Melissa Preddy

Veteran financial writer Melissa Preddy served as a business writer, editor and columnist for The Detroit News from 1995 to 2008, is a Michigan-based freelance journalist. She now works as a writer and editor for a medical research unit of the University of Michigan Medical School. Follow her daily posts. | E-mail: Melissa Preddy

Tornado follow-up stories, from preppers to personal finance

By Melissa Preddy on May 22, 2013 in Beats, Economy, Featured, Insurance, Investing | Banking, Melissa Preddy, Personal finance, Real estate | Econ development, Retail | Lifestyle, Story ideas

With the deadly Oklahoma tornados still top of mind — some meteorologists now say the storm had far more power than the atomic bomb the United States released on Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II — you might want to contemplate another day or so of related business angles.

Day laborers found work and were a big help during Hurricane Sandy cleanup. Photo: Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times

Even if you’re far from the storm, you have readers and viewers who are trying to put themselves in the place of Oklahomans and others who have suffered natural disasters lately, or who may be worried about what volatile weather may bring their way as spring and summer 2013 play out. Which leads to many viable tornado-related stories regardless of your location, including:

Work. In an era already sensitive about jobs and jobs loss, a storm like Monday’s tornado cuts both ways: It will probably disrupt the livelihood of people in the ravaged area, but it also will create jobs for cleanup workers and others far and wide. No matter where you are, you probably can find someone who’s getting an opportunity due to the storm damage. Here’s last December’s New York Times look at how day laborers were getting Hurricane Sandy cleanup work, for example; watch for ads by staffing firms like Labor Ready.

Also, I caught this little item on the U.S. Department of Labor site; it was posted last fall in response to Hurricane Sandy and would be worth checking to see if it will apply for tornado victims or others as well: National Emergency Grants that pay for temporary jobs to restore local infrastructure.

Here’s the fuller description of the National Emergency Grants from Benefits.gov — it looks like they are administered through local workforce investment boards. Here’s a list of 2012 grants by state; you might want to follow up on the awards in your state to see where the money was directed, what type of work was performed, whether it led to full-time employment or other long-term benefit, and how these awards might benefit your area in future disasters.

Audiences might be wondering what would happen to their income if their home or workplace were destroyed by a storm; here’s some info from the Society for Human Resource Management about employers’ obligations should employees be prevented from working due to a disaster. You could check with large area employers to see if their policies include any worker protection in addition to that mandated by law.

Insurance. Personal finance expert Ilyce Glink of CBS Moneywatch is out with a column about preparedness; she notes that most standard homeowners policies do cover tornado damage, which may be perplexing to consumers aware that flooding and other weather issues are not covered in ordinary policies. This might be a good time for a primer on what is and is not covered under renters’ and homeowners’ policies, focusing on damage from weather events like lightening, hail, drought, rain,wind, falling trees or other objects, and so on. A large clip-and-save graphic might be more useful for readers than prose. Tap insurance brokers, your state’s insurance commissioner, the American Insurance Association and even lawyers who specialize in real estate, casualty and property matters for a list of caveats, dos and don’ts for homeowners who want to review their property protection.

Obviously if your area is home to insurance companies, you’ll want to take a look at how natural disasters affect their bottom lines. Here’s a blog post from the Hartford Courant noting that in 2012, natural events cost U.S. insurers some $58 billion, the second most-expensive year for that category. This Washington Post story details five years of tornado impact on insurers, and here’s a Zacks industry analysis that indicates the recent economic and real estate recovery has allowed premium price hikes; you might talk with analysts about what consumer can expert regarding premiums in the coming couple of years.

Also, last fall a reinsurer — the companies that insure insurance companies against large losses — called Munich Reinsurance was out with a report that blamed $47 billion in U.S. insurance losses on thunderstorms and, by extension, climate change. The report was controversial and I’m not suggesting you rely on it – nor on this rebuttal from the German publication Spiegel – but reading both will give you a glimpse into industry concerns about weather events that may prompt interview questions for local executives.

Mortgages. Again, readers and viewers may be wondering “Do I have to repay my mortgage if my house disappears?” and other worst-case scenario questions. The consulting firm HSH published a Q&A on this topic a couple of years ago, you can use it as a template and follow up with major mortgage services, credit unions and area banks to localize. Note their may be relief for those who suffer job loss due to a disaster even if their house is OK.

