MC Camo & DJ Decoy

MC Camo & Dj Decoy going wild in a duck blind just north of Sacramento.

Dodson Consultants In The News

Dodson Consultants was just quoted in an article regarding small business and free accounting software. Click here to a link to the article.

Thomas Dodson In The News

The Christian Science Monitor just published an article quoting Thomas Dodson, president of Dodson Consultants. The article deals with the ups and downs of marriage through tough financial times.

Golden Spike Innovator Learns From Another

Walter Horsting, the man behind Sacramento's proposed Golden Spike, is meeting tomorrow with John Saca, developer of the failed The Towers at Capital Mall. Stay tuned for more details on the meeting.

Where The Wealthy Reside

The Sacramento Business Journal is running a story on where the wealthy live. Serrano Country Club is proudly near the top of the list.

G'day, Mate

Our blog stats show we have a reader from Melbourne, Australia. G'Day, Mate.

PRSA: California Capital Chapter

Earlier this week I wrote that Dodson Consultants is now a member of the PRSA. That is true! What I failed to mention is that we are also a member of the California Capital Chapter.

Boone Skis on CNBC

CNBC anchorman Jim Goldman talks Boone Skis this Friday. Stay tuned for video.

Thomas Dodson On TV

FOX40 interviewed me about my neighborhood association's recent move to hire off duty deputies. Watch the whole story here.

Dodson Consultants Joins PRSA

Dodson Consultants joined the PRSA last week.

Azizzle Press Release Goes Live

If you are interested in reading the newest press release for Azizzle, click here. Warning, it's edgy!

October's Bear Market

The good folks over at Lighthouse Financial Planning sent this email this morning. It is worth the read.

The month of October started off with the world in the midst of a major panic. On the heels of a very difficult September, equities around the globe fell dramatically during the first eight trading days of the new quarter. Markets rebounded briefly mid-month as global governments and central banks finally came together with a coordinated response to the financial crisis. The celebration was short-lived, however, as mutual funds and hedge funds were hit by massive redemptions by investors as well as margin calls by lenders. A major global sell-off resumed in late October with a climax in most equity markets on October 27th. At that point, the S&P 500 was down over -27% while other equity indexes were down substantially more.

Global equity markets finally reacted to the oversold levels by rebounding significantly during the final four days, with a rebound of at least +14%. But even after posting the best week for equities since 1974, October still finished as the worst single month in 21 years (since the October '87 crash). Where Do We Go From Here? To say the least, most investors (and advisors) are shell-shocked by what has occurred over the last two months. Month-end brokerage statements are liable to make stomachs churn. It is a natural inclination to feel scared and anxious about such a rapid decline in your portfolio. You want the pain to stop or feel reassured that the worst is behind us. While no one can predict what the market will do over the short-term, we can say that some very positive developments have occurred since mid-October.

These developments include:
· Substantial commitment of money to recapitalize troubled financials
· Coordinated interest rate cuts by global central banks
· Guarantees of inter-bank lending
· Dramatic increases of insurance for bank deposits
· Federal support of the commercial paper market

What is encouraging is that a number of the recent policy moves have begun bearing fruit:
· LIBOR rates have come way down
· Commercial paper (short-term debt issued by companies) volume has started to increase
· Banks have started to receive the initial payments from the TARP plan, moving from a theoretical concept to something real
· Action plans are being formed within the administration around how to stem the flow of foreclosures and support significant numbers of homeowners who are behind on their payments.

What all of these developments indicate to us is that the financial system meltdown risk has been greatly lessened by coordinated intervention on the part of governments around the globe. The major risk that's left relates to the degree of economic damage we'll see over the next year or so and the strength of the recovery that follows.
Without question, global economies are facing a difficult road ahead, as consumers and companies retrench. The world is facing a recession that will be longer and more difficult than anyone could have predicted a couple of months back. Therefore, we would expect to see additional aggressive policy moves in the weeks/months ahead and do not see Barack Obama's win yesterday interrupting the push forward. If anything, it is just one less piece of uncertainty to move markets.

