Samsung Galaxy S III Gets Carbon Footprint Certification In Europe

Samsung’s Galaxy S III is a popular device among consumers, but it’s now well respected among the conservationist types across Europe. Just like its predecessor and the Galaxy Note, the Galaxy S III has achieved a carbon footprint certification across Europe.

Samsung UK announced today that they are the only mobile phone manufacturer to be granted the carbon footprint certification by the UK-based Carbon Trust Certification. The Galaxy S III achieved its lower carbon footprint by implementing a more efficient charger, using fewer raw materials, and reducing emissions during its assembly.

“At Samsung, our philosophy is to ‘design for humans’ and be ‘inspired by nature’. So by design our products are not just smart and easy to use, they also strive to achieve the highest environmental standards,” said Bill Skeates, Head of Sustainability, Samsung Electronics Europe. “Yes, our customers want to own a great smartphone, but they also want to be responsible consumers, and the Galaxy S III helps them to do both. Measuring the carbon footprint helps us to understand the environmental impact of our mobile phones and identify where we can continue to improve. Samsung aims to calculate the carbon footprint for all of its mobile flagship devices.”

Samsung began their journey into eco-friendly manufacturing in 2009 with the Green Management Strategy. Since then, the company has developed “innovative solutions for environmentally friendly products.” As such, the company “reviews the production, usage, and end-of-life disposal of its handsets.”

“The number of mobile devices, like smartphones in use worldwide is growing exponentially, so it’s important that they meet key environmental standards. We are very pleased that Samsung is showing industry leadership here,” said Darran Messem, Managing Director, Certification at the Carbon Trust. “Samsung not only submits its smartphones for independent assessment, but is also taking action to improve the environmental performance of its products.”

Samsung is expected to announce a new 10-inch tablet alongside Google at an Android event next week. The same eco-friendly manufacturing practices will surely be used in the creation of said device. It could be used as a good company image boost for both Samsung and Google.

Estrategia Investimentos S.A.

How to invest in Gold - 1st. Part

Whenever you buy gold, the first rule of thumb is dollar cost averaging -- putting a fixed amount of money towards gold every month regardless of the price. For the average investor, this strategy spreads risk out over time and lessens the downside.

Most money managers advocate anywhere from 3%-10% in gold. More bullish managers recommend an allocation as high as 20%.

Gold is protection, insurance against inflation, currency debasement, and global uncertainty. Here are four ways you can invest.

Gold Bullion

Buy physical gold at various prices: coins, bars and jewelry. Some of the most popular gold coins are American Buffalo, American Eagle and St. Gauden's. You can store gold in bank safety deposit boxes or in your home. You can also buy and sell gold at your local jewelers. Other companies like Kitco.com allow you to store gold with them as well as trade the metal.

When you buy gold coins or bullion, avoid big premiums. You want to buy gold as close to the spot price as possible, or a 10% premium at most. The higher the premium, the higher the gold price will have to rise in order for you to profit.

Coins typically come from the national mint, where they are made and sold at a 4% mark up -- the retailer's margin is 1% to 3%.

To calculate the premium of a gold product, subtract the spot price from the price you are being quoted, divide that number by the spot price and multiply by 100.

Had you purchased a one ounce gold bar at Kitco.com for $1,225.90 -- using a spot price of $1,200 -- the bar has a 2.1% mark-up. This means that the gold price only has to rise 2.1% from spot price levels for you to break even on your investment.

Premiums, though, can mount as high as 75% or more based on the gold item.

To avoid getting ripped off you must establish why you want to buy gold bullion. If you want to own gold as a long term investment, then buy gold as close to the spot price as possible.

If you want to own gold to use as money, if you are a "survivalist" you want to buy a tank of gas with gold as Jon Nadler, senior analyst at Kitco.com says, then you need smaller gold coins like one tenth an ounce and will have to pay the premium.

Nadler's take is that an individual investor shouldn't spend more than a 10% mark up when buying gold, but acknowledges that "everyone has their own threshold."

Where investors also tend to go astray is by buying semi-numismatic or numismatic coins, otherwise known as rare coins, which come with huge premiums that seldom recoup their value.

A good rule of thumb is to leave rare coin buying to rare coin dealers. Nadler advises that consumers interested in rare coins go professional auctioneers like Bowers & Merena or Christie's who have experts on staff and can objectively grade the coins the same way an antique dealer would appraise goods.

If a broker tries to sell you a story with the coin like it's from the "old world and there are only a few thousand in existence" experts advise to go elsewhere.

"Don't confuse investing in gold with the things being sold as gold investments," cautions Nadler. "You want something that tracks the price of gold as close to dollar to dollar as possible."

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Where to invest the best way your money?

The financial markets and the economy are entering new territory, creating new risks and opportunities for investors.

America's slow recovery is gaining momentum, unemployment is declining and there are even signs that inflation will start to pick up. And while it will be years before before consumers and the federal government fully repair their broken balance sheets, housing prices recover and the majority of the unemployed get back to work, for the first time since 2007, the financial landscape is no longer defined primarily in terms of the crisis. The economy is moving forward.

As all economic transitions do, this moment of change is creating new possibilities in the financial markets. As the landscape shifts again, it's important that investors understand where these opportunities are and where they can put their money. Here are 11 areas experts think you should consider right now:

1. Commodities

As the global economic recovery accelerates, fears of deflation have been replaced with concerns about inflation. The prices of commodities and raw materials such as gold, oil and agricultural products have been rising for some time, but businesses have largely been unable to pass those higher costs along to consumers. That may change. While few experts believe inflation is likely to be a major problem, it can't be ignored.

"We are not big inflation bears right now, but that is not the point," says Seth Masters, chief investment officer for blend and defined contribution strategies at asset manager AllianceBernstein. "Even if there's only a 10% or 20% chance that inflation becomes serious, that is a big problem for investors. It will be bad for stocks and very bad for bonds, so it makes sense to have some protection against inflation, even if that is not the central case," he warns.

Real assets such as commodities can provide protection in an inflationary environment, says Kristi Mitchem, a senior managing director at asset manager State Street Global Advisers.

Rather than looking for the next hot commodity, invest in a broad range of commodities by tapping a mutual fund or an exchange-traded fund. "Investors should be well-diversified in commodities," says Mitchem.

Allocation toward real assets will vary depending upon the age and risk tolerance of the investor, but Mitchem says something in the 10% to 15% range is probably suitable for a broad range of people. 

2. REITs
Certain kinds of real estate investment trusts can provide a hedge against inflation as well, according to Masters. REITs that comprise 15-year leases may provide no protection at all. "But a hotel REIT that is based on room rates that can be adjusted as the market demands may be very sensitive to inflation, although that is not always the case," Masters says.

3. Inflation-Protected Bonds
Inflation eats away at the value of traditional fixed-income securities, because the dollars you earn in interest aren't worth as much as they were when you made the investment. Over the years, financial institutions have created a number of products that shield credit from the ravages of inflation. TIPS, or Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, are one way to go about this. TIPS offer a fixed interest rate, but the amount of principal fluctuates, as does the actual amount of interest the investor collects. At maturity, TIPS should be worth at least as much as they were when they were purchased.

Investors can also purchase I-bonds, a form of savings bond in which the interest rate, not the principal, fluctuates over time. Step-up bonds, in which the interest rate rises every year, can be found in the corporate and government agency credit markets.

4. Australian Dollars

The U.S. Treasury market was a huge beneficiary of the global flight to quality during the financial crisis. Soaring demand drove down interest rates and funded the stimulus that helped bring America out of recession. But now, the Treasury market is saturated with supply -- just look at the record $1.65 trillion 2011 deficit it's funding -- and demand as falling as the global economy recovers.

There are alternatives to U.S. Treasurys, though. "One way to hedge it is with the Australian dollar," says Steve Persky, managing partner of Dalton Investments, a $1.1 billion hedge fund based in Los Angeles. Australia came through the financial crisis without falling victim to the credit pressures faced by the U.S. and much of Europe. Its debt-to-GDP ratio was an estimated 22% last year, compared to 59% for the U.S. Furthermore, its proximity to China and the other Asian growth markets is expected to help the country boost its GDP by 4.25% this year.

5. Municipal BondsGiven the level of alarm about the municipal bond market, investors might wonder if putting money into this sector is akin to buying subprime mortgages in 2007. Yet most issuers in the municipal bond market will repay their obligations without any problem.

Muni bonds yields -- say, 4% for 10 year bonds -- are attractive, especially considering their tax-free status. The question is how to protect yourself from weaker issuers. John Taft, the CEO of RBC U.S. Wealth Management (RBC), says he prefers general obligation bonds and revenue-backed bonds that are linked to essential services such as water and sewer service, not special projects. Some experts suggest that larger issuers with higher ratings tend to be safer, but Taft believes that independent research by an investor or analyst before buying is key.

