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7 reasons to consider this little-known retirement saving strategy – MarketWatch

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Despite enjoying the longest-running bull market in history, most preretirees have a substantial retirement savings shortfall.

The average 65-year-old in the U.S. will outlive their savings by almost a decade, according to a new report by the World Economic Forum. And the typical household nearing retirement has only saved enough in their combined 401(k)s and IRAs to provide them at most $600 a month, according to the most recent Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances.
— Read on www.marketwatch.com/story/7-reasons-to-consider-this-little-known-retirement-saving-strategy-2020-01-09

CES 2020 | Las Vegas

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Wednesday, January 8, 2020 | 2020 Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas. ( #CES2020 )

Spent the morning hearing about Quibi, the new short form video platform designed to operate only on mobile devices. Quibi is short for quick bites.

Quibi plans to create quality and compelling video content to be viewed on the go. The company’s technology will feature content that can be viewed either in landscape or portrait orientation on a user’s mobile device. While in landscape, the picture will show wide screen video image. In portrait, the view narrows allowing viewer to see the content from an alternate perspective that’s optimized for portrait.

Meg Whitman

Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has garnered significant attention and discussion during CES 2020. The prevailing premise regarding CSR is that it has become a must do mission by corporations. Even major corporations are embracing the call for action.

‘The Look‘ is a short video created by P&G, which is intended to shine light on unconscious bias prevalent in American society. It conveyed a powerful message about a problem the culture that unfortunately persist in America.

Yet, many tech companies from all appearances are only giving ‘lip service’ to diversity and inclusion of people of color.

In a session yesterday discussing corporate values and purpose, the moderator commented “don’t read people’s lips; watch their feet”. The words mouthed by corporate executives regarding CSG appear transformative, yet the associated actions for the most part by corporations have been lacking and plagued with excuses and lack of accountability.

Unconscious Bias in Technology

An unconscious bias that most senior managers and executives of color have witnessed first hand is the blatant inequality in the hiring process. A classic example is when a majority male candidate can be hired for a position without the prerequisite skills or experience under the assumption that they can learn the job and acquire the required skills and experience for the position.

In stark contrast, women and people of color must possess the prerequisite skills and experience for the prospective position in order to land on the final hiring slate. In short, this unconscious bias is a leadership problem and issue. Basically, organizations can come up with a million reasons why they’re not achieving diversity and inclusion.

One hope is that the seemly sincere CSG conversations occurring among corporate executives at CES 2020 will result in observable and measurable action on diversity and inclusion by CES 2021. And, ‘unconscious bias’ and ‘blaming the pipeline’ will no longer be excuses for lack of action and progress. Instead, corporate executives will accept that diversity and inclusion are deliberate choices and are ultimately good for their business’ bottomline.

CES 2020 | Las Vegas

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Tuesday, January 7, 2020 | 2020 Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas. ( #CES2020 )

The #CES2020 day was kicked off by Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian and several dozen employees of Delta.Ed Bastian, CEO, Delta Airlines[/caption]

From the dark days following the 2001, 911 terrorist attacks, Delta has strived to become the best in Class for innovation and service.

During the keynote, Ed informed the assembled CES attendees that Delta interacts with 600K customers every 15 minutes. Additionally, Delta has worked to cancel cancellations and eliminated involuntary bumping.

Their objective is to reduce or eliminate the moments of stress flying to CES, especially if attendees flew on Delta.

During the address, he discussed the importance of the “Fly Delta app”. Delta’s intent is to evolve the app into a true digital flight concierge. When the app is fully enhanced, it will be able to track bags real-time.

Aspirational, Delta intends to alleviate the stress of travel and in the near future in the future provide a service to pick up bags from a passenger’s home and delivered them to their hotel.

Another Delta initiative is to provide virtual queueing that informs you when it time to board. It alleviates the necessity of passengers congregating an clogging in the gate boarding area.