Is Now a Good Time to Buy?
What is often lost among the talk of gloom and doom, however, is how cheap stocks have become as a result of the sell-off. Valuations across nearly all asset classes, even when taking into account pessimistic predictions, are beginning to look very compelling for long-term investors. For instance, the P/E of the S&P 500 is now 13.9, which is a level not seen since the mid 1980's. Also, several well-known investors and managers who have traditionally been bearish, have now become much more enthusiastic about today's values.

Our Strategy
We are not timers, we do not go in and out of markets wholesale. We believe in our asset allocation models and rebalancing the portfolio when triggered. When we rebalance an account it is usually only a few percentages of the total account value. Since the stock markets all over the world have fallen so much, real value opportunities are appearing and our rebalancing is leading us to buy the stock funds.

Feel free to pass this on to anyone you think might appreciate it.

Jim Johnson
CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERTM
Jim.Johnson@LighthouseFinancialPlanning.com


J. Jeffrey Lambert
CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERTM
Jeff.Lambert@LighthouseFinancialPlanning.com


Lighthouse Financial Planning, LLC
A Fee-Only Firm- Lighting your path to a brighter financial future...
http://www.lighthousefinancialplanning.com/
101 Parkshore Drive, Suite 100
Folsom, CA 95630
Ph: 916-932-7200
Fax: 916-932-7201

Hey, Hey It's The Monkees

That's Monkee Peter Tork signing a pair of Boone Skis at the Long Island Music Hall of Fame Award Ceremony. More pictures to come soon!

Today Is The Day

Monrovia's Courtyards At Old Town Breaks Ground

You know, there's really not enough coverage of Monrovia development. But thankfully we can report the Courtyards at Old Town, an 163-unit apartment development located in old town Monrovia, broke ground yesterday. According to Globe St, the development will have 6,000 square feet of retail. More via the trade publication: "According to Dan Deibel, vice president of development for Urban Housing, the new project will bring access to neighborhood-serving retail space, transportation and employment centers to the infill location." The project, designed by the architecture firm KTGY (also behind downtown's Market Lofts) is expected to be completed by April 2010.

Starting a Public Relations Firm

Gaebler.com added Dodson Consultants to its resource list of how to start a PR firm! Glad to know we can serve as a role model.

Shipping News

I learned a valuable lesson about shipping over the past few days. The first- and most important lesson- is that you need to get all parties on the same page when it comes to shipping. Make sure everyone knows when packages need to be delivered, etc.

The second thing I learned is that once a package is shipped, its status cannot be altered. That means if you ship something 'ground' from the west coast to the east coast, event with the tracking number, you cannot call the carrier and get the package expedited or 'upgraded' to overnight.

One Day University

On Sunday November 2, University of California students will look older – decades older! Hundreds of boomers will go “back to school” for a day of weekend fun at One Day University, the nation’s most popular Edutainment program.

They’ll experience the best of UC Berkeley, University of Pennsylvania, Harvard and Stanford– without ever leaving San Francisco, CA.

One Day University is a dynamic lecture series that gathers the best professors from the nation’s top schools to deliver their most popular lectures. Since 2006, the program has attracted almost 15,000 students-for-a-day in 11 cities across the country.

The November 2 event in San Francisco will offer in depth analysis to the following questions:
o What gave Hitler his peculiar power?
o How is the world changing the English language?
o What did Beethoven’s Ninth mean to listeners in the nineteenth century?

WHO: One Day University

WHEN: November 2, 2008

WHERE: UCSF Mission Bay Campus
William J. Rutter Community Center
1675 Owens Street
San Francisco, CA 94158

WHEN: 9:30 am to 3:45 pm

PRICE: $259.00

For more information, visit http://www.onedayu.com/ or call 800 One Day U (800-663-3298).

About One Day University
One Day University, a dynamic lecture series led by the country’s top university professors, is pioneering a new genre of weekend activities: Edutainment.

Every eight weeks, in 11 cities across the country, a rotating ensemble of four prominent professors presents a day of cutting-edge insights. Their diverse topics range from the psychology of happiness to global warming, and from music to politics.

