There’s lots of online information about personal finance. If you’re looking for advice on budgeting or investing, you’ll find plenty. If you want quotes for loans or insurance, they’re available. If you need help getting out of debt, you can find it online.

Predictably, some of the personal finance resources online are better than others. Some are frankly self-serving, trying to sell you some product or service. Others give information freely. Some of the information is good and some is not so good. You have to evaluate and discriminate when looking for authority and accuracy in personal finance information. After all, it’s your money that you’ll be risking if you follow bad advice. So be careful out there.

We can’t hope to list all the good online sites for personal finance. There are just too many. But here’s a short list to get you started in the right direction. We’ve included a few of the standard mega-sites plus some really good ones that are not so well known.

Necessary Virtues Personal Finance

http://finance.necessaryvirtues.com/

Specializes in information about how to manage your money efficiently and live a prosperous life. Offers several full-length books as free downloads, including these titles: “Solving the Money Puzzle: Personal Finance Made Simple,” “The Science of Getting Rich,” “Money for Life,” and the classic, “Think and Grow Rich.” Also offers free newsletter, “Your Money Plan.”

MSN Money

http://moneycentral.msn.com/

Specializes in information for investors, including free stock quotes and analysis tools. Also has sections on planning, banking, and taxes. Good investment advice columns and features. Some analysis tools require Internet Explorer for best results. (The site is owned by Microsoft.)

CNN Money

http://money.cnn.com/

More breadth than MSN Money but less depth on investing. Covers many areas and has quite a bit of unique content from Fortune and Money magazines. (This is a Time-Warner site so there is common ownership.)

Kiplinger.com

http://www.kiplinger.com/

Mostly about investing, but also has good articles on credit management, real estate, insurance, retirement. Do be aware that much of their focus is on selling subscriptions to their various newsletters, like the Kiplinger Report.

Zen Personal Finance

http://www.finance-weblog.com/

This is something completely different, a blog with a unique perspective on personal finance. Has sections on retirement, housing, credit, and investing (a mammoth 30-part series of posts on “How To Think Like Warren Buffet”). Not the place to go for everyday reference, but recommended for browsing.

The Motley Fool

http://www.fool.com/

Specializes in help with investing, particularly in stocks and mutual funds. Information is of high quality, but registration is required to access most of it, and payment is required for parts of the site and for some newsletters.

Yahoo Finance

http://finance.yahoo.com/

There’s a lot here, but most of it is conglomerated by Yahoo from various third-party sources. You’ll have to be discriminating.

Carnival of Personal Finance

http://carnivalofpersonalfinance.com/

A blog carnival that offers weekly collections of recent blog posts on topics like budgeting, saving money, earning money, managing debt, and living below your means. The quality is uneven so be prepared to dig deep.

So there you have it, a quick introduction to some of the best of the web when it comes to personal finance. Some of the big sites made our list as well as some smaller hidden gems. Here’s hoping you find it useful.

 

China being a developing and transitioning country, its venture capital market has some special characteristics.

1. China’s venture capital practices lag behind the international norm

The high-tech enterprises in China, relying on various sources of capital, have undergone a difficult process of development. Although China has quite a few high-caliber entrepreneurs in the high-tech industry, a large number of these companies (16,000 in Beijing while 72,000 nationwide) are run by inexperienced individuals.

a) Serious information asymmetry

First, there exists an information asymmetry between the managers of high-tech companies and the outside investors.

Second, there exists an information asymmetry between high-tech companies and venture capital firms. By international practice, both parties should be honest with each other and exchange information openly. After all, the venture capital investors add value by using their management and technological expertise to improve the company’s performance.

b) Serious exclusionism

High-tech companies in China, particularly those run by the locals, have a tendency to refuse to cooperate with outside investors.

c) High cost of investment

Chinese high-tech companies, particularly those run by the locals, are mostly under the control of couples or families. These ownership structures make it difficult and costly to follow the customary practice for venture capital investments, under which venture capitalists receive a substantial portion of ownership and control in the companies

2. Company managers, rather than venture capital investors, retain majority control

It is a common practice for the managers of some high-tech companies in China to demand for majority holding in cooperation with venture capital firms. There may be many explanations for such behavior, yet the primary reason lies in the influence of traditional Chinese thinking. This thinking is based on the belief that one will lose control over the company without majority holding or a leadership role in the company.

