Archive: Business & Technology

Mixed signals and miscommunication continued to plague Lansing's Board of Education last week as they debated again whether or not to hire a school information specialist, as well as whether to approve a $75,000 contract with BOCES that will upgrade the district's computer network infrastructure equipment.  Administrators presented another PowerPoint presentation to illustrate the district's technology goals and needs that was based on work the District technology Committee did to try to bring clarity to issues of obsolete equipment and inadequate staffing.


"We strongly recommend that the Board seriously consider the adoption of certain components of what you're going to see this evening, sooner as opposed to later," said Superintendent Mark Lewis.  "We're looking at addressing needs by virtue of this organizational structure."  

Last year, more than 670,000 businesses opened their doors, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. In fact, hundreds of thousands of people set up their own shops every single year. If you're considering joining these ranks, you've got a lot to be excited about, and you may be prepared to make large sacrifices to help your business succeed. But there's one sacrifice you don't have to make: your financial security.

Unfortunately, many business owners pour their entire lives' savings into making their new ventures succeed - and that's probably a big mistake. When you start up a business, you are already taking on a degree of risk, but you don't need to jeopardize all your plans for the future.

November 7 is Election Day. Across the country, people will vote for senators, congressional representatives, governors, mayors and a host of other offices and ballot initiatives. While big elections like this usually only take place once every couple of years, you will "vote" almost every day on any number of other issues related to your life. Some of the most important of these "elections" concern decisions affecting your financial situation - so you'll want to cast your ballot wisely.

So, what kind of investment-related issues should you vote on? Here are a few to consider?

Now that Halloween is here, you can expect to see a lot of ghouls, ghosts and gravestones in your neighborhood - but in reality, they'll be of less importance than the evening's main draw: candy. However, in real life, if you're going to enjoy life's treats - such as a comfortable retirement - you'll need to escape some of the "tricks" - such as scary investment moves.

Here are a few of these fright-inducing behaviors you'll want to avoid:

If you have children or grandchildren born in "Generation X" - loosely defined as those people born between 1965 and 1980 - they still have quite a ways to go before retirement. But that doesn't mean they shouldn't be thinking about retirement - and saving for it.

Unfortunately, many members of the Gen-X cohort are doing a poor job of retirement planning. About half of all workers born between 1965 and 1972 are "at risk" of having too little money to maintain their standard of living during retirement, according to the National Retirement Risk Index created by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. (This study didn't include the younger Gen-Xers because their financial histories are not considered long enough to yield meaningful interpretations of future behavior.)

Inflation has been in the news quite a bit lately. After years of enjoying very mild inflation rates, we may be entering a period in which we experience more significant price increases on a broad range of products and services. As a consumer, you can easily see what increased inflation might mean to you. But will higher inflation hurt your investments?

Before you can answer this question, you need to be familiar with a little monetary policy, as set by the Federal Reserve, our nation's central bank. If the Fed believes that we may be experiencing substantial increases in the cost of living, it will try to "cool off" the economy by raising short-term interest rates. And that's just what it has done over the past couple of years.

Is there a magic formula for achieving investment success? Not really - though you wouldn't know it by reading all the advertisements touting "surefire winners." The truth is that there are few valid guarantees in the investment world.

However, once you learn to ignore all the exaggerated claims you might encounter, you can actually do quite a lot to become a more successful investor. Here are five things all good investors should know:

Are you getting close to retirement? If so, you know that one of your biggest challenges will be to manage your cash flow in a way that allows you to enjoy the lifestyle you've envisioned. And one key part of that cash flow can be the distributions from your IRA and your 401(k) or other employer-sponsored retirement plan. That's why it's essential that you take these distributions at the right time - and in the right amounts.

Required Minimum Distributions
The rules governing withdrawals from traditional IRAs and 401(k) plans fall under the Internal Revenue Service's "required minimum distributions" (RMD) guidelines. (You aren't required to take these distributions from a Roth IRA.) Here are some of the key RMD points to keep in mind:

How Can Senior Women Improve Retirement Outlook?

If you are a senior woman, you need to be diligent in managing your financial resources to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle in retirement. Fortunately, by planning ahead and making the right moves, you can help alleviate any inequalities that may exist between you and the men of the world.

What are some of these disparities? Here are a couple to consider:

It's back-to-school time again. If you are a parent of a college student, you've probably already made whatever arrangements you are going to make to meet those hefty tuition payments - and some of these arrangements can involve considerable sacrifice. But if your children are a few years away from heading off to school, you can still take advantage of some attractive college savings vehicles - and the best time to start exploring these options is now.

How important is it to save early and often for college? Just ponder these figures from the 2005-2006 school year: For students attending four-year public colleges and universities, the average total cost was $15,566, while students at four-year private colleges and universities paid, on average, $31,916, according to the College Board. These numbers will surely rise for this school year, and, in all likelihood, for the next few years, too. In fact, for the past decade, inflation has been much higher on the college campus than in the world outside.

Want to Really Retire When You Retire? Work Hard at Investing

With Labor Day at hand, it's a good time to reflect on your work - specifically, how long do you plan to keep working? And when you retire, will you retire for good, or will you still work in some capacity? These are important questions - and the answers can have a big impact on your savings and investment strategies.

As you think about your retirement plans, you might be surprised at the expectations of many of your fellow workers. Some 67 percent of employees anticipate working for pay during retirement, according to the 2006 Retirement Confidence Survey, issued by the Employee Benefit Research Institute. And many of these people undoubtedly think they will have to work.

Many of us are inspired by great quotations. And you can find plenty of them related to investing. Let's take a look at some of these quotes to determine what they may have to offer us.

"The four most dangerous words in investing are: 'This time it's different.'" - Sir John Templeton, legendary investor and philanthropist
Templeton points out that many investors tend to repeat their mistakes - or the mistakes of others. For example, has the Enron debacle taught us to not put too much money in company stock? After all, Enron employees who participated in their company's 401(k) plan had invested about 58% of their assets in Enron stock when it lost almost all its value during 2001. Yet today, many people are still "overloading" their 401(k)s with company stock.