The article linked below theorizes that nearly 50% of baby-boomers will outlive their retirement funds and be hard-pressed to fund more than basic retirement expenses.
The article linked below theorizes that nearly 50% of baby-boomers will outlive their retirement funds and be hard-pressed to fund more than basic retirement expenses.
Vanguard has entered the trading fee fray and will be offering free trades of its own ETFs via the Vanguard brokerage unit. If you already use them it is a nice benefit and new folks could create a solid portfolio based on some of the lowest fee ETFs around. Read Article
Here is the link to a good PBS show on how some of the market issue came into being.
It runs about an hour and is well worth watching. PBS Video
The real measure of your wealth is how much you’d be worth if you lost all your money. – Author Unknown
Hercules Technology Growth Capital Inc. is a specialty financing company providing monies of between one and 25 million to mostly small private companies. The sectors they focus on include communications, networking, software, drug discovery and electronics. Obviously there is some risk involved in this type of business but I think there is a good chance at some capital gains to go along with the nice yield. They recently dropped the dividend to 20 cents from 30 cents but I anticipate it will get bumped up before mid-2011. They recently closed some financing deals (3 so far this month) that could help. Here are some of the stats:
Market Cap: 377 million
Yield: 7.5%, $0.20 paid quarterly
Volume: 200k+ daily
P/E (ttm): 28.6,
Forward P/E: 7.6
RoE: 3.6
Debt/Equity Ratio 0.36
This fund is mostly focused on Australia and South Korea followed by the Philippines and Hong Kong. It is 65% invested in corporate bonds followed by 29% government bonds and has an average rating of A+. They also make use of roughly 25% leverage which isn’t a bad thing considering they are using cheap money to buy better paying bonds.
Here are some of the relevant stats:
Yield: 6% paid monthly (currently $.035/share)
Cap: 1.74B
Volume: 800k
Fees: 1.37%
Beta: 0.74
Cost: 6.55 (selling at a 2.5% discount to NAV)
If you need a little Asian coverage with the stability of Australia as well then this may be a fund to research further.
Education Realty Trust, Inc. is a self-administered, self-managed real estate investment trust that owns, develops and manages high-quality student housing communities throughout the United States. Led by a team with over 200 years of shared industry experience, EDR is one of America’s largest owners and operators of collegiate student housing. The Company has ownership and management interests in 65 properties with 38,143 beds in a total of 21 states. Here are the stats:
Yield: 4%+ (after recent cut, so it’s likely safe)
Size: $275 million
Volume: 450,000
Beta: 1.5
Owned: 86% institutional
The article below talks about an IRS program that pays out substantial rewards for turning in tax cheats. With a little effort you could make a nice second income.
Read the article.
This fund has an obvious focus on the Utility sector. It has 35 stock holdings with exposure to both regulated and unregulated markets. It also has more volume, lower fees, higher yield and far more in assets than a similar fund from Vanguard (VPU). While everything has a risk, utilities have long been considered a nice defensive sector to hold in down times. They can also make for a nice, stable holding in less crazy times as well. Here are some of the stats:
Yield: 4%+ paid quarterly
Fees: 0.21%
Holdings: Exelon, Southern Company, Dominion Resources, FPL Group, Duke Energy, PG&E
As the passage of some sort of health care reform gets closer to reality I can’t help but be fearful. I have no doubt that something is going to be passed by early next year. And while I have no doubt that some folks will benefit from the new measure I strongly feel that most of us are going to be screwed over big-time!
Both the House and the Senate version provide exclusions for those with religious objections and those who can prove financial hardship. In my opinion the latter group are those that they are working to cover the most. They are also the group that will continue to use the emergency rooms and primary doctors and likely end up paying little or nothing for the services provided.
There is also a big difference between those who cannot pay for services and those who choose not to. I’m guessing that there are many families that have no health care that have cell phones for every member of the family. They certainly have the option of having insurance but instead chose the phones. I understand that the health care would likely cost more than the phones but my point is they made a choice about what was more important to them. Is the government going to decide what you are allowed to have and still qualify for the ‘financial hardship’? Is it going to be based solely on income?
In the House version of the bill Illegal immigrants can purchase health care from exchanges but get no subsidies. In the Senate version they cannot buy even if they can pay full price. It boggles the mind that this was even a point of discussion! We are talking about ILLEGAL immigrants. Pack them up and ship them home. LEGAL immigrants are welcome and should be integrated into the system the same as citizens.
Governmental ineptitude will likely turn this into a major disaster that will continue well into the future despite all the problems it will have. Once another ‘entitlement’ is in place it is a political career busting move to take it away. Let me give you an example well the government handles a somewhat similar program: Auto Insurance. Forty-nine states require auto insurance in order to drive your vehicle on public roadways. New Hampshire is the exception. It is breaking the law not to have minimum coverage in the others. Yet here in Ohio the only ‘proof’ you need to have when getting your license or plates is to sign a form saying you have insurance. How is that proof? If that is the best they can do how will this pan out when applied to the entire population of the country?
I certainly don’t have the answers to all the questions regarding healthcare reform. But for as much as it is going to cost I think it is certainly worth taking more time to get it right rather then jam it throught the system for short-term political gain.