Some time later, once my family and I had adjusted to the realization that I was diagnosed with cancer, I began to research.  I have always been a fighter, in fact, I fought in the Navy as a boxer during World War II, earning me the nickname “The K.O. King,” and so I’d be darned if I was going to allow this cancer to take me without a battle.

The first step was to learn my enemy and, perhaps, discover its weaknesses.  Although I did not normally spend time on the computer (admittedly I am a bit intimidated by it), I needed to know more about the type of cancer I had and I wanted the most current information.  So I began to peruse all the mesothelioma information available on the Internet, I wanted to learn more about the malignant cells that now claimed my body as their own.  I found that between 2000 and 3000 people are diagnosed with mesothelioma in the United States each year. This rare form of cancer mostly develops in individuals who were exposed to asbestos, many of whom were industrial laborers during the early to mid-20^th century.    According to the Mesothelioma Research Center website, by the 1970’s, the deadly effects of asbestos became apparent and, subsequently, the government placed a freeze on most asbestos products (commonly found in commercial and residential building materials, automotive parts, small kitchen appliances, and, even, cigarette filters).

Unfortunately, for many American naval veterans, the damage had been done through service to our country.  Thirty percent (30%) of patients diagnosed with mesothelioma are naval veterans.  Asbestos was used on many naval ships because it was an ideal material due to its ability to resist corrosion and high temperatures.  Therefore, it was used as insulation around boilers, hot water pipes, incinerators and steam pipes.  I inhaled the dust from asbestos lining as I helped longshoreman to load bundles of insulation onto vessels, as I walked along the corridors of the ships in poorly ventilated areas, as I joked with fellow sailors who worked around the guts of the ship.  As I read this information online, I sighed, feeling a bit sorry for myself, but quickly realized that I would do it all over again.  I joined the Navy because I was willing to risk my life to protect this great country, I just did not expect it to come in this form decades later, when the threat of the Nazi regime was just a memory.

As I sat in front of the computer, I reviewed the symptoms that led me to contact Dr. Graves’ office – shortness of breath, chest pains, a persistent cough, and fatigue. It was a challenge just to make my bed each day.  I thought it was just the natural result of aging but my wife encouraged me to see Dr. Graves.  As I recalled that fateful appointment, once again I heard that memorable echo in my head – “You have cancer,” she had said, and then that statement was only made worse when Dr. Graves added, “The prognosis for survival is only one year.” One year. I remember someone asking me once ‘if you only had one year to live, what would you do?’ and I replied that I would take a vacation and do all the things I never had the opportunity to do. Little did I know that the only thing on my mind after my diagnosis was “how am I going to beat this, while still having a quality of life to do all the things I want to do?”

Dr. Graves also told me that there were five forms of mesothelioma. The form I had was pleural mesothelioma, the most common, which develops in the lining of the lungs, or the pleura. 70% of all mesothelioma cases are pleural in origin.   My doctor recommended that I simply enjoy my last days with my wife. When I told her I planned to fight it, she said normally cancer is fought with a combination of surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy as treatment, but she felt it would decrease my quality of life. I knew I was on my own, if I chose to fight and I didn’t want to go through chemo or radiation, if it could be avoided. I had heard of alternative treatments from other cancer survivors and wondered if I could implement some of their survival strategies in my case.

I found my inspiration while reading the book, “They Said Months.  I Chose Years!” – authored by mesothelioma survivor, James Rhio O’Connor. At the age of 61, O’Connor was diagnosed with mesothelioma and experienced much of the same things I was going through, and, like me, he was determined to survive.   He spoke to scores of clinical physicians and researched his illness extensively.  O’Connor extended his life an additional 7.5 years through managing his diet, taking supplements, and incorporating the power of his mind to manage and control pain.  He lived until the age of 69.  His sheer will to overcome such a dire prognosis settled my resolve.  I concluded that I would not rest until I saw similar results.  I had found my enemy’s weakness.  I could positively change my final years by simply making the conscious choice to combat my cancer through diet and nutritional supplements.  I learned how to detoxify my body, to increase my intake of Vitamin A and to decrease my consumption of sugar. I am motivated and encouraged to enjoy my final retirement years.  I don’t expect it all to be easy, but l am looking forward to spending time with my lovely bride, who I have to say is still lovely after all these years, and I will take her on vacation, because I choose to go for my enjoyment, and not because I am fearful.  I am not deceived, I know I am not immortal, but, as I said, I am a fighter and I intend on winning this fight.

