Highlights

• Investment Risks and Rewards: How to overcome the fear of investment risk and how taking a few risks can reap long-term benefits.

• Your Starting Point: How to assess your investment goals.

• Diversification: How to allocate your money among various investment avenues for safety, steady income and capital growth.

• How to Pick Stocks: How to use fundamental indicators of value to pick good stocks.

• Investing in Bonds: Why you need bonds in your portfolio — and which bonds to choose.

• Mutual Funds Primer: What they are and how to select the ones that suit your needs.

• Disinvesting: How to figure out when it’s time to get out of an investment.

• Keeping in Touch: How to understand financial information.

• Keeping Track of Your Investments: Simple record-keeping tricks.

Los Angeles Times business writer KATHY KRISTOF is nationally known for her twice-weekly personal finance column, which continues in the tradition of the late and great Sylvia Porter, reaching 40 million readers in more than fifty major newspapers. Esteemed by her journalist peers (cited as “maybe the best reporter of all the personal finance columnists” in the prestigious TJFR 1999 Blue chip Newsroom ranking of the top 100 American business journalists), Kathy has received numerous writing awards and honours. These include the title of 1998 Consumer Advocate of the Year awarded by the California Alliance for Consumer Education, USA. She is a sought-after speaker at investment conferences nationwide and appears regularly on radio and television news programs. Kathy lives in southern California, USA with her husband and their two children.