Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine Is A Great Resource
Written: May 11 '05 (Updated May 11 '05)
Product Rating:
Pros: Gives a lot in helpful information in easy to read style.
Cons: More depth in some of the articles would be appreciated.
The Bottom Line: This is an easy to read guide to investment issues that help you understand the investment vehicles and that gives you information that is helpful in personal financial planning.
Prepoia's Full Review: Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine
My husband is my primary investment advisor. He is very astute when it comes to both understanding kinds of investments and finding those that fit both our incomes and our retirement needs. He’s been doing this job well for over 30 years now. Since it has been that long, we are now nearing the important pre-retirement and retirement phases of our investment strategies. He recently decided to invest a chunk of change into an investment vehicle called a REIT. This stands for Real Estate Investment Trust. Since much of our portfolios have investments in real estate (our home, a percentage of an apartment complex and a strip shopping center) I wondered briefly about this additional choice. It bordered on, “too good to be true” in these economic times. To enable us to discuss it knowledgeably, I needed to find some outside source of information. I found a very helpful article in the November 2004 issue of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine.
The article gave the statistics for the past five years and it explained how the different types of REIT’s work and are organized. While basic information, it was enough that I better understood my husband’s choice and from the knowledge gained felt more comfortable with this rather new concept.
I also read some of the other articles in the magazine and found that I actually enjoyed them. Most were written like the REIT article which means that basic, but not detailed, information was provided in a clear language for those of us that do not hold a degree in economics but wish to know about investment vehicles and to understand them.
When we were first starting out our investment lives, we subscribed to Money Magazine. It provided us with the beginning knowledge that we required at that time and provided examples of what real people were doing with their real incomes (which often matched ours). Kiplinger’s does some of the same but more on the more knowledgeable based reader’s level. After 30 years, we don’t need to contend with saving for college educations, CD’s, or other things targeted for new investors. That’s why I related to the articles in Kiplingers. While they provide some real life people sharing their investment strategies, it was at a more advanced (after many years of investing) level and it surmises that the reader already understands the truly basics of investment. You don’t have to be in the investment field or hold an Economics major but most articles are geared to the person that has basics in those areas.
MONTHLY:
Kiplinger’s has a letter From the Editor each month and the expected Letters from the readers. It has a section entitled Ahead, This Month Online, Ask Kim, Web Only Columns, Investing, Your Money, Rewards, and the Last Page (which is a “My Story” article. The major three sections are the Ahead, Investing and Your Money sections.
AHEAD:
This section carries all kinds of articles, short and long ones, about relevant information important to both investors and to economic issues in general. This section is usually directed or focused on a particular area. In the November, 2004 issue most of the articles were about Health Care. In another more recent issue (April, 2005) it was about Housing which included Mortgages and Home Equity Loans. These focused areas are interesting and well covered with many different issues covered for each major topic.
For the Health Care focus, the magazine covered things such as health care costs (they are lowering our raises at work article with stats) and another article about the fact that they are being eliminated as a perk for many new employees. There were also articles about raising your deductibles and how those without health insurance through work can find affordable policies. It also discussed the pros and cons of issues such as Long Term Care Insurance.
In the April, 2005 issue they also picked up a couple of articles about Health insurance dealing with New Insurance for Temporary Workers and the new National Health Access insurance due out soon.
Most of the Ahead articles in April focused around financing, buying, mortgaging, and how homes are an important investment vehicle.
INVESTING:
The kinds of articles you’ll find in this section have to do with, of course, investing and investments. They discuss such things as Mutual Funds, Small Cap Funds, Taxes and new investment vehicles such as REITS. They also had some interesting articles on What To Do With Windfall Money, mortgage comparisons, PC Ways to Pick Winners and New Stock Picks like Google and Disney. In one issue they discussed the 294 million debit cards being used and compared use and kinds. Since this country now makes 1 out of 3 purchases using the debit card it was interesting to read about the ins and outs of using one effectively.
Most of the articles contain statistics which are presented in formats that are clear and easy to read and understand.
You can also access Kiplinger’s at www.Kiplinger.com and this enables you to read some of the articles found in their magazine and some articles that are online only. This is a monthly magazine and a subscription is easily found for 12 issues for $10.00.
DO I RECOMMEND THIS PUBLICATION?
Yes, I do. It is less about “in-depth” and more about “in-the-know” but with my busy life it meets the need. I do not subscribe to it but I buy issues based on the cover and what it says is inside. If there are topics that I think would be helpful, I purchase the issue. I usually purchase about half the issues (and probably miss out on a lot this way.) If the content interests you, it is a small expense to subscribe to it and it could be very helpful as you plan your investing strategies.
Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine provides practical information and sound advice to maximize your personal financial position. Features include u...More at Magazineline
Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine provides intelligent advice and sound reporting on topics regarding personal finance issues. Find information on...More at Magazines.com
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