AAII.com: AAII Guides

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AAII’s collection of Investor Guides arms you with essential investment tools and guidance. The guides, which are updated annually, provide in-depth information on exchange-traded funds, the top Web sites for investors, discount brokers, taxation and the top mutual funds. Two of these popular guides that have been recently updated are described below. You can learn more about AAII’s Guides and download copies by clicking here.

Personal Tax Guide

AAII’s Personal Tax and Financial Planning Guide helps members assess current tax situations and plan for any changes that may improve tax liability both this year and next. The 2005 guide is available on-line—you can either scroll through the guide or download a printable version in PDF format. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to download the guide; a link to this free software and instructions on using PDFs are available on the Web site—choose “AAII’s Tax Guide” from the Investor Guides page.

Tax changes that may affect your taxes and decisions this year and in the future are discussed. Changes include increased deduction and IRA contribution amounts, filing for an extension and hurricane relief. You will also find planning strategies that can help reduce your taxes such as timing income and deductions, charitable contributions or the tax impact on mutual funds. Learn how to handle special circumstances like the Kiddie Tax, monetary and investment securities gifts, inheritances and deductions for health savings accounts.

Additionally, get a brief review of tax rules and other considerations for common personal investments. Worksheets and summaries for reviewing your current tax position and for further tax planning include: a summary of tax rate schedules, deductions, exemptions and phase-outs; and a Tax Forecasting Worksheet. Also, get a head start on your 2006 taxes with the 2006 Tax Planning Calendar.

Top Mutual Funds Guide

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You can now download the 2006 edition of The Individual Investor’s Guide to the Top Mutual Funds as well as additional data on over 1,000 funds tracked by AAII in its Quarterly Low-Load Mutual Fund Update. The data can be downloaded in PDF format.

In addition to performance data, expense ratios and other key fund information, the guide offers tips on fund investing. Chapters four and five offer information on how to read mutual fund statements and understand different risk measures while chapter 10 gives advice on when to sell a fund.

Chapter three, “Mutual Fund Categories,” explains how the book categorizes the funds. If you are not sure which category a given fund is placed in, you can use the Find function within the Adobe PDF reader to search for a fund’s ticker symbol or name. The Find function is activated by clicking on the Binoculars search icon within the toolbar or by clicking on the “Locate a Fund” bookmark. The Top Mutual Fund Guide can be found in the AAII Investor Guides area.