Check out our July Newsletter here: July FA

Here’s a summary:

Universal Genius

Exercise pumps happiness into the brain!

If you feel like your life is like a treadmill and nobody really cares, you need to do something. Get yourself back on the right track with physical movement (exercise), even if you don’t want to.

Scientists say feeling bad is linked to low levels of neurotransmitters in the brain. Low levels of norepinephrine, dopamine and serotonin contribute to feelings of sadness, loss of interest in normal activities, tiredness, anxiety, and difficulty thinking.One way antidepressants work is by increasing the levels of these brain chemicals. But exercise does the same thing. It works your heart and releases feel-better chemicals in the brain, and can normalize their levels.

Some depressed feelings could be caused by reduced blood circulation in the brain. Exercise can improve that circulation as well. Working out, whether on exercise equipment, walking, or doing yard work, also decreases levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

In another discovery, scientists have found that exercise not only works against stress at the brain level, but in the muscles as well.

In addition to biological effects, exercise has positive emotional and social effects.

* It helps you get the mental tools you need to cope with life and gain confidence.

* Focusing on exercise gets you away from negative thoughts and worries.

* Physical activity may bring you more social interaction. Just exchanging a smile while you walk in the neighborhood can help your mood.

* You will cope in a healthy way. It’s something positive you can do to manage anxiety or depression.

Even short one-time bouts of exercise will elevate your mood for a time.

Some of us here at Torrid would like to recommend our favorite “get up and move” apps:

Couch To 5K– Are you a couch potato, want to start jogging/running? Maybe even set a goal for a 5k. This app will get you there a little at a time.

Fitness Pal– Helps you track your calories and exercise.

Endmondo– Multipurpose app to get you moving and keeping track of your fitness.

According to Financial Engines, an average of  $42,885 is left in the table over a 20 year period in many worker’s career path. The average number of workers who don’t max out 401k matching was:

42% -earning under $40,000.

10%- earning over $100,000.

30% of younger workers

16% Older savers

Company matching is basically free money. You should always max out this benefit if possible!

Let RetirementView Software help you make wise choices in your retirement planning at any age.

Read more at http://bit.ly/1GEcvrF

There are some choices you might be making that could be detrimental to your retirement planning and saving. It’s always a good time to reevaluate where you stand and it’s never to late to make adjustments.

Foxbuisness.com offers this list of 9 things you might be doing to kill your retirement.

Are you making any of these mistakes?

The Employment Benefit Research Institute has just released their 2015 report.

Some notable statistics stated in their brief include the following:

The Inflation rate, as felt by seniors, is greater than that of the population at large. Why?

Healthcare! Mark Miller writes: “Healthcare accounts for 13% of expenditures by Americans over age 65,compared with 5% for all other age groups, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.”

While monthly premiums haven’t changed over the last few years, predictions are that they will rise anywhere from 1.5% – 6% over the next 10 years. Of course, the experts disagree over what these increases will be. J.P. Morgan Asset Management advises that the average payment for Part B, Part D, Medigap supplemental coverage, out-of-pocket expenses, vision and dental services will rise at an annual rate of 6.1% over the next 20 years. making this cost rise from a current average of $4,400 to $17,000. It should be noted that there is, included in this forecast, a hefty “bump for uncertainties”.

Read more at http://tinyurl.com/mx5b6yy

You see the Jones family with a new car, a boat in the yard with a fancy new truck to pull it. They might have the dough to afford this or, just as likely, you might be seeing everything they have parked in the driveway.

Morgan Housel of the investing website, The Motley Fool (fool.com), says real wealth is the things you don’t see because money buys things but wealth buys freedom.

“There are 56,956 personal finance books on Amazon.com,” Housel writes on his Website. “They contain 3 billion words. This seems absurd, because 99 percent of personal finance can be summarized in nine words:

“Work a lot, spend a little, invest the difference.”

Investing for wealth instead of buying cars requires putting your paycheck above your ego. You can’t care what other people think.

Housel advises reading about people who have gone bankrupt. Singer Rhianna had $10 million in the bank in the beginning of 2009 but found herself “effectively bankrupt” at the end of 2009. She blamed her accountant for poor advice and won a lawsuit against him. On the other hand, it is also a cautionary tale for paying attention to your business. The singer lost money on a tour, but she also left the tour to make a movie. In 2009, she bought a $7 million house. Somehow, she did discover before purchase that the house was loaded with mold and rot, and lost $2 million at sale. Today, she is evidently doing things differently since her net worth is now calculated at $43 million.

“You can’t be oblivious to disaster or bad decisions or your financial situation”, says Housel. “Instead be unemotional. Stay calm and be prepared. Do your homework.”

Interestingly, Housel writes that patience and inaction are the best for investing.

Finally, don’t worry if someone gets rich on some scheme, if you stay patient, vigilant and follow the nine-word rule, you should be fine.

A point to remember: According to World Bank economist Branko Milanovic,”The poorest 5% of North Americans are better off than more than two-thirds of the world population. It’s all perspective!

Or as Mark Miller asks in his article– What’s the match?

According to Financial Engines, an average of  $42,885 is left in the table due to not contributing enough to take the full match employers have to offer.  Over a 20 year period, the average number of workers who don’t max out 401k matching broke down as follows:

42% of participants earning under $40,000.

10% of participants earning over $100,000.

30% of younger workers

16% Older savers

Let RetirementView Software help you make wise choices for your Retirement.

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For summer boating fun and safety, take along the most important device you’ll never need:  Your PLB (Personal Location Beacon)… or at least you hope you’ll never need.  In 2014, about 240 people did need one and, because they had one, they were saved.

Imagine a lovely afternoon sailing a catamaran off the Florida coast when the sky starts to darken. Just about then the wind kicks up, now you can’t see land. The wind and waves blast the boat and  your mast snaps. With a PLB device, you could be rescued.

The PLB is not just for boating either. You could plan a lovely hike on a lonely trail in the wilderness. If you fall into ravine and break your leg, only the PLB can give you that last-hope chance of rescue.

Personal Locator Beacons are high-powered devices that send emergency distress signals. They transmit a distress signal at 406 mhz, which is monitored by NOAA – the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center.

Once a signal is received, satellites fix the location and relay the coordinates to rescuers.

The best PLBs are equipped with GPS, according to rei.com.  With GPS, rescuers can fix on your location within a 100 meters. Look for a PLB with some kind of signal device built in, such as an LED light.

Each PLB device should be registered with NOAA.  That way, if an emergency ever occurs, your medical information is available as well as your identity.

There are many kinds of PLBs, designed for use in water and hiking, and they range in cost from $150 up to $500 and more. That might seem little salty for a device designed to be activated once — if at all.  But if you need help, this is technology that, for the first time in the history of mankind, can bring help in the wilderness.