|HA1C_011113KW~ |HA1C_011113C^~ BLACK |HA1C_011113Mo~ CYAN YELLOW BUSINESS MONDAY • Bucking the odds and creating jobs despite a down economy. • Miami-based Datamyne is the largest searchable database in the world. COLLEGE COSTS 101 Ask author and scholarship expert Kelly Tanabe your questions about scholarships and other ways to pay for college Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. at www.Facebook .com/SallieMae. Tanabe says a million scholarships are available. TAKING STOCK OF GENERAL MOTORS, 2E |HA1C_011113Y1~ MAGENTA A DOZEN OYSTERS $12.65 on Nov. 10 Average of costs at three raw bars MiamiHerald.com/business Digital Dish: Bridget Carey reviews the Earloomz Bluetooth earpiece. MONEY C SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2010 EDITOR: JANE WOOLDRIDGE [email protected] 305-376-3629 A1 EMPLOYMENT Young workers off to a slow start ■ The effects of the Great Recession are likely to haunt the careers of the new generation of workers for years to come. BY DON LEE Tribune Washington Bureau WASHINGTON — As the nation struggles with the aftermath of the Great Recession, few groups have suffered greater setbacks or face greater long-term damage than young Americans — damage that could shadow their entire working lives. Unemployment for 20- to 24year-olds hit a record high of more than 17 percent earlier this year. Even for young adults with college degrees, the jobless rate has averaged 9.3 percent this year, double the figure for older graduates, according to the Labor Department. Adding to the impact, surveys by the Pew Research Center indicate, a greater share of workers in their 20s lost hours or were cut down to part-time status than any other age group. And their incomes have fallen more sharply, even as they are far more likely than others to say they are working harder than ever. ‘‘These are young workers just trying to establish a connection to work, and it will cause permanent damage to long-term pay. This crisis has the potential for scarring,’’ said Ron Blackwell, chief economist at the AFLCIO. The effect of the recession is reflected in the fact that many young Americans who started out living independently are moving back home with their parents because they are unable to survive financially. Also, new Census Bureau fig- HEALTHCARE ures show that couples increasingly are postponing marriage and parenthood, waiting for their financial prospects to improve. Meanwhile, more young families are falling into poverty. ‘‘It makes you almost want to cry for the future of our country,’’ said Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern Univer• TURN TO YOUNG WORKERS, 4C BEST OF THE BLOGS Scrambling for coverage Not all sales created equal ■ The holiday shopping season is at ■ It’s time to choose, and many hand, but is that deal really a deal? Florida seniors are finding they must find new providers. BY NIRVI SHAH BY BOB LAMENDOLA [email protected] Sun Sentinel I long ago gave up the frenzied ritual of Black Friday shopping. I figured the really good deals, like the $3 appliances Target will offer this year, will be in short supply and there is nothing I need so badly that I should deprive myself of sleep to get it. Or risk being trampled. And it’s hard to tell whether I’m really getting a deal. A recent check by ShopSmart (a magazine by the same people who produce Consumer Reports) found that some sales are anything but. For example, they found that a coffeemaker marked on sale at Kohl’s and at Kohls.com was on sale for $61.99, a supposed discount from the retailer’s posted Like more than 100,000 Florida seniors, Boynton Beach retirees Barry and Gladys Lubliner got a letter from their Medicare drug plan last month saying it will halt coverage in the state. Upset, the Lubliners and Medicare recipients like them must go through the burdensome process of finding new health insurers for 2011, with the Medicare signup period starting on Nov. 15. ‘‘It’s very unsettling,’’ Barry Lubliner said. Other big changes in Medicare for 2011: Less flexibility in switching HMOs after Jan. 1, and more