Cris Gibb at Remax of Grand Rapids

Cris Gibb at Remax of Grand Rapids Please check out my website moving2grandrapids.com

08/18/2015

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD? It’s not stuff most of us think about every day, but we may soon be a lot more familiar with terms like brain organoids, megascale desalination, Internet balloons, liquid biopsies, and more. At least, that’s what the MIT Technology Review reported in Breakthrough Technologies 2015:

“Not all breakthroughs are created equal. Some arrive more or less as usable things; others mainly set the stage for innovations that emerge later, and we have to estimate when that will be. But we’d bet that every one of the milestones on this list will be worth following in the coming years.”

Here are a few of the items included on the list:

• Brain organoids: In greatly oversimplified terms, these are miniature brains that can be grown from an adult’s cells. They may help researchers better understand brain disorders and develop effective treatments.
• Megascale desalinization: The world does not have enough fresh water. One solution is seawater desalination. Thanks to engineering improvements, reverse-osmosis desalination has become cost-effective.
• Internet balloons: Imagine 15-meter helium balloons with solar-powered electronics hovering 20 kilometers in the air (far above commercial airline flights) and making the Internet available to people who currently have no access.
• Liquid biopsies: Someday soon, annual blood tests may help diagnose cancer early. Gene sequencing machines decode millions of fragments of DNA in the bloodstream, looking for specific DNA patterns that indicate cancer. Knowing the DNA mutation behind a cancer may also help physicians choose the most effective treatments.

It’s important to keep track of developing technologies because they have the potential to disrupt industries and change the way business is done.

08/05/2015

IF YOU SLEEP MORE, YOU MAY EARN MORE MONEY. Researchers were trying to evaluate the importance of sleep so they focused on two American cities in a single time zone: Huntsville, Alabama (on the eastern edge of the central time zone) and Amarillo, Texas (on the western edge of the same time zone). The sun sets an hour later in Amarillo, so the assumption was made that people get less sleep in Amarillo than they do in Huntsville.

The findings reported in Time Use and Productivity: The Wage Returns to Sleep, by Matthew Gibson of Williams College and Jeffrey Shrader of the University of California-San Diego, were people who get one hour less shuteye, over a long period of time, earn about 4.5 percent less.

From an economic perspective, the idea may seem counterintuitive. After all, when you’re snoozing you’re not producing. However, from a psychological point of view, it makes a lot more sense. A British study of 21,000 employees found those who slept six hours or less each night were less productive than employees who slept for seven or eight hours.

Of course, sleep wasn’t the only issue that lowered productivity. According to the study, physical inactivity, financial worries, mental health issues, musculoskeletal issues, bullying, impossible deadlines, and unpaid caregiving all negatively affected workers’ output.

Sleep issues, however, may become more important as we become attached to devices like tablets, laptops, and smart phones. Research described in Scientific American found two hours of tablet use before bedtime suppressed melatonin release. Melatonin is a hormone that lets us know it’s time to sleep.

So, if you’re having trouble getting to sleep and use a smart phone or tablet before bed, you may want to turn down the brightness of your glowing screens before bed – or switch back to good old-fashioned books.

08/03/2015

Try "5S" for a More Productive Day

When you don't feel as productive as you'd like, a great place to look for a quick fix is your workspace and how it's organized. "5S" is a system made famous by Toyota, which helped workers catapult the company from obscurity to worldwide recognition. The 5S system is based on five Japanese words: seiri, seiton, seiso, seiketsu and sh*tsuke.

Here's a popular variation of the English transliterations of those words, and how you can use them to work smarter, not harder:

Sort. Analyze your workspace. Eliminate any clutter, paperwork, emails, books or processes that prevent or distract you from core performance. This includes your computer desktop and any programs you keep on your task bar or dock, as well as windows you leave open during work sessions.

Set in order. Once you get down to the essential items or programs you need for work, put each item in the most useful, accessible location.

Systematic cleaning. As you work, keep your workspace and desktop as free of clutter as possible. In other words, don't begin a new task without cleaning up after the last one. Put everything back where it belongs, including closing related programs on your computer. This will help you stay focused on each task as you perform it.

Standardized cleanup. End your day with any cleanup you missed throughout the day. This will ensure you begin work the following morning with a consistent and organized working environment.

Sustain. Make it a habit. Leverage a daily to-do list to remind yourself of each task until it becomes a part of the way you do business.

As always, feel free to pass these helpful tips along to your team, clients and colleagues!

Source: Inc.com

07/23/2015

Last Week in Review



Home is where the heart is. There's a lot of heart in the housing market this summer, as that sector continues to steadily improve.

Housing Starts surged in June, increasing 9.8 percent to 1.174 million units. May's figures were also revised higher. Building Permits, a sign of future construction, surged to a near eight-year high as well. It's important to note that the increase in Housing Starts mostly came from the multifamily construction sector, which can be volatile. Ground breaking for single-family homes declined in every geographic region but the South.