Miscellaneous. Numerous government agencies, like the EPA, offer primers on preparedness, and of course for-profit companies are responding to the market as well. FoodInsurance.com offers a $519 Tornado Preparedness Kit (or “bug-out bag”) containing items like walkie-talkies, a headlamp and food for two weeks. (As a personal finance piece, you might run something on how to create a bug-out bag on a budget.) And here’s a document-storage company, ARAG, that leapt onto the bandwagon Tuesday with a release touting its storage solutions and a free downloadable disaster preparedness guide for consumers. Can you find any other examples of firms touting products or remedies for people fearful of the disruption of a storm?

Response, impact, scams: A few angles following tornado devastation

By Melissa Preddy on May 21, 2013 in Basics, Economy, Energy | Utilities | Mining, Featured, Insurance, Melissa Preddy, Story ideas

It’ll be a while yet before the true toll of the past days’ destructive tornados in Oklahoma is known but you may be wondering about how to tackle the business and financial angles of a disaster.

Tornado Stories Politico / ABC I can’t provide as many links as usual to stories you may want to emulate, because they haven’t been written yet — but the economic impact of these disasters (and more to come in the spring weather season, from tornados to floods hurricanes) is huge and will be an ongoing source of important stories you’ll want to cover for some time to come.

Here’s a look at categories you can plan to follow:

Businesses and individuals responding to the present tornado situations.

Obviously many commercial enterprises will have been damaged or destroyed by the Oklahoma tornadoes, you can look for companies or employers from your area with ties to the Oklahoma tornado-hit regions. Check with retailers, airlines, restaurant chains and other decentralized companies — will any people with local expertise be heading to Oklahoma to help with remediation? Trucking companies may be a fertile source of information; how have the storms disrupted supply routes? Are additional loads — of emergency supplies, building materials, etc. being called for?

Cleanup. Every disaster provides opportunities for businesses, including tornadoes. Waste management companies, demolition experts, remediation and storm-damage firms, construction companies — all will benefit, as will sellers of building materials. I would hop on the phone to any related companies in your area in case any are gearing up to offer services in Oklahoma. How have they responded to prior disasters? (It’s touchy because no firm wants to be seen profiting from tragedy, but in reality this will provide jobs and work for a number of people.) Here’s an NBCNews.com story about how cleanup after Hurricane Sandy, for example, will inject tens of billions of dollars into the economy via insurance payouts and the resulting spending on big-ticket items like construction.

Day labor. I’ve seen ads after past big weather events on Craigslist and the like soliciting workers nationwide to head to storm-hit areas as day laborers for cleanup and construction. Check with temp agencies — here’s on, LGS Staffing, that says it specializes in providing workers for disaster recovery. Are they or others recruiting in your area?

Corporate giving. Are any companies in your area sending money, supplies or other assistance to the region? Remember the Tide laundry detergent “Loads of Hope” traveling laundry facility that has helped out elsewhere? What creative ideas might consumer goods firms in your region be cooking up?

General economic impact of natural disasters.

Crops. Agriculture.com reported Monday that volatile weather throughout the U.S. may be delaying planting of crops like corn and soybeans; even if your region isn’t hard hit by tornados, it’s a news peg for a look at how weather is affecting growers this year, from large industrial farms to local specialty nurseries. Here’s the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s weather portal; note the weekly weather and crop bulletin you can bookmark and follow.

Gas prices. According to a 2011 Los Angeles Times article, tornados that year closed numerous refineries and caused gas prices to spike. But the Houston Business Journal already is downplaying the effect of the tornados on oil supply. You might contact your states’ oil industry association, or some refineries, to ask about the expected local impact, if any. Heavy users of fuel like fleet operators and trucking companies — companies that keep close tabs on fuel costs — might also be of interest.

Here’s an older USA Today article with a number of factoids about tornado damage and economic impact that may come in handy or point you to sources.

Charity scams.

This is always a problem and the Better Business Bureau already is warning of tornado-related scams after storms recently in Texas. In print or on your website, it’s not to soon for a giving primer and reminders of how to check out solicitors via sites like CharityWatch.org and CharityNavigator.org.

Memorial Day angles, from gas prices to bacon hot dogs

It’s hard to believe we’re only a week away from the start of Memorial Day weekend. As summer activities kick into gear, so do the businesses that serve them, so no matter your beat you’ve got a bonanza of holiday-related story ideas from which to choose.

