The College Solutions Blog

Valuable insights from Lynn O’Shaughnessy
a nationally recognized college expert.

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Overseas Investing and Volatility

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...

How to Find a Great Financial Advisor

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...

Finding Cheap Airline Seats

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...

The No. 1 Threat to Your Portfolio

Every year Dalbar , Inc., a financial services firm in Boston, conducts a study on the investing acumen of typical Americans. Usually, the results are appalling. In this year’s study, which was released this week, investors fared much better than usual. In 2006, the average stock fund investor generated a return of 14.7%, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index,...

The Pros and Cons of Fundamental Investing

I get a lot of questions about index funds from over the years because readers know that I am a huge advocate of index funds. Over the long run, they provide low-cost superior returns compared to other mutual funds. What I haven’t written about before, however, is fundamental indexing. This new type of indexing has triggered the academic equivalent of...

Best Fourth of July Picnic

Last month, I wrote a column for the San Diego Union-Tribune on how people can save money by cooking wholesome dinners instead of buying the sort of food that you zap in the microwave. My editor didn’t like the column because he thought it belonged in the food section. I argued that shrinking grocery bills was a legitimate topic for...

Where the Heck is Lynn O'Shaughnessy's Column?

Starting today, the San Diego Union-Tribune replaced my investing column with one that Michelle Singletary writes. The newspaper’s motivation, as I explained previously, was to save money. If you miss my writing, however, there is no reason why you can’t keep reading my column too since I’ve moved it online. Just click on the “This Week’s Column” link on the...

Three Great Reasons to Avoid Hedge Funds

For wealthy investors, hedge funds are as tantalizing as Apple’s new iPhone. Of course, millionaires don’t have to stand in a line that snakes around a city block to pick up shares in a hedge fund. And that’s part of the hedge fund’s powerful allure. Most people aren’t worth enough money to be able to invest in these funds. So...

Investing Overseas the Right Way

As I was researching a magazine story about foreign investing yesterday, I uncovered a stunning statistic. This is what I learned from the Investment Company Institute, which tracks the nation’s mutual fund flows: After adjusting for withdrawals, 93 cents out of every $1 that investors sunk into stock mutual funds last year ended up overseas. And that’s not a typo....

The Meaning of Money

A close friend of mine told me back in the mid 1980s that if he ever made $30,000, he’d be happy. At the time, he was earning $15,000 and he believed that doubling his money was all that was necessary for financial bliss. Today, he is making close to $175,000 and he is still yearning for a higher income. Financial...