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Teaching kids how to save is a valuable first step toward learning how to manage money. But it shouldn't stop there. While savings accounts are a safe bet and an easy concept to grasp, the real earning power comes from investing their hard-earned cash.

That's because kids possess a very powerful gift: time. The earlier your child starts investing his or her money, the greater the rewards are later. That's due to the magic of compounding, wherein the gains continue to grow, because each year money is made from the previous year's profits.

For instance, if $100 is invested in the S&P 500 and it gains 10% in a year, that holding will be worth $110 by year's end. After another year and another 10% gain, it's worth $121. After a third year it's $133.

According to CNBC's "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer, with that 10% average annual return, an investor can double his money in about seven years.

Kids will surprise you with how much they will understand. ... If you start with very simple things like relating it to products or services they use, you can explain the high-level concept of investing to most kids.

Tim Sheehan

co-founder and CEO of Greenlight

"The magic of compounding works best the younger you are, because that means you have more time for your money to grow," he told CNBC viewers on his show.

But can kids really grasp the concepts of investing?

Tim Sheehan, co-founder and CEO of Greenlight, the teen-focused digital banking company that provides parent-managed debit cards for kids, says they absolutely can. "Kids will surprise you with how much they will understand and how much they can do," he said. "If you start with very simple things like relating it to products or services they use, you can explain the high-level concept of investing to most kids."

Greenlight's approach to teaching kids money-management skills is working: To date more than 700,000 users have signed up with its app-based service, which provides customers three accounts in one: a spending account, savings account and giving account so kids can donate to a charity. Now the company is about to launch its investment account feature, encouraging kids as early as 10 years of age to research and invest in stocks with parental supervision.

Greenlight will soon release a built-in investing feature to its teen-focused digital banking app. To date more than 700,000 families use its app-based service, which provides customers a spending account, savings account and giving account so kids can donate to a charity.

Greenlight

"I think teens are interested in learning. They don't want it to be something they read from a book. If they can learn by doing, they will adopt it and they will actually learn the key things you want them to learn," said Sheehan.

"To build true wealth, you do that through investing," he said. "You don't really build wealth with a savings account. The earlier you begin to teach and prepare your kids, the more time they have to learn, ask questions and make mistakes in a safe and supervised way. And if you learn to do it properly and do it well," he said, "it can make life easier."

Greenlight is not the first kid-focused financial platform aiming to help parents introduce their kids to investing. In 2017 BusyKid partnered with Stockpile to become the very first chore/allowance platform that allows kids to use their allowance to purchase real stock. Today 45,000 kids are using the platform.

"We target kids 5 to 15," says BusyKid co-founder and CEO Gregg Murset. "That decade is the most crucial to teach kids and lay a good foundation for them. After teaching your kids not to lie and cheat, money skills are the best things we can give them, because this sets them up for a better future."

Murset is a certified financial planner and leading advocate for sound parenting, child accountability and financial literacy. As a father of six, he points to the strides his two teen sons are making in the world of stocks thus far. "One of my sons bought Disney stock because he likes Disney movies; the other bought Ford because he likes pickup trucks. They both know exactly what they are trading at, exactly what they bought it at, they both know what their gain is or loss is, and they like to rub it in each other's faces, which I think is fantastic. If you can start it at an early age, you really just start something growing within them that'll lend to a lot of good decision-making in the future.

"Imagine what they are going to do if they have some experience in stocks and investing in their teen years and they get their first job and get offered a 401(k) and have investment options and even a company match. They'll know what it's about. Imagine the impact that has 40 years down the road when they go to retire. Huge," said Murset.

He cautions, however, that pushing your child to invest in something they aren't passionate about is "a waste of time. I let them invest in small increments in something they care about or they think is cool."

Here are some additional tips from Greenlight's Sheehan.

1. Explore investing as a family to teach the keys to long-term wealth. Work with kids to pick stocks of companies whose products and services they understand and use. Encourage them to research the companies to understand what they do. Together, look at their performance now and discuss how it might change in the future.

2. Teach them that investing is about the long term. Encourage kids to invest only money that they don't need in the short term, because most successful investors take a "buy and hold" approach to investing. Share stories and books about successful long-term investors like Warren Buffett and Peter Lynch.

