Archive: Business & Technology

It's Labor Day - and if you're like many people, you certainly feel that your household is laboring pretty darn hard. And you'd be right. In fact, from 1975 through 2002, the average hours worked by all family members rose by 11 percent, according to the Economic Policy Institute. But all that work may not necessarily translate into the attainment of your financial goals - unless your money is working as hard as you are.

How can you make sure that this happens? For starters, you need to define just how hard your money needs to work - in other words, what sort of performance you'll require from your investments. Not everyone needs the same type of return from his or her portfolio. For example, if you plan on working past normal retirement age, and then stay fairly close to home, you might not need as much income from your investments as your neighbor, who wants to retire early and then travel the world. To get a reasonably close estimate of the level of resources you'll need to draw on during your retirement years, you may want to work with a financial professional.

In this day and age all you need to be in business is a computer, a modem, and a phone. You can have multiple large facilities, a space in your home, or anything in between. One such Lansing home business is Hagstrom Electronics, Inc., the brainchild of Dave Hagstrom.

The company makes keyboard encoders and other interfaces and electronic gadgets. A keyboard encoder is a device that makes the computer think you pressed a key, or series of keys, on your keyboard. It allows the keyboard to function normally, but allows another device to provide input as well.

Dr. Digit 'Splains It AllDr. Digit 'Splains It All

This week I decided to look at the different Web browsers available for Windows users for viewing the Lansing Star and other web sites. If you have an older computer with an older browser you will need to upgrade to view the Star. I looked at five different browsers, and instead of taking a highly technical approach I looked at features the average reader would like.

A web browser is the software you use to view web pages. Windows comes with Internet Explorer, the infamous browser renowned for its role in the anti-trust suit the Department of Justice brought against Microsoft some years ago. Internet Explorer has survived because it is amazingly good as well as because it is already in Windows when you get it. There are alternatives, though, and they are well worth looking at, especially if you have an older machine and are looking for a more modern, up to date browser.

If you're like many people, you have at least two separate "pools" of investment funds: 1) Your 401(k) or other tax-deferred, employer-sponsored retirement plan, and 2) your taxable brokerage account. Should you invest in both of them in exactly the same way?

Many people do just that. In fact, to fund both their 401(k) plans and their taxable accounts, investors put about 70 percent of their investment dollars in stocks and 30 percent in bonds, according to a recent study by Carnegie Mellon University. Is this a good idea? Not according to the study that claims this type of identical allocation can eat away between 15 percent and 20 percent of the cumulative value of your retirement accounts.

With the devastation that hurricane Katrina wreaked on southern US states, the Red Cross is asking for money, because it gives them the resources to be flexible in their response as conditions change.  Lansing businesswoman Janet Keefe wanted to do something to help.  Her company, The ADminders, sells branded promotional items.

"I wanted to do something more than just send a donation to the Red Cross and my family shared my sentiment.  My promotional products company has provided many clients with fund raising products, so with that in mind I thought of the popular awareness bracelets," says Ms. Keefe.  "I asked my Lansing Middle Schooler his thoughts and he noted that his school held a successful fund raiser last year, selling awareness bracelets for a cancer support program for families."

In Investment World, Gold Doesn't Always Glitter

Gold has mesmerized human beings for thousands of years. In fact, we have an almost innate belief in the tremendous value of this shiny yellow metal. So, it's not surprising that when financial markets go through rough times, many people take on the attitudes of Olympic athletes - in other words, they "go for the gold." Unfortunately, their dreams of wealth frequently get tarnished - because gold is not the "sure thing" that some might expect.

If you remember your high-school science classes, you may recall Newton's first law of motion, which says, in essence, that an object at rest will stay at rest unless a net force acs on it. This principle is also called the law of inertia. But you don't have to be a scientist to be acquainted with this phenomenon - in fact, if you're an investor who hasn't done anything to your investment portfolio for a long time, you may be experiencing inertia first hand - and that could be a problem.

The problem is that it gets too hot in there, so it needs a fan to blow the hot air out of the 4 x 6 inch hole. My sister had given me a "personal" variable speed fan. By adjusting the speed I could make it cool sufficiently while keeping the noise level way down. But not being meant for 24/7 operation, it died.

When you make investment decisions, you've got a lot of factors to evaluate: corporate earnings, economic climate, interest rates, oil prices and so on. In fact, navigating the investment world can seem like a daunting task if you're going it alone. So, make it easier on yourself - and get the help you need.

When you work with a financial professional, you can become a better investor. Consider the following highlights of a 2004 survey of investors by the research firm of Mathew Greenwald & Associates Inc.

What is a web browser? It is a piece of software that allows you to view items on the World Wide Web (yep, that's the "www" in the web addresses you have been typing).

Here is more than you ever wanted to know about what goes on under the hood of your web browser when you surf the Web.