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A Few Tools to Help You InvestYesterday

Online tools make just about everything easier, including investing. No matter how far you’ve gotten in your investing efforts, there’s a tool or two that can help you out. I’ve listed out a few of the tools I’ve come to rely on below — and I hope you’ll add any you use in the comments.

Google Finance

I rely on Google Finance for quite a few aspects of investing. I’m a big believer in checking out any hot stock tip myself, and Google Finance is one of the easiest ways to do just that. It’s got all the standard information about a stock, as well as one of the more up-to-date news streams for each stock. I particularly like the ability to save multiple portfolios — not only do I use Google Finance to track my own portfolio every day, I use it to keep an eye on a couple of other stocks that I either need a reminder not to buy (a lot of those hot stock tips wind up in that category) or a few investments I’m planning to make in the near future.

TreasuryDirect

Treasury securities, including bonds, have become incredibly easy to buy online. The U.S. Treasury maintains its own site — TreasuryDirect

10 More Investments You Should KnowNovember 20

On Tuesday, we discussed the first ten of the twenty investments everyone should have at least a passing familiarity with. We still have another ten to go, so let’s get started.

1. Mortgage-Backed Securities (MBS)

While I wouldn’t recommend buying an MBS these days, it’s still an investment worth knowing. In order to be able to afford to offer mortgages, most small banks package their mortgages and sell them through Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. As the housing industry works through the toxic mortgages it’s offered over the past couple of years, it’s best to avoid investing in an MBS or a collateralized mortgage obligation (CMO) — the cheaper version of an MBS.

2. Municipal Bonds

Municipal bonds, often called ‘munis,’ are bonds issued by states, counties, or municipalities for capital expenditures. When you purchase a municipal bond, you’re essentially offering a loan to the local government. At first glance, most municipal bonds seem to have very low returns; however, most are exempt from federal taxes and can be exempt from state and local taxes as well. When you factor in the improved tax

Booty AwarenessNovember 20

The Gluteus Maximus.  It’s the king of all the skeletal muscles in your body.  By sheer volume it takes up more space within your body than any other muscle.  This may be apparent in some individuals more than others.  But the fact of the matter is, no matter who you are, what you have behind you is big news.

Lately, wherever you look you’ll find fitness experts singing the praises of abdominals and the core.  They are so forward-focused that they’ve failed to stop and look at the other side of the equation.  Literally.  You know all too clearly that a strong core is good for health and well being.  But how many of you ever really concern yourself with the strength and stability of your glutes?  I’m guessing not too many.  Sadly, if you can’t see it in the mirror, then it doesn’t seem to exist for you.

So what do your glutes do?

Briefly: they extend your femur at the hip, they tilt your pelvis posteriorly, externally rotate your femur at the hip, and in a full standing position, they support the trunk and pelvis on top of the femur.

More importantly, what does this mean for you?

The glutes are very much a standing muscle.  Compared to other primates, ours

10 Great Free Apps for BlackberryNovember 19

Blackberries may have been overshadowed lately by the success of the iPhone, but they still offer and incredibly powerful platform.Plus, since the Blackberry operating system is build on Java and has always been open, there are a slew of useful and mature applications, many of which are free. Since I’m a cheapskate when it comes to software, I’ve loaded up my Blackberry Curve with a boatload of free programs. Here are the ones I use the most:

1. Google Mobile

Google Mobile is an all-in-one package combining Google’s excellent mobile apps (Gmail, Google Maps, and Google Sync) with links to Google’s mobile-optimized web services (search, Picasa, Reader, Docs, Google Notebook, etc.). Although Blackberry’s already handle email fairly well, I find the Gmail application a much more comfortable way to access email. The Maps application does everything you can do with Google Maps on your PC (search, get directions, switch to satellite view, and so on), plus it will use either the nearest cell tower or, if you have a GPS-enabled phone, GPS to pinpoint your location. The Sync app lets you do a two-way synchronization between the calendar on your Blackberry and Google Calendar. The rest of the links open services in Bl

Home Automation: Evaluating the OptionsNovember 19

In Monday’s article, we discussed the various ways home automation can make life easier. Today we’ll look at the primary commercial methods of automating the home—a true and grand lifehack, in that it hacks the primary habitat in your life!

At the end of the day, there are two main methods of home automation. The most popular is probably most popular because it is most affordable, and that’s plug-in automation provided by companies such as X10 (warning: annoying flashing lights if you follow the link) and Insteon. You plug these devices directly into the wall, and they form a network and communicate through the home’s power lines, and/or by radio.

The other solutions are hardwired. You need to build these into your house, whether that involves planning a new house from the ground up to integrate home automation, or doing some extreme retrofitting of your existing house. They provide a more seamless experience, of course—hard to call something seamless when modules sticking out of power outlets dot the landscape. Two companies that provide this sort of system are Crestron and