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6 Simple, Healthy Ways to Lower Your Food Bill

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shutterstockHummus is inexpensive when you make it yourself.
After housing and transportation, food is typically the third-largest expense for many American families. A recent Gallup poll shows that Americans spend an average of $151 a week on food ($7,852 a year).

One of one of the fastest and easiest ways to reduce your food bill is by removing one of the most expensive ingredients from your meals: meat.

Meat (particularly red meat) is a pricey addition to your meals. You don't have to turn into a full-blown vegetarian. Adopting a more vegetarian diet, sometimes known as flexitarian or semi-vegetarian, can still yield substantial savings and potentially improve your health.

The numbers make sense. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the nationwide average price for ground beef is $4.23 a pound. USDA sirloin steak costs $8.19 a pound. Boneless ham costs $4.42 a pound, and chicken breast is $3.51 a pound. In contrast, dried beans cost only $1.48 a pound, and large eggs are $2.08 a dozen.

Here are six ideas and tips for creating vegetarian-based meals and snacks that cost $1 to $2 a meal. Plus, these recipes are easy-to-make, even on a busy schedule, which means that creating healthy and cheap meals could become your next great habit.

1. Incorporate More Beans

One pound of dried black beans costs around $1.50 at the grocery store, and that's enough to make one week's worth of meals for one person. Cook beans in bulk over a weekend and eat it throughout the rest of the week. You won't have to spend much time cooking, and your total meal costs will come to as little as $1 to $2 a meal.​

You can use black beans to make tacos, burritos, quesadillas or veggie and black bean bowls. You can also garnish with cheese and salsa as you'd like. If you're not a fan of black beans, substitute pinto beans or combine the two for added flavor combinations.

2. Make Your Own Hummus

One pound of dried chickpeas also costs about $1.50. Soak these overnight, cook them, and then combine with salt, lemon juice, garlic and tahini. You can use a blender or a food processor to make your own hummus. It's surprisingly simple to make.

Rather than pay $5 at the grocery store for a tiny container of hummus, you can produce nearly half a gallon of hummus for only $2 to $3. As with the beans, you can add additional flavoring. I like to add hot peppers into mine.

You can even use this as a dip to eat raw vegetables or crackers. If you're busy at work, hummus and veggies or pita chips also make for a great snack to munch on while you're sitting at your desk. Once again, your total cost per meal can be as little as $1 to $2.

3. Substitute Eggs in Place of Meats

Making a stir-fry? Rather than pay top dollar for beef or pork, stir-fry your veggies with eggs instead. This creates a nice flavor and texture that complements the meal.

The cost of eggs pales in comparison to most meats. This holds true even if you buy free-range eggs.

4. Take Inspiration from the Europeans

French lentils can also be purchased in bulk for less than $1 a pound. These can be thrown into a crockery cooker to make a delicious lentil soup. If you want, you can eat it French-style with vegetables and a baguette.

If you're looking for something a little heartier, combine light beans, great northern beans and kidney beans to create a winter stew. Shop your pantry for other ingredients -- you might be surprised at what you find.

5. Evoke the Flavors of South Asia

When combined together, rice and lentils form a complete protein. This is a common meal in India and Nepal because it's both cheap and healthy. I grew up eating this meal for dinner almost every night.

Both rice and lentils are two of the cheapest foods you can buy, particularly when you purchase dried varieties in bulk. Batch-cook enough for the entire week, put it in containers, and warm it up at work when you're busy and need to eat on the go.

You can also flavor these with any type of spices or side garnishes that you prefer.

6. Load Up on Vegetables

Yes, certain vegetables can be expensive, but did you know that veggies are a great source of protein?

According to the USDA, one serving of broccoli contains 4.2 grams of protein, one medium potato has 4.3 grams of protein, and one cup of peas contains 8 grams of protein.

To save even more money, grow your own vegetables. They tend to taste better than what you can buy in the store.

If you don't have time for gardening or if you don't have any yard space, you can still save money. Shop at local farmers markets and only buy vegetables that are in season.

Bottom Line: Focus on Your Health

Finally, don't forget where the ultimate savings comes from: health care.

Basing your diet around vegetables, fresh fruit, water and lean protein -- such as beans, chickpeas, eggs and lentils -- is a healthy choice. Ultimately, it results in greater savings in the form of lower health care costs.

To be clear, I'm not claiming all meat-based diets are unhealthy. You can create healthy meals with lean chicken and fish, both of which I enjoy eating on occasion.

However, chorizo, ground beef, ribs, steaks, bacon and other meat products are both expensive and high in saturated fats. If you stop consuming them often, you may find both your wallet and your waistline thanking you for making the switch.

Remember, you don't need to adopt an inflexible, 100 percent strict vegetarian diet if you don't want to. Start by adding just one or two vegetarian meals to your dinner rotation each week. If you enjoy it, you can then increase how often you eat vegetarian meals.

Paula Pant quit her 9-to-5 job, traveled to 32 countries, launched her own business and became a successful real estate investor. She's the founder of Afford Anything, an online movement against tired old financial advice that says you should skip lattes and chain yourself to a desk for 40 years. Afford Anything helps you crush limits, build wealth and maximize life.

 

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4 Easy Ways to Make Your Home Smarter and Safer

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liftmaster.com
Home security systems and integrated smart devices used to be something reserved for the rich and famous. Security cameras, alarms, smoke detectors and the like all had to be installed by an expert -- and usually the cost was so high that those security measures were out of reach for the average person.

But with the boom in smartphones and wireless technology, there's a revolution going on in home devices. Now, it's possible to build a home that's smarter and safer without being an engineer or having an unlimited budget.

Honey, I'm Home

The first security measure you reach in any house is a lock. Keys have been a staple of lock security for as long as we've had doors, but they're not a very smart security measure. Locks can be picked, keys can be lost, and you never know who's using a key to open your door.

Smart locks are changing that. Companies like Kwikset (with its Kevo line) and August are making locks that will recognize when you're home and allow you to grant temporary access to your home to guests. You can even be notified when someone comes in, when they leave and if they locked the door.

For most people, just being able to have your security system check if you locked the door and have the ability to lock it if you forgot is an added piece of mind that makes smart locks an easy way to make your home smarter and safer.

Don't Miss a Moment While You're Away

Advances in wireless technology and cloud services have made home security cameras a very real option for millions of homeowners. And they're not nearly as intrusive (or complicated) as they used to be.

Dropcam is now in the Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) Nest family of products and requires little more than an outlet and a Wi-Fi connection to turn into a security camera and motion detector. Check-in when you're away or review what happened while you were gone with a simple-to-use app.

There are also some amazing designs coming from startups in home devices. Guardzilla and Withings security cameras look a little less like a typical camera and have features like speakers and push notifications for your phone. Maybe the most impressive new home security product is Canary, a security camera with a sleek look that includes motion, air quality, temperature, and humidity sensors.

The best part is that once you buy these devices they're free to use. There's no monthly fee to keep your security camera running and they're easy to install yourself.

Detect Problems While You're Gone

Traditional smoke and carbon monoxide detectors do a great job of alerting you if there's a problem when you're home, but what if you're away at the grocery store or 1,000 miles away on vacation?

Nest is now making a smoke and carbon monoxide detector that ties into the Nest thermostat platform. You can check it from your smartphone and it even has a speaker that will alert you when air quality levels are starting to be a concern or tell you what to do if there's an emergency. The product can even be run wirelessly with only a battery and a Wi-Fi connection.

Birdi is a product being launched soon that detects smoke and also pollen, humidity and pollutants in the air. It will even alert the fire department automatically in case of an emergency.

Again, these products are easy to install and don't require you to tear up your walls to naturally fit into your home.

Did You Remember to Shut the Garage Door?

If you live in a home with a garage long enough, you're bound to have a panic moment trying to remember if you shut the garage door. Worse yet is the fear when you come home and realize your garage door has been open for hours.

Chamberlain and Liftmaster are using MyQ Technology to connect their garage door openers to your Wi-Fi system and an app that gives you the status of your door as well as the ability to close it. Since millions of homes have compatible garage door openers, there's no need to install a new garage door, the product will integrate with your existing garage door in just a few minutes.

More Incredible Products on the Horizon

We're just starting to scratch the surface of potential in smart and connected homes, and some of the devices you use every day are making home innovations possible. Apple's (AAPL) HomeKit and Google's Nest platforms are becoming the foundation that the products I described above, and many more, will connect to, allowing you to control multiple devices with the touch of a button.

As these platforms grow, the next area to watch is location sensing, which could open your garage as you drive into your driveway, unlock the doors, turn the lights on, and make sure the temperature is just as you like it by the time you get home. What's amazing is that this is all with products you can install yourself without being an electrician, engineer, or computer programmer.

These platforms -- also called the Internet of things -- will bring smarter and safer homes to millions more people than have ever had them in the past. Will you be one of them?

Travis Hoium owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool recommends Apple and Google (C shares). The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple and Google (C shares). Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. Check out our free report on one great stock to buy for 2015 and beyond.

 

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What Should You Do With a Surprise $10,000?

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If $10,000 suddenly and unexpectedly found its way into your lap, what would you do with it? That $10,000 is a substantial chunk of change. Still, while it's enough to make a difference in the short run, on its own, it's probably not large enough to drive a tremendous transformation in your life. Nevertheless, that $10,000 can be incredibly useful to you if you handle it well.

What exactly you should do with that kind of cash depends on where you are in your life and the rest of your financial situation, but there are some good general principles to help you shepherd that money well. Handled well, you could use that $10,000 as a means to jump-start the rest of your finances, and that could have a huge, positive impact on the rest of your life.

Priority No. 1: Get Out of Ugly Debt

If you've got ugly debt hanging over your head, use that $10,000 to pay it down. Chances are that no other use for your newfound cash will give you a better return than getting rid of ugly debts. So what makes a debt "ugly"? Well -- most debts are ugly, by their very nature.

In many respects, it's easier to describe what kind of debt may be reasonable to hold onto -- and to understand that the further away from that your debts get, the uglier they become. Reasonable debts are:
  • Low interest rate.
  • Tax-deductible.
  • Associated with assets worth more than the debt and aren't expected to lose value.
A low-interest rate mortgage on a house that isn't upside-down, for instance, could be a reasonable debt to keep around, rather than pay down with that $10,000.

Priority No. 2: Prepare for Things to Go Wrong

Call it karma, Murphy's Law, or one of the joys of owning something expensive and complex like a house or a car. Things will go wrong from time to time, and having some buffer against the unexpected will help you more quickly recover financially from whatever does happen.

A good rule of thumb is to have between three and six months of your living expenses saved up in an emergency fund. Depending on your costs of living, that $10,000 could provide a substantial portion of your emergency fund. While that level of savings can't protect you against a massive calamity, it can help you quickly recover from the small stuff -- and give you a way to tackle small problems before they spiral out of control and become big problems.

Priority No. 3: Bolster Your Retirement

With the foundation provided by those first two priorities in place, you can turn your attention to what will likely be the biggest investment in your life -- your own long-term future. If you're under age 50 and have sufficient earned income to cover the contribution, you can annually contribute up to $5,500 to an IRA. If you're age 50 or up, the limit increases to $6,500.

Additionally, if you have a 401(k), 403(b), or TSP style plan at work, the contribution limit is $18,000 for those under age 50 and $24,000 for those aged 50 and up. While $10,000 won't completely fill your 401k, it's an incredible start. Technically speaking, your 401(k) style contribution will be funded by payroll deduction rather than this $10,000 of "found money," but you can certainly supplement your costs of living from the $10,000 while shifting part of your paycheck to your 401(k).

Money you put in a qualified retirement plan may give you a tax break, either when you contribute it or when you withdraw it in retirement, and it grows tax-deferred along the way for you. While a one-time $10,000 investment won't be enough to fully fund your retirement, it will provide a strong foundation for your future plans.

Priority No. 4: Take Care of Your Other Priorities

If your retirement plan is already well-funded and on track to provide you with sufficient comfort throughout your golden years, consider putting that $10,000 toward another life priority. Maybe you'd like to help your kids with their college educations. Perhaps you'd like to upgrade your appliances or re-do your kitchen or pay off your mortgage sooner. Or maybe you're looking to take the vacation of a lifetime.

Whatever your next set of financial goals after retirement happens to be, $10,000 can go a long way toward helping you reach them. Just be sure to have the top three priorities covered first, or else you risk watching that money slip through your fingers and provide no long-term benefit for you at all.

That $10,000 Could Change Your Life

On its own, $10,000 probably isn't a life-changing amount of money, but it is enough to get you to think about what you'd do with it if it suddenly appeared in your lap. It's also enough to make a serious dent in any of the financial priorities you put it toward. Perhaps best of all, whether you're using the money to pay down debt or build your retirement, it becomes money you're putting to work for you.

The harder you make your money work for you -- whether it's a surprise $10,000 or the money you earn every day at your job -- the better off you'll wind up financially. So if you do find yourself with an extra $10,000, look at it as an opportunity to accelerate the financial plan that gets you firmly in control of your money for the rest of your life. With that kind of attitude, that $10,000 could very well become enough to change your life for the better.

Chuck Saletta is a Motley Fool contributor. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. Check out our free report on one great stock to buy for 2015 and beyond.

 

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Do You Really Know Where Your Gasoline Comes From?

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Do you know where the gasoline you use every day comes from?

Most people probably think most of the country's gasoline comes from Saudi Arabia or maybe Iraq. Maybe you know about the shale plays in North Dakota or Texas that have also been growing domestic production. But "foreign oil" still accounts for most of the gasoline you use, right? The answer may surprise you.

Most Gasoline Comes From Our Own Backyard

As recently as 2005, 60.3 percent of the oil consumed in the U.S. each year came from foreign suppliers. We were literally dependent on foreign oil to fuel our economy, but that picture has changed rapidly in the last decade.

In 2014, the U.S. imported just 26.5 percent of the net oil it consumed -- and there's now so much oil that there are calls for opening up exports to other countries.

It's no surprise that the driver of the oil boom is shale oil. You can see in the chart below that beginning in about 2009 there was an explosion in oil production in Texas and North Dakota, where shale oil deposits are the largest.



Since the mid-2000s, production of oil in the U.S. has nearly doubled to over 9 million barrels per day. But the U.S. still imports about 5 million barrels of oil per day. So, where does our foreign oil come from?

Would you guess that most of our oil imports come from Canada? The U.S. imports more oil from Canada than it does from Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia combined.



And the trend is accelerating. In January 2015, the U.S. imported 122 percent more oil from Canada than from all of the Persian Gulf. In fact, in January Canada supplied 61 percent of net U.S. oil imports, and Canada, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela supplied more than 90 percent of net imports.

Reliance of Foreign Oil Is a Fading Memory

Not only is the U.S. no longer reliant on foreign oil like it once was, but the countries we are reliant on aren't nearly as volatile as suppliers of the past. Canada is about as stable as they come, and Saudi Arabia is a stable leader in the Middle East.

This is a much stronger position than importing oil from countries like Russia, Iran or Syria, a position both Europe and China find themselves facing.

At the very least, it's interesting that 90 percent of the gasoline used in the U.S. today is produced either domestically or in Canada. If the recent trends continue, in the next few years the U.S. may not need Middle East or OPEC oil at all.

The dynamics in the oil markets are changing and they have a bigger impact on where your gasoline comes from than you might think. That's something to consider next time you fill up at the pump.

Travis Hoium is a contributing writer to The Motley Fool. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. Check out our free report on one great stock to buy for 2015 and beyond.

 

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Why McDonald's Is Still a Powerhouse, Despite Troubles

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McDonalds Strengths
Nam Y. Huh/AP
By CANDICE CHOI

NEW YORK -- McDonald's sales have been sputtering for more than two years and the company seems trapped in a cycle of bad headlines that likely won't end soon.

Its quarterly earnings results Wednesday aren't expected to be pretty either, and there's a chance its dominance will continue to wane as newer players keep coming onto the scene.

But don't write the obituary just yet. McDonald's (MCD) has many strengths that the rivals biting at its heels can only envy, including Ronald McDonald's worldwide recognition. The Golden Arches will need to put them to good use to remain the world's largest restaurant chain.

Here are six reasons why McDonald's is nowhere close to death's door for now.

