Times Picks

The best Web sites from Times personal finance and markets writers:

In this week’s installment, we defer to the American Assn. of Individual Investors’ recently published roundup of favorite Web sites. AAII (https://www.aaii.com) offers terrific investor-education materials, including periodic ratings of useful financial Web sites. Here are some of AAII’s favorite free sites:

* Economic data: Dismal Scientist (https://www.dismal.com) offers a wealth of data and articles on the domestic and global economies.

* Life insurance: For educational information or quotes, try Insure.com (https://www.insure.com) or Quotesmith.com (https://www.quotesmith.com).

* Retirement planning: Two picks are Financeware.com (https://www.financeware.com) and Financial Engines (https://www.financialengines.com).

* Stock charting: Try BigCharts (https://www.bigcharts.com).