3. Start small and learn from mistakes. Show kids the power of investing with a small sum of money so they can make mistakes and learn from them without it costing a large amount. Some investing resources allow you to invest in fractional shares, lowering the risk and barrier to entry

4. Invest in something you care about. Encourage kids to invest their money in something they care about, as they will be more interested in following their investments and watching their money grow. You can also explain that many people invest in index ETFs and "index mutual funds which invest in all of the companies included in a specific index, like the S&P 500.

5. Make it a habit. When kids earn or receive money whether from gifts, allowance or chores encourage them to invest a portion of it, because it will help them build the healthy financial habit of saving and investing.

"We need to change the mindset of this next generation. Student loan debt is at an all time high, consumer debt is at an all-time high, national debt is at an all-time high. I think we really need to change the way we do this with the next generation or we're in big trouble," said BusyKid's Murset.

Sheehan agrees: "Raising a financially smart generation can lead to a healthier generation one with less financial stressors which allows everyone to reach their full potential. Imagine what that world would be like."

More from Invest in You:How to financially prepare your family for the worst-case scenario How to save a cool $1,000 without living on ramen or giving up caffeineThe secret to multiplying your savings

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Disclosure: NBCUniversal and Comcast Ventures are investors in Acorns.

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It's not just about saving. Teach your teen to invest now to set them up for a financially healthy life - CNBC

20 years ago, scientists for Celera Genomicsand the Human Genome Project sequenced the human genome. To accomplish this task, 30,000 genes were sequenced. It was a very big deal, and it opened the door to a new wave of biotech gene therapies.

Fast forward to today, Seattle-based companyAdaptive Biotechnologies(NASDAQ:ADPT)is sequencing the human immune system. This is far more difficult than mapping the human genome. Forget 30,000 -- your immune system houses 100 million genes. And on top of that, the company is mapping more than 30 billion immune receptors. (Adaptive has data rights to 20 billion of those receptors.)

All of this genetic sequencing requires massive amounts of computational power, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning. And that's whereMicrosoft(NASDAQ:MSFT) comes in.

Image source: Getty Images.

In 2017, Microsoft and Adaptive signed a collaboration agreement. The companies are uniting to create a universal blood test that will allow doctors to read your immune system and find out what diseases your body is fighting. If you have cancer, for instance, your body is aware of the threat and your immune system is fighting the cancer cells. The idea is to have a blood test that allows doctors to hack into a person's immune system and find out what it knows. This will enable doctors to diagnose diseases early before symptoms develop. This early diagnosis would enable doctors to prescribe medicines that boost the immune system and cure the disease.

Adaptive calls this technology immunoSEQ Dx. Once Adaptive has mapped the immune characteristics of several diseases, it will be possible to look at an individual's immune system and determine what, if any, diseases the person's immune system is currently fighting. The idea is that your doctor can take a blood sample and screen for infectious diseases, autoimmune disorders, and cancer. CEO Chad Robins is forecasting the arrival of the universal blood test in six to eight years.

As part of the collaboration agreement, Microsoft invested $45 million in thebiotechstart-up.At a recent price of $30 a share, Microsoft's investment in Adaptive is now worth about $135 million. But Microsoft is doing more than just providing financing and equipment to Adaptive -- the software giant has also provided people. A joint team of about 50 employees built the AI from scratch. Co-founders Chad and Harlan Robins led the team from Adaptive; Jonathan Carlson, senior director of immunomics at Microsoft, and Desney Tan, the general manager of Microsoft Healthcare, headed up the software side. Speaking at a Geekwire summit, Tan said, "We really integrated ourselves as a single team. We've got offices in each other's facilities."

While the immunoSEQ Dx project with Microsoft might be the most exciting work Adaptive is doing, it's several years away. In the meantime, the AI engine is already producing diagnostic kits for the market. Using Adaptive's clonoSEQ technology, doctors can now test for minimal residual disease (MRD) in blood cancers. The Food and Drug Administration has already cleared clonoSEQ for a blood cancer called multiple myeloma and acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The company is submitting clonoSEQ to the FDA for chronic lymphoblastic leukemia as well.

Adaptive is also using immunoSEQ to create a diagnostic kit for research labs and biotech companies. According to Adaptive, more than 2,000 academic researchers are now using its technology. More than 125 biotech companies are using immunoSEQ, and this technology has facilitated 480 clinical trials.These revenue streams brought in $26 million in the third quarter, up 52% year over year.The company is estimating $85 million in revenues for the full year.

