Financial Information & Education

The Motley Fool

This site offers daily news, commentary and quotes as well as a library of past articles, educational items, and financial calculators - all for free.  For a membership charge, you can join the site's chat rooms (free trial available).  They also sell a variety of services including newsletters and advisory services.

The site is geared towards individual stock picking though they are big advocates of indexing if you are not willing to do the research to pick stocks well.  Articles also cover a wide range of economic, personal finance, and even popular culture topics.  Very enjoyable and educational.
www.fool.com

And since April 2005, John has been a paid contributor to The Motley Fool.  Check out his articles here:

It's a Matter of Discipline - April 25, 2007

What About My Health Insurance ??! - December 12, 2006

A Modest Proposal For Airlines - November 16, 2006

Make 29% Risk Free! - July 18, 2006

Hot TIPS to Heed - May 16, 2006

When Dividends Head South - April 18, 2005

Sallie Mae Sticks Close to Home - April 14, 2005

Yahoo! Finance

This free site offers news, quotes, historical information, research, earnings calendars and much more.  With My Yahoo! you can set up portfolios to track, alerts of movements in stock price and earnings announcements, and get news tailored to stocks of your choosing.  The site's focus is broad enough to encompass bonds, options, and mutual funds.  Commentary is a bit less consumer finance oriented.  Fee-based services are available.  Useful for raw data (current and historical), research and portfolio tracking.
finance.yahoo.com

Free EDGAR

For the hard-core researcher, this site allows the user to access SEC filings for publicly traded companies as far back as 1986.  Depending on the company and the age of the filing, the information may be in HTML (web page), TXT (text only), or MS Word®.  A premium service is available that lets you download financials in Excel® and perform name searches on the entire database.
sec.freeedgar.com

Morningstar

The premier source for mutual fund information and home of the Morningstar 5-star ratings, this site provides the popular Stylebox that many 401(k) participants are familiar with as well as information about expenses, managers, and top holdings.  The site also provides useful information on stocks and ETFs as well as personal finance tools and financial education.  Screening tools for both stocks and mutuals funds are available.
www.morningstar.com

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FORM 4 ORACLE

A summary of insider trading for any publicly traded company - by transaction and in summary chart form.

www.form4oracle.com

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Consumer Information

Clark Howard

Radio personality and all-around cheap guy Clark Howard has this web site packed with handy information that runs the gamut from scam protection to best calling card deals to plain old how-to info on buying used cars or insurance.
clarkhoward.com

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Treasury Direct ®

Treasury Direct® is a program sponsored by the Bureau of Public Debt that lets individuals purchase U.S. Treasury Bills and Notes (including TIPS) commission-free.  The program is intended for those who wish to buy and hold, but the ability to sell the issues is available at a reasonable cost via the Sell Direct® program.
www.publicdebt.treas.gov/sec/sectrdir.htm

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Books

* - Favorites

Asset Allocation

Common Sense on Mutual Funds - John C. Bogle - An arguement for index funds from the man who brought them to the average investor.

* The Four Pillars of Investing - William J. Bernstein - Ties together the best research in finance in recent years and explains it in easy-to-understand terms.

Irrational Exuberance - Robert J. Shiller - Predicted the bursting of the high-tech bubble.  A good reminder why it's not 'different this time'.

* A Random Walk Down Wall Street - Burton Malkiel - Explains the Efficient Market Hypothesis and why that means indexing is the smart move.

Stocks for the Long Run - Jeremy Siegel - Explains why stocks, though risky in the short run, are a good investment for the long term.

Planning

* Nine Steps to Financial Freedom - Suze Orman - The Why's and Wherefore's of comprehensive planning.

Stockpicking

Beating the Street - Peter Lynch - A  look at how to find good companies all around you from one of the best mutual fund managers ever.

Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits - Phillip Fischer - A very good common-sense approach to evaluating stocks.

What Works on Wall St. - James O'Shaughnessy - A look at various stockpicking methods from a statistical viewpoint.

Winning the Loser's Game - Charles D. Ellis - A good arguement for why you shoudn't be trying to pick stocks in the first place.

Valuation

Security Analysis - Benjamin Graham & David Dodd - Written shortly after the Crash of 1929, this is THE classic text for value investing.

Other

Buffett - Roger Lowenstein - A biography of (arguably) the greatest living investor.

* The Essays of Warren Buffett - Warren Buffett & Lawrence Cunningham - Selections from Buffett's annual shareholder letters.  A wealth of information on just about every finance topic.

The Courage to Be Rich - Suze Orman - A look at the psychology of how people treat money and financial decisions.

* Influence - Robert Cialdini - An examination of how people get convinced to spend, act, think.

When Genius Failed - Roger Lowenstien - Even the smartest people get it wrong.

Click here for other investment books on Amazon.com

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