Securing Your Digital Life

NewsUSA) – Photos, documents and written communication have all gone digital, largely to everyone’s benefit. Digital documents are quicker to send and need less storage space than physical files. But a paperless world comes with its own problems.
When a system crashes or a computer breaks, important e-mails, documents and photographs can be destroyed. According to the FBI, one laptop is stolen every 53 seconds, leaving computer owners without their family photographs or financial files. Thirty-one percent of PC users have lost all of their files through no fault of their own. Every 15 seconds, another hard drive crashes. Yet, despite these looming threats, an Interactive Data Corporation report shows that only 1.3 percent of consumers currently use some type of data backup.
With the increased use of laptops, more computer users are beginning to realize they cannot afford to leave their personal and professional digital files unprotected. With the advancement of the online data-storage industry -; which is expected to become a $715 million market by 2011 -; data protection has become more affordable and user-friendly.

Thinking About Retirement and Social Security? It Pays to Wait

(NewsUSA) – Waiting to take Social Security retirement benefits can increase your monthly benefit as much as 76 percent, according to a new toolkit, “When to Take Social Security: It Pays to Wait,” released by the nonpartisan National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI).
The toolkit includes a three-minute video, a one-page fact sheet and a 16-page brief to educate workers nearing retirement about the advantages of delaying their Social Security benefits beyond age 62, if they can.
Key messages for older workers include: (1) If you need Social Security to make ends meet, take it — you’ve earned it. (2) But if you can wait, even a year or two, your monthly benefit will be higher — for the rest of your life. (3) If you are married, you have two lives to plan for. If you are the higher earner, waiting to take Social Security means a higher survivor benefit for your spouse if she or he outlives you.

Growing Investment Opportunities In Green — and Blue — Technologies

(NewsUSA) – As an investor, you’ve probably heard companies use the phrase “going green” too many times to count — but have you heard of “going blue”?
“Tighter environmental regulations have expanded the market for companies that encompass not only the use of ‘green’ technology, but ‘blue’ — or clean water — technology,” says Alan Murphy, president of STW Resources, a Texas-based water reclamation systems integration company.
Now, environmentally conscious companies, like STW Resources (OTCQB: STWS), are positioning themselves to be potentially lucrative for investors.
“At STW Resources, we strive to compliment our [water] reclamation services with proven environmentally friendly tech,” says Murphy. “And, because of the way we have structured our business model, we can provide customers with the option to reclaim water without a large capital outlay.”
STW designs, builds, owns and operates, and then charges the customer by the barrel or per one thousand gallons. If the water quality doesn’t meet the required specifications that the customer desires, they don’t pay for the service.

New Study Highlights Retirement Savings Shortfall for All Generations

The acronym RPM once meant more to biking and car fanatics than it did to retirees, but now it’s also shorthand for “Retirement Preparedness Measure.” These days, it’s the absolute latest way to gauge whether your golden years are more likely to resemble a scene from “The Great Gatsby” or “Les Miserables.”
This new measure from Fidelity Investments (www.fidelity.com) shows how close Americans are (or not) to meeting their post-retirement expenses and compares how Baby Boomers, Gen Xers and Gen Yers stack up to one another.
(Cue the drumroll.)
“The median [RPM] score indicates working Americans are on track to meet just 74 percent of their estimated retirement expense goals [including housing, food and health care], and face a 26 percent income gap,” says John Sweeney, Fidelity’s executive vice president of retirement and investment.
That’s the median—also considered “America’s RPM”—and it rates a “yellow,” for “fair” on the color-coded retirement preparedness spectrum.
 The full breakdown listed below is based on data from Fidelity’s much-anticipated 2013 Retirement Savings Assessment survey, which notes that 55 percent of households ranked only “fair” or “poor”:

Pinching Penny Stocks May Be the Wise Way to Invest

(NewsUSA) – With stock market gains moving at a snail’s pace over the past decade, some experts have their sights set on the not-so-new darling of the trading world — penny stocks.
Generally described by the Securities Exchange Commission as stocks that trade for less than $5, penny stock trading is not for the faint of heart and can be a risky proposition. There is potential, however, for a higher return on your investment — in layman’s terms, you could get a better bang for your buck.
As risky as it may be, the very reason that investors are flocking to the penny stock market is its potential higher growth. Look at it this way: Because penny stocks are prone to rapid changes, those who invest might just luck out with a stock that will jump from 10 cents to $10.
In a world, where IBM stock is trading above $180 a share, that same investor could afford about 1,000 shares of a stock such as The Movie Studio, Inc. (MVES), a fast-paced, diversified, full-service movie studio (www.TheMovieStudio.net), at .8 cent or Global Fashion Technology Group, Inc.,