Summer travel Memorial Day weekend Traditionally, it’s a time for business writers to look at the travel and tourism outlook for summer. You can check with area campgrounds, hotels, resorts and theme parks to see how bookings for the Memorial Day weekend and beyond are stacking up compared to previous years, and in turn how that affects hiring, purchasing of food and other supplies, and other transactionst that ripple throughout the local economy.

Here’s the Airlines for America summer forecast just out Thursday; it projects a slight uptick in passengers this year over last. So far, AAA hasn’t released its summer tourism outlook but you can bookmark the site and keep an eye out for it. Demand for hotel rooms is expected to be up slightly as well, according to an industry analyst.

Gas prices always get scrutinized around Memorial Day weekend; some reports say an uptick in crude oil production will keep prices lower this year than in the past couple of summers. Still, businesses seem to be offering a number of promotional gas-cost offsets for consumers. Progressive Grocer magazine reports, for example, that the Giant Eagle supermarket chain, for example, is offering a 20-cent discount per gallon to those who spend $50 in its stores, through May 29, to lure in Memorial Day weekend shoppers. And the CVS drugstores’ ExtraCare rewards program will give shoppers a $10 gas card when they spend $30 on certain items. Casinos nationwide routinely offer gas cards to woo players, and here’s a credit union offering $100 in free gas to car buyers who take out loans by Memorial Day. Scooter sellers also are offering free gas to those who buy cycles through June 30.

OTHER IDEAS:

Food. Stores cater to the taste for cookouts and barbecues with sales on traditional fare like meat, buns, condiments and potato chips. What other trends are they chasing, from upscale grilling to new products like these Oscar Mayer bacon hot dogs. What about vegan Memorial Day foods, or new offerings from craft breweries, area vineyards, cheese makers, specialty bakeries and the like? Again, you can use the upcoming holiday weekend to set the stage for how your region’s food retailers, makers and restauranteurs expect to fare (no pun intended) in the summer of 2013.

Memorial merchandise. Grave decorations and other items make this a brisk time of year for florists and purveyors of plastic plants. Red, white and blue party supplies are staples at specialty shops and discount stores. Sites like Amazon are even offering patriotic Memorial Day books, jewelry — rings with images of soldiers on them, for example — and patriotic porch flags and other goods all under one “roof’ if you plug in the Memorial Day search term. Collectibles like the 50th Anniversary National Peace Officers Memorial Day badge also are out there.

Even people on the health care beat can find some tie-in, like how hospitals handle summer emergency room admissions — how do warm-weather injuries like fireworks burns, heat stroke and water-related accidents compare to winter problems? Do ERs prepare or staff differently at certain times of year?

How are local companies managing carbon dioxide emissions?

By Melissa Preddy on May 16, 2013 in Beats, Energy | Utilities | Mining, Featured, Green | Sustainability, Manufacturing | Large companies, Melissa Preddy, Story ideas

How are companies on your beat reducing their carbon footprint? By Flickr user Graeme Maclean

Recent news that carbon dioxide levels in the air have reached milestone levels (or near-milestone; some numbers were revised) got me to pondering some possible business stories related to the gas itself rather than to the larger and more amorphous topic of climate change.

If you need to brush up on your science, here’s the entry on carbon dioxide from the Encyclopedia of the Earth. CO2 is a gas produced in a variety of ways, from the respiration of humans and animals to volcanoes to the burning of fossil fuels. Photosynthesis by plants uses up CO2 faster than our combined respiration produces it, but can’t keep up with the volume of carbon dioxide produced in the use of fossil fuels. Hence, the ratio of carbon dioxide in the air today is four times greater than at any time in the past 800,000 years, the encyclopedia authors say. As it builds up, it traps heat in the earth’s atmosphere – hence the moniker “greenhouse gas.” Here’s a primer on CO2 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, including a pie chart on emissions by source.

The obvious step is to take a look at big carbon dioxide emitters in your area, and find out what they say they are doing to reduce their carbon footprint. Here, for example, is the website of CARMA, a carbon-monitoring group that’s a unit of the Center for Global Development activist group. CARMA has mapped thousands of power plants and rated them based on their emissions; see how the plants in your area fare in the ranking.

