“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, December 8, 2000
• Tips for the Week: Daily Advice to Help Get You Through the Week
• Read the Latest: Is Your Bank a Money Syphon?
• Run the Numbers: Which is Better--Term or Whole Life Insurance?

Market Summary for Friday, December 8:

Close

Net Change

Percent Change

DJIA

10712.91

+95.55

+0.90%

NASDAQ

2916.16

+163.50

+5.94%

S&P 500

1369.74

+26.19

+1.95%

30-Year Bond

5.55%

-----

N/A

Source: Reuters

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

Monday: Want to learn more about investing and teach your kids about the market? Get your family together and start your own investment club. Have everyone agree on a long-term goal--a family vacation, for instance--and then decide jointly on which investments will get you there.

Tuesday: Be smart: buy disability insurance. Although it can be expensive (between 1-3% of your income), it's necessary protection: 1 in 8 people will suffer from a severe disability during their lifetime. Learn more about disability insurance.

Wednesday: You probably already know you should have a will. But there are other legal documents that may prove to be just as valuable to your estate plan--a durable power of attorney, living will, and health care power of attorney. Learn more about estate planning.

Thursday: In a rising housing market, own your home for at least 2 years before selling. If you sell within 2 years, your profits will be subject to capital gains tax. Learn more about buying a house.

Friday: Thanks to the power of compounding, the earlier you start investing, the more your money will earn--by a substantial amount. Learn more about the power of compounding.

Read the Latest: Is Your Bank a Money Syphon?
Instead of Saving Your Money, It May be Costing You

By Kara Stefan

I've always been one to compartmentalize money. In other words, I pay for staples and bills from one account, invest from another, and keep both long-term and short-term savings accounts. It may sound nutty, but that's just what helps me stay budgeted.

At the same time, four different bank accounts can be rather expensive. I try to cut costs by using those plans where I promise not to enter the bank--which is a totally absurd concept--but they somehow get me anyway. Six bucks a month for a checking account. Three bucks for every instance of overdraft protection covered by my savings account.

It's getting worse. Online banking, which I might as well do since I can't visit with a live teller anyway, has increased competition within the banking industry--resulting in higher interest rates and lower bank fees. Brick-and-mortar banks, however, have yet to respond in kind.

Instead of dropping fees and raising rates, they continue to do the opposite. More-->

Run the Numbers: Which is Better--Term or Whole Life Insurance?

Click here to compare the rates of return for term and whole life insurance policies to determine which makes more sense for you

Questions

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