Simple Stock Investing

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Posted on: 16 July 2009 | 7:01 pm

CFP Requirements: How to Become a Certified Financial Planner

Certified Financial Planner (CFP) certification plays a major role in the growing demand for financial-advisory professional services. Although it is not legally regulated, and as such it doesn't give special privileges by law, the high standards set by its administrant, the <a href="http://www.cfp.net">U.S. Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc.</a> (or CFP Board), makes it a very desirable mark for engaging customers who are looking for highly-qualified practitioners committed to ethics and skilled at working with people. According to “<a href="http://www.cfp.net/media/survey.asp?id=4">CFP Board's 2004 Consumer Survey</a>”, 28% of upper-income consumers sought out professional financial advice and assistance, which was 3% more compared to 1999. Among the criteria for selecting an adviser, professional accreditation was mentioned by 81% of the respondents. Plus, 84% of those who used a CFP certificant as their primary adviser said they were extremely or very satisfied. Earning a CFP Certification can be a crucial step in your career advancement. Reasons are twofold: you would enhance your professional opportunities while acquiring a broad body of knowledge on financial planning, related subjects and professional practice. This document explains the steps required for achieving this rewarding goal. Go on reading on <a href="http://www.simplestockinvesting.com/requirements-to-become-a-CFP.htm">how to become a CFP</a> at Simple Stock Investing.

Posted on: 16 July 2009 | 6:01 pm

Updates at Simple Stock Investing

During June and July, there were several improvements at SimpleStockInvesting.com. A wider, 3-column layout was implemented, as very few of our visitors use, these days, a resolution that is below 1024 pixels wide. This allowed moving ads to the sides, making them less disruptive. Usability was also addressed with the addition of a table of contents for each page, and the inclusion of highlights throughout the pages, in blue boxes. These were not implemented for all pages as of yet, but we plan to do so in the future. As always, all feedback is welcome, so please let us know your ideas about the usability of SSI, using <a href="http://www.simplestockinvesting.com/about-us.htm#contact">our contact page</a>. Regarding content, the most important change was the update of <a href="http://www.simplestockinvesting.com/SP500-historical-real-total-returns.htm">our page on the Standard & Poors 500 historical performance</a> , with the addition of data for 2008, which was a sensible year for stock returns, as we all know. Before the update, the long-term (1950 to 2007) average annual return for the stock market was informed as being of 11.8%. With the 2008 data factored in, that number reduced to 10.8%, due to the 37% drop for 2008. More so, the difference is only a 1% because of the rounding error: it would be 1.1% if one more digit was used. Let's hope that the performance of 2009 and the following years put that statistic back to several tenths above 11%.

Posted on: 16 July 2009 | 6:00 pm

First Release of our Investing Guide

The first release of our investing guide is online. It is a work in progress that currently has 8 short sections that begin with reasons to invest in the stock market, go through the basics of investing explained briefly to end, for the time being, at index funds and asset allocation.

Posted on: 10 April 2008 | 10:00 am

Tips for a College Student who wants to Invest for Retirement

Brief tutorial on how to prepare a long-term investment. Read this article and others at Simple Stock Investing. Read this and other articles at www.simplestockinvesting.com .