Ignore the Noise

We learned a lesson in October about “Ignoring the Noise” (that is the stock market). You cannot get caught up in the day-to-day gyrations, even triple digit gyrations, of the stock market. When you look at October, you see many days when you are up triple digits and then down triple digits. At the end of the month we were exactly where we began the month, within one half of one point. The lesson is…keeping your eyes on the horizon. Keep looking out at the horizon and don’t worry about what’s going on right in front of your toes. Keep your eyes on the horizon on your goals, and if the money you have invested is retirement money, you ask yourself the question ”Will this economy be better off one year, two years, three years down the line?” If you believe the answer is yes, ignore the noise. However, if you are going to need that money in six, nine, twelve months, then perhaps the stock market is not where you should be  because it is very tough to take your eyes off the daily gyrations when you’re going to need that money in a matter of months.

Going “Paperless”

These days you hear a lot about companies trying to go “paperless”. To go digital to scan all of their documents. We hear about it from the President when he talks about making our medical system more efficient – that all hospitals and medical offices should be paperless; all medical records should be digital. We hear from law firms, insurance companies, and financial firms as a way of not only going “green” but going more efficient. It makes sense for the environment, but it also makes business sense as well. Think about how in some cases you have offices that have rooms FULL of files with literally millions of documents stacked floor to ceiling. Think about what you are paying in rent on the room….to heat that room and light that room. Do you really need to do that? Not to mention the liability if you were to have a fire or flood and lose many of those documents and records forever. Another reason to consider going “paperless” and if you are thinking about doing so, let me put in a little plug here for my friends at Cristo Rey High School. Cristo Rey High School is a school for low-income kids and it gives them a college prep education. Part of their education is working, so Cristo Rey has teamed up with Caltronics. Cristo Rey provides the manpower. Caltronics provides the hardware, software, and expertise. As a team, they can go into your office and make you “paperless”. Not only do they do what’s called the back scanning of all the documents you have already created, but they will come up with a plan by which you will stay paperless as more documents are created and more files are made as your business grows. How do you stay paperless? How do you continue on in a digital form? If you have any questions, give David Brown a call at the school at 400-3386.

Gone Phishing

IBM has a big research team and they say they are seeing a real spike in “phishing”. Those are folks who mainly go after your web email. So, if you have Windows Live, Gmail, Yahoo mail, AOL…look out because they are looking for those email addresses as their portal to do bad things to your credit, your bank accounts, and your social networks. Make sure you take care and change those passwords every now and then.