Big Mama had better choices
WHEN IT CAME to investing, my grandmother had one strategy -- protect your principal. Big Mama put all of her money in a passbook savings account. She didn't invest in stocks. The only bond she ever bought was the adhesive material used to hold her dentures in place.
( By Michelle Singletary, Columnist, 09/16/2002 01:22 PM PDT)

Vice Fund is `socially irresponsible,' easy to grasp, recession-proof
The Vice Fund went on sale to the public Sept. 3, billing itself as a "socially irresponsible fund" that will put investors' assets into four industry sectors: tobacco, gambling, liquor and defense.
( BY BOB FERNANDEZ, Knight Ridder Newspapers, 09/16/2002 12:11 PM PDT)

It's likely too late to buy bond funds
Despite some signs that the economy is slowly strengthening, a perennial Wall Street safe haven - the bond mutual fund - is pulling in big sums from still-skittish investors.
( By Amy Baldwin, Associated Press, 09/15/2002 11:53 PM PDT)

Stock returns without risk: Can it be true?
A number of financial products offer investors stock returns without any risk, but that sounds a bit too much like a free lunch to be true. These products usually do protect investors during times of crashing markets, but return less than real stocks during rising markets.
( BY LINDA STERN, Reuters, 09/14/2002 10:53 AM PDT)

Put power of diversity into bonds
Diversification could not keep a stock portfolio from losing money last month -- nothing does if you hold stocks during broad-based sell-offs. But until then, a portfolio divided among large and small stocks, growth and value, U.S. and international, and with a dose of real estate investment trusts, would have shown only minor losses since the bear market started in the spring of 2000.
( 09/12/2002 04:29 PM PDT)

War bonds a big hit with investors, but reason is unclear
The government is reporting a 36 percent boost in sales of an ordinary savings bond that was transformed into a war bond after Sept. 11. Whether that can be attributed to patriotism remains unclear.
( By Nancy Zuckerbrod, ASSOCIATED PRESS, 09/11/2002 04:11 PM PDT)

Beaten-up tech stocks getting another look
You may have heard the latest on tech investing: Which was better, buying $1,000 of stock in a leading company during the bubble, say, Nortel, or a diversified portfolio of six-packs of beer?
( By David A. Sylvester, San Jose Mercury News, 09/09/2002 05:33 PM PDT)

Street still insane about tech stocks
The word on Wall Street is there are lots of bargains in technology stocks after their bone-jarring plunge. But the cold reality is, it's a lot of hype.
( BY PIERRE BELEC, Reuters, 09/07/2002 11:36 PM PDT)