Get control of your checkbook and nest egg. Our research staff has evaluated hundreds of Web sites covering investments, financial and retirement planning, retirement calculators, life and health insurance, taxes, credit and mortgages. We've selected the best sites–the most useful and comprehensive of the bunch–and provided you with concise descriptions of each.
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This is the most widely-used site for free access to rates for all types of consumer financial products—mortgages, credit cards, auto loans, CDs, etc. A good search engine gives you a way to compare “reward” and “cash back” credit card offers.
To search for credit card offers of all types, check out this site. You can look up cards with no annual fee or by lowest rates, or cards specifically for students or for business. You can even look up card incentives currently being offered.
This central site allows you to request a free credit report, once every 12 months from each of the nationwide consumer credit reporting companies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.
National Association of Personal Financial Advisors
The nation’s leading organization dedicated to the advancement of Fee-Only comprehensive financial planning. Group for fee-only planners to enhance their own skills, market their services and be a part of a collective, influential voice on matters that affect them.
International network of independent financial advisors and planners offering hourly as-needed financial planning and advice to anyone regardless of income. Let them assist you in preserving your retirement income, reducing tax burdens, funding for college, and your cash-flow spending plans. They also give financial seminars for military, church and civic groups, as well as establish charitable legacies. Maximize your wealth.
Whether you want to learn about financial planning, set financial goals, hire a planner, report a grievance against a Certified Financial Planner, or become a financial planning professional yourself, you’ll find good guidance here.
This American Bar Association site has an excellent outline related to estate planning, including explanations of revocable trusts, living wills, and the probate process.
College savings plans, also known as 529 plans, are important for parents and grandparents to know about. Laws vary by state, so it’s important to do your homework well. This site is the best place to bone up.
Health savings accounts (HSAs) are relatively new products in the financial planning market, created in December 2003. This government site is a goldmine of information, including a good FAQ section explaining who can have an HSA and how to contribute to one.
More of an online personal finance magazine than an investing site, here's a place to sit back and think about long-term strategies presented by Wall Street Journal experts. A little bit complex for the more humble investor, you may be best served by its personal finance section, which offers the kind of nitty-gritty advice that's likely to apply to your life.
Need help with your money? Don't be afraid to seek professional advice. After all, you're probably in the process of guaranteeing that your portfolio is well-positioned to take you into retirement, no easy task. Use this site to learn how a financial advisor can help you and then look up an advisor in your city based on your specific financial goals.
Your auto insurance costs too much. Your cell phone plan is ridiculous. Your credit cards have obscene interest rates. Can you do better? Use this popular site to compare and contrast plans and services to see what else is out there for you that might be a better fit. You may not get a specific answer, but at least you'll know where you currently stand on the scale from bargain to ripoff.
Parents have been depending on FinAid since 1994 to help them plan for Junior's insanely expensive college costs. Consider it an independent field guide to smart loan strategies and scholarships with no hidden agenda. In fact, the easy-to-use scholarship search tool could prove invaluable (note that you'll have to supply a bit of personal info to gain access to this page).
Financial Planning Association
FPA is the premier resource for the public to find a financial planner who will deliver advice using an ethical, objective, client-centered process. The Financial Planning Association® (FPA®) is a leadership and advocacy organization connecting those who provide, support and benefit from professional financial planning. FPA is the Heart of Financial Planning™ and represents a promise of financial well-being, hoping to create a world where everyone thrives and prospers.
The AARP site has helpful content on a broad variety of topics of particular interest to the senior population.
Consumers Union keeps tabs on the latest regulatory developments in consumer finance and provides advice on advocacy-related issues in banking, credit, ID theft, etc.
Yahoo Finance has added a Personal Finance section to supplement its excellent array of stock and investment capabilities.
Forbes Best of the Web has reviews of the sites the publishers consider the best in their category. Categories include Personal Finance and Investing. Under Investing, you’ll find links to the sites Forbes considers best for a wide range of topics, including asset allocation, choosing an advisor, fund selection, stock screening, and venture investing. Personal Finance covers a broad range of topics, including banking, debt management, financial planning, insurance, mortgages, and online payment services.
SmartMoney, the personal finance magazine that has all the smarts of Dow Jones behind it, is a great place for keeping up to speed on money matters and for tracking your retirement portfolio. Click on the Retirement section to play around with lots of scary worksheets that will likely reveal that you need to save more.
360 Degrees of Financial Literacy
Birth, death, and everything in between. That's the territory covered by this expansive site from the American Institute of CPAs. Each life stage comes with plenty of articles, Q&A, and tools to learn about smart financial planning, and it's one of the few financial sites to explicitly address the "sandwich generation", middle-agers who are caring for both their children and their parents.
Helpful guide to bankruptcy for individuals, including alternatives to bankruptcy, how to file bankruptcy, and more. Get an informational road map to personal and business bankruptcy law from their bankruptcy specialists. This site will also help debtors understand how bankruptcy proceedings work both before and after the dramatic changes that are effective 10/17/05. Explore over 150 pages of questions and answers, procedure, explanations and links to other related resources here.