3. China lacks an infrastructure of service professionals to support venture capital firms

The growth of venture capital involves not only high-tech companies and venture capital firms, but also intermediary agencies such as law firms, accounting firms and assessment centers. Unfortunately, China still lacks agencies that offer proper services to the venture capital community.

At present, venture capital firms in China have to shoulder the multiple tasks of seeking for investment projects, assessing the projects, avoiding legal risks, planning the finances of invested companies and helping the portfolio company to list on the stock market.

4. The legal framework for venture capital investments is inadequate

Although China has set the national strategy of “revitalizing the country through science and education,” it has yet to set up a legal framework in support of venture capital investments. The Chinese venture capital community has been growing in the absence of proper protection by law.

5. The Chinese capital markets provides inadequate exit channels for venture capital investments

The returns of a venture capital firm do not depend on yearly dividends but on the acquisition or the initial public offering of its invested companies. Such liquidity events require mature capital markets, which China lacks at present.

venture capital financing has given rise to a dynamic system of modern financial products and services by introducing a series of innovations. Please visit online http://www.dynastyresources.net in NewYork city.

This report presents a comprehensive picture of the contribution of small enterprises in Ireland. The report contains data on the contribution of small businesses in industry, services and construction, as well as statistics on the labor, the knowledge-based economy and workforce. It also includes international comparisons.

In the report, a small business is defined as an enterprise which employs fewer than 50 people. Statistics on medium (50-249 persons) and large enterprises (250 or more people) are included for comparison.

Highlights of the report are:

Industry: Production and employment dominated by medium and large enterprises

* In 2005, four of the five industrial companies (81%) were small businesses with fewer than 50 employees. This company employs 50,000 people, slightly more than one fifth of total industrial employment. * The larger companies (50 or more persons) employed 181,100 people in 2005 and generated 93% of the total turnover in the industry. * The vast majority of small industrial firms were Irish owned (95%). Nearly 42% of larger companies are foreign-owned.

Services: More than 380,000 employees of small businesses in the service sector

* In the service sector, almost all companies (98%) were small. There were 82,100 small businesses, employing over 380,000 people in the service sector in 2005. That was more than half of total employment in this sector. * Small businesses account for nearly half (49%) of total turnover in the services sector, and generates a turnover of nearly ? 81.6bn in 2005. * Nearly half of small businesses in the service sector are the property of the family (47%). The vast majority of these family businesses employed fewer than 10 people.

Construction: Small businesses occupied two thirds of all people who work in construction

* According to the Quarterly National Household Survey, there were 253,200 employed in construction in the fourth quarter of 2005. Of these, 211,000 have indicated that they worked in small businesses (fewer than 50 employees), while 24,500 have indicated that they worked in large enterprises (50 or more employees). A further 17,600 not specify the number of employees to their jobs.

* Among the 253,200 people employed in the construction industry, more than 65% worked for very small concerns employing less tha ten people.

Salaries and wages: 54% of private sector employees in small firms earned between ? 10 – ? 20 per hour in 2006

* The average hourly wage in small businesses were ? 15.22 in 2006 compared to ? 19.38 in companies with 50 or more workers in 2006.

* The average annual salary for employees in a small business amounted to ? 32,453 in 2006. The average wage in large enterprises was ? 44,794 per year.

Knowledge-based economy: the larger companies have shown higher levels of e-government activities

* Small businesses generally not more modern information and communication technology than larger companies.

* Almost all companies with 10 or more employees were connected to the Internet that two-thirds of businesses with fewer than 10 employees to use the Internet.

Size of work: almost 56% of employment in small workplaces

* In all areas, 56% of jobs in workplaces where fewer than 50 persons were employed in the second quarter of 2007. A total of 1175800 people worked in small workplaces. Of these, 839,300 were employees, 216,600 are self-employed and 107,900 are self-employed with employees. These figures include agriculture and the public sector and the economy.

* Among the 316,300 non-Irish nationals in employment in the second quarter of 2007, less than half (47%) worked in small workplaces.

EU comparison, the value added in small construction firms in Ireland was three times the EU average in 2005

* Almost three-quarters of production in Ireland turnover was generated by large companies, while the EU average was 60%.

* In 2005, Ireland is recorded but the gross value added per employee of ? 51,600 in the distribution of services. The EU average was ? 33,000 per employee. * The gross value added per employee in the construction industry in Ireland was significantly higher than the EU average for all types of employment dimension.