Overall, construction trends have recovered following the harsh winter earlier this year. The recent National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Housing Market Index reading of 60 confirms this, as builder confidence has reached its highest level since November 2005. Readings over 50 show that more builders view conditions as good rather than poor. NAHB Chairman Tom Woods noted, "As we head into the second half of 2015, we should expect a continued recovery of the housing market."

However, other areas of our economy continue to struggle. Retail sales have been inconsistent from month to month. After disappointing figures in April, May's numbers rebounded, boosting hope that the U.S. economy would gather some steam. However, June's sales couldn't continue that momentum, as they declined 0.3 percent. May's figures were also revised downward.

With the saga in Greece nearly resolved, investors should begin to get back to the fundamentals of the U.S. economy: economic data, earnings season and the specter of rising interest rates. The Fed will be closely watching housing, retail sales and other key reports this summer, as they consider when to raise their benchmark Fed Funds Rate.

Despite the recent volatility in the markets, home loan rates remain attractive and near historic lows. If I can answer any questions at all for you or your clients, please get in touch!

Remember: Weak economic news normally causes money to flow out of Stocks and into Bonds, helping Bonds and home loan rates improve, while strong economic news normally has the opposite result. The chart below shows Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS), which are the type of Bond on which home loan rates are based.

07/21/2015

ARE YOU MISSING OUT ON A POSSIBLE TRIPLE TAX ADVANTAGE? If you have a high deductible health insurance plan and you’re not contributing the maximum to a health savings account (HSA), then you may be missing out. A study cited by The Washington Post found just one in 20 people with HSAs take full advantage of the opportunity.

In general, HSAs offer three tax benefits:

1. Contributions are federally tax-deductible up to certain limits ($3,350 for a single person and $6,650 for a family in 2015; add $1,000 to those limits if you’re age 55 or older).
2. Any interest earned on money in an HSA grows tax-deferred.
3. Withdrawals used to pay qualified medical expenses are income tax free.

Tax advantages aren’t the only reason to open an HSA. Money set aside in these accounts can be used to pay health insurance deductibles as well as qualified medical expenses. Although, according to The New York Times, determining which products can be purchased with HSA savings can be confusing:

“Under a change enacted with the Affordable Care Act, most over-the-counter drugs, like common allergy medications or pain relievers, are HSA-eligible only if you get a prescription for them from your doctor. On the other hand, items like sunscreen and contact lens solution are eligible for purchase – without a prescription – with your HSA funds.”

HSA assets also can be used to pay health insurance premiums (if workers are receiving unemployment benefits) and long-term care premiums.

It’s important to make sure HSA funds are used for qualified expenses because any money withdrawn for non-qualified expenses is taxed as ordinary income, plus a 20 percent penalty tax is assessed if the account holder is younger than age 65.

That brings us to another advantage provided by HSAs. Kiplinger.com explained money not spent during the contribution year remains in the account. Any earnings grow tax-deferred and the savings that accumulate may be used for qualified medical expenses in the future or, once the account holder reaches age 65, for living expenses. In the latter case, withdrawals may be taxed as ordinary income.

06/23/2015

IP! IP! OORAY! Greg Ip, Chief Economics Commentator at The Wall Street Journal, was blogging about business cycles. He wrote, “After a perplexing start to the year, the economy is starting to make sense…[Recently released data] has begun to help solve three puzzles that have hung over the U.S. and global economies in the last year.” The three puzzles were:

1. There was no surge in consumer spending in the United States. Despite a mammoth drop in oil prices, retail sales were weak and contributed relatively little to first-quarter growth. However, May retail sales numbers were strong and numbers for March and April were revised upward. So, consumers appear to be spending. (The final revision to gross domestic product (GDP), which was released in late May, showed GDP grew by 0.2 percent during first quarter.)

2. When workers are in short supply, wages should rise – but they haven’t. Unemployment is at about 5.5 percent. Employers have jobs open and are seeking qualified applicants. Yet, hourly earnings had barely improved at all. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment Cost Index showed private workers’ compensation grew 2.8 percent for the 12-month period ending March 31, 2015. That was a big improvement over the previous year’s growth. Government workers realized a 2.1 percent increase for the same time period, which was a modest improvement over the previous year.

3. The bond market hadn’t priced in a rate increase. Federal Reserve guidance has been pretty clear. When employment and inflation numbers align, the Fed will begin to tighten monetary conditions by raising the Fed funds rate. Regardless, bond market rates hadn’t moved higher – until recently. Yields on 10-year Treasuries rose from 1.87 percent in early April to about 2.4 percent by mid-June.

Ip summarized, “…in many ways, the world is behaving as it should. If so, then the next stage is for stock and bond investors to finally realize the era of zero rates is coming to an end and re-price accordingly. Do not expect that to be a smooth process… That the world is behaving normally, however, is not the same as saying it’s back to normal.”

Weekly Focus – Think About It

“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.
--John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States

06/17/2015

On the surface, April Existing Home Sales were a disappointment. But taking a long-term view sharpens the detail.

What is the Existing Home Sales report? The Existing Home Sales report measures sales of pre-owned single-family homes, as reported by the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) from 650 local associations. It covers geographical numbers, prices and inventory, and the number of months it would take to deplete the existing supply of pre-owned houses.

