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Banking Finance
February Special Section
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Sponsored Section • banking & finance February 2018
Retirement goals can affect your investment strategy When you create your financial and investment strategies for retirement, what factors should you consider? For starters, your retirement age is a key component. If you want to retire BURNS early, you may need to save and invest more aggressively than you would if you planned to work well past typical retirement age. You’ll also need to consider your retirement activities. Will you travel the world, or will you stay close to home and pursue your hobbies? The lifestyle you choose will affect how much you need to accumulate before you retire. Finally, you may not want to retire at all, but rather start a second career. If you follow this route, you might be able to afford to withdraw less from your retirement accounts – and you may even be able to continue contributing to them.
As you can see, your retirement goals can affect your investment strategy – and vice versa. So think carefully about what you want to accomplish, and plan ahead. It takes time and effort to achieve a successful retirement – but it’s worth it. For any questions or help planning for retirement, please contact our office. Chris Burns 5285 Lake Pointe Center Dr. Cumming, GA 30041 - 770-205-1579 This article was written by Edward Jones for use by your local Edward Jones Financial Advisor.
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* Annual Percentage Yield (APY) effective 02/07/2018. CDs offered by Edward Jones are bank-issued and FDIC-insured up to $250,000 (principal and interest accrued but not yet paid) per depositor, per insured depository institution, for each account ownership category. Please visit www.fdic.gov or contact your financial advisor for additional information. Subject to availability and price change. CD values are subject to interest rate risk such that when interest rates rise, the prices of CDs can decrease. If CDs are sold prior to maturity, the investor can lose principal value. FDIC insurance does not cover losses in market value. Early withdrawal may not be permitted. Yields quoted are net of all commissions. CDs require the distribution of interest and do not allow interest to compound. CDs offered through Edward Jones are issued by banks and thrifts nationwide. All CDs sold by Edward Jones are registered with the Depository Trust Corp. (DTC).
Chris Burns Financial Advisor 5285 Lake Point Center Drive Suite A Cumming, GA 30041 770-205-1579
www.edwardjones.com Member SIPC
Good guidelines can help companies save money and workers use their own communications devices.
It’s not just personal, it’s business By Jeff Allen
(NAPSI)—According to Pew research, eight out of 10 Americans have smartphones and many of them bring their phones to work and just about everywhere else. This BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) world can be good for business because it can save a company money as employees bring and use their own devices on the company’s networks. It can also lead to security difficulties. Fortunately, I have found four things that can be done to help your business succeed: 1. Gatekeeping. Decide who can use personal devices on your premises and how they can use them. Establish policies on handling and protecting sensitive data and what sites can and cannot be accessed. Determine who, if anyone, is allowed to access personal sites or surf the Web during downtime. Make sure employees are well trained about this and clearly outline the consequences of violating these policies. 2. Go beyond passwords. Set up your system so it takes more than a password to get in. Some devices require thumbprints. Some systems will ask a specific question or test users with a picture. 3. Prioritize the data. Determine who’s on the network—employees, customers—and what they’re doing. Decide which data relates to business and which is personal to your employees. You might even consider setting up a separate network just for nonessential data. That’s where Comcast Business’s Wi-Fi Pro can make a real difference. It lets you offer customers their own
separate Internet while they’re on your premises. Meanwhile, you can use it to promote daily specials or link to social media to increase “likes” and “follows.” Plus, you’ll be better able to understand what your customers want through reports on demographics, average shopping times, and foot traffic. 4. Build up your bandwidth. Regardless of how many networks you have, you need to have enough bandwidth to meet the needs of your business. Otherwise, as employees use the network, your business operations could be compromised. How much bandwidth you need depends on how many people use the network, how many sites they access and how many ways (videos, conference calls, e-mail) they use it. Fortunately, bandwidth is inexpensive and easy to get with today’s technology. Going from 10 to 200 megabits of bandwidth is simple. Bandwidth alone doesn’t make a business successful, but it’s important for communicating with customers, vendors and employees. It’s how a business leverages bandwidth to help it create new ideas, entice customers, get orders, deliver products, pay vendors, and communicate and make connections, that does. Remember to consider these steps to creating a secure network and be sure you have all the bandwidth you need, so that you can have a BYOD program that suits both your business and staff. Learn More For information on how communications technology can help your business, go to http://cbcommunity.comcast.com.
February 2018
banking & finance • Sponsored Section
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Are you a saver or an investor? It may seem like a tricky question, but really it’s not. The difference between ‘saving’ and ‘investing’ can best be explained by the safety of interest and principal. Savers are concerned first with the return of their principal, while investors seek a return on their principal. Recent performance of the stock market has shown that it’s not a place to trust with your savings. As interest rates rise, certificates of deposit (CDs) and money market accounts are looking more attractive as safe way to earn interest on your hard-earned money. So perhaps you thought you wanted to be an investor…when you really only wanted a safe place to earn a return and get all your money back when you need it. If so, then consider your local bank. A key question to consider in finding a home for your cash is “how soon will I need the money”? If you’re certain that you can do without it for a while, CDs generally offer higher returns than money market or bank savings accounts. CDs, also know as term deposits, require that you commit funds for an established amount of time, with higher rates earned for longer terms. Penalty fees are generally assessed if funds are withdrawn before the term is up. Money market accounts, alternately, provide more access to your funds,
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allowing a few withdrawals and deposits each month. The accessibility of these funds means that money market accounts typically pay lower interest than rates available on CDs. And then there’s the question of safety: bank deposits are insured by an agency of the federal government, generally for balances up to $250,000. Some banks, like American Commerce Bank, offer FDIC insurance on much higher amounts by offering programs like CDARSTM that pool the FDIC insurance of multiple banks. While enabling customers to bank with a local institution, CDARSTM enables American Commerce Bank to safely offer some of Georgia’s highest interest rates on balances far in excess of $250,000. Contact American Commerce Bank for more information about how to earn more for your money.
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Sponsored Section • banking & finance February 2018