Adaptive also received $300 million in cash fromGenentech, a subsidiary ofRoche(OTC:RHHBY), last year. Genentech wants to use Adaptive's technology as the foundation of a new treatment paradigm for cancer. The idea is to tailor an individualized treatment for each patient based on what's discovered via the patient's immune system. The Roche deal could be worth over $2 billion to Adaptive if certain commercial milestones are hit.The alliance with Microsoft and the massive Genentech deal are a real validation of the underlying science.

In 2020, Adaptive plans to submit the first immunoSEQ diagnostic kits to the FDA for review. While the "universal blood test" is several years away, Adaptive will add indications one at a time. The company is starting with Lyme disease, celiac disease, and ovarian cancer.

As Tan said, "These guys are going to change the world, and we're thrilled to be a part of it."

View original post here:
Why Is Microsoft Investing in Adaptive Biotechnologies? - The Motley Fool

Close to $10 billion was invested in privacy and security companies in 2019, an all-time high in the last decade up more than five-fold from $1.7 billion in 2010.

Seed and early-stage deals represent 44 percent of invested dollars ($4.4 billion) with Series C+ and larger rounds at 56 percent ($5.5 billion) of all dollars in 2019. The growth in funding year over year is attributable to Series C+ and larger rounds adding $1 billion.

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Some of the largest rounds in 2019 include:

Year-over-year deal counts are down by a quarter, but will lessen over time. Much of the difference in funding round counts are attributed to the seed stagedown 40 percentwhere we see the most reporting delays. We fully expect these numbers to go up during 2020, but not supersede 2018 round counts of 1,100. Reporting delays for funding amounts are less pronounced in Crunchbase data.

In our analysis over the last five years we found the five top countries for privacy and security investments include the United States, China, Israel, Great Britain and Canada in that order. For 2019, Israel jumps to the second spot after the U.S.

There were 85 venture backed privacy and security companies acquired in 2019 exiting at $4.8 billion. The largest exits of 2019 include Shape Security, a company providing defense against malicious attacks, which was acquired by F5 Networks for $1 billion. And Recorded Future a threat intelligence firm was acquired by Insight Partners for $780 million. The most active acquirers are Palo Alto Networks with five acquisitions and Akamai Technologies with three. Cisco, Fortinet, Mastercard, Microsoft, Proofpoint and VMWare all acquired two companies in this space.

Six venture-backed companies in privacy and security went public in 2019. They include California-based CrowdStrike, Cloudflare and Fastly. Also included are Denver-based Ping Identity, Boston-based Tufin and Mumbai-based Affle.

Leading investors in security companies include established venture firms Bessemer Venture Partners, Accel, Battery Ventures, LightSpeed Venture Partners, Vertex Ventures, CRV, Kleiner Perkins, Norwest Venture Partners and Scale Venture Partners. Growth-stage investors include Insight Partners, Goldman Sachs and ClearSky. Corporate investors are also active in this category with Bain Capital Ventures, Dell Technologies Capital, Intel Capital and Salesforce Ventures. TenEleven Ventures and ForgePoint Capital are uniquely placed as firms specifically focused on cyber security investments.

Crunchbase will be at RSA 2020. You can find us at How-To For Innovators on Feb. 24, 2020.

Based on Crunchbase data, companies exhibiting at RSA 2020 have collectively raised $3.8 billion in 2019.

Analysis is based on data in Crunchbase as of Jan. 28, 2020. For this report we look at reportednot projecteddata, which means that 2019 numbers will increase over time, relative to previous years.

Privacy and Security include the following categories: Cloud Security, Corrections Facilities, Cyber Security, DRM, E-Signature, Fraud Detection, Homeland Security, Identity Management, Intrusion Detection, Law Enforcement, Network Security, Penetration Testing, Physical Security, Privacy, Security

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. Crunchbase converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date of funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events as reported. Even if those events were added to Crunchbase long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

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Almost $10B Invested In Privacy And Security Companies In 2019 - Crunchbase News

Theres a new interest and urgency in infrastructure investing due to shifts in energy sources, climate change, and catching up on years of underinvestment across the globe.

Alina Osorio, president and CEO of Fiera Infrastructure, a leading investor in infrastructure based in Toronto, says that as an industry, infrastructure continues to grow due to this spending gap.

