Featured Story 2 March 2018
[et_pb_section bb_built="1"][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type="4_4"][et_pb_text _builder_version="3.0.101" background_layout="light"]March Madness
At the mention of those two words, all the nation’s basketball fans get really excited because of the college and NBA basketball playoffs. Over the years it has become more and more popular, much like the Super Bowl for football and the World Series for baseball. There are some sports critics who would say that the March Madness for college basketball (Sweet Sixteen) is more popular than the NBA basketball playoffs. But there are other March items that are just as fascinating to people other than sports fans. “Beware the Ides of March,” the famous line in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Many folks don’t realize or never read or saw this play by the famous Bard, but Caesar was warned by a soothsayer to beware this date in March as it would be his downfall. Lo and behold Caesar was stabbed to death by Senate members on this very date March 15th, just as the soothsayer predicted. Ides is “middle of” so, the 15th was the middle of March. If you are an enemy in war, history tells us that throughout the ages, March has been a month of launching wars by many countries. It was a favorite month for the Romans to launch new offensives as it was the beginning of spring and warmer weather was at hand to fight in. So what else is great in March? Well, for those of Irish descent there is one of our favorite holidays, “St. Patrick’s Day”, where there’s green beer, Leprechauns, a pot of gold, and all good things to have fun with. Let’s not forget that the original reason was the anniversary of the death of St. Patrick, the Patron Saint of Ireland. While he was never recognized by the Catholic Church as an actual Saint, it has become popular for his life’s work to bring Christianity to Ireland. The Vernal Equinox happens in March where we have the first day where there is a 50/50 split in day and night; marking the first day we gradually get more daylight. It also marks the day to the end of Daylight Savings Time in the USA. Pi Day for the math majors also falls into March, which makes a good excuse for the rest of us for regular old PIE! YUM!! [/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]Why Am I Me? Numbers and Measurments
Why Am I Me? Numbers and MeasurmentsBy David Edge
What makes us individuals is how we were taught to learn while growing up. Some us found we liked reading, some liked spelling, some of us geography, and some liked math and science.
Now math, that’s the universal language that cuts across all people, countries and customs. Those X’s and O’s can talk via computer in any language. And how we process those numbers is what makes you, ….well, you!
Who taught you math, or calculations, or arithmetic? No matter who, what, or where, math is a skill that every single one of us needs in order to perform tasks of daily living at any age. I can remember sitting at the kitchen table at 3-4 years old and just repeatedly writing the numbers 1-100 over and over as our Mom wanted to make sure we could write our numbers, alphabet and colors before we started school. At first, math was so easy, with 2+2=4, 2 x 2=4, simple right? We memorized our times tables so we could calculate stuff in our heads without paper! Our first grade teacher always made practical examples out of math so that our young heads full of grey matter could grasp what she was teaching. Four quarters make a dollar, ten dimes make a dollar, and twenty nickels make a dollar. You don’t think this was important? Just watch cashiers today when their power goes out at the store registers, and see if they can make change (NOT!). And then there were the endless examples of using cut up fruit for fractions. This was fun because after the math and fractions were done, you got to eat your work!
I was great with math until I hit the eighth grade and started those darn classes on Algebra I & II, calculus, geometry, trigonometry, and the rest of that stuff. I constantly had a headache! Remember this was before calculators. My brother loved that stuff and could practically do the problems in his head! I guess he was pretty smart as he later went to Georgia Tech then worked for the Military and IBM.
More importantly, who taught you math, and was there a moment that you have an epiphany or a ah-ha moment where you got it? Yeah there probably was and you probably remember it because it was a pivotal moment in your learning years.
At this point in your life math is even more critical than ever as you are faced with budgeting your retirement years. Decisions like when to take Social Security so that you max out the amount you can have, to simply figuring out if you have enough to retire and still be able to pay your bills.
Just like my teacher in the first grade, let’s make it easy by providing a teacher so that we “cut up the fruit” in practical illustrations to help everyone understand exactly how their retirement budgets will work. This factual exercise reveals exactly what will happen, when it will happen, and the real important answer to how much will happen?
Education and understanding your options is our goal in order to assist you with a successful retirement plan! Doing the math and coming up with a fact based decision is our classroom! Our retirement team here at American Retirement Advisors is here to help! Call us!
(Previous published in the April 2016 Edition of the American Retirement Advisor Newsletter)So what’s an investor to do?
If you follow the Wall Street gurus, most of them are gloom and doom at this point, much like the little boy with his finger stuck in the dam. “The Stock Market bubble is going to burst!” they all cry.
Ok, so maybe it will or maybe it won’t. But, let’s review a few facts about recent market history.
In 2000, we had the market run up because tech companies were all the rage with Y2K upon us. You could just about throw a dart at a chart and make money in the years leading up to 2000. But then we popped the champagne cork for New Years and... nothing happened. All the tech companies crashed and many were out of business just like that. We all know what happened in the market, a huge bear sat there for a few years, waiting.
Then around 2005 the housing market went crazy and everyone was buying and flipping houses until 2008 when the financial companies ran out of money to loan and triggered another crash. Many folks still have not recovered financially from that one!
somewhat stable over the years. But with “Quantitative Easing, we have injected a monkey wrench into the engine.
As long as the government is printing money and the rates remain low... it appears that the Stock Market is now the only option for where to put your money. Alas, this is the bubble that everyone is concerned about. While it may not happen right now, there will be an adjustment. It is coming, we just don’t know when, but we agree it will be a MAJOR adjustment.
Need help with educating and charting your personal course to protect your nest egg? Call US!
(Previous published in the May 2016 Edition of the American Retirement Advisor Newsletter)