Finding a safe path in rocky times: Ignore rumors and check with money advisers

BY CINDY TOOPES COURIER STAFF WRITER

July 18, 2008 12:31 pm

— OTTUMWA — Stay calm. Diversify. Conserve.
Armed with those guidelines, the average person can handle news of rising prices and plunging markets, according to local financial advisers.
One of best things people can do to improve finances is to work their on credit rating, according to Mary Weinand, a families field specialist with Iowa State University Extension Service.
Weinand’s field of expertise is family resource management.
“Over your lifetime,” a rating of 750 is better than 600. Someone with a 600 rating will pay $250,000 more in expenses.
“Your credit rating impacts your ability to rent, insurance, home insurance and more,” Weinand said Thursday. “That’s the number one impact — your ability to pay and how you paid off in the past counts more than previously.”
Taking out a small loan to pay off a debt is one way to improve your credit, she added.
Weinand said “everyone’s entitled to a free credit report” and can get one at the “only free Web site — annualcreditreport.com — approved by the Federal Trade Commission.”
When you first pull up the site, you’ll see three reportings. Weinand said to look at the middle of the screen for a spot labeled “My Free Report.”
Energy conservation is another way families can curb the effect of higher prices for natural gas and electricity. Type in “energy conservation” into the search engine on the ISU Extension Service Web site (www.extension.iastate.edu) and you’ll find several articles.
Most ways to conserve are common sense: If you’re not using it, turn it off. Plug home electronics, such as TVs and DVD players, into power strips. Then turn off the power strips when the equipment isn’t in use because TVs and DVDs in standby mode still use several watts of power.
Tom Awtry, president and chief executive officer of South Ottumwa Savings Bank, said community banks have “never been in a more financially sound position.”
“The main thing is to stay calm. Don’t listen to information that’s not reliable,” he said. “People are hearing rumors that aren’t true and that can be devastating.”
Anyone who has deposits that are secured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has never lost money, Awtry said. To be insured, structure your accounts so you don’t have more than $100,000 in one account.
“Don’t take money out of your accounts and put it in a drawer or under the mattress,” he said. “That’s unsafe. Criminals look for folks who do that.”
Awtry also cautioned citizens to avoid falling for “financial scams that are running through the country,” whether online or through the mail.
“I don’t think people should fear what’s happening. [The bank] has been here since 1903 and we’ve never had problems,” he said. “Everything will be fine. We just need to stay calm.”
Dennis Hohn is manager of Edward D. Jones & Co., 120 S. Market St., a longtime Ottumwa brokerage firm.
“The average investor is always drunk on either optimism or pessimism,” Hohn said.
In 2000, the “.coms were going to save the world” and “people paid for companies not making a dime” and paid 31 times the earnings to buy them, according to Hohn.
“People need to be diversified, to buy quality things and hold them,” Hohn said. “This diversity doesn’t prevent market declines or value declines. But, diversity prevents disaster.”
Too many people put as much as 80 percent of their investment money in one or two things and some folks don’t like new or unique things. Hohn said a “good adviser’s job” is to keep the client’s portfolio “diversified with reasonable expectations.”
“The only way to get ahead seriously is by owning companies. You don’t get ahead with interest,” Hohn said. “Safety, yield, cost, taxes and liquidity — people need to cover those five things.”
If they do, Hohn believes their investments will do well, whether they’re investing in Wal-Mart or a certificate of deposit.
“If you’re with a good company and it grows 10-12 percent, don’t mess with it,” he said. “I’m fully invested. I don’t have much cash and that works.”
Cindy Toopes can be reached at (641) 683-5376 or via e-mail at cindy@ottumwacourier.com.

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