Dear Dave,
Can you explain the “asset allocation” theory when it comes to investing? Matthew
Dave Ramsey
Dear Matthew,
The asset allocation theory is one touted by lots of people in the financial community. It’s also a theory with which I disagree.
In short, the asset allocation theory means that you invest aggressively while you’re young. Then as you get older, you move toward less aggressive funds. If you follow this theory to the letter, you’re left pretty much with money markets and bonds by the time you’re 65.
The reason I don’t believe in this theory is simple. It doesn’t work. If you live to age 65 and are in good health, there’s a high statistical likelihood that you’ll make it to 95. The average age of death for males in this country is now 76, but that includes infant mortality and teenage deaths.
So, a healthy 65-year-old man in America can look at having another quarter century on earth. If you move your money to bonds and money markets at age 65, inflation is going to kick your tail. Your money will grow slower than it will devalue, and you’ll have little purchasing power. That’s the problem with the asset allocation methodology.
I advise investing in good, growth stock mutual funds that have strong track records of at least five to ten years. Spread your money across four types of funds: growth, growth and income, aggressive growth and international. These groups provide diversification across risk, as well as a little splash overseas.
Great question, Matthew! —Dave
Dave Ramsey is America’s trusted voice on money and business. He has authored five New York Times best-selling books: Financial Peace, More Than Enough, The Total Money Makeover, EntreLeadership and Smart Money Smart Kids. The Dave Ramsey Show is heard by more than 8 million listeners each week on more than 500 radio stations. Follow Dave on Twitter at @DaveRamsey and on the web at daveramsey.com.
ABILENE, Kan- A man, who spent more than fifty years as a radio broadcaster, has died in a pickup crash near Abilene.
Dickinson County Sheriff’s Lt. Greg Swanson said Gary Houser, 79, was killed when the pickup he was driving left Old Highway 40, went into a ditch and rolled several times.
Swanson said the accident occurred around 4:30 a.m. on Wednesday. The Sheriff’s Office received a call from a passerby of the truck in the ditch.
Houser for years was the morning voice on KABI 1560 radio in Abilene. He also spent several years as the morning host on KINA Radio in Salina.
SALINA, Kan-A Salina man was arrested Tuesday afternoon, after officers were sent to the parking lot at Wal-Mart on the report of a suspicious person.
Police Captain Chris Trocheck said officers found Wesley Robertson, 21, in a pickup about 12:15 p.m., inhaling vapors from an aerosol can.
Robertson was cited for unlawful abuse of toxic vapors. The battery in Robertson’s pickup was dead, and he told officers he would get a ride home.
Authorities reported police were called back to the store at 12:55 p.m. after Robertson tried to shoplift a can of Ultra Duster from Wal-Mart.
A search of his truck found 14 partial aerosol cans that he apparently had inhaled. It is believed that Robertson had shoplifted some of those cans from the store.
Robertson was booked into the Saline County Jail on requested charges of unlawful abuse of toxic vapors and theft.
If you search the name Bruce Springsteen online, there’s a 18.82 percent chance you’ll click on a page that tests positive for viruses and other malware. That’s according to a new study by the virus fighters at McAfee.
ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel is number one. According to McAfee, you have an 19.38 percent chance of landing on a malicious website if you search his name.
Voice coach and country singer Blake Shelton is ranked sixth, and Jon Bon Jovi is ranked eighth. Paul McCartney is 29th on the list.
“Most consumers are completely unaware of the security risks that exist when searching for celebrity and entertainment news, images and videos online, sacrificing safety for immediacy,” said McAfee’s Gary Davis.
“Cybercriminals capitalize on consumers’ attention to breaking celebrity news and leverage this behavior to lead them to unsafe sites that can severely infect their computers and devices and steal personal data,” Davis added.
Here’s McAfee’s top-10 Most Dangerous Cyber Celebrities of 2014:
1. Jimmy Kimmel — 19.38% chance of downloading a virus.
2. Armin van Buuren — 19.33%
3. Ciara — 19.31%
4. Flo Rida — 18.89%
5. Bruce Springsteen — 18.82%
6. Blake Shelton — 18.47%
7. Britney Spears — 18.19%
8. Jon Bon Jovi — 17.64%
9. Chelsea Handler — 17.22%
10. Christina Aguilera — 16.67%
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), cofounder of the Senate Economic Mobility Caucus, issued the following statement regarding today’s panel discussion on Capitol Hill about the relationship between student debt and financial security moderated by University of Kansas (KU) Professor Melinda Lewis:
“Our country has historically been a place where, regardless of one’s background, anyone can achieve success through hard work. The ability to move up the economic ladder helps create a dynamic society where individuals are free to reach their full potential. The Economic Mobility Caucus was created to provide Members of Congress with a forum to discuss the policies Washington needs to pursue to make certain all Americans, today and in the future, have the opportunity to dream big and pursue those dreams. This event will serve as a valuable opportunity to exchange and assess ideas about financing the costs higher education, student loans and financial security.”
