Greetings!
Sears, the original "everything" store, and a store that may have once been near and dear to your heart, has filed for bankruptcy this week.
The company is said to close 142 unprofitable stores, but hopes to keep operating through the holidays. They also hope to turn their business model around to rebuild with the future in mind.
Although Sears lost its competitive edge long ago, its bankruptcy filing is still a significant moment for its industry. No other large retailer has endured as long or played as important a role in American life as Sears.
So what happened to Sears?
The company started out selling watches to railroad agents in 1886 and soon expanded into a vast mail order business that sold clothing, tools, shoes, and even build your own home products, through catalogs that ran as long as 1,000 pages.
Sears Roebuck was, in many ways, an early version of Amazon. It used the Postal Service to reach the most remote parts of a growing nation and sorted and shipped products from a three million-square-foot warehouse in Chicago.
After World War II, Sears stores served the needs of the country’s expanding middle class. Families came to have their childrens’ portraits taken, to get their tires rotated and oil changed, and to buy Kenmore refrigerators.
Through the 1960s and 1970s, Sears shared its success with employees at all levels of its corporate hierarchy. Cashiers, janitors and executives all took part in profit-sharing and received options in the company’s soaring stock.
As many as 100,000 retired Sears employees still receive pensions, which are expected to emerge largely unscathed in the bankruptcy. As the company was bleeding cash and selling off assets in recent years, federal regulators required cash to still be injected into the pension plan. Other benefits for retirees like life insurance, however, could be in danger.
There came a time when Sears stopped keeping up with the new age trends. It never updated its branding, it never endorsed or partnered with any public figures, and it simply lost connection with its customers. The whole shopping experience was underwhelming...leading to where they are today.
Hopefully, they can somehow come out of this on a high note, and the store that was once so loved will continue with a new revelation.
As always, it's a pleasure to serve your family.
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Tales of Common Retirement Mistakes
Everyone loves a good, scary movie. But, the truth is, real dangers are much scarier, especially when it comes to your finances. Unlike an actor in a horror film, you're going to have to face these dangers some time. Download this special report and face the tale of the phantom pain, the tale of the disappearing money and the tale of the forgotten past head on.
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After this week's volatility in the market, should I move all of my money to cash before it gets worse or should I just hold on for the long run?
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What are some of the most hated money rules you have but should be following anyway?
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Take a Walk to Get Healthy
"But the beauty is in the walking - we are betrayed by destinations." Gwyn Thomas, an ailing Welsh writer, may not have himself walked that much in his lifetime, but you get the idea.
Scholars, for centuries, have raved about walking's benefits: physical, intellectual, and even philosophical. Some health care experts even assert that walking is superior to running; you avoid the potential for heel and joint injuries with low-impact walking.
The litany of walking's benefits is long:
- Walking lowers your body mass index. According to one study, those who walked 1,500 steps a day tended to fall in the normal, healthy BMI range.
- One study showed regular walking led to a 7% reduced risk for high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
- Regular walking leads to a 12% lower risk of type 2 diabetes, according to the same study.
- You're going to stay focused and have a better memory, according to a Japanese study on walking by older adults.
- You're going to have less stress and be in a better mood.
- Walking will help you live longer. Several studies showed that people who walked about three hours a week had an 11% reduced risk of premature death compared to their sedentary neighbors.
The deep thinkers are correct: Walking is good. But how do you get more "steps" into your busy routine?
Here are five tips from exercise researchers:
- Walk, walk, walk. Walk as much as you can.
- Pick up the pace. Brisk walking provides greater benefits.
- Break it up. You don't have to do all your walking at once. You can take many short walks throughout your day.
- Do intervals. That's short walking sprints. Experts say that's the best way to reduce waist size.
- Up, up, and away. Walk uphill. You get double the benefit.
Tip adapted from Consumer Reports
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Pumpkin Bread
Yields: 10-12
Ingredients:
- 1¾ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ cup unsalted butter, chopped
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup canned pure pumpkin
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Cover an 8½ x 4½-inch loaf pan with a light coat of grease.
- Lay parchment in the bottom of the pan. Leave at least 1 inch overhanging on both of the longer sides.
- Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, and salt together in a large bowl.
- Put butter in a second bowl and microwave it for 1 minute to melt.
- Add sugar, pumpkin, eggs, milk, and vanilla in the bowl with the butter. Whisk it all together. Then add and mix the flour mixture from the first bowl.
- Pour that mixture into the loaf pan and bake, 45-50 minutes. Test to see if the bread is done by sticking a wooden toothpick into its center. If the toothpick comes out clean, it's ready.
- Let the pan cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes.
- Use the overhanging parchment paper to remove the bread from the pan to allow it to cool completely.
Recipe adapted from Good Housekeeping
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Monthly Riddle - Don't miss out on a chance to win LUNCH ON US!
We didn't have a winner last month, so let's get those correct answers in this month!
October Riddle:
I’m tall when I’m young, I’m short when I’m old, and every Halloween, I stand up inside Jack O’Lanterns. What am I?
Last month's riddle:
What goes in the water black but comes out red?
The answer to last month's riddle: A Lobster
Email
us with your answer; if it's correct, you'll be entered into a drawing amongst other correct winners. We will announce the winner in next month's newsletter, so keep those answers coming. We will draw one lucky winner to win lunch on us!
Monthly Quote
"
In the entire circle of the year there are no days so delightful as those of a fine October.
”
-
Alexander Smith
Fun Facts | Interesting, Amazing, Strange, Funny, and Weird
For seven straight years, the U.S. has pumped more oil and gas out of the ground than any other country. U.S. natural gas production stole the top spot from Russia in 2008, and exceeded Saudi Arabia’s oil production in 2013. Since 2008, U.S. petroleum and natural gas production has jumped nearly 60%.
-Quartz
In America today, there are 197 towns and suburbs where median home values now exceed $1 million.
-USA Today
Pay-television subscriptions are down to 93.7 million from just under 101 million in 2011. About 6 Americans cancel their paid television every minute.
-Bloomberg
Companies in the United States brought $300 billion in overseas cash back into the U.S. in the first quarter of 2018.
-Washington Post
A new poll found that nearly a third of voters do not know the names of their party’s candidate for Congress this November.
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TheHill.com
New research suggests that dogs crave eye contact and become depressed and anxious when their owners spend too much time staring at smartphones.
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DailyMail.com
About one-third of the people who were exposed to a fake print ad that described a visit to Disneyland and how they met and shook hands with Bugs Bunny later said they remembered or knew the event happened to them. The scenario described in the ad never occurred because Bugs Bunny is a Warner Bros. cartoon character and wouldn’t be featured in any Walt Disney property. The frightening thing about this study is that it suggests how easily a false memory can be created.
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University of Washington
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Jack Canfield's Hollywood Live
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Beacon Wealth Management
607 East Pike Street, Clarksburg, WV 26301
304.626.3900
Securities offered through Cambridge Investment Research, Inc., a broker-dealer, member
FINRA
/
SIPC
. Advisory services offered through Cambridge Investment Research Advisors, a Registered Investment Adviser. Beacon Wealth operates independent of Cambridge.
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