“There are two ways of meeting difficulties: you alter the difficulties, or you alter yourself to meet them.”

- Phyllis Bottome

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 30, 2001
• Tips for the Week: Daily Advice to Help Get You Through the Week
• Read the Latest: Revolving Credit Making Your Head Spin?
• Run the Numbers: Regular IRA vs. Roth IRA

Market Summary for Friday, March 30:

Close

Net Change

Percent Change

DJIA

9878.78

+79.72

+0.81%

NASDAQ

1840.26

+19.69

+1.08%

S&P 500

1160.33

+12.38

+1.08%

30-Year Bond

5.50%

----

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.

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: Revolving Credit Making Your Head Spin?

By Jill Terry

You've shopped around and found a credit card with a great low rate. Unfortunately, depending on how the credit card company or bank calculates its finance charges, you may not be saving as much as you think.

There are at least four different ways of calculating a finance charge, with lots of variations on those methods, so a rate of 5% at one bank may translate to a different monthly figure than 5% at another bank. If you can't find the balance computation method in the literature included with your application or new account materials, be sure to ask someone (call the toll free number that's usually part of the package--and be willing to wait out transfers until you reach someone with enough training to know what you're looking for).

Here's a quick primer on how these calculations are made and what they mean to your budget. More-->

Run the Numbers: Regular IRA vs. Roth IRA

Find out which retirement investment vehicle will provide you with the most retirement income.

Questions

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