A Better Work Life Balance For Executives - 7 Sure Fire Ways

It was getting near five o'clock in the afternoon and some of the heat from the midday sun remained. I debated starting another project so late in the day, but I wanted to make good on my intention. It's been my intention to divide my workday into two, three-hour chunks of highly intensive effort followed by me-time and time for my family. I even had to consciously force myself away from checking e-mail one more time, so as to be more authentic in my value of life balance. I shut down my computer and rounded up my son. Based on previous experience, it was going to take me 15-20 minutes to coax him into the Co-Pilot bicycle seat for my workout to Georgetown and back. He started off tickling me and talking about his day. Just as we rounded the bend on the Capital Crescent Trail indicating that we were passing from Montgomery Country Maryland into the District of Columbia, something flew into my right eye. It was as if I had been knocked in the head by a tree limb!

I tried my best to massage this foreign body out of my eye, but the harder I tried, the more stuck it became. I imagined some strange insect trying to dig its way into my cornea and began to panic. I took many deep breaths and tried to bike with only my left eye open swerving every few feet. This seemed to make everyone around me nervous. With only my left eye open, it felt as if I was nearly asleep. It was surreal. This struggle with the eye invader happened while my mountain bike was going about 15 mph. In between renewed attempts to clean my eye out with water from my water bottle, my son continued to ask me the proverbial 'why' questions. He wanted to know why he couldn't see the 'boo boo' in Daddy's eye and why I couldn't go faster. Finally I made it to the National Park Service public restroom, panting. I spent over ten minutes trying to rinse, shake and beg whatever was stuck in my eye to come out. The only thing that happened was my son fell asleep. I was determined to finish my workout instead of limp home, so I gritted my teeth and 'toughed it out' by swerving all the way down the trail. I stopped again at the same restroom on the way back and still could not dislodge my opponent.

Two hours later after an extended shower, a botched attempt at calming myself through a relaxation CD, and multiple dunks under running cold water, I was ready to give up and have my wife drive me to the emergency clinic. Since I wasn't dying, just half-crazed with massive discomfort, I began to mentally prepare myself for the many hours-long wait at the clinic. At this point I remembered something. In between gritting my teeth and holding back obscenities, I managed to convince my wife to bring me a toothpick. She probably thought I was going to try and jab my eye in frustration. I promised I wasn't going to give her a macabre replacement for the olive in a martini. Instead, I wanted her to roll my eyelid back on the toothpick. She got the hang of it after a few attempts and said, "Now we're making progress." She saw the irritant, the source of my evening's discontent and ran upstairs to collect a cotton swab. With the finesse of Clara Barton, she removed a black speck the size of a grain of sand that was stuck to my upper inner eyelid. What affected me was so small, and yes it brought me to my knees.

Pay Attention to the Small Things
I'm still in awe that a black speck the size of a grain of sand could literally incapacitate me for a few hours. Yet isn't this what happens when we don't pay attention to our health, our employees and our organizations? The black speck is a perfect metaphor to what happens when employees aren't encouraged by management to take care of themselves, take proper vacations, and to practice an effective work life balance. When we work too hard and too long, once seemingly small inconveniences become big and foreboding. Not taking time for healthy meals eventually becomes a heart attack waiting to happen. The employee who wanted to take two weeks off on her vacation after your repeated 'next times' becomes one of the first out of the door to a competitor.

According to Laurie Bienstock, a compensation analyst at Watson Wyatt Worldwide, "The typical costs of turnover per employee - without even realizing you have lost productivity and intellectual property - can run one to two times employee salary." Each year, Watson Wyatt publishes a report called, "The Strategic Rewards Study," which examines U.S. organizations with 1,000 employees or more. In 2006 it looked at top performers in 262 companies. It found that of those who reported having work/life balance, 45% considered themselves highly committed employees. Interestingly enough, not one employee who didn't have an effective work life balance was committed to the organization! Clearly there is a connection between having more committed employees and having an effective work life balance.