Research shows people enter an elevated emotional state when traveling and flying. Delta’s goal is to effectively reduce the level of flying stress.

Two partnerships that Delta has pursued are with John Zimmer, co-founder of Lyft. They partnered with Delta since the future of travel will be multimodal…offer self-driving vehicle, bikes and scooters. Additionally, Wheels Up – democratizing private aircraft travel. Replace 1/3 of main line fleet in five years.

HBO Max

Snap shot, or initial, at launch, HBO Max will have double the content than currently available HBO Now and will continue to grow contest offerings. It is not a direct competitor with Disney or Netflix.

Measure of success will be 50M subscribers in five years. Non measurable metric is to create a streaming service that matters to global audience. Non ad supported viewership does not have a standardized measure. If you want to sale advertising, will need a standardization.

Walking

The one reality regarding CES 2020 is that you walk and you walk a lot . Today, for example, I walked over 8.8 miles in the exhibition halls and attending key nite addresses.. Also, I played spent a few minutes on a high tech self-powered treadmill.

How much money you’d have if you invested $500 a month since 2009

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CNBC calculated how much you’d have now if your investments had grown at a 4%, 6%, or 8% rate of return over the past decade.

In order to beat inflation and ensure that your savings will work for you long term, it’s crucial to invest in the stock market, whether through an employer-sponsored 401(k) plan, a traditional or Roth IRA, an individual brokerage account or somewhere else.
— Read on www.cnbc.com/2020/01/07/how-much-money-youd-have-if-you-invested-500-dollars-a-month-since-2009.html

How To Stop Living Paycheck To Paycheck – Fidelity

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Nearly 8 out of 10 workers (78%) live paycheck to paycheck, according to a new survey from CareerBuilder.com.1 That’s up from 75% last year, and it applies even to those making 6 figures: 1 in 10 workers making $100,000 or more say they live paycheck to paycheck.

“In working with many clients over the years, I have found that most people tend to spend their entire paycheck if it is available in their bank account, regardless of whether they are at a low/middle level or are highly compensated,” says Marc Kodomatsu, a financial planner in Lake Oswego, OR.

If you’re putting away adequate savings for your goals and you have a healthy emergency fund, living paycheck to paycheck isn’t necessarily a disaster. But a quarter of Americans have no money saved for an emergency, according to Bankrate, and 20% have less than 3 months of living expenses in the bank.

“The events in Houston are a stark reminder of the perils of living paycheck to paycheck,” says Thomas Balcom, a financial planner in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, FL. “For those folks who have flood insurance, they may not have the funds available to cover their deductible or tie them over until they return to work.”

Breaking the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle takes discipline and a plan. Here’s what top financial experts recommend as the best steps toward more financial independence:
— Read on www.fidelity.com/mymoney/how-to-stop-living-paycheck-to-paycheck

2020 CES | LAS VEGAS

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Monday, January 6, 2020 | 2020 Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

Attended the early morning session entitled “CES 2020 Trends to Watch” in the North Hall of the convention center. The session was presented by Steve Koenig, VP, Research, Consumer Technology Association. During the session, Steve previewed trends in consumer technology, the next big things and disruptive innovations that will redefine consumer technology in 2020. Essentially, Steve attempted to answer the big question many attendees are asking “What’s happening in consumer tech?”

Steve talked about how a New IoT, a new Intelligence of Things, will dominate the consumer technology landscape, and will influence the culture during the upcoming decade.

Global 5G deployment in 2019.

It is forecast that 5G handsets shipments will reach 20.2m in 2020 and 133M by 2030. Furthermore, it will take time for 5G network to happen and be rolled out. As 5G propagates, it will be led by enterprise applications.

5G will provide ultra reliable, low latency connectivity.

5G of the future is expected to enable digital tools to solve problems, enhance efficiency and increase productivity over the next decade in areas such as in agriculture productivity. Essentially, according to Steve, a lot of the devices we attribute to science fiction will become reality during the next decade.

