This page contains links to various resources relevant to investing, hedging, financial planning, socially responsible investing, philanthropies, and other cool stuff.
General Investing
* Investopedia (www.investopedia.com) is an excellent resource for explaining most financial terms
* Online Financial Tools, interst rate comparisons and calculators (www.bankrate.com)
* Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (www.fdic.gov)
* Securities Investor Protection Corporation (www.sipc.gov)
Passive Index Investing
* Vanguard – www.vanguard.com
* Dimensional Funds – www.dfaus.com
Retirement Accounts
* personal or business (http://www.irs.gov/retirement/article/0,,id=178044,00.html)
ROTH IRA conversion
A) The debate goes on: To Roth or not to Roth? – For the superwealthy, conversion is a slam-dunk; others should be more careful.
April 4, 2010 6:01 am ET
The following is an edited transcript of an InvestmentNews.com webcast held in New York on March 9. Moderators were InvestmentNews deputy editors Evan Cooper and Frederick P. Gabriel Jr. Panelists were Ed Slott and David B. Loeper. To listen to the archive of the webcast, visit Investmentnews.com/rothtranscript and click “View archive.”
http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20100404/REG/304049980
B) Fidelity information “Frequently Asked Questions about Converting an IRA”: http://personal.fidelity.com/global/search/inquira/resultsindex.shtml
College Investing and Financial Aid
*529 college savings plans (www.savingforcollege.com)
*FinAid (http://www.finaid.org/)
Socially Responsible Investing – SRI
* Calvert Social Investment Funds (www.calvert.com)
* TIAA-CREF (www.tiaacref.org)
* Social Investment Forum (www.sif.org), a leading SRI industry association
* SocialFunds (www.socialfunds.com), a leading website e-zine on SRI
* Green Money Journal (www.greenmoneyjournal.com), a leading website e-zine on SRI
* Investors Circle – SRI/CSR Angel / VC for start ups – (www.investorscircle.net)
* CREW Finance Your Vision – innovative giving, lending, investing site (www.crewfund.org)
* Mission Markets – SRI private equity and debt exchange (a B Corp.) (www.missionmarkets.com)
* The Common Good Bank – SRI retail banking (www.commongoodbank.com)
* ShoreBank – SRI/CSR bank (www.sbk.com)
* Wainwright Bank – SRI/CSR bank (www.wainwrightbank.com)
SRI Research (competitive with traditional investing)
* Professor Lloyd Kurtz, UC Berkeley Haas Business School (http://www.sristudies.org)
* RiskMetrics – leading SRI research provider (www.riskmetrics.com)
* TruCost – leading environmental research group (www.trucost.com)
* Mercer Consulting – division of Marsh & McClennan ESG institutional research on ‘responsible investing’ (http://www.mercer.com/ri)
Hedging/Options
* The Options Industry Council (www.888options.com), an industry association with good education section
* The Chicago Board of Options Exchange (www.cboe.com), a leading option exchange with good education area
* Gargoyle Strategic Advisors (www.gargoylestrategic.com), a leader in hedging institutional investors
CSR – Corporate Social Responsibility
* CSRwire (www.csrwire.com), is a newswire dedicated to issues of corporate social responsibility
* B Corporation (www.bcorporation.net)
* Social Venture Network (SVN) (www.svn.org)
* Corporation 2020 (www.corporation2020.org)
* Sea Change Media (www.cchange.net) Sea Change Radio is a show and podcast with the mission of making connections to the shift toward social, environmental, and economic sustainability
* BALLE – Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (www.livingeconomies.org), has a local affiliate in Western MA: www.pvlocalfirst.org.
* 3BLMedia – Triple Bottom Line media consulting and service company www.3BLMedia.com
Personal Finances
* Mint.com – free, online personal accounting owned by Intuit, makers of Quicken (www.mint.com)
* FinanceWorks – free, online personal accounting software only available through your bank if they participate (owned by Quicken) – www.financeworks.com
Philanthropy/Non-Profit
* The Trusteeship Institute (www.trusteeship.org)
* The Aspen Institute – The Aspen Institute mission is twofold: to foster values-based leadership, encouraging individuals to reflect on the ideals and ideas that define a good society, and to provide a neutral and balanced venue for discussing and acting on critical issues. (www.aspeninstitute.org)
* Amherst Survival Center (www.people.umass.edu/support/asc/)
* Family Outreach of Amherst a division of the Center for Human Development (www.famoutreach.org)
Custodians (where accounts are held)
* Shareholders Service Group (SSG) – www.ssginstitutional.com
* Pershing division of BNY Mellon – www.pershing.com
