Personal Investing

The missing credits -- Introduction -- Part one: Prepare to invest -- Why should you invest? -- How inflation hurts -- Why scary numbers aren't that scary -- Set your investment goals -- Building your bucket list -- Retirement, college, or other goals -- The big kahuna: retirement -- Other long term goals -- Putting it all together -- Invest with open eyes -- Clean up your finances -- Spend money wisely -- Expect base hits, not home runs -- Sidestepping pitfalls in investor psychology -- Part two: choose and buy your investments -- How investments work -- The big four: typical investments -- Taxing decisions -- Funds -- The vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry of funds -- What a fund invests in -- Evaluating fund performance -- Keeping a lid on fund expenses -- How to pick funds -- Finding funds -- Deciding when to sell -- Managing your funds -- Stocks -- Buying into a business -- Investing in growth -- Investing in quality -- Investing in good values -- Watching for trends -- Bonds -- Why invest in bonds? -- How bonds work and how you use them -- Buying bonds -- REITs -- Is REIT investing right for me? -- Types of REITs -- Picking individual REITs -- Finding the right REITs and REITs funds -- Manage your portfolio -- What's investment portfolio management? -- Return vs. risk -- Asset allocation -- Choosing an asset allocation plan -- Asset allocation made ridiculously easy -- Reviewing your portfolio -- Rebalancing your portfolio -- Getting back on track -- Part three: manage your investments -- Investing for retirement -- The key retirement decisions -- Making the most of retirement accounts -- Managing a retirement portfolio -- Making the most of social security -- Withdrawing money during retirement -- Investing for college -- College cost how much? -- Tax-savvy ways to save for education -- How to pick a 529 savings plan -- Saving for more than one child -- The best way to spend college savings -- Investing for health care -- Types of health insurance -- Choosing and employer-sponsored plan -- Choosing an individual health insurance plan -- High-deductible health insurance plans -- Negotiating with health-care providers -- Paying for long-term care -- Index.