Special Feature

When you graduated from medical school, your Uncle Harry gave you a savings bond to help start your career. You never cashed it and now it’s lost. But it’s not gone forever.

A few years ago, stock analysts were being taken to task for not issuing plain-language securities ratings like "buy," "sell," and "hold." Critics came down especially hard on the scarcity of "sell" ratings, accusing analysts of not wanting to upset current or potential investment banking clients.

If reviewing your portfolio results gives you acid indigestion, you can at least be glad if you’re not one of Bernard Madoff’s clients, almost all of whom are down 100% instead of the mere 40% or 50% that most stock investors are out this year.

The office area of your practice where patients sit prior to being called in for their appointment has traditionally been called the waiting room, and with good reason�patients wait there. But waiting, contrary to many patient experiences, does not have to be tedious. In fact, it can be a positive experience.

As job losses mount and auto insurance premiums go higher, more motorists are driving without insurance, making the chances of being involved in a crash with an uninsured driver a lot higher.

When you use a vehicle in your medical practice, you can choose either of two ways to deduct your expenses. You can keep track of your actual costs for gasoline, maintenance, and other expenses, or you can use the standard mileage rate set by the IRS. Most taxpayers opt to use the IRS standard rate.

Now that Wall Street’s giant investment banks have proven themselves hopelessly corrupt, colossally incompetent, and spectacularly insolvent, it’s important to understand your options. Investors have every reason to be concerned about their financial institutions. There is an alternative. You don’t have to take it anymore.

For several years the trend in health insurance, especially in larger companies, is to shift more of the cost of coverage to the employees. One strategy is to offer employees a choice between a high-deductible, high co-payment plan with lower premiums; and a plan with lower deductibles and co-pays that will cost the employee more in premiums.

As a physician, you know it takes many different disciplines working together to achieve the maximum well-being of your patient. You cannot prescribe effectively without reviewing both the patient’s history as well as the clinical picture. A similar approach can yield success when investing.

People close to or in retirement need investments that will beat inflation. CDs—one of the lowest-risk investment options available—won’t do it in the current market. So how can you top inflation without exposing yourself too heavily to the stock market?

With financial markets in the middle of a perfect storm and a new administration heading for Washington, some time-honored year-end tax-cutting strategies may not be practical this year.

End-of-year portfolio rebalancing, which has become an annual ritual for many savvy investors, may strike fear into the hearts of some this time around.

Burnout. Webster�s online dictionary defines it as �fatigue, frustration, or apathy resulting from prolonged stress, overwork or intense activity.�

To many financial experts, trying to forecast a market bottom is a fool’s game. In recent weeks, however, many non-fools, including investment legend Warren Buffett and Bill Miller, whose Legg Mason Value Trust fund beat the S&P500 for 15 consecutive years, have told investors that the market had finally bottomed out.

According to the tax law, you can give $12,000 a year to each person on your gift list without incurring a gift tax. With the market featuring fire-sale prices, that could add up to a lot of shares in someone’s stocking if you choose to give them stocks.

We were driving north on the interstate about an hour from the city in the new Suzuki SX4 Sport sedan. I noticed we were going quite fast. We sailed past the BMW 650i, a Dodge Viper, a Maserati Quattroporte and even the new, beautiful Bentley Continental GT Speed with a fabulous W12 twin turbo engine.

As hard times get harder, job losses mount, and banks get stingier with loans, chances are getting better are that a family member may ask you for financial help. Experts often warn about the dangers of lending money to family members and usually recommend treating any money given as a loan.As hard times get harder, job losses mount, and banks get stingier with loans, chances are getting better are that a family member may ask you for financial help. Experts often warn about the dangers of lending money to family members and usually recommend treating any money given as a loan.

Want to make sure your holiday gift arrives by Christmas Eve? If you’re shopping on the Internet instead of at the mall, make sure you check the vendor’s shipping deadlines.

You have practiced medicine for your entire career. Your spouse and children rely on you, and you have numerous financial obligations both at home and at the office.

When so-called 529 college-savings plans first appeared on the scene, most were the kind of plan where depositors put in after-tax money, invested it in mutual funds or other investments, then took the money out tax-free to pay for college.

When banks stopped lending money to anyone with a pulse, they stopped lending money to anyone at all, even those with gilt-edged credit ratings. Now that federal government has moved in to unlock the mortgage vaults, loans are easier to come by, but many of those who are self-employed are still out in the cold.

There are several little-known but completely legal things you can do to reduce your tax burden, "harvest tax losses," and take best advantage of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.

If patients are turning to their physicians for counseling on medical finances, they may be cut short by the response�or lack thereof.

Charles Schwab Corp. is rolling out a new credit card with some nifty features that the financial services company hopes will help it capture a chunk of the country’s multibillion-dollar credit-card business.

Just as charts can reflect the activity of a stock—its volatility and price movements—they are also useful tools for tracking the effects of economic instability on the stock market. The major indexes, the Dow, the S&P 500, and the NASDAQ, reflect activity in various market sectors and segments of our economy. When there is turmoil, it is evident in the daily index charts.

If you’re the parent of a high school senior, you and your college-bound child have probably spent a lot of time lately sifting through college catalogs, stressing over SATs, and perhaps actually visiting come colleges.

Surveys that reveal a crisis in the healthcare system may not be news, but a recent poll by the Physicians' Foundation underscores just how bad the future of primary care medicine could be.

If the stock market has you lying awake at night, you’re investing too much emotional energy in it.

A recent report from Manhattan Research, �U.S. Physician Market Trends,� indicates that approximately 30 million consumers have connected with their doctor online, and an additional 70 million want to do so.

Several years ago, you ordered a holiday gift for your Aunt Martha from a catalog, and you’re still getting that catalog, even though you’ve never ordered from it again and probably never will.