Rebalancing is one if the most under utilized and under appreciated aspects of investing. An active asset allocation strategy, which requires frequent rebalancing based on current opportunities and risk, is the most successful strategy in today’s investment environment.

The purpose of diversification is to reduce risk by holding investments that will behave differently at different times. Over time, as a portfolio’s assets change in price it can easily move the portfolio to a position that risk and return become inconsistent with an investor’s goals and risk preferences. (Read the article in its entirety)

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Many investors who want to manage their own portfolio need an outside investment management service such as the www.ArborInvestmentPlanner.com to assist them in their investment choices.  The AIP provides subscribers with the Arbor Asset Allocation Model Portfolio (AAAMP) with specific buy and sell instructions. The 10 year performance record for the AAAMP can be viewed here: www.blog.ArborInvestmentPlanner.com/?page_id=141.

If you would like to stay current of investment trends, please feel free to connect with Ken Faulkenberry on Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin.

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Here are five themes with strategic advantages driven by supply and demand.  Each of these themes has the potential to provide a superior return on investment that transforms your portfolio from average to extraordinary:

ENERGY – Whether we are talking about oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear energy, or new green energy, we will probably need it all.  We already use all the energy we produce worldwide.  The tremendous growth expected in the standard of living of the emerging markets, in addition to worldwide increase in population, will force us to find more ways to produce and deliver energy to an energy starved world.

INFRASTRUCTURE – No state or nation is able to thrive without the infrastructure to support growing economies and populations.  Airports, railroads, highways, communications, etc. are all needed to move people, products, and information efficiently.  Developed countries have old and neglected infrastructure needs.  Emerging markets have unending needs for new infrastructure.

FOOD/NUTRITION- As third world nations develop they require more and higher quality food.  This process is already under way.  Add world population growth and you have ever increasing demand for good nutrition and quality food for decades to come.

DEFENSE/TERRORISM/WAR – We live in a dangerous world.  Trends that include an increasing number of fanatics willing to kill innocent people will require technology and diligence to defeat.  Add to the fact that as we have become more global and mobile we have needed more resources to keep the peace, not less.

HEALTH/ENVIRONMENT – This might be the most rewarding and riskiest investment of the five.  Due to population growth in the developing markets, higher standards of living being demanded by emerging countries, and the aging of the developed nations (particularly the U.S. and Japan); the demand for health care and need for environmental services are expanding rapidly and possibly outstripping any other area.  The growing risk is the trend toward government which socializes the industry and creates rationing instead of a free market that innovates and grows to meet expanding needs.  Therefore, one must be extra careful when investing in this area.

Each of these five themes have the potential to provide extraordinary investment returns because the demand created by the global market place will require these needs be met. If you have demand that outstrips supply; the return on investing in that product or service will have to be higher than average to attract investors into investing and meeting that need.

Choosing individual investments that take advantage of global trends and placing them in a properly diversified portfolio takes knowledge and many hours of research. Many investors want to stay in control of their money and manage their own investment but choose to hire an outside service such as www.ArborInvestmentPlanner.com to follow a model portfolio and specific buy and sell instructions. This allows an investor to maintain a properly asset allocated portfolio and make their own decisions, but have the research done for them.

I met Brenda Page and was extremely impressed with her views on Small Business, the Economy and Education.  Refreshing to see her genuine concern for her district.   She is running for US Congress in Texas District 18 – currently held by Shelia Jackson Lee.  To learn more about Brenda Page, visit www.pageforcongress.com.