Massive Reach

McDonald's has more than 14,300 locations in the U.S. and that ubiquity continues to make it a default option for many diners. Burrito-chain Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) is in growth mode but still only a fraction of that size, with around 1,800 locations. (Shake Shack (SHAK), whose stock offering earlier this year garnered lots of attention, has fewer than 40.)

Because of its recent struggles, McDonald's plans to slow its growth to its lowest level in five years. But "slow" is relative: It still plans to add 600 to 700 restaurants around the world this year, on top of the more than 36,200 it already has.

Chipotle has said it plans to open up to 205 new stores this year, mostly in the U.S.

Marketing Power

McDonald's has enormous marketing muscle, in large part because its franchisees are required to contribute at least 4 percent of their sales to advertising.

That huge bucket of money is split in two ways. Some goes to national advertising and focuses on burnishing the brand. The rest goes to regional advertising and focuses more on promotions to drive customers to stores.

Advertising doesn't have to be expensive to be effective, of course. But McDonald's deep pockets give it a clear advantage.

Printing Money

The recent sales decline in the U.S. is squeezing franchisees, who still have to pay for fixed costs like labor and electricity.

But McDonald's restaurants continue to generate a lot more cash than their peers. In 2014, the average McDonald's restaurant raked in $2.5 million in sales, according to industry tracker Technomic. Wendy's restaurants pulled in an average of $1.6 million, while Burger King (BKW) pulled in $1.2 million.

A big reason for the difference: the popularity of McDonald's breakfast.

Average annual sales for Shake Shack are far higher at $4.6 million, according to Technomic. But that's in part because Shake Shack is concentrated in New York City, where volumes tend to be higher. The average Chipotle generates roughly the same sales volume as McDonald's even without breakfast, in part because of its fast-moving line and higher prices.

Unlocking Breakfast

Fans of McDonald's breakfast have long called on the chain to offer it past 10:30 a.m. McDonald's is finally giving the idea a serious try with a test of an all-day breakfast menu in San Diego.

It's just one way McDonald's might bring more customers into its stores, and may signal the company's willingness to take bigger risks with its menu.

Big companies tend to be cautious about change, and McDonald's in particular is known for its methodical decision-making. But executives may pick up the pace to avoid becoming outdated and give customers what they want.

New Leadership

McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook stepped into his role just last month and said he wants to make McDonald's a "modern, progressive burger company." In a meet-and-greet with analysts, he also referred to himself as an "internal activist" at the company, according to Sara Senatore, a Bernstein analyst.

Another new executive is Mike Andres, who became president of the U.S. division in October and has a deep history with McDonald's. He started as a manager for his family-owned McDonald's, and has served in a variety of leadership roles at the company.

(Side note: Andres' father was a pilot for Ray Kroc, who built McDonald's into a fast-food giant.)

McDonald's Has Been Here Before

The troubles McDonald's is facing are partly the result of a shifting industry, with many smaller players posing a challenge to the big guys. If that trend keeps up, McDonald's may not be able to save itself.

At the same time, it's easy to forget that McDonald's has had rough patches before -- and pulled out of them.

Consider the expanded menu and focus on value that former CEO Jim Skinner used to turn around business. It isn't an ancient example; Skinner's tenure was from 2004 to 2012, the last few years of which were some of McDonald's strongest.

 

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Texas Ice Cream Maker Recalls All Products Over Listeria

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Blue Bell Listeriosis Response
Orlin Wagner/AP
By Marice Richter

DALLAS -- Texas-based Blue Bell Creameries announced Monday a voluntary recall of all its ice cream and frozen treat products from store shelves due to continuing problems with Listeria bacteria.

The move is the most recent in a string of recall announcements by the 108-year-old company, based in Brenham, after health officials said last month three people made ill by Listeria between January 2014 and January 2015 had died in a Kansas hospital where Blue Bell frozen treats were served.

We are heartbroken about this situation and apologize to all of our loyal Blue Bell fans and customers.

Monday's decision came after the bacteria was detected in Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream samples that were tested last month.

The products being recalled are distributed in grocery and conveniences stores and other retail outlets in 23 states and some international locations.

"We are heartbroken about this situation and apologize to all of our loyal Blue Bell fans and customers," Blue Bell CEO Paul Kruse said.

"We're committed to doing the 100 percent right thing, and the best way to do that is to take all of our products off the market until we can be confident that they are all safe," he said in a statement.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Listeria monocytogenes are organisms that can cause serious infection and can be deadly for newborns, elderly people and those with weak immune systems.

Healthy people may suffer short-term symptoms such as high fever, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea.

Five people in Kansas and three in Texas have been treated after testing positive for the bacteria and were linked to Blue Bell products, according to the CDC.

Blue Bell also said it would introduce additional safety and testing procedures.

 

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Why Target Date Funds Are Disliked By Financial Advisers

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By Ellen Chang

NEW YORK -- Target date funds remain a darling among some financial advisers for managing risk, but other retirement experts find its drawbacks make them a poor investment option.

The funds were created in 1994 to help investors simplify their decision-making in how to allocate and diversify their assets, especially as they get closer to retirement age. An investor who plans to retire in 2030 would have a lower percentage of risky assets such as stocks and more conservative ones such as bonds compared to someone retiring much later in 2055.

Target date funds are often viewed as a panacea by investors, said Robert Johnson, CEO of The American College of Financial Services in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. The underlying premise is sound since the asset allocation of stocks and bonds is adjusted gradually as the investor nears retirement, saving the consumer the headache of choosing which mutual funds will generate the best return.

"While choosing a fund based on the date of expected retirement seems like a very logical thing to do, target date funds allocate assets based on what the fund managers believe is the best asset mix for the average individual planning to retire at a specific time," he said. "Retirement income planning is a very complex process and cannot be reduced to simply choosing a retirement date and a fund based upon that date."

High Fees

Investors are paying the price for the freedom of not rebalancing their portfolio. Retail investors have poured more than $650 billion in target date funds. Yet for a passively managed fund, they are paying a high cost with average fees of 0.84 percent, said Janet Yang, a strategist, and Laura Lutton, director of manager search, in a Morningstar report. The average investor in open-end mutual funds paid 0.71 percent in expenses in 2013, according to Russel Kinnel, director of manager research for Morningstar (MORN).

Three-fourths of the assets of these funds are managed by Vanguard, T. Rowe Price (TROW) and Fidelity, said Yang and Lutton. Part of the surge in the popularity of target date funds can be attributed to 401(k) plan sponsors who believe they are a viable option.

To put it bluntly, target date funds are the biggest marketing scam in the history of the investing industry.

While the performance of these funds is rated by Morningstar, the company bases a large percentage of its rating on investment performance, said Ronald Surz, president of PPCA, a registered investment adviser in San Clemente, California, and a portfolio manager on Covestor, the online investing marketplace.

The funds which hold a large percentage of U.S. equities received the higher marks, because "U.S. stocks and real estate have skyrocketed in the past five years, leaving other asset classes in the dust," Surz said. "Winning the performance horse race over this time period is more of a warning than it is a triumph. U.S. equities are risky and someday U.S. equity markets will correct."

A large majority of target date funds are passively managed, meaning there isn't a portfolio manager researching and choosing the stocks and bonds which are bought and sold for the fund. Many target date funds are only "rebalanced" every five years, which is when the shift toward more bonds and less stocks occurs.

"In what other industry would it be acceptable to get paid for doing work every five years?" said Mike Kane, CEO of Hedgeable, a New York-based roboadviser focusing on the downside protection in a bear market. "To put it bluntly, target date funds are the biggest marketing scam in the history of the investing industry. We can react to changing market conditions daily."

Performance of Target Date Funds

During the financial crisis, holders of target date funds didn't fare well. Most of them incurred losses of 50 percent or more, because they had a high concentration of equities, Kane said. While these funds are marketed as managing risk for the account holders, that strategy has proven to be a fallacy.

The longer-dated target date funds or those with retirement of 20 or more years in the future lost an average of 39 percent in 2008 and even the most near-dated "conservative" funds lost an astonishing 22 percent, Kane said.

The returns on these funds are the biggest drawback and outweigh the benefits of reducing risk, said Edison Byzyka, vice president of investments for Hefty Wealth Partners in Auburn, Indiana. Investors can find better returns by simply investing in domestic and international equity indexes in mutual funds or ETFs when they are younger and then "shift to a proper target date fund when faced with less than 10 years to retirement," he said.

