I’m sure you’ve heard such things before:

“Look for companies that you know and do business, look at how well they are doing and then make stock purchases on that basis”

Quote of the day

David Swensen, “A fiduciary would offer low-volatility funds and encourage investors to stay the course,” he said. “But the for-profit mutual fund industry benefits by offering high-volatility funds.”  (Justin Fox)

Chart of the day

In case you haven’t heard, the S&P 500 closed the year at 1257.60 this past Friday. That’s just a hair down from the 2010 closing price of 1257.64 — essentially even in the grand scheme of things.

Despite the flat performance overall, the past year was anything but uneventful. Don’t believe me? Check out the graph below.

What’s inside? Here are the questions answered in today’s reader mailbag, boiled down to five word summaries. Click on the number to jump straight down to the question.
1. Strange credit card fee
2. Handling sudden income increase
3. Great job, next financial move?
4. Children’s movies
5. Keeping papers
6. Determining ownership percentages

This post is by guest writer Carl Richards. Carl is a financial planner, contributor for The New York Times and Morning Star, and author of Behavior Gap: Simple Ways to Stop Doing Dumb Things With Money.