Personal Finance

Personal financial planning is neither mysterious no glamorous. You won't see it on the national news, and it won't make you intriguing and sexier. But it can make you happier and, yes, it can even help you live longer.And the most important investment decision you will make does not involve money, but rather the commitment you must make to your own future, and the future of your family. It's an investment of time -- the time needed to learn about personal finances, develop a good financial plan that meets your needs and take the steps to execute that plan.

Washington is proposing rules, restrictions and the creation of an entire federal agency to stop dumb consumers from repeating the mortgage disaster or something just as bad. Maryland has another idea. Make dumb consumers smart. Don't let kids out of school without a basic understanding of interest rates, bank fees and scams that will persist no matter how baby-proof Congress tries to make the system. State officials are about to reveal proposals for personal-finance instruction that could be in the classroom by next fall.

In half the time it takes Jack Bauer to save the world (the indefatigable federal agent from the 24 television series does it in 24 hours), I was saved from losing sight of what personal finance is all about. My rescuer: Rachael, a young hotel waitress who approached the table where my wife, Georgina, and I were having breakfast and asked whether we needed anything else. The following, taking me from disenchantment to rediscovery, takes place between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. during a recent hotel stay to attend a conference on personal finance: 8 p.m.: I register and pick up the conference program, an inch-thick packet filled with glowing speaker biographies and copies of elaborate, graphics-filled presentations they would make over the next two days.

Starting next Sunday, The Sun will publish a redesigned business section called "Money & Life." It will advise you on how to save, spend, and make smart decisions about all aspects of your life as a consumer - from saving for retirement to shopping. We aim to talk to you from across the breakfast table with stories, charts and graphics that will give you tools to make the decisions we face daily with our hard-earned money. The section will be anchored by personal finance columnist Eileen Ambrose and Consuming Interests columnist Dan Thanh Dang, who moves into the new section from Tuesday's Business & Your Money section.

NOTES AND QUOTES about your money:"The past 127 years show that very high price-earnings markets have been much less risky than lower P/E markets. Higher P/E markets offer better returns and fewer declines." (Kenneth Fisher in Forbes)WOMEN WIN: "When it comes to investing, women are more `money-smart' than men," says Terrance Odean, finance professor, University of California. "Why the edge? Women stick with stocks they buy, switching in and out less than men. Less frequent trading means higher returns."

Jonathan D. Pond not only writes books about personal finance and talks about the topic on public television, but he also puts the ideas into practice at home as soon as he dreams them up.For instance, the Boston accountant-turned-author recently started buying more wash-and-wear clothing and using his iron and ironing board more frequently."

WHERE should you invest your money -- and not invest it?Well-known stocks suggested in Personal Finance include: Bank of New York Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., General Electric Co., Home Depot Inc., Pfizer Inc., Coca-Cola Co., Intel Corp. and Sony Corp."With buyers moving in because they recognize good value, `junk' bonds should rally the rest of the year." (David Goldman, strategist, in Forbes.)CAUTION SIGNALS:"Things look grim for funeral home operator Service Corporation International because people are living much longer."

The Sun will sponsor a conference on personal finance Saturday at the Baltimore Convention Center.Tammany Buckwalter, events coordinator, said the daylong conference will feature leading authorities on personal finance and money management.Among them are Don Phillips, chief executive officer of Morningstar Inc., publisher of mutual funds ratings and other financial information; Tom Gardner, one of the creators of the online financial service the Motley Fool; Jean Sherman Chatzky, editor at large of Money magazine and a contributor to NBC's "Today Show"; and Kenneth S. Apfel, Social Security commissioner.

Oct. 3, 1999To Our Readers:These are challenging times for American investors. Never before have people faced so many complex, confusing and important financial decisions. Among them:Young men and women have to figure out what kind of mortgage is the right one for their first home.Families with young children need guidance on how to save for college, which at some schools costs $130,000 for four years.And baby boomers, now in their 50s, have to plan for retirement and long-term care for their parents.

UNWILLING to cope with Wall Street's daily gyrations -- Dow Jones industrial average up 60 points Monday, down 70 Wednesday, up-and-down all day yesterday to a virtual standoff -- some investors may seek longer-term guidance. Suggestions:"When choosing a financial planner, make sure the person is continuing his or her education," says Personal Finance, April 10. "Also make sure the planner will give references, was not cited for disciplinary reasons and will work up a written analysis of your situation with carefully thought-out recommendations."