help with the ‘‘doughnut hole’’ gap in prescription drug coverage. For 2011, no fewer than 15 Medicare prescription drug plans in Florida are dropping out, including four with the largest enrollments. Among them, lowpremium United Healthcare AARP Rx Saver and Universal American PrescribaRx Bronze that were popular with bargain hunters. The good news is that Florida still will have 32 drug plans in every price range, plus dozens of HMO-style health plans — 90-plus in South Florida counties and up to 59 in most Central Florida counties. Contrary to some political commentators, the federal health care overhaul did not cause the streamlining. Medicare pressured insurers to weed out plans that are nearly identical and cloud the choices. ‘‘People will have plenty of choices,’’ said Judith Stein, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Medicare Advocacy. ‘‘Some plans disappearing should make the choosing somewhat easier. This is a good thing for recipients.’’ But seniors have been most upset by their plans dropping them. As soon as the letters arrived last month, seniors started lining up to see state-funded counselors to shop for new coverage. The Broward and Palm Beach county offices of Serving the Health Insurance Needs of Elders program (SHINE) are booking up weeks earlier than normal. ‘‘They’re anxious,’’ said Palm Beach coordinator Jennifer Vandermay. ‘‘They want to get it over with and done and find a new plan.’’ The Lubliners are paying $19.80 a • TURN TO SHIPPING, 4C INVESTING Finding safer alternatives BY ANDREW MENACHEM Special to The Miami Herald plans in Florida will cost less than $25 a month next year. So they expect to pay more. One new plan, Humana Walmart Preferred, will run $14.80 a month, but advocates said seniors should make sure ‘‘Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.’’ You probably heard that advice as a child and it’s just as true today as an adult investor. After all, if your portfolio includes nothing but stocks and bonds, you’re more vulnerable to a downturn in the financial markets than an investor with a more diversified portfolio. Diversification is MENACHEM one of the fundamentals for successful long-term investing because while it won’t eliminate risk, it can help reduce it. If you own real estate, commodities or other types of alternative investments — along with a mixture of stocks and bonds — a drop in the financial markets may not be quite as damaging. While the basic concept of diversification is easy to understand, putting this • • RON BORRESON/BRADENTON HERALD month apiece in Coventry First Health Secure plan, the least expensive drug plan in Florida. When the plan leaves, if they want to stay with First Health, the lowest option will cost $41.30 a month. The Lubliners don’t like HMOs, which tend to be cheaper, and only two drug TURN TO MEDICARE, 4C TURN TO INVESTING, 2C ( BLACK CYAN ) ) ) ) YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN Story HA1C_011113 System MIAE by KSCOTT MAGENTA Time 20:33:29 Date 11/12/10 Story # 0 Story name HA1C_011113 Basket INL PAGES Last text user KSCOTT C , 1, A1 , Keyword: YELLOW BLACK |HA1C_021113K^~ 2C |HA1C_021113Ce~ BLACK SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2010 |HA1C_021113Mv~ CYAN |HA1C_021113Y8~ MAGENTA MiamiHerald.com/Business A1 YELLOW THE MIAMI HERALD PERSONAL FINANCE INVESTING THE WEEK AHEAD THE COLOR OF MONEY Finding safer alternatives Student loans teach Time to take stock of GM? • BY TOM HUDSON Nightly Business Report Do you want to own a piece of American history? Should you own a piece of what may be America’s future? More plainly, will you be buying stock in the slimmer, trimmer and profitable General Motors when it goes public this week? It is rare for a U.S. automaker to go public. OK, maybe it’s not that rare judged by this year’s activity. In late June electric car HUDSON maker Tesla sold stock to the public for the first time. Since then, Tesla shares are up 23 percent. General Motors is a much different story. The stock sale comes after 40 days in bankruptcy reorganization and a bailout