AI of Things will enhance user experience.

Intelligence of Things is enhancing the Home (Smart Home).

Over the past ten years, the conversation was about connected things or the Internet of Things. Over the next ten years, the discussion will be connected intelligence things. AI chips in 8K television and smart phone cameras and smart ovens. For example, you put a pizza in a smart oven, the oven recognizes the pizza and adjust the oven temperature and controls the cooking time instead the consumer .

AI in McDonald’s Drive Thru

Manning a drive-thru can be a stressful job. Adding AI to automate part of the task can improve productivity and the delivery of service to the customer.

Human – Machine partnership in which some portion of the task becomes automated to improve customer service. in the case of a fast food restaurant drive-thru, AI machine can take the order and payment; human fulfill the order and provide inter personal service.

Streaming Wars – Abundance of choice and competition

With companies such as Netflix’s and Roku dominating the video streaming, big media corporations, such as Disney, ComcastNBC and AT&T, are striking back by launching their on over the top video streaming services. It appears that big media wants to control relationship with consumer.

Overall, it appears tat the next decade will be dominated by 5G and AI.

Diversity and Inclusion Dividend

During the afternoon, I attended a session called “The Hidden Diversity Dividend”. The essence of the session was that after two decades of conversation about diversity and inclusion in the C-Suite and technology industry, the problem still persists. Over the two decades, progress has been slowed and measured in millimeters.

The excuses of unconscious bias and lack of dedicated effort by senior continue to prevail as major reasons for the lack progress regarding diversity and inclusion of women and people of color.

The panelists stressed that there is a playbook that has been proven to work to solve this problem. And, focus and systematic effort is necessary along with getting industry on board with the program. To end the problem permanently, industry executive leader must:

  • Become aware and share the good, bad and ugly regarding the lack of diversity and inclusive
  • Except that equality and inclusion are choices; unconscious bias is an excuse.
  • Understand that it is not about representation, it is about reflection. It takes hard work and consistently
  • Appreciate that it takes critical and systematic change, a Scorecards, Mentoring, and Holding people accountable

Bottomline, consumers must hold companies accountable for their lack of diversity and inclusion in the C-Suite and for perpetuating the good old boys network. Take telecommunications and media company AT&T for example, the projected successor to AT&T CEO Randal Stevenson is a non-diverse majority white male. No women or persons of color were apparently even considered for the top job at communications and media conglomerate.

To change and grow, companies and people must get comfortable with being uncomfortable And to create a more equitable, diverse and inclusive industry, organizations must be willing to change for the better.

Lifestyle changes to make if you want to get rich in 2020

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If you want to build more wealth in 2020, start with these five lifestyle changes endorsed by self-made millionaires.

If your’re looking to build more wealth in 2020, money won’t simply appear — you’re probably going to have to make some changes to reach your goals.

Here are five lifestyle changes that have helped self-made millionaires get to where they are today. If they worked for them, they could also work for you.
— Read on www.cnbc.com/2020/01/03/lifestyle-changes-to-make-if-you-want-to-get-rich-in-2020.html

2020 Consumer Electronic Show | Las Vegas

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2020 CES | Sunday, January 5, 2020, Las Vegas, Nevada

It is easy to observe the pending presence and impact of #CES2020 Show on Las Vegas. With more than 170K plus expected attendees, the 2020 CES Show and attendees literally take-over the “City of Sin”.

Today, listened to CES Tech Talk Podcast entitled “Making Space for Drones“, which featured Steve Dickson, Administrator, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Mark Blanks, Director, Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership. They discussed facilitating and regulating the safe operation and testing of drones. During the CES Tech Talk, the FAA Administrator emphasized that if someone operates a drone, they’re considered a pilot and are subject to FAA regulations and guidelines. FAA is expected to have a significant presence at 2020 CES.