The panel is hosted by The Pew Charitable Trusts in partnership with the Senate Economic Mobility Caucus. Panelists include Brookings Institution’s Beth Akers, Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Meta Brown, Urban Institute’s Sandy Baum, and American Enterprise Institute’s Andrew Kelly. They will provide an overview of the current state of student loan-related research and policy, discuss available data, and analyze the impact of student loans on family balance sheets. Panelists will also consider different paths forward for researchers, policymakers, and the media.
The event took place in Washington, D.C.today in Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room G11.
The Senate Economic Mobility Caucus was created in 2012 and exists to provide a fact-based framework and serve as a clearinghouse for ideas and information with which to assess government policies and identify areas of agreement among the Members of Congress. Sen. Moran serves as co-chairman of the caucus along with U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
The Assets and Education Initiative (AEDI) is an office at the University of Kansas’s School of Social Welfare. AEDI’s mission is to create and study innovations related to assets and economic well-being, with a focus on the relationship between children’s savings and the educational outcomes of low-income and minority children as a way to achieve the American dream.
Contemporary traditional guitarist Dorian Michael will play at the Hays Public Library at 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 4, in the Schmidt Gallery. The live music performance is free and open to the public.
Michael has been a working guitarist for four decades and enjoys playing a wide variety of music. From blues to rock ’n’ roll, Michael has played it all. He considers his solo style to be traditional contemporary; his music and guitar playing is inspired by his musical interest across various genres. With musical surprises and unique style, Michael will delight the HPL audience.
“Some music makes you feel, some makes you think and some music is just for the fun of it. I try to get to all those places in the space of a performance” Michael said.
Not only has Michael created a solo career, but frequently plays with various bands. Michael regularly performs with The Irene Cathaway Rhythm and Blues Band, The Mystery Trees, The Cinders Blues Band, and Kenny & Dorian.
Michael has also written two books about alternate guitar tunings for Centerstream Publications. He has also filmed three guitar finger style instruction videos for Centerstream.
To listen to Dorian Michael’s music before his HPL performance, click HERE.
Fog obscures the First Presbyterian Church, 2900 Hall St, in Hays Wednesday morning.
From the National Weather Service in Dodge City–Fog this morning across Ellis, Rush, Ness, and Rush counties will reduce visibilities to 1/4 mile or less at times.
The fog should begin to dissipate about mid-morning.
About 100 people attended Tuesday night’s forum in Prairie Village that was sponsored by the Johnson County League of Women Voters-Photo by Andy Marso
By Andy Marso
KHI News Service
PRAIRIE VILLAGE — Legislators who passed a health care compact in Kansas said changes to Medicare were not the impetus, but a “Medicare coach” told a Johnson County crowd Tuesday that the originator of the multi-state compact favors Medicare privatization.
Larry Weigel of Manhattan, who provides Medicare advice to seniors, told about 100 people gathered at a League of Women Voters event that the compact was the brainchild of Leo Linbeck III, a co-founder of the Health Care Compact Alliance who comes from a wealthy family with a history of advocating for right-wing Libertarian causes.
“Linbeck wants to privatize Medicare,” Weigel said. “This is the hidden agenda. This is the part that’s not getting out to the public.”
Weigel pointed to a 2011 Mother Jones interview from shortly after the alliance formed, in which Linbeck said one of the goals of the compact was to allow each state to run Medicare as it wishes.
He also noted the involvement of the American Legislative Exchange Council, an organization that connects legislators with private sector representatives, which adopted the compact in 2011 as model legislation to be introduced by its members in their states.
Weigel said legislators who made Kansas the ninth state to sign the compact probably did so – as they stated – as a repudiation of the federal health care reforms spearheaded by President Barack Obama, but they overlooked the potential Medicare implications when they did so.
“I think it’s primarily to poke more holes in the Affordable Care Act,” Weigel said. “But the big mistake was when Medicare was dragged into it.”
-Larry Weigel, left, who advises seniors on Medicare, and Linda Sheppard, of the Kansas Health Institute, discussed the health care compact at a Tuesday night forum in Prairie Village.Photo by Andy Marso
During Tuesday evening’s event at Asbury United Methodist Church, Weigel sat on a panel with Linda Sheppard, formerly special counsel and director of health care policy and analysis for the Kansas Insurance Department who now works for the Kansas Health Institute. The Kansas Health Institute is a nonpartisan policy and research organization that also houses the editorially independent KHI News Service.
League of Women Voters-Johnson County organizers said legislators who supported the compact were invited to sit on the panel but did not respond.
The event was moderated by Kansas City Star columnist Dave Helling, who steered the discussion toward whether the compact was even constitutional.
The agreement would allow member states to opt out of federal health care regulations while continuing to receive a promised allocation of federal health care funds each year as a block grant.
Sheppard said those questions could be litigated if the bill gets action in Congress, which some have said does not appear imminent.
If the compact ends up going to Congress and if the Congress decides to consent to the compact, I think there would be all kinds of legal challenges that would come up at that point,” Sheppard said.
Tuesday’s discussion came on the heels of a controversy between the Johnson County Commission on Aging and state legislators representing Johnson County who voted for the compact.
The commission, a group of volunteer seniors appointed by the Johnson County commissioners to advise on issues pertinent to the aging population, wrote an article critical of the compact in the latest issue of The Best Times, a magazine that goes out to everyone in the county 60 and older.
Legislators who supported the compact saw an advanced draft of the article and took umbrage, calling it inaccurate and unfair.
County commissioners granted the legislators a page in The Best Times for rebuttal, but Weigel said the commission on aging’s article was fair and raised important questions about the compact’s possible effect on Medicare. He commended the commission, drawing applause from the crowd of mostly seniors.
“This is the first I know of in Kansas where somebody has taken a stand,” Weigel said. “This issue has been under the radar screen. Very important issue.”
MILFORD, Mich. (AP) — General Motors CEO Mary Barra says the company has enough parts available to fix all the faulty ignition switches that are blamed for at least 23 deaths nationwide.
Barra told reporters at an investor conference Wednesday that GM’s parts supplier finished making the parts a few days before a goal of early October. GM recalled 2.6 million cars in February and says it has repaired about 1.1 million. That’s just under half the vehicles when scrapped cars are excluded.
Barra says GM is trying to get the rest of the owners to bring their cars in for repairs.
She also says GM sees nothing to indicate that it will spend more than the $400 million to $600 million it has estimated to compensate ignition switch crash victims.
HAYS, Kan. — Dr. Keith Campbell’s photography of rural China is currently on display to the public in Fort Hays State University’s Memorial Union, in the Stouffer Lounge, until Wednesday, Oct. 8. The photographs take observers through Campbell’s journey during his research on social change in rural China. Campbell is a professor of sociology at FHSU.
Campbell’s photos reflect both welcome and hostility from villagers. Some called the police, assuming he was trying to convert people’s religious beliefs; some government representatives were hostile; and one angry woman accused him of documenting only negative aspects of China. However, Campbell has been welcomed graciously into many parts of China.
“I am interested in photographically preserving images, the subjects of which will be gone in the near future,” said Campbell. “Thus, I focus on the older parts of China’s villages.”
The parts of China his photos capture are similar to Kansas in weather, the lay of the land, the rolling hills and farming, said Campbell.
The most remote village Campbell visited with his colleague and translator, Fu Runfeng “Howard,” no longer exists. The village, Yang Jia Man, was located on a mountain, which the Beijing government decided to make a national park. Campbell and Howard spent three years interviewing residents and forming relationships before the residents were forced to leave.
Some photos focus on the hands of Campbell’s friends in Yang Jia Man. He thought of this idea during one of the 32-hour trips from Hays to Xinzheng.
“The idea of the importance of our hands crossed my mind — the idea that the way we use our hands expresses a part of our identity,” said Campbell.
Since 1999, Campbell has traveled to China 22 times to teach at Sias International University in Xinzheng, Zhengzhou. It is the 15-mile radius around the university that Campbell has researched. For the first three years, Campbell rode a bicycle to the villages but later hired a driver to take him to more distant locations.
The photographs in the exhibit are from film using three Nikon FM-2 cameras.
“Passing though airports with 20 rolls of 36 exposure film that I did not want X-rayed was always a challenge,” said Campbell.
BRISTOL, Va. (AP) – In 1927, the Victor Talking Machine Company went to a small town on the Tennessee-Virginia border to record what was known as “hillbilly music,” including the Carter Family. Today, the Birthplace of Country Music Museum is now open. The museum in Bristol, Virginia, is displaying instruments, recording equipment and clothes related to country, gospel and blues. Visitors can record their own songs in sound booths or hear early gospel records in a small chapel. The museum’s executive director, Leah Ross, says country music had been recorded before, but the Bristol Sessions were the first time it was mass-produced for audiences in New York, Atlanta and Chicago.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — A Hutchinson woman who was critically injured in May while helping another driver at an accident scene near Kansas City is ready to return to her former life.
Lacey Deardoff of Hutchinson spent 50 days in hospitals and weeks of rehabilitation in Hutchinson since she was injured on a freeway in Overland Park. She had stopped to at the accident scene when another driver swerved to avoid debris and hit her and the other driver.
The Hutchinson News reports that Deardoff, the daughter of Hutchinson’s city manager, was unconscious for two weeks before waking up. She returned to Hutchinson in July to continue her rehabilitation.
Deardoff says she plans to move back to the Kansas City area Wednesday and return to work in about a month.
LEAWOOD, Kan. (AP) — Federal attorneys and a Kansas-based bitcoin company are negotiating over whether the company could resume some of its operations.
The Federal Trade Commission has sued Butterfly Labs, based in Leawood, claiming the company defrauded consumers out of between $20 million to $50 million. Butterfly Labs is under temporary control of a federally appointed receiver.
The Kansas City Star reports that after a hearing Monday, the temporary order was extended and attorneys began negotiations.
The FTC alleges Butterfly Labs did not deliver machines or sent worthless equipment that could not produce bitcoins.
Butterfly Labs has denied wrongdoing and called the FTC action “heavy-handed.”
Bitcoins are virtual currency that is becoming popular as a way to buy and sell some goods and services without using government-issued money.
