Investing

A year has passed since the market meltdown, when the S&P 500 and many big-name tech stocks hit their lows. Since then, the market has rocketed up 69% and many stocks are up well over 100%.

Tax-deferred accounts such as traditional and Roth IRAs are ideal places for income-generating investments such as dividend-paying stocks and bonds. Why? Rather than pay taxes annually on dividends and interest received, IRAs allow your nest egg to grow tax-free, entirely avoiding those annual charges that can put a damper on your retirement funds' returns.

You know it's bad when revenue declines more than 50% sequentially. That's exactly what Palm (Nasdaq: PALM) now projects for its business.

Lose money for my firm and I will be understanding; lose a shred of reputation for the firm, and I will be ruthless."
-- Warren Buffett, testifying to Congress in 1991 during the Salomon scandal.

Based on the aggregated intelligence of 160,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, home nursing-services company Almost Family (Nasdaq: AFAM) has earned a coveted five-star ranking.

South African gold mining companies: You were dead to me.

Stupidity is contagious. It gets us all from time to time. Even respectable companies can catch it. As I do every week, let's take a look at five dumb financial events this week that may make your head spin.

Together, we are all trying to build our fortune by finding well-run companies at bargain-basement prices. But it takes work -- scouring company earnings reports, scrutinizing key data, and assessing the competition.

That set-top box from Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) is getting closer to your living room.

In the 1980s, Harry Browne devised what was, in theory, the only investment allocation mix you'd ever need. Unfortunately, his so-called Permanent Portfolio (PRPFX) might do a little better if it had room for a few tweaks.