The past two years prove that passive equity index investing is risky to an investor’s portfolio. An investor needs to employ an active asset allocation strategy that is flexible enough to avoid overvalued assets and invest more aggressively when assets are undervalued. One of the benefits of an active strategy is the ability to look for investments with strategic advantages, and include them within a properly diversified portfolio.

Return on investment is driven by supply and demand. If demand outstrips supply; the return on that product or service will have to be higher than average to attract investors into investing and meeting that need. Therefore, everything being equal, investing where demand is high and growing will yield higher than average rates of return on investment.  Industries or companies that meet these criteria have a long term strategic advantage.

The lack of pure water is one of the greatest challenges in the world today. While there is no shortage of water, there is a serious shortage of clean, potable water. In the developing nations, 80% of all diseases are a result of unsafe water. Contaminated water kills more people worldwide than any single disease, including AIDS or cancer.

World population growth is only a small part of the growing demand for water.  As nations become more developed they consume more goods and services, particularly agricultural products.  Two-thirds of all water consumed goes to irrigate crops. As nations like China and India increase their standard of living, water consumption can rise two or three times the population growth.

Water has some unique properties. Water is not a commodity, but a necessity. For example, unlike oil or most commodities, water cannot be replaced by another product.  There is no substitute for water. No technological innovation can replace water. Demand is not affected by changing tastes, interest rates, recession, inflation, or deflation.

In order to meet the need for water in this century trillions of dollars of investment capital are going to be required.  This means a higher than average rate of return will be required to attract investment capital to companies that focus on technology and services that purify, filter, transport, store, and bottle water.

Unfortunately, there are not a lot of good choices for individual investors to invest in water today.  Water is too small a percentage of revenues and profits to make a difference in the large companies like General Electric (GE) that are investing in water.  There are many smaller and more risky opportunities, but to be prudent, diversification would require investors to buy a portfolio of these stocks. The advantages of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are extraordinary because they are a basket of stocks that trade like a single stock.  ETF’s provide investors an inexpensive way to diversify small portions of a portfolio in targeted sectors.

ETF PowerShares Water Resources (PHO) enables an investor to own approximately 30 different stocks that focus on the provision of potable water. PHO gives an investor who wants to invest in water instant diversification and the ability to increase or decrease that position efficiently because it trades just like a stock.

Like all investment opportunities, investments in water should be a small part of a well diversified asset allocated portfolio. Both over-diversification and under-diversification are major reasons for poor investment portfolio performance.  Much thought, planning and research should be put into how each investment fits into a portfolio.

Investors who want useful research, sound conservative asset allocation advice, and wise investment strategies should consider the online investment newsletter from ArborInvestmentPlanner.com.  The Arbor Asset Allocation Model Portfolio (AAAMP), along with trade alerts, updates, reminders, and special reports gives the individual investor all the powerful tools needed to manage their own portfolio.

More information available at: www.ArborInvestmentPlanner.com

Jennifer Grassman Recognized by 20/20 for her 2003 Crime Stoppers Benefit Concerts

Houston, TX – September 18, 2009 – At the request of the parents of Rachael Koloroutis, a victim of a quadruple homicide in a Clear Lake, Texas, suburban home on July 18, 2003, Houston-based recording artist Jennifer Grassman spoke with ABC’s 20/20 regarding the six year old murder case. In addition to Grassman’s high school friend, Rachael, 18, three others victims, Tiffany Rowell, 18, Adelbert Sanchez, 21, and Marcus Precella, 19, were also found bludgeoned and shot on that fateful afternoon.

“I remember my Mom calling me up at work,” said Grassman, now 24. “She said, ‘Honey, I’ve got some horrible news. Rachael’s dead. She’s been murdered.’ At first I couldn’t process the idea that she was talking about Rachael Koloroutis. I got numb all over. It was a feeling of profound shock, disbelief, and horror.”

Determined to bring comfort to the bereaved family and help the Houston Police Department apprehend the culprits, Grassman organized several memorial concerts to raise money for Rachael’s Crime Stoppers Reward Fund. With Grassman’s help, the Koloroutis family and Houston Crime Stoppers raised $100,000 for the reward fund, which at the time, was the largest reward in Crime Stoppers history.