You can identify manufacturing plants in your area and ask what programs they are working on. Here’s a Washington Post Wonkblog entry about the recent dip in U.S. emissions and possible causes (cleaner fuels, the recession-based drop in manufacturing, etc.) which may prompt questions for local executives. And here’s a St. Louis Beacon essay which says natural gas obtained by fracking is a bigger problem, even if it burns more cleanly, and also says that U.S. companies are merely shifting CO2 producing activities overseas. And here’s a Pew Charitable Trusts report from August 2012 on energy subsidies and carbon emissions. Again, huge topics – but good questions for firms in your area.

Transportation is a huge contributor of emissions; with travel season heating up, so to speak, you might want to check in at area airports (commercial and general aviation) to see what programs or initiatives are under way. Europe appears to have a vigorous carbon management standard for airports; I didn’t find anything similar in the U.S. but you can try your state’s airport management association and groups like the American Association of Airport Management Executives in addition to contacting the airfields and related industry groups (airport consultants, aircraft manufacturers, etc.) directly.

Finally, as always, who benefits? Why not look at the flip side of carbon dioxide, which has interesting industrial uses? (Which is not to minimize or shrug off climate-change concerns, by any means, but merely to show that in business as in nature, even adverse circumstances bring opportunities for some entity or another.) Here’s a Forbes report about the possible future of capturing CO2 and using it in industry; lots of industrial gases companies advertise CO2, which is used in things like soft drinks, respiratory therapy at hospitals, and even commercial greenhouses according to this information page from seller Praxair. A big graphic or feature on “carbon dioxide in everyday life” might be an interesting counterpoint. How is it captured, packaged, sold? What is the cost of this common gas? What is the potential for capturing even more and making use of it?

Angelina Jolie’s surgery highlights the growing genetic testing industry

By Melissa Preddy on May 15, 2013 in Featured, Health care, Insurance, Melissa Preddy, Story ideas, Technology

Talk with health care professionals, medical center executives, insurers and others for stories on the genetic testing industry.

It’s hard to overlook the buzz created by this week’s revelation by actor and activist Angelina Jolie that she had preemptive surgery to remove both breasts, because she carries a gene that makes cancer likely.

News of Jolie’s decision, which she wrote about in a first-person New York Times essay on Tuesday, has generated a great deal of discussion about health care, medical decision-making and ethics — but I spy some business stories in this topic, as well. As advances in laboratory science, health science informatics and other related disciplines continue to burgeon, they are driving a new industry that not only is supporting traditional health care, but creating direct-to-consumer applications.

So if you cover health care systems, insurers or any related fields, you can approach this from the medical angle. It was surprising to hear, for example, that a publicly traded company owns the patent on the $3,000-plus test for the gene Jolie carries, BRAC1. here’s a Wall Street Journal piece on the company, Myriad Genetics, and its nearly half-billion dollar annual revenue from tests like the BRACAnalysis.

Indeed, a pending case before the Supreme Court explores whether firms like Myriad should be allowed to hold patents on human genes; here’s the take of the ACLU (a party to the suit), which argues that genes are a product of nature and that private control of these discoveries stifles the availability of diagnostic testing. It’s an interesting conundrum. Here’s a Salon story from Tuesday that helps explain the technical details.

Meanwhile, you might want to talk with health care professionals, medical center executives, insurers and others about the growing field of genetics and genetic counseling. What services are available to consumers, what’s covered by insurance (and how will that change next year when the Affordable Care Act fully kicks in) and what is the cost-benefit of advance warning for diseases ranging from cancer to Alzheimer’s to birth defects in unborn children?

You can seek out biomed companies in your area and ask if any of their work involves patenting genes or genetic tests. I was not able to find a directory but your area’s universities may be able to point you to start-ups. The Genetics and Public Policy Center at Johns Hopkins University has some interesting reports, as well. And of course, industry analysts at brokerage firms may be able to point you to established players in your region.

Direct-to-consumer genetic testing is a controversial area you may wish to explore. Many sites on the web offer home DNA kits for disease screening and even ancestry information for those who want more information about their ethnic heritage. Paternity kits are out there, as well.

Here’s a recent report on “Market Trends in Genetic Services” from the consulting firm Booz/Allen/Hamilton — it notes that some 2,886 genetic tests were available in 2012, up from 1,680 four years prior. And this media release from Global Industry Analysts Inc. says the genetic testing market is expected to near $2 billion by 2015; with newborn screening, detection of cancer and preemptive testing for conditions like diabetes expected to rise in demand. UnitedHealthGroup, a large insurer, posts even larger figures: it says the current market is $5 billion and that it’s expected to grow to $25 billion by 2021.

For the quirky, labs also offer genetic testing of pets, for those who must know the true bloodlines of Rover and Rex.

Wedding season small-business profiles and other angles

By Melissa Preddy on May 14, 2013 in Beats, Featured, Melissa Preddy, Personal finance, Retail | Lifestyle, Small | Private | Non-profit, Story ideas

Wedding season is arriving in many locales. It’s a nice opportunity to get some picturesque small business profiles, personal finance and hospitality stories onto the business pages. And with weddings being among the biggest-ticket items most families spend on, you might find among nuptial trends some interesting economic indicators and other cues to your region’s fiscal health. Here’s an Orange County Register piece, from last year but still quite valid, about “Weddings, the new economic indicator.”

According to this MarketWatch report, the cost of an average wedding slumped 32 percent during the recession, and while the numbers did rebound somewhat, they’re rather flat and still well under pre-recession peaks. That means a lot of local businesses and vendors that depend on the bridal trade may be limping along themselves, or finding new income streams to make up for the more sedate bridal business. (Note, if you take a personal finance tack, the MarketWatch piece also includes a number of caveats for wedding couples, related to service contracts.) For example, I recently posted about a wedding organizer who was branching out as a prom consultant. Florists, bakers, stationery providers, DJs and the like might also be finding new and newsworthy lines of business.

The research firm IBISWorld says the wedding industry is a $51 billion economic driver, and provides its research upon request to reports. Other background information can be obtained via sites like The Knot, which is recently out with a consumer survey on everything from number of bridal party attendants to popular wedding theme colors. And here’s a wedding trends story from the Huffington Post, with factoids like tequila being the top liquor of 2013. The Wedding Report, a subscription-based market research service, also posts factoids on its site; it entertains media requests for information via an e-mail address.

Other ideas:

Non-weekend weddings. Not super-new but this is one way couples can both economize and get a better shot at their venues of choice. A graphic on the difference in price at area venues on, say, a Thursday compared to Saturday or Sunday could be a good clip-and-save feature for your audience. Limousine services, flowers, all of the other accoutrements likely are cheaper mid-week, too.

Green weddings. What are the options for those interested in sustainability? From eco-chic couture organic wedding gowns to recycled-gold rings with fair-labor stones, brides and grooms are seeking more earth-friendly ways to say “I do.” Again, you might take the traditional trappings of a wedding and show consumers what “green” alternatives exist. It’s definitely a marketing engine, judging by the number of sites offering earth-friendly favors, invitations and the like — but be sure to consult some experts about whether these tweaks really do much good for the earth. If recycled paper invitations cost more but don’t really save any trees, consumers should know.

Same-sex weddings. As more states legalize and recognize same-sex unions, they’re also recognizing that same-sex couples and their families are an underserved market when it comes to nuptials. Here’s a recent MiamiHerald piece, for example, about the historic Biltmore Hotel’s efforts to attract the patronage of same-sex couples. If your area permits gay marriage, check to see if any tourism or other economic boon is a result. If it’s still prohibited, find out where gay couples from your region are headed to say their vows. Are any local consultants helping to make arrangements at far-flung venues, or otherwise stepping into the business niche? Sites like GayWeddings.com, for example, have searchable vendor lists and other resources that might point you to pertinent small businesses in your area.

Post Bangladesh: Retailers, consumers and sourcing of apparel and textiles

By Melissa Preddy on May 13, 2013 in Agriculture, Beats, Featured, Manufacturing | Large companies, Melissa Preddy, Retail | Lifestyle, Story ideas

Use these tips to find local stories focused on the sourcing of apparel and fabrics. Photo by Flickr user Solidarity Center.

I’ve been feeling remiss in not writing about the business implications of that the tragic and deadly fire that took place April 24 in a Bangladesh garment factory, and now unfortunately there are reports of another fatal fire at a sweater-making facility there as well.

These workplace disasters have prompted a fair amount of discussion in the United States about the sourcing of apparel and fabrics, and how American consumerism fuels demand for cheap, imported goods created by people in unsafe or otherwise inferior working conditions.

Clearly if your area is headquarters to major retailers or fashion/home textile distributors, you probably already are checking with them about sourcing, and any changes that may be prompted by recent coverage of the Bangladesh death and injury toll. Also check in, perhaps, with entities that license a lot of such goods. Disney, for example, announced after the April 24 blaze that it would be halting production of its merchandise in Bangladesh. (That’s another conundrum, as one wonders how it will affect poor people who may be worse off with no job at all than with a job in adverse conditions, and might be a question for firms you interview.) I have not heard whether entities like professional sports leagues or others with hot-selling gear are evaluating the source of the goods bearing their name, or if places that commission vast amounts of uniforms — say, fast-food chains — also are part of this dialogue, but again, worth a few phone calls.

Meanwhile, you might consider a consumer story outlining options for U.S. consumers who are feeling squeamish about their role in the plight of international apparel workers. Pickings may be slimmer than Americans think; here’s a recent NPR report that says the percentage of U.S.-purchased clothing also made here has dropped from 50 percent in 1990 to 2 percent now. And here’s a report from the International Trade Administration (a unit of the U.S. Department of Commerce) that shows U.S. imports of various textiles. It’s broken down by “part,” or type of product, and if you focus on certain consumer goods, from baby clothes to blue jeans to bedsheets, you can cite where much of what we purchase comes from. For example, imports of blue denim trousers from Bangladesh were up in March some 49 percent compared to March 2012, while imports from other countries fell. (Caveat: I don’t know much about this report and if seasonal fluctuations and other factors cause such wide swings, so before drawing conclusions you may want to talk to a Commerce Department analyst or industry expert. Still the statistics are interesting.)

Clearly, consumers in pursuit of “ethical fashion” have a daunting task ahead. The New York Times reports about retailers disclosing information about apparel’s origins, much as fair-trade foods are marked, while USA Today writes that “Made in USA” labels don’t tell the whole story. And here’s a two-year-old ABC News report about the scarcity of American-made raw textiles. That last one interested me because I’ve seen a number of message-board discussions about this matter, and some consumers seem to feel that making their own or their children’s clothing keeps them from patronizing overseas factories that exploit or endanger workers. Perhaps, but if the fabric is produced under the same conditions, what is gained? I went to a well-known chain fabric seller and pawed through the bolts; the vast majority of offerings were not produced domestically. You might talk with seamstress, tailors, boutiques and others about local sources of artisan fabric, yarns, etc., though such items likely aren’t a solution for most families.

Another avenue many people reported using was buying only used goods; you might check with resale and thrift shops to see if any patrons have mentioned such concerns in the past few weeks, and if business is affected.

Here’s a market research report about an uptick in women’s apparel sales, as background on the $111 billion women’s clothing market in the U.S.

Develop personal finance features from stock market headlines

By Melissa Preddy on May 09, 2013 in Beats, Economy, Featured, Investing | Banking, Manufacturing | Large companies, Melissa Preddy, Personal finance, Story ideas

With stock market indices topping records and hitting psychological milestones like “Dow 15,000,” your audiences probably are wondering if it’s finally safe to peek at their 401(k) statements, and what else this bull run means for them. And more to the point, “Can it last?”

As CNBC reports, major indices are up by double-digits so far in 2013. But chances are, retirement investors aren’t reaping the full benefit of a market upswing, for a variety of reasons as outlined this week by MarketWatch. From timing issues (of when shares were purchased) to people who got discouraged and stopped contributing to 401(k) to those who couldn’t save due to job loss or dwindled income, a bull run on Wall Street may not translate — at least right away — to celebration on Main Street.

I think one of the coolest things you could do right now is solicit a handful of readers — get good demographic diversity so most of your audience can relate to one or the other of the subjects profiled, financially speaking – and engage some financial advisers to take a pro-bono look at their retirement accounts for a personal finance feature in print or online. Get a five-year snapshot if possible, to illustrate the effects of the recession on portfolios, and be sure to outline their starting point, interim contributions (or reasons for lack thereof, like job loss) and gains or losses compared to stock market performance over the same period. Ask the adviser to explain how investment choices, account fees, contribution timing and contribution rate all affect each person or family’s outcome.

It can be tough to find people willing to bare all in the newspaper or on video, but I found in the past that the lure of a free consultation by a reputable adviser can overcome that. Ask the advisers what documents they need; most likely all bank and financial accounts and tax returns for the years in question will suffice. Your area’s branch of the Financial Planning Association likely can help; when doing projects like this, I had more luck with those in independent practices rather than employees of chain brokerage firms.

For background on the retirement industry, by the way, check out this riveting PBS Frontline series, “The Retirement Gamble,” which highlights many concerns about the products available to average retirement savers and the obstacles facing the many workers who are failing to prepare for old age.

And to me, one of the troubling aspects of individual stock market investing, even through mutual funds and retirement plans, is the uneven approach many retirement savers take. People have a tendency to chase market behavior, getting interested in investing when returns are good — rather than following the old “buy low, sell high” adage. So as markets make headlines and pique the curiosity of uninformed investors, this is a good time for a refresher on how “dollar cost averaging” works in favor of those who buy into the market steadily over time, even in down years. Here’s the Investopedia definition with accompanying video; you can find a local Certified Financial Planner or academic economist to flesh out the explanation and create a few hypothetical examples of how this can affect people at various savings rates and timelines.

Of course, this all begs the question of whether we even have enough stock market history — less than 100 years — to make any predictions or assumptions of the “markets always gain over time” pronouncements to popular until the past “lost decade” of investing. But since it’s currently the only game in town for average workers hoping to boost a golden-years nest egg — especially under the Fed’s current zero-interest-rate policy, which appears to be established indefinitely — the more you can inform them via explanatory articles, the better armed they will be.

Another way to approach the stock market run is to see whether shares of locally-headquartered companies, or those with a large local presence/many local workers, are mirroring the larger market’s performance. I envision a fever chart with lines representing the overall market and the share price performance of many a dozen local players. You can annotate the graphic with blurbs synopsizes factors driving those companies’ share prices up for down. Of course, you can get the data from the companies’ own websites, or sites like Yahoo! Finance – or perhaps a local brokerage would run the numbers for you upon request.

With proxies out, toss in CEO and senior management pay; sometimes it’s interesting to see what officers are reaping compared to how shareholders of the same company fare. And of course, the upward trends in the market may represent big windfalls for corporate executives, as this USA Today report points out. Or you could produce a similar analysis of the value of stock options — don’t forget about members of the board of directors, too — under current market conditions.

Spring housing market: Finding stories in the business of rentals

By Melissa Preddy on May 08, 2013 in Beats, Economy, Featured, Investing | Banking, Melissa Preddy, Real estate | Econ development, Story ideas

Use these tips to track local rental trends on your beat.

At this point in springtime, articles about residential real estate sales are logical and appreciated by readers. But about one-third of Americans don’t own, they rent, and they need information about the market they are competing in. So why not buck seasonal tradition with a spring report for tenants and landlords about how your region is faring compared to national rental trends?

You can take a couple of tacks here; I like the notion of looking at rentals as a business with sidebars about current pricing and amenity trends for consumers. Here’s a mid-year renting trends update from ApartmentGuide.com. And of course, the market research firm Trulia is a font of information; here’s its recent report that says single-family home rents are flattening out — you can use their Rent Monitor and other tools to craft other personal finance information for consumers.

If rents are stabilizing, how does that affect the burgeoning investment-property business? Big news in the last couple of years has revolved around investors snapping up abandoned, foreclosed or otherwise bargain single-family homes and revamping them as investment properties. In some cases the investors are individuals or small businesses looking to branch out into the real estate business, but increasingly, larger firms are getting in on the action. Last week, for example, Bloomberg reported that Colony American Homes Inc., a Scottsdale, Ariz. firm, filed a $100 million IPO to go public. The company reportedly has purchased 8,000 houses in the past year or so, and the Bloomberg article lists several other large rental-property owners nationwide; check to see if one is near you. As the article notes, “The investors are taking advantage of prices that remain 29 percent below their 2006 peak and rising demand for rentals among people who can’t qualify for a mortgage. The U.S.home-ownership rate fell to 65 percent at the end of March, the lowest since 1995, the Commerce Department said this week.”

Do public records searches on recent sales, and talk with title companies, municipal officials, real estate agents, banks and appraisers about corporate or investor purchasing activity in your region. And, of course, you can follow up on advertised houses to find those owned by investment companies. I did a search via Zillow for my neighborhood and found several within minutes.

Or, evaluate the market in multi-unit dwellings, which have been robust in the past couple of years, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s New Residential Construction report. (Note that you can get state and local data from the survey of building permits to localize your story.)

The National Multi Housing Council, a lobbying group for large apartment operators, has compiled demographic stats that compare renters to owners on metrics like age and income. Scroll down that page for the ratio of owner-occupied to rental units in several dozen major U.S. cities. Their online press room and other areas of the website offer some interesting information, as well, including a recent survey about financing and other conditions affection the construction of new units.