NEW YORK (Reuters) – If your investments are being steered by active fund managers, here’s a little tip: When you open that statement, you might want to shield your eyes.

That’s because fund managers who pick and choose their stocks, rather than passively follow an index, are having a year to forget. Only 27 percent of large-cap managers are beating their benchmarks year-to-date, according to new research from Bank of America Merril Lynch. Growth managers, in particular, aren’t earning their paychecks, with only 12 percent outperforming their indices.

Dec 12 (Reuters) – Not that long ago, it seemed like
everyone belonged to an investment club. People would gather at
a friend’s house, share a few bottles of merlot and toast their
soaring investments in Cisco and JDS Uniphase .

And now? Not so much. The number of investment clubs
reached 60,000 before the bursting of the tech bubble. Now
there are just about 5,500 still hanging on nationwide.

NEW YORK, Dec 7 (Reuters) – If there’s one word to describe
the stock market these days, it’s “manic”. Up hundreds of
points one day, down hundreds the next, spiking or collapsing
based on whatever the latest rumor is out of Europe. Many
investors are aggravating their existing ulcers, or developing
new ones, trying to keep up with it all. But Toronto’s Nitin
Pardal has another strategy: He couldn’t care less.

The 26-year-old law-school grad is an unabashed follower of
the Dividend Champions, a list of more than 100 stocks that
have hiked their dividends for at least 25 years in a row. The
stock market goes up, you get paid; market goes down, you get
paid. Even better, if those dividends are consistently being
boosted, you’re virtually guaranteeing yourself a raise every
year.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Derek Capo was living the high life. He was in his early 20s, an analyst at hedge fund Everest Capital monitoring international equities, and soaking up the weather and nightlife of his hometown of Miami.

But looking ahead, as he’d been trained to do, Capo didn’t like what he saw. The housing bust was starting to strangle the Florida economy, the stock market was looking increasingly erratic and he didn’t want to pursue a pricey MBA in the middle of an economic crisis.

NEW YORK, Nov 23 (Reuters) – When it comes to boosting your
compensation, you likely think about marching into your boss’s
office and demanding a raise. The thought of it probably makes
you break out in a cold sweat.

But here’s a little tip: You’re focusing on the wrong
thing. Sure, a fat raise would be great. But in this tough
economy, don’t bet on it; average raises for 2012 are expected
to be a slim 3 percent, according to survey data from HR
consultants Mercer. And if you push the issue too far, at 9
percent national unemployment, there are plenty of folks only
too eager to take your job.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wonder how much parents have been contributing recently to their kids’ college-savings plans in this fitful economy? Short answer: Not much.

Just ask Michael Heenan, a Sacramento-based communications consultant. When the economy was growing in 2006 and 2007, he

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The economy is recovering, right? Tell that to those desperate to find work. Read the headlines these days, and it seems there are two alternate realities. In one, the economy is not in bad shape at all: 2.5 percent GDP growth, record corporate cash reserves, hiring is going on, corporate profits the highest since such record-keeping began in 1947.

But in the other, unemployment is near double-digits, the percentage of Americans who can’t afford food is worsening and access to basic life needs (like housing and healthcare) is at its lowest level since Gallup began tracking the figure.

Nov 10, (Reuters)- Harvard Business School should send a
thank-you note to Netflix, for providing so much material for a
future course on corporate blunders.

Next on the syllabus: How not to do a stock buyback.

In the third quarter, for instance, Netflix (NFLX.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) forked
out an average price of $218 to purchase its own shares. The
stock has since slumped to around $88. (Netflix points out its
long-term cost average is $45, and has halted buybacks for the
time being.)

NEW YORK, Nov 3 (Reuters) – I need a shower. Not just any
shower, but a Silkwood-style decontamination, with
high-pressure hoses and military-grade cleaning agents.

I’ve just read two new books about the Madoffs, both of
which promise to shed light on the family at the heart of the
biggest financial fraud in human history. Bernie Madoff, of
course, ran a two-decades-long Ponzi scheme that blew a
$50-billion hole in the savings of investors from Florida
retirees to college endowments.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Everyone’s obsessed with the euro zone these days, and every little rumor sends global stock markets into wild gyrations. But here’s a little secret: If you really want to know what could blow up your portfolio for years to come, forget Europe. What you should really be concerned about is a potential Chinese bust.

Investors have long taken for granted the growth of China’s eye-popping gross domestic product, and indeed the nation’s emergence has been one of the most stunning stories in economic history. But recent numbers show some widening economic cracks: The Chinese stock market is near its two-year low; third-quarter GDP growth slowed to 9.1 percent, a continued deceleration after years of double-digit gains; and the government’s stockpiling of foreign-exchange reserves has been slowing to a crawl.