The McKinsey Global Institute has estimated that between 2016 and 2030 the investment in global infrastructure projectslike energy, telecom, transportation, and water systemsneeded just to support anticipated growth rates is about US$3.3 trillion a year.

Whats happening for one of the first times in my career is that were seeing this convergence of the supply sidethe underinvestment recognitionand more and more projects coming to the market for private capital, Osorio says.

Infrastructure spending is a key element of Democratic presidential campaigns, including US$1 trillion proposals from Michael Bloomberg and Pete Buttigieg; President Trump once pledged a similar investment, though it hasnt come to pass.

Osorio says the conversation is global and that a number of developed and developing economies have attractive long-term investment opportunities. India, for example, has a five-year, US$1.5 trillion plan for infrastructure spending where private companies will make up about 25% of investments.

Investing in the U.S. Market

In the U.S. market, Osorio says energy is an attractive area in which to invest.

Were always considering that very important subsector, but we look for investments out of pure energy that really help diversify your holdings, she says, like renewables.

Fieras focus, she adds, is not your traditional energy in the sense of midstream and pipelines.

Osorios also hopeful the increasing demand for social infrastructure, such as hospitals, housing, and roads, means public-private partnership procurement models will continue to gain greater acceptance and attractiveness.

Telecom infrastructure, in particular fiber, is another area she has her eye on due to the increased need for data transmission and the deployment of 5G networks.

Because people need social assets for everyday use and due to their high correlation to an economys productivity, Osorio says they tend to be quite stable and predictable from a cash flow perspective and provide downside risk.

Infrastructure investments can even track and protect against inflation.

When you tend to put [infrastructure investments] through an asset liability study... it does spit out quite a suggested strong allocation for the asset class, she says.

Seek Unlisted Infrastructure

Osorio says its important for investors to specifically seek out alternative products that invest in pure play infrastructure, beyond traditional stock market opportunities.

For [higher net worth investors], I think it is important for them to seek access to private capital infrastructure, she says.

In some countries, these investments have been allowed and encouraged for many years.

Osorio advises this because she says private capital infrastructure investments are both close to the asset or projects and more directly managed to explicitly provide attractive returns for investors.

While she notes there are a number of utility stocks in the public markets, they tend to be large, vertically integrated companies that have a number of operations.

Unlisted infrastructure is less correlated with the public markets and provides more of the characteristics that make infrastructure allocation attractive for a diversified portfolio, she says.

Role of Regional Forces

Osorio says one of the challenges particular to infrastructure as an asset class is accounting for regional differences.

Its a very global asset class, but also important to note is that its subject to a lot of regional forces, Osorio says.

This is why she encourages diversifying not only among the asset class itself, but across different geographies to mitigate risk.

When investing in renewable energy, for instance, she says investors might hit a period where for a year or two, a resource like solar or wind power may be impacted due to climate change or weather patterns.

Regulated utilities are another challenge, she says, using the example of an unfavorable rate hearing that impacts an investments performance.

This is a fine balance which can swing in either direction, from time to time, she says, noting its a consistent challenge across all countries Fiera invests in.

By having a diversified portfolio, however, investors can offset challenges or risk in one area, with assets in other jurisdictions.

Mix Yield and Capital Appreciation

When Fiera puts portfolios together, Osorio says it looks beyond the assets and projects that constitute them at the mix of returns.

As an investor Id be seeking a balance between yield and capital appreciation, she says. Yield tends to come with stable, core investments which are probably on the lower-returning side but will give you nice cash yields.

On the flip side, she adds, Fiera invests in what they call Core Plus investments. These tend to be investments that have higher growth prospectsand therefore higher returnsbut require reinvesting the capital back into the business.

You tend to give up a little bit of yield, but then through portfolios, you can do a combination of both yield and capital appreciation, she says.

Roughly speaking, Osorio adds a good rule of thumb is targeting half of a portfolios expected returns from yield and half from capital appreciation on a blended basis.

See the article here:
Future Returns: How to Invest in Global Infrastructure - Barron's

Dear Readers,

I spent last week attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Across more than 15 separate conversations with top investors, executives, strategists, and thought leaders, a clear theme emerged. In fact, it can be boiled down to a single word: upskilling.

