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The NASDAQ-100 Index Tracking Stock began trading on the Amex on March 10, 1999, and moved to the NASDAQ Stock Market on December 1st, 2004.
The NASDAQ-100 Trust is sponsored by Nasdaq Financial Products Services, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc. The distributor is ALPS Distributors, Inc., a registered broker-dealer.
The trustee bank for NASDAQ-100 Tracking Stock Index is The Bank of New York.
NASDAQ-100 Index Tracking Stock represents units of beneficial interest in a unit investment trust that holds the component securities of the NASDAQ-100 Index®. NASDAQ-100 Index Tracking Stock trades like shares of common stock and can normally be traded at any time during the trading day on The Nasdaq Stock Exchange. NASDAQ-100 Index Tracking Stock trades under the symbol "QQQQ" and is designed to provide investment results that generally correspond to the performance of the underlying NASDAQ-100 Index. The NASDAQ-100 Index is composed on 100 of the largest non-financial companies listed on the NASDAQ National Market tier of The Nasdaq Stock Market. The Index was first published in January of 1985 and has achieved wide acceptance by both investors and market professionals. It reflects NASDAQ’s largest companies across major industry groups, including computer and office equipment, computer software/services, telecommunications, retail/wholesale trade, and biotechnology. In order to limit domination of the Index by a few large stocks, the Index is calculated under a "modified capitalization-weighted" methodology. This capitalization weight distribution is evaluated on a quarterly basis and is rebalanced, if necessary.
A current NASDAQ-100 Index Tracking Stock price quotation is available from market information sources under the ticker symbol "QQQQ." Several symbols are used to provide other relevant information.
QXV - Intraday Portfolio Value (IPV)
QQQQN - Net Asset Value
QQQQS - Shares Outstanding
QQQQM - Estimated Cash Amount Per Creation Units
QQQQD - Estimated Cash Amount Per Share (Net Accrued Dividend)
QQQQT - Total Cash Amount Per Creation Unit
IXNDX - Underlying Index Value
If you invest in stocks, you might want to consider these, which will be added by December 19, 2005 to the NASDAQ-100 index: Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG), NII Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: NIHD), Expedia, Inc. (Nasdaq: EXPE), Patterson-UTI Energy, Inc. (Nasdaq: PTEN), NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA), Urban Outfitters, Inc. (Nasdaq: URBN), Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CDNS), Activision, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI), RedHat, Inc. (Nasdaq: RHAT), Monster Worldwide, Inc. (Nasdaq: MNST), CheckFree Corporation (Nasdaq: CKFR), and Discovery Holding Company (Nasdaq: DISCA).
And as a result of the re-ranking of the NASDAQ-100 Index, the following 12 companies will be removed: Career Education Corporation (Nasdaq: CECO) Dollar Tree Stores, Inc. (Nasdaq: DLTR), Intersil Corporation (Nasdaq: ISIL), Invitrogen Corporation (Nasdaq: IVGN), Level 3 Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: LVLT), Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: MLNM), Molex Incorporated (Nasdaq: MOLX), Novellus Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: NVLS), QLogic Corporation (Nasdaq: QLGC), Sanmina-SCI Corporation (Nasdaq: SANM), Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNPS), and Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation (Nasdaq: SSCC).This will be effective with the market open on Monday, December 19, 2005.
It will be interesting to see how these stocks fare because of the re-ranking of the index.
NASD BrokerCheck enables investors to get information on any NASD-registered firm or broker, which includes virtually every securities firm doing business in the United States.
Created in 1988 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), an investor can learn about the professional background, business practices, and conduct of registered firms and their brokers, and other information such as bankruptcies, consumer complaints, or disciplinary actions by the SEC or the NASD, either by going to http://nasdbrokercheck.com or by call (800) 289-9999 and requesting a report about a particular firm or broker.
Additional links on this site include
On the SIPC Protection page, you can check to see if your broker is a member of the Securities Investment Protection Corporation, which returns money to investors if the broker/dealer holding their funds becomes insolvent.
NASD BrokerCheck does not include information on Investment Advisers (IAs). Instead, go to the SEC’s Investment Adviser Public Disclosure website at http://www.adviserinfo.sec.gov for information about SEC-regulated and state-regulated IA firms. Note that only information about IA firms is provided, not IA representatives, although this will be added in the future.
