Smart401k Blog

I love money. I love having it, I love saving it, and sometimes, I even love spending it. The problem is, I can also be paranoid about my money. I’ve noticed, lately, that I’ve developed a bad habit of checking all my accounts each day. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good idea to know how much you have, but it can be time consuming to log in to the various accounts, look at the balances and transactions and then try to keep track of where you are spending your money. To help simplify this part of my life, I decided to try the website Mint.com. Mint.com allows you to link together all your accounts (e.g., checking, savings, investments, loans, etc.) so that you only have to look at one site to get your entire financial picture. Now, instead of spending twenty minutes logging into various accounts, I can spend two minutes on Mint.com.

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In the headlines

A look at some of the market movers over the past week:

• Goldman Sachs dealt with the reverberations from the SEC’s fraud lawsuit
• Greece’s financial picture deteriorated further as it revised its 2009 deficit upward and the country asked for the promised EU bailout
• The volcanic eruption in Iceland badly disrupted European air travel
• Toyota issued yet another recall

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I would like to discuss a fund I’ve been following for a few months.  A client originally asked about the Heartland Select Value Fund (HRSVX), so I did some research about this option.  This is an overview of what I found.

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In the headlines

A look at some of the market movers over the past week:

• Goldman Sachs is being sued by regulators for fraud
• The European Union detailed its plan to bail out debt-plagued Greece
• Smartphone maker Palm is reportedly trying to sell itself
• The National Bureau of Economic Research said it’s not yet ready to call an end to the recession

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Let’s say you were on the TV show, Who Wants to be a Millionaire and the million dollar question was, “Which of these funds would have the highest upfront expenses? “

a) PIMCO Total Return A                   b) PIMCO Total Return B

c) PIMCO Total Return C                   d) PIMCO Total Return Inst

Would you be able to answer the question?

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In the headlines

A look at some of the market movers over the past week:

• A key figure at the National Bureau of Economic Research suggested that the recession is over
• The debut of the much-awaited iPad had Apple shares riding high
• The U.S. government is planning to hit Toyota with a hefty fine
• Concerns over Greece have yet to subside

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At the top of every newscast we hear news and commentary related to the passage of the new health care reform bill. Regardless of your opinion about the new legislation, this is a perfect time to think about your personal plan to pay for health care during retirement. Most people who plan for retirement don’t spend enough time thinking about health care expenses. People who do begin to consider retirement health care costs often don’t feel prepared to deal with them. According to the 2010 Retirement Confidence Survey, 51% of workers have little-to-no confidence that they have sufficient retirement savings to cover medical costs, and only 12% of workers are absolutely confident that their retirement fund will cover them medically.

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In the headlines

A look at some of the market movers over the past week:

• China’s Geely Holding agreed to buy Volvo from Ford for $1.8 billion
• Previously estimated fourth quarter growth for the U.K. was revised upward
• The U.S. Treasury detailed its plans to exit its investment in Citigroup
• Personal spending rose even as personal income stayed flat

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