Briefly Noted

Financial Planning
Get Organized! How to Maintain Your Personal Financial Files
Everyone needs to keep certain personal financial paperwork, but how do you decide which to keep and which to chuck? A guide to organizing your personal financial files.

Stock Screens
The Muhlenkamp Approach: Screening for High ROEs at a Reasonable Price
Ronald Muhlenkamp, lead manager of the Muhlenkamp Fund, takes a total return approach to investing, using a bottom-up strategy to select stocks, but adjusting benchmarks based upon the broad economic environment. AAII’s screen using the Muhlenkamp approach was one of the top-performing growth and value screens for 2005.

Stock Strategies
15 Short-Cuts and Biases That Lead to Bad Investment Decisions
Mental short-cuts simplify our complex world and help individuals form rules of thumb that work for many decisions. But they don’t work perfectly and can give rise to misperceptions that lead to decision-making errors. Worse, most people are unaware these biases exist. Fifteen common mental mistakes that lead to money-losing investment decisions.

Bonds
Cutting Through the Bond Market Fog When Shopping for Munis
Trying to buy or sell municipal bonds? If so, you may need some help cutting through the fog of bond market pricing and trading. Shopping for bonds is not nearly as clear-cut as shopping for individual stocks. How to shop for municipal bonds, using the Internet both as a source of bonds for purchase, as well as for information.

Hot Links
401(k) and 403(b) Investing Web Sites
Employees of companies both large and small have seen the traditional pension plan gradually replaced by defined-contribution plans. Where to look on-line for information to help you make the most of your retirement plan.

Insurance Products
Why You Should Avoid Investor-Initiated Life Insurance
Individuals’ altruistic instincts are being tapped by a life insurance marketing scheme that has been coined “investor-initiated life insurance.” Although it may sound intriguing, this is something that you want to avoid.

Departments
Letters to the Editor
Member questions and comments on recent AAII Journal articles.

Departments
Briefly Noted
Current news items of interest to individual investors.