It’s always amazed me how many people, love to be in fantasy football and baseball leagues and then shy away from investing. The similarities are huge and the benefits of investing are far greater!  I have found it quite funny when I hear people criticize the salaries of executives and yet have no problem with their favorite sports team paying top dollar to recruit the top players. 

Recently there have been thousands of complaints to credit card companies in regards to a mysterious 25 cent charge on their credit card. An estimated 1 million of these 25 cents charges show up as “Adelle Services” from Mellville N.Y.   This is a perfect example of credit card fraud and an example of the importance of making certain we are protecting ourselves.

Gone are the days where you can sit back…no nothing about the stock market and let your company and government take care of you in retirement.

No, corporate and state pension funds are getting entirely too risky with your “present” and your future. And guess who it costs? YOU!

State governments from coast to coast have run up estimated pension fund losses of $865 billion dollars (that’s right, with a “B” and not an “M). Yeah, assets for 109 state funds have declined an average of 37% over the last 14 months. Ouch! (Got a question for Sean? Email him here: shyman@mywealth.com)

As a financial planner I always found it a real challenge when meeting with people that were getting ready to retire and had a plan that would make them bankrupt in 15-20 years.  I had to try to explain, that their plan was flawed and they were going to be drawing out too much money!  It was hard for people to see beyond a 10 year horizon in their life. People would come to me with a distribution plan in which they were planning to draw down their money in retirement and it would only last them 15 to 20 years, and they would be in their late 50’s or early 60’s which would mean that they would be out of money at age 80 or less. Obviously, not a good plan, because most people are very active well into their eighties. 

You know, in every environment there is something that prospers….even in recessions. However, many times people just think of defensive stocks like make up companies or alcohol or cigarette companies, food companies, etc.

However, when stocks tank and corporate America slows down, the unemployment lines lengthen.

When this happens, education stocks shine. Why? Because everyone knows they are competing against a glut of people at that time more than ever. You see, when there’s “full employment” and the job market is tight, it’s not as hard to get a job. But when few corporations are hiring and there are tons of people fighting over the same handful of jobs, the best way to get an edge is to get an education.

The baby boom generation are gearing up for retirement and many of them are being forced to really think and make financial decisions that will be permanent and affect the rest of their lives.  One of them is staying with their company’s pension plan or rolling this money over and managing it themselves, with a planner or broker in an IRA.   When I was a financial planner at Ernst and Young this was one of the major questions people asked me all the time. They would have a choice to take (annuity) a fixed payment for their life (and their spouses) or take the money out of the company’s pension plan and do a rollover. Not all companies offer this choice, but when faced with this decision. I would tend to lean toward rolling that money out into an IRA. 

 I have included link to Oprah’s web page that will allow you to download a free copy of the “Suze Orman’s 2009 Action Plan Book”   It will only be allowed for free download until, January 15^th, so if you are interested you should download it ASAP.

Since there’s all of the bad news being pumped out there daily by the media…I thought it might be refreshing to talk about two of the bright spots that just came over the horizon.

If you are a regular reader of my blog (www.mywealth.com/blog), then you are aware of some of the signs of a strong company (even if you don’t know how to read balance sheets).

One of those signs was to look for companies that feel strongly enough about their own financial situation in this environment that they can purchase another company (at least partly with cash).

If you feel, as a company, that you can spare some cash for a purchase in this type of an environment then you obviously feel strongly about your financial future.

After a year like 2008, I think it’s important to run down some of the distinctions, philosophies, policies, and practices that should now rest in peace in the ash heap of eternity or at the very least be re-evaluated very closely.

Rumors are flying around everywhere. Traders and investors alike are pondering tomorrow’s employment report. Some are looking for 600,000 to even 700,000 jobs to be lost. While others like Bloomberg’s economists are forecasting a more conservative 515,000 jobs lost (down from 533,000 the previous month).

Payrolls Accelerated Their Fall In 2008!

So why all of the huge speculation of even more job losses? Yesterday’s ADP (Automatic Data Processing’s) Non-Farm Employment report….that’s why.