The faculty is an all-star lineup: More than 100 award-winning professors from 35 top schools, including Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Stanford, and Columbia. In fact, professors from eight of U.S. News & World Report’s prestigious “Top 10 Universities” ranking are members of the One Day University faculty.

For the audience, One Day U. rekindles the spirit of intellectual exploration first experienced as a college undergraduate. The thought-provoking sessions, held in a classroom setting, shake up assumptions, spark curiosity and provide the audience with a dynamic lens for viewing the world.

Since 2006, almost 15,000 students-for-a-day have attended One Day U. The program’s popularity speaks to Boomers’ growing demand for innovative pursuits and post-career challenges. The U.S. Department of Education estimates that nearly half of Americans over age 50 participate in continuing education courses. According to the Learning Resources Network, the continuing-education industry is a $6 billion business.

One Day University events take place in the following locations: Los Angeles; San Francisco; New York area (New York City; Westchester; Long Island); Washington, DC area (Rockville, MD); Connecticut (West Hartford; Fairfield); Morristown, NJ; Philadelphia, PA; and Wellesley, MA.

Sessions run from 9:30 a.m. - 3:45 p.m., include lunch and start at $259 per session.

Multifamily Executive Taps KTGY

What are the pros and cons of washers and dryers in your apartment? Should multifamily builders use central laundry facilities? Those and other questions were posed yesterday by Multifamily Executive to KTGY, a nationally recognized architecture and planning firm. Stay tuned for the final article.

The Green Hour Talks Skis

Environmental maverick and national radio host Harry O is interviewing the folks from Boone Skis tomorrow. The topic? Green skis, of course.

I'll post a link to The Green Hour - America's first environmental radio program I might add - once it airs this weekend. Harry's show is heard in the Bay Area, Dallas and all over cyberspace.

Dodson Consultants In The News

This article appeared today in California Executive.

Unemployment Fund Running on Fumes, Facing Tough Decisions
October 23, 2008
California's unemployment insurance program will dip into the red in a matter of months if lawmakers fail to take swift action, according to a recent report by the state Unemployment Fund. But since all employers pay into the joint state/federal program, which provides supplemental income to unemployed workers, any fix likely will put additional tax pressure on already struggling businesses.

Further exacerbating the problem is the state's rising unemployment rate, estimated at 7.7% in September by the Employment Development Department (EDD), which manages the unemployment insurance program. There are major differences on how to fix the program, but all stakeholders agree that doing nothing is not an option.

Assemblyman Juan Arambula (D-Fresno), chair of the Assembly Jobs and Economic Development and Economy Committee, says a solvent unemployment insurance fund is in everyone's best interest.

"What I've seen in my part of California is that if unemployed workers don't have some income, it has an impact on the overall economy, including small businesses, and has the potential to create a downward spiral," Arambula says.

Many small business owners and their advocates, however, say there are better options and now is not the time to pile an additional tax burden on the backs of employers.

"If we look at taxing in just one area, it will have a negative impact on jobs and small businesses in general," says Michael Shaw, California legislative director for the National Federation of Independent Business. "We want to be sensitive to the needs of those who are losing jobs, but we also want to make sure the small businesses can still create these jobs."

Making Sense Of A Complex System
Federal law provides the framework and funds the administrative and extended benefit funding for each state's Unemployment Insurance Fund, while state payroll taxes fund regular unemployment insurance benefits. Federal law requires state employers to pay a tax on the first $7,000 of each employee's wages (taxable wage base), at the very minimum.

Depending on an employer's "experience rating," which takes into account how often an employer's workers use the funds, payroll taxes for the fund can be as high as $485 per employee per year.

California is one of only eight states that tax the minimum $7,000 taxable wage base, while the average among all states is $13,774, according to information supplied by the Assembly Insurance Committee and Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 4 on State Administration. So as wages increase, the amount of money paid into the fund does not increase proportionately.
The two Assembly committees responsible for fixing the fund are waiting for policy suggestions from the EDD, lawmakers say. The fund will be short $1.6 billion by the end of 2009, more than doubling to $3.5 billion by the end of 2010, according to the report.

