Retirement Advice with a Nobel Touch

Not many web startups have a pedigree like that of Financial Engines Inc. in Palo Alto, Calif. Among the three-year-old company's founders are Joseph A. Grundfest, who once sat on the Securities & Exchange Commission, and William F. Sharpe, winner of a Nobel prize in economics. The company is using Sharpe's ideas about evaluating investment risks and allocating assets so that people can meet their retirement goals. Netizens can try his analysis out at financialengines.com, which launched in June.

The site is simple to use. You sign up for free, type in your retirement goals, and then enter your existing investment portfolio. The software lets you know the probability that you'll achieve your goals. Then the company's business model clicks in. People who pay $14.95 quarterly get advice on how to handle their 401(k) funds. If you change your goals or the economy goes haywire, you can quickly size up the effect on your investments. How is this different from other investment sites? The others rarely give advice. Plus, says Sharpe, ''they predict you'll get a 9% return every year. Sorry, it doesn't work that way.'' We're sorry, too.

By Steve Hamm

The Site That's Greasing Palms to Pull in Surfers

It's a dilemma plaguing E-Commerce sites everywhere. How do you persuade customers to register on your site, much less use their real names and addresses? PalmCentral.com, an independent consolidator of software programs and accessories for 3Com Corp.'s Palm organizer, has a solution. It's promising to give everyone who registers at its site $50 in cash when it completes its initial public offering in a year or so. And registered users might get to buy a few shares in the company at the IPO price.

Good incentive. The site had been getting an average of 833 registered users per week before the $50 promise. The week after the company announced the plan on June 23, 2,000 new users came knocking. PalmCentral CEO Chad Roberts hopes to have 100,000 members registered by yearend. That would provide the critical mass he says the company needs to file for its IPO. Will he spend more than $5 million on the promotion? It's a dilemma he says he hopes to have to face. For now, PalmCentral says it's reserving the right to set a limit on the number of sign-ups once they've hit the 100,000 mark.

By Janet Rae-Dupree

How Huge Is the Payoff from Info Tech?

What has the technology industry done for the U.S. Economy lately? For 48 pages of answers, check out the latest Commerce Dept. study, The Emerging Digital Economy II.

The report, which can be found at www.ecommerce.gov, shows that companies such as computer makers and software developers generated more than a third of the growth in the nation's gross domestic product from 1995 through 1998. Part of that came from job creation: Tech companies added more than twice as many jobs a year as other industries. In addition, those who work in technology make an average of 12.6% more money than those in other areas.

Moreover, the tech industry has a highly unusual characteristic: The prices for its goods and services tend to go down every year. That has helped hold down U.S. inflation--by seven-tenths of a percentage point in 1996 and 1997, according to the study. Will the economic benefits continue to mount? Stay tuned. Commerce says that it will keep on studying the issue.

By Laura Cohn

An Untethered Mouse at an Affordable Price

Those dang computer mice. You move yours to the right, and the cord is likely to get all wrapped around your coffee cup. When you move it to the left, the cord gets stuck beneath the keyboard. Now there's an affordable solution from master mousemaker Logitech International. The company is cutting prices on its cordless mice by $10 per pop, to $49.95 for a standard mouse and $59.95 for a sleeker, contoured version. With the cordless mice now more affordable, Logitech figures that sales will heat up. Although the company has been selling cordless mice for five years, only 6% of total mice sales are of the cordless variety.

Here's how they work. The cordless mice send a radio signal to a receiver that you pop into the mouse port in the back of your computer. Within six feet of the computer, the pointer responds to movements as quickly as if the user were moving a corded mouse around. There is one niggling task that you will have to remember to take care of every six months to a year: Cordless mice require two AAA batteries to keep scampering around.

By Janet Rae-Dupree

Bits & Bytes Contacts

RETIREMENT ADVICE WITH A NOBEL TOUCH
Financial Engines' Web site: www.financialengines.com
Financial Engines' phone number: 650-565-4900
Debra Jones is the PR person. Jeff N. Maggioncalda is the President and CEO

HOW HUGE IS THE PAYOFF FROM INFO TECH?
www.ecommerce.gov
For more info on the report, call: (202) 482-8369