“When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.”

- Charles A. Beard

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, March 16, 2001
• Tips for the Week: Daily Advice to Help Get You Through the Week
• Read the Latest: Is Online Banking Safe?
• Run the Numbers: Are You Doing Enough to Save On Your Homeowner’s Insurance Premiums?

Market Summary for Friday, March 16:

Close

Net Change

Percent Change

DJIA

9823.41

-207.87

-2.07%

NASDAQ

1891.04

-49.67

-2.56%

S&P 500

1150.41

-23.15

-1.97%

30-Year Bond

5.26%

-----

N/A

Source: Reuters

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

Monday: The mix of vehicles in which you invest determines approximately 90% of your investments' performance. Understand the different asset classes and which investment vehicles make the most sense for you, given your goals. Learn more about where to invest your money.

Tuesday: Thinking about buying a car, house, cell phone, or computer? Ask your children to research the products, as well as financing options, on the Internet. You’ll get valuable information, and they’ll get valuable lessons in comparison-shopping and how to pay for big-ticket items. Learn more about buying a car or home.

Wednesday: Reassess your asset allocation whenever your personal circumstances change: for instance, if you have children, remarry, retire, become divorced or widowed. Certain situations may demand a more aggressive portfolio while others call for switching to a more conservative investment strategy. Learn more about asset rebalancing.

Thursday: It’s never too early to start saving for retirement. Click here to find the right IRA for you!

Friday: Financial goals flow naturally from well thought-out and heartfelt values (what does financial health mean to you?). Once you clarify your values, figuring out your financial goals--and how to get there--is easy. Learn more about financial health and how to achieve it.

Read the Latest: Is Online Banking Safe?

By Gail Rickards

Online or I-banking security parallels most of traditional banking’s safety features. Even though technology changes rapidly, the ideas stay the same. Consider what we’re used to seeing at our local bank branch office:

Offices designed to protect cash
When you walk into your bank, it looks and feels secure. There’s a heavy vault door, and the tellers sit behind a protective counter. The back area remains locked and well supervised. Your bank may even have a guard in the lobby.

Identification and procedures
If the teller doesn’t know you, you will be asked for ID--and a supervisor may have to approve your transaction. There are policies and regulations about everything, even confidentiality. For instance, ask a teller for your balance, and the answer is written, not spoken.

Your responsibility
For your part, you pay attention to the whereabouts of your checkbook and ATM card, and you keep your PIN a secret. Every month you check your statement to be sure the bank’s accounting matches your own.

All this gives you a sense of security and peace of mind. To foster a similar peace of mind, I-banking adapts these features to its new technology. More-->

Run the Numbers: Are You Doing Enough to Save On Your Homeowner's Insurance Premiums?

Take our homeowner’s insurance quiz and learn new ways to save money you may not have thought of before.

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!