“When your dream appears as an opportunity, you must have ready cash to take it home with you.”

- Anonymous

Welcome to Money-Smarts, MsMoney.com's weekly newsletter of financial facts, features, and tools. Money-Smarts is designed to provide quick and useful information to help secure your financial future. Enjoy, and tell a friend about MsMoney.com!

In This Week's Issue:

• Market Summary for Friday, September 29, 2000
• Tips for the Week: Daily Advice to Help Get You Through the Week
• Read the Latest: What the Heck is an IPO?
• Run the Numbers: How Much is Renters Insurance?

Market Summary for Friday, September 29:

Close

Net Change

Percent Change

DJIA

10650.92

-173.14

-1.60%

NASDAQ

3672.65

-105.67

-2.79%

S&P 500

1436.51

-21.78

-1.49%

30-Year Bond

5.88%

----

N/A

Source: Reuters

Tips for the Week: Daily Advice to Help Get You Through the Week

Monday: What are you saving for? Write down your financial goals and keep them posted where you can see them every day. The next time you’re tempted to splurge, check your list of goals and remember what’s most important for you to achieve. Learn more about financial goals and priorities.

Tuesday: Asset rebalancing is necessary to ensure that your current investment mix stays in line with your financial objectives. Automatic asset rebalancing programs, offered by many mutual fund and annuity companies, make it easy to maintain your asset allocation strategy. Learn more about asset rebalancing.

Wednesday: Don’t spend a dollar to save 35¢ in taxes. The “If I borrow money, the interest is deductible” approach has led many a borrower down the wrong--and expensive--path.

Thursday: Put your emergency cash fund to work--make sure you have an interest bearing checking account. Learn more about checking accounts.

Friday: Stagger your investments and withdrawals to protect yourself at both the front and back ends of the investment cycle. Regular, gradual investing allows you to benefit from dollar cost averaging. At the other end, staggered redemptions allow you to cash out strategically, starting with investments at all-time highs while holding those experiencing price drops, giving them more time to recover.

Read the Latest: What the Heck is an IPO?

By Kara Stefan

Critics of IPOs say the acronym stands for “It’s probably overpriced,” and that should tell you a lot right there. An IPO stock--which all kidding aside stands for “Initial Public Offering”--represents the first time a company sells stock to the public.

There are two classes of IPOs: the primary offering--generally when institutional and wealthy investors grab large chunks of stock, and a secondary offering, when these same investors cash in their profits by selling their shares to individual investors like you and me.

The IPO market is a tough nut to crack, which is probably a good thing. Most IPO companies are in the early stages of their business cycle and have a short performance track record. This makes them a more risky venture than your garden-variety stock that’s been around for years and therefore has a record to evaluate. More-->

Run the Numbers: How Much is Renters Insurance?

If you're considering renters insurance, get a quick estimate without having to make a home inventory.

Questions

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