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Jonathan Clements, a former Wall Street Journal columnist, is facing a terminal cancer diagnosis and is focusing on organizing his estate and ensuring his family's financial stability. He has been having numerous conversations with his family about his estate, simplifying his finances, and making necessary changes to his will and beneficiary designations. Clements emphasizes the importance of financial flexibility and resilience, and is also making financial gifts to his children within the gift-tax exclusion limit. Additionally, he is forgiving a private mortgage to ease the settlement of his affairs and considering the tax implications of his financial decisions for his family's benefit. [Extracted from the article]

Warns investors against pinning their hopes on technology stocks in the United States. Precarious standing of technology stocks as a result of Microsoft Corp.'s loss in a federal antitrust case; Risks associated with investing in technology stocks; Tips on portfolio diversification.

Asserts that it makes more sense to incorporate into portfolios mental quirks regarding investing. Advantages of mutual funds over individual stocks and bonds; Objectives of four types of portfolios; Combination of ultraconservative investments with those that are extraordinarily risky.

Discusses the merits of giving stocks as gifts to family members. Bellingham, Washington-based lawyer Peter Galbraith's experience; Mutual funds; Stocks.

Offers tips on how to put together a mutual fund portfolio. Creation of a balanced portfolio by buying a broad-based stock fund and a high-quality United States bond fund; Investing in both local and foreign stock funds; Putting some stock portfolio into a broadly diversified natural-resource fund.

The article presents advice and information for consumers who want to save time and money. Advice is presented for ways to solve several problems, including having a checking or savings account with little or no interest, recovering from identity theft, and dealing with continuously increasing utility bills.

The article reports on the advantages of dividend-paying stocks as a tool for retirement saving.

The article discusses the difference between a fund's total return and its dollar-weighted return and suggests investors being sensible when bypassing actively managed funds.

The article presents an overview of reasons why investing in stocks remains a viable option for investors in 2008 despite losses and volatility which have been seen in stock market indexes in the U.S. A discussion of the benefits of investing in bonds and money market funds, and of the impact a January 2008 interest rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve will have on U.S. homeowners, is presented.

The article presents an overview of things that parents can do to make their children smarter about money. The advantages of teaching children about delayed gratification, teaching them how to manage money, sharing financial information with them, teaching them to be suspicious of large displays of wealth, and eight other financial learning tools are presented.

This article offers strategies and advice from several "Wall Street Journal" reporters to save money and time in the year 2006. After enjoying low interest rates, cheap fuel and soaring home values, Americans had to face some tough realities in 2005. Borrowing costs are up on everything from home mortgages and home-equity loans to credit cards. Home heating oil is the most expensive its been in decades, and the housing market is showing signs of decline. The fixes to several problems are discussed: increased exposure to blue-chip U.S. stocks; switch from frequent-flier miles programs to hotel points; using Mediacritic.com to evaluate a new motion picture, book, or TV program; where consumers can access little-known codes to bypass automated customer-service hotlines; consolidation of loans prior to July 1, 2006; ways to keep track of calories and portion sizes; locking in fixed-rate home-equity loans; methods to saving more money; refinishing vintage bathroom fixtures; upgrade home insurance policies to reflect recent remodeling costs; signing up for a Medicare drug plan; how to sort through all the blogs you want to read; ways to save on home heating costs; methods to store electronic data; decision to lease or purchase a car.

Assesses the investment options of index funds and stock funds. Statistics related to the return of stock and index funds, suggesting index-funds perform better over a longer period of time; Impact of small stocks in the years that stock funds outperform index funds; Why an investor simply can't compare the performance of stock and index funds, suggesting a deeper look into the numbers will reveal the truth behind the performance; Details of stock/index fund comparison performed by Standard & Poor's, which divided the U.S. stock funds into nine separate categories; Recommendation for investors who are looking to index, but not with a focus on large stocks; Performance of the Wilshire 5000 "total market" index funds; Recommendation for investing with Standard & Poor's 500 index fund and a Wilshire 4500 "extended market" index fund.

In the article, the author discusses the things confronted by self-employed individuals, particularly in the U.S., as of late June 2015, including tax payments, health and disability insurance, and retirement fund.

The article discusses nine ways on how parents can help boost the financial literacy of their children and help them become money-smart.

The article discusses the federal estate taxes including the 2015 exclusion, states' levying of their own estate tax and income taxes due on inherited retirement accounts.

The author discusses the key factors that U.S. investors should consider before rebalancing their stock portfolios in 2015, including the growth of foreign stocks, the transfer of money among stock-market sectors, and the effect of rebalancing on international holdings.

The author comments on the tendency of investors to become overconfident in a bull market, citing seven comments often heard from overconfident investors including how they beat the market, how their portfolio has grown, and how they earned so much money from their stock picks.

In the article, the author recommends several types of annuities in which retirees can invest on to have additional sources of income as of mid-May 2015, including immediate fixed annuities, deferred-income annuities, and immediate variable annuities.

The article offers advice for new graduates of 2015 with regards to the significance of planning for retirement by putting a significant amount of their paycheck at the center of their financial plan.

The article discusses some concerns over the U.S. stock market's short-term outlook including high levels of profit margins and increase in share prices.

The author explains the implications of a longer life expectancy on financial management including having more time to earn money from stocks.

The article offers tips on minimizing investment taxes, including using retirement accounts to hold tax-inefficient investments, reserving the taxable account for low-cost stock index funds and spreading gains when selling existing investments.

The author shows how to retire comfortably with much less that the conventional wisdom of having retirement income equal to 80 percent of the final salary.

The article discusses some investments or strategies that could be affected by the U.S. government's proposals aimed at changing provisions that benefit people with higher incomes including college savings, capital-gains taxes and Social Security.

The author argues against the passage of a bill by the U.S. House of Representatives that would slap a 90 percent surtax on his bonus. He claims that the Wall Street executives who were responsible for the economic mess have long since moved on those who would be affected should the bill become law are the present executives. He explores the financial problems that go along with the bill as well as its impact on the national economy.

The author offers opinions on personal finance, in his last piece on the subject in a 14-year career with the publication. He states that the value of personal finance is that money can make life easier, by creating leisure time, the freedom to pursue other interests besides work, and perhaps most significantly, freeing a person from the need to worry about money.

The article examines research on happiness. Surveys indicate that the use of leisure time, one of the few areas of life individuals can fully control, is a key element in creating happiness. Researchers note that persons engaged in social activities involving human interaction with others report higher levels of happiness, but that the average time spent on such activities has declined due to a rise in television viewing.