After four torturous years of minimal leads and no answers, friends and family of the deceased were finally given some closure, when Christopher Snider and Christine Paolilla were charged with capital murder. Snider committed suicide before he was captured. Paolilla was apprehended and sentenced to life in prison on Monday, October 18, 2008 in the court room of Judge Mark Kent Ellis.

“I remember sitting in court not ten feet away from Christine Paolilla,” stated Grassman, “and wondering how someone who looked so small and miserable could have committed such a maliciously violent act. There can be no complete closure for anyone who knew Rachael, because nothing can fill the void that she left behind. Our only peace is in knowing that she is in Heaven, and God will avenge her death.”

The episode of 20/20 featuring the Koloroutis case and Grassman’s interview is set to air on September 25, 2009, at 10/9 CT on ABC. An online memorial for Rachael Koloroutis will be posted on the front page of www.JenniferGrassman.com, along with a download of the song which Grassman wrote for Rachael, entitled White Roses. 100% of proceeds will be donated to Crime Stoppers in memory of Koloroutis.

“I wanted to immortalize Rachael,” said Grassman. “She never got to attend college, get married, have kids, or do all the great things she dreamed of doing. I want everyone to know that Rachael is not just a statistic. Any parent would have been proud to have a girl like Rachael as a daughter, and she should still be with us today.”

About Jennifer Grassman

Jennifer Grassman is a vocalist, pianist, composer and recording artist.  Grassman’s music effortlessly fuses diverse elements of classical, Celtic, gothic and rock styles into a beautiful, moving genre all her own.  She resides in Houston, Texas with her husband and two cats. To learn more, please visit www.JenniferGrassman.com or www.rainnoverhouston.org.

About 20/20

ABC’s second longest running prime-time series, 20/20 is a newsmagazine that mixes investigative pieces with human-interest and celebrity features. Hosted by John Stossel and Elizabeth Vargas, 20/20 airs in Houston every Friday at 9:00 PM on KTRK, ABC Channel 13, after SuperNanny.

Hedging has become somewhat of a dirty word lately.  People correlate it with Hedge Funds and “betting against America”.  In reality, hedging, like many things (i.e. alcohol), can be abused or used incorrectly and cause harm, but when hedging is used correctly it can be a useful tool or a prudent necessity.  A homeowner will usually hedge the chance of a fire destroying his home by purchasing fire insurance.  Hedges can also improve the safety and reduce risk in an investment portfolio.  Hedging is a portfolio diversification strategy to reduce risk by owning something that is correlated inversely to other assets in the investment portfolio.

Owning precious metals investments, including gold and silver mining stocks, are a hedge. The primary purpose of owning these investments is because they do well during times of rising inflation or economic and political turmoil.  These are the times other asset classes like stocks, bonds or real estate may not do well.  Therefore it is prudent to hedge a portfolio by owning some investments related to precious metals. During periods of economic stability most portfolio managers recommend a target of 3-7% of a portfolio in precious metals related investments, but that percentage could be much higher at certain times. It is important to constantly monitor economic and political risks to achieve the optimum asset allocation in precious metals.

A recent popular vehicle for investing, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), provides an instrument that moves inversely, or the opposite direction of a stock market index.  Some of these inverse ETFs even move 2 or 3 times as much as the underlying index.  The need for frequent rebalancing makes inverse ETFs dangerous for anyone who doesn’t understand how they work or does not pay close attention to the need for frequent rebalancing. In other words, inverse ETFs require an active asset allocation strategy.

For investors who employ an active asset allocation strategy, the inverse ETF can be a useful tool by allowing an investor to take the market risk partially or wholly out of one’s stock portfolio.  For example, let’s say you own $100,000 of 20 great companies with solid balance sheets and high dividends, but believed strongly the stock market is going to decrease in value. You may not want to sell your stocks so you buy $50,000 of an ETF that moves two times the inverse of the market.  You now have removed all the market risk from your portfolio of stocks.  If the market moves lower, as you believed, you will make money on the ETF to make up for losses in your stocks.  Of course, if you are wrong and the market moves higher, you will lose money on the ETF that will offset the gains in your stocks. The purpose is to continue receiving the dividends and not incur the taxes and commissions selling and buying your 20 stocks.

