Financial Planning Blog

Are you looking to improve your financial knowledge and start planning for a brighter future, but not sure how to start? There are plenty of good sources of financial planning information on the web, however sorting through all the junk out there can be difficult. Here are three places to look for free webinars and podcasts, and you can trust the sources.

The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) started a consumer webinar series earlier this month. You can sign up and watch the webinars live, which gives you the opportunity to interact and ask questions. Or, you can choose a webinar that looks interesting from their archive. The first five topics are:

• Money 101: Knowing the Basics
• Kids and Money
• What is Financial Planning?
• Protecting What You Have (life, health, and medical insurance)
• Investments: The Basics (stocks, bonds and mutual funds)

The Certified Financial Planner (CFP) Board also has a consumer webcast series covering various financial planning topics and presented by CFP(R) professionals. The first four of the 50 minute webcasts covered:

• Managing Debt: From Credit Cards to Foreclosures
• Planning for Your Financial Goals
• Young Professionals: Launching Your Financial Plan
• What to Know When Choosing a Financial Planner

There is an excellent series of podcasts available on the Vanguard investor site, called Plain Talk on Investing. You can subscribe to the podcasts or go out and listen on-line. They are all short (usually ten minutes or less) and generally very informative. Although many cover investing related topics (e.g. investing strategy, mutual funds, bonds, IRAs, etc), you'll also find information on estate planning, college saving, preparing for retirement, and other financial planning issues. To give you a flavor, here are a few of the recent episodes:

• Is "buy and hold" still the way to go?
• Managing withdrawals in retirement
• Saving for college automatically
• New to investing? Learn how to get started
• Estate planning in tough economic times
• How to maximize your retirement savings

Give some of these a try, and improve your financial IQ without cracking a book.