by the U.S. taxpayers. GM is a smaller company now compared to the last time it had a publicly traded stock. The Pontiac, Saturn, Saab and Hummer brands have either been left for dead or sold. It has 40 percent fewer dealers. This new generation of GM seems to have more incentive discipline than a few years ago. During the easy credit days of 2004 and 2005, making cars seemed secondary at GM (along with many of the other automakers) to securing the financing. Zero percent financing and big rebates caused GM to fail as much as the souring economy did. Financial engineering was more valuable than mechanical engineering. GM is an iconic American brand. But it’s not an entirely American company. Two-thirds of its auto and truck sales come from outside the U.S. European sales are weak and Asia is growing in competition. That may be America’s future as much as it is GM’s. Tom Hudson is anchor of Nightly Business Report, produced by NBR Worldwide and distributed nationally by PBS. In South Florida, the show is broadcast at 7 p.m. weekdays on Channel 2. INVESTING, FROM 1C strategy to work can be a bit of a challenge. That’s because effective diversification involves more than looking at a menu of asset choices and picking two or three that sound appealing. The key to successful diversification is understanding which assets typically rise and fall in value at the same time — a concept called correlation. For instance, at times, U.S. and international stocks can be highly correlated, producing both positive and negative returns at the same time. That was certainly the case in the 2008 financial meltdown, when both stock and bond prices plummeted. But there are other assets — often called alternative investments — that may rise in value, or may at least hold their own, when Wall Street takes a tumble. These include private equity funds, hedge funds, commodities and managed futures. Therefore, including some alternative investments in qualified investors’ portfolios may help reduce volatility. A number of market studies indicate that managed futures may provide an effective way to balance a portfolio. Let’s take a closer look at managed futures as an investment class, which has deep roots in American history. Decades ago, farmers, ranchers and bankers sought a way to reduce the price swings in the agricultural markets. The result was the concept of a futures contract, which set a certain delivery price in advance for a specific commodity. As the advantages of this risk management strategy became more apparent, the concept of the futures contract was extended to the foreign exchange and interest rate markets in the 1970s and ’80s. Since then, the future markets have continued to grow and play an important role for many investors. Today, a managed futures fund is guided by a manager called a commodity trading advisor (CTA) who can follow different strategies in six major market sectors: agricultural products, currencies, energies, interest rates, major metals and stock indices. This can be a benefit to suitable inves- tors, who have little opportunity to participate directly in these markets, such as crude oil, Japanese debt or foreign exchange relationships. Therefore, managed futures offer the benefit of exposure to these markets at a certain level. Underlying futures markets can be driven by different factors than those influencing stock and bond prices. That alone may reduce the correlation. In addition, the CTAs can make potentially profitable investment decisions regardless of whether the markets are moving up or down. So even when Wall Street is having a bad year, managed futures may still show a positive return. On the other hand a good year for stocks and bonds can result in negative returns for managed futures. Since 1980, there have been six times when the S&P 500 Index has fallen by 10 percent or more. In each case, managed futures, as measured by the Barclay CTA index, produced positive returns. In 2008, for instance, managed futures were up 14.4 percent while the S&P was down 36 percent. Of course, it is important to remember