In order to prevent a potential premature birth of her second child, then 39-year old Tami Booth Corwin, the President of Rodale Books, quit her post to become a full-time stay at home mom. She wanted to make sure that she enjoyed her family time more and this included not having to commute 90 minutes each way from her home in Bucks County, PA to Manhattan. She is best known for acquiring the 2001 South Beach Diet book that today has sold 11 Million copies. While executives don't necessarily have to leave the company in order to practice an effective work life balance, they do set the pace of the organization when it comes to how life balance is viewed. I remember working at Silicon Graphics, a computer company, in the late 1990's. The head of the government division, Anthony Robbins (no relation to Tony Robbins), always said, "The pace of the organization is set by the lead dog."

Set the Pace
The importance of executives setting the pace was made clear to me when I worked with Best Buy, Inc. as a speaker for work life balance at their annual leadership conference. As part of my preparation, I interviewed a few store managers before the conference. I was told that the store managers set the pace for each store's work life balance. If an employee or assistant manager needs time off, the store managers I spoke with almost always grant it. They know the importance of keeping good employees. As one manger so aptly said, "When an employee's head is screwed on straight with his or her family, then that employee's head is screwed on straight with our customers." However, there needs to be more emphasis from corporate that it is acceptable to take all of one's vacation time when it is earned and even time off without pay.

If you happened to be in New York City's Times Square last Autumn, you would have seen a 9-foot poster visible from the sidewalks. The Ernst & Young poster touted the promotion of Rob McLoed to partner after taking paternity leave. A copy of the same advertisement was sent to every Ernst & Young office in the USA as part of their campaign to highlight successful men who pay attention and value life balance. The important thing to note is the message from corporate that men (and women) can and will get promoted while paying attention to their personal lives. Perhaps if more organizations advertised this on a regular basis, a multiple-week absence from the corner office wouldn't raise eyebrows.

Become the Change
Lee Scott was becoming the change he wanted to see in his organization. When it was announced that the CEO of Wal-Mart was going to take the entire month of May 2006 off, the Wall Street rumor mill already had him resigning or being replaced. However, he had planned a long road trip with his entire family and then some deep-sea fishing with his wife. He was able to detach from his work and came back refreshed and recharged for Wal-Mart's annual shareholder meeting last June. According to business columnist Carol Hymowitz from the Wall Street Journal, "Executives who don't take chunks of time away from the day-to-day deadlines and routines can't create the mental space they need to get a fresh perspective on problems, think up new ideas and be creative." In fact, everything you see around you started as an idea, but how can you come up with new ideas if you aren't practicing your creativity (if you aren't seeing)? Now more executives and employees at Wal-Mart will be encouraged to take extended time off.

In order to foster additional creativity, Intel CEO Paul S. Otellini has taken advantage of several sabbaticals. Intel offers a paid 8-week sabbatical every 7 years on the job and Paul has been with Intel for over 32 years. This is a popular benefit at many high-technology companies and was something that attracted and kept many executives and employees at Silicon Graphics in its heyday. I remember everyone who qualified for a sabbatical at SGI took one, and the company did a great job of preventing employees from checking voice mail and e-mail while away too. They wanted employees to learn a new skill or pick up a hobby. One regional manager even moved to the beach for the summer and took up surfing. When executives are away for an extended period of time, effective delegation becomes critical.

Delegate Effectively
The U.S. Army knows quite a bit about effective delegation. Its very mission is about cross-training soldiers so they can do multiple tasks when their comrades are incapacitated. The Army plans for this kind of contingency. They realize that one soldier cannot and should not be the only person who can perform a particular job or who knows critical information. I was reminded of this mission when I worked with the AEC (Army Evaluation Command) training their executives (civilian and military) on how to present with more power. They made sure to include multiple layers of their executive team in the training program. This added insight made for a more interesting program and allowed their entire management to value the importance of powerful communications.

