Hobbies after rertirment

Hobbies are a important part of retirement.

after 8 years into retirement I can see some of the mistakes in priorities I chose and some of the good things that helped in the transition from the workforce to retirement.

Some of the hobbies I  chose did not really fill the time,which became available when I retired.

One thing I took up to fill some time was golf, I had played a bit in the years before I retired.

This hobby, gave my good wife of many years, some relief from having me around all of the time.

Health Tip Of The Week

Too busy to exercise? Get up earlier

Finding time to exercise can be a challenge.

If your days and evenings are to busy, try a morning dose of exercise.

Get up 30 minutes earlier twice a week, and hop on the treadmill or stationary bike while you listen to the radio or watch the morning news.

Or if the weather is nice,( not to many people want to walk in the rain or snow), step outside for a brisk walk.

Once you've adjusted to early morning workouts, add another day or two to the routine.

Nine Years Younger

Regular exercise can turn back the clock by up to nine years, a study finds.

Can regular exercise provide the key to youth? Quite possibly, according to scientists at King's College London.

People who engage in at least three hours a week of moderate to vigorous exercise are up to nine years younger biologically than those who do not, the study found.

By using DNA blood samples from study participants, researchers measured structures called telomeres which protect the chromosomes in cells from damage. With age, telomeres have been found to shorten, meaning more cellular damage occurs as a person grows older.

The British study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, found that people who exercised for 3 hours each week had longer telomeres and were therefore, biologically 9 years younger than those who exercised for under 15 minutes.

The anti-aging effects were found among people who engaged in moderate to vigorous exercise such as aerobics, running or tennis. "It is not just walking around the block. It is really working up a sweat," study leader Tim Spector, a genetic epidemiologist, told Reuters.

In this study of over 2,401 identical and non-identical twins, the research team also adjusted for body weight, smoking, economic status and physical activity at work. The average age for study participants was 50.

IS this the time to get back into the market

Dan Sullivan, editor of The Chartist, says most of the damage of the bear market has been done, but he thinks we’ll see another leg down before it officially ends.

One indication that this bear market is winding down is the preponderance of doom-and-gloom books on the market: The Two-Trillion-Dollar Meltdown, The New Economic Disorder, The Return of Depression Economics, The Coming Economic Collapse, Financial Shock, Plunder and Blunder, The Origins of Financial Crisis, Empire of Debt, Guide to the End of Wall Street as We Know It. It is just the opposite of the get-rich-quick books that were on the shelves at the end of the dot.com era.

We are working under the premise that the bulk of the damage in this bear market has already occurred; however, we strongly advise against buying into this rally. We say this because we expect the market to trace out a “W” formation prior to our models flashing a buy signal, which will mark the conclusion of the bear market.

This is what occurred at the bottom of the previous bear market, which ended back on October 9, 2002. The bottoming process entailed two very explosive failing rallies. The first rally began on July 23, 2002 and ended on August 22nd. Over the period, the Standard & Poor’s 500 moved from 797.70 to 962.70, gaining 20.7%; however, by October 9th, all of the ground gained on the rally and then some was given back with the S&P hitting its lows of the bear market at 776.76.

Officially the bear market ended on October 9, 2002, but there was another failing rally in the interim which saw the S&P 500 tack on a gain of 15.6%, moving up to 938.87 by October 27th. From that point, the S&P proceeded to test its October lows, dropping back down to 800.73 by March 11, 2003.

The next rally was for real, which in our opinion was the start of the kick-off stage of the bull market. By May 30th, the S&P was 9.5% higher and in the process had broken through the peak of the “W” formation.

Several bear markets have ended with “W” formations, which entail a sharp rally followed by a pull back with a test of the lows: 1973-74 ended with a “W” formation as well as 1962.

The obvious question is: What if the market just proceeds to go straight up (a “V” formation) along the lines of 1970 and 1982? Our answer is that there will be ample time to take worthwhile positions in the emerging high-relative-strength stocks. Even if the beginning of the next bull market turns out to be a “V” formation, we would expect our models to flash a timely buy signal. Trust us, we have no intention of missing the next bull market, which, if history is any guide, is going to be a good one.