Las Vegas Weekend Happy Hour

Additionally, my intent was to locate the best on the Las Vegas strip or just off the strip venue for a weekend happy hour and to simultaneously watch NFL Wild Card Football games.

Thus far, made a brief stop for food and drink at MB Steak located adjacent to off-strip Hard Rock Resort and Casino. From the hour of 4 pm to 5 pm, the restaurant’s small bar area offered a very limited happy hour menu of cocktails and appetizers. Although enjoyed the happy hour offerings of brisket sliders and Gentlemen’s Mule, the venue was absent of life and nearly empty. And, the bartender seemed a bit surly and provided service with a pained expression.

Another weekend happy hour venue worth a visit is the Tex-Mex El Segundo Sol’s Loco Hour from 4 pm to 7 pm at Fashion Show Mall. The Tex-Mex restaurant offers a Loco Hour menu at the bar consisting of quesadillas, tacos, Margaritas, draft beers and well drinks to name a few. The daily Loco Hour draws a decent size crowds of Las Vegas locals and visitors stopping for nourishment and hydration. The food was okay and the beverages were above average. Overall, an excellent venue for an early evening happy hour.

People Watching

Afterwards, spent time wandering the nearby casinos and people watching.

First brief wandering was inside the Wynn Casino. And, must say that I was impressed by the design of the entrance and the holiday decorations that adorned the lobby and entrance to the casino.

After the Wynn, I crossed the elevated pedestrian walkway and wandered into the Palazzo to sit in the casino and people watch in the vicinity of Bar Luca. Regretfully, smoking remains permissible and a guy smoking a foul smelling non-American cigarette forced me to leave a prime people watching area.

Afterwards, I found a perch in Venetian near the blackjack pit to people watch. Unfortunately, the new location paled in comparison to the seat in Palazzo and concluded that the people to watch were in the Wynn and Palazzo.

Overall, I terrific day wandering around the Las Vegas Strip casinos.

7 Rules for Wealth: #4 Retirement Cost-Cutting

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Are you paying 1% for portfolio management? Why?

You want to be invested in a collection of index funds with an average expense ratio no worse than 0.1%. That’s easy to do. Fidelity has index mutual funds with 0% fees. Or you could easily put together a small, well-balanced assortment of exchange-traded funds costing 0.03% to 0.06%. (Check out the Forbes Best ETFs for Investors ranking.)

Or you could put all your money in the Vanguard Balanced Index Fund at 0.07%.
— Read on www.forbes.com/sites/baldwin/2020/01/04/7-rules-for-wealth-4-retirement-cost-cutting/

2020 Consumer Electronic Show | Las Vegas

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Saturday, January 4, 2020 | 2020 Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas

Arrived in Las Vegas early Saturday evening to attend the 2020 Consumer Electronic Show (CES). After arriving McCarran International Airport and disembarking the aircraft, I, along with several dozen other arriving passengers, took advantage of the CES registration kiosk conveniently located in the airport’s main lobby to checkin and pickup conference credentials.

The show opened to the media for early viewing of new products and to publicize the event. The show advertise itself as “…the world’s gathering place for all those who thrive on the business of consumer technologies”. 

According to the show’s website, CES showcases the products and services of more than 4,500 exhibiting international technology companies and expects more than 170,000 attendees from 160 countries. The show is owned and produced by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA).

The show’s first scheduled event for the 100K plus attendees will be a keynote address delivered by Samsung Electronic’s President and CEO Mr. Hyun-Suk Kim scheduled for Monday evening, January 6, 2020. The keynote begins at 6:30 pm at the MGM auditorium.

The two previous years opening CES keynote (2018 and 2019) speakers were Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang in 2019, who unveiled AI robotic assistants and Intel’s CEO Brian Krzanich in 2018, who unveiled a swarm of AI autonomous synchronized drones.

Anticipate that #2020CES in chilly Las Vegas will impress and wow attendees just like it has in previous editions.