Software can help you plan your retirement
Article Abstract:
Retirement-planning software can be very helpful in answering some very important questions regarding a person's retirement and force people to find out information essential for planning the future. All programs evaluated cost between $4 and $99, and only run on IBM-compatible computers. Retire ASAP is very thorough, enabling a user to list specific investments and their expected rates of return. This program is also capable of measuring the risk level in a person's portfolio. On-screen help is abundant and clear. Harvest Time allows three different types of tax deferments to be specified: qualified tax-deferred, non-qualified tax-deferred and tax-free, but it cannot specify different rates of return for different types of investments. Rowe Price's Retirement Planning Kit includes a very thorough manual and is the most user-friendly of all the retirement programs evaluated. Retirement Planner is a very basic shareware program that only allows information to be entered for one retiree. Retirement Surprise! includes a thorough instruction manual, but the program is only capable of calculating savings to date.
Publication Name: The Wall Street Journal Western Edition
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0193-2241
Year: 1992
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Latest formula in spreadsheets is ease of use
Article Abstract:
Microsoft Corp's spreadsheet software Excel 4.0 is the best in its class because its unique features make it easy to use. Excel's 'autofill' feature repeats a simple mathematical series after it has been entered once, automatically copying formulas and updating the data in the cells as it moves on. Autofill, for example, fills in succeeding cells with 'Feb,' 'Mar' and so on after the user has typed in 'Jan' in the first cell. An 'autoformat' feature allows the user to automatically format a table by clicking on a preconfigured list of options of color, font sizes and styles and borders. A 'scenario manager' gives simple best-case and worst-case forecasts while special menus can be called for a particular figure or chart being used. Excel, however, cannot organize and link multiple spreadsheets as well as Borland International's Quattro Pro for Windows, which also has more customizing tools. Both Quattro and Lotus Development Corp's 1-2-3 may have future releases with features similar to Excel's.
Publication Name: The Wall Street Journal Western Edition
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0193-2241
Year: 1992
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Men vs. machines in Bund-trading duel
Article Abstract:
The London International Financial Futures Exchange (LIFFE) is involved in a man versus machine battle with the Deutsche Terminborse (DTB), a Frankfurt-based electronic exchange. LIFFE relies on the traditional open-outcry system of trading in which traders buy and sell by shouting out orders. The DTB, on the other hand, is a computerized trading floor where traders match buy and sell orders using just a few key-strokes. The battle centers around competition in trading the German government bond, or Bund, futures contract. LIFFE controls 89 percent of the trading volume in the Bund, in contrast to the DTB's 7.5 percent. The DTB has only been trading the Bund since November 23, 1990, but in that time it has failed to gain much ground against the open-outcry system.
Publication Name: The Wall Street Journal Western Edition
Subject: Business, general
ISSN: 0193-2241
Year: 1990
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