. These can be especially useful if you want to find out more about a particular fund from that company or need a basic course in investing in mutual funds.
A word to the wise: Once you start playing around on-line, it’s easy to get hooked. If you’re using a commercial on-line service, you can find yourself looking at a monthly phone bill of $100 without breaking a sweat. So be careful. These services, while fun, can wind up being harmful to your wealth.
If you like this post, please subscribe to my RSS feed to get latest updates on this blog. Thanks for visiting!
| 2.8 |
