Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 111, No. 127, Ed. 1 Sunday, December 7, 2014 Page: 36 of 44
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2D
Sunday, December 7, 2014
BUSINESS
Denton Record-Chronicle
Thrift Savings Plan worth sticking with
From Page ID
Research
: My question deals with
II transfers from the gov-
emment’s Thrift Savings
Plan (or TSP) into other invest-
ments.
The TSP seems to provide a
no-lose investment strategy for
retirement saving, with its con-
servative selections such as gov-
ernment bonds with guaranteed
principal protection and seem-
ingly low-cost expense ratios.
Should a retiree rollover his TSP
to an IRA? More precisely, what
are your thoughts in this regard,
and how would you handle such
matters?
M.M., Newark, New Jersey
A: Recent stories about fi-
nancial salespeople taking gov-
ernment employee retirees out
of the TSP are a clear example of
how commission-driven (and
borderline criminal) the finan-
cial services industry can be.
Taking money out of this pro-
gram is indefensible. It does not
make sense for the vast majority
of government employees most
of the time.
The reason for this is simple:
There is no way that you can re-
place either the safety of the gov-
ernment bonds fund or the low
cost of the low-cost index funds
James Wood/Courtesy photo
James Wood dealerships do-
nated paper goods to Serve
Denton.
From Page ID
Phillips
Scott Burns
with a product available in the
private market.
Sadly, the most actively
pitched alternatives — fixed in-
dex annuities — are products
that saddle the buyer with effec-
tive annual expenses that are
more than 100 times as great as
the expenses of the TSP. While
the TSP costs less than 0.03 per-
cent, many fixed index annuities
have effective all-in costs in ex-
cess of 3 percent a year.
To make matters worse, gov-
ernment employees have less
need for commercially supplied
sources of income security than
most private-sector workers. Let
me be specific. If you are a feder-
al government worker, you will
get a pension. You will also re-
ceive Social Security benefits.
The pension provides a lifetime
James Wood makes
holiday donations
After the annual Thanksgiv-
ing lunch with all members of
the James Wood car dealerships,
attendees packed a truck full of
donations for Serve Denton.
The dealerships decided to
donate paper goods and collect-
ed items like paper towels and
toilet paper from employees.
Rabbit Hole Brewery
celebrating anniversary
Denton County’s first brewery,
Rabbit Hole, is celebrating its first
anniversary next weekend.
The brewery sold its first keg
of beer on Dec. 14,2013, and has
income. The size of the pension
depends on your length of ser-
vice and the average of your
highest three years of compen-
sation.
A 20-year employee, for in-
stance, can expect to have a pen-
sion equal to 34 percent of his or
her highest three years of com-
pensation. An additional 10
years would add another 10 per-
cent, bringing the total to 44
percent. Social Security benefits
would typically cover 40 percent
of pre-retirement income. This
means long-term federal em-
ployees can retire with a pension
and benefit income that is
around 84 percent of pre-retire-
ment income. Guaranteed. In-
flation-adjusted.
Some of that pre-retirement
income went to pay the employ-
ment tax of 7.6 percent. It also
went to TSP contributions and
to work-related expenses. So it’s
not difficult to see that many
federal employees will have very
secure retirements. They don’t
have to worry much about the
market ups and downs of their
TSP accounts. For a long-term
federal employee, income secu-
rity products such as fixed-index
annuities are good examples of
BRIEFLY
IN BUSINESS
since expanded throughout the
metroplex.
They will have a one-year an-
niversary party Saturday, Dec.
13, at the brewery in Justin and
launch their newest beer, a New
Year’s Eve seasonal called Hole
Lang Syne. Tickets to the event,
which include food and beer, are
available online at http://bit.ly/
IxMZnsR.
Denton Modern
Dentistry opens off Loop
A new dentist office with new
digital X-rays and expedited
procedures for complicated
problems like crowns has
opened in Denton.
Denton Modem Dentistry is
buttons, pencils, markers, scis-
sors and so on. Mason jars with
yet more supplies are arranged
like decor here and there. Origi-
nal photographs and numerous
dog-eared books line shelves
along the wall joining the kitch-
en and den. It is cozy, warm and
an easy place to be.
“So, is this your studio?” I ask.
That’s what I’ve come to see.
“Upstairs,” she replies, giving
Tucker, the white dog, the run of
the house again now that he and
I are somewhat acquainted.
Up the stairs at the end of the
hallway is the bedroom-turned
art studio. Her crafty talents are
evident everywhere. Colorful
spools of thread are organized
on a board leaning against the
wall on the table behind a sew-
ing machine. The lamp over the
work table is shaded with sheet
music. My eyes rest on the day-
bed under the window and the
table beside it, both crowded
with the raw goods of the project
I am most eager to explore.
Scores of Barbie dolls in vari-
ous states of restyle sit in neat
lines as though waiting their
turn. There are male and female
dolls of myriad colors and ori-
gins. A pile of clothing and an-
other of shoes just their size are
piled to the side.
The artist picks up an exotic
island-looking doll with
cropped purple-red hair. “She is
my favorite. She’s so beautiful! I
may keep her to be friends with
my Barbie,” she says.
The artist is Darien Orr, and
this is her world.
Darien points to the top shelf
behind her. “That is the Barbie I
grew up with,” she says. “She’s a
That Girl Barbie.”
That Girl was a 1960s-era
TV show and Darien’s Barbie is a
dead ringer for the trendy ca-
reer-girl played by Mario Thom-
as, a hottie in her day. The doll
sits snugly next to her heart-
throb, Ken, in a blue convertible,
a scene I recognize from Dari-
en’s already popular line of note
cards featuring Barbie and Ken
living the Denton life. Barbie
and Ken in front of Frosty’s, on
Industrial Street, in the Yankee
Doodle Parade, at the Little
Chapel-in-the-Woods, shopping
on the Square, among others.
Now, Barbie is stepping out
of the note cards and becoming
an active part of Denton life.
“I love Denton, and I want to
show people things to do, the
things going on they can be part
of” Darien says of her motivation.
She started nearly a decade
ago with photography. While
helping out a teacher friend in
an elementary school art class,
she was inspired by one stu-
dent’s project on photographic
perspective. The student had
photographed her sister’s Barbie
doll in front of their house in
such a way that Barbie appeared
life-size. Darien began shooting
her Denton scenes with her own
doll to add intrigue and give life
to the Denton she was trying to
convey.
Her new line is called Den-
toning Dolls. Every doll is
unique, rescued from someone’s
discards, then thoughtfully
bathed, styled and dressed to fit
into the many nuances of Den-
ton life. People adopt their Den-
toning Doll, each with a name, a
background, an official Denton-
ing T-shirt, and a hash tag for
sharing its Dentoning adven-
tures on Instagram. The dolls
come packaged in a clear box,
the background an artistic im-
age of the Courthouse. Brilliant!
“I know we’re not Paris,
France, but we have cool things
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L
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'5j324 Sunset Street
Denton. TX 76201
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324 Sunset Street
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MAKING SENSE OF INVESTING
inappropriate sales. They are the
proverbial equivalent of selling a
refrigerator to an Eskimo.
Q: In February, I positioned
an IRA account into the follow-
ing funds:
■ 40 percent: Fidelity Spar-
tan Bond Index (FSITX)
■ 20 percent: Fidelity Spar-
tan International Stock Index
(FSIVX)
■ 5 percent: Vanguard
REITs (VNQ)
■ 35 percent: Federated
Short-Term Income Institution-
al (FSITX)
Now it appears that the aver-
age total return from this port-
folio is 5.7 percent. FSITX has a
return of just 0.34 percent and
FSIVX a return of 2.97 percent.
What benchmark should I be
measuring this against? The re-
turns seem a little low.
R.M., San Antonio
A: Momingstar might classi-
fy your portfolio as “conservative
allocation.” It would be in the
same group with mutual funds
that have more fixed income
than equity, typically averaging
60 percent bonds and 40 per-
cent equity.
But your portfolio, with only
25 percent in equity funds (in-
cluding international stocks and
REITs), would be much more
conservative than the 40 per-
cent equity average of that
group. With no domestic stock
funds, your portfolio would also
be considered a bit eccentric,
since the vast majority of funds
are more likely to have domestic
stocks than international stocks.
Judging any portfolio’s per-
formance over a short period of
time is pure folly. Using long-
term historical returns on each
asset class, what you might ex-
pect from this portfolio is an an-
nualized return that is a bit more
than 6 percent. Expecting that
return during a period when in-
ternational stocks are swooning
under both regional angst and a
soaring dollar would not be rea-
sonable, particularly since fixed-
income yields are now much
lower than their historical aver-
ages.
SCOTT BURNS is a princi-
pal of the Plano-based in-
vestment firm AssetBuilder
Inc., a registered investment
adviser. His e-mail address is
scott@scottburns.com.