6. Large-Cap Stocks

In the midst of the financial crisis, investors fled the equity markets and credit prices soared. As the first signs of the recovery took hold, investors began moving back into stocks. The Standard & Poor's 500 is now at 1,330 -- up nearly 100% from early 2009.

Yet there's still opportunity in stocks, even if a market correction occurs. "Large-cap stocks are relatively undervalued," Taft says. The S&P 500 index of large companies is up 24% over the last 52 weeks, while the S&P SmallCap 600 index is up 35% over the same period of time.

7. Dividend Stocks
Research shows that dividend-paying stocks tend to beat the long market. According to that theory, it's always a good time to invest in them. Wharton finance professor Jeremy Siegel researched the S&P 500 from 1957 through 2009 and found that the top 100 dividend stocks had an annualized return of 12.5% over the entire period, while the 100 companies with the lowest dividend yields returned 8.8%.

"Dividends are issued by quality companies that have a history of cash on their balance sheets -- and they are often large-cap companies, which are currently undervalued," Taft says.

8. Health Care and Consumer Staples
Investors who cycle out of the broad market in springtime and shift into defensive stocks such as health care and consumer staples tend to beat the market, according to Sam Stovall, chief investment officer of S&P Equity Research Services.

The S&P 500 has returned about 6.1% a year since 1995. But if this simple rotation -- undertaken in April and lasting for six months -- is employed, investors' returns are boosted to 9.7%, according to Stovall. He says the results are even more pronounced among smaller companies. The spring defensive rotation boosts the return to 12.5%, compared to 9.7% for the broad market of smaller companies.

What accounts for this seeming mystery? Stovall says the broader market tends to perform better during the end of the year and late winter, thanks to the availability of bonus money, tax returns and other forms of liquidity. The rotation provides a defense against a traditional seasonal downturn for equities.

9. Stocks with Low Debt-to-Equity Ratios
If inflation picks up -- as many experts believe it will -- "investors may want to take a look at companies with low debt-to-equity ratios," Stovall says. As the cost of debt capital rises, companies with cleaner balance sheets will have less exposure. The debt-to-equity ratio for the broad market is 51%, but several industries have much lower ratios, including tech, with a ratio of 28%. "Tech companies tend to become self-funding because their median profit margins are high, at 15.4% compared to 9.2% for the broad market," Stovall says.

Other sectors with low debt to equity ratios include energy, with a ratio of 39%, and industrials, with a ratio of 46%.

10. Oversold Stocks

For the technically minded investor, some standards measures suggest when stocks are under- or oversold. The relative strength indicator (RSI), for example, tracks stocks' performance over the last 14 days and ranks them on a scale of 0 to 100. Scores below 30 suggest that a company may be oversold.

Stovall said that as of Feb. 15, investors might want to consider these stocks with RSI's under 30: Celgene (CELG), CVS Caremark (CVS), Dreamworks Animation (DWA), Family Dollar Stores (FDO) -- now the target of a $7.6 billion takeover bid by investor Nelson Peltz -- and Peoples United Financial (PBCT).

11. Cash

Finally, most experts say its wise to keep a certain amount of your assets in cash. "There is nothing wrong with keeping 10% or 15% in cash," Taft says. "Warren Buffett always said to wait for the home-run pitch. That is how you make money."

Information from www.dailyfinance.com

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Google Earnings, Revenue Miss Wall Street Forecasts

Google reported its quarterly earnings much earlier than expected Thursday, and the results missed analysts' expectations significantly.

After the earnings 

announcement, the company's 

shares fell sharply -- down almost 

9 percent -- before being halted. 

The company offered no 

explanation as to why it released 

earnings early.

Revenue increased to $11.33 billion from $7.51 billion a year ago.

The company posted third-quarter earnings excluding items of $9.03 per share, down from $9.72 a share in the year-earlier period.

Analysts had expected the company to report earnings excluding items of $10.65 a share on $11.86 billion in revenue, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters.

The company was scheduled to report after the closing bell on Thursday and surprised investors with its early release.


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Lance Armstrong fired by Nike, leaves as Livestrong chairman

Nike has fired Lance Armstrong and will take his name off the Lance Armstrong Fitness Center at its world headquarters, the company said in a statement Wednesday morning.

The statement came the same morning that Armstrong announced he was stepping down as chairman of his cancer-fighting charity, the Livestrong foundation, to "spare the foundation any negative effects as a result of controversy surrounding my cycling career."

