In the May 2008 issue, Money magazine published its annual guide to the 100 best things it had identified in the past year. The list included the magazine editors’ picks for safest investments, smartest experts, most useful web sites, wisest career moves, strongest residential markets and the “greatest deals on Earth.”

The list came to my attention because Money identified Sound Investing , the weekly radio show I co-host with Tom Cock and Don McDonald, the best money podcast in the country. Of course I agree completely with the editors’ superb judgment, and I wanted to look through the rest of their listings.

 

Everybody will have favorites from this list. Here are 10 of mine: (Page numbers refer to the magazine, which is probably available in most public libraries. I haven’t necessarily used these products and services, so I am not endorsing them, just passing on some interesting information.)

 

1. Best checking account. Charles Schwab’s High-Yield Investor Checking first caught my eye because it’s listed on the same page as the SoundInvesting podcast. The details are intriguing. Paying interest (according to the magazine) of 2.3 percent with no minimum balance requirement, this account reimburses owners for all ATM fees anywhere in the world. Unlimited check writing and free online billpaying services sound good to me. Check it out at Schwab.com. You’ll be required to open a brokerage account, but you won’t have to use it or pay any fees for it. (Page 105)

2. Best ways to feel good about your money. I feel good thinking about the Vanguard Endowment Program. This is a low-fee way to get a tax deduction for making a charitable contribution while keeping your options open about which charity or charities will get the money. Your investment (minimum $25,000) goes into one or more of eight pools of Vanguard funds. This is a good vehicle for a plan such as the one I describe in the last chapter of my book, “Live It Up Without Outliving Your Money.”  The chapter is called My 500-Year Plan. You can also read my thoughts online in an article . (Page 117)

3. Best online financial calculators. I’m especially interested in retirement-related calculators, and I like “Am I on Track to a Secure Retirement?” This is available at cnnmoney.com. Put in your age, your income, your portfolio value, when you plan to retire and some other data. You’ll get a quick estimate of how much money you should have in order to retire when you want to along with the site’s estimate of how likely you’ll make it. Several of the other listed calculators (Page 100) are worth checking out, too. These can help you figure out how long your money will last in retirement, evaluate your portfolio’s balance of asset classes, how much guaranteed income you could get from an annuity and how to allocate your savings among different types of IRAs.

4. The best credit cards. To my mind, the perfect credit card would let you spend whatever you like and forgive 100 percent of each month’s bill. Alas, no such card has been introduced yet, so we must settle for something less than ideal. The magazine lists cards for people who want low fees and no hassles, for those who want help saving for retirement, for frequent air travelers, for small spenders who want cash back and for those who carry balances. One that caught my eye is for big spenders who want cash back: Blue Cash from American Express. In this list of cards, it’s interesting to note that the minimum interest rates vary from 10.24 percent to 15.24 percent. (Page 120)

5. Best vacation bets for the weak U.S. dollar. This of course is a matter of personal choice. Low prices in a place where you’re miserable do not add up to much of a bargain. Europe didn’t make this list. But if you’re a bit adventurous, check out Costa Rica, Mexico or Bali. Have a greater spirit of adventure? Also on this list are Vietnam, Argentina, Morocco (where many café meals cost less than $5) and Panama. (Page 122)

6. Best how-to guides for your home. If you’re newly retired and feel as if you have some time on your hands, this list of three how-to-do-it resources – two books and a web site -- may be of interest to you. Even if you hire somebody to do the work, understanding what’s involved will make you a much better customer. “Home Improvement 1-2-3” is published by The Home Depot, which of course hopes you’ll feel competent to undertake a weekend project. “Renovation” by Michael W. Litchfield is a very detailed guide to bigger projects. And you’ll find a ton of useful guidance at www.thisoldhouse.com which is a companion to the long-running public television series. (Page 116)

7. Wall Street’s Best Idea in a Decade. As anybody who knows me could easily predict, I couldn’t resist checking this out. The answer: exchange-traded funds. Although ETFs, even the ones that we recommend , have failed to live up to all their expectations, they still have some very attractive features, especially for investors in taxable accounts. Expenses are low, portfolios are managed passively and there are many choices covering all the most important asset classes. On the negative side, Wall Street is rushing to create innovative new ETFs that are often complicated, risky and expensive. Smart investors will proceed with caution. (Page 113)

8. Best careers to have in a recession. OK, I understand you probably aren’t about to tell the boss to stuff that job based on a little bit of magazine reading. But if you’re looking already, or if you know somebody who’s just starting out, you’ll find food for thought in this list of the 10 white-collar jobs with the best combination of pay and security. At the top of the list: financial advisors. Others include certified public accountants, software program managers, physical therapists and college professors.  (Page 108)

9. Best mutual funds to pick now. Normally lists like this make me uncomfortable, as they’re almost always based on hot recent performance and fads. However, I like Money’s suggestion that investors take advantage of “a real bargain” with Vanguard’s intermediate-term tax-exempt bond fund. It’s more diversified than its competition and expenses are only 0.15 percent a year. Though it’s tax-exempt, this fund pays more than some taxable government issues. Unless you work for the IRS, how could you find fault with that? (Page 107)

10. Best place for your emergency cash right now. Fortunately, it’s not under the mattress. You may not have heard of iGObanking.com, an online offshoot of Flushing Savings Bank of New York City. But you might want to. The account has no minimum balance requirement, there are no monthly fees and late in March this savings account was paying 3.5 percent. This rate of course can change at any time, but iGObanking  has been one of the highest-yielding accounts for the past year as evaluated by bankrate.com. (Page 100)


My 10 picks are just a sample of Money’s list. You’ll probably find many more things that interest you. There are TV personalities, flat-screen TVs, housing markets with average home prices ranging from $146,100 to $406,000, recommendations for fixing the subprime mess and wines under $20 a bottle.

 

Happy reading!