Money: Profitable Investing in the New Century

Profitable Investing in the New Century is designed to give you the tools -- just short of tranquilizers -- to cope with this unprecedented market environment. We want you to profit from exciting new developments in technology and biotech, but we're concerned that excessive faith in the so-called "New Economy" could throw your portfolio out of whack. Although cautious investors who diversified their portfolios among stocks and bonds may not have outperformed an all-tech portfolio in the last few years, the recent turmoil in the tech sector illustrates that portfolio balance remains essential. The "Old Economy" is not dead. Although no one can dispute the power of the Internet, the best old-line companies still have plenty of firepower. Many successful businesses will use the Internet to increase market share and enhance profits.

The book is filled with detailed moneymaking advice. We tell you how to build portfolios to meet diverse needs, where to look for the best stocks and mutual funds, when to sell, how to reduce your tax bill when you invest and what Internet tools can help maximize your investment profits. In a chapter called "Avoiding the Biggest Investing Mistakes," we focus on the most common, and often most devastating, investor blunders. No one's perfect, of course, but one of the keys to smart investing is to eliminate unforced errors.

Interestingly, one mistake investors make is to overrate their abilities. Research reveals that most investors who think they are beating the market are wrong. One reason: They think almost exclusively about their winners and tend to ignore their losers. The problem, alas, is human nature, a flaw even the best biotech companies may be unable to overcome. Profitable Investing in the New Century can help eliminate such wishful thinking and lead to a new mindset, and new behavior, that could improve your investment returns.

Boosting your returns, though, is only part of the battle. The ultimate purpose of this book is to help you achieve your most important investment goals, such as saving for retirement and sending your kids to college. Getting the details right while ignoring the big picture is not a recipe for success. So we show you how much you'll need, and outline steps that will take you there. We believe that this book can help you realize all of your financial dreams.