"At the end of the day, performance is a crucial factor to a successful retirement and will likely influence your ability to sustain your lifestyle once retired," Byzyka said.

Future of Target Date Funds

The popularity of these funds has been predicted to increase as more retirement money is poured into them. Assets in target date funds are estimated to grow to $3.4 trillion by 2020, according to Casey, Quirk & Associates.

While these funds are designed so that the allocation will grow more conservative over time, managing your portfolio passively by holding onto the same assets means investors are more likely to experience greater risk and volatility, Kane said. Even if investors miss out on the "upside" or when returns are high, they have also eliminated the "downside" or risking large losses, which has a greater effect on long-term portfolio growth.

"Since markets don't go up every year, investors don't realize the devastating effect losses can have on a portfolio because the hole is sometimes impossible to dig out from," he said. "The market and our economy is resilient and will most likely go up over time, but the goal of investing is not to get back to even, it is to grow your money."

If there is another market setback , there could be losses of $1.5 trillion or more for employees, Kane said. Investors may not comprehend the huge losses which can occur in these funds.

"American families deserve better," he said. "Have we not learned the lessons of the financial crisis yet? Investors close to retirement are given assurances that their allocation will be safer and more 'conservative. But what happens in a bond market collapse?."

One-Size-Fits-All Method Fails

Investors are drawn to target date funds, because they are viewed as a cure-all for their entire retirement portfolio. Many investors don't want to read and research through all the options, so they choose a fund that has the year they wish to retire in, said Bijan Golkar, CEO of FPC Investment Advisory in Petaluma, California.

These funds have become even more popular in 401(k) plans, but the largest disadvantage is that "they try to be a one-size fits all solution to investors and can have very high internal expenses," he said.

While reducing your risk as you get older appears to be a sound strategy, this overlooks people whose retirement accounts are woefully smaller because they started saving later.

"A person that is behind in their savings might need to have a much more aggressive allocation to try and catch up" Golkar said.

 

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Hillary Clinton Called for 'Toppling' the Wealthiest 1%

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DEM 2016 Clinton
Jim Cole/APHillary Clinton holds a round table discussion with employees at Whitney Brothers during a campaign stop Monday in Keene, N.H.
By Colin Campbell

Democratic presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.S. economy requires a "toppling" of the wealthiest 1 percent, according to a report published Tuesday in The New York Times.

Clinton reportedly made the comments in a meeting with economists earlier this year, when she was shown a graph that "charted how real wages, adjusted for inflation, had increased exponentially for the wealthiest Americans, making the bar so steep it hardly fit on the chart."

"Clinton pointed at the top category and said the economy required a 'toppling' of the wealthiest 1 percent, according to several people," writes the Times' Amy Chozick.

I don't know why we have this semicollective amnesia about her past positions. She's following no one on these issues.

The anecdote was included in Chozick's report on the Clinton campaign's broader message that argues that the candidate has been talking about income inequality long before populist Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) entered Congress in 2013.

"Nothing stings her inner circle more than the suggestion that their candidate is late to these issues. Mrs. Clinton was the original Elizabeth Warren, her advisers say, a populist fighter who for decades has been an advocate for families and children; only now have the party and primary voters caught up," Chozick said.

"I don't know why we have this semicollective amnesia about her past positions," Neera Tanden, Clinton's former policy director, told the paper. "She's following no one on these issues."

Liberal activists frustrated with the Clintons' ties to Wall Street have long sought to draft Warren into the presidential race even though the senator has insisted she will not run. But according to Clinton's team, these activists should embrace her candidacy instead of demonizing it.

Chozick reported that a Clinton adviser created a "16-page dossier titled 'Hillary Clinton: A Lifetime Champion of Income Opportunity' " that calls Warren a "footnote." It also "presents 40 instances in which Mrs. Clinton took the same stance" as Warren on a number of economic issues.

The Clinton campaign didn't immediately respond to a request from Business Insider on the "toppling" quote, but her team has repeatedly sought to highlight her populist approach to economic policy. Clinton's April 12 announcement video declared "the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top."

Clinton has also gone out of her way to shower praise on Warren. Last week, Clinton even thanked Warren for pushing "presidential aspirants" to hold Wall Street accountable for its abuses.

"Elizabeth Warren never lets us forget that the work of taming Wall Street's irresponsible risk taking and reforming our financial system is far from finished," Clinton wrote in Time magazine. "And she never hesitates to hold powerful people's feet to the fire: bankers, lobbyists, senior government officials and, yes, even presidential aspirants."

 

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Should You Spring for Pet Insurance? -- Savings Experiment

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Should You Spring for Pet Insurance
We all love our pets, but when your furry friend gets hurt or sick, the medical expenses can be more than your budget can handle. Here we help you determine whether pet insurance is worth the investment.

Let's start with the three different types of coverage you can get. Accident coverage is the most common and every pet health insurance company should offer this, regardless of your pet's age. Meanwhile, illness coverage is more limited and becomes more expensive as your pet gets older. Finally, wellness coverage is for routine annual exams, and according to Consumer Reports and Checkbook.org, it's not generally worth the cost since an annual checkup is usually something you can safely cover on your own. In this case, paying your vet directly can help you to avoid the extra sales charges from the insurance company.

Next, do a little research to understand exactly what the insurance will cover. Coverage varies from policy to policy so pay close attention to the terms for each plan. In general, most policies will cover things like diagnostic tests, surgeries, medications and treatment. Dental work and preexisting conditions are usually not covered, so keep that in mind.

One last thing to consider are the factors that will affect the cost of your insurance. While most companies offer a variety of plans for every budget, how much you pay depends on factors like where you live, your pet's health history, breed, age and gender, the deductible and the amount of coverage. Watch out for premium increases, too, which can vary by state.

So, is pet insurance worth it? It really depends. Evaluate your financial situation and how much you're willing to pay for some peace of mind. Because when it comes to providing a long and happy life for your pet, a little financial planning can go a long way.

View Poll

 

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Toymakers Tout Twists on Favorites, Items Tied to Movies

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Toy Fair Mattel
Mark Lennihan/APMattel next year plans to introduce toys from the hit "Frozen" -- Anna, Elsa and Olaf.
The country's two leading toymakers aren't going to be playing around this holiday season. Mattel (MAT) and Hasbro (HAS) are hoping that new technologies and popular franchises will make them big winners later this year, and they were able to talk up their prospects during this month's quarterly reports.

Kids can be as fickle as their parents, and these days it's hard to resist the temptations of new gadgetry. Children crave electronics, and we're not just talking about tablets, portable media players, smartphones, and wearable computing gizmos. These initial purchases find them feeding off the digital ecosystems created by the titans of techs.

One can argue that the new toymakers are the world's largest technology and video game companies, and that has made things somewhat challenging for Hasbro and very challenging for Mattel. The two companies just reported fresh financials, discussing potential catalysts for a strong holiday showing.

Mind Over Mattel

Mattel reported another quarter of uninspiring financials last week. Revenue may have climbed 5 percent over the prior year's quarter on a constant currency basis, but the results were padded by the acquisition of the Mega building blocks that was completed last April. Mattel's Barbie sales declined by 5 percent, and American Girl -- the high-end doll line that initially helped offset weakening Barbie demand -- was flat.

More importantly, Wall Street's forecasting that Mattel's top line will be going the wrong way for the rest of the year. Analysts see Mattel's revenue slipping 2 percent for all of 2015 with earnings taking a similar step back.

Mattel has a few secret weapons in its arsenal. For starters it turned heads this year with a talking Barbie at a toy fair earlier this year. Hello Barbie is a Wi-Fi-tethered doll that uses voice recognition software to engage in a somewhat fluid conversation. It should hit the market ahead of the holiday shopping rush. But, it won't be cheap. The initial price being reported is roughly $75. However, why not deploy Siri-like technology into an iconic doll line that's been dying for a chance to speak up. During last week's call, the company mentioned that Thomas the Tank Engine could be next to get the Hello Barbie makeover.

Another interesting rebirth that Mattel is betting on is View-Master. The classic toy with photo reels has been around for more than 75 years, but now Mattel is teaming up with Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) for a plaything that can be paired with a compatible Android smartphone to deliver visual field trips with sweeping 360-degree vistas.

