Author Archives: ernie

Investment strategies and using full service Investment Advisors

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Investment strategiesI recently had a conversation with my kids around what the MERs mutual funds charge and also what sales commission is charged when you buy or sell an equity (I use equity and stock interchangeably). Mutual funds charge from 1% to 3%. The norm being around 1.8% whether you make money or not in any given year. Investment strategies for many consumers never considers these costs. However over the years, the approach you take can add considerable costs to your plan.

Trading directly in equities (stocks) with a firm like Edward Jones result in high trading fees compared to other online no service trading accounts with the banks etc. Over the life of your RRSP savings, a significant amount of money could be saved and reinvested. Consumers can make even more money by using discount traders and staying away from mutual funds. So why not invest directly in equities instead of mutual funds? The devil is in the details.

My own personal strategy is to use Edward Jones  to bounce ideas off of and for them to keep me abreast of changing legislation that could impact me. There have been two major ones over the past 15 years which has saved me quite a bit of money. The amount I pay Edward Jones for MER and trading fees has been well worth it. If I was trading more often then using a discount broker is definitely the way to go.

Investment Strategies

These are some of the rules that I try to follow with regards to my investment strategy.

  • Set goals related to when you want to retire. focus on how much you will need to maintain the standard of living that you want to have when you retire. Your income will come from pensions, CPP, OAS, and Savings. Life will throw curve balls at you so you need to be prepared for whatever comes your way.
  • Your investment advisor works for you and should provide you with guidance however only you understand your investment goals and direction and requirements over your lifetime. You need to pay attention and learn as much as you can to make well informed decisions, just like your job.
  • Treat investing like a project as part of your job. Apply the same approach to investing that you would to do your job. This means you need to pay attention all the time to your investments. Set a time twice a year to do a full review. Are you meeting your goals?
  • Diversify your investments between high-risk, moderately conservative and ultra-conservative. Your investments should be roughly 10% high risk 85% moderately conservative and the rest in cash or money market waiting for opportunities.
  • Always diversify your investments across industries, banking, energy, communications, goods and services.

More Strategic Ideas

  • Invest in high-quality stocks for equities, that are paying regular dividends, and have a history of increasing their dividends at regular intervals.
  • Minimize trades to minimize costs for trading commissions, only rebalance when absolutely necessary.
  • Mutual funds should be part of your plan but only 10 to 15% of your total investment strategy. Although you are paying MER, investing in a dividend-focused mutual fund gives you additional diversification.
  • Many people use the DRIP approach, dividend reinvestment plan, offered by many companies to avoid paying advisor fees when they buy stock. This is a great way to increase your investment in the quality stocks that your own, without additional advisor fees.
  • If you invest in high-risk stocks, that appreciate considerably, lock in profits by selling a minimum of 50% of the shares you own. High-risk stocks can go up and down very quickly. Remember until you sell you have not locked in any profits or losses.
  • The stock market goes through minor corrections of 10% every year. Be prepared to ride out these volatile situations, since history has shown the stock market will appreciate 10% and more after a correction within six months. Major corrections such as 20 to 25%, for example 2008 and 2009, take longer to correct. You only lose money if you sell at a loss, the market corrected itself and has more than doubled since 2008.

Summary – Investment strategies

With this strategy in mind, utilize your investment advisor as a consultant. They can help you adjust your investment strategy over the years. They will try to get you to make trades to rebalance your investments etc. But if you’re comfortable with your strategy there should be no need to sell and trade equities very often.

If you follow this approach, the commission you pay on mutual funds will be minimal. The trading costs associated with trading through someone like Edward Jones or another full-service investment company will also be minimal.

 

 

Monitoring Website Response Time

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Monitoring website response time is increasingly becoming more important if you want to keep people on your website. Clients expect an instant response.  Studies have shown that clients will give up quickly. They move to another site to find the information they are looking for. They do this after 3 to 10 seconds. There are a number of areas you can monitor and take action to improve your web sites response time.

