High qualityinvestment planning software is necessary to generate a fully personalized family financial strategy

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The financial and investment planning postings on this free information site supply important ideas to households about personal finance plan topics that they should consider. These essays help in establishing a lifelong personal finance planning strategy. Furthermore, to generate a fully comprehensive plan for financial success requires that you use a first-rate financial planning calculator with the top investment calculator and the top financial calculators.

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Gauge the level of your portfolio’s overall diversification with this free on-line tool

Whenever you invest in multiple mutual funds and ETFs, you may wonder how broadly and appropriately diversified your aggregate portfolio might be. Have your investment holdings and mutual funds that you have chosen increased the global diversification of your personal financial asset portfolio? Do they just duplicate what you already own?

There is a free on-line tool that you can use to measure your portfolio diversification, and better understand the relative contribution that each of your investments makes to your goal of holding a broadly diversified global investment portfolio. On the Morningstar website, you can find their “Instant X-Ray” tool. Go to the Morningstar site at http://www.morningstar.com/

Click the “Tools” tab in the horizontal bar, select the “Morningstar Tools” pull down menu, and then choose “Instant X-Ray.” To go directly to this tool, use this URL:
http://portfolio.morningstar.com/NewPort/Free/InstantXRayDEntry.aspx

To use the Instant X-Ray Tool, just enter the ticker symbols for all of the mutual funds, ETFs, and individual securities that you own or intend to own with the dollar value of each holding. Then, click “Show Instant X-Ray” to see a summary of your overall portfolio.

Note that when you enter only one mutual fund or ETF ticker symbol or only one stock or bond holding into the Instant X-Ray Tool, the summary provides data for that single fund or security. This can be very useful, as you evaluate individual investment funds and investment securities. When you enter multiple funds, you will get an overview that blends all the funds and securities in proportion to the dollar values that you enter for each holding.

This free Instant X-Ray summary provides a variety of data about your overall portfolio. The overview allows you to evaluate how diversified your portfolio is on a variety of dimensions, including the major dimensions that are summarized in the other articles on this website about selecting a broadly diversified investment portfolio. (See the Sitemap for these articles.)

Incidentally, if you click on the other views that are offered with the Instant X-Ray tool, then Morningstar will try to get you to sign up for a “Premium” subscription. The information provided by this free summary overview in the Instant X-Ray tool is sufficient, and you are not required to pay for a premium subscription.

Note that there is no relationship between this website and Morningstar, and this website did not receive any form of consideration, financial or otherwise, to write this article. The “Instant X-Ray” is a useful financial tool for individual investors, and that is why we have provided this article.

Investment software is needed to establish a much more reasonable long-term money management strategy

This free “achieve financial freedom” site provides essays on how to develop a self-directed personal financial plan

The financial and investment planning articles on this free site supply important considerations to households about personal finance plan issues that they should take into consideration. These publications help in establishing a life time personal finance planning strategy. In addition, to make a really useful long-term money management strategy requires that you use the leading financial planning tool with the top financial investment software and an excellent home financial software.

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The Only Real Protector of Your Financial Security Is You!

Reduce the Chances of Mail Theft

Never leave any outgoing financial letters containing checks or sensitive information outside in public for the postman. To receive mail, you should have a mail drop slot rather than a mailbox on the outside of the house. Always mail your financial letters inside of a reliable US Post Office. Theft of checks in the mail – from outside your home happens more often than you may think. And, you are the one who suffers when your payment is not received in time; you credit rating gets dinged; your check is stolen, washed, and cashed; you lose your money; and you waste a huge amount of time puting your financial identity theft Humpty Dumpty back together again.

Stolen checks can be chemically washed to remove ink. To do this criminals tape over your signature on both sides, and then remove the tape. The end result is a blank check with your signature. To avoid check washing, you can purchase certain gel pens with ink that cannot be washed in this manner. Several vendors offer gel pens that claim not to be washable. You can research them on the web with Google. For example, Sanford distributes the Uniball Signo line of gel pens with gel ink that supposedly cannot be washed. These pens may be found in local stores.

Review ALL Bills and Financial Statements Promptly and Handle Significant Problems in Writing Within 60 Days

Review your credit card bills and other financial account statements carefully and respond to any problems promptly. Unfortunately, after 60 days the few consumer protections that are available to you under the Fair Credit Reporting Act will cease. Thereafter, you are at the mercy of the goodwill of banks and other financial institutions, which all too often is sorely lacking. Never count on the goodwill of any financial institution after 60 days has passed. This is particularly the case, with financial services companies that you cannot visit locally in person. Over the telephone, financial services companies — particularly credit card companies — have mastered the art of (usually) politely telling you that they are sorry, but there is nothing that can be done to fix a problem without, of course, it costing you a lot of money!

Check every financial statement that you receive in a timely manner and report any problems. If the dollar amount in question is significant, read the instructions on your statement or on the financial institution’s website about how to make a report in writing. Only when you follow these procedures in writing within 60 days are you protected under this law.

If you attempt to resolve a problem over the telephone, take careful notes including who, when, and what was stated, etc. Nevertheless, telephone conversations do not protect your legal rights, so when the amounts in question are significant to you, you must put it in writing.

Dispose of Financial Records Properly

Be careful in disposing of all financial records and statements. Do not simply discard them in the trash or recycling. Use a crosscut shredder, which makes small confetti and not strips. Alternatively, you can keep a bag of discarded financial records, which you burn periodically. These financial records disposal recommendations also apply to preprinted credit card and other debt applications that you might receive in the mail. Do not throw these applications in the trash without first tearing off your name and address from the application.

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