Washington is proposing rules, restrictions and the creation of an entire federal agency to stop dumb consumers from repeating the mortgage disaster or something just as bad. Maryland has another idea. Make dumb consumers smart. Don't let kids out of school without a basic understanding of interest rates, bank fees and scams that will persist no matter how baby-proof Congress tries to make the system. State officials are about to reveal proposals for personal-finance instruction that could be in the classroom by next fall.

One of the big hurdles of teaching personal finance to children and young adults is how to do so without boring or confusing them with lectures about compound interest and annual percentage rates. Now there's a growing effort to reach and teach kids on their own turf: online games. More than 70 percent of people play some form of game, and that percentage is far higher among teens. Gaming experts see this huge number of players as an opportunity to package critical lessons into an activity that people enjoy.

It's often said that talking about money is the last taboo. But our cash coyness appears to be disappearing along with the growth of personal finance Web logs, where writers share their money mistakes and take us on their journey toward financial enlightenment. Bargaineering.com, getrichslowly.org and thesimpledollar.com are listed among the top 10 personal-finance blogs based on traffic. The three sites are so successful that their founders were able to leave their 9-to-5 jobs a year ago for full-time blogging.

Economic crisis erodes our security The Baltimore Sun's editorial "Rescuing homeowners" (Oct. 31) is correct: Homeowners should be given at least as much help as the banks and the financial industry are. But what is missing in most discussions of this problem are the national security implications of the damage done to our economy. Has everyone forgotten so quickly what caused the breakup of the Soviet Union? By looting our economy and bringing it to its knees, the captains of Wall Street, aided and abetted by the Bushadministration and its ideological cronies, have done to the U.S. economy what no terrorist could have ever dreamed of doing.

Unemployment is rising. The stock market is setting all sorts of records - mostly bad. And the economy might be headed into a prolonged recession. What better time to teach your children about finances and managing money? I'm not suggesting you explain credit default swaps or option ARMs to tiny tykes. The financial world changes so fast that by the time children are old enough to invest on their own or buy a house, today's products will be out of date. Instead, use this time to teach the basics, especially how to save.

When economic times are tough, returning to spending basics can help. And nothing is more fundamental than setting goals. As the saying goes, "If you aim at nothing, you'll hit it every time." Personal finance experts will tell you having goals is essential for getting a handle on your money. Besides providing direction and peace of mind, they apply to daily life. With marketing bombarding us every day, fueling our wants, a set of goals can help us to say no. They remind us there's something we want more than the tempting purchase right in front of us. How do your develop goals?

Mary Ann Hewitt Executive director Maryland Council on Economic Education, Towson Salary : $72,000 Age : 61 Years on the job : Three How she got started : Hewitt began her career as a teacher. She stopped working full time to raise her two children, but took on a part-time job training teachers in economics for the Maryland Council on Economic Education during the late 1980s. In 2003, she was promoted to assistant executive director of the organization. Two years later, she moved up to executive director.

Attention, college graduates: You're about to say goodbye to all-night study groups, pizza diets and midafternoon naps. And many of you will need to accept more financial responsibility. But some of those about to leave college for good next month worry they are not up to the task of handling issues such as insurance, investments, student loans and real estate. And many have some big financial decisions to make during the coming weeks as they move beyond classes and into their careers.

Starting next Sunday, The Sun will publish a redesigned business section called "Money & Life." It will advise you on how to save, spend, and make smart decisions about all aspects of your life as a consumer - from saving for retirement to shopping. We aim to talk to you from across the breakfast table with stories, charts and graphics that will give you tools to make the decisions we face daily with our hard-earned money. The section will be anchored by personal finance columnist Eileen Ambrose and Consuming Interests columnist Dan Thanh Dang, who moves into the new section from Tuesday's Business & Your Money section.

You can take a course in calculus, Greek literature or mechanical engineering in college. But if you want to learn about budgeting and retirement planning, many schools have nothing to offer. That was the case at the Johns Hopkins University until last spring. Based on the experience of young alumni working on Wall Street, the school has begun to provide an accredited class in personal finance. "A lot of them were telling us they would have benefited from learning how to make personal financial decisions," said John C. Wierman, a professor and director of the university's Center for Leadership Education, which oversees the W. P. Carey Program in Entrepreneurship and Management.