Why metals are beating metals stocks

Desjardins Securities may be one of the few observers to stick with its forecast of no – repeat, no – U.S. recession in 2008. But if there is a recession, metal markets should be able to absorb the shock, according to John Redstone, an analyst at Desjardins.

“In our view, a U.S. recession would have much less impact on metal markets than in previous cycles,” he said in a note to clients. “Indeed, we would argue that metal consumption in the U.S. has already been reduced to a recessionary level.”

He showed that U.S. copper demand fell 4 per cent in 2007, aluminum demand fell 6 per cent, nickel demand fell 7 per cent and zinc demand fell 10 per cent – and Mr. Redstone does not expect a significant rebound through to 2009, when demand will still be below 2006 levels. Yet prices for these base metals have remained strong thanks to continuing demand from other places. (Yes, China.)

Still, the stock market appears to have a different view. Equities of commodity producers are underperforming their underlying commodities out of concern about the U.S. economy. According to Mr. Redstone, the mines and metals sub-index of producers had risen just 9.5 per cent for the 12 months ended Mar. 7, 2008. But over the same period, the London Metals Exchange Index of actual commodities rose 28 per cent.

“We believe the upward metal price movements on the LME in part reflect a more positive view for incremental world metal demand as driven by the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China),” Mr. Redstone said. “Ultimately, the more positive market supply/demand fundamentals for base metals worldwide should reassert themselves in higher share prices for companies on the mines and metals sub-index.”

Jobs, Jobs, What Jobs?

Clearly, Canadian investors are in no mood for good news. Or, they simply just don’t care that Canada can churn out jobs when the U.S. is cutting them.

The S&P/TSX composite index dipped 130 points at the start of trading on Friday morning, down 1 per cent o 13,230, after Statistic Canada said the Canadian economy pumped out 43,000 jobs in February. Once again, banks were a major drag on the index. It has become something of a sport to watch Bank of Montreal plumb new depths. In early trading, the beleaguered bank was down another 1.8 per cent, to $41.23.

In the United States, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 120 points, or 1 per cent, to 11,921. No surprise here: Payrolls declined by 63,000, far worse than expected. The broader S&P 500 fell to 1294, down 11 points or 0.8 per cent in early trading. There is sport in watching Citigroup Inc. fall as well. It declined another 2.4 per cent in early trading, falling to $20.67 (U.S.).

Besides being force-fed awful jobs numbers for February, some investors may also be rattled by the fact that the broader S&P 500 broke through an important technical barrier on Thursday, closing lower than its January trough to a new 18-month low – a sign that maybe there is no floor to this stock market correction after all. Now, many investors will be looking at the index's intraday January low as another technical indicator. That low is 1270, or just 24 points away.

In Europe, the selling accelerated after the U.S. jobs numbers were released. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 fell 1.4 per cent and Germany’s DAX index fell 1.8 per cent.

Looking for good News, It may be hard to find right now

Jobs, jobs, jobs – that’s what investors have on their minds on Friday morning before stock market trading begins in North America.

In Canada, the news was upbeat: The economy added more jobs than expected in February for the second month in a row, with payrolls rising by 43,300 – many of them in loonie-scarred Ontario.

In the United States, where – let’s face it – the majority of eyeballs are focused right now, the news was far less sunny: Payrolls shrank by 63,000 in February, defying an expectation among economists for a slight bounce and confirming some of the worst suspicions about the declining health of the U.S. economy. The unemployment rate decline 4.8 per cent, but only because many job seekers had simply given up looking for work.

Just before the jobs data was released, U.S. index futures were pointing down. Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average fell 109 points, to 11,961. For the broader S&P 500, futures fell 9 points to 1299.

Overseas, major stock market indexes followed the big declines in North America on Thursday. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 and Germany’s DAX index each fell 0.9 per cent on Friday. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 feel 3.3 per cent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 3.6 per cent.