New Skills for a New Age

Stepping outside the realm of the three R's a recent edition of Edutopia magazine included an article "New Skills for a New Age," that offers a perfect answer to the question: What skills do the futurists suggest a student must master to succeed?


Students throughout their education experience, from pre-K through higher education, need to learn the following Learn/Create/Collaborate skills to succeed in both education and the workplace.

Learn:
1. Access, evaluate and use different forms of information
2. Exercise critical thinking
3. Evaluate fluency with tech tools

Create:
1. Use various forms of media when presenting ideas
2. Display originality
3. Employ problem-solving skills

Collaborate:
1. Work successfully as a team
2. Demonstrate cross-culture awareness
3. Communicate complex ideas effectively

Students can use the skills they have experienced as a guide in preparing a resume and should be able to elaborate these accomplishments by using concrete example in a job interview.

NICCP

Equity-Indexed Annuities

Equity Indexed Annuities (EIA) can be used to diversify a retirement portfolio. An EIA is a type of tax-deferred annuity whose credit interest is linked to an equity index such as the S&P 500. It guarantees a minimum interest rate (typically less then 3%) and protects against loss of principle. An EIA is a contract with an insurance or annuity company.

The returns maybe higher then a fixed instrument such as CD's, money market accounts and bonds but not as high as market returns. EIA's are not FDIC insured and our subject to risk of default by the insurance company.

Let assume that the S&P 500 at the beginning of your investment was at 1000. It is currently around 825 but for the sake of this example, we will use 1000. Let us compare the difference between investing directly into a S&P 500 mutual fund and a EIA.

If the S&P 500 was to go up 20% to 1200 in the 1st year on a $100,000 investment your value would be $120,000. In this example, the EIA is guaranteed to never lose your principle can only credit your investment with 50% of the real market gains. So the value of the EIA at the end of one year would be locked in at $110,000. Please note that some EIA's have caps higher than 50% others might be lower.

Now, let 's say the market goes up the second year by another 20% to 1440. The value of your account would be $144,000. The EIA, because the principle and any gains once locked in at the end of the year are guaranteed, can only credit you 50% of the actual gain. So, the EIA would give you a value of $121,000.

Now let's assume the market takes a 21% loss from the 2nd to the 3rd year your investment would be $113,760. Because your EIA guarantees that you will never lose your principle or any gain that has been locked in at the end of any one year, the value of the EIA at the end of the same period would be $121,000

It is because the market has down turns like this that people end up losing money investing directly into the market with all of their money. Having a portion of your portfolio in EIA's can help take some the risks away of the down turns of the markets


NACFA

Targeting 529 Plans

According to the Kiplinger's Washington Editors, the IRS will clamp down on 529 plans this year and issue regulations that will target abuses. Under the microscope: putting as much as $120,000 into accounts for different people, then quickly changing the beneficiary on all of the accounts to one individual. And another ploy. . stuffing a lot of money into a 529 plan and later using the funds to pay for retirement. That allows contributors to circumvent the pay-in-ceiling and distribution requirements that apply to qualified retirement plans.

NICCP