NASD Manual — Here's a guide to the complete NASD Manual Online.You can also find a list of all state securities regulators at http://www.nasaa.org, the official website of the North American Securities Administrators Association. Click on the Contact Your Regulator link, and then the state of interest. You will also find links to pages within the websites of NASAA members containing information about individual state, provincial, or territorial securities laws, rules and regulations. By clicking on the name of a state, province, or territory, you will be redirected to that jurisdiction's website.
The best cards with the least fees are usually cards from specific retailers. Cards from charge card and credit card issuers, such as American Express and VISA have the most fees and the shortest expiration dates, which can be 6 months. This is how open-system cards, as they are called, make a profit; whereas, closed-system cards—those from specific retailers—profit from the goods purchased, and benefit because the average card user spends 40% more than the face value of the card. Denominations range from $5 to $5,000.
Besides profits, the other reason for the fees and expiration dates is for accounting purposes, because such sales are not booked as revenue until they are redeemed—and 3% to 5% (about $2.75 billion) are never redeemed.
Buying tip: read the conditions on the back of the card before purchasing.
New Trends. Amazon.com is offering codes that a gift-giver can send by email to a gift recipient who can then buy something from Amazon.com online. Some European countries are developing gift certificates in the form of a text message with a UPC code, which the retailer can scan right from the phone for instant credit.
IMHO: I don't like gift cards. I received a number of gift certificates that expired because I kept forgetting about using them instead of cash. Why not just give cash, especially if you don't know the person well enough to buy a gift for them that they would like. Cash has no fees, no expiration date, and can be used anywhere. Or better yet, just tell the adults in your life that we all have enough money to buy what we want, so let's just buy for the kids, and not put ourselves through the stress of trying to find a good gift for each other.
Merry Christmas, and good night!
Although there is 1 or 2 examples of sellers getting even more than the price range, seller beware. An article in The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics stated that homes with a range take longer to sell, and with little effect on actual selling prices.
Now that you've read this, you don't have buy one of those books. That's like earning $25 tax-free. Invest that into something that returns 10% per year, and you'll be a millionaire in.... Let's just hope that they discover the secret of immortality before then.
This is a new tax wiki for tax professionals, supported by Intuit, the same company that makes the popular tax software, but it can be read or edited by anyone. It's in beta right now, but it looks promising. Below are excerpts from its About page.
TaxAlmanac is a free tax research resource brought to you by Intuit. It is a revolutionary leap forward in how tax professionals research tax laws, create and share knowledge. Our goal is to transform tax research and to improve the effectiveness of tax professionals everywhere. TaxAlmanac draws on the power of community. Simply put, none of us is as smart as all of us. Content on TaxAlmanac is written by tax professionals from across the country and takes advantage of the knowledge of academia as well as practioners - in short, the real tax experts. The site includes key information that tax professionals find useful when conducting research - including the Internal Revenue Code, Treasury Regulations, Tax Court Cases, and a variety of Articles. TaxAlmanac currently contains 8,264 articles.
TaxAlmanac is a very young website and was built internally by Intuit. Our employees contributed articles on tax and non-tax topics. A group of 30 tax professionals from Intuit wrote approximately 150 articles about tax law and compliance. In addition, we had a team of 5 people from our User Education group write help and other non-tax information.
We also engaged several engineers who imported the Internal Revenue Code and Treasury Regulations from the government website. Now, we are in the process of populating the site with other primary source information.
Now that we are a live beta site, the number of authors and reviewers will grow significantly, thereby adding tremendous value. We hope that many of you reading this right now will be active participants, editors, and reviewers.
What this site needs is a more detailed form, that would give more interesting information than the previous entry for this bill, for instance. It would also be interesting to know who put the stamp on, and where. It doesn't look like the person who made the first entry did this. So who did? And where?
Here's the URL for the bill that currently has the most entries. As you can see, it only has 15 entries, and most of the entries are not that informative. A nice touch, though, is the map at the bottom, that tracks the bill across the country. Still, a good idea.
American Depositary Receipts - a new, short article about American Depositary Receipts. Explains ADRs as an investment, how they are created, and how they work.
"The iShares MSCI Brazil Index (EWZ:Amex) ETF, which also tracks stocks traded in Brazil, had a recent market price of $26.67, offering only a slight 0.34% discount to its $26.76 NAV. For example, The Brazil Fund's (BZF:NYSE) average discount to net asset value has been 16% over the past five years. Substantial price appreciation, however, has cut that discount practically in half. The fund is currently trading at $39.30, just an 8.5% discount."
Buying a CEF at a discount increases the effective interest rate, since the income received is not affected by the market price of the CEF. However, because a CEF is actively managed, this creates more expenses for the fund and more capital gains taxes for the investor. Whether CEFs do better than ETFs depends on whether the manager can outperform the indexes enough to overcome the greater expenses, and so, in evaluating a CEF, one needs to assess the manager's ability by looking at his experience and the performance of the fund under his direction.
This article discusses several country funds, especially where a country fund has both an ETF and a CEF, and concludes that CEFs are generally more profitable than ETFs. Examples: The iShares MSCI Brazil Index (EWZ:Amex) ETF and The Brazil Fund's (BZF:NYSE); The Korea Fund (KF:NYSE) 22.5% annually over the past five years; the iShares MSCI South Korea Index (EWY:Amex) ETF up 13.28% per year; The Spain Fund (SNF:NYSE) up 11.88% a year since 2000 vs. 8.44% for the iShares MSCI Spain Index (EWP:Amex) ETF. An exception has been the Germany Fund (GER:NYSE) down 5.8% annually compared to the iShares MSCI Germany Index (EWG:Amex), down 1.2%.
1. Evergreen Solar (NASDAQ: ESLR)
Three-year-revenue compound annual growth rate: 112.0%
3. Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK)
Three-year-revenue compound annual growth rate: 134.9%
6 rules of easy investing:
This is something I think is inevitable. In addition to the reasons this article gives—the Fed raising rates, housing too expensive for more of the public, and the end of speculators looking for a quick profit when the profits evaporate—I would add that consumer debt is at record levels, and the new bankruptcy law will raise the minimum that can be paid on credit card debt.
Here's an interesting study, published in a letter to the SEC, by Fitch Rating, one of the 3 nationally recognized statistical rating organizations (NRSRO) selected by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1975, the other two being Standard & Poor and Moody. These NRSROs rate corporate debt. Fitch ratings range from AAA for best quality down to D, a corporation in default. (All 3 rating systems are similar, but the rating codes vary slightly.) Ratings BBB or above is considered investment quality. Rating BB and B are considered speculative, and CCC, CC, and C ratings are considered a strong risk for default. (For a detailed explanation of Fitch's rating system, see CA Credit Rating - Fitch Definitions.)
Most long-term corporate debt is issued as bonds, and the lower the credit rating, the higher the interest rate paid by the bond. Thus, higher interest rates are paid for the increased commensurate risk. But, as you can see in the chart below, the increase in default rates increases only slightly for BB and B rated companies, and then increases dramatically for CCC, CC, and C rated companies. Thus, by buying B rated bonds, you can earn a significant interest rate without much of an increase in the probability of losing your investment.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is the principal fact-finding agency for the Federal Government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics.
CPI:
+1.2% in Sep 2005Unemployment Rate:5.1% in Sep 2005
Payroll Employment:-35,000(p) in Sep 2005
Average Hourly Earnings:+$0.03(p) in Sep 2005
PPI:+1.9%(p) in Sep 2005
ECI:+0.7% in 2nd Qtr of 2005
Productivity:+1.8% in 2nd Qtr of 2005
U.S. Import Price Index:+2.3% in Sep 2005
------- This underscores what is becoming more obvious over time, that consumer natural gas consumption should be replaced by more electricity. Using electricity instead of natural gas, the consumer won't have to worry about the production of carbon monoxide that is created by burning gas with insufficient oxygen, or other impurities that may be present in the gas itself, such as radioactive thorium, and its decay product, radioactive radon. This is particular an advantage if the house is well insulated, where pollution would be more of a concern. While natural gas is often touted as being cheaper than electricity, it seems unlikely that this will always be true. Natural gas, like oil, has to be extracted from ores, or created from oil sands and shale. Because of this, it has to be refined and transported, and is subject to disruptions, like hurricanes. On the other hand, electricity can be created in many ways in many different places, not only by burning natural gas, coal, and oil, but it can also be created by nuclear energy, wind, and the direct conversion of solar energy. Two types of nuclear reactors that depend on thorium, the molten-salt breeder reactor and the light-water breeder reactor, are being developed for the production of electricity in the United States, because the potential energy reserves from thorium fuel is many times greater than the known coal, oil, and natural-gas reserves in the United States. As the technology improves, more and more electricity will be generated directly where it is used—in the home and business, thereby reducing or eliminating the need and cost of transporting it. The price of gas is certainly more volatile, as hurricanes Katrina and Rita have demonstrated. Electricity can easily supply any need that gas provides, but the converse is not true. You can not power lights or run gadgets with gas. Electric appliances are much cheaper than gas appliances. Even if you don't use any gas at certain times, like in the summer, you still have to pay a minimum to the gas company for the maintenance of its pipes. Looking ahead, electricity may well be the cheaper and more reliable source of energy. Something to consider when you have your next house built. Fixed Annuities, Variable Annuities - A complete, but concise, tutorial about fixed and variable annuities in a one-page format with sidebars, illustrations, formulas, examples, and clear definitions of basic terms. Mutual Funds — here's a brief introduction to mutual funds. Prospectus Finder — Download a prospectus for any U.S. fund. Top Performers — Best-performing funds by sector, style, and strategy. Exchange-Traded Funds — Learn more about ETFs. They are built like mutual funds, but trade like stocks. The Mutual Fund Cost Calculator enables investors to easily estimate and compare the costs of owning mutual funds. The Cost Calculator takes the mystery and math out of the cost equation, revealing how costs add up over time. Mutual fund costs take a big chunk out of any investor's return. That's why it's important for investors to know what costs they are paying, and which cost structure is best for them. By using the Cost Calculator investors will find answers quickly to questions like this: Which is better, a no-load fund with yearly expenses of 1.75% , or a fund with a front-end sales charge of 3.5% with yearly expenses of 0.90% ? A basic salary report can be obtained free of charge, after selecting the job category, and zip code or state/metro area. Saving your job search criteria is the most effective way to stay up to date on the latest job postings. You can save your job search as a search agent and as an RSS feed. Creating a search agent automates your job search. Instead of entering the same criteria each time you conduct a search, you enter it once and save it as an agent. Your agent will then periodically conduct searches and update you via email about new jobs that meet your criteria. You can also view the latest results at anytime on your My Monster homepage, or receive updates on new jobs that meet your criteria via your RSS Reader. This center, from the publishers of Entrepreneur magazine, is all about how to make money on the eBay auction site. Different sections with appropriate links include Getting Started on eBay; Deciding What to Sell; Pre-Sale Preparation; During the Sale; After the Sale; eBay 101, with articles on how the auction site works; eBay Resources; eBay Tools; eBay Tips, and Get eBay Advice. This site has practically everything you need to know about eBay. Includes external links to organizations and associations, Internet resources, and publications. How 3 Entrepreneurs Triumphed on eBay How eBay Helped These Moms Launch a Business "Can you work less and succeed more?" This article talks about the 80/20 principle, where 20% of your efforts lead to 80% of what you are trying to achieve. Applying it to business, 20% of your activities lead to 80% of your income. Although these percentages have been normalized for public consumption and identification, it underscores a basic truth, that much of what we do is unproductive; to be more productive and successful, increase the productive activities to greater than 20%, and shrink the other part of the pie. I particularly like this quote by his little brother: "We're not here for a long time; we're here for a good time." The listings on the right can be sorted by price, number of bedrooms, description, city, or date listed by clicking on the column headings. Click once for a lowest to highest sort, click the header again to reverse the sort. "The idea behind WebKEW is to collect together ideas, techniques, case studies, stories, etc. that will help you learn how to create successful web sites." You can narrow or expand the search by keyword or location. Searches can be expanded by not specifying a location or a keyword. Searching only by keyword lists all jobs in the country related to the keyword. Specifying only the location lists all jobs within 25 miles of that locale. If more than 1 keyword is entered, then only those jobs that contain both keywords will be listed. To search for a phrase, enclose it in quotation marks ("real estate"). The Boolean operators OR and NOT can also be used, in addition to the implicit AND, which is the default. The OR operator is useful for entering full descriptions or their abbreviation (HR OR "human resources"). Searches also be restricted to a company or words in the title (company-microsoft; title-consultant; title-"business development"). Example of a complex search string: (manager OR director) and (healthcare OR pharmaceutical) NOT sales. Each page has a small Refine Your Search box that narrows the search. Examples: Searching for software developer jobs for Lancaster, PA shows these additional categories: Mortgage Loan Officer, Software Engineer, Assistant IT Developer, Lotus Notes Administrator, Analyst, and Web Developer. But if you did the same search for Las Vegas, NV, the Refine Your Search box would show different categories, but still related to software development, although sometimes only marginally so. Listed below this box are your recent job searches which you can click on again to see updated results. You can also clear the Recent Job Searches list. The Advanced Job Search page includes a form for easier entry of search terms. In addition, location can be specified from 5 to 100 miles; age of the job posting can be selected for today or up to 15 days, or anytime; and up to 50 job listings can be displayed on each page, sorted by relevance or date. Searches can be saved and delivered by email alerts or RSS feeds. You can save a job search to a MyYahoo account by clicking a button, for instance. Indeed.com also provides web services for webmasters, allowing a website to display job search results from XML feeds that can be custom formatted. This seems like a really good idea, but, because of special interests, it will be hard as hell to implement. Nonetheless, once money becomes totally electronic, something like this will be a good possibility. According to this site, this system, called the automatic tax, has the following advantages: "The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has."
» p- preliminary
» Click on the icon for 10 years of historical data.Saturday, Oct 15, 2005 — 2:49 AM
Bond Ratings - Fitch, Moody's Investor Services, Standard & Poor's
Credit Rating Information
An excellent detailed, but concise, guide to bond rating codes provided by the credit rating services—Fitch, Moody's Investors Service, and Standard & Poor's. Also explains what steps a bond issuer must take to get a rating, and what factors these services consider to arrive at a credit rating for the issuer. Friday, Oct 14, 2005 — 2:30 AM
Credit Counseling - Health Care Bills - Market Gyrations and Mutual Funds - Gas and Energy Stocks
Creditors' Role in Counseling Draws Critics - New York Times
This article discusses the possible conflicts of interest between the credit counseling agencies that will be counseling people contemplating or in the process of bankruptcy and the creditors, who are providing much of the financing for these agencies. The new bankruptcy law requires debtors to get counseling both before and after they file, and the concern is that the counselors may be working more in the interest of the creditors than the debtors.Treated for Illness, Then Lost in Labyrinth of Bills - New York Times
Inexplicable hospital and doctor bills? Don't know what the codes mean? Seems to me in this computer age, there should be no problem in providing a good description with the code so that a patient knows what he or she is paying for. Otherwise, it would be very difficult to discover mistakes, and a mistake in a hospital bill could be a very costly one. One thing that might help considerably for any hospital patient or a relative, is to keep a diary of every service received and from whom it was received, so that when the bills arrive, you'll at least know if you're actually paying for a service actually received.How Fund Rankings Can Cause Stocks to Gyrate - New York Times
Fire sales and forced purchases—a new study shows how mutual funds cause booms and busts in stock prices. Consider this explanation for the Internet stock bubble: technology sector funds initially outperform the market, then they receive large new infusions of cash from investors, which the sector funds promptly invest in their sector, causing the price to rise even more, then initiating another round of fresh infusion of cash, which is again invested in the sector, until...BUST! Nothing keeps going up forever. The technology sector starts to underperform, people move their money out of the funds, forcing the funds to sell technology stocks to pay for redemptions, causing the funds to underperform even more, causing more people to redeem their shares, forcing the funds to sell even more shares to pay for redemptions. Bottom! Nothing keeps going down forever. Seems like a reasonable explanation. Some investment tips are offered in how to take advantage of this phenomenon.SSRN-Asset Fire Sales (and Purchases) in Equity Markets by Joshua Coval, Erik Stafford
The actual study—Asset Fire Sales and Purchases in Equity Markets—can be downloaded here.Why Is Everyone Losing Sleep Over Oil and Gas Stocks? - New York Times
Are gas and oil stocks in a bubble? I agree with Ben Stein that gas and oil stocks are still good investments, and will remain so. Oil is being guzzled at increasing rates by the world, and supply seems to be very close to the limit; ergo, higher energy prices will prevail well into the future.Wednesday, Oct 12, 2005 — 1:47 PM
Electricity — the Energy of the Future
USATODAY.com - Another forecast predicts painful winter heating bills
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) said that the price of natural gas is expected to rise this winter by almost 50%, heating oil and propane by 30%, and electricity by 5%.Friday, Oct 7, 2005 — 1:29 AM
Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)
REITs: Explanation and Demystification
An excellent explanation of REITs—what they actually are, and how they differ from other investment companies, such as mutual funds. REITs have a good dividend yield and good growth potential at a lower beta, or volatility, than the rest of the market. Because REIT values have a low correlation, or even an inverse correlation with stock values, it is an excellent investment for asset allocation.Invest in REITs: Reasons to Invest - Why Invest in REITs?
This page presents a good comparison of the market performance of REITs compared to other investments, but at the bottom, is an excellent tool for comparing different REITs who are members of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT). Select a name from the dropdown box to get a performance report of that REIT compared to others in its sector. The drawback to this is that you cannot just pick a sector; you have to know the name of a REIT in that sector. Selecting the name from a dropdown box then displays basic facts in a table along with other REITs in that sector, with your selected name highlighted. The REIT Performance Report includes the REIT name, ticker, price per share, dividend yield, price per FFO estimates for the current or next year, and total returns for the month, year, 3 years, and 5 years, as well as total market value. Monday, Sep 26, 2005 — 2:20 AM
Buy or Rent
Is It Better to Buy or Rent? - New York Times
Although other factors need to be considered, this article concludes that if the price of the house is more than 20 times the cost of the annual rent, then renting is cheaper.Wednesday, Sep 21, 2005 — 3:45 PM
Real Estate Sites
Real Estate News and Tutorials
REALTOR.com: Real Estate 101
Learn about real estate here: buying, selling, and financing.Technorati Tag: realestate
Click this link to see real estate blogs tagged in Technorati.Realty Times - Real Estate News and Advice
From buying and selling advice for consumers to money-making tips for Agents, our content, updated daily, has made Realty Times a must-read site for anyone involved in Real Estate. Home and Garden: From Home Improvement to Decorate to Gardening
Home and garden articles.Real Estate Listings and Search Engines
REALTOR.com: Real estate listings & homes for sale
A good place to search for homes all over the country, with over 2,000,000 homes listed.Homebuilder.com: New Home Builders, Floor Plans, Manufactured and Custom Homes.
The official website of the National Association of Home Builders, this site has a search engine for new homes, a library for advice and ideas, and over 11,000 home blueprint plans.HousingMaps
This shows real estate listings superimposed on Google maps.Senior Housing - Assisted Living Facilities, Nursing Homes and Independent Living
Includes a search engine for senior housing. The search can be restricted to the following categories: Independent Living, Assisted Living, Alzheimer's Care, Nursing Care, and Continuing Care (CCRC). Also includes a search engine for new homes for active adults.Real Estate Rentals
RENTNET: Find Apartments for Rent
This site is about apartment rentals, and includes articles about roommates, renting, and moving, and a search engine for finding an apartment anywhere in the country.Real Estate Calculators
Home Mortgage Center - Interest Rates, Home Mortgage Calculator and Refinance Information
Step-by-step approach to finding a lender for a home mortgage. Includes articles about mortgages, credit reports, home finance basics, home equity, insurance, and finance guides.Bankrate.com Calculators -- mortgages, savings, small business, credit cards, auto loans and more
Articles and calculators for home mortgages and home equity. Also has calculators for investments, credit cards, and auto loans.Smartmoney.com: Real Estate: The Mortgage Calculator
This mortgage calculator shows monthly payment, total interest paid, and shows a graph of how much equity you would own over the lifetime of the mortgage. It can also calculate the effects of prepaying the mortgage, and it can show the composition of any future payment. So for a payment in September, 2020, for instance, it would show that month's principal, interest, that year's interest, the loan balance, and the equity built.Real Estate — Miscellaneous
REALS.COM - Real Estate Directory
This site has many links related to real estate. Categories include agents and brokers, apartments and rentals, career training, commercial real estate, construction, finance and mortgage, for sale by owner, real estate foreclosure, international real estate, moving, property management and listing, and vacation homes.Homestore Moving - Find Movers and Locate Self Storage Units
Has articles about moving, and a search engine to get quotes for moving.The 6 Percent Solution: Skip Real Estate Agents - New York Times
A good article from the New York Times about selling your home without a realtor, or reducing their fees.Monday, Sep 19, 2005 — 11:26 AM
Annuities — Fixed and Variable
Tuesday, Sep 13, 2005 — 1:44 PM
Funding a Startup — Business Development Corporations — Angel Investing — J-Curve
Wired News: So, You Wanna Fund a Startup?
A good article about funding startups, investing in companies before they go public, which offers the greatest profit potential with the commensurate risk. Discusses both publicly traded venture firms known as business development corporations (BDC), where investors with a little money can invest, and also private equity investing, which includes venture funds and angel investment groups, which typically requires millions of dollars and a long wait for profits to materialize. The J-curve is introduced as a special pattern in valuation of BDC's that first declines because of quickly apparent failures, then appreciates as the more successful ventures start to grow.Monday, Aug 29, 2005 — 2:28 AM
Mutual Fund Guide
Thursday, Aug 25, 2005 — 5:00 PM
Mutual Funds
Yahoo! Finance - Mutual Funds Center
Fund Screener — Search all the funds in the market.Index Funds.com - Index Funds Investing
Index Funds.com is a comprehensive resource on index funds investing, promoting a commonsense approach that seeks to maximize expected returns at each level of risk ultilizing index portfolios. An index fund can be defined as a mutual fund or exchange traded fund (ETF) with a clearly defined set of rules of ownership, that are held constant regardless of market conditions. The fund does not have to follow a well known index. An extensive database of index funds articles and data include information on Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA investments or funds), Vanguard, Barclays, and most other index funds. There are about 700 index funds today. Mutual Fund Cost Calculator
The SEC Mutual Fund Cost Calculator:
A Tool for Comparing Mutual FundsMonday, Aug 22, 2005 — 3:48 PM
Jobs, Employment, Careers — Monster.com
Get Information about Jobs
Career Advice - Interview Questions, Salary Comparisons, Resume Writing Tips at Monster.com
Career Advice is divided into broad categories that contain a few articles relating to that specific category.Salary - Salary Comparison and Calculator from Monster.com
Tech Jobs - Search Computer, Engineering & IT Technology Jobs at Monster.com
Monster has many pages dedicated to specific areas, such as this one devoted to technology.Sales Jobs - Search Sales & Marketing Jobs at Monster.com
Or this one for sales.Job Content
Job Profiles is a list of various jobs that link to detailed information about that job. It includes what the job entails, the skills necessary to do the job, required education, the outlook for the job, related careers, keywords that apply to the job, and related articles.Technical Writer
Here's an example of a job profile for technical writer.Finding Jobs
Monster Jobs - Get work. Network. Build a better career. Today's the day.
Job seekers can search for jobs, post a resume, network with others, and get advice. Monster - Search Jobs
Job searching — enter keywords or company name, location can be selected by state and major city, and a job category can be selected. Results can be sorted by date or keyword relevance; descriptions can be brief or detailed. Searches can be further refined by keyword; by so many miles from a zip code; by job category or salary; and by status (full-time, part-time, per diem).Getting the Job — Resumes, Job Interviews
Monster: Career Marketplace - I need a job!
Resume-writing services, resume-sending services to top recruiters, and free business cards.Job Interview Advice - Interview Tips, Questions, & Etiquette from Monster.com
Self-Assessment Center - Tools, Virtual Interviews and Advice from Monster.com
This section helps to test your ability to handle a job interview by asking common questions.ExecutiveAgent - Instantly email your resume directly to executive recruiters and headhunters that specialize in your field.
ExecutiveAgent enables you to confidentially send your resume – in its current format – directly to executive recruiters (How Executive Recruiters Can Help Your Career) that specialize in your field.Networking
Discussion and Networking Advice - Monster.com
Get advice from other people who are actually working in the field.Special Services
Online College Degrees, Online Bachelor and MBA Degrees, and Continuing Education Programs at MonsterLearning
Find institutions offering degrees in specific fields, such as business, healthcare, and technology. Also has financial aid resources.Most Popular Free Business Cards - Print Most Popular Free Business Cards
A free offer of 250 full-color business cards!Monster.com - eFax
Obtain a free fax number with this form.Manage the moving and relocation process with Monstermoving.com
Get quotes from movers with this form. Includes info on insurance, mortgages, real estate, storage, and utilities.Monster: 401(k) Rollover Center
All about 401(k) retirement plans.Personalization
My Monster:
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Job Search Agent
For Employers
Post Jobs, Resume Search, Recruiting Service, Hiring Solutions, all at Monster.com
Employers can post jobs here, organize responses online, search resumes for specific job qualifications; and view, save, and organize resumes online.Tuesday, Aug 16, 2005 — 6:02 PM
Online Business — Online Auctions — All about EBay
The Entrepreneur's Guide to doing Business Online
Here's a 30 page PDF file, from Entrepreneur.com, that you can download to your computer on how to do business online.Making Money in Online Auctions - All about EBay.
How to Start an eBay Business
Special Links
An eBay Startup Checklist
eBay Resources
This page shows the various tools that eBay has to offer to help sellers.eBay Stores — The Virtual Alternative to Brick and Mortar
Tech Tools to Launch Your Business
Tools to start your business on eBay.Tips for Choosing Auction Software
Automating your online business with auction software.An Inside Look at eBay Live!
EBay's yearly conference attended by 12,000 community users.EBay Success Stories
Tuesday, Aug 16, 2005 — 4:44 PM
Increase your Productivity
Learn to Live the 80/20 Way
Monday, Aug 15, 2005 — 1:37 PM
Bob Parson's 16 Rules for Success in Business and Life
"Robert, they can’t eat you!" My rules for survival. - Hot Points
Here's a short biography of Robert Parson, and a good list of 16 rules for making it in business or life by Bob Parson, creator and developer of Parson Technologies and the developer and current owner of Go Daddy, which, as you can see here, RegistrarStats, is presently the largest domain name registrar.Monday, Aug 15, 2005 — 12:50 PM
Real Estate Renting and Selling - Innovative Use of Web Technology
HousingMaps
This is a very innovative use of databases and maps, in this case, Craigslist and Google maps, for renting or selling real estate. Pick an area of the country then zoom in on your desired area. The map is in the left column, real estate listings are in the right. The map has 3 command buttons in the upper-right corner: Map, Satellite, Hybrid. Map displays a typical street map with small balloons where there is real estate for rent or sale. Click on a balloon on the map, and it will display detailed info in a bubble that pops up. You can also click on the yellow or red circles to the left of the real estate listings, which will take you to that area on the map. The Satellite command button displays a satellite view of the area, and Hybrid displays a map overlaid on the satellite image, which you can see in the screenshot of Raleigh, North Carolina below.
Wednesday, Aug 10, 2005 — 3:19 PM
Money - Become Rich - Avoid Losing It
How to Make a Million Dollars, by Marshall Brain
Want to become rich? This is one of the best articles I have ever read on the subject—simple and concise.WebKEW: Making Money on the Web!
An excellent blog by Marshall Brain dedicated to making money on the Web.MSN Money - 8 lottery winners who lost their millions
A very illuminating article about sudden wealth, and how to lose it.MSN Money - Debt disasters of the rich and famous
The debt woes of the rich and famous.26steps to 15k a Day
An good primer on creating a money-making website in 1 year. Tuesday, Aug 9, 2005 — 2:36 PM
Meta Search for Jobs, and other Employment - RSS
Indeed | one search. all jobs.
This seems to be an excellent meta search engine for jobs. The listings are plentiful and relevant. They boast that 868,299 new jobs have been added in the last 7 days. Of course, no word that I could find of the number of jobs that disappear because they are filled. Although the word indeed is not related to jobs, it is easy to remember, and I guess that's the important thing. The name does, however, make for difficult reading sometimes, as you tend to associate the word with its actual meaning rather than the company. This site searches job sites, newspapers, associations, and company career pages. The listings are quite good. Here's an example of listings for software programmer in the Lancaster, PA area: All software programmer jobs in Lancaster | Indeed.com.Interesting Pages:
Wednesday, Aug 3, 2005 — 2:42 AM
A Simplified Tax System—the Automatic Tax
Automatic Tax
1. It eliminates the IRS and all forms of taxation at the Federal level.
2. At the same time it eliminates State taxes, County taxes, City taxes and Local taxes.
3. It combines all these separate taxes into one single broad based tax of only 5%
4. It eliminates all requirements for accounting.
5. It eliminates tax form preparation and filing
6. It eliminates audits for all individuals and 99% of all businesses.
7. Tax collection is completely automatic. No human interface (hence its name)
8. It will save the United States economy $900 billion a year (2005 dollars).
9. It eliminates all political lobbying for special tax status by special interests and it eliminates social engineering possibilities. (If you ever injected truth into politics you would have no politics.-Will Rogers-)
Will Rogers
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