Monitoring Website Response Time

Network Response – tough to anything about this one. There can be up to 20 different network elements including your own router and computer that can affect response time. Check often if you suspect a problem in this area and eliminate your own router or computer as the culprit.

Host Response Time – The server you have your content on should have the latest software.  Optimize it to serve content. Sharing impacts your site speed. Discuss the details with your service provider to determine if there are any limitations in this area.

Monitoring Website Response Time – Monitor the response of your web site. Look at details that could be impacting the time it takes for a page to load.

Managing Apps or Widgets – Every app and widget takes time to be processed and deliver a result. Review every widget and app. Make sure that your page is not being penalized by one of them. Evaluate your page load preparation time.

Manage Content – large image files, high quality images take a long time to load and send. Even your own device may find larger images difficult to process. It may take more time to present it on your local screen. Convert to smaller less detailed images. If you need high-quality images, give the reader the opportunity to load these files with a second click. This is one way to manage their expectations.

 

4 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Retiring

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4 questions to ask yourself before retiringWith so many people retiring over the next 20 years, many are wondering if they will have enough money to last through their Retirement. Should they keep working? Should they retire now and enjoy life? What are the questions we should ask ourselves to make sure we are ready for Retirement? We have assembled four questions to ask yourself before retiring, which many people will find challenging. It is definitely worth it to address these areas to ensure that you will achieve your objectives in Retirement. Another key recommendation is to discuss your retirement plans and the answers to these questions with your partner or spouse. They need to be on board and satisfied with the lifestyle that you both will have in Retirement. Here is a list of 4 questions that all consumers approaching Retirement should consider.

What are the 4 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Retiring

It should be pointed out that these 4 questions are all inter related. The decisions you make in one area will impact the decisions that you make in another. Consider them carefully and review the answers every 6 months to ensure you are om course to achieve your objectives.

  • Will You Have Enough Money
  • Where will you Live
  • What will I do With My Time
  • How Will Retirement Impact My Financial Life

Will You Have Enough Money – Add up all the income you will receive in Retirement from pensions, savings, and even part-time jobs. How does this income compare with what you make now? Do you need to save more or work longer to meet your objective?

Where will you Live? Will you downsize or stay in your current home? Can you afford the expenses associated with your current house, such as the taxes, upkeep, regular utilities, etc.? Do you need to move to control your costs and align them with your retirement income?

What will I do with my time? Suddenly, you will have 40-plus hours a week to fill. Once you complete all of the projects around the home, golf as much as you want, travel, and get all of this out of your system, what will you do? How will your plans affect your expenses? Do you have sufficient money to do everything you want?

How will Retirement impact My Financial Life – There will be lots of changes to your lifestyle, your expenses associated with work that you no longer have etc. Take a few minutes to determine what the impacts will be on the positive and minus sides. With more time on your hands you could end up spending more money than you planned.

Revisit these questions and the answers you gave every 6 months. There will be changes and adjustments you need to make that reflect your plans and the reality of your life.

For more retirement income discussion, click here.

Monitoring Host Responsiveness

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Web for Small BusinessIn today’s environment, consumers expect an instant response as they visit various web sites. Read posts, purchase various items, and browse web site looking for information. Monitoring host responsiveness can pay dividends if you speed up response time.

Studies have shown that many consumers will wait at most 10 seconds before they will move onto another website. Even 10 seconds seems to be a very long time.

In this environment, it is even more important to spend some time monitoring host responsiveness.  Response time can be impacted by a number of different factors. There are a number of areas that can be monitored and improved.

Monitoring Host Responsiveness

Apps and Widgets – all of the apps and widgets that have been installed on your server will take milliseconds of time. Some have more overhead than others. WordPress is a popular content system with many widgets that can be added. It is a good idea to conduct a study after every new widget or app is added to determine the impact that it may be having on load time.

Latest Operating System – will ensure that your server is running with the latest software which should be optimized for the server as well as the overall system.