— Universal Uclick
now open at 1300 S. Loop 288,
at the comer of the loop and
Spencer Road in front of LA Fit-
ness. The office also partners
with Smile Generation, a refer-
ral service for dentists.
The office is headed by den-
tists Jubert Aranas and John
Bames.
1-35 RV Center and
Coach-Net partner up
Coach-Net, a company that
provides technical and roadside
assistance for RVs, is now part-
nering with 1-35 RV Center.
The partnership will allow
1-35 RV Center customers to
utilize the Coach-Net service
plans like roadside assistance or
to offer,” Darien says while show-
ing me a doll whose body was
made in 1966. “I really want to
see these dolls out and around
town. It’s a cool way of getting
people interested in a bigger
Denton experience.”
We think so, too.
In closing, a word directly
from the Dentoning Doll:
‘After being tossed aside as
an unwanted plaything, I was
rescued, brought to Denton, lov-
ingly bathed, restyled and re-
named. To welcome me to our
friendly community, I was given
a “dentoning ...” tee, which I’ll
hazard protection.
Additionally, National In-
door RV Centers in Lewisville is
now offering the assistance pro-
grams as well.
Muddy Jake’s Sports
Grill & Pub set to open
Muddy Jake’s Sports Grill &
Pub will open its second location
at 222 W. Hickory St. next year.
The space was occupied by
Gerhard’s until last December
and has been vacant since.
Muddy Jake’s currently has
one location in Sulphur Springs,
offering classic sports bar grub,
beer and drinks.
Contact Jenna Duncan at jduncan@
dentonrc.com or 940-566-6889.
sport around town in my new
Denton life with you!”
See our store at discoverden-
ton.com for Dentoning Dolls
and more of Dairen Orr’s cre-
ations at etsy.com/shop/
DentonDesignCompany.
KIM PHILLIPS is vice
president of the Denton Con-
vention and Visitors Bureau at
the Denton Chamber of Com-
merce. She laves promoting
Denton’s original, independent
spirit through the city’s sense of
place and cast of many charac-
ters. She can be reached at
kim@discaverdenton.com.
While he is quick to note that
not all the organization’s clients
are success stories, he does see
people improving their circum-
stances through business own-
ership.
Project Enterprise focuses on
providing assistance to would-
be entrepreneurs who might not
otherwise get financing and
training, including low-income
individuals, people who have
spent time in prison and occa-
sionally, those who have the re-
sources but lack the know-how
to use it effectively.
Owens said that in many
cases, the loans the organization
provides are the only option for
its clients, as they do not require
prior business experience, credit
history or collateral. And fund-
ing can remove a major hurdle
for many business owners.
Luis Torrado is well aware of
such challenges.
He started Torrado Con-
struction in Philadelphia in
1996 with just two workers and
generated annual revenue of
$300,000 to $400,000 in the
first few years. The company
now has 50 to 70 employees at
any time, as it can change sea-
sonally. Revenue for the year is
projected at $10 million.
This success has allowed Tor-
rado, 46, the flexibility to plan
for an early retirement. Before
starting his business, he expec-
ted to work until he was around
65. Now he thinks he’ll be able to
retire between 55 and 60.
“I am definitely in a better fi-
nancial position than If I worked
for someone else,” Torrado says.
It was a bumpy road though.
Torrado’s business suffered dur-
ing the recession and for a few
years, he was barely covering
overhead costs such as staff sala-
ries, rent, equipment leases and
insurance.
He needed capital to rebuild
but banks saw construction
companies as high-risk busi-
nesses at the time. After being
turned down three times for
loans, he was able to secure a
loan for emerging contractors
through the Philadelphia Indus-
trial Development Corp., a local
public-private economic devel-
opment organization created to
support business growth and
foster development in the area.
And while the business he’s
worked to grow creates personal
financial security, Torrado says
he’s motivated by his ability to
create jobs that help others live a
better life.
“To bring someone in from
the inner city and sign them up
with the union and see them
change over the years is amaz-
ing,” Torrado says. “Changing
people’s lives has an amazing ef-
fect. That is what is important to
me. The money follows. You
have to make money in order to
survive. But I realized over the
years that is not the most impor-
tant thing.”
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Parks, Scott K. Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 111, No. 127, Ed. 1 Sunday, December 7, 2014, newspaper, December 7, 2014; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1107917/m1/36/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .