Ready Yourself

The title is from a line in a song from Casting Crowns called Till The Whole World Hears. This newsletter has 3 parts; a quick investing update looking at the Treasury Yield Curve, points on how to ready yourself for retirement, and a helpful story.

Rule #1 for investing is to follow the Federal Reserve. Rule #2 is to follow the Treasury Yield Curve. In particular, follow the shape and the interest rate spread between the 30 year Treasury Bond and the 3 month Treasury Bill. The shape and spread show that the Fed is artificially keeping short term rates low to improve economic growth. This shape and spread is very bullish for stocks and certain types of bonds. The bottom line is to maintain the current investment strategy.

How to Ready Yourself for Retirement:

* Develop a gameplan - Complete a financial analysis
* Determine the savings needed for retirement and then multiply by 1.5 to accommodate the future reduction in Social Security and Medicare benefits
* Run the plan and accumulate resources
* Before retirement get ready by reducing expenses such as paying off the Mortgage
* Before retirement determine the best way to retire to optimize Social Security benefits, timing can be critical
* Put investments into 2 buckets, fixed income to cover expenses and growth. Each bucket has a different investment strategy
* Relax and get ready for the next phase where you can do what you want to create a life. A living is what you do to pay the bills, a life is how you will be remembered.

Sign in a Smoky Mountain camping area:

“Due to the frequency of human/bear encounters, the Smoky Mountains Fish and Wildlife Department is advising hikers, campers, hunters, fishermen and any persons that use the out of doors in a recreational or work related function to take extra precautions while in the field. We advise outdoors persons to wear little, noisy bells on their clothing to give advance warning to any bears that might be close by so they aren’t taken by surprise. We also advise anyone using the out-of-doors to carry “Pepper Spray” in case of an encounter with a bear.

Outdoors people should also be on the watch for fresh bear activity and be able to tell the difference between black bear droppings and grizzly bear droppings. Black bear droppings are smaller, contain many berries, and squirrel fur. Grizzly bear droppings have bells in it and smells like pepper.”