Using personal finance resources can help you plan a well rounded investment strategy to help you make the most of your retirement. Face it, none of us wants to work for the rest of our lives, so taking advantage of the many personal finance research can help put on the right track to good spending habits and appropriate saving methods.

Personal finance information can range from online or subscription magazines, daily news feeds, public opinion blogs, televised money shows, televised news tickers, up-to-date stock information and so much more. We live in an ever changing financial environment where purchasing a stock only takes the click of a mouse to put through.

To make the most of the consumer finance information resources available:

1. Start looking for personal finance resources through up-to-date finance news feeds.

2. Find more in-depth consumer finance research through industry publications such as magazines and journals.

3. Round out your personal finance information by speaking to a qualified professional.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Find the latest personal finance information

Use news tools to find the latest personal finance resources and information.

I recommend: Look up national finance news through New York's wnbc.com. Check out the personal news and advice from Bankrate. Track bank and finance news from Reuters. MSN Money is another great resource for articles on consumer finance and individual finance resources information.

Find consumer finance research in industry publications

Pick up, subscribe to or read online one of the many business and personal finance research magazines or journals available.

I recommend: Subscribe to Money magazine. There you can find the latest personal, business, market, real estate and technology news and information. Check out the subscription offers for Kiplinger's Retirement Report. Take a look at the Forbes website, or consider signing up for a subscription. Find a long listing of business and finance magazines from Business Magazines.

Consult with qualified professionals to find your consumer finance research

Discuss and plan your personal finance information and investing portfolio with a qualified investing organization or firm.

I recommend: Manage your personal investing or retirement through Fidelity. Ameriprise, previously American Express Financial Services can give you a wide range of personal finance reference information. State Farm now offers consumer finance resources and investing tools. TD AMERITRADE can also help you with your consumer finance information.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Using magazine subscriptions as your personal finance research tool gives you a hard copy reference to look back on at a later date. Online news sources run so many stories, you can easily lose the article you were looking at because the turn over of the written pieces is so fast. If you find one that you truly enjoy and want to keep or archive it for a later date, save it as a PDF (you'll need a PDF writer) to your My Documents folder on your computer.