Cross training and delegating effectively has helped make REI (Recreational Equipment, Inc.) the number one place to work in the USA for 2007 based on FORTUNE's 100 Best benefits list. CEO Sally Jewel works out nearly every morning so she can do the work of her billion-dollar company, serve on several boards and attend to her family. Every quarter a member of Jewell's executive team serves as her backup, with full authority to act in her stead whenever Jewell is on vacation or unavailable. This gives other executives a better understanding of the CEO's job while also exposing them to board members, who can weigh their merits as potential successors. She keeps her eye 'on the substance of things' and not on her actual role. Jewell's strong set of core values translates into, "Maintaining a personal balance that requires devotion to family, work and community." She tries to spend 1/3 of her waking hours at work, 1/3 with family and 1/3 for the community." During Jewell's tenure since 2001, the company swung from a 141 million dollar debt to 150 million in cash at the end of 2006. It's interesting to note that #1 ranked REI and #2 ranked, American Century Investments both offer paid sabbatical programs.

Emotionally Vacate
Another benefit from an extended vacation or sabbatical is that it helps executives emotionally vacate their positions. If you check in with the office, it's as if you never really left. In a new study of knowledge workers, Lexmark International found that 92% of respondents make or take work-related communications outside of work, including on vacations. Nearly 75% stay switched on during the weekends and a fifth of them have been interrupted during a date for work purposes. This 'constantly on' approach only leads to burnout and away from true sense of self. During an expedition to the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, I met the CEO of a publicly traded company who was traveling for over three weeks without being in touch via voice mail, e-mail or via any other means. He purposely traveled to distant lands where he would not be tempted to check in with the office nor could anyone get in touch with him either. And since he delegated effectively like Sally Jewell at REI, the organization got along fine without him. This is in sharp contrast to what Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia told employees recently. As crazy as it sounds, the company said employees should flat out leave the company if they were not prepared to work weekends and long evenings over the coming months for no extra reward.

In a 2005 survey of 55,000 workers, Alcan, based in Montreal, revealed deep dissatisfaction with heavy workloads and long hours, says Steven Price, Alcan's human resource director. In a series of self-correcting steps, a half-dozen top executives got coaching on how to be better role models, partly by speaking up about their own challenges managing workloads. Executives began encouraging managers and employees to 'push back and say I'm not working on weekends and such.' Even IBM has over 50 different programs promoting work life balance and 40% of its employees today work off of the company premises. I noticed the lack of traffic at IBM's main offices in Gaithersburg, Maryland recently when I trained key executives. I worked with some of their executives on developing simple, yet powerful messages, weaving these messages throughout their presentation, and then properly rehearsing the delivery of their presentation for more power and action.

Other organizations offer similar incentives to foster work life balance in small steps so that when executives want to take longer vacations or extended time away from the office, the action of emotionally vacating becomes much easier. American Century, #2 on FORTUNE's 100 Best Places to work list based on benefits, said, "achieving this national distinction is a direct reflection of the caliber of our people, our values-based culture and our unwavering commitment to our investors." American Century also pays adoption expenses and the cost of home fitness equipment for its employees. Some employees at Dell, Inc. have eliminated set office hours by handing over to employees how and when they achieve goals. A results oriented work environment (ROWE) was also initiated by Best Buy, Inc. at its corporate offices in Minneapolis in order to allow most of their employees the space they need to get a reasonable amount of work accomplished while at the same time paying attention to family and personal obligations. I was told a similar program for retail stores is under development.

Own the Moment
One of the best ways to practice an effective work life balance is to keep being reminded of the power of Stephen Covey's Quadrant #2. This is the most important quadrant and those organizations that win the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award spend at least 70% of their time in this 'important, but not urgent' area. A great way to spend more time in this area is to set appointments with yourself to check in with e-mail, voice mail and the office. Stephen Crawley, an HR Executive, decided to take Covey's advice. He eliminated all voice mail, pulled the plug on his e-mail and stopped using his cell phone as the primary way for people to connect with him. This forced people to find him in person only when it was important. He said, "It worked, the more off of the grid I got, the better our sales and margins, while staff domestic morale improved."

