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TUESDAY,
SEPTEMBER 6, 2005
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Chris Kinnas
Investment Advice
It’s Labor Day - and if you’re
like many people, you certainly
feel that your household is labor
ing pretty dam hard. And you’d
be right. In fact, from 1975
through 2002, the average hours
worked by all family members
rose by 11%, according to the
Economic Policy Institute. But
all that work may not necessari
ly translate into the attainment
of your financial goals - unless
your money is working as hard
as you are.
How can you make sure this
happens? For starters, you need
to define just how hard your
money needs to work -in other
words, what sort of performance
you’ll require from your invest
ments. Not everyone needs the
same type of return from his or
her portfolio. For example, if you
plan on working past normal
retirement age and then stay
fairly close to home, you might
not need as much income from
your investments as your neigh
bor, who wants to retire early
and travel the world. To get a
reasonably close estimate of the
level of resources you’ll need to
draw on during your retirement
years, you may want to work
with a financial professional.
Once you know how much
you’ll need, you can assess if
you’re on track toward reaching
this figure. After factoring in
what you can expect from Social
Security - an amount that will
make up only a relatively small
percentage of your retirement
income consider your employ
er-sponsored retirement plan.
If you work for a company that
offers a traditional “defined ben
efit” plan - one that pays you a
pension based on your age and
length of employment - there’s
not much you can do to get more
“bang for your buck,” apart from
working more years. But if your
employer offers a “defined con
tribution” plan, such as a 401(k),
you gan take action to ensure
that your investment dollars are
working hard for you.
Start by evaluating your
401(k) portfolio. Are you “over
weighted” in conservative
investments, such as bonds, cer
tificates of deposit or guaranteed
income contracts? These vehi
cles, while not without value, are
“lazy” in the sense that they
won’t give you any significant
appreciation. To provide yourself
with substantial growth oppor
tunities, you may need to put a
relatively large percentage of
your 401(k) plan into equities.
Then, when you near retire
ment, you might want to lock in
any gains you have achieved, and
reduce your portfolio’s volatility,
by shifting some - but certainly
not all - of your 401(k) equity
dollars into bond and CD
accounts.
And the same course of action
applies to your individual invest
ments. Even if you are by nature
a conservative investor, you will
need at least some exposure to
stocks to achieve the growth you
need for retirement and other
long-term goals. If your portfolio
is laden with bonds and CDs, you
might lower your investment
risk the possibility of losing
some principal - but you’ll
assume more purchasing power
risk, because fixed-rate invest
ments may barely keep you
ahead of inflation.
In short, you need to construct
a diversified portfolio that
reflects your risk tolerance, long
term goals and time horizon -
but you have to make sure it con
tains plenty of investments that
are working hard for you.
Without these investments, you
may be the one who has to keep
working hard - for more years
than you’d like.
mS & I \H
HHJ/MUte George
A group of Indian businessmen from Perry hand over checks and cash for more than
$2,000 to Perry Volunteer Outreach Director Larry Wood, right, inside PVO’s office
on Commerce Street Friday. The 17 donations, all ranging from SIOO to S2OO, will go
to help disaster efforts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the Gulf
Coast earlier this week. Danny Patel, handing the checks to Wood, said the Indian
business community in Perry wanted to try to help the victims of one of the great
est natural disasters in U.S. history. “This community has been so good to us,” he
said. “We just wanted to give something back.”
Pry wins Sun Mark contest
submitted
Sun Mark Community Bank Vice President Jimmy Walker (right) presents a check for
100 gallons of gas to Ron Pry, owner of Specialty Crane in Warner Robins, as grand
prize winner of Sun Mark’s recent Customer Appreciation Day activities.
(To send in your event for the
Business Calendar, fax the
details to 988-1181, e-mail to
hhj@evansnewspapers.com or
mail to Houston Home Journal,
PO. Box 1910, Perry, GA
31069. The deadline for inclu
sion is 5 p.m. Fridays.)
Thursday, Sept. 8: Is Your
Business At Risk?
Financial advisor Sherri
Goss will help identify mistakes
that could kill the value of your
business and/or impair an
effective transfer of ownership
McNamara, Goss
join Rosenberg
Rosenberg Financial
Group has announced the
addition of two registered
representatives, Louis
McNamara Jr., MBA, and
Sherri Goss, CLTC.
McNamara is an invest
ment advisor with nearly
eight years of financial
management and planning
experience on a variety of
Department of Defense
major acquisition pro
grams. He earned his
undergraduate degree in
accounting from Grove
City College, a master of
business administration
(MBA) from Oklahoma
City University, and a mas
ter of security and strategic
studies from the United
States Naval War College.
He is also a graduate of the
College for Financial
Planning’s Certified
Financial Planning certifi
cation program. He has
been published in profes
sional journals and written
Business
Helping hands
BUSINESS CALENDAR
Participants will learn the
appropriate steps to eliminate
these problems. Class will be
from 6-8 p.m. at the ATDC
building, Osigian Boulevard,
Warner Robins. Cost is S4O
prepaid; (478) 751-6592 to reg
ister.
Tuesday, Sept. 13: Starting
Your Own Business
This workshop is a crucial
first step to starting a small
business. Sponsored by the
University of Georgia Small
Business Development Center,
BUSINESS PEOPLE
t j
congres
sional
papers.
McNamara
is a retired
Air Force
officer who
served over
20 years on
active duty.
He has
been active
in church
and chari
table pro
grams and
currently
lives in
Warner
Robins
with his
wife and
son.
Goss has worked in the
financial services industry
since 1999, and previously
served as vice president of
Consumer Credit
Counseling Service of
Atlanta. Her ten years with
that organization shaped
her personal money man
agement style, with a pref-
this workshop will cover sever
al topics, including market
research, legal structures for
your business, estimating start
up costs and cash flow projec
tion, financing alternatives, fail
ure factors and business plan
ning. A detailed business start
up workbook and other hand
outs will be provided. Class will
be from 6-8 p.m. at the ATDC
building, Osigian Boulevard,
Warner Robins. Cost is S4O
prepaid; (478) 751-6592 to reg
ister.
erence for being debt free.
Today, Goss’ specific areas
of expertise are retirement
planning and long term
care planning. She is a
Certified Long Term Care
Specialist, and serves on
the Finance Committee of
First United Methodist
Church of Warner Robins,
where she also hosts their
television program,
“Reachout.”
Goss holds a bachelor’s
degree from the University
of Idaho, and a master’s
degree from Boston
University.
Goss and McNamara are
both registered representa
tives with Royal Alliance
Associates Inc., and they
appear weekly with Steve
Rosenberg on “Your
Money,” a radio show on
Newstalk 940, Saturday
mornings from 9-10 am.
Rosenberg Financial
Group Inc. is a compre
hensive financial services
firm committed to helping
clients improve their long
term financial success.
GOSS
MCNAMARA
Are You Leading Leaders?
Think about the people
you lead. Are they lead
ers? Or are they follow
ers?
I speculate that most
people reading this col
umn today will quickly
respond that they are
leading followers. Our
society tends to group and
stereotype people. And we
tend to think in terms of
contrasts. So most of us
tend to associate followers
with leaders.
What would it take to
start thinking of yourself
as a leader of leaders?
What would happen if you
started treating the peo
ple you lead as interde
pendent leaders rather
than compliant followers?
Think about the stereo
typical concepts you have
in your brain about “fol
lowers.” Contrast that
with the stereotypical
concepts you have in your
brain about “leaders.”
With one conscious
choice, you could start
leading leaders! What
might be different about
your behavior if you were
leading leaders? How
would your expectations
change?
Would you hold people
accountable in a different
way? Would you expect
more proposed solutions
to problems? Would you
expect more collabora
tion? Would you expect
more initiative?
Most leaders are com
fortable leading followers.
The thought of leading
leaders may be threaten
ing to some. If it’s not
clear yet, I’m really
encouraging you to con
sider a paradigm shift
with this article!
It takes a lot less work
to lead followers than it
does to lead leaders!
Followers have questions
about what direction
we’re headed, when we
expect to get there, and
how difficult it will be to
accomplish the journey.
Their presumption - and
probably yours - is that
you will provide the
answers to these kinds of
questions.
When you lead leaders,
however, they ask differ
ent questions. “Why are
we headed in that direc
tion?” “How does that
approach fit with our
overall strategy?” “Aren’t
we overlooking what our
customers will need next
year?” “How would we
know success if we
achieved it?”
When you lead leaders,
your role shifts from
“answer provider” to “cul
ture creator.” You transi
tion from being the per
son who people go to for
Assessing Your
Leadership Skills
-SBS/person
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Sunshine 7
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Dennis Hooper
... even greater things . . .
dhooper2@juno.com
answers to the person
who people go to for men
toring and coaching. You
invite the other leaders to
consider a variety of
options for any decision
they are about to make—
and to evaluate the bene
fits and costs of each of
those options more thor
oughly. Analytical deci
sion-making becomes
widely adopted across
your organization.
When you lead leaders,
you no longer put pres
sure on yourself to have
all the answers. The pres
sures are different, how
ever. You have to stay in
contact close enough that
each person continues to
collaborate rather than
starts to work independ
ently. Independent capa
bility is healthy, but the
objective is to work inter
dependently with the
other leaders in the
organization. All the lead
ers working together are
far stronger than any one
of the leaders working
independently.
Leading leaders is far
more powerful than lead
ing followers. Leading
leaders keeps you much
more open to seeking
improvement and chal
lenging each other.
Leading leaders keeps you
sharp! Leading leaders
gives you great colleagues,
collaborators, and part
ners for the future.
There’s a downside.
Some individuals, maybe
some of your best people,
will leave your organiza
tion. It’s a cost of doing
business that you may not
have experienced before.
But it’s not all bad. Many
of those empowered lead
ers will come back to ben
efit you in the form of
future suppliers, future
customers, future political
leaders in your district,
etc.
It may be difficult to
imagine leading leaders.
And it may be genuinely
more difficult in the
short-term to lead leaders.
But the potential advan
tages in the long run are
far superior!
F. Dennis Hooper
Certified
Leadership Development Coach
Building leaders and
organizations of excellence
(478) 988-0237
987-7166
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dhoopir2@juno.com