Hasbro Holds Up Better

Hasbro delivered a more encouraging report on Monday morning. It would have posted a 14 percent year-over-year uptick in revenue adjusted for foreign currency fluctuations, with healthy growth in three of its four product categories. Its lone retreat was in its toys for girls, as demand for Furby, Easy Bake ovens, and Furreal Friends waned.

Hasbro's success -- and it's why the stock went on to hit new highs after this week's report, unlike Mattel trading near its lows -- has come mostly from its proprietary toy lines including Transformers, My Little Pony, and G.I. Joe that it can milk across multiple media platforms.

Hasbro's success heading into the holidays should be helped by its licensed Marvel and Star Wars lines as both of those franchises have big movies coming out later this year. It should also get a boost with Jurassic World, and an in-house pop from a new Devastator figure from its Transformers juggernaut that it debuted during this year's New York Toy Fair. A rebound in its girls products may have to wait until next year when Hasbro rolls out a new line of Disney Princess and Frozen lines, but there will be enough ammo with its action figures to keep the good times coming.

The leading toymakers aren't going away. Hasbro has momentum on its side, and Mattel is hoping that giving its old toys some new tech tricks can make it matter during the critical holiday shopping season this year.

Motley Fool contributor Rick Munarriz has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Google (C shares) and Hasbro. The Motley Fool owns shares of Google (C shares) and Hasbro. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. Check out our free report on one great stock to buy for 2015 and beyond.

 

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CDC: 10 Listeria Illnesses Now Linked to Blue Bell Foods

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Blue Bell Creameries Recalls All Products After Listeria Contamination
Jamie Squire/Getty Images
By JUAN A. LOZANO

HOUSTON -- Texas-based Blue Bell Creameries has recalled all of its products after two samples of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream tested positive for listeria, a potentially deadly bacteria.

Federal health officials say they're now aware of 10 listeria illnesses linked to ice cream and other products made by the company over the last five years, including three deaths.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had previously reported eight illnesses from Kansas and Texas, including the three deaths in Kansas. The agency said Tuesday that two more illnesses have been confirmed in Oklahoma and Arizona.

We're committed to doing the 100 percent right thing, and the best way to do that is to take all of our products off the market until we can be confident that they are all safe.

Those sickened fell ill between January 2010 and January 2015.

The recall includes ice cream, frozen yogurt, sherbet and frozen snacks distributed in 23 states and abroad because the products "have the potential to be contaminated," according to the statement.

The company "cannot say with certainty" how the bacteria was introduced to its facilities, Blue Bell's chief executive Paul Kruse said in a statement.

"We're committed to doing the 100 percent right thing, and the best way to do that is to take all of our products off the market until we can be confident that they are all safe," Kruse said.

The first recall in the family-owned creamery's 108-year history was issued last month after the CDC and state health officials linked ice cream contaminated with listeria to the three deaths at a Kansas hospital.

The illness was tracked to a production line in Brenham, Texas, and later to a second line in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Monday's recall also applies to products produced in a Sylacauga, Ala plant.

The new samples of tainted ice cream were discovered through a testing program the company initiated after its first recall, according to the statement.

Monday's recall extends to retail outlets in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Wyoming and international locations.

The manufacturing facility in Oklahoma where operations were suspended earlier this month for sanitizing will remain closed as Blue Bell continues to investigate the source of the bacteria, the statement said.

Blue Bell is implementing a process to test all of its products before releasing them to the market, with plans to resume limited distribution soon.

The company said it is also expanding its cleaning and sanitization system, beefing up its employee training, expanding its swabbing system by 800 percent to include more surfaces and is sending daily samples to a microbiology laboratory for testing.

Listeria primarily affects pregnant women and their newborns, older adults and people with immune systems weakened by cancer, cancer treatments, or other serious conditions.

Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report from Washington.

 

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Lenovo Recalls Notebook Batteries After Burn Incident

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www.cpsc.gov
Lenovo is recalling more than 150,000 ThinkPad notebook battery packs in the U.S. and Canada -- a year after recalling 35,000 others --- because they can overheat and start fires, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said on Tuesday.

Lenovo said it is aware of four incidents of the batteries overheating, including one that scorched a user's clothing.

Those who have the recalled battery packs are urged to remove them from the notebook computers and get a free replacement from Lenovo. The computers can be used while plugged in without the battery packs.

Notebooks with the recalled batteries were sold between February 2010 and June 2012 for $350 to $3,000. Battery packs were also sold separately for $80 to $150.

Multiple Models Recalled

These ThinkPad notebooks have the recalled battery packs: the Edge 11, 13, 14, 15, 120, 125, 320, 325, 420, 425, 430, 520, 525 and 530 series; the L412, L420/421, L512 and L520 series; the T410, T420, T510 and T520 series; the W510 and W520 series; and the X100e, X120e, X121e, X130e, X200, X200s, X201, X201s, X220 and X220t series.

Battery packs sold separately have the following part numbers: 42T4695, 42T4711, 42T4740, 42T4798, 42T4804, 42T4812, 42T4816, 42T4822, 42T4826, 42T4828, 42T4834, 42T4840, 42T4862, 42T4868, 42T4874, 42T4880, 42T4890, 42T4944, 42T4948, 42T4954, 42T4958, 45N1022 and 45N1050. The numbers can be found beginning with the fourth digit in a long series of numbers and letters on a white sticker below the bar code.

Those with questions can call Lenovo at 800-426-7378 weekdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. or visit the company's recall site.

 

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Futures Trader Charged for Alleged Role in 'Flash Crash'

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Wall Street Trading Floor Demise
Henny Ray Abrams/APThe floor of the New York Stock Exchange on May 6, 2010, the day when a so-called flash crash caused the Dow Jones industrial average to drop 600 points in five minutes.
By MICHAEL TARM

CHICAGO -- A futures trader was arrested in Great Britain Tuesday for his alleged involvement in the "Flash Crash" of 2010 in which the Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI) plunged 600 points in five minutes.

After the arrest of Navinder Singh Sarao, American authorities -- who are seeking Sarao's extradition -- unsealed a federal criminal complaint in Chicago charging him with multiple counts of fraud and manipulation.

The complaint says Sarao, 37, from the west London suburb of Hounslow, used an automated trading program to manipulate the market for E-Mini S&P 500 futures contracts on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

The "Flash Crash" rattled investors and left many wondering if the stock market was rigged against them. Regulators eventually traced the catalyst to trading in E-Mini S&P 500 futures.

High frequency traders use computer programs to buy and sell securities in milliseconds, scooping up tiny profits that quickly accumulate given their large volume of trades. High frequency traders now represent most of buying and selling in stock markets. They were subject of best seller "Flash Boys," by Michael Lewis.

Saroa's manipulation of trades "earned him significant profits," a Tuesday statement from the U.S. Department of Justice alleges. It didn't provide a figure.

The name of a defense attorney for Sarao who could comment on the allegations wasn't available in the court documents unsealed in Chicago.

The May 6, 2010, "Flash Crash," led to panicky trading, and the Dow eventually closed 348 points lower. The episode dented the confidence of many investors and prompted new federal regulations to try to avoid a repeat.

Since the 2010 "Flash Crash," technical snafus have led to a series of other trading troubles, including a botched initial public offering of Facebook (FB) in 2012 that delayed its first trade. Regulators last year adopted a rule requiring routine testing of trading systems run by exchanges.

The United States is seeking Sarao's extradition, the Department of Justice statement says.

Sarao is charged with one count of wire fraud, 10 counts of commodities fraud, 10 counts of commodities manipulation and one count of "spoofing." Spoofing involves bidding with the intent of quickly canceling the bid.

-AP Business Writer Bernard Condon in New York also contributed to this report.

 

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Market Wrap: Dow Slips on Earnings; Nasdaq Gains on Biotech

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APTOPIX Financial Markets Wall Street
Richard Drew/AP
By Noel Randewich

NEW YORK -- U.S. stocks were a mixed bag Tuesday, with the Dow ending lower after a handful of uninspiring earnings reports while the Nasdaq closed near a record high following a proposed biotech merger.

Travelers, DuPont and IBM shares weighed on the Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI). DuPont reported lower sales in all of its businesses and said a strong dollar would take a toll on its full-year earnings. IBM also mentioned currency effects when it reported a fall in revenue late Monday.