Hedging is an important and useful diversification strategy to reduce investment risk and improve long term portfolio performance.  It is also a strategy that requires careful application, monitoring, and frequent rebalancing.  Properly used, hedging can reduce investment risk.

About Arbor Investment Planner

The Arbor Investment Planner provides the Arbor Asset Allocation Model Portfolio (AAAMP) which uses hedges to reduce portfolio risk.  Investors use the AAAMP as a guide but stay in control of their assets, and make their own investment decisions.  The AAAMP uses precious metals investments and inverse index ETF’s to maintain asset allocations at levels believed to be optimum for the current investment environment.  Rebalancing is taken into consideration in Trade Alerts sent to subscribers. The AAAMP is updated with every trade or major market move in order to stay disciplined and focused on our asset allocation.  More Information is available at: www.ArborInvestmentPlanner.com.

By Ken Faulkenberry

Diversification is the single most important element of investment planning. Diversification is a portfolio strategy that reduces risk by combining different investments that are not correlated.  The volatility (risk) of the portfolio is reduced because not all asset groups, industries, or stocks move together.  The goal of diversification is to reduce risk.

Lack of diversification and over diversification are two common mistakes made by investors.  Lack of diversification (putting all your eggs in one basket) is the most dangerous and ruinous mistake possible.  Over diversification can result in a portfolio performing like the market. Many investors have experienced the bad results of over diversification during the current decade.  Most institutional vehicles (i.e. diversified mutual funds, pension funds, etc.) are over diversified and simultaneously lack an asset allocation needed for success in today’s challenging environment.

Proper Diversification can reduce many kinds of risk including company specific risk, poor fund management risk, industry risk, and market risk!

Company specific risk is risk that is specific… [ read more at http://blog.arborinvestmentplanner.com ]

More information available at: www.ArborInvestmentPlanner.com.

July 25, 2009 – SPRING, TX – Runaas Resources LLC announced today that the independent public relations agency received the Spring-Klein Chamber of Commerce’s (SKCC) Toni Award for 2009 Business of the Year.

Candace Runaas (c) accepts the SKCC Toni Award for Business of the Year 2009 from Toni Richard and Assad Shorrosh.

“I am so surprised and honored to receive this…,” said Candace Runaas, president of Runaas Resources, whose company focuses primarily on representing women-owned businesses. She has earned a reputation for her active support of the local business community and her altruistic involvement with non-profit organizations and anti-abuse causes.

The SKCC Toni Award recognizes area businesses that contribute to the economic growth of the Spring-Klein area through active support of the Chamber and its member businesses.

Namesake of the award, Toni Richard, chamber president and co-founder, and Assad Shorrosh, executive board member, presented the award to a tearful Runaas, during the chamber’s 2^nd Annual Christmas in July Gala on Friday, July 24, 2009.

The annual fundraiser also serves as a celebration of the one year anniversary of the young chamber.  The first Christmas in July Gala was held only two months after the chamber’s inaugural luncheon in May 2008.  This year’s event featured Commissioner Jerry Eversole as the guest of honor.

“No one could have deserved this award more,” stated Jennifer Grassman, a Runaas Resources client. “I enjoy working with Runaas Resources because they are a creative, strategic and effective PR agency. Candace has such a big heart. She is a fierce advocate for small business owners and community causes. She puts her heart and soul into everything she does and I am honored to say that I work with her.”

About Runaas Resources LLC

Established in 2005, Runaas Resources LLC is a virtual public relations agency located in Spring, Texas.   Candace Runaas, company president, receives much recognition for her innovative PR methods and her involvement in the community.  For more information, please contact Candace Runaas at info@www.runaasresources.com or visit www.runaasresources.com.