that past performance is not a guarantee or prediction of comparable future performance. For an investor, managed futures holdings might be somewhere between 3 and 10 percent of the overall portfolio. Historically, that has been shown to improve both the overall portfolio diversification and the overall risk-adjusted return. So we know that managed futures have benefits such as historically low correlated performance relative to traditional investments such as stocks and bonds and that they can be an effective diversifier when combined in a portfolio with other types of investments. It’s important to know, however, that they are not suited for everyone and do involve risks. In our next column, we’ll look at other types of alternatives to stock and bonds. Andrew Menachem, CIMA, CWS is a wealth advisor at the Menachem Group at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in Miami and Aventura and teaches at the University of Miami. STOCK NEWS Navios Maritime Acq .05Q Resumed Dividend Escalade Inc .10 Liquidating Dividend Williams Coal Seam Gas $2.3814 Declared Stock Dividend Landmark Bancorp 5pc Declared Stock Splits Ligand Pharmaceutical 1 for 6 rev Magna International 2 for 1 Stock Splits This Week Geeknet Inc 1 for 10 reverse Gushan Environ Engy 1-5 rev Jacada Ltd 1 for 4 reverse Kemet Corp 1 for 3 reverse OptimumBank Hldgs 1 for 4 reverse Riverbed Technology 2 for 1 Annual Earnings Higher GAAP fully diluted Conexant Systems .27 vs (.38) Penford Corp .57 vs (5.80) Pricesmart Inc 1.65 vs 1.43 Tyco Intl Ltd 2.32 vs (3.80) Zep Inc .61 vs .42 Annual Earnings Lower (Losses) Amcon Distributing 11.99 vs 16.61 Chapter 11 Ambac Financial Group Inc Emerged from chapter 11 Chemtura Corp General Growth Properties Called for Redemption Delphi Financial Group 8pc notes due 5-15-2033 Dec. 23 Huntsman Intl LLC 7.875pc niotes due 11-15-2014 Nov. 26 Mack-Cali Realty LP 7.75pc notes due 2-15-2011 Dec. 15 Markwest Energy 6.875pc notes due 11-1-2014 Dec. 8 MetroPCS Wireless 9.25pc notes due 11-1-2014 Nov. 18 Increased Dividends [Quarterly unless noted] Adams Rescs & Engy .54A from .50A AmeriSource Bergen .10 from .08 Automatic Data Proc .36 from .34 Baxter Intl .31 from .29 Buckeye GP LP .47 from .45 Cinemark Hldgs .21 from .18 DeVry Inc .12S from .10S EMC Insurance .19 from .18 Equifax Inc .16 from .04 Estee Lauder .75A from .55A Excel Trust .12 from .08 Intel Corp .18 from .1575 Keynote Systems .06 from .05 Lexington Rlty Tr .115 from .10 Lincoln National .05 from .01 MDU Resources .1625 from .1575 Meadowbrook Ins Grp .04 from .03 Mesa Labs .12 from .11 Pan Amer Silver .025Q from .025S Prudential Financial 1.15A from .70A Rockville Financial .065 from .06 Sanders Morris Harris .05 from .045 StanCorp Financial .86A from .80A Starwood Prop Tr .40 from .33 Sysco Corp .26 from .25 Telus Corp g .525 from .50 Timken Co .18 from .13 Vectren Corp .345 from .34 Wendys/Arbys .02 from .015 Weyco Group .16 from .15 g- Canadian funds Extra or Special Dividends Columbia Sportswear $1.50 Haverty Furniture .07 Haverty Furniture A .065 Knight Transportation .75 Medtox Scientific $1.25 Nelnet Inc .49 Southside Bancshares .17 Stein Mart Inc .50 Initiated Cash Dividends IDT Corp .22Q Tanger Factory Outlet Centers 7.5pc pfC Dec. 9 Teco Finance Inc 7pc notes due 5-1-2012 Dec. 2 Unisys Corp 8.5pc notes due 10-15-2015 Dec. 8 Acquisitions and Mergers Minimum value $100 million Amazon.com - Quidsi Inc ($500M) Ametek Inc - Atlas Material Testing Technology LLC ($159M) Chevron - Atlas Energy ($3.2B) Harris Corp - Schlumberger GCS ($347.5M) New Stock Listings NYSE Chemtura Corp Noah Holdings Ltd ADS General Growth Properties new Howard Hughes Corp Inphi Corp SemGroup Corp Stanley Black&Decker cv pf NASDAQ Global and Global Select Markets RDA Microelectronics Inc Sabra Healthcare REIT wi UniTek Global Services Inc Stocks Removed from Trading NYSE Ambac Financial Group Inc General Growth Properties old Inergy Holdings LP Mariner Energy Inc Neteeza Corp PS Business Parks pfL NYSE AMEX Equities Gulfstream Intl Group NASDAQ Global and Global Select Markets Alloy Inc