Your Money: Jul. 19, 1999

MIGHTY MICROS Mutual funds that generally invest in companies valued at less than $500 million have not exactly been star performers these past few years, buried by raging big caps. But it may be time to get small. The average micro-cap fund surged 19.8% in the first six months of 1999, up from last year’s measly gain of 1.4%. That’s almost double the return of the average diversified stock fund. Micro-caps are even beating out the Standard & Poor’s 500 index. Micro- caps’ relatively low price-to-earnings ratios have made them increasingly attractive. And they continue to be. Analysts say there is still plenty of value out there even though micros are back on the market’s radar screen.

NO MORE PAPER CUTS Lots of banks are equipped to let you pay your household bills online. But so few vendors send bills electronically that you’re still forced to plow through that stack of snail mail every month. Even the most popular personal-finance managers, Intuit’s Quicken and Microsoft’s Money, support only partial e-billing. But as usual, the Web is changing everything. There are now three Web-based services willing to do all your bill-related busywork. For less than $10 a month, they will receive all your bills, paper or electronic, and give you an e-mail heads- up about what’s due and when. Paper ones are scanned into cyberspace, so you can view the original documents online before authorizing payment. All three companies pledge to work with any biller and any bank and to insure losses due to error or fraud. They assert that all transactions are encrypted for security and that personal information is kept confidential.

–By M.M. Buechner