Eat Wisely: Skip the Marketing Claims

Eating well used to be pretty easy; just eat lots of fruits and vegetables. But today’s on-the-go lifestyle has resulted in a plethora of processed and packaged food – with huge opportunities for on-package marketing.

Food producers know that consumers regularly scan packaging to find out what’s inside – so they litter it with phrases like “fat free” and “high source of fiber.” Yet fat free products may be packed with sugar, and fiber sources may be heavy on salt and other nutritional no-no’s.

To avoid being a victim of on-package marketing, skip the claims and go straight for the Nutrition Facts section, which includes not only the calories and vitamins contained in the product but also the sodium and sugar content and the percentage of daily value. Sodium should be less than 500 milligrams per 250 ml serving, and sugar (in any form) should never be listed as one of the first four ingredients.

While it’s best to stay away from processed foods altogether, if that doesn’t work for you, ensure that you know what you’re buying. Read the labels.

Annuities May Help Skirt Retirement Risks

The purchase of a fixed annuity may be a hard sell, given today’s ultralow interest rates. But that doesn’t mean investors who are worried about the negative effect of a volatile market on their savings shouldn’t consider these investment vehicles.

When you buy an immediate income annuity, you essentially skirt two big retirement risks: first, that a market crash will destroy your savings, and second, that you'll outlive your money.

The problem is that insurers base monthly payments on current interest rates. If you buy now, when rates are low, you lock in a lower payout than you would if you bought when rates were higher. So the question is: will a fixed annuity pay you enough?

The answer depends on how much you've saved. While an annuity can protect you from running out of money, it isn't a solution if you haven’t saved enough.

If you are concerned about a market crash or fear you may outlive your money, one strategy is to use a portion of your retirement savings to purchase a fixed annuity that will generate sufficient income to cover your fixed monthly costs – such as housing and utilities.

It’s likely that annuities may soon become more available, thanks to rules proposed by the U.S. Treasury and Labor departments that encourage more employers to offer annuity options in retirement plans. So you may want to give them a second thought.

I or your advisor can help you determine if annuities are right for your and can explain your investment options.

Have You Heard of Pinterest?

If you've picked up a newspaper, surfed or watched TV recently, you've probably heard about Pinterest  -- the on-line photo pinboard and community.

The new social media kid on the block is growing so quickly that its popularity has been touted as "Pinsanity.”

The moniker for its success is well deserved; the site has more than 11 million unique visitors, and it's growing. It gets more referral traffic than YouTube, Linkedin and Google+. The demographics of the site are interesting too. Most of its users are young women.

But what's the appeal? Think of it as an online scrapbook or inspiration board – minus time spent rifling through magazines and newspapers and cutting and pasting. You can share pins, re-pin from others and organize your boards by themes such as food, travel, home decor and personal style. Users can pin items from websites they like using “Pin It” buttons on their browsers.

In the wake of Pinterest’s success, many large corporations are developing their own Pinterest presence. Nordstrom, HGTV, ModCloth, General Electric and Whole Foods Market are among the brands currently using the site. Small businesses also can make use of it to unveil new items or advertise a service.

There may be a fly in the ointment, however. Some web watchers have concerns over copyright violations, although the legal community believes Pinterest, like YouTube and Facebook, is protected by U.S. legislation, as long as it responds quickly to copyright complaints.

Is the Boom off U.S. Treasury Bonds?

U.S. Treasury bonds rallied in 2011, as a number of macroeconomic woes, including the European debt crisis, incited worries of a global market meltdown. Does that mean you should consider investing in them?  Yes, U.S. Treasuries are appealing. A portfolio of U.S. Treasuries with an average maturity of 20 years rose 28% in 2011, even better than its 26% jump in 2008, when we were in the midst of a financial crisis. The government securities haven’t seen a better year since 1995, according to Morningstar.

That doesn’t mean U.S. Treasuries are a sure thing.

No investment is.

The U.S. Treasury rally could wind down at any moment. In order to match the 2011 price rally, the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield would have to drop to about 1.05%, far below its record low of 1.72% in September 2011.

Are You Managing Your Finances Wisely?

Is your money being invested wisely? Are you nervous about the stock market right now?

If you are curious about how you could invest profitably right now, why not see if I can help you?

I will not try to push you into making any quick decisions and I will not waste your time.  I will just give you the honest facts about your financial situation.  And maybe I will help you earn a few dollars along the way! 

Just give my office a call at 804-897-3919 (Richmond area) or 757-223-0790 (Tidewater area) to arrange an appointment.

Factor Investing: Is It The Right Strategy or You?

The European debt crisis that arose late last year and has continued since is putting the best-laid investing plans to the test. The reason? Correlation. 

Correlation refers to how securities or asset classes perform in relation to each other and/or the market. A 1.0 correlation indicates that two security types move in exactly the same direction. A -1.0 correlation indicates movement in exactly opposite directions. A zero correlation implies no relationship.

