A  publication of the FJMC - November 23, 2014 

Health Management

Our 3^rd Health tip of 2014 is Meditation - Why meditation you might ask?

Meditation has 7 health benefits:

1. Improves the immune system by reducing stress and increasing free radicals in your system. A study by the Ohio State University concluded that daily meditation reduced the risk of breast cancer recurrence.           
2. Causes anti-inflammatory effects - stress leads to inflammation.  I can tell you it works from experience.  When I ran marathons I was very sore during my training, and recovery was sometimes not very fast.  Meditating and focusing on the areas of discomfort significantly reduced my soreness.  I learned meditation in college because I was so stressed out.  It helped me learn how to deal with stress.  My friend Art Spar taught me a Jewish meditation called “Y’d hay vov hay”.  If you see me sometime, ask me about it.
3. Stabilizes emotional balance by relaxing the mind and decreasing strong emotional reactions.  When your mind is relaxed, you have your best ideas.  I get my best ideas when I meditate in the sauna.
4. Lowers blood pressure - A study at Harvard University found that by meditating, the body was less responsive to stress hormones.
5. Increases fertility chances - For women, when stress is reduced, they have a greater chance of conceiving.  When men are stressed, their sperm count is reduced.  This study was done by the University of Western Australia and Trakya University in Turkey.
6. Relieves irritable bowel syndrome - when meditation is done 2 times daily, it is shown to relieve bloating, diarrhea and/or constipation.  The State University of New York used this as a standardized form of treatment.
7. Provides calmness - a meditative state of mind can switch off a stressful act in order to create an inner calmness, where a non-meditative mind will be much more stressed and has little ability to deal with stress.  Through meditation you can actually teach your heart rate to drop to help reduce the stress.

Wealth Management

Let’s build on some items we mentioned in the previous newsletter.  Many of us are afraid to invest for fear of losing the money we have earned, or we are too conservative in our investments and actually end up losing money.  There are some of us who do not trust ourselves, thus we are afraid to invest significantly.

This week’s news flash will include different places to put your money. We will continually go back to compounding and the power it will have in your lifetime to create value.

NOTE: You should never take chances with money that you couldn’t afford to loose.  Budgeting to know how much money you can afford to risk is critical for safety and personal comfort.  Diversified investing is a time proven way to protect your assets from inflation, deflation, greed and ignorance.  Beginners will find the Bogglehead's Guide most enlightening.

Before we go any further I must say even though you may not like investing, the money you worked so hard for deserves you to research and take some interest in what your investment advisor is doing.

Here are some investment tips:

1. The first place we can put our money today is into the bank where you get about 0.15% interest.  You will still have your principal, but you lose money every year to inflation.  If you are retired, you cannot possibly live off the interest.
2. Consider diversifying your money into more then one place. Fidelity or Vanguard are the 2 most popular companies to place your funds.  Many people have a broker or a money manager that works with an investment firm. That is ok, but again do not put all of your money in one spot.  Two of our sponsors last year were Churchill Management and RCA (Retirement Companies of America).
3. Choose a bank C/D or US bonds, but they are still not very anti-inflationary investments at this time. In 1989-1992 US savings bonds paid out 12-14% a year. We may see that day again.  Today you can get around 2-3% over 5-10 years.  Don’t forget Israel Bonds as a similar financial asset.
4. You can invest in corporate bonds, municipal bonds, municipal bond funds, stock funds with your investment broker, and/or corporate bond funds.  The funds are safer and more liquid because they are made up of many companies.  They will also pay a little less. The nice thing about municipal bonds or municipal bond funds is that they are usually federal tax-free.  They also may pay between 3-5%.  Bond assets lose value when there is increased inflation, when it comes again, so that bonds and bond funds must be actively managed.  You can call Fidelity or Vanguard or many other mutual fund companies for advice or you can find a financial planner in your community who will actually help you with all of your financial needs.
5. Diversify into stocks, real estate, and many other forms of investing. This comes only after you have learned the power of saving as described above.

As with everything else, an investment that sounds too good to be true probably is. Do not get drawn in by people that make an investment sound too good.  Do your research.