Comarco Inc (to Capital Market) GenVec Inc (to Capital Market) Corporate Name Changes American Dairy Inc to Feihe International Inc a hard lesson in life BY MICHELLE SINGLETARY Tick tock. Tick tock. That’s the sound recent college graduates are hearing as they near the day of reckoning. The typical six-month grace period on student loans is about to end. Then wham! — as they face the reality of what it costs to get an education. For years, I’ve written, talked and generally fussed about the way people handle their money. Yet it never — and I mean never — ceases to amaze me how people borrow money with so litSINGLETARY tle understanding about how much they owe and how long it will take to pay it back. And the worst are borrowers who take loans for college. So what should you do if your grace period is coming to an end this month? Here are some suggestions from the Project on Student Debt, an initiative of the Institute for College Access & Success, a nonprofit independent research and policy organization. You can more tips at http:// bit.ly/avNe7V: • Know what you owe. ‘‘Don’t bury your head in the sand,’’ says Lauren Asher, the institute’s president. ‘‘Dealing with the debt head-on gives you the most options. If you’ve got federal student loans, you really do have choices in how to deal with it. But if you ignore it, you have fewer choices.’’ To find out your loan terms, go to the source — your lender or lenders. You can also find details of your student loans, including balances, by going to the National Student Loan Data System, which is the U.S. Department of Education’s central database for student aid. The website is www.nslds.ed.gov. • Know when you owe. A grace period is how long after leaving school before you have to make your first payment. It kicks in after you graduate, leave school or drop below half-time enrollment. But the amount of grace you get varies. For Stafford loans, it is six months, nine months for Perkins loans. If you don’t know your grace period, you could end up in default. This is not a great position to put yourself in because it could affect your ability to apply for other options. • Let your lender know where you are. I get complaints from borrowers who are in default because they say their loan statements were mailed to an old or incorrect address. But it often turns out the person didn’t forward new contact information. Or maybe he or she did inform the lender, but a month or two or three goes by and nothing comes in the mail. Come on. You know you owe this money — every month. If you don’t hear from the lender, then call, e-mail, text or tweet. • Find the right repayment option: One of the best is the relatively new Income-Based Repayment program, or IBR. This option, which is not available for private student loans, is intended to set a reasonable monthly payment based on a borrower’s income and family size. Under IBR, after 25 years of qualifying payments, your remaining debt, including interest, will be forgiven. New federal loans taken out by new borrowers in 2014 and later are forgiven after 20 years, Asher said. For public service workers — teachers, nurses and those in military service — the debt is forgiven after 10 years. To get more details, go to www.IBRinfo.org. About this time of year, I begin to get e-mails from panicky borrowers. Their cries of desperation go something like: ‘‘My income isn’t enough to cover rent, transportation and my other bills, plus my student loans,’’ or ‘‘What should I do?’’ My answer is sadly the same: There is no magic solution. You’ve got to pay the debt. Somehow. The tips from the Project on Student Debt will help with the somehow. Hear Michelle Singletary’s personal finance reports on www.npr.org. Readers may write to her c/o The Washington Post, 1150 15th St., NW, Washington DC 20081. SOUTH FLORIDA CONSUMER FINANCE GUIDE Money Market 1.50 1.25 1.00 0.75 0.50 0.25 0.00 N D J F M A M J J A S O Money Market national averages are based on federally insured accounts requiring a min. deposit of $5,000 or less Money Market Accounts This Week $5K or less 0.24 $10,000+/0.32 $25,000+/0.40 $50,000+/0.49 Last Week 0.24 0.33 0.40 0.49 CD Rates 1.75 1.50 1.25 1.00 0.75 0.50 0.25 0.00 N D J F M A M J J A S O 6 mo Company Financial Indexes Comments 5.00 1st National Bank of S. FL 305-247-5541 www.1stnatbank.com 2,500 0.20 1,000 0.25 1,000 0.60 1,000 0.90 1,000 1.33 1,000 1.43 1,000 2.03 We are a full-service bank serving the South Florida community. Chase 800-788-7000 www.chase.com 100 0.05 1,000 0.15 1,000 0.25 1,000 0.25 10K 0.50 10K 1.00 10K 1.49 Contact us to learn more about our relationship rates. Citibank 800-374-9500 www.citibank.com 100 0.20 500 0.15 500 0.30 500 0.50 500 0.60 500 1.01 500 1.25 CD rates apply to CDs opened online or by calling 800-374-9500. Visit us online for many more products & specials. Comerica Bank 800-266-3742 www.comerica.com 50 0.10 4.00 3.00 First Century Bank, N.A. 800-332-8231 www.myfirstcenturybank.com 1,000 0.10 1,000 0.20 1,000 0.20 1,000 0.40 1,000 0.65 1,000 1.25 2.00 1.00 0.00 N D J FM A M J J A S O 10 Yr T-Bill We have more than 150 years of experience. Please contact us today. Our mission is to create a banking environment that will constantly deliver quality personal service to you. Call Call Call Call Call Call Call Grand B&T of Florida 561-615-5000 www.grandbankflorida.com 2,500 0.10 1,000 0.50 1,000 0.75 1,000 1.10 1,000 1.45 1,000 1.75 1,000 2.00 Visit one of several convenient locations for all of your banking needs. HSBC Bank USA, NA 800-975-HSBC www.us.hsbc.com 1 0.10 1,000 0.05 1,000 0.10 1,000 0.70 1,000 0.40 1,000 0.40 N/A Visit our website to choose from a broad selection of products tailored to your needs and budget. International Financial Bk 305-648-8800 www.ifbbank.com 3,500 0.18 2,500 0.40 2,500 0.55 2,500 1.00 2,500 1.35 2,500 1.80 2,500 2.50 Ask for “Choice” Checking with no maint. fee, no min. balance. Other requirements apply. Member FDIC. Optimum Bank 888-991-2265 www.optimumbank.com 5,000 0.50 1,000 0.50 1,000 0.75 1,000 1.050 1,000 1.30 1,000 1.60 1,000 1.90 Visit our website to learn more about our checking and savings products. 4.50 Call us or go online to get more information about our products and services. 3.50 Sterling Bank 561-204-2400 www.sterlingbankfl.com Call Call Call Call Call Call Call Last Week 0.49 0.75 1.11 1.38 VISIT http://miami-financial-rates.infotrak.com for much more. . . Current Rates Financial Calculators Tips and Advice All rates are believed to be accurate but cannot be guaranteed. Rates are subject to change without notice and certain restrictions may apply. Contact each company for details. Companies may pay a fee to be in this Guide. APY = annual percentage yield; N/A = not available; P = prime rate; K = thousand; Min = minimum; Mo = month; Money Market accounts and Certificates of Deposit should be federally insured unless otherwise noted. Copyright 2010 INFOTRAK National Data Services, Inc. Rates as of 11/10/10 6 Mo LIBOR Key Financial Indexes This Week 1-yr T-Bill 0.220 10-yr T-Bill 2.610 Prime Rate 3.250 National COF 1.700 6 Month LIBOR 0.448 Last Week 0.230 2.670 3.250 1.700 0.448 Mortgages 6.50 6.00 5.50 5.00 4.00 N D J FM A M J J A S O 30 C 12 mo CD national averages are based on federally insured accounts requiring a $10,000 min. deposit or less for term. Certificates of Deposit This Week 6 Mo 0.48 12 Mo 0.75 24 Mo 1.10 36 Mo 1.38 Money Certificates of Deposit Market 3 Mo 6 Mo 12 Mo 24 Mo 36 Mo 60 Mo Min/APY Min/APY Min/APY Min/APY Min/APY Min/APY Min/APY 15 C Based on $175,000 loan for single family home with 20% down, and 0 point origination and discount fees. National Average Mortgage Loan Rates This Week Last Week 4.398 4.398 3.869 3.931 4.825 4.825 3.238 3.273 30-yr Fxd Conf 15-yr Fxd Conf 30-yr Fxd Jumbo 5/1 ARM Conf To be in this guide, please call 781-276-1711 ( BLACK CYAN ) ) ) ) YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN Story HA1C_021113 System MIAE by KSCOTT MAGENTA Time 18:29:04 Date 11/12/10 Story # 0 Story name HA1C_021113 Basket INL PAGES Last text user KSCOTT C , 2, A1 , Keyword: YELLOW BLACK
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