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Stock investing is the growth engine of your investment portfolio, but in 2014 and beyond your best investment strategy could be to cut your investment exposure in stocks (also called equities) and stock funds (also called equity funds). Face it: equities and some stock funds have run up 150% in the past four to five years and this run could be about over. Why invest money here (more money) now?Stock investing has been very profitable in the past few years. The truth of the matter is that stocks and stock funds have been the best investment for the average investor for questionable reasons. In this extremely low interest rate environment, who wants to invest money in bonds, bond funds or any other interest-paying investment vehicle? In the world of stock investing, investors want to see a growing economy, rising corporate profits and growth in corporate sales. In recent years corporate profits have been a product of cost cutting vs. increasing sales. Corporate America has been reluctant to hire employees.Our government has, by design, kept interest rates artificially low to stimulate the economy and bring unemployment down. They’ve done this by BUYING longer-term debt securities, like their own Treasury securities… to the tune of $85 billion a month in 2013. This made stock investing the best investment game in town, and kept interest rates low. In 2014, many economists expect that this will unwind and interest rates are likely to increase. At that point stock investing could be a whole new ball game. Equities might not be your best investment.Invest money in stocks or stock funds if you believe that our government’s efforts will create a new wave of growth in the economy, in jobs, and in corporate sales. Do not rush out to invest money (more money) if you think higher interest rates will follow and choke economic growth. Remember, higher interest rates can hurt sales as purchases bought on credit (cars, homes, credit card purchases in general) decline. Higher rates can also hurt corporate profits because they increase the cost of borrowing money. Corporations borrow a LOT of money.That’s one view of stocks for 2014 and beyond, based on a fundamental view of stock investing. The other approach is the technical viewpoint. With the stock market on a four to five year roll, near all-time highs and up 150%… it could be due for a correction. If you invest money in stocks or stock funds now, you could be arriving at the party late. This is not rocket science, but consider 2000-2002, and 2007-2009. These were brutal bear markets that handed investors losses in the neighborhood of 50%. Only after these bear markets ended were stock funds the best investment for the average investor (for about 5 years).Well, it’s been about 5 years now since the recession (financial crisis) was officially put to bed. High unemployment is still with us and economic activity and growth is nothing to write home about. The real dilemma for investors in 2014 and beyond is that there appears to be few (if any) good or best investment prospects on the horizon. The only cheap asset class around is CASH. To earn even 1% on a CD you must shop around. Why invest money in a money market fund when they pay virtually nothing in return?When investors look at the apparent lack of investment opportunities out there and see equities going up they tend to want to jump on the band wagon and invest money in stocks and equity funds. History tells us that stock investing in an inflated market can be dangerous to your financial health. Sometimes your best investment is a safe and boring one like a short-term CD, savings account or money market fund. In 2014 your best investment strategy may be to cut back on stock investing and opt for more safety.

Planning a vacation to Antarctica can be a challenging task, which is why many travelers will use a travel agent or travel service to ensure that all of the details are taken care of well in advance. One of the most popular forms of Antarctica travel is a cruise.Tourists that plan an Antarctica vacation will have to take many different things into consideration. For example, the first thing that tourists will need to do is examine their budget and remember that the price of the cruise does not include the transportation costs to the port of call and it will not include the price of any extra excursions that the travelers would like to take on the cruise.Another factor that needs to be considered with Antarctica travel is the length of time that is available for the vacation. There are many different cruise lines that will offer different length cruises. Travelers that have more time to spend on the vacation will likely want to purchase a longer cruise that will spend more time on the ocean and the surrounding areas.Travelers will also need to be aware of any special requirements that the cruise lines have established. For example, many of the Antarctica cruise lines will require that all of the travelers on the ship purchase emergency medical insurance for the length of time that they are on the ship. The emergency medical insurance will cover the expenses involved if the traveler needs emergency evacuation.Travelers will also want to perform some research on their own before leaving for their cruise. This will give travelers a chance to determine which types of activities they would like to participate in while on the cruise, like whale watching or visiting the local penguin colonies.

Health Care System Needs Reform, Not a Government Takeover Believe it or not, America boasts some of the world’s best doctors, the most advanced health care system, and the most technically superior resources in the world, bar none. Those who travel globally and have gotten sick know that their first choice for treatment would be in the U.S. Though health care in America is, more expensive than any other country, many of the worlds wealthiest come to the U.S for surgical procedures and complex care, because it holds a worldwide reputation for the gold standard in health care.To examine the complex health care issue, a small research study was conducted from randomly selected doctors in a best doctors database. We ask 50 top doctors, located in different states and who practice different specialty fields, ” Is a universal health care plan good for America?” Forty-eight of these doctors essentially responded that it was a “bad idea” that would have negative impacts on the quality of our nation’s health care.Social Engineering MedicineOne of the greatest mis-conceptions some people have relied on with regard to the health care debate is that, given a universal health care system, every person in the U.S. would receive the highest quality health care – the kind our nation is renowned for and that we currently receive. However, unlike some public amenities, health care is not a collective public service like police and fire protection services, therefore the Government cannot provide the same quality of health care to everyone, because not all physicians are equally good orthopedic surgeons, internists, neurosurgeons, etc, in the same way that not all individuals in need of health care are equally good patients.As an analogy – stay with me – when you design a software program, there are many elements that are coded on the back-end, and used to manipulate certain aspects of the software program, that your average “John Doe” who uses the software (the end user) does not understand or utilize, nor do they care about these elements. Certain aspects of the program are coded, so that when one uses that portion of the program, other elements of the program are manipulated and automatically follow the present or next command.Likewise, once a universal care plan is implemented in America and its massive infrastructure is shaped, private insurance companies will slowly disappear, and as a result, eventually patients will automatically be forced to utilize the government’s universal health care plan. As part of such a system, patients will be known as numbers rather than patients, because such a massive government program would provide compensation incentive based on care provided, patients would become “numbers,” rather than “patients.” In addition, for cost savings reasons, every bit of health information, including your own, will be analyzed, and stored by the Government. What are the consequences? If you’re a senior citizen and need a knee replacement at the age of 70, the government may determine that you’re to old and it’s not worth the investment cost, therefore instead of surgery, you may be given medication for the rest of your life at a substantial cost savings to the government, and at a high quality of life price to you.Solutions:Fixing the current U.S. health care system might require that we;1. Encourage prevention and early diagnosis of chronic conditions and management.
2. Completely reform existing government are programs, including Medicare and Medicaid.
3. Forgive medical school debt for those willing to practice primary care in under-served areas.
4. Improve access to care, provide small businesses and the self-employed with tax credits, not penalties for providing health care.
5. Encourage innovation in medical records management to reduce costs.
6. Require tort reform in medical malpractice judgments to lower the cost of providing care.
7. Keep what isn’t broken-research shows 80% of Americans are happy with their current insurance, therefore, why completely dismantle it?
8. Reimburse physicians for their services.
9. Innovate a system in which Medicare fraud is dramatically decreased.Devil In the Details Socialized medicine means:1. Loss of private practice options, reduced pay for physicians, overwhelming numbers of patients, and increasing burn-out may reduce the number of doctors pursuing the profession.2. Patient confidentiality will need to be compromised, since centralized health information will be maintained by the government and it’s databases.3. Healthy people who take care of themselves will pay for the burden of those with unhealthy lifestyles, such as those who smoke, are obese, etc.4. Patients lose the incentive to stay healthy or aren’t likely to take efforts to curb their prescription drug costs because health care is free and the system can easily be abused.5. The U.S. Government will need to call the shots about important health decisions dictating what procedures are best for you, rather than those decisions being made by your doctor(s), which will result in poor individualized patient care.6. Tax rates will rise substantially-universal health care is not free since citizens are required to pay for it in the form of taxes.7. Your freedom of choice will be restricted as to which doctor is best for you and your family.8. Like all public programs, government bureaucracy, even in the form of health care, does not promote healthy competition that reduces costs based on demand. What’s more, accountability is limited to the budgetary resources available to police such a system.9. Medicare is subsidized by private insurers to the tune of billions of dollars, therefore if you take them out of the equation, add a trillion dollars or more to the current trillion dollar-plus cost estimates.10. Currently, the government loses an estimated $ 30 billion a year due to Medicare fraud. Therefore, what makes anyone think that this same government will be able to run & operate a universal health care system that is resistant to fraud and save money while doing so?.