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A  publication of the FJMC - December 29, 2014 

Health Management

Vitamin D is critical to our health and sunshine is a great natural source of the best form of vitamin D that we can get.

Some key facts about vitamin D:

• Low levels in pregnancy can cause gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, and small infants.
• Getting enough from foods is possible, but the ability to get enough is questionable.  We get some when we eat wild fish, egg yolks, and dairy products.  
• Keeping normal levels of vitamin D reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s, depression, bone pain, muscle pain, soft bones, cancer and heart disease
• It is called the “sunshine vitamin” - In the winter we get depression from not enough - this is called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).  It is why we get depressed in the winter and feel sluggish.  For years I would get back pain in the winter. I thought it was from working-out to hard.  I had my vitamin D levels checked and they were low normal.  After 3 days of taking vitamin D supplements all the discomfort went away.  I worked all day and was never in the sunlight 5-6 days a week in the winter.  Come spring and summer all the back pain went away. 
• One thing to remember is if you take vitamin D supplements do it under a doctor’s supervision as too much can cause poor appetite, nausea, vomiting, or renal (kidney) disease.

Wealth Management

The concept we will continue today is "What you need to know to be a successful investor." Certainly this is subject to discussion, but one of the most successful newsletter writers of all time Steve Sjuggerud defines and discusses these ideas.

In issue #4 we listed the first 5 pointers on successful investing, now we will complete this series with the final 4 pointers.

1. History will repeat itself or it will be similar.  In 2006 everyone wanted to buy real estate - it was at it peak and you could not get enough of it. This is similar to what happened in several other times in history.  Then in 2008 everyone wanted to sell their investments in real estate.  The best and most experienced investors will sell when everyone is buying, and will buy when everyone is selling.  This is the most basic philosophy of investing.  Keep in mind Warren Buffet’s quote “when there is blood in the streets buy, and when every one is greedy sell” as it will help guide you on your investing journey.
2. Don’t fight the trend.  If a stock or company is in free fall do not buy it on speculation. If a company has been doing poorly and starts an uptrend then it might be a good time to buy. There are other factors that go into investing in a company, but your chances of making money increase in a bad to less-bad situation.  A great example was in 2008 when everything fell, including companies like Coca Cola, Pepsi, Hershey, Johnson and Johnson and a whole host of others.  Once they bottomed out we were faced with perhaps our greatest opportunity to make money in history.  These are great companies that had fallen and slowly started coming back in early to mid-2009. We certainly will get other chances, so be aware of the opportunities. 
3. Cut your losses early.  The best way to preserve capital is to set a plus or minus stop point in your mind, and to sell after you have hit that stop. For example, let’s say you bought a stock at $25 and you have a 20% stop.  If the stock loses 20% and it hits $20, you sell.  That way you will preserve your capital and move on to the next investment.  On the other hand, if that stock goes up 20%, which makes the price $30, but then it starts to fall, then your stop would be readjusted to $24 so that you cut your losses. Using that technique, you might not have been bludgeoned by World Com, Enron, Lehman Brothers, and many others.  A basic philosophy of investing is to not loose money.  This is a good way to prevent this.
4. When in doubt, do not invest! If you are questioning an investment, then don’t do it.  Only invest if you really know what you are doing and have researched the investment.  Ask many people.  You will not loose money if you do not do an investment.  If something is too good to be true, it probably is not true.

This concludes the wealth management discussion for this issue.  Wealth management is a very large topic but we will continue to cover as much as possible in the months ahead, with our sponsors as part of the contributors.  

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