If a solution is not reached, then the state will have to request a loan from the federal government and repay it with interest, Arambula says.
"If we were not able to make payment on the loan, then the federal government would take action and collect from employers directly, which to me would be the worst of all worlds," he adds.

Assemblyman Michael Duvall (R-North Orange County) says that the last few months of the year are typically lean times for the fund, due to the cyclical nature of how the tax is collected. At a joint committee hearing about the issue earlier this month, he says he was told the fund would be in the red sometime in January, "which is actually when the money starts coming in because it's the New Year."

"This is something that gets sent out to the media and everyone gets scared," says Duvall, referring to it as a recurring theme. "The real problem is today's economy and the fact that they gave more benefits than they should have."

Searching For Solutions
Sacramento has a few options to consider, including but not limited to an increase in the taxable wage base, although Assemblywoman Patty Berg (D-Eureka) says nothing is on the table yet. Berg, who terms out at the end of the year, says the key issue is the taxable wage base.
"We have the lowest taxable rate base in the nation by federal law. That has to change; it would provide an immediate fix," says Berg, who also would like the EDD to update its information technology infrastructure, extend benefits beyond the current 26 weeks and make changes that would allow more coverage for seasonal workers.

Duvall believes benefits should not be extended beyond 26 weeks if there is no way to pay for it and says that while IT upgrades are needed, they need to come up with realistic priorities.
Thomas Dodson, principal of Sacramento-based Dodson Consultants, concedes that most employers would be willing to pay a "perceived equitable amount" to keep the fund healthy, but believes in a more holistic approach. He says the fund provides benefits to too many people for whom the system was never intended to cover, including part-time workers, and should not also be extended to seasonal employees.

Some lawmakers suggest increasing the taxable wage base from $7,000 to $28,500, Duvall says, which would effectively quadruple the contribution of employers whose workers earn at least $28,500. Says Duvall, "It's just a bad time to do this."

One main complaint among employers (including Duvall, a longtime business owner himself) is a perceived lack of planning for hard times. Some states have a system that stockpiles a surplus when the economy is strong in anticipation of down times, called "counter-cyclical funding," when more people usually collect the benefits, according to a report by the California Senate Office of Research.

"There's a rule in business that says for every good year, you want to plan and budget for four years of bad times," says Dodson, who believes the Democrat-dominated state legislature often lacks fiscal restraint in its policy decisions. "Downturns are going to happen. Our elected officials have to make better decisions."

Because of the experience rating - which is set at the highest rate for new businesses - companies that regularly over-hire and then lay off excess staff pay a somewhat higher rate than companies that rarely (or never) reduce staff. But this, say Dodson and Duvall, needs to be reformed as well.

Pointing out that the unemployment rate is much higher in the Central Valley and other areas impacted by the housing slump, Duvall suggests employers in those regions and/or industries that experience more employment volatility should pay a higher rate: "It has to be divided up to where the benefits are going."

John Arensmeyer, founder and CEO of Sausalito-based advocacy organization Small Business Majority, also sees room for improvement in how the experience rating is structured and applied.

"In theory, those contributing more to the problem should shoulder more of the weight," he says.

Other suggestions, many of them in response to a query by Small Business California, an advocacy group based in San Francisco, include the following: Increase enforcement to reduce instances of fraud, require a modest employee contribution, make sure beneficiaries are in fact looking for work, prohibit highly paid temporary contractors from collecting benefits, reform the EDD appeal process to make it more employer-friendly and give more incentives to create jobs in the first place.

But simply raising payroll taxes doesn't sit well with most business owners, as Jennifer Kushell, president and co-founder of Marina Del Rey-based YS Interactive Corp. laments.
"I'm not sure what the solutions are, but raising payroll taxes will just make it all the more difficult for small business owners to justify hiring more people or increasing benefits and compensation to our existing employees," Kushell says. "Small business owners need all the help they can get in growing their businesses, let alone keeping them alive."