The concept is straightforward: as technology disrupts workplaces worldwide, companies are trying to find ways for existing employees to work in tandem with it. Many experts describe it as a solution that keeps companies from having to cut jobs.

To learn more, check out our exhaustive compilation of executive commentary on upskilling.

Another hot topic of discussion at Davos was the rise of India as the next global business superpower. We spoke to Rishi Kapoor, the co-CEO of InvestCorp, who laid out his highly compelling investment thesis around India and the specific areas he's targeting.

Other key discussions included the CEO and global markets chief at Barings telling us that they have no real fears of recession. They did, however, outline a scenario that would get their attention very quickly.

We also sat down with the ever-colorful Anthony Scaramucci, who shared his bullish thoughts on bitcoin, and explained why he's a lot more confident now that Trump will lose than he was just last week.

Going beyond our Davos musings, here's a rundown of some more recent coverage:

A real-estate investor who started buying properties with $0 down shares a little-known financing strategy that he's grown into a multi-million dollar portfolio

Gabriel Hamel, founder and CEO of Hamel Investments, started buying up real-estate investment properties using an unconventional method of financing. He says that this methodology can create a "win-win" scenario for both buyer and seller.

READ MORE HERE >>

GOLDMAN SACHS: Stocks that pay huge dividends are historically cheap. Here are the 12 poised to make the biggest payouts to investors through 2021.

David Kostin, chief US equity strategist for Goldman Sachs, says high-dividend stocks are a compelling opportunity because they're historically inexpensive compared to lower-dividend companies. In addition to being cheap relative to their expected earnings, Kostin says the stocks offer double the dividend growth.

READ MORE HERE >>

The world's most accurate economist breaks down 2 overlooked risks to markets right now and shares his top advice for investors

Christophe Barraud was recently ranked by Bloomberg as the most accurate forecaster of the US economy for an eighth straight year, and of the European economy for a fifth. He spoke with Business Insider about what he sees coming next.

READ MORE HERE >>

Other good stories from the investing realm:

The rest is here:
Investing Insider January 29: Davos themes, India investing, - Business Insider - Business Insider

(Reuters) - The worlds largest oil companies invested billions of dollars to boost crude production and their success has turned around and bit them and their shareholders.

FILE PHOTO: Pump jacks operate in front of a drilling rig in an oil field in Midland, Texas U.S. August 22, 2018. Picture taken August 22, 2018. REUTERS/Nick Oxford/File Photo

Oil majors Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N), Chevron Corp (CVX.N) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) all reported earnings on Thursday and Friday that showed key units significantly underperformed, particularly refining and chemicals. Investor discontent with weak returns, previously concentrated on smaller shale companies or oil services firms, has worked its way up to the majors.

In the last six months, the broad S&P 500 is up 10.4%, while Chevron shares have lost 8%, Shell is down 10%, and Exxon has lost 12%.

The worlds oil-and-gas giants have been hit by falling oil and natural gas prices, weaker margins in chemicals and refining due to sagging demand, and growing investor discontent with their response to a warming planet.

To keep investors onboard, oil majors are cutting costs and selling billions of dollars worth of assets around the world to focus on new developments and the most profitable businesses.

The global economic slowdown in recent months, amplified by the coronavirus outbreak, has further strained their income, pressuring stock performance.

This quarter is disappointing. These companies need to focus on cutting more cost, selling their most unproductive assets, and returning excess cash to shareholders, said Kevin Holt, Houston-based manager of Invescos Comstock Fund, which has about $20 billion under management. They have to do a better job.

On Friday Exxon said quarterly profit fell 5% and Chevron reported a $6.6 billion loss on a $10 billion impairment charge. On Thursday, Shell said fourth-quarter profits were cut in half, and its shares fell to near a three-year low.

Booming output in the United States and other places such as Brazil has sharply boosted world crude production in the last few years. The shale boom has pushed U.S. output alone past 13 million barrels per day, with natural gas output also at a record and poised to keep growing.

The lower profits and weaker cash generation follow years of deep cost cuts and asset sales following the 2014 oil price crash which led to a strong recovery and boards committing to boost shareholder returns.

But weak oil prices have left many companies out of pocket. Shell this week slowed the pace of share buybacks as its debt ballooned. Exxon and Chevron responded to the shale boom by laying out ambitious spending plans, and all three have run into a global chemicals glut, the effects of the U.S-China trade war, and weakening margins in fuels.

The pain has been felt most in the chemical segment, where companies have invested heavily in recent years, betting on growing Asian demand.

Shell reported a 65% drop in chemical earnings in 2019 from a year earlier, while oil product sales declined by 3%. Exxons chemicals division saw an 81% decline in earnings in 2019.

Chemicals demand in some cases is actually disappearing, Shell CEO Ben van Beurden said on Thursday. Asia is the toughest because that is where the demand destruction is mostly.

(GRAPHICS: Exxon vs. Shell in 2019: here)

Shell, which sold over $30 billion of assets between 2015 and 2018 to pay for the acquisition of BG Group, aims to sell an additional $10 billion in 2019 and 2020.

Van Beurden said the Anglo-Dutch company is currently marketing around $13 billion of assets around the world.

Exxon, which is investing heavily in ramping up production in the Permian and in Guyana, has launched a $25 billion divestment program.

Reporting By Ron Bousso and Jennifer Hiller; additional reporting by Jessica Resnick Ault; editing by David Gaffen and David Gregorio

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Investing to boost crude output rewards oil majors with glut, slim profits - Reuters

The plan to open a French restaurant and bakery in the spring is only the tip of a very big iceberg when it comes to David Meuniers investments in Aiken and the surrounding area.

A former race car driver in Europe, Meunier was born in France and raised in Switzerland.

He is a polo enthusiast who has his own team, La Bourgogne, and two strings of ponies.

Meunier, 54, also flies his own helicopter.

Last year, he began buying properties here after visiting for the first time in May and then returning to take another look around in October.

I am a real estate developer, said Meunier during a recent lunch interview at The Willcox. You cant play polo all the time because some of the horses, they get injured, the players get injured and the weather is not good sometimes. And me, Im a workaholic. I cannot not do anything. I have to do something, so everywhere I go play polo, I buy property, and when Im not playing polo, I take care of the property.

Moving forward, Meunier wants to spend the spring and fall in Aiken, the winter in Florida and the summer in upstate New York because of the polo seasons schedule.

Today, I have maybe 250 properties in all, Meunier said.

And he wants to buy even more, especially in this part of South Carolina.

I really fell in love with Aiken, said Meunier, who is married and has five children. I like that its a horse town. I like the character of the buildings. I like history. I like the train that when it goes through town, you can hear the horn. And there are these little streets that have clay on them. Its lovely. It reminds me of Chantilly, which is in France.

Meunier purchased the building in Aiken for the French bakery and restaurant, which will be called La Parisienne, for $200,000. Formerly the home of such eateries as Olive Oils and Swamp Fox, it is on Chesterfield Street South.

There are not that many restaurants downtown, and we realized that there is nothing French around here, Meunier said. When I saw this little place, I immediately pictured a French bakery there.

His friends from Florida, restaurateurs Jean and Myriam Dandonneau, will run La Parisienne. They also will be Meuniers partners in the ownership of the business, but not the building.

La Parisienne will serve quiches, waffles, dessert crepes, fresh pastries, salads and sandwiches such as the croque madame and croque monsieur.

On another real estate investment front, Meunier bought 91.7 acres on Coleman Bridge Road near Wagener for $500,000 from Thomas J. Biddle and began a push to acquire other land nearby to develop a polo center.

Meunier might divide part of the property into 10-acre tracts to sell to others, and they would have access to two polo fields, a stick and ball area, and an exercise track.

If I can get enough land, I will do a third polo field, Meunier said.

To maintain those fields, he will bring Argentinas Alejandro Battro as a consultant.

He is what we call the pope of the polo fields, Meunier said. He is the best ever, and I will follow all of his recommendations.

Eventually, Meunier would like to hold a major polo event at the center.

But not until I am confident that my fields are ready and in good playing shape and I can get something properly with the VIP service, he said. What I want to do is have a $100,000, six-goal tournament with six-chukker games. And I really want to have (teams made up of) two amateurs and two pros. I dont want three pros and one amateur.

There also will be a big party.

Not a party, as in wild, Meunier said, but something with some camaraderie. I like to bring some social flare into polo. We all play and then, boom, everybody goes home. There is not enough what do you call it? mingling together, which, you know, is nice.

Also part of Meuniers real estate investment strategy for Aiken is the purchase of properties in what he describes as challenged neighborhoods.

I started looking in low-income areas, and then I started buying, he said. I think I closed on about 19 properties (to begin with) in Crosland Park, New Ellenton and Barnwell County. My goal is to have 50 rental properties here by the end of this year.

Urban revitalization is one of Meuniers specialties. Elsewhere in this country, he has renovated residences and other structures some of which have been condemned in a variety of challenged districts, including Miamis Overtown and Wynwood neighborhoods.

I have the reputation of converting an eyesore into an asset, he said. The houses, when the people move in, are houses that I would move into. I make them up to my standard, but I dont have a crazy standard. I have lunch with my groom, and then I have dinner with the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, it makes no difference to me. I am comfortable.

Unlike many landlords, Meunier welcomes Section 8 tenants, who receive government rent subsidies, to his properties.

I like to deal with them because I like to give them the opportunity for decent housing at a price they can afford, Meunier said. I like to help veterans in the VASH (HUD-VASH) program that are homeless. I deal with a lot of other agencies that help battered women and people with diseases like AIDS.

In a 2004 bizjournals.com story by Ed Duggan about Meuniers rehabilitation efforts in Miamis Overtown district, Miami Police Capt. Bernard Johnson said, David Meunier has been extremely cooperative and has brought forth safety, as well as improving life in the community.

Meunier also makes enough money with the property he upgrades to enjoy a lifestyle that includes the pursuit of an expensive equestrian sport, his helicopter, and all sorts of roadway vehicles that provide him with a mobile office and also transport for his horses and polo-related equipment.

"Once it takes me two months of rent to pay the property tax (on a house), I usually sell," Meunier said. "Sometimes I buy houses just because my guys have nothing to do because everything is up and running. We buy a house, we fix it up and we sell it. My guys keep busy all the time."

View original post here:
Meunier on the move: Real estate developer investing enthusiastically in Aiken - Aiken Standard

One of my great frustrations being a school board member here in Manchester is our financial inability to keep up with the overwhelming needs of our students. Although the local taxpayer has taken on much of the burden in the past few years we receive fewer and fewer dollars from the state and federal government and yet every year have more unfunded mandates handed down.

A lot of people dont realize this but about one in four Americans in this country are disabled. Most of us have family, friends, or neighbors with disabilities.

What drew me to Andrew Yang wasnt that he understood the barriers children and people with disabilities face, because he has a son with autism. It was when, on the debate stage in December, he said We need to stop confusing economic value with human value. We have to be able to say to our kids that you have intrinsic value because youre an American and youre a human being.

The Freedom Dividend will go a long way to helping families of children with disabilities. But Andrew Yang proposes to go further. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a federal law that requires schools to provide students with disabilities the services and support they need. It promises to cover 40% of all costs for children with disabilities in public schools. Yet, to date Congress has covered less than 15% of the funds they promised.

Andrew Yang would not only demand Congress live up to its pledge to provide $20 billion in funds but would expand IDEA funding by $50 billion to meet 100% of funding requirements for children with disabilities in public schools, to promote inclusion and integration. This would free up local tax dollars we currently provide to cover IDEA requirements and would be a game changer for ALL Manchester school children.

If we want to ensure all our children grow up to become adults that are integrated into our communities and workforce, then we need to give them all the tools and support they need early on. Theres no point in beating around the bush. 100% IDEA funding and providing incentives for educators in special education and training for daycares are the solutions needed.

Im with Andrew Yang its time we invest in all of our people, especially our children.

Leslie Want represents Manchesters W ard 4 on the Board of School Committee.

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Leslie Want: Andrew Yang will invest in children - The Union Leader

Bridgewater Associates, L.P. Co-Chief Investment Officer & Co-Chairman Ray Dalio recently published a post on LinkedIn explaining his early thinking on the coronavirus outbreak and pandemics in general. Dalio acknowledged that he does know much about pandemics nor does he know where it will spread or what the economic impacts will be. But in response to the coronavirus, Dalio decided to follow his usual approach by studying a bunch of pandemics and make sure that the firms portfolios are either well diversified or hedged so that there are no inadvertent big bets that we dont have a good likelihood of betting on well.

As for the spreading of this virus, as with any sort of unknown, there are 1) actual events and 2) the expectations of events that get reflected in market pricing. Generally speaking these once-in-a-lifetime big bad things initially are under-worried about and continue to progress until they become over-worried about, until the fundamentals for the reversal happen (e.g., the virus switches from accelerating to diminishing). So we want to pay attention to whats actually happening, what people believe is happening that is reflected in pricing (relative to whats likely), and what indicators that will indicate the reversal, wrote Dalio. Regarding diversification to protect us against the unknowns, the outbreak of the coronavirus and its effect on markets highlight its importance. Chinas stock market is down nearly 10% since the virus took off. Terrible, unimaginable things could happen anywhere. What we dont know is much greater than what we do know. When you dont know, the best investment strategy is to be smartly diversified across geographic locations, across asset classes, and across currencies.

During the SARS outbreak, the stock market in Hong Kong declined and reversed as the number of cases started slowing down and declined. This is likely to happen again in the case of the coronavirus outbreak.

In the past several days, the markets saw falling growth and flight-to-quality market action (equities decline). And bonds, gold, and the dollar versus the yuan rallied. This is similar to what happened to the H1N1 flu (swine flu) pandemic of 2009 and the SARS virus outbreak of 2003.

So far, Chinas response is much more transparent and decisive compared to the SARS outbreak, which affects both the statistical comparison and the rate of dealing with the problem. Because the Chinese government reported the disease faster to the WHO, it imposed quarantine and other prevention measures earlier. The WHO has praised Chinas swift response because of its beneficial effects on containment, Dalio pointed out.

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Ray Dalio: How The Coronavirus Outbreak Is Affecting His Investment Strategy - Pulse 2.0

By Matthew Lee The Associated Press

Posted February 2, 2020 10:19 am

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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday pressed Kazakhstan to be wary of Chinese investment and influence, urging the Central Asian nation and others to join calls demanding an end to Chinas repression of minorities.

Bringing a message similar to the one he has delivered repeatedly to other countries, Pompeo told Kazakh officials that the attractiveness of Chinese investment comes with a cost to sovereignty and may hurt, instead of help, the countrys long-term development.

We fully support Kazakhstans freedom to choose to do business with whichever country it wants, but I am confident that countries get the best outcomes when they partner with American companies, he said. You get fair deals. You get job creation. You get transparency in contracts. You get companies that care about the environment and you get an unsurpassed commitment to quality work.

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Pompeo was expected to make the same case in Uzbekistan, where he arrived late Sunday and went immediately into a meeting with religious leaders to discuss religious freedom. He planned to meet on Monday with Uzbek officials and hold security talks with the foreign ministers of the five Central Asian nations

Pompeo began his brief visit to Kazakhstan by meeting with ethnic Kazakhs whose families have gone missing or been detained in Chinas widespread crackdown on Muslims and other ethnic and religious minorities in its western Xinjiang region.

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The protection of basic human rights defines the soul of a nation, he said, thanking Kazakhstan for taking in those fleeing persecution. The United States urges all countries to join us in pressing for immediate end to this repression. We ask simply for them to provide safe refuge and asylum for those seeking to flee China. To protect dignity, just do whats right.

Pompeo also congratulated Kazakhstan on its repatriation of Islamic State fighters from Iraq and Syria. Kazakhstan has taken back nearly 600 fighters and family members detained in areas formerly controlled by the group.

I have and will continue to commend the Kazakhstani government for its leadership in repatriating foreign terrorists fighters and their families from Iraq and Syria, he said.

I hope this commitment to justice will inspire other nations to do the same.

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Kazakhstan has come under some criticism for pressuring an activist who had campaigned for the release of ethnic Kazakhs in China. Threatened with a long prison sentence, the man signed an admission of guilt for inciting ethnic tensions.

Pompeo also urged Kazkh officials to continue reforms that would allow greater U.S. investment and said the two nations were discussion the possibility of opening direct passenger flights between the countries.

At a news conference with Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tleuberdi, Pompeo praised Kazakhstan for its efforts to counter the spread of a new virus from China.

He said the United States is helping the country with expertise from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and providing laboratory equipment.

Kazakhstans quick action to stop the spread of the virus has been incredibly impressive, he said.

Kazakhstan is among the growing list of countries that have suspended travel links with China.

2020 The Canadian Press

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Pompeo warns Kazakhstan to be wary of Chinese investment, influence - Global News