Wall Street Journal – Excellent source for U.S. and international business, political and lifestyle news. Their best value is the print subscription bundled with the WSJ online.

Morningstar – We like Morningstar’s independent research. We use Morningstar as a source of information on mutual funds and exchange traded funds.

Fidelity and Vanguard – These mutual fund families are two of the largest providers of financial services to individuals and specializing in mutual funds with low investment costs.

Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Research from this respected institution shows that active management does not consistently outperform the indexes they benchmark against. For you, this means the best strategy is to use low cost index mutual funds or ETFs in your portfolio. S&P did find some areas where active management adds value. Click here to learn more.

Internal Revenue Service The IRS has invested a lot of effort in its website to provide information to its “customers”. You can find the answer to many typical questions straight from the horse. For more on IRS initiatives to close the Tax Gap, click here.

Book reports

Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness
by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein
One of the major trends in finance and economics is the realization that people do not behave rationally. Maybe you already knew that (!), but many investment professionals still assume that markets are efficient and that market participants act in their self interest. We only need to look at the recent market booms and busts to see that market participants do not act rationally. So, what to do? The authors of Nudge introduce “choice architecture” to help us make better decisions by manipulating the way choices are presented to us. Why should you care? First, because Sunstein is now Pres. Obama’s person in charge of government regulation. Second, because when you/we understand our weaknesses, you/we can avoid making bad decisions. Third, ask Dan Olson how he uses choice architecture in some of his financial plans.

Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment
by David F. Swenson
This book provides much of the theoretical and empirical foundation for the investment philosophy that OlsonTFP implements. David Swenson is the star portfolio manager for Yale's $23 billion tax-exempt endowment. In this book he translates his investment approach to people like you and me who have to invest in partnership with the IRS and manage our own retirement.