Spare Change
Money Tip
You can put a price on love: $113. A marketing firm says that’s the average amount people will spend on Valentine’s Day. Men spend more than women — $145 vs. $81 — and 18-to-34 year olds spend more than all other age groups combined.
Tax Watch
Don’t be tax-greedy. Some investments carry nice tax advantages, but many investors are so obsessed with making tax-exempt or tax-deferred investments that they often miss more lucrative, if taxable, investments.
Fund Fact
This year’s choice of Possible Persistent Performer is American Century Heritage. A PPP (devised by the No-Load Fund Investor newsletter) is the diversified no-load that did best during the previous year; funds that do very well in Year One tend to do nicely in Year Two.
Market Tip
Cash is back. Rates even on one-year CDs, which had dropped to 1.04 percent in 2003, have risen to almost 5 percent. In contrast to that risk-free income, the S&P 500 last year returned 4.9 percent, and taxable bond returns were 2.06 percent.
Net Nugget
Spring brings home improvements; here are some Web sites to help:
www.411home repair.com/ contractor/ index.shtml
Features home improvement resources, calculators, how tos and much more.
doityourself.com
Provides advice for homeowners willing to undertake a home remodeling job.