So how would you find out about the accounting treatment of “Goodwill”? How about Google? 992,000 hits. Goodwill Industries, Goodwill Games. Finally, on the second page of search results - Trademarks & Business Goodwill http://www.fplc.edu/tfield/Trademk.htm. But it is primarily about trademarks. Then 5-6 pages of various Goodwill Industry branches.If you want to use Google for searches like this, use more words - financial, accounting, treatment along with goodwill. Now only 28,100 hits but they all talk about accounting treatments, financial information and/or Financial Accounting Standards Board. Probably closer to what was wanted.

Rather than going to a general web search engine like Google, try looking for definitions in a fiancial dictionary. Many financial sites provide Glossaries.

• Motley Fool: Glossary of Financial Terms
  From accountant to zero-coupon bond, definitions to clear the confusion. http://www.fool.com/school/Glossary/glossary.htm
• Vanguard glossary
  http://www.vanguard.com/educ/glossary
• WFN Glossary
  Need a definition? Our glossary has over 6,000 terms and is cross-referenced with more than 16,000 hyperlinks, making it the largest financial glossary on the Internet. http://www.wfn.com/learn/glossary.asp

There are many good financial education websites. Most are provided by financial services companies. Others are provided by government agencies and non-profits. Here are a few

• Siebert Investor Education - the information you need to make informed investment decisions. Everything from strategies for the sophisticated investor to tax planning concepts to Investment basics.
  http://www.siebertnet.com/html/investor_education.html
• Fool’s School - The Motley Fool’s investing basics
  http://www.fool.com/school.htm
• Money Instructor
  If you are an educator, parent, individual, or institution who wants to teach basic money skills, personal finance, life skills, and more, then Money Instructor® is for you.
  http://www.moneyinstructor.com/invest.asp

I happened upon the lifecycle funds reading a Fido newsletter. I can do something like this myself, but I think there are several interesting ideas here.

The rolldown chart is really cool - all those flowing colored sections representing the different investment types. This is a dramatic illustration of the need to change the asset allocation in your protfolio over time. The distributions and assets may not be ideal as laid out, but it really brings home the idea of gradual but constant shifting.

asset allocation mix among stocks, bonds, and short-term instruments that is more aggressive when you’re younger and get more conservative as you near retirement.

That general idea is ok, too. However, participating in a fund that is comprised of as many as 23 carefully chosen underlying funds is worrisome. There is overhead on the overhead. Better to mix and match index funds and some of the other low cost alternatives through your discount broker, but the overall strategy sounds good.

SO: This is all based on historical information. Although it is easy to assume things will continue as they are, that will be wrong IHHO.

Next…

• look at the mix for current place in the lifecycle - is this a good approximation for now?
• what assets would be in a portfolio that reflected this strategy?
• what would be the direction of the flow as per the model?
• what are the shortcomings of the model? why?

Sir John Templeton is an industry icon and revered by many. I was interested in knowing more about this great man. I read through the material on the John Templeton Foundation website. There were some delightful quotes that I was going to include here, with appropriate citation, of course.

However, the JTF Website Terms of Use are pretty formidible. This copyright business is getting right out of hand. And it reflects badly on Sir John as far as I’m concerned. If you are interested in quotes from Sir John, you will just have to go find them yourself or do without.