DuPont (DD) ended the session 2.95 percent lower at $70.69 and IBM (IBM) fell 1.14 percent to $164.26.

March-quarter earnings season is in full swing, with almost 73 percent of the S&P 500 components that have reported so far beating bottom-line expectations, but just 42.2 percent beating expectations for revenue.

Investors struggled to gauge how much a strong dollar has hurt U.S. multinationals, including technology companies such as Facebook (FB), Google (GOOGL), Qualcomm (QCOM), Microsoft (MSFT) that sell many of their products and services overseas and are expected to report their earnings this week.

"There's a lot of cross-current in the earnings picture. Are we at peak margins? Are we likely to hold, or might there be some downside?" said Mark Foster, chief investment officer at Kirr Marbach & Co. in Columbus, Indiana. "People are pretty zeroed in on that."

The dollar has gained almost 9 percent since the beginning of the year against a basket of major currencies, hurting companies with large overseas operations.

Travelers (TRV) reported a drop in quarterly net profit and its shares ended down 4.01 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 85.34 points, or 0.47 percent, to end at 17,949.59. The Standard & Poor's 500 index (^GSPC) lost 3.11 points, or 0.15 percent, to 2,097.29 and the Nasdaq composite (^IXIC) added 19.50 points, or 0.39 percent, to 5,014.10.

The Nasdaq ended the day less than 35 points away from its March 2000 all-time closing high.

Mylan (MYL) shares rose 8.85 percent to end at $74.07 after Israeli drugmaker Teva made an unsolicited offer of $82 a share, in what could be the drug industry's largest takeover this year. Teva (TEVA) rose 1.37 percent. The Nasdaq Biotech index ended up 1.87 percent.

Deals and Earnings

After the bell, Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) and Yahoo (YHOO) posted their quarterly results and their shares fell 4.5 percent and 1.19 percent, respectively.

First-quarter earnings of S&P 500 companies are expected to dip 2.2 percent, while revenues are seen declining 3.1 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data which includes companies that already reported.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 1,521 to 1,512, for a 1.01-to-1 ratio on the upside; on the Nasdaq, 1,381 issues fell and 1,346 advanced, for a 1.03-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.

The S&P 500 posted 12 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq composite, recorded 95 new highs and 27 new lows.

About 5.8 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, below the 6.2 billion daily average for the month to date, according to BATS Global Markets.

-With additional reporting by Tanya Agrawal.

What to watch Wednesday:
  • The National Association of Realtors releases existing home sales for March at 10 a.m. Eastern time.
Earnings Season
These selected companies are scheduled to release quarterly financial results:
  • Abbott Laboratories (ABT)
  • Ameriprise Financial Services (AMP)
  • AT&T (T)
  • AutoNation (AN)
  • Bank of New York Mellon (BK)
  • Boeing Co. (BA)
  • Cheesecake Factory (CAKE)
  • Citizens Financial Group (CFG)
  • Coca-Cola Co. (KO)
  • CoreLogic (CLGX)
  • D.R. Horton (DHI)
  • eBay (EBAY)
  • EMC (EMC)
  • Equifax (EFX)
  • F5 Networks (FFIV)
  • Facebook (FB)
  • Gentex (GNTX)
  • Graco (GGG)
  • Huntington Bancshares (HBAN)
  • Las Vegas Sands (LVS)
  • McDonald's (MCD)
  • Morningstar (MORN)
  • Nielsen (NLSN)
  • O'Reilly Automotive (ORLY)
  • Owens Corning (OC)
  • Qualcomm (QCOM)
  • Raymond James Financial (RJF)
  • Ryder System (R)
  • Six Flags Entertainment (SIX)
  • Skechers U.S.A. (SKX)
  • St. Jude Medical (STJ)
  • T. Rowe Price Group (TROW)
  • Texas Instruments (TXN)
  • Tupperware Brands (TUP)

 

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7 Ways to Save on Your Family Vacation

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Family taking self portrait on beach
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Many families are now thinking about their summer vacation. We can't blame you; after the frigid temps and record snowfall many of you have experienced, nothing sounds better than a week at the beach!

If you're among these vacation planners, you may not be looking forward to figuring out how to pay for your family trip this summer. These seven tips will help you get more for less.

1. Start Saving Now

Begin putting money aside for your vacation immediately. It will be a lot easier to save a small amount each week than to come up with the lump sum as your vacation dates get near.

Pick up a side job in the evenings or on weekends -- such as tutoring, teaching, freelancing, consulting, physical tasks like home repair and lawn care -- or social tasks like babysitting. Simply working an extra two or three hours per week - say, from 6 to 9 p.m. every Tuesday -- can add hundreds of extra dollars to your monthly budget.

Simultaneously, consider temporarily cutting back in other areas like dining out or going to the movies. A combination of earning more and spending less will help you avoid the temptation to put anything you can't afford on credit cards, which will only add to your vacation stress rather than alleviate it. Set a budget you're comfortable with from the outset and resolve to stick to it.

2. Save on Food

Pack your own snacks for the car, train or plane to avoid having to spend a premium at rest stops or airports. Look for "kids eat free" promotions at the restaurants in the area where you'll be staying to cut back on the cost of dining out.

Also be sure to check out daily deal sites like Amazon Local for the city you're traveling to. You can find some great deals this way on not only food, but also activities like mini golf, movies and more.

3. Consider Alternate Accommodations

Renting an apartment or home through a short-term rental website like Airbnb can often be cheaper than renting a suite or series of hotel rooms for your family at a big-name chain hotel. Plus, it comes with the added perk of a full kitchen, so you can save some cash by making a few meals yourself. If you're traveling for one week or more, you could also offset part of the cost of your trip by renting out your home on Airbnb, as well. The income you receive from this might just pay for your entire vacation.

4. Save on Transportation

Use travel comparison sites to find the airlines and travel times that are the most affordable. Be flexible on your travel dates -- looking at non-peak days and times -- and be willing to consider a brief layover, as direct flights are often more expensive. Flying into an alternate airport is another way to save some money on your flights.

If the cost of air travel is prohibitive for you right now, consider traveling by car or train to somewhere nearby. For many kids, a train ride is a fun activity in itself, and it allows the whole family to sit back and relax as you head to your destination rather than stressing over traffic or security checkpoints.

5. Stick Closer to Home

You don't have to go across state lines to have a great vacation. Many people take for granted the great tourist attractions in their own backyards. Take a look at your city and region like you've just seen it for the first time -- and you may be surprised to find how much there is to keep your family entertained, from festivals to museums to natural wonders. You may be even more surprised how much of it is free.

Whether you've got the budget and the schedule freedom for a day trip, a weekend trip or a weeklong staycation, the important thing isn't where you go, but how much fun you have together as a family.

6. Use Your Membership and Rewards Programs

If you belong to AAA or another roadside assistance plan, check out the perks it offer,s which could include discounts on things like travel and hotels. Look up how many frequent flyer miles you've earned on your credit cards; they could knock down your cost of airfare considerably or even pay for a ticket or two.

And don't forget warehouse clubs like BJ's and Sam's Club. If you're a member, you can get discounts on cruises, car rentals, vacation packages and more.

7. Find Free Entertainment

No matter where you go, whether it's across the country, across the state or staying in your own hometown, there are plenty of great family activities you can do for little or no money. Run a Google search to find out about any free community activities; many cities host free movie, music and art festivals over the summer months.

In the end, it's not how much money you spend on your vacation that matters; it's how many great memories you make with your family.

Paula Pant quit her 9-to-5 job, traveled to 32 countries, launched her own business and became a successful real estate investor. She's the founder of Afford Anything, a website helps you build wealth and maximize life. Afford Anything is an online movement against tired old financial advice that says you should skip lattes and chain yourself to a desk for 40 years.

 

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Favorite Techniques to Make Your Groceries Last Longer

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Cut Your Grocery Bill by Up to 50%

By Allison Martin

Tired of the frequent runs to the grocery store to replenish your supply of perishables?

Certain items, like bananas and bread, have a brief shelf life, so you're forced to buy in smaller portions. But with these items and many others, you can use some simple tricks to extend their useful life. By following these tips, I've been able to limit last-minute grocery runs, saving time, money and gas each week.

Take Care With Your Produce
  • Before storing, examine the contents of each bag of produce and promptly remove items that are bruised, overripe or on the brink of spoiling. Items in this condition release ethylene gas that could spoil good produce. You can also purchase an ethylene gas absorber to delay the ripening process of your produce.
  • Shrink-wrap the crown of bananas. It only takes a few seconds to wrap some plastic around the crown of a bunch of bananas, and it will curb the release of ethylene gas. This gas makes any other produce in the vicinity spoil faster.
  • Bundle up herbs. Herbs can be displayed like a beautiful bouquet of flowers in a vase of water. Doing this keeps the herbs alive a lot longer without taking up refrigerator space. Just be sure to trim the stems first.
  • Pantyhose are best for onions. Drop an onion in each foot, tie a knot in between and continue this pattern until you fill the legs.​
  • Don't immediately slice and dice produce. You may be planning for the week ahead, but slicing and dicing too far in advance reduces the life of produce. Of course, if you must get chopping, a little lemon juice will help produce last longer before it starts to brown.
Improve Your Storage
  • Poke a few holes in those produce bags you get at the grocery store. Otherwise, they'll trap moisture that will cause produce to break down faster.
  • Instead of plastic containers that could expose your food to BPA, use Mason jars. Mason jars also do not stain, and your produce will last a few days longer. Mason jars work well for preportioned salads, extending the shelf life to up to 10 days.
  • When wrapped in foil, broccoli, lettuce and celery will last in the fridge for a month or more.
  • Tired of cheese quickly drying out? Apply a thin layer of butter to the exposed side, wrap the block in waxed paper, and place it in a plastic bag.​
  • Paper bags are ideal for mushrooms. Plastic bags are a haven for moisture, causing mushrooms to mildew.
  • Store leftovers in airtight glass containers. Airtight lids keep air out; and with glass, you don't have to worry about any chemicals leaching into your food.
  • Reseal prepackaged goods. When you keep goods sealed, air will remain in the package and items won't quickly harden.
Use Your Fridge Better
  • Aim for 40 degrees Fahrenheit to prevent the growth of toxic food bacteria. You don't want the temperature so cold everything is frozen. On the other hand, a refrigerator that is too warm results in spoilage. That is like throwing money away.
  • Tidy up and organize the refrigerator. It may be convenient to leave expired items in the corner of the fridge until you have time to purge. However, the mold content will expand to other areas and contaminate open products. Also, too much clutter reduces the circulation of cool air and creates warm spots.​
  • Don't store milk in the refrigerator door. Cooler temperatures are on the middle shelf.
  • All meats should be wrapped and stored toward the bottom of the refrigerator or freezer (in case they leak). To be extra safe, place meats in a bowl to catch any liquid residue. Allowing fresh produce and meats to mingle runs the risk of cross-contamination, which causes rapid spoilage.
Be Smarter With Your Freezer
  • Frozen banana pops are my favorite for two reasons: They preserve unused bananas, and they taste great. Freezing also works well for most fruits and vegetables, as long as they are consumed within eight to 12 months. Just remember to label them so you don't find yourself eating something that's been hiding in the back of the freezer for a decade.
  • Freezing bread eliminates the onset of mold, which spreads like wildfire and can quickly contaminate an entire loaf. You can also try storing half of the loaf in the fridge and the other half in the freezer.
Maximize Pantry and Counter Space

Not all produce should be refrigerated. Here are some items that should always be stored at room temperature, preferably not in direct sunlight. It may be convenient to store melons or pears on an area of the counter closest to the window, but sunlight speeds up the ripening process. If any of these items begin to ripen and you want to keep them around, place them in the fridge.​
  • Bananas.
  • Lemon.
  • Lime.
  • Mangos (in a brown bag).
  • Melon (in a brown bag).
  • Peaches (in a brown bag).
  • Pears.
  • Pineapple (upside down).
  • Plums.
  • Tomatoes. If the stem was removed before purchase, place the tomatoes upside down so air won't seep into the small opening, which expedites ripening.​
What tricks do you use to extend the life of groceries? Let us know in the comments below or on our Facebook page.

 

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Uncle Sam Wants to Help You Save Money - Really

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usa  uncle sam counts us...
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Want to put your tax dollars to work for you? Online and in print, the federal government publishes thousands of ideas that will help you save money from womb to tomb. Here some highlights:

A Place to Search

The Government Printing Office offers a directory of 380,000 documents, in 41 collections, that have been accessed more than 200 million times.

Your One-Stop Savings Stop

Another good place to start is www.mymoney.gov. Under its life events tab, this site offers advice from how to prepare financially for the birth of a baby and the attendant expenses through major life events like buying a house, getting a mortgage and planning a funeral. Under the tools tab, the site also offers calculators on figuring out student loan repayment plans, tax withholding amounts and credit card repayment schedules.

Insurance and Investing

USA.gov also offers plenty of advice on all aspects of your life, including homeowners insurance and investing. This is the go-to website for all consumer issues. On investor.gov, the Securities and Exchange Commission will help you research investments and brokers.

Save on Food

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's FoodKeeper app -- free at the Google Play and iTunes stores -- tells you how long food can stay fresh and when it's time to toss it. It should keep you from throwing away the 36 pounds of perfectly good food that the average American family throws away every month. The USDA also offers tips on growing your own food. You can find advice on nutrition, dieting, eating healthy on a budget, food safety and recall notices from the Centers for Disease Control website.

Slash That Utility Bill

The Department of Energy's website is one of the best money-saving sites to help save on all your home energy. The site offers DIY project how-to's to make your home more energy-efficient. Spring gardening tips to save water and offer shade before the summer heat make this a site to visit before hitting Home Depot. This site offers a laundry list of ways to save on energy, from lighting and landscaping to yes, saving money on doing your laundry.

Paying for College

The Department of Education website is a must-read for this huge undertaking. It offers comprehensive information on student loans and federal grants. You may think you make too much money to apply for these programs, but at least check out ed.gov and then to fill out the FAFSA, the one form virtually every college requires to apply for financial aid.

Strange but True Tax Help

The Internal Revenue Service offers advice to save money and places to help you file for free yourself or at low-income taxpayer clinics (run by groups independent of the IRS) and Volunteer Income Tax Assistance for elderly and low-income taxpayers. Publication 910 is a guide to the various IRS publications.

Vacations and Recreation

On www.recreation.gov, Uncle Sam shows his fun side with info on spelunking, whitewater rafting, mountain biking, fishing and mountain climbing. Here you can make reservations for camping or overnight stays at hundreds of parks and facilities run by a dozen federal agencies at more than 60,000 federally run locations. The about us tab includes how to get free tickets to popular activities like the White House Easter egg roll and holiday tree lighting. Seniors can check out discounts on Amtrak and parks and recreation passes.

There's an App for That

There are hundreds of free government apps available for Android and iOS. Dwellr, an interesting one from the Census Bureau, gives info on housing statistics, home values and lifestyle by neighborhood, a very useful app if you're looking to move, actually on the ground house-shopping or just dreaming about it. The Bureau of Engraving's Eyenote app can read U.S. currency on an iPhone or Android device and speak the denomination back to the visually impaired.

Save Money on Your Car and Driving

Fueleconomy.gov offers ways to calculate your mileage, tips on driving to save mileage, a calculator for saving money while driving on vacation and an app for finding places to get alternative fuels for your plug-in hybrid or electric vehicle. If you're selling a car, the site can find its fuel economy and how to print a label to advertise it. This site also offers tips on buying a fuel-efficient car and where to find the cheapest gas. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's SaferCar app offers tips like washing the undercarriage of your car in states that salt the roads to prevent rust and dangerous corrosion.

Free Money?

Not really, as Benefits.gov says. "Many people have heard that the government will give you money for almost any reason. This is not true. You must complete an application and meet specific eligibility requirements in order to receive financial assistance from the government." However, you may qualify for some sort of grant or loan if you are a senior, run a small business, farm or quality under low-income guidelines.

 

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Why Higher Interest Rates Will Worsen the Housing Market

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Closeup view of Modern Suburban Home with for Sale Real Estate Sign in front yard and bicycle and house in background
Thomas Baker/Alamy
If you're looking to buy a home in the next year, you might want to do so before higher interest rates make financing such big-ticket purchases a lot more expensive. The Federal Reserve, which controls the supply of U.S. dollars and short-term interest rates, has indicated that it could start raising rates as soon as June.