California Executive © 2008 Providence Publications, LLC All Rights Reserved. - Patents Pending

Warren Buffet Talks Economy

The fine folks over at Lighthouse Financial Planning sent this insightful piece out this morning. It is definitely worth the read.

Did you see Charlie Rose’s interview with Warren Buffett? On October 1, the two of them met in San Diego for a brief chat about the economy and the financial markets. Earlier that day Buffett had announced that his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, would invest $3 billion in General Electric.1 The great investor was realistic about today’s economy – and also optimistic.

“It’s like a great athlete that’s had a cardiac arrest.” That’s Buffett’s view of the U.S. economy right now. What led to the heart attack? He puts it as simply as he can: “300 million Americans, their lending institutions, their government, their media, all believed that house prices were going to go up consistently. And that got billed into a $20 trillion residential home market.”

Everyone leveraged up, and when “you have a 20% fall in value of a $20 trillion asset, that’s $4 trillion. And when $4 trillion [in] losses lands in the wrong part of this economy, it can gum up the whole place.” Now, with so many major financial institutions trying to deleverage, “there is only one institution in the world that can leverage up in [a] countervailing force to that, and that’s the United States Treasury.”2

“An economic Pearl Harbor.” Dire words? Well, in Buffett’s view, that was what the last month or so on Wall Street had meant for the country. “In my adult lifetime, I don’t think I’ve ever seen people as fearful economically as they are right now. They are not wrong to be worried.” When something like this hits, he added, “You better spring into action with the best people you have.” He praised the initiative and vision of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson – and FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair, in his view the unsung hero of the crisis. For the next administration, “it’s more important who the Treasury Secretary is than who the Vice President is.”

Will taxpayers get their money back? “I would bet on it.” Buffett feels that the Treasury Department’s plan to purchase hundreds of billions of mortgage-related assets will turn a profit given that they will buy them at market, and also “because the United States government has staying power and it has a low cost of borrowing.” The Bush administration’s plan is, in short, “the kind of stuff I love to do.” He noted that “if I could take 1% of that $700 billion pot and take the gain or loss from it and be their partner, and they would buy the stuff at market, I’d make a lot of money.”

“Financial weapons of mass destruction.” Buffett is no fan of derivatives. “They destroyed AIG. They certainly contributed to the destruction of Bear Stearns and Lehman.” He feels that if AIG had resisted the temptation of derivatives, it “would be doing fine today.” He later added that the Federal Reserve structured its $85 billion loan to AIG “very, very well … they have put themselves in a position where they are very likely to get their money back, maybe more … I mean I want to hire the guy that made that deal. He’d fit in well at Berkshire.”

The “choice” America is making. In Buffett’s assessment, the U.S. is “to some extent, making a choice between future inflation and getting off the floor. And we’re likely to have more inflation in the future as a consequence of the things we do to fight the present situation.” He cautions that “unemployment’s going to go up under any circumstances.”

“You want to be greedy when others are fearful.” Personally, Buffett sees many attractive opportunities right now. Cash reserves are certainly important, “but when people talk about cash being king, it’s not king if it just sits there and never does anything. There are times when cash buys more than other times, and this is one of [them].” In addition, Buffett reminds us of the inverse of his principle: “You want to be fearful when others are greedy. It’s that simple.”

“Oh, I think confidence will come back.” When Rose asked him what might “never be the same” about Wall Street or the American economy, Buffett replied optimistically. “We’ve got all the ingredients for a sensational future. It’s just that right now the athlete’s on the floor. But this is a super athlete.”

“I don’t want any viewer to [think] a magic wand exists in Congress,” he stated. “So they’re going to see some more bad news. But if we do this, we’re doing the right thing. And if [we do], the system will work over time.”

What Started It All

When this article appeared in the Sacramento Bee back in June, it created immediate excitement for Dodson Consultants. I was pleased and surprised by the emails and calls I received from people wishing me well on my new endeavor. It was nice to hear from perspective clients, of course, but it was also reassuring to get general messages from people telling me that my brief story inspired them.

