Places to Find Good Financial Data

As with many folks, I like to track and chart financial data trends.  Spreadsheets are fun!  Over the years I have found many good places to get solid data.

Here are some of the trends I track:

• Federal Budget (inlays, outlays)
• Consumer Price Index
• Bureau of Labor & Statistics
• ShadowStats
• Federal Debt:
• Historical
• Current
• DOW Jones Industrial Average
• Federal Reserve Notes (m1, m2)
• Gold & Silver
• iShares Gold (IAU)
• Ruger (RGR)
• iShares Silver (SLV)

You can see the trends I produce by visiting the opening page of kietzman.org.  The tool is capable of forecasting trends by analyzing past data.  Future rates are determined using average annual rates over a given historical period.  The determined future rate is then used to forecast future trends via the following formula:

F=P*(1+(R))^Y

F:  future amount

P:  principal amount

R:  annual rate

Y:  number of years

Using this kind of data and the trends they produce, you can estimate how your investments will perform over the long run even against inflation.