Interest rates have been so low for so long that people might have forgotten what it's like to pay "normal" interest rates of 6 percent to 8 percent for a loan. But if rates rise, the impact will be felt by nearly everyone trying to buy a home and even those trying to sell their home.

Interest Rates and Borrowing Power

When you apply for a loan at a bank, they try to assess your ability to pay back the loan given your income and the loan's monthly payment. The higher your income, the larger the allowed payment, but interest rates play a big role in how large the payment will be. Even a slight rise in historically low interest rates could make it a lot more expensive.

Below, I've laid out the monthly payments for 15-year and 30-year $100,000 mortgages at different interest rates, not including any fees, like private mortgage insurance or property taxes. As you can see, a 1-percentage-point increase in interest rates from 4 percent to 5 percent on a 30-year mortgage results in a 13 percent jump in monthly payments. A 2-percentage-point increase results in an incredible 26 percent increase in monthly payments.

Term 4% Interest 4.5% Interest 5% Interest 6% Interest
15-Year Mortgage $740 $765 $791 $844
30-Year Mortgage $477 $507 $537 $600
Source data: Google mortgage calculator

The reason those higher payments are important is that they play into how much borrowing power you have. A bank is trying to figure out how much it can loan you and still expect you to pay it back on time, but the bank doesn't necessarily care how big the loan is. What it really cares about is whether you can make the monthly payment.

So, let's look at how a constant monthly payment impacts the size of home you may be able to buy. Below, I've calculated the maximum loan that could be taken out for the corresponding payments and interest rates.

Monthly Payment 4% Interest 4.5% Interest 5% Interest 6% Interest
$1,000 $209,461 $197,361 $186,282 $166,792
$2,000 $418,922 $394,722 $372,563 $333,583
$3,000 $628,384 $592,083 $558,845 $500,375
Source data: Google mortgage calculator

Even with the same monthly payment, a 2-percentage-point increase in interest rate reduces borrowing power by 20 percent. As rates rise, that could have a major impact on not only your purchasing power but the entire housing industry.

Why Interest Rates Would Hurt Housing

This dynamic among payments, interest rates and borrowing power could have a profound impact on a housing market that's still recovering from the recession.

When you get a mortgage, the amount you can borrow depends on how much money you make and how much the monthly payment of the mortgage will be. It's no secret that wages haven't risen much at all recently in the U.S., so recently the improving housing market has been driven by the borrowing power that low interest rates have provided rather than extra income from higher wages. If interest rates rise, even slightly, they could actually send home prices -- and home values -- lower, simply by reducing the ability of new buyers to pay for a home.

For millions of Americans, the impact of lower home values could be enormous because the home is the biggest asset a majority of Americans own. And since most people have a mortgage, it's a leveraged asset, meaning losses are magnified.

If you buy a home with 20 percent down and then sell it a few years later but can only get 90% percent of the price you paid, your loss is half of your down payment. That's a big loss on an asset that people don't usually expect to lose money on.

Higher Interest Rates Are Coming -- Someday

There's no doubt that higher interest rates are coming someday; the challenge is that no one knows quite when they'll arrive. With the economy and unemployment improving, the market is currently betting that the second half of 2015 will start to see higher interest rates, and consumers should know how it could impact them.

Higher interest rates mean lower borrowing power, so whether you're thinking about buying or selling a home, you might want to start thinking about how those changes will impact you in the future.

Travis Hoium is a Motley Fool contributor. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. Check out our free report on one great stock to buy for 2015 and beyond.

 

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Stock Splits Are Hot Again

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surfers paradise   oct 28 2014...
ShutterstockStarbucks did a two-for-one stock split in April.
Some Starbucks (SBUX) investors likely spat out their morning coffee on April 9. The same stock that closed at $95.23 the night before went on to open at $47.65 the next morning.

What happened? Did millennials suddenly realize that mocha Frappuccinos are unhealthy? Did CEO Howard Schultz try to bounce back from the #RaceTogether fiasco by making lattes free for the balance of the year? None of that happened. The only thing that took place at Starbucks is that the baron of baristas executed a two-for-one stock split.

Every share would be replaced by two shares at half the price. Someone that owned 100 shares at $95.23 worth $9,523 at the close on April 8 now owned 200 shares at $47.65 worth $9,530 the next morning. They didn't lose half of their money. They didn't lose any money, actually.

It's a stock split, and after years of the market ignoring the practice, it seems as if the zero-sum game is back in fashion.

Splitting Headache

A stock split doesn't change anything -- in theory. If you have 100 shares at $100 or 10 shares at $1,000, it's still the same $10,000 sum. However, it's the perceived value of the market that has drawn companies to declare stock splits in the past.

It's purely psychological, but some investors feel as if they are getting in on the ground floor if they buy a company with a low price. They don't always factor in the important share count. Whether a company has 100 million shares outstanding at $200 or 1 billion shares outstanding at $20 it's still a $20 billion company.

Another factor that encourages stock splits is that it's often a show of internal company confidence. When Starbucks declared a two-for-one stock split -- and it did so several weeks before it took place -- the assumption is that it's confident enough in its near-term prospects that its stock will continue to rise after the split. If a company with a $50 stock went for a 10-for-one split, it would have to be pretty sure that its stock wouldn't dip below $5 after the move, inviting speculators to replace conservative investors.

Picking Up Splits Isn't Just for Bowlers Anymore

Tech's biggest names seemed to be in an arms race last year. Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOGL) were apparently trying to beat the other to hit a four-digit share price. When Google got there first in late 2013, it followed with what was in effect a two-for-one stock split by issuing a new share of non-voting stock for every single share out at the time. Apple followed with a seven-for-one stock split.

The split party won't end with Starbucks. Netflix (NFLX) shareholders will vote in a few weeks to authorize an increase in the outstanding share count. Netflix plans to declare a stock split once that's approved. Ross Stores (ROST) -- the discount apparel retailer with a premium price on its stock -- will be executing a two-for-one split in June.

Investors will continue to cheer on stock split announcements even when they don't fully understand them. No one will be shocked if Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) -- perched at a price of nearly $700 -- announces a split later this year. It's simple math. It's zero-sum math. However, it's hard to argue against investor psychology sometimes.

Motley Fool contributor Rick Munarriz has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns and recommends Apple, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Google (A shares) and Starbucks. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. Check out our free report on one great stock to buy for 2015 and beyond.

 

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Coke Profit Tops Expectations, Helped by Price Hikes

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Healthy Cokes
Wilfredo Lee/AP
NEW YORK -- Coca-Cola reported a quarterly profit Wednesday that beat Wall Street expectations as the world's largest beverage maker raised prices to offset slower growth. The maker of Sprite, Dasani, Powerade and other drinks said its global volume rose 1 percent, reflecting gains in both soda and non-carbonated drinks.

In its flagship North America market, overall volume was flat. The company sold 1 percent less soda, reflecting the ongoing move away from traditional carbonated drinks. One recent drag on soda has been the fading popularity of Diet Coke. The drink declined 5 percent in the region, while Coke Zero, a newer diet soda, declined 1 percent, said Kathy Waller, Coke's chief financial officer. "We're doing a lot of work in North America to understand what's going on," Waller said of the decline of diet sodas.

The overall soda decline in North America was offset by a 2 percent increase in noncarbonated drinks, such as bottled teas. Higher pricing helped drive up revenue.

Smaller Bottles, Cans

Coca-Cola Co. (KO) says it is focusing less on volume growth and instead focusing on driving up revenue by mixing up the type of packages it sells. For instance, the Atlanta-based company has been pushing its mini-cans and glass bottles more aggressively, which are positioned as premium offerings and tend to fetch higher prices per ounce. Waller said the company is continuing to roll out the mini-cans more broadly in the U.S.

The company has also said it would work on slashing costs to improve its financial performance amid slowing growth. CEO Muhtar Kent has called 2015 a "transition year" for the company.

For the three months ended April 3, Coke said it earned $1.56 billion, or 35 cents a share. Not including one-time items, it earned 48 cents a share. That was more than the 43 cents a share analysts expected, according to Zacks Investment Research. Total revenue was $10.71 billion, which also came in above the $10.66 billion analysts expected. Shares of Coke rose 3 percent to $42.10.

 

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