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TOP NATIONAL STORY  

   Figuring tax breaks for investment losses
Capital losses may be painful for investors, but they can help taxpayers willing to harvest the losses for current and future tax deductions.


SPECIAL REPORT: NET WORTH  

   Market downturn forces online investors, brokerages to adapt
Recent years have seen stock trading, banking, credit card applications, insurance and loan shopping gain major footholds with Internet users. But online investing, which roared into the new century as a killer application for the Internet, lately has slumped like a dog on the Dow.

RELATED LINKS:
Banks compete for online customers
More people finding mortgages online
Web tools can help users outline their retirement
Market downturn forces online investors, brokerages to adapt

INVESTING NEWS  

   Chips and dips: SOX crunch
Hope for a recovery in the nation's technology stocks has disappeared. That's what SOX - the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index - is telling the stock market.


WHAT'S INSIDE  

Investing
The latest news and information to help you invest successfully.
Stock Options
Mutual Funds
Retirement Planning
Estate Planning
Credit & Debt Management
Get the most from your credit and debt.
Loans
Education Planning
Mortgages
Bankruptcy
Taxes
How to prepare for - and get through - tax time.
Insurance
Find the policy that's right for you.
Online Banking
How it works and who's doing it.

COMMENTARY  


   Low rates tempt, but don't lose your head
Jeff Brown | Yesterday, the Mortgage Bankers Association of America reported the 30-year rate had fallen to an average of 5.99 percent from 6.16 percent a week earlier. This is a four-decade low. The 15-year fixed-rate loan fell to 5.4 percent, a record.


PERSONAL FINANCE COLUMNISTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY  

Jeff Brown
Jeff Brown is personal finance columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Gail MarksJarvis
Gail MarksJarvis covers investing and personal finance issues for the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
Harriet Johnson Brackey
Miami Herald columnist Harriet Johnson Brackey has been reporting on business, the economy, taxes, Wall Street and finance for newspapers and magazines for nearly two decades.
Meg Green
Certified financial planner Meg Green answers reader questions in her Miami Herald column.
Mark Schwanhausser
San Jose Mercury News columnist Mark Schwanhausser writes about money: how to save it, invest it and keep it from the taxman.
Harry Gross
Harry Gross answers personal finance questions in the Philadelphia Daily News.
Jim Mackinnon
Jim Mackinnon's Compound Interest column runs in the Akron Beacon Journal.
Susan Tompor
Columnist Susan Tompor writes about finance for the Detroit Free Press
Paul Wenske
Paul Wenske writes about consumer affairs for the Kansas City Star



QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS  
Study takes stock of Americans' investments
Q. What percentage of Americans actually individually invest in the stock market and are shareholders, as opposed to simply being covered by pension funds run by pension-fund managers and that kind of group investment activity?
Looking for stock market alternatives?
Q. I don't desire to invest in the stock market with the money accumulating outside of my retirement accounts. Most of my assets are in my employer's retirement plan invested in stock mutual funds. What should I do?
Coping with low interest rates
Q. I have had an account in a bank for more than 25 years. I believe I was a charter depositor. My experience with the bank has been outstanding. They have consistently paid higher interest on checking and CDs than the other banks.

HEADLINES  

Patriot Bonds offer safety, but not short-term income
Seems like the hunger for information on U.S. savings bonds is insatiable. Sunday's column on the benefits of purchasing Patriot Bonds before new, probably lower, rates are set on Friday drew a flood of notes and calls from readers - as always happens when I write about this simple, old-fashioned way to save. People are attracted to the extraordinary safety these bonds provide, as well as the relatively generous interest they are currently paying.

Now even getting a bill costs money
You may dread monthly bills in the mailbox, but consider them a perk. Some companies are charging for them. For years, businesses have cajoled customers to view their bills online, mostly by offering cash, gift certificates, sweepstakes prizes and other incentives in return. A tough economy, though, has led to an even more aggressive stance.

Mortgages paid down at low rates
Mortgage interest rates have fallen so low that some homeowners can't resist the opportunity to increase their monthly payments. Being enticed by low rates to pay ahead on your home loan or refinance from a 30-year note to 15 might seem counterintuitive. Why not stretch things out as much as possible when borrowing is so cheap?

Consumer confidence plummets in October
Worries about jobs and a possible U.S. attack on Iraq pummeled consumer confidence to its lowest level in nine years in October, a report said on Tuesday, a grim omen for the holiday shopping season ahead.

If advance-fee loans sound tempting -- reconsider
Businesses that take advantage of low-income families and people who've gotten themselves into messes with credit cards are unconscionable in my book.

Scare tactics miss true peril for Social Security
Forget all the political blather about who is responsible for scaring senior citizens in this year's U.S. Congressional elections.

Why to switch mutual funds
WHOA! HOW ABOUT those third-quarter retirement plan statements? One look prompts most people to wonder, "What do I do now?" Of course, just since Oct. 1, the markets are up sharply, so there's part of our answer right there.





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