2 BUSINESS • Sunday, September 21, 2014 • Section D • Northwest Herald / NWHerald.com
Save timeshare money, travel as you please Dear Dave, Some friends recently offered me a timeshare. It’s an older place on the beach, and they’ve had it for about 20 years. I’d have to pay a transfer fee of $100, plus a yearly association fee of $500. I know you’re not a big fan of timeshares, but does this deal sound OK? – Jill
Dear Jill, In essence, you’re looking at $500 a week. I know the $500 is technically an annual association fee, but you’re basically paying $500 for your week at the timeshare. And in the future, say five years from now, the association fee could increase. You might be paying $1,000 a year at that point – again,
for your week. In actuality, the numbers you’re talking about right now aren’t completely terrible. Still, it’s not a huge blessing. In my mind it’s kind of like, “How would you like a kick in the knee that’s not too hard?” If it were me, I’d much rather spend my $500 a year on travel and be able to go and stay wherever I wanted. Not only does this free you up it that area, but you’d only spend the money when and if you did it. With a timeshare, you get charged whether you show up or not. This one’s not as bad as if you’d have to pay $8,000 for the opportunity. But if these were my friends making the offer, I’d have to say no thanks. – Dave
DAVE SAYS Dave Ramsey Dear Dave, I’m 38, single and I have three kids. I make $65,000 a year and have $34,000 in debt. I’m about to get remarried, and my new husband will make about $100,000 a year. Should I take the $34,000 and put it on my mortgage to consolidate it? – Leslie
Dear Leslie, Please don’t consolidate this debt. If you guys are about to get mar-
ried you need to learn, as a couple, to make debt a thing of the past and live on a written, monthly budget. Think about it. Once you’re married, your family will have a great income. You could really push and attack that debt, and have it paid off in no time. As a new couple, you need to learn to set goals and work on things as a team. Budgeting is a great exercise for any marriage, but it’s an especially good thing for newly married couples to learn to do. A budget isn’t just controlling your money. It’s two people sitting down together and sharing their hopes and dreams for the future. Not just that, it’s the process of making an actual, workable, writ-
ten plan that will help make these dreams become reality. Don’t do a debt consolidation, Leslie. Debt consolidation is nothing more than a “con,” because you think you’ve done something about the debt problem. But the truth is the debt is still there, as are the habits that caused it. All you did was move it around. You can’t borrow your way out of debt, just like you can’t get out of a hole by digging out the bottom. – Dave • Dave Ramsey is the author of five New York Times best-selling books. Follow him on Twitter at @DaveRamsey and on the web at daveramsey.com.
Twitter may remove images
FACES & PLACES
recently, after some users sent altered images of Robin Williams to his daughter Zelda after the actor committed suicide in August. The policy also was used to remove gruesome images of the beheading of journalist James Foley. The company’s CEO Dick Costolo said last month, in reference to the Foley images, that Twitter “is actively suspending accounts as we discover them related to this graphic imagery.” Twitter contact page for family members of the dead: http://bit.ly/1w7cGaY.
• ONLINE Continued from page D1 ter, the company also will want a “brief description of the details that evidence this account belongs to the deceased,” its policy states. After 30 days, a deactivated Twitter account is permanently deleted. To respect the wishes of loved ones, Twitter says it may also remove images of deceased individuals that circulate on the site. The policy applies only in limited circumstances and was implemented
of excellence by defining success, getting everyone involved, executing your plans and reviewing them frequently. Utilize these strategies and you can build an enduring and successful organization and create a legacy of excellence to be proud of.
• CALDWELL Continued from page D1
Photo provided
Echelon Design Inc. recently was named a bronze award winner for the 2014 American Business Stevie Awards.
Echelon Design wins bronze in annual American Business Awards GILBERTS – Echelon Design Inc. recently was named a bronze award winner for the 2014 American Business Stevie Awards. The award was on behalf of work done for Gilbarco Veeder-Root and Veeder-Root at the National Association of Convenient Stores show in 2013 in the category of Best
Exhibition Display (Stand or Feature), according to a news release from the company. More than 280 independent judges reviewed and selected Echelon’s nomination as being worthy of national recognition. The company was recognized as a Bronze Stevie Award winner at the 2014 awards banquet in June in
Chicago. More than 800 executives attended the ceremony, which was broadcast nationwide by the BizTalk Radio Network and YouTube. More than 3,300 nominations were submitted this year from organizations of all sizes, from virtually every industry and from a wide variety of categories.
“We are very proud that our team’s work is being recognized on a national basis,” Echelon President and founder Reid Harman said in a statement. “The Stevie sets the bar even higher for our team. It will help drive us to continue delivering high quality work that generates great results for our client partners.”
Crystal Lake yoga studio owner earns certification
tion technique comes from the Vedic traditions of India, according to the release. Waring has been leading students in McHenry County in Hatha yoga, meditation and Pranayama breathing classes and workshops for 17 years.
affiliate in Cincinnati. WLWT is owned by Hearst Television Inc. McDonald joined Hearst in 2012 at WISNTV 12, the ABC television affiliate in Milwaukee and quickly became a top-performing sales executive. Before his time at WISN, Patrick he served four McDonald years as a fire team leader in Iraq with the U.S. Marine Corps, according to a news release.
Cary physical therapist speaks at career day
CRYSTAL LAKE – Ann Waring, owner/director of Yoga Seva Studio, 407 E. Terra Cotta Ave., Crystal Lake, recently was awarded a certification to instruct and lead individuals and groups in primordial sound meditation from Chopra University in San Diego, California, according to a news release. The curriculum included onsite seminars and workshops from leaders and scientists researching the mind-bodyspirit connection. The medita-
Marian Central grad gets promotion at TV station WOODSTOCK – Patrick McDonald, a 2002 graduate of Marian Central Catholic High School, has been promoted to national sales manager of WLWT-TV, the NBC television
• MAULE Continued from page D1 A personal connection, a reference who will vouch for you, will always mean more than a connection you don’t know on social media. The other side of the coin with social media is that people can criticize your business if they had a bad experience. But with the people who know you as a person, you have advocates. It’s the ultimate word of mouth. If I come in to your business and I had horrible service and then put that on Facebook, but other people who know you will tell me that that is the exception and not the rule. You can have an army of friends stepping in to defend you. But that only happens because I know you.
Rowland: Has there been a learning curve? Were you prepared for having your picture in the paper all the time? Attending so many dinners and ribbon-cutting ceremonies? Maule: I was not prepared to have my picture start showing up every where. It’s like, ‘Oh my hair looks terrible,’ or, ‘Why did I where that outfit?’ It’s raised
my awareness of my appearance in way I wasn’t prepared for. With ribbon-cutting ceremonies, there is something very inspiring about watching someone stepping out, taking the risk and knowing that you’re in on the ground floor with that business. The excitement – that first-day-of-school kind of excitement – is really, really infectious. What I like even more is the chamber member recognition award presentations. You realize that this company has been in business through multiple family generations. Affrunti Design & Management was the first one. It was the company’s 25th anniversary with the chamber – 25 years of continued, active commitment to a business organization. That part makes me pause and think about what it means. It means that a business, year after year has voted with their wallet that they find value in what the chamber does.
Rowland: Is your goal to boost membership in the chamber? Maule: My responsibility to the organization is to maintain a level of financial sustainability, and membership is tied to that, but our strategy is
CARY – John Felbinger, a physical therapist at Cary Physical Therapy, recently spoke at Cary-Grove High School’s Career Day event. Felbinger talked the academic requirements to become a physical therapist and job opportunities, according to a news release. “One of the main points that I wanted to stress to the seniors today is that physical therapy is such a diverse and satisfying career,” he said in a news release.
based on providing value. And if you’re providing value, your membership is a natural extension of that. It’s an easy sell, but it’s also easy to retain members if you’re actually delivering a product or service that people feel is valuable and worth the investment. They are making an investment in the chamber. I’m not selling them a widget. Now I have to live up to that investment. So my commitment is to create ongoing, continual value in programming, access to elected officials, problem solving, ways to connect to your business with potential customers, ways to be efficient with your business. I think if we do that well, membership will follow. I could go out and put a lot of pressure on sales and boost the membership. And there are chambers that do that – they have membership drives and its kind of a hard sell. The problem with that is you have a lot of fall off after that because they didn’t join because they believed in the organization. They came on because they felt pressured. I don’t want that. I want somebody who joins and then becomes the 25-year member who believes this is the best investment they’ve made in their business.
sake-of-it type events. The latter merely breeds resistance and even skepticism from the employees – and ultimately poor results. Successfully maintaining a culture of excellence requires an upgraded mindset. You can’t operate in old ways and expect new results. You may need to say “no” to your past mediocre business practices in order to say “yes” to a new and excellent organization. You can create a culture
• Kathleen Caldwell is president of Caldwell Consulting Group and the founder of the WHEE Institute (Wealthy, Healthy, Energetic Edge) of Woodstock. Reach her at www.caldwellconsulting.biz, kathleen@caldwellconsulting. biz or 815-206-4014.
WALL STREET WEEK IN REVIEW Stock
Friday close
Abbott 43.59 AbbVie 59.06 AGL Resources 52.43 Allstate 62.20 American Airlines 36.63 Apple 100.96 AptarGroup 61.16 Arch Dan 51.69 AT&T 35.47 Bank of America 16.95 Bank of Montreal 77.09 Baxter 72.54 Berry Plastics 25.00 Boeing 129.35 Caterpillar 102.51 CME Group 82.84 Coca-Cola 42.05 Comcast 56.74 Covidien 90.85 Dean Foods 14.34 Dow Chem. 53.49 Exelon 34.41 Exxon 97.12 Facebook 77.91 Ford 16.65 General Electric 26.29 General Motors 33.94 Google 596.08 Home Depot 92.34 IBM 194.00 JPMorganChase 61.11 Kellogg 62.66 Kohl’s 61.99 Kraft Foods 56.91 Live Nation 24.48 McDonald’s 94.36 Microsoft 47.52 Modine 12.35 Motorola 61.88 Netflix 457.52 OfficeDepot 5.61 Pepsi 93.79 Pulte Homes 18.82 Safeway 34.28 Sears Holdings 27.68 Snap-On 123.85 Southwest Air. 34.56 Supervalu 9.48 63.81 Target 259.32 Tesla Motors 53.00 Twitter United Contint. 49.38 216.25 Visa 76.84 Wal-Mart 62.88 Walgreen Waste Mgmt. 47.35 Wintrust Fincl. 47.43
P/E ratio
50-day avg.
200-day avg.
28.36 22.89 13.43 12.18 16.28 22.65 20.76 10.42 26.57 12.94 20.44 51.23 19.59 17.10 28.95 22.49 19.98 27.41 3.70 18.85 16.09 12.38 82.79 10.24 20.64 28.47 30.88 22.09 12.24 15.69 12.34 15.10 14.16 17.09 18.07 4.43 10.08 137.19 21.16 2.77 2.40 19.20 22.34 17.69 26.95 28.27 24.74 15.77 21.46 178.68 16.67
42.41 55.2 52.21 60.79 38.60 99.10 63.11 49.67 34.80 15.87 75.27 74.61 24.32 124.97 105.74 75.71 40.96 54.89 87.93 15.75 52.86 32.50 98.52 74.95 17.07 25.88 33.99 576.53 87.36 190.16 58.39 63.85 58.04 57.13 22.24 93.64 44.97 13.69 61.17 461.59 5.28 91.53 18.57 34.58 34.66 124.08 31.32 9.49 60.30 261.73 47.39 47.71 213.80 75.25 62.82 46.25 46.40
40.46 53.42 52.04 58.20 39.08 88.85 65.23 45.72 35.04 15.87 71.31 73.49 24.18 127.77 104.51 72.88 40.52 52.63 79.73 16.08 51.08 33.84 99.70 66.81 16.53 26.20 35.05 560.77 81.50 189.04 57.38 65.08 55.05 57.59 22.70 98.09 41.78 14.83 64.64 414.58 4.98 87.55 19.15 34.32 39.57 118.07 26.88 7.99 59.58 228.03 42.41 44.67 213.45 76.24 67.93 43.97 46.16
52-week range
32.75 44.02 44.56 49.18 18.04 66.57 59.15 36.01 31.74 13.60 60.34 62.80 18.09 113.34 81.87 66.44 36.83 43.20 59.72 13.59 38.04 26.45 84.79 43.55 14.40 23.50 31.70 502.8 73.74 172.19 50.06 55.69 48.68 50.54 16.89 90.53 32.15 10.79 58.61 282.80 3.84 77.01 15.28 26.70 26.78 94.53 14.11 5.38 54.66 116.1 29.51 29.11 180.11 71.51 53.76 40.28 40.14
44.20 60.02 55.30 62.59 44.88 103.74 68.78 52.36 37.48 18.03 78.56 77.31 26.33 144.57 111.46 84.71 42.57 57.49 92.68 19.88 54.97 37.73 104.76 78.36 18.12 28.09 41.85 604.83 93.75 199.21 61.85 69.50 63.54 61.10 25.28 103.78 47.57 17.51 68.33 489.29 5.91 94.21 21.65 36.03 67.50 127.32 35.49 9.78 67.25 291.42 74.73 52.45 235.5 81.37 76.39 47.69 49.99