A trio of organizational tricks to keep your finances on track

By Tim Suffish CFA, CPA Vice President, St. Germain Investments It's the time of year for a familiar routine; load up the family for vacation, enjoy some time in the sun, then a week later pack things up to head home. After you unload the car, catch up on the wash and mow the lawn, you still have the pile of mail to go through. And there must be a better way to deal with that pile of mail! Slow down the flood of statements Not surprisingly, there is. If your mailbox is cluttered with statements and trade confirmations from your investment provider(s), and you'd like to do what you can to simplify your recordkeeping while also saving a tree or two, inquire as to the availability of electronic statement delivery. There are very strict rules from the SEC regarding the communication of important account information; the frequency and "age" of the data is prescribed and enforced by the regulators in a specific manner. The standard mode of delivery is still snail mail, but access to the web and email is encouraging more investment providers to consider electronic delivery. For those of you who maintain spreadsheets on the home computer and update the buys and sells manually, the availability of online data will make your job a lot easier. Software programs such as Quicken allow you to track your portfolio's performance, gains and losses, and long term vs. short term status. These are good tools that enable you to break free of archiving paper statements. Opt for Internet research There are several other Web sites that can assist you not just with the tracking of your investments, but with the research you do both before and after purchase. Morningstar (www.morningstar.com) is a company that provides research and data on the mutual fund industry. If you have a portfolio (or several portfolios) of mutual funds, investment overlap should be something you're aware of. Diversification is vitally important to an investment portfolio, and having mutual funds invested in similar strategies or stocks will sabotage your efforts. Morningstar's tools allow you to determine whether these funds really are diversified, or if they're stepping on each other's toes. If you thrive on up-to-the-minute data and track your portfolio value tick by tick, Yahoo Finance (finance.yahoo.com) is a good option. Yahoo lets you set up a password protected portfolio that provides real time values throughout the trading day. Not that I would recommend that in the crazy market we have this summer! Consider automatic investing The most important electronic investment tool is one you're likely comfortable with already. If you have access to an employer provided retirement plan (like a 401k,) you're already familiar with "dollar cost averaging." Periodic investments made every pay cycle enable you to buy more when prices are down and less when they are up. It is quite easy to set up this same type of periodic investment through a direct transfer from your checking account to a mutual fund or your investment manager. Doing this makes investing easier and automatic while taking the emotional struggle out of the tough buying decision when things are dow Column provided to PRIME by: St. Germain Investment Management; 1500 Main Street, Springfield, MA; Phone is 413-733-5111 or 1-800443-7624; web site: www.dgstgermain.com