Streisand, Cool J and Boone Skis

What do Barbara Streisand, LL Cool J, Mariah Carey, Simon & Garfunkel, Neil Diamond and Public Enemy all have in common? They, among others, are in this year’s class of inductees into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame. They are also going to all sign a pair of Boone Skis to be auctioned off the night of the event. Stay tuned for pictures from the event!

LSU's 12th Man

Not since the 2007 Miss Teen USA contest has South Carolina been so abused. Just in case you didn't see this Saturday, watch as Gamecock QB Stephen Garcia gets owned by the referee.

Green Skis

Heard the buzz on the slopes about the green skis? Boone Skis is using bamboo, a sustainable product, in its full line of 2008 skis. This is starting to get some media coverage! Stay tuned as the hits roll in over the next days/weeks!

Startup Nation Voting

We're just a couple of weeks away from learning the results of StarupNation's 2008 Home-Based 100 Competition. Dodson Consultants is listed in the recession buster category. Our company seems to be doing pretty well (as far as the vote meter goes). If you feel inclined to help us out, just follow the links and vote!

Sacramento's Space Needle?

Sacramentan Walter Horsting is proposing a new icon for California's capital city, The Golden Spike. Here are his words:

The Golden Spike Landmark
Sacramento needs a landmark that reflects the history of the Sacramento Region. St. Louis has the Arch: Gateway to the West and Seattle has the Space Needle. What symbol can capture the historical foundations of Sacramento: The Gold Rush and the building of the Transcontinental Railroad; other than the Golden Spike?

How to pay for it?
My plan is simply to lobby the development community, city, state and building owners to make our next great office tower in the shape and color of The Golden Spike. All it would take is a project like the Capitol West End Project to build its 1.5 to 1.8 million square feet vertically to have the scale of the Golden Spike. It is Greener to build vertically.

Where to place it?
Several sites come to mind: The current Sacramento Depot; The former site of the Towers; West Sacramento on the Western end of the Capitol Mall. If the city and state are serious about transit, green building and cutting commute times and cost: I would place it near the new intermodal station for all the state office workers to use transit.

KTGY Affordable Seniors Projects Opens

There is nothing like seeing your hard work become a reality. KTGY, one of the country's leading architect and planning firms, knows that feeling today. It's newest creations, Horizons At Indio, an affordable seniors apartment project, just opened.

Dodson Consultants Helps NYC Charity

Dodson Consultants helping New York City city children learn about and get involved with the theater. As a contributor to next weekend's fundraiser for Royal Family Productions, Dodson Consultants is helping promote the arts in the Big Apple.

Thomas Dodson on KCRA

I just found this media clip from when I was interviewed on KCRA over the summer. The piece was on what my neighborhood association, the Sierra Oaks Neighborhood Association, would like to see from our mayor.

Sacramento Bee Talks Outsourcing

Sacramento Bee columnist Bob Shallit blurbed about Dodson Consultants (without mentioning our name!) and our outsourcing efforts. I found it to be very interesting that the day this appeared is the same day sacbee.com launched its new look.

Financial Planner Gets Poetic To Belay Fear

Jeff Lambert, CFP, of Lighthouse Financial Planning, one of our clients, just published a new column in the Sacramento Bee that is rather melodic. A Sacramento resident asks Jeff when she/he can start to have confidence in the market again. Click here to read Jeff's response.

Azizzle Auctions Selects Dodson Consultants

Dodson Consultants is proud to announce its newest client, Azizzle Auctions. Azizzle is a Phoenix-based company, with a unique site exclusively focused on services. Covering the country's top 62 markets, each with their own site, Azizzle has a tremendous reach. It currently has more than 150,000 registered users, bidding on nearly 40,000 services at a time. The best thing about Azizzle: It's free! Azizzle does not charge for posting or browsing.

Boone Skis Unveils New Photos

Boone Skis just sent me over a couple of their newest promotional photos. If you have not yet read about Boone Skis bringing the world the green ski, you can do so here.