Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) has just released its 2008 annual report, along with the ever-important letter to shareholders from the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett.  2008 was more than a rough year.  You have to read into Buffett’s comments to get the full effect.  We are sorry to...

When personal finances are discussed, the experts usually divide people into savers and spenders. We ran across a press release from Fidelity, the mutual fund giant, about a survey of workers in the non-profit world. They asked the participants if they were a saver, a spender or an investor. ___ ___...

Today’s edition of Ignites (subscription required) features an interesting story about the drastic cuts that mutual fund firms are making to their online marketing efforts. This is hardly... This is a content summary only. Please visit the site for the full post....

The past year has shown that even professional money managers of mutual funds with an impeccable past record are not immune to failure. MarketWatch reported that “ In a bad year, these funds were the worst :� Investors reeling from the 39% plunge of the Standard & Poor's 500 Index this year ...

Filed under: Competitive strategy, Mutual funds, Personal finance, Recession There is a theory of investing that says you must diversify. What does that mean? Quite simply it means that, in the overall, some stocks will rise and some will fall, but hopefully there will be more winners than losers an...

It is no secret at all that the bond funds, particularly closed-end funds, have had a hard time in the latest credit mess. Yet today marks perhaps a new change... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]...

My company made Vanguard Target Retirement Funds available for our 401k accounts about two years ago.  However, I have not used them preferring to manually manage my own portfolio using tradition funds that include bond, large-cap, small-cap, international stock, and REIT funds.  However, Target R...

Despite all their promise, green companies are awash in red ink....

Exchange traded funds (ETFs) may snatch up investors from mutual funds as investors see unsatisfactory returns in their mutual funds being taxed. The insult to industry may exacerbate the exodus that mutual funds have been seeing this year as year-end tax bills are opened. Investors have removed......

Some readers seem to be preparing themselves for a turnaround in the market place. Given current conditions, it would seem that we are far away from any lasting bullish scenario. Be that as it may, one reader had this question: I am one of your regular readers. Thanks for helping many of us. Would y...