Susan Cramm, the founder of Valuedance, an executive coaching firm in San Clemente, CA and the former CFO of Chevy's Mexican Restaurants said, "I fell victim to one of those 'full jobs' and, like many, hired others to do the personal work I no longer had time to do. I found that I used consumption as a pitiful replacement to living a meaningful life." She borrows her definition of a full job from meaning 'half as many people, paid twice as well, and producing three times as much' from author Charles Handy's book, The Age of Paradox. She feels that an executive's solution to work life balance must come from within. This solution should be one that makes the most sense while being true to your values. She goes on to further state, "We discovered something simple, yet profound -that work-life balance isn't about having more free time; it's about devoting your life, and the hours within it, to be consistent with your values and passions." This is exactly what Best Buy was saying to its managers. It's great that corporate is addressing work life balance and will eventually come up with a solution for its retail stores, but you need to set effective boundaries with yourself first.

How can you learn to set boundaries and to discover your core values? According to the Prana line of clothing, sold at REI stores, a great place to start is with the breath. From Prana's merchandise label is says, "Prana is breath, and breath is the beginning of every decision and action. Something as simple as being aware of our breath can bring us into the present moment - mindful breathing brings us home. It's is Prana's hope that this practice of mindful breathing can find its way into more individuals and one by one these positive 'invironmental' impacts could lead to environmental ones." When you get to know yourself better, you can then understand your employees, your organization and your family better too.

Practice Mutual Respect
One of the things I know about myself is that I tend to obsess about the little details before I leave to go out of town for longer than a few days. I do things like turn off all of the lights, take the trash out and set the thermostat higher than normal. Doing this list of little things almost made me miss my flight to Iceland recently. Even though I arrived nearly 90 minutes before the flight was scheduled to take off, all airlines oversell their seats. Luckily I got the very last seat in the middle of the airplane. Breathing a sigh of relief when I sat down, I noticed a young woman sitting next to the window.

She told me that she was going to Holland as part of a language immersion program for six weeks. She was going to live with a Dutch family and would not speak English the entire time. Beyond her 20 hours of language requirements per week, she was going to have plenty of time to see the countryside and to visit with her family in a nearby town. She bemoaned the fact that she has plenty of time to travel, but has limited funds. I said this was the opposite complaint from many in the working world. Most people have plenty of money, but limited time to travel. A main reason for the limited travel time is the United States is the only industrialized country in the world that doesn't have a vacation law on its books. Having a personal benefit of vacation that could translate form one job to the next like health insurance would encourage more executives to travel and would certainly increase their creativity.

In a May 2006 survey by the Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC), 85% of recruiters have seen job candidates reject a job offer because it wouldn't include enough work-life balance, and two-thirds of those companies surveyed are developing programs to help top candidates boost their family time without sacrificing their careers. In addition, 24% of those surveyed said they would turn down a promotion that would hurt their work/life balance while 87% said work/life balance is critical in their decisions to join or remain with an employer. It seems more executives are becoming inspired by the likes of the Sally Jewell's, the Rob McLoed's, and the Lee Scott's of this world. The more you practice mutual respect by setting clear boundaries around your work and life balance, the less pull your organization will have on you in your off hours.

One way to develop mutual respect is to keep coming up with reasons why it is healthy and advisable for your organization to allow you to travel on a regular basis. When my wife was the Director of HR for a financial services firm, she and I wanted to take a two-month sabbatical and travel around the world. At first she didn't know how she was going to convince the rest of the management team to let her take the time off. What she decided to do was to present her company with all of the benefits as to why our trip was a great business decision for her organization. She was going to come back refreshed and recharged, generating new ideas and gaining a fresh perspective. She also developed a coverage plan that started months before our departure. It involved cross training other executives and employees on her roles and responsibilities. I'm happy to report that she didn't even check in with the office once in two months!

Furthermore, her actions sparked an entire wave of other executives and employees taking extended periods of leave to teach English in China to going back to school for an executive program. This extra benefit helped to keep top managers and employees and greatly reduced turnover costs. When you set the pace for your organization, become the change you want to see, delegate effectively, emotionally vacate when not working, and own the moment, you will be strengthening your organization and improving the connection you have to yourself.

Mark Sincevich works with individuals and organizations to increase their communication power so that they gain a fresh perspective, generate new ideas, sharpen the focus and create more business. He uses a unique photography angle in his creative keynotes, meeting facilitation and powerful presentation skills programs. Mark is the Founder and Chief Perspective Officer of Staash Press, a member of the National Speakers Association and the Executive Director of the Digital Photography Institute. In between assignments, Mark can be found spending time with his family or writing in cafés with character. He can be contacted at 301-654-3010 or http://www.staashpress.com

Political Braying Doesn't Sound Better In French

These days it comes as no surprise when politicians and labor leaders crowd the microphones to denounce a corporation that intends to move high-paying jobs overseas.

But in this case, the critics did not say a word about protecting American workers or about creating American jobs. It would have been odd if they had, because the audience was not a very pro-American crowd. The "sea" the jobs are moving over is the Atlantic Ocean, and their destination is Cambridge, Mass.

The protests were directed at the French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, one of the world's biggest drugmakers. In the midst of a less-than-stellar but still profitable year, the company's Canadian-German CEO, Christopher Viehbacher, announced plans to shift many research and development functions from France to Massachusetts, home of Sanofi's newest acquisition, Genzyme. The move may end up costing around 2,500 French jobs, according to Jean-Francois Chavance, a representative of the French Democratic Confederation of Labor.

Viehbacher said that he hoped the move would help incorporate Genzyme's culture of innovation into Sanofi's research and development department. During an earnings call in July Viehbacher told reporters, "Out of our research in France, we haven't really developed a new molecule in 20 years." (1) Genzyme, which Sanofi acquired in a $20 billion hostile takeover, is a world leader in producing treatments for rare genetic diseases.

French Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg was not pleased. In a speech in the National Assembly, the minister said he had told Viehbacher that France "already had enough trouble limiting hemorrhages at companies that are losing money," without accepting "that ultra-performing companies start destroying jobs." (2)

Of course, it is not the responsibility of successful companies to balance job losses at less successful firms. In fact, a big part of what makes a company successful is the ability and willingness to focus jobs where the work can be done the most effectively and at the lowest cost. To his credit, Viehbacher responded that Sanofi would "make no apologies for being a profitable company." (2)

After Viehbacher's refusal to reconsider his business strategy solely to please politicians, Montebourg and other French leaders may feel that all they can do is grumble. Grumbling is probably all that they will do, despite the worrisome implication in a Wall Street Journal article (2) that the French government could retaliate against Sanofi using the leverage of the national health-care insurance program.

There is another option that French government officials are overlooking: improve their country's business climate so successful businesses have more incentive to stay put.

Doing so would, first and foremost, mean giving up the unofficial policy of bashing companies for decisions that are good for business but bad for politicians. Second, it would mean relaxing regulations, in order to give businesses space to encourage the sort of innovation that Sanofi has been unable to foster in France, but that Genzyme was able to produce in the United States.

France currently ranks 29th, among 183 economies, for overall "ease of doing business," according to The World Bank's Doing Business Project. The U.S. remains ranked at number four despite its own set of issues, some of which I have written about before, including those that led the insurance giant Aon to move its headquarters to the seventh-ranked United Kingdom. Because labor costs are high in Western Europe, as well as in the United States, an attractive regulatory environment and an innovative culture are particularly important as means of drawing the sort of higher-paid jobs Sanofi is shifting to the U.S.

Rather than working to attract businesses, however, France is likely to continue its strategy of trying to coerce and scare the ones already based there into staying. This is the same rhetoric we have heard here in the States. Unlike many words, however, these don't sound any better in French.

Sources:

1) BloombergBusinessweek, "Sanofi's Shock Therapy Enrages the French"

2) The Wall Street Journal, "Sanofi to Go Ahead With Job Cuts"

For more articles, please visit the Palisades Hudson Financial Group LLC newsletter or subscribe to the blog.

Newsletter: http://palisadeshudson.com/sentinel/

Blog: http://palisadeshudson.com/current-commentary/

What Happened to Obama's Promises for a Better America?

President Obama vowed that the economy and job creation was his top priority for 2010. He said he was still going forward with health care reform, education reform and immigration reform.

Obama campaigned on the promise of change. A change we can believe in. Now Obama is playing the role of a Washington outsider. He is blaming the Republicans for his short comings. He has been in office 20 months. It is time he took responsibility and quit blaming George W. Bush, the Republicans and the wealthy for all of the problems the country is in. He needs to start doing something to make things get better.

Obama has been a president that has created more unemployment and a further decline in the economy. He is known for all his stimulus packages which have done nothing for the people or the economy.

Obama is always taking shots at George W. Bush. He has urged the American people not to go along with regulation and more tax cuts for the wealthy. Obama says that is what Bush id for eight years. That is what put us in this crisis. It is what helped cause the deficits. Obama definitely has a problem with big business and wealthy people. The deficit has greatly expanded under Obama's watch.

Obama promised to create a foreclosure prevention fund for homeowners. He was to create a $10 billion fund so home owners could refinance or sell their homes. This did not help because foreclosures are still on the rise.

Obama promised to repeal the Bush tax cuts for higher incomes. This he will probably do. If he does the big businesses will just move to where they have less taxes and restrictions. The economy is hurting big business because no one has the money to buy their products. Many big businesses have already left the United States. If more follow suit the unemployment will just go up more and the economy will go further down.

Obama promised to create a National Health Reform bill. This he has done. It will increase cost big businesses more to provide health insurance for their employees. It will cost small businesses and the self-employed more to get insurance. All employer's will have to turn in 1099's on their employee's so the government will have a record and be able to tax the employee's on their employer furnished health insurance. Small businesses will not be ale to afford to provide health insurance to their employees. Individuals will not be able to buy it and they will get fined if they do not. Health Insurance Companies will raise their rates to cover their increased costs. The Health Care Reform bill is a no win situation. It will hurt everyone. This bill was passed against the wishes of the majority of the people.

Obama said he would remove troops from Iraq. He is doing this. He said he would send more troops to Afghanistan and he is doing this. It makes a lot of since to take troops out of Iraq and put them in Afghanistan. He says Al-Qaeda is in Afghanistan plotting terrorist attacks on the United States. That is how he justifies his decision. They are all over the Middle East and will just move to another country if they feel threatened. Afghanistan is the largest opium producing country in the world. This is where Al-Qaeda and other terrorists get their money to operate. They will not be leaving Afghanistan any time soon. Is Obama going to send troops to the next country they move into if they do decide to move?

Obama said he would end torture. Everyone will agree torture to get information or for any other reason is bad. They torture the American's they capture but that does not make it right. Sometimes you have to do things you do not like or may not be right. The thing that is wrong is that Obama wants the terrorists tried in criminal courts and treated like someone that just robbed the corner market. This is wrong and a slap in the face to the American military and people.

Obama promised he would support "additional personnel, infrastructure and technology on the border and our ports of entry." What has he done? He has filed a law suit against the State of Arizona for their immigration law. He has filed a 29 page report with the United Nations stating in detail all of the human rights violations the United States is guilty of. This is what our great President thinks of the country he is supposed to be protecting and serving the people best interests.

He wants to reform minimum sentences and eliminate locking up nonviolent drug offenders for a specified length of time.

He wants to increase capital gains and dividend taxes for higher income tax payers. Obama does not like people with money. He seems to think if he taxes the wealthy into poverty he will solve all of his leadership problems. The higher incomes should pay more taxes than they do but let's not go to the extreme.

These are just a few of Obama's promises. The ones that have passed will not help the country or anyone who lives here. There will just be more poverty, homeless, unemployed and more terrorist threats. More terrorist attacks are coming.

Where has our constitution gone? What happened to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?"

High Dividend Stocks - These ETFs Are Better In Tough Times

Producing steady income for your investment portfolio can be difficult during tough economic times. When the markets are getting slammed and Europe is teetering on the brink of a financial collapse, putting your hard-earned money into high dividend stocks may not be the best decision. The loss in the underlying stocks will provide negative net returns in a down market. This is what happened to many investors in 2008 and 2009.

A better strategy right now is to consider diversifying across a wide variety of high-dividend yielding Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). You can avoid the individual company risk from high dividend stocks, the downside of equities in a falling market, and these ETFs are more stable than stocks in these uncertain times. ETF funds trade just like stocks and so they can be easily bought and sold with any discount broker online and the fees are very small. Start with a small initial investment into each of them and then add money every month while also using the accumulated dividends to buy more over time.

These are my recommendations for outperforming high dividend stocks in these difficult stock market times.:

1) PFF - IShares S&P US Preferred Stock Index Fund (7.2% yield)

This ETF fund tracks closely to the S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index and yields a strong 7.2% today.

2) HYG - IShares IBoxx High-Yield Corportate Bond (8.1% yield)

This ETF should still hold up better than stocks in a downturn and they do have a 20% allocation that can hedge a bit. The high-yield corporate is actually a reasonable value play here. The dividend is very high at 8.1% today.

3) LQD - IShares IBoxx Investment Corp Bond (4.6% yield)

The investment quality corporate bond fund has a solid yield of 4.6%. There is still some risk in a falling market with corporate bonds but the large diversification will provide more stability than individual stocks or individual corporate bonds.

4) PLW - Powershares 1-30 Laddered Treasury Portfolio (2.9% yield)

A way to take advantage of Treasury Bonds but to get a higher yield then buying them separately and being locked in over time is with this ETF. The fund invests in a variety of different maturity Treasury securities and yields around 2.9%. US Treasures are still the ultimate safe haven play in times of turmoil.

5) TIP - IShares Barclays TIPS Bond (4.2% yield)

To help with inflationary times and rising interest rates, you should look at investing in treasury inflation protected bonds or TIPS. IShares offers this exposure in an ETF and it yields almost 4.2% today. It has really performed well so far this year and is probably the safest investment for the foreseeable future.

6) PZA - Powershares Insured National Municipal Bond Portfolio (4.6% yield)

This fund is attractive because of its wide diversity, the fact that these are mostly high quality insured muni's, and due to a selloff after some headline scare hit the market at the end of 2010. While some individual muni bonds may find trouble in the future, this wide diversification should provide ample protection and safety. It's dividend yield is paying out a very solid 4.6%.

There will be better times to buy high dividend stocks and they still are a good investment vehicle over time. In fact, I have even recommended some excellent value high dividend stocks in other articles that should be scaled into during this market turmoil. However, for more safety and peace of mind over the next few months and probably much longer, I recommend you consider investing in the very high-yield income ETF funds that I covered above.

You can get plenty more great stock ideas from our very popular subscription services. We help make trading and investing easy and extremely profitable. Let us do all of the work for you with our model portfolios and hot list swing trading and investing ideas. Our six year track record using proven fundamental and technical analysis techniques at http://www.momentumrider.com is unmatched for market beating results.

Claim your FREE special report, a $247 value, "7 Keys to Find the Top Stocks to Buy" at http://www.ebeststockstobuy.com.

Keith Hugenberg is the CEO of Jalexa Trading Consultants LLC (Momentum Rider), a stock trading and investing educational and consulting company.

Copyright protected. All rights reserved.

Eating Smarter For Better Health

When you stop to take a look at the obesity rate in the United States, it is nothing short of astounding that, as a nation, we seem to have let ourselves go where our diets are concerