“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, January 5, 2001
• Tips for the Week: Daily Advice to Help Get You Through the Week
• Read the Latest: Dot.Cars: Buying a Used Car Online
• Run the Numbers: What's It Worth to Reduce Your Spending?

Market Summary for Friday, January 5:

Close

Net Change

Percent Change

DJIA

10662.01

-250.40

-2.29%

NASDAQ

2407.65

-159.18

-6.20%

S&P 500

1298.35

-34.99

-2.62%

30-Year Bond

5.41%

----

N/A

Source: Reuters

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

Monday: Consider international investments. With more than 50% of the world's capital market opportunities existing outside the U.S., a purely domestic investment strategy can severely limit your long-term earnings potential. Learn more about overseas diversification.

Tuesday: Look for imaginative ways to provide less costly care for your children--check out neighborhood art classes, tennis or music lessons, or volunteer centers. These options are frequently less expensive than childcare centers, expose your children to new interests and skills, and some providers can even arrange to pick your kids up from school.

Wednesday: With bonds, the longer the period to maturity, the greater the potential for price fluctuation. That is why long-term bonds generally offer a higher interest rate--to compensate for the greater level of risk. Learn more about investing in bonds.

Thursday: Take yourself and your financial objectives seriously, or no one else will. Financial choices that you make today will determine what you can and can't do with all your tomorrows. Learn more about setting--and sticking to--your financial goals.

Friday: The best antidote for investment risk is to make informed decisions, take consistent action, and invest for long-term wealth. Learn more about risk reduction strategies.

Read the Latest: Dot.Cars: Buying a Used Car Online

By Emily McDowell

Using the Internet to buy a used car is the latest trend to hit e-commerce. Now, with the click of a mouse you can get quotes on thousands of cars, safety and performance information, and a wide range of financing plans. And instead of wasting your weekend schlepping from one used car lot to the next, you can search at your leisure, from home or the office. But can you really trust these services? And how do they actually work?

Most online used car buying services, such as iMotors.com, AutoWeb.com, AutoByTel.com, and CarPoint.com serve as the "middleman" between you and car dealerships or private sellers. In other words, these sites don't sell cars from a single dealership; rather, they have access to countless cars available for sale around the country. When you use one of these sites to search for a car, you can limit your search to within a certain number of miles of your home, or for greater selection, you can expand the geographic search area. More-->

Run the Numbers: What's It Worth to Reduce Your Spending?

Click here to calculate how much you can save over time through small changes in your lifestyle.

Questions

Are there topics you’d like to read more about in Money-Smarts? Questions we can answer? Send an e-mail to emailus@msmoney.com and give us your feedback! Thanks!