The College Solutions Blog

September 29, 2007

I graduated from college back in 1978, but I’ve got college on my brain every day because of the college book that I’m writing. My desk and the couch in my office are covered with stacks and stacks of college material that I’ve gathered from my interviews, as well as from such places as The Chronicle of Higher Education, InsideHigherEd.com,...

September 15, 2007

Someone at The Wall Street Journal got a jump on the competition when it found a copy of Alan Greenspan’s new book in a New York area bookstore. The newspaper was so delighted by its find that its article about the book, The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New Word, was the lead story in Saturday’s edition. The self-described...

September 1, 2007

When I read what’s been happening in the financial markets lately, I’m embarrassed to be a financial journalist. Actually, it’s not Wall Street’s behavior that embarrasses me, it’s the way it’s being covered. Why do journalists insist on covering the market as if it’s a horse race? It’s not. People who are invested in stocks should be committed to keeping...

August 24, 2007

You might assume that there is nothing good to say about the subprime mortgage meltdown that has triggered heartbreaking personal tragedies across the country. I assumed the same thing, which was why I was surprised to learn from The Wall Street Journal yesterday that there is one pleasant side to the financial heartbreak. Some of the nation’s mortgage lenders are...

August 18, 2007

I have never seen any statistics about the percentage of Americans, who catastrophize. These are the people who tend to tear themselves apart about setbacks, or even imaginary setbacks, which makes them seem far worse than they are. I am one of those people. When my daughter started driving, I worried a lot about her getting in a terrible car...

August 7, 2007

If you ever fiddled around with an online retirement calculator, you may have felt uneasy with the results. That’s because these calculators, as imperfect as they are, will generate meaningless results if the calculations are based on faulty assumptions. Of course, we are the weak links since we’re stuck providing those assumptions. T. Rowe Price, the mutual fund company, hopes...

August 3, 2007

For a couple of days last week, the stock markets seemed to be behaving as if it was suffering from some horrible chronic illness. But then Wall Street bounced back and behaved as if the problem had just been a hang nail. Today, the market has crawled back in bed. For all of us invested in stocks, volatility is something...

July 26, 2007

I’m working on two books simultaneously so it’s been tough finding time to write on the blog, but today’s drop in the stock market prompted me to post an observation. I’m not worried about Wall Street’s temporary tantrum because these sorts of things happen every now and then. Actually, the Wall Street panic should make intelligent investors, who own diversified...

July 20, 2007

Dear Lynn, I believe in one of your columns you made a recommendation on how to find the best “fee only” certified financial planners. Can you give me the website or archives with that column? Or a listing of them in the San Diego area? I miss your column in the Union Tribune, but do keep up with the news...

July 18, 2007

When I book airline tickets, I always wonder if the price will drop after I buy them. Should I wait a few days in hopes of saving money or should I just bite the bullet and move on? A new web site called FareCast.com aims to help travelers who hate to pay too much. The web site will predict whether...