What's happened recently? NAR reported April's Existing Home Sales fell by 3.3 percent from March to an annual rate of 5.04 million, below the 5.24 million expected. Despite the decline, sales have increased on an annual basis for seven consecutive months and are up 6.1 percent from a year ago. The median price was $219,000, nearly 9 percent above April 2014, but more importantly, this was the 38th consecutive month of year-over-year price gains.

What's the bottom line? NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said, "April's setback is the result of lagging supply relative to demand and the upward pressure it's putting on prices." Because housing inventory declined from last year, supply in many markets is very tight, which can lead to bidding wars, faster price growth, and properties selling at a quicker pace.

05/26/2015

There is no job too immense when you’ve got confidence.

Just before the long holiday weekend, while confirming the Federal Reserve still expects to begin raising its benchmark interest rate during 2015, Chairwoman Janet Yellen’s comments took a philosophical turn:

“Of course, the outlook for the economy, as always, is highly uncertain. I am describing the outlook that I see as most likely, but based on many years of making economic projections, I can assure you that any specific projection I write down will turn out to be wrong, perhaps markedly so. For many reasons, output and job growth over the next few years could prove to be stronger, and inflation higher, than I expect; correspondingly, employment could grow more slowly, and inflation could remain undesirably low.”

05/11/2015

Housing's Slippery Slope

March may roar in like a lion, but March's NEW Home Sales were more of a whimper as they unexpectedly fell by 11.4 percent. This was in stark contrast to February's figures—which had returned the strongest performance in seven years. Unfortunately, the harsh winter that froze construction activity in January and February may not thaw performance for April's and May's sales figures.

On a brighter note, Existing Home Sales in March surged just over 6 percent from February—the largest monthly increase since December 2010. Sales are also up over 10 percent from a year ago. Lawrence Yun, the National Association of REALTORS® chief economist, noted, "After a quiet start to the year, sales activity picked up greatly throughout the country in March."

Also of note, Fannie Mae released its April 2015 Economic and Housing Outlook, revealing that economic activity slowed in the first quarter, largely due to West Coast port disruptions and difficult weather patterns gripping much of the Northeast. This was also reflected in the first reading for first quarter 2015 Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which fell to an anemic 0.2 percent. Now that spring has arrived, it will be important to see if economic activity blooms along with the weather.

04/27/2015

Existing Home Sales in March surged by 6.1 percent from February to an annual rate of 5.19 million units. This was the largest monthly increase since December 2010. Sales are also up 10.4 percent from a year ago. Lawrence Yun, the National Association of REALTORS® chief economist, noted, "After a quiet start to the year, sales activity picked up greatly throughout the country in March."

On the flip side, New Home Sales in March unexpectedly declined as sales fell 11.4 percent from February to an annual rate of 481,000 units. This is a stark contrast to the 543,000 units recorded in February, which was the strongest performance for new home sales in seven years. The harsh winter weather in January and February shut down construction sites, and that had an impact on March's figures. We will have to see if new home sales are further curtailed heading into the spring home buying season.

Also of note, Fannie Mae released its April 2015 Economic and Housing Outlook, revealing that economic activity was suppressed in the first quarter, largely due to the West Coast port disruptions and difficult weather patterns that gripped a large portion of the Northeast. Now that spring has arrived, it will be important to see if economic activity blooms along with the weather.

The bottom line is that home loan rates remain attractive, and now is a great time to consider a home purchase or refinance. Let me know if I can answer any questions at all for you or your clients.

03/24/2015

Weekly Focus – Think About It

“If you obey all the rules you miss all the fun.”
--Katharine Hepburn, Actress

03/23/2015

4 Cool Ways to Perk Up Your Travel
Paying to park and napping in a terminal chair are so last year.
By Pat Mertz Esswein, Kiplinger.com

Whether for business or adventure, travel can wear you out. Check out these little-known travel amenities that will ease your burden, defray your cost, or add productivity or pleasure to your day.

Ditch your coat. Flying JetBlue out of John F. Kennedy International Airport, in New York City? CoatChex will hold your heavy winter outerwear until you return ($2 per day or $10 for one week).

Get paid to park. With FlightCar, available at 10 major U.S. airports, you can park free and get paid if your car is rented to a preapproved driver. For an average five-day trip, members save $100 in parking fees and earn $30 in rental fees.

Need a nap? Snag a private space with a sofabed and desk at a Minute Suite in Atlanta, Philadelphia or Dallas/Fort Worth. Cost: $38 an hour, one-hour minimum. Wake-up call included.

Snowed in (or out)? Chill. The LoungeBuddy app (free for Apple iOS and Android phones) will show you airport lounges around the world to which you have access (although you'll often have to pay a one-time fee) and book you in. If you're stuck in San Francisco or Chicago, meditate in an airport yoga room. The Phoenix airport has an indoor fitness trail with views of the skyline, mountains and buttes. Or rustle up a game of ping-pong in Milwaukee.

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