Best Free Stuff Online

Best Free Financial Information

Advice That's On the Money

Intuit's well-rounded personal finance site isn't just for Quicken users. Even if you never balance your checkbook, you'll still find lots to like here, including interactive planners that take some of the pain out of estimating taxes, retirement planning, and other basic money matters. The site also offers articles that are chock-full of sensible advice, as well as current quotes on the best rates for bank accounts, CDs, and loans. www.quicken.com

A Wealth of Fund Facts

Don't even think of investing in a mutual fund without consulting the experts at Morningstar, the company that set the standard for fund research. This mother lode of free fund data provides detailed reports on thousands of funds, plus price quotes, columns, and discussion forums for exchanging tips with fellow investors. Neophytes will particularly appreciate the plain-English glossary of fund terms. www.morningstar.net

The Fastest Free Quotes

Every financial site serves up free time-delayed stock quotes. But Thomson Real-Time Quotes has up-to-the-second prices for 50 stocks that you choose. The setup is archaic (faxing or mailing a signed form to get access), but serious investors will be very glad they did. www.thomsonrtq.com

A Slicker Ticker

"Push" software has a reputation­-often richly deserved-­for wasting bandwidth, disk space, and your time. But this push-based utility is mean, lean, and truly useful. It simply displays an ad-free, unobtrusive scrolling news ticker (financial alerts, your own stock quotes, and general news) in a window anywhere on screen. 1 min. 310KB, my.yahoo.com/ticker.html