Keep Track of Stuff on The Cheap

In April of this year the TrakDot device will begin to be shipped by GlobaTrac LLC. The device is a small unit placed in a suitcase (or anything) you are going to be separated from, but don’t want to lose track of. You can get location information sent to your smart phone or your computer from the device telling you its location. Beyond luggage, why not use this for automobiles, private airplanes, boats, loved ones? Some of the beneficial features: Very flexible, small, and only $13/year for the monitoring service.

From the company’s web site (click on the below image to get more info from their web site):

What uses can you think of for this? Please add your comments!

The Consequences of Saying No

By Nick Bautista

One man’s journey to breaking out of his shell.

A man named Jia Jiang takes a different take on life; he aims to ask for something unique every day and be rejected while doing it. He records these encounters on his blog and his goal is to “desensitize myself from the pain of rejection and overcome my fear.”

So often we are afraid to ask for things as we get paralyzed by the fear of being told no.  As Jia goes through his experiment he is realizing how to control the emotions of being rejected. Now, when he actually gets rejected it becomes freeing.

Rejection can take us down new roads filled with rich and wonderful experiences we could never see coming. Think about what you are hesitant to ask for in your life and ask for it today, if you need some inspiration just visit Jia Jiangs blog here.

The Disappearing College Loan

Presented by Nick Bautista

With the major costs in College tuition this may be one way for students to get help in the battle against student loans, the Pay as You Earn program.

A Recent article in the Wall street Journal points to a new repayment program, Pay as You Earn, that may decrease your loan payments after you graduate based on your salary after college. You must qualify for this program based on different parameters, but in some cases loan re-payments may be zero if you don’t make enough money out of college. The new program is designed to help students manage the burden of student loans.

This program limits student loan payments to 10% of their discretionary income. Monthly payments could rise or fall depending on their current salary along with this the loan is considered in good standing. Basically, the student is not penalized for delaying the payments.   

To find out more information view the full article here:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323689604578220280013776200.html

Innovations in Health-Care

Below is a list of 10 ways that Health-Care has been shifting to innovate in 2012. Click on the article title below for the entire Wall Street Journal Article.

One area of particular interest is item number four. Do you see any of the below changes at your Doctor’s office?

Ten Ways Patients get treated better

1.       Doctors are adopting a better bedside Manner.

2.       Heart Attacks are being treated faster

3.       ERs are getting better at handling medical mysteries

4.       You can finally see what your doctor is writing about you

5.       Health apps are more sophisticated

6.       Tests for Colon Cancer are less arduous

7.       Talk of dying gets a little less daunting

8.       The hospital is less likely to make you sick

9.       Robots are helping your surgeon

10.   Vetting a hospital gets easier

College Degree - Return on Investment (ROI)

“How much is a College Diploma really worth?” asks Elizabeth Dwoskin in the December 24th, 2012 issue ofBloomberg BusinessWeek.

I depends, of course… But what it depends on is not always what you might assume.

What she finds is that there is a resurgence of effort to measure the value, in earnings, of graduates with various degrees. The idea of these efforts is to help college bound students to make more informed decisions about what to study. Kind of a market barometer of what industry is interested in. One of the vanguard efforts available to the public is the following web site which I recommend to you or anyone you know with a college bound student in the next five years:

CollegeMeasures.org

A taste of what Elizabeth Dwoskin found in her research…

Is Your “Advisor” A dietician or A Butcher?

This is a great video…

Too often you may not get the outcome you want from your “financial advisor” because you misunderstand the goals of the “advisor” you are seeking help from. Hightower Advisors produced the following short whiteboard video (a la RSA Animation) that helps explain the difference in motivation of a commission-based stock broker “advisor” versus a fiduciary and what this means for you – and for your friends and family.

Please click on the graphic below to play this 2½ minute video.

Please consider this in all aspects of your life and all of your professional relationships.

Please share this blog post with everyone you know and care about!

Hightower Whiteboard Animation: Brokers vs. Fiduciaries

US Stocks in 2012: Despite Volatility, A Bright Spot Overall

US Stock performance (as reflected in the S&P 500 index of the top 500 US firms whose stock is available for sale on stock exchanges) by sector and company for 2012 were solidly up. We saw the more growth oriented Consumer Discretionary and the Financial sectors grow well above norm and the more defensive Utility, Energy, and Consumer Staples sectors lag the average.

We have found that this is as often an indicator of what next year will as won’t look like so consider this as nothing more than a historic snapshot, and a way of seeing what firms in particular were relative winners and losers.

Click anywhere in the graphic to jump to the Wall Street Journal article…