Network Connectivity – Once the server has prepared the page to be sent, the data must travel through many routers and networks. As many as 20 network elements could be involved in order to be received by the client. Most web site managers have little control over the network. You can run tests from time to time. Evaluate how much time is consumed by the network in transmitting your content.

Complex pages with Images – The more complex the page and the larger the images etc. are, the longer it will take to compile the page and send it. Evaluate your content. Make sure that files and images are kept to as small a size as possible to limit total response time.

 

Prioritizing Debt Reduction or Adding to My Saving for Retirement

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prioritizing debt reduction or adding to my saving for retirementMany people want to know if it is better to prioritize debt reduction or add to my savings for retirement. They also should add to this question of whether emergency savings are available to deal with big financial surprises. As with most questions of this type, several different answers depend on the situation in which each consumer finds. Factors include loan interest rates, emergency savings, whether you own or rent, how long it will be before you retire, and how much you have saved for retirement. We will look at each of these issues. The bottom line is that each consumer must decide based on their situation.

Prioritizing Debt Reduction or Adding to My Saving for Retirement

A little more detail about each of these major areas.

  • Debt Interest Rates
  • Emergency savings
  • Years to retire
  • Retirement savings

Debt Interest Rates—Basically, if you have a thousand dollars and you can earn 5% income by investing it compared to your loan at 3%, then you should probably save the thousand and invest it. If the 5% income will be taxed, then it might be equivalent since taxes will take some of your income. For loans and debts carrying interest rates higher than 6%, e.g., credit cards at 21%, pay off the credit cards first.

Emergency savings – Everyone always needs to have money set aside for emergencies. Whether it is major repairs to your home, your car or a health issue, make sure you have 6 months of savings set aside to deal with emergencies. It could take 6 months to find another job if you lost yours.

Years to retire—If you are planning to retire shortly, pay off all of your debt as quickly as possible so that you are debt-free when you retire. You may work longer, but saving will be much more efficient when there is no debt.

Retirement savings – Saving for retirement is incredibly important. So is paying off debt. Finding the right balance depends on how close you are to retirement, how much debt you have, the interest you are paying on this debt and what you can earn in your retirement savings plan.

Experts generally advise paying off debt as quickly as possible since, in most cases, the interest rate is higher than any investment income you can earn after taxes are paid.

Comments are welcome. For more information on this subject, click here.

What can Retirees Do if a Retired Lifestyle Makes Them Miserable

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Things to do Before You RetireWhat can retirees do if a retired lifestyle makes them miserable? Plan your retirement in just the same way you planned your career. Think ahead and try different things that may make life more enjoyable. There may even be many false starts, but at least you are trying something and learning from your mistakes precisely what you used to do on the job! This critical step appears to be what many pre-retired and newly retired people seem to forget. Get going and do something that interests you. We will discuss a step-by-step process that retirees can adapt to their situation. But the important thing is for the person to get started.

What can Retirees Do if a Retired Lifestyle Makes Them Miserable?

The following is our step-by-step approach:

  • Make a list of things you could do to improve your life. These could include going back to work, volunteering, traveling, etc.
  • Describe how you would achieve or complete each item on your list. This could include steps such as updating your resume or looking for organizations that need help.
  • Create a satisfaction index from one to ten and describe in your own words what you are looking for that would increase your level of satisfaction. e.g., more social interaction, more challenge, giving back, etc
  • Apply these criteria to each item on your list and rank them from one to ten.

Discuss your plans with a partner or your spouse or a friend. Ask for their input and what they think about each one as it applies to yourself.

Take the time to investigate each item on the list based on your ranking factors. Then, decide which one or perhaps even several that you will pursue. There may be some false starts. Some may not turn out the way you thought they would. That is okay; you are learning more about yourself and what will make you happy instead of being miserable in retirement.

For more information about finding a new meaning in life and changing careers, click here.

SEO Outsourcing Strategies

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SEO outsourcing strategiesShould your small business outsource your website design and SEO work? Maybe you want more control over the resources and would like to have them located within your organization. Every company will have different SEO outsourcing strategies depending on their size and more importantly their objectives. At the extreme, if you just need a basic website, outsourcing is definitely the way to go. All you need to do is provide basic information about your company. An outsource website development company can have your website up in no time.

Conversely, a company that has a lot of content, changing content, and a specific target market may want to bring the content and web site development in house. Then there is the location of your SEO team and who they should report to. So many questions and all you want is a web site.

SEO Outsourcing Strategies

There are many different situations that will drive various SEO outsourcing strategies. The following are situations, economic, manpower, and expertise issues that should be considered in your decision. In every category, there needs to be someone accountable within the company who has a mandate to drive an online presence and controls the budget as well. If there is no budget it is a nonstarter as far as building a website.

If there is no leader or person accountable for the website regardless of who designs and builds it, the site may be doomed. Some people must take ownership of all of the decisions both technical as well as design. It does not mean they need to be experts in the field, but they do need to own the decisions and the process.

Small Companies – with few employees, they have little time to spend on the design, development, and maintenance of a site. Most will outsource these functions and rely on the outsource company to provide all of the necessary technical and SEO expertise.

Medium Size Companies

May have a small group or at least one resource dedicated to the online presence and website activities. Large projects will be outsourced, while day to day maintenance may be completed by this resource. He or she is still responsible for the overall design and development of the site and the content that is presented online. They need to work with other internal resources to make sure messages are clear and on target for whatever the objective of the site is.

Large companies – will often have a large in-house team responsible for everything to do with the company’s internal and external sites. They will interface with other members of the company to collect content ideas, marketing ideas, customer support information, etc. It is their job to make sure it is current and up to date.

Other Factors for SEO outsourcing strategies

Online Retail – these sites require a great deal of tweaking and customization to ensure they are current and up to date. Financial functions must run smoothly and accurately. Control, site design should definitely be in house. Outsource ongoing development efforts.

Information – sites are often more static and do not need the constant updating that many other sites require. Once the site is developed and online, the maintenance, etc can often be handled internally by single resources.

Security and Summary

Security – Responsibility is definitely internal, however, the field of security is complex and changing all of the time. Hackers will constantly be looking for ways to gain access to the companies server. Many companies employ an internal resource who may work closely with outsourced security resources.

All of these categories as well as internal company politics must be considered when you are developing your companies SEO outsourcing strategies.

 

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What can Retirees Do if a Retired Lifestyle Makes Them Unhappy

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retired lifestyle makes them unhappyWhat retirees can do if a retired lifestyle makes them unhappy is a big question for many people who are about to retire. What will they do in retirement? Will they be happy, and what can retirees do if a retired lifestyle makes them unhappy? Sure, there is lots of talk about being on the golf course every day, going for coffee with the gang, and afternoons napping by the pool. Will this make them happy? Do they have enough money? What rewards do they get out of life? Do they have a purpose in life, and what can they do about it?

What can Retirees Do if a Retired Lifestyle Makes Them Unhappy

If they are unhappy, retirees can do lots. But first, they need to figure out what makes them happy. Some need

  • Regularity in going to work,
  • Need the friendships they obtain at work, and
  • For others, it is the challenge and
  • The fear of the unknown.
  • Will they make the deadline?
  • Will they deliver on time?

The adrenaline rush of success can be pretty sweet.

Many retirees keep themselves very busy. Busy hours fill their days and leave them feeling that they have accomplished something. Whether it is looking after the grandkids, pursuing hobbies, or improving their golf score, their days are full. They do not have time to wonder if they miss the challenges and successes.

If you feel you have an unhappy retirement, it is time to do something about it. Start by reflecting on what is making you unhappy. Make a list if needed. Next, determine what actions you can take that will positively change those items that make you unhappy. These might be broad brush strokes, which you will need to refine in more detail.

Next, make a plan. Decide how you will tackle the task and lay out the step-by-step approach to achieving your objectives. As with all projects, there will be obstacles and detours along the way. They add to the challenge and make it even more interesting.

For more information about retirement surprises, click here.

What Percentage of Duplicate Content is Acceptable

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what percentage of duplicate content is acceptableOne of our readers asked the question, “What percentage of duplicate content is acceptable?”. This is actually a very complex question. The easy answer is that the website owner should not have any duplicate content. But what about things like addresses and phone numbers that might appear on many posts? Or what about warranty and guarantee information that might have its own page, but is repeated on other service-related pages? There are numerous legitimate situations involving duplicate content. Sometimes writers will quote other websites and provide links to them. Technically this is also duplicate content, however, as long as it is referenced and there are links to the original content it should be ok.

What Percentage of Duplicate Content is Acceptable – Search Engines

There is truly a fine line that writers use to create content and avoid being labeled as duplicate content. Even referrals are questionable if too much of the original content is used on different pages. What do the various search engines think about this? Obviously, they want to have all original high-quality content on all indexable pages.

Even Matt Cutts at Google admits that some content will be duplicated, however, it should be a small percentage of your overall content. He would prefer that writers address customer questions and try to help readers rather than spend time copying other people’s content.

We decided to include content that search engines love and answer the question.

  • Posts that are in excess of 1200 words, however shorter posts that answer a reader’s questions are fine too. Don’t add fluff just to get to 1200. Provide real value to the reader.
  • Use meaningful keywords, keywords that readers actually use in their searches. You may have to do some research to find them.
  • Add Content that lasts. If it is relevant today, it should also be relevant 2 years from now. Make it readable with bullets and short paragraphs.
  • Readers love pictures. Use pictures and label this properly so that they can be indexed by search engines and provide something of value to your readers.
  • The title is the first thing your readers see. It should be engaging and interesting. You want readers to open your page based on the hints in the title and the metadata that the search engines provide.

The bottom line is to add valuable content that readers need to help them solve whatever problems they may have. Write it to last for many years and be relevant.

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Signs and Symptoms of Baby Boomer Elder Abuse

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What are the signs and symptoms of baby boomer elder abuse? They are many. Anyone who is providing care, or is a friend or a family member of the senior needs to be on the alert. Often the most visible are bruises that really should not be there. Falls take place sometimes causing broken bones. When someone falls, they can cause bruises as well. But if there is no fall and the senior you are visiting has a lot of bruises, investigate what is going on.

Another common form of elder abuse is financial, which is the focus of this web site. Financial abuse takes place when there is outright stealing. Seniors pay for things that they really should not pay for or they are paying too much for many items. Often care givers, whether they are family members or not, cannot resist the monetary attraction. Relatives should jointly monitor the seniors funds. They need to make sure that their savings are not being prematurely spent, leaving them destitute.

From a Financial Perspective

Uncovering financial Elder abuse is difficult. Regardless of the amount of savings and investments that a senior might have, family members should always monitor what is being spent. Investigate unusual amounts or one time large amounts that you are not familiar with.

More than one person should check accounts and spending levels. Money can corrupt no matter who it is. Two people, must monitor accounts. There will be less chance of collusion and financial elder abuse.

Elder financial abuse can come in many different forms.

One time while cutting my father in-laws lawn, a person drove in to the yard. He indicated that he was here to collect the monthly fee for the newspaper. The amount was around $45. I asked him how long he had been delivering the paper? How long he had been collecting cash from my father inlaw? This gentleman was around his mid 40’s. He said he was relatively new, but it had been several months since he started collecting.

He gave me his name and his license number. Then I informed him that I had prepaid the subscription for the paper. He quickly realized that the jig was up. He left before I could say much more. What a scumbag. Taking money from the elderly. It was a small amount but still it makes him a scumbag.

I called the news paper. The news paper fired him. However he likely has continued ripping seniors off and is taking money from unsuspecting seniors.

The point of the story is that everyone must be alert. There are thieves everywhere. The elderly are particularly vulnerable. If you have an elder person you are close to, help protect them.

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