MOLI VIEW™

Let's party! April is (unofficial) Financial Literacy Month.

To celebrate, here are lotsa helpful tips, advice, and links!

But wait. There's more.

The following advice is gender neutral, but here's something directed to females.

OK, so a recession is either here or coming. Regardless, it's always an excellent idea to take a look at your retirement accounts and investments at least once a year.

You're not anywhere close to retiring, so why bother?

Here are some reasons, but basically, it's your money, that's why. It's part of your compensation so why wouldn't you care?

But you needn't babysit your bucks. If you check your finances every day or obsess over ‘em, chances are you'll overreact to any dramatic news or changes in the market. But you shouldn't ignore ‘em either.

You don't need to have a lot of technical expertise to read your statements but do make a point of looking at what you're being charged. Fees can eat up your profits.

As for your stocks: Review what you've got. Do you still have retirement plans left at old employers? Several? Is a portion of it invested in those companies' stocks? Do some of your choices need to be changed? For example, are you holding a lot of money market funds in U.S. dollars? (Oops!) Or do you own stock in a defunct company (Enron, anyone?) Fix it!

That's plenty of info to digest, so more next time.

Richard Pachter is the MOLI View's Third Eye.

» Read Richard's blog