Pedaling on: Amid doping controversy, Livestrong continues

Livestrong CEO Doug Ulman told USA TODAY Sports Wednesday that to his knowledge the decision by Nike was "totally unrelated" to Armstrong's decision to step down as Livestrong chairman. Ulman said Armstrong informed him of his decision to step down as chairman on Monday and that he notified the foundation's board Tuesday night.

"He just made it clear that foundation was his first and foremost priority aside from his family and that he did not want to ever harm our work in any way," Ulman said. "He just said he wanted the best thing possible for the foundation."

Ulman said Armstrong still will participate in the foundation's events, including this weekend when it celebrates its 15th anniversary in Austin, Texas. Ulman called it a "governance decision" by Armstrong to help the foundation avoid distractions involving doping allegations against him. Livestrong said Armstrong's term as founding director has no expiration.

"My family and I have devoted our lives to the work of the foundation and that will not change," Armstrong's statement said. "We plan to continue our service to the foundation and the cancer community. We will remain active advocates for cancer survivors and engaged supporters of the fight against cancer. And we look forward to an exciting weekend of activities marking the 15th anniversary of the foundation's creation."

Jeff Garvey, Livestrong's vice chairman, will replace Armstrong as chairman.

The Nike and Livestrong moves come one week after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency released a massive file of evidence against Armstrong that said he used banned drugs and blood transfusions to gain an advantage throughout his cycling career.

"Due to the seemingly insurmountable evidence that Lance Armstrong participated in doping and misled Nike for more than a decade, it is with great sadness that we have terminated our contract with him," Nike said in a statement. "Nike does not condone the use of illegal performance enhancing drugs in any manner."

Armstrong has denied doping accusations but declined to fight USADA's charges against him in an arbitration hearing, saying the process was a "witch hunt" against him. He said he never failed a drug test, but USADA's evidence contained several witness statements about how he and his teammates used sophisticated methods to avoid testing positive in those tests.

In August, USADA banned him for life and stripped him of his seven titles in the Tour de France after he declined to fight the charges in arbitration. Nike said it plans to "continue support of the Livestrong initiatives created to unite, inspire and empower people affected by cancer."

Formally named the Lance Armstrong Foundation, Livestrong was founded in 1997 after Armstrong was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1996.

Nike developed Livestrong's iconic yellow silicone wristbands, made in China and a ubiquitous symbol of the foundation's mission to help cancer survivors. Since 2004, more than 80 million wristbands have been distributed worldwide. Ulman said LIvestrong has a contract with a manufacturer in China to produce the bracelets and has a partnership with Nike for the company's "Swoosh" logo to appear on the packaging. He said that relationship will not be affected. Nike notified Ulman of its decision Tuesday night.

Armstrong's statement said Livestrong and its supporters "are incredibly dear to my heart."

"I have had the great honor of serving as this foundation's chairman for the last five years and its mission and success are my top priorities," the statement said. "Today therefore, to spare the foundation any negative effects as a result of controversy surrounding my cycling career, I will conclude my chairmanship."

Since Aug. 23, when Armstrong announced he would not fight USADA's charges, Ulman said Livestrong donations are up about 8 percent from the same period in 2011, up to about $3.4 million. The number of individual donations are down about 3 percent over the same period, Ulman said.

Since the evidence was released last week, Ulman said Armstrong had hinted at the possibility of stepping down as chairman. 

"He asked for opinions of various people and came to the conclusion that until things settle down, it was more important to put the mission first," Ulman said.

Estrategia Investimentos S.A.

When should I start saving for retirement?

The answer is simple: as soon as you can. Ideally, you'd start saving in your 20s, when you first leave school and begin earning paychecks. That's because the sooner you begin saving, the more time your money has to grow. Each year's gains can generate their own gains the next year - a powerful wealth-building phenomenon known as compounding.

Here's an example of what a big difference starting young can make. Say you start at age 25, and put aside $3,000 a year in a tax-deferred retirement account for 10 years - and then you stop saving - completely. By the time you reach 65, your $30,000 investment will have grown to more than $472,000, (assuming an 8% annual return), even though you didn't contribute a dime beyond age 35.

Now let's say you put off saving until you turn 35, and then save $3,000 a year for 30 years. By the time you reach 65, you will have set aside $90,000 of your own money, but it will grow to only about $367,000, assuming the same 8% annual return. That's a huge difference.


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10 Important resolutions for saving money.

