Dear Friend,

Welcome to "The Jalbert Report", a weekly newsletter designed to provide you tips and updates so that you can "Live Well" during your retirement years.

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Enjoy reading!

Russ

Quote of the week:

"You might not be able to outthink, outmarket, or outspend your competition,
but you can outwork them."

Lou Holtz

Obviously, this does not bode well for our banking system, which is already teetering on the edge thanks to the sub-prime crisis.

In order for housing values to start growing again, we need buyers. That means we need people working and the economy growing. Unfortunately, the prospects for that happening anytime soon are not good...

• Fed sees slow recovery and continued high unemployment
  
READ FULL ARTICLE>>

So what can we expect?

My suspicion is that the housing market will end up reacting the same way every bubble does after it bursts - slow growth for many years to come.

I suspect that gone are the days of double digit housing value growth and taking that equity growth out to fuel consumer spending. In fact, looking back, it would have made a lot of sense to take that home equity out while we had it and set it aside into a safe, liquid investment.

We'd sure be better off today if we had.

Everywhere you look, you see nothing but doom and gloom in the headlines. So let’s see if we can find any good news out there...

Here’s a few bits that I found reported on Yahoo Finance over the past week:

• Research firm IDC forecasts PC shipments to climb 9% to nearly 310 million units in 2010 from this year, and an additional 13% in 2011 from 2010.
  
  
• Ciena will buy the optical networking and ethernet equipment businesses of Nortel Networks for $769 million.
  
  
• Novartis will officially open the first next-generation flu vaccine plant in the U.S. but it will be years before it makes its first vaccine.
  
  
• Coca-Cola plans to more than double its bottling plants in China over the next decade, aiming to triple sales in its third-largest market by sales volume.
  
  
• Hewlett-Packard's quarterly net earnings jumped 14% to $2.4 billion.
  
  
• Medtronic, the biggest maker of heart-rhythm devices, reported quarterly profit rose 59% to $868 million.
  
  
• Sales of new homes jumped 6.2% to a 430,000 annual pace in October, the highest since September last year.

Yahoo Finance had a nice article on how to get the most out of Social Security. If you want to READ FULL ARTICLE>>

For those of you who would prefer a synopsis, read on...

If You Are Single
The general rule of thumb for single people is to wait until full retirement age to take Social Security.

"It usually makes sense to wait until full retirement age to start claiming benefits, unless you expect to die early or need the money sooner. This is especially true for women, who are more likely to reach the "break-even age," when the total value of full benefits equals what you would have received by claiming reduced benefits earlier."

If You Are Married
The general rule of thumb is for the top income earner of the family (usually the man) to wait until 70 to begin taking Social Security if at all possible.

"Married men should delay. Married couples can maximize total benefits by coordinating their start dates. The top goal is to increase the benefit for the surviving spouse, who gets 100% of the higher-earning spouse's benefit when he dies. If the higher-earning husband delays until 70, his survivor will get an extra 32% plus cost-of-living adjustments."

"For many couples, a husband should claim at 70 while the lower-earning wife should start collecting at 62, according to a study by Boston College's Center for Retirement Research. Because the husband is likely to die earlier, the study says, he will increase the value of the survivor benefit by delaying. As for the wife, even though her benefit will be reduced by 25%, the authors figured that her reduced benefit is only temporary. After her husband dies, she will step up to the higher survivor benefit. In the meantime, the household is bringing in extra income."

Trick #1: Voluntary Suspension of Benefits
"Let's say you're at full retirement age. You'd like to delay collecting benefits until 70. If your wife is 62 or older, she could collect benefits based on her own work record, but she'd get more money with a spousal benefit.One problem: She can't apply for the spousal benefit until you file for your own benefit."

"Here's what you do. You file for your own benefit, and your wife applies for the spousal benefit (which will be less than 50% of your benefit if she applies before her full retirement age). You immediately request a voluntary suspension for your own benefits. Your wife would then get spousal checks, and you can earn a bigger benefit when you reapply later."

Trick #2: The Pay-Back
"If you claimed your benefits early, perhaps at age 62, you may decide that taking a permanent cut was a mistake. Believe it or not, you can repay the benefits, free of interest, and reapply for a bigger benefit later. Your wife must return any accumulated spousal benefits as well."

The neat thing about this approach is that you can often create a very nice increase in your lifetime income with a not-too-large sum of money.

If you would like to talk to me about anything discussed above, please feel free to call our office at (877) 807-SAFE (7233).

Russell K. Jalbert CFP^®, one of the nation's leading financial professionals, has advised successful individuals in the management and distribution of their wealth for more than 35 years. Russ has discovered many alternatives to conventional investment practices. His priority is to educate people to understand they don’t have to accept risk in order to grow their money.