Money 101 Lessons. Combines practical personal finance advice, calculators and investing tips with business news, stock quotes, and financial market coverage.
Welcome to Saving Advice, a personal finance website created specifically to show you different ways to save money. No matter what your current financial situation, there is plenty of information on this site to help you achieve your money goals.
Operating as a sort of health care watchdog, this non-profit organization publishes all sorts of provocative research about the health care system and the insurance industry. If you find yourself tangled up in your health insurance, do some research here about your rights and the strategies you can use to make sure you're covered correctly.
While Bankrate.com is best know for its ability to help you compare the best interest rates on credit cards, loans, mortgages, and the like, it also explores insurance, helping you learn the ins and outs of both health and life insurance and guiding you toward smart decisions. An hour spent here could save you some big money down the line.
"Get quotes. Compare prices. Apply online." That's the easy three-step promise of this online insurance referral service. In reality it may take a bit more work to find an affordable plan that you can actually get your hands on as an individual, but research is the key. Knowing what's out there, and knowing what's available for your personal situation, is half the battle.
One of the most frustrating things about health insurance is that the rules and regulations can vary widely from state to state. The Georgetown University Health Policy Institute has tackled this problem head-on by writing highly detailed state-by-state guides to health insurance. Just pick your state off the menu and read the guide online or download it to read later. Put your thinking cap on, some guides are 40 pages or more!
Life & Health Insurance Foundation for Education
A nonprofit organization dedicated to helping consumers make smart insurance decisions to safeguard their families’ financial futures. The main topics they address in their educational efforts are life, disability, long-term care and health insurance. Their goal is to help consumers better understand these products and where they fit within their overall financial plans.
Well known as pretty much the oldest and most popular investment advice site on the Web. The Motley Fool helps millions of "fools" track their portfolios and make smart stock picks. A full-service site, it's packed with every tutorial (read the 13 steps to smart investing), calculator, and FAQ that you can imagine. Sign up for a few newsletters as well.
The ICI (Investment Company Institute) is the primary trade association for the mutual fund industry. For consumer-related information, see the About Investing section. Not only will you get an education about different types of mutual funds and closed-end funds, you will also find informative sections on health and education-related investment tools such as 529 (college savings) plans.
For background on your broker, to file a complaint, or to check out common investment scams, check out the Investor Information section of the National Association of Securities Dealers site.
A logical place to do all your online portfolio management if you have a Fidelity 401(k) or retirement plan, this massive site is also useful to more casual visitors who simply want to study the special sections on college, retirement, trusts, charitable giving, or any other financial question that may pop up as life races along.
Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association
Bonds of all types are explained, along with the buying and selling process and how to determine if they’re appropriate for your life stage. There is also a wealth of professional and trade market coverage of the bond market, since this is part of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association website (formerly the Securities Industry Association and the Bond Markets Association).
Interested in real estate investment trusts? In addition to an explanation of the different types of REITs, there’s a guide to REIT investing, a list of REIT analysts—even information on how to form a REIT.
National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts
Despite the sketchy reputation they got during the S&L crisis in the '90s, real estate investment trusts (REITs) have emerged as a popular investment alternative. This industry site doesn't have much for casual visitors, but it does include a good downloadable document that tells everything you need to know about what REITs are and why they may be a good choice for your portfolio.
Like other gigantic online brokers, TD Ameritrade can handle your stock portfolio and other investment instruments while also coaching you on the best decisions for the future. Account holders have access to excellent self-paced online seminars on topics such as retirement and medical care for seniors as well as a slew of calculators to gage how well their doing in meeting their financial goals.
One of many places online to gather financial news, look at stock quotes, and seek advice in message boards, MSN Money is also eager to get you to connect all your bank accounts to the site so it can serve as your one-stop financial dashboard. Compare it to other sites such as Yahoo! Finance (finance.yahoo.com) and CNN Money (money.cnn.com) to see if it provides the best mix of features for you.
A rare slice of The Wall Street Journal Online that's free to everyone (no subscription required!), this real estate megasite is endlessly interesting, keeping you up to the minute on housing market trends and coaching you on buying, selling, and improving. You can also look for properties here, and follow along with several blogs, including the Teardown Diary, one woman's mission to rebuild her house from scratch.
U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission
Not just for seniors, this section of the Securities & Exchange Commission site has a good rundown of investment products and issues of interest to all, including various types of annuities and CDs. You’ll also see a useful link to how to check out brokers and advisors.
There’s also a full range of free on-line publications indexed here by topic, including bonds, certificates of deposit, equity-indexed annuities, futures, hedge funds, mutual funds, options, stock indexes, electronic trading, etc.: http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs.shtml
Insurance Information Industry
What kind of life insurance do you think you need? Click on the appropriate heading here and dive into facts, figures, Q&A, and quizzes to help you learn what you need to know (always keeping in mind that this is an insurance industry site). You'll find the explanation of the various types of life insurance particularly useful.
Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education
Here's another non-profit organization sponsored by insurance companies to teach you the basics of life insurance. Download the printable consumer guide to life insurance, and be sure to read the section on four ways to buy insurance. It's a good guide to the benefits and drawbacks of buying insurance online either directly from an insurance company or through a broker.
Submit all your pertinent information here, and IntelliQuote will scan 1,500 insurance providers to find you several workable options. You'll eventually have to talk to a rep by phone if you want to buy, but you can regard that as a chance to learn more and narrow your options. It's a powerful method to collect a lot of information quickly and make smarter choices.
A much-lauded online insurance broker, ReliaQuote automatically delivers the ten best life insurance deals once you provide all the necessary stats about your body and your lifestyle. Not sure how to proceed? The site is loaded with tutorials and articles on how to distinguish among various types of life insurance and how to figure out precisely how much insurance you need given your age, career path, and family size.
Bankrate.com is much admired for its ability to sort through thousands of mortgage plans and permutations to help you zero in on the one that will suit you best. You're sure to have noticed that rates can change daily, which makes it so important to have a useful service like this close at hand. Supported by advertising, there's no cost to you to use the site, and you needn't give any personal information to get the quotes.
This site exists to connect customers to lenders, and you can search for rates here, but even more valuable is its extensive library of articles which, alongside interactive tools and calculators, will help you sort out your money matters and give you guidance as you start to talk to the banks. If you've never understood, for example, why paying points on a mortgage can be a good option, this is the place to learn.
FannieMae, the public/private lender that claims to have helped 55 million Americans get home loans, has a special section devoted to everything you need to know about becoming a homeowner, distinguishing among the various types of home equity loans and refinancing options, and you'll also find a search tool to find FannieMae approved and affiliated lenders.
Ah, the retirement calculator. What could be more terrifying? While you can find many of them online, this one does a good job of asking a few simple questions and then spelling out in detail just how much more you'll need to save if you want to have a pleasant lifestyle until you die. Playing around with this gadget for a while is a real wakeup call.
New York Life, the insurance company, says that "Baby Boomers may have been lulled into a sense of complacency by reports that they stand to inherit trillions." On this special page devoted to Boomer issues, the realities are spelled out, and naturally, insurance annuities are recommended as one way to plan for the future. Still, beyond the sales pitch there is great retirement planning advice for anyone over the age of 50, including a section on how to make any inheritance you're lucky enough to get last well into the future.
CNN Money's retirement page features the expertise of the editors of Money magazine. Topics include smart 401(k) strategies, keeping tabs on your elderly parents' finances, facing the truth about Social Security, and more. Play around with the calculators or read "Money 101" to learn a few things about personal finance you didn't already know.
Why would you want to stop doing something that provides a place to go and people to see, mental stimulation, a feeling of being needed, a way to hone skills and experience—not to mention an income? Evidence is growing that people who stop working abruptly, with no plan to replace work with anything meaningful, are headed for trouble. The latest research says you will be happier, healthier and wealthier if you decide to keep on working at something that matters. This site provides tools, research and ideas for your next life.
You’ll find all you’ll need for planning a vibrant life after50, whether or not retirement is on your horizon. Derive life-long benefits from E-learning communities, self-guided personal planning, useful tools, articles, calculators and retirement or life coaching with a personal life-after-50 coach!
This is an excellent place to find out about 401(k)-type retirement plans, including the more recently-introduced Roth 401(k). You’ll find retirement calculators, along with good discussions related to asset allocation and risk. There are also sections for small businesses and corporate plan sponsors.
The Learning Center on the TIAA-CREF site has useful information on tax and retirement planning, including a discussion of the different types of IRAs (traditional, spousal, Roth) and a good overview of estate planning.
The IRS provides a broad array of easy-to-navigate topics related to taxes, retirement plans and related issues. You’ll see separate areas for international taxpayers, students and seniors, as well as contacts for your own local IRS office.
Internal Revenue Service Tax Information
Is there any Web site you'd rather visit less than this one? Actually, the IRS does an outstanding job of providing reams of searchable information that can help you track down answers to many of your tax questions easily. The site even has a sense of humor. Track down the 60-page document about "Frivolous Tax Arguments" to see the justifications many people try to use to get out of paying taxes.
Filing your taxes online makes all sorts of good sense, and this is the place to do it. Fees range from free for the easiest forms to $99.95 for Schedule C filers (plus additional fees for state forms), but the theory is that using the automated question-and-answer style of tax prep will end up finding you more deductions and exemptions. Even if you don’t sign on, browse the voluminous Tax Tips section for endless tax advice, all in delightfully plain English.
The Easy Way to Pay for College
Upromise is the savings network for parents and grandparents to help with the costs of college education.
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Free health insurance quotes
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