Kiplinger's Personal Finance

Written to help you do a better job of managing your personal and family financial affairs and to help you get more for your money. You get ideas on saving, investing, cutting taxes, making major purchases, advancing your career, buying a home, paying for education, health care and travel, plus much, much more. Special issues cover the latest information about car buying (December) and Mutual Funds (March and September).

Go Ahead, Have a Latte

We’re in the Money

Kiplinger's Personal Finance

ARE YOU COVERED FOR THE NEXT DISASTER? • Make sure you have the right insurance to protect you from nature’s wrath.

A BREAK ON INHERITED IRAs COULD DISAPPEAR • Congress takes aim at the so-called stretch IRA

WHAT YOUR ADVISER ISN’T TELLING YOU • This consumer advocate says new rules to protect investors don’t go far enough.

PRICE INFO IS NO CURE FOR STICKER SHOCK • Efforts to curb spending raise questions about just how competitive health care can be.

THE COLLEGE DEBIT CARD TRAP • High fees can make branded cards a bad deal.

CALENDAR 09/2019

How to Sell Your Baseball Cards • The first step to selling your baseball card collection is researching the value of what you own.

How Would a Democratic President Affect Your Taxes?

Navigating the Universe of ETFs • Use the Kiplinger ETF 20 to build a solid core for your portfolio. Our list also includes funds to explore satellite strategies.

SMART WAYS TO INVEST IN ETFs

Four Trajectories to Reach Your Goals • Use these portfolios as a starting point, depending on how long you have to meet your goals and your tolerance for risk. Our selections include core holdings as well as more-defensive and more-aggressive choices.

THE KIPLINGER ETF 20 AT A GLANCE

Picking Stocks: Go With Your Gut

COMPANIES WITH BIG IDEAS • The stocks below may not look like good bets if you go solely by conventional measures such as financial statements or valuations. But they’ve all got promising stories.

Rising Dividends Lift This Fund

What’s Up With Crypto? • The newest kid on the blockchain is Facebook’s Libra. But as an investment it’s likely to fall flat.

Municipals Rock On

A Good Way to Play the Bond Rally • Lower rates and a tilt toward high-quality debt should help this fund.

SIMPLIFY YOUR FINANCES • Our strategies to tie up the loose ends of your financial life will free up both time and cash.

THE THREE-FUND SOLUTION

PUT IT ON AUTOPILOT

Make Budgeting Easier

AUTOMATE REBATES

Insure Your Car and Home Under One Roof

TAKE THE STRESS OUT OF TRAVEL PLANNING

Keep Tabs on Your Investments

ELIMINATE PAPER CLUTTER • You can clear out space in bulging file drawers and permanently tame the paper monster if you follow our four-step plan:

Manage and Pay Down Debt

CONQUER YOUR INBOX • The joy of getting to “inbox zero” won’t last long if you let e-mail build up again. Professional organizer Andrew Mellen recommends these inbox-taming steps:

Consolidate Your Credit Cards

GET HELP FROM A FINANCIAL PRO

Best College Values 2019 • Our expanded ranking names hundreds of colleges where you can get a quality education at an affordable price.

Spotlight: Hamilton College

How We Rank the Schools

Credit Card Perks Are Being Squeezed

Building a Better 401(k) • Funneling all your retirement contributions into a targetdate fund isn’t always the best strategy.

Think Twice About Annuities in Your Plan

FEES MATTER

Claim Social Security at the Right Time • Retirees are forfeiting an average of $111,000 per household by filing for benefits early.

Now Is a Good Time to Refi •...