Information from MSNBC

To increase your chances for success, here are a whole bunch of money-related resolutions that most of us can’t afford to break.

If you follow through on just one or two of these, you’ll unavoidably improve your bottom line in the New Year.

1. Slash the incidentals. Carefully read through one of your credit-card statements, staying on the lookout for ongoing monthly fees that you may have utterly forgotten about. Cancel any club memberships you don’t use and magazine subscriptions you don’t read. And if necessary, resolve to stop spending hard-earned money on lottery tickets.

2. Pay yourself first. This is a good time for an honest self-analysis: What have your saving habits been like in the past year? If it seems like all the money you make falls straight through your fingers and gets gobbled up by bills and other expenses, think hard about a reasonable amount you could start to view as yet another monthly bill. Could you handle one more $50 bill? How about a $200 bill? Even if you can only handle one more $15 or $20 bill, that’s better than nothing. Start squirreling that money away for yourself, pronto.

3.Decide where to put that ‘payment.’ If you plan to sock money away for several years until you reach a specific savings goal, your “pay-yourself-first” money could become automatic contributions to a mutual fund or other stock-oriented fund. If you need the money to be more liquid than that, consider an online savings or money market account that gets linked to your current checking account. Many of these online-only accounts are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) and pay annual percentage yields between 4 percent and 5 percent or even higher, as opposed to paltry yields of about 0.2 percent to 0.5 percent for traditional savings accounts. To find such an account, go to Bankrate.com (www.bankrate.com), find the “Compare rates” section on the home page, select “Checking & Savings,” and then “MMAs/Savings Accounts.” (Just keep choosing MMAs and savings accounts as you click through.)

4. Pay ahead on your mortgage. By paying an extra $100 a month toward the principal on a $150,000, 30-year mortgage with a fixed interest rate of 6.5 percent, you’ll save more than $51,000 in interest and be able to retire your mortgage nearly seven years early. An extra monthly payment of even $20 or $25 can make a surprising difference. Granted, you’d stand to benefit more if you could invest that extra payment in an interest-bearing account offering a guaranteed higher rate of return than your mortgage rate. And paying off your mortgage early means you won’t have the tax benefits of home ownership for the same number of years. But if you’re after the psychological benefit of owning your home outright and spending far less on interest over time, then the extra-payment approach is the way to go.

5. Shed credit-card debt. Of course, the best way to avoid creating problems for yourself in 2007 is to use your credit cards cautiously and sparingly, always being sure to pay the entire balance off in full and on time each month. But if you’re already in a serious credit-card pickle as 2006 winds to a close – as millions of people are – try this: Transfer your credit-card balances to a card with a lower interest rate ASAP. You’ll save $730 if you transfer a $2,000 balance from an 18-percent card to an 8.25-percent card and then pay off your balance at a rate of $50 a month. Better yet, transfer balances to cards with rates of 0, 1 or 2 percent and concentrate on paying them off entirely while those low rates last.

6. Say goodbye to late fees. If you keep finding yourself getting hit with extra finance charges because your credit-card bill is regularly due before you’ve received your paycheck, call the credit-card company and ask to have your due date changed. It might take a few months for this change to kick in, but it’s well worth the wait.

7. Take your last puff. Depending on the wallop packed by the “sin taxes” where you live, you could save more than $2,000 a year if you go from being a pack-a-day smoker to a non-smoker. You’ll also qualify for significantly cheaper life-insurance rates after you quit.

8. Max out your retirement savings. Contribute as much as you can to a 401(k) or 403(b) tax-deferred retirement plan. You’ll get an automatic tax break, plus your employer may match part of your contribution – often 50 cents for each dollar you contribute for up to 6 percent of your pay. If your employer doesn’t offer this benefit, open a traditional individual retirement account or a Roth IRA and start saving anyway.

9. Review your estate plan. Do you have a will or a living trust? If not, get that taken care of this year! If you already have such documents drawn up, make sure they’re up to date. This is especially important if you recently had children or if kids might be in your future – but no matter what, these are vital steps for everyone to take regardless of their marital or family status.

10. Analyze your workday expenses. Instead of eating in restaurants every single day, bring your lunch to work from home as often as you can. Take your clothes to the dry cleaners early to avoid paying extra for same-day service. If it’s feasible where you live, try commuting to work by bus or by another form of public transportation. It could save you money and give you added reading and relaxation time.

Sources:

Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine

Bankrate.com

The New York Times’ Home Finance Center

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