Last year, the correlation between the stocks in the S&P 500 index and the index itself went from as low as 0.4 in February to as high as 0.86 in October, according to Birinyi Associates.

That level of correlation can make the diversification you’ve worked so hard to create in your portfolio ineffective. Never fear, though. One option for addressing highly correlated markets like today’s is factor investing.

Factor investing replaces traditional asset allocation with a focus on specific attributes that researchers say drive returns. These factors can include familiar attributes, such as small-cap or dividend yield. They can also include more complex attributes, such as economic sensitivity and volatility.

To utilize factor investing, you would look at your current factor exposure. To simplify things, you may want to consider just a few factors - such as the three most researchers agree on, which are beta, size and style. Next, decide whether that’s appropriate. Finally, tilt your portfolio toward the factors you think will outperform.

Factor investing isn’t new. It originated in academia 20 years ago, and now is finding favor among institutional investors.

Want to Feel Good? Try Decluttering Your Life

Decluttering is in. A Google search on “decluttering your life” generated 1.16 million results in just a sixteenth of a second. Everyone from professional declutterers to Zen masters has something to say about it. Simply said, though, it boils down to this: Declutter, feel good, achieve more. Following are some tips to help you declutter:

• Many experts recommend you start small. A post at www.zenhabits.net recommends spending five minutes a day on decluttering. Before you know it, that junk drawer or hall closet will be a thing of beauty. 

• As you’re going through that junk drawer or closet, ask yourself if you’ve used items in the past six months. If not, get rid of them. 

• Delegate a box for the undecided - items you might want in the future. If you don’t open the box in three months, get rid of the contents.

• Everyone has things that don’t live anywhere. Consider the often-lost TV converter or recharger for your electronics. Make it a mission to find these things.

• How many knickknacks do you really need? Pick your favorites and take memory pictures of the rest. Then pass them on to charitable organizations.

• Buried under papers? One suggestion: Every paper that comes in the door lands in a single place. Sort through the pile every two days and discard or file every piece.

• Last but not least, learn to love the decluttered look. You’ll stay decluttered for life.

How to Get Yourself Unstuck

It doesn’t matter if you’re an artist, an inventor, or a shoe salesman. There are times when you’re stuck, unable to move forward with a big project or something on your to-do list.

Here are four ways to get going:

Just start. It sounds simple, doesn’t it? But you can’t get moving until you start to move. It doesn’t matter what you do; grab a pen, contribute a thought, start a conversation. The momentum will follow.

Get in touch. Sometimes, taking a deep breath and getting in touch with what you’re ultimately trying to accomplish can help you identify the one thing that might be getting in your way.

Ask for help. Sometimes you need to get out of your own way to see things clearly. Ask the people around you for some advice on what to do first. Allowing yourself to detach from your own thinking and consider someone else’s perspective may give you the shift you need.

Take a walk. Taking time away can open new ways of thinking. Go for a walk, outside if possible. Notice your surroundings, listen to nature, and recharge your brain.



GOLF - More Than Just a Long walk for No Good Reason!

The game of golf is described by critics as “a long walk for no good reason,” but actually there are a number of reasons why taking up the sport could help keep you in tip-top condition.

First of all, of course golf does involve a good deal of walking, and walking is one of the best forms of exercise that we can get.  In fact, a round of golf will typically see you having to walk for around four miles – and that’s if you play well!  Keep sending the ball off in entirely the wrong direction and you could probably add an appreciable distance on top of that.  The great thing about it, though, is that if you’re engrossed in the game, you barely even notice how far you have traveled on foot.

Not only does golf give your legs a good workout, the arms and upper body get plenty of exercise with all those long (and hopefully accurate) drives down the fairway.  Like many sports, the focus and concentration also mean that it’s good mental exercise.

Many people take up golf when they are in their 40s and older, and in fact the older age groups derive tremendous benefit from the workout that they get from the sport by increasing muscle strength and bone density, two things that often dwindle naturally with age.



Is Being in the Company of Big Spenders Hitting Your Pocketbook?

Keeping hold of your cash can feel difficult at the best of times, but when you’re in the company of big spenders, it can become all but impossible. 

Although you might not normally be the type to be influenced by the behavior of others, there are actually three main reasons why people are sometimes tempted to emulate the spending habits of others.

The “keeping up with the Jones’s” effect.  They don’t want to be seen as any less affluent than the people they associate with and so they not only match the latter’s spending, but even outdo it.

Watching others spend freely gives them a sense of entitlement, even though they may not be able to afford the expenditure.  They tend to think, “If they can, then why shouldn’t I be able to?”

The loss of self-control.  Although it’s often easy for people when they’re alone to talk themselves out of spending their hard-earned cash on things they don’t really need, being in the company of big spenders can tempt some people to think only of today and deal with the consequences later.

Think about the people you associate with and whether any of them have any of these effects on you.  If so, you might want to think carefully about the situations in which you meet with them to reduce your chances of letting yourself be led astray.