Introduction One of the most important decisions for your investment portfolio is your choice of asset allocation. Asset allocation refers to how a portfolio is divided up among the various types of investments (also known as asset classes) that are available to invest in. Examples of asset classes include U.S. stocks,

        Introduction With the wide variety of stocks in the market, figuring out which ones you want to invest in can be a daunting task. Many investors find it useful to have a system that helps them find stocks that are worth investing in, decide what price to pay, and realize when

        What is risk? In the investment world, risk means uncertainty. It refers to the possibility that you will lose your investment or that an investment will yield less than its anticipated return. Simply stated, risk is the degree of probability that an investment will make or lose money. When evaluating risk,

        Comparing bond prices Comparing bond prices can be a bit more challenging than comparing stock quotes. Because there are so many more bonds than stocks on the market, any printed listing of bond prices often includes only a representative selection of issues. And bond prices are quoted a bit differently than

        Introduction Investors in stocks need to know what the stock is really worth, how risky the stock is, and when to buy, sell, or hold. There are many ways investors can analyze stocks to determine this information. There is no single way that works for all investors. In fact, many investors

        What is benchmarking? Benchmarking is a way to measure the performance of your investment portfolio against certain models. Although you can use something like the latest 10-year Treasury note as a benchmark for all treasuries, benchmarking usually involves comparisons to standardized indices. The purpose of benchmarking is to evaluate the effectiveness

        What is an exchange traded fund (ETF)? Like a mutual fund, an exchange-traded fund pools the money of many investors and purchases a group of securities. Like index mutual funds, most ETFs are passively managed. Instead of having a portfolio manager who uses his or her judgment to select specific stocks,

        Tailoring a fund to a goal, risk level, or time frame Some mutual funds follow an asset allocation model of investing. Rather than concentrating on a single type of investment, such as stocks or bonds, they’re designed to be a broad-based approach to diversifying investments across multiple asset classes. The proportion

        Asset allocation in retirement The classic image of retirement investing is that of a retiree putting 100 percent of his or her assets into bonds and clipping coupons from those bonds for income payments. That image goes back to when bondholders had to physically cut coupons off of bond documents and

        By investing for retirement through your employer-sponsored plan, you are helping to manage a critically important financial risk: the chance that you will outlive your money. But choosing to participate is just one step in your financial risk management strategy. You also need to manage risk within your account to help