“Personal Finance: Sacramento-area investor clubs see the clouds lifting - Sacramento Bee” plus 1 more |
| Personal Finance: Sacramento-area investor clubs see the clouds lifting - Sacramento Bee Posted: 06 Feb 2011 11:06 AM PST For many investors, the stomach-churning ride through the recent recession was nothing to cheer about. But last week, the 19 members of The Webbers, a local investment club, broke out their first-ever bottle of celebratory wine. Why? For the first time in the club's 15-year history, every member's investment account was in the black. Including one who joined in 2008 during the market slump. The club, one of three at Sun City Roseville's "active adult" community, weathered the stock market's choppy sailing through the recent recession in good form, its stock portfolio finishing up 4.2 percent over the last five years. "We never talked about getting out of the market," said club founder Jack Ellison, 76, an Air Force retiree. "We stayed focused, knowing there are peaks and valleys in the economy." The Webbers – who are taking in two new members this winter – are something of an anomaly. Nationally, it's been a tough time for investment clubs. In the last decade, memberships have slipped nationally and locally, according to local chapter officers of BetterInvesting, the Michigan-based nonprofit consumer site for investors and investment clubs. In the Sacramento area, there are about 1,030 BetterInvesting club members, down from more than 5,000 in the late 1990s, says local board member Frank Roddy, whose own investment club in Elk Grove recently disbanded. The drop-off has many causes: Investment clubs find it hard to attract younger members. Availability of easy-to-use online resources for stock evaluations, such as Morningstar and ValueLine, have made it convenient to research stocks at home, rather than meeting monthly with a group. And the markets' rocky ride of the last decade have simply scared some investment club members out their seats. "When markets collapse, people lose interest. Especially those who were active when everything you touched turned to gold," said Roddy, who joined a BetterInvesting club in 1996 after retiring from CalPERS. Investing clubs have been around for decades. The grandfather of the movement, BetterInvesting, which has 90,000 members nationwide, was founded in 1951. It emphasizes solid research, dividend reinvestment and buy-and-hold strategies. Members pool their money to invest in stocks or mutual funds that have been analyzed and recommended by individual members. The clubs don't buy every month. They typically sell off losers only after several quarters of poor results. "It's not a get-rich-quick approach. It's about education," said Suzanne McNealy, president of the local BetterInvesting chapter that covers Northern California and Reno. "When you understand the terminology you hear on Bloomberg TV, it's exciting." McNealy, a McGeorge Law School administrative employee, says the knowledge she's gained has helped her navigate choices within her employer's retirement savings plan. Some clubs connect over shared interests, like work, church or recreation, such as the Webbers, many of whose members belong to a Sun City cycling group. Some clubs are coed; others are women-only. Glorianne Marshall, a hairdresser in Carmichael, is a member of the all-women River City Investment Club, which has been meeting monthly for about 15 years. Its members range in age from early 30s to 70s, including a couple of mother-daughter pairs. When she joined, Marshall had a few investments and an IRA, but was a novice. "I had no clue how the stock market worked. I had a broker who took care of it for me, but I wanted to know how she was making those decisions. I felt out of the loop." Five years later, Marshall knows how to analyze stocks, review a company's management and read an earnings report. Her club, whose holdings include Coach, Starbucks and Waste Connections, performed well during the recession, she said. It sold GE and recently bought shares of Apple and the clothing company Guess. She and others consider investing a long-term endeavor, not a day-trading adventure. Which is why they didn't get unnerved during the recent market swoon. Larry and Nancy Hogan, who are president and secretary, respectively, of the local BetterInvesting's Model Club, said the downturn was actually a prime time for buying, not bailing on, stocks. "Despite all the issues in the financial world, we could still find quality companies that are ethical, creating jobs and making money for their stockholders," she said. The Hogans, who said they "didn't know anything" when they joined BetterInvesting around 2003, now oversee the chapter's Model Club, which allows the public to sit and watch a real investing club in action. (See box for details.) Among the Model Club's most recent purchases: Comcast, Aeropostale (clothing chain), Thermo Fisher Scientific (lab instruments) and Zhongpin Inc. (a Chinese food company. The Hogans are bullish on the stock market's prospects for 2011. "We're very, very optimistic," said Nancy. "With so much available information, 'regular Joes' can do the research on companies. And with a lot of companies priced so low, it's a great time to buy." Likewise, Ellison, who belongs to two clubs, the Webbers and the Bulls and Bears, says the markets "have been restrained for so long because of anxieties about the nation's economy." But he's a believer that markets are driven by enterprise, initiative and the creativity of individuals and corporations. At last week's meeting, his Webbers club dumped its shares of a gold stock and picked up 100 shares each of Vodaphone and Verizon, in anticipation of the latter's iPhone venture. With the club's portfolio valued now at $133,000, up significantly from $88,000 two years ago, Ellison has no doubts that 2011 will be a good year. "It's hard to keep a lid on American entrepreneurism," he said. STOCKS, MUTUAL FUNDS: RECENT TOP PICKS Based on recent monthly reports of BetterInvesting clubs nationwide, these are the most actively bought/sold stocks: 1. Apple 2. Abbott Laboratories 3. Alcoa 4. Medco Health Solutions 5. Teva Pharmaceutical 6. Synaptics 7. Visa 8. Coach 9. Hudson City Bancorp 10. Ford Motor Based on 2010 survey of BetterInvesting members, the top mutual funds (with ticker symbol): 1. Vanguard Total Stock Market (VTSMX) 2. Vanguard 500 Index (VFINX) 3. Vanguard High-Yield Corporate Bond Fund (VWEHX) 4. Dodge & Cox International (DODFX) 5. Vanguard Wellington Fund (VWELX) 6. Vanguard Inflation-Protected Securities (VIPSX) 7. Fidelity Low-Priced Stock (FLPSX) 8. American Funds EuroPacific Growth (Class A) AEPGX 9. Dodge & Cox Stock (DODGX) 10. American Funds Growth Fund of America (Class A) AGTHX 11. Fidelity Contrafund (FCNTX) © Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved. Have a personal finance question? Call The Bee's Claudia Buck at (916) 321-1968. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Personal Finance: A primer on getting job benefits - Philadelphia Daily News Posted: 06 Feb 2011 12:15 AM PST Posted on Sun, Feb. 6, 2011 The good news is that slowly, but surely, the number of new people filing for unemployment insurance is going down a little. The bad news is that people are still losing their jobs, and half of those out of work have been without jobs for six months. It is the worst period for employment since the Labor Department started tracking it in the 1940s. But the other piece of good news for those who have received pink slips is that unemployment benefits, which provide some pay while people look for work, are available for up to 99 weeks. That is a result of Congress' action in December. Still, not everyone out of a job qualifies for unemployment. And, as it stands now, people who lose their jobs this year will qualify for benefits - beyond the usual 26 weeks - only up until the end of this year, said Greg Rivara, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Employment Security. Although such states as Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, and Pennsylvania offer benefits for up to 99 weeks, the Dakotas and Nebraska offer them for only up to 60 weeks, according to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Fewer than half of the states will offer benefits for the full 99 weeks. This is the result of different state and federal formulas. Workers in all states can receive up to 26 weeks of benefits from their state-funded unemployment-compensation program, but under the extension passed by Congress, federal funds kick in to carry unemployed workers through additional weeks. And some states also allocate additional money. Although states vary, the following points will give you a rough idea of what to expect: Apply immediately: You must apply, and it takes time. So as soon as your job is terminated, even if you have a severance package, apply immediately. If you are denied, you can appeal. Who gets unemployment? Generally, if you were working and lost your job through no fault of your own, you get unemployment compensation. But if you quit, you generally will not get benefits. Also, if you have a business that fails, you are not typically considered eligible for unemployment. People collecting unemployment benefits must show that they are looking for a job. Can students get unemployment? Students who lose a job and could not find another could be eligible, even if a couple of months have passed since their last job. States base benefits on a person's work history and pay during the last five quarters. A person does not have to work throughout that period but must have worked for a certain amount of time. How much do you get? This varies by state, but generally it is less than half of what you were paid. The amount is often determined by looking at your last five quarters' pay and averaging earnings during the highest couple of quarters. For example, in Illinois a person with a child can get as much as $535 a week and a single person as much as $385, but the average benefit is $320 a week, Rivara said. If you accept a part-time job, does that end benefits? You are allowed to accept part-time work to supplement unemployment up to certain limits. The rules vary by state, but in some you can earn up to 40 percent of your unemployment benefits without losing any benefits. Can I move? If you move to another state to look for work, that is OK. You apply for benefits in the state where you lost your job and can get automatic deposits into an account. What are extended benefits? When Congress voted in December to authorize up to 99 weeks of unemployment compensation, some unemployed people thought that meant an additional 99 weeks on top of what they had already used. That is not the case. The limit is 99 weeks. Do benefits have to be taken consecutively? No. If you were unemployed for a while, then found a job and stopped benefits but got laid off from the second job, you can get benefits again. Gail MarksJarvis is a personal finance columnist for the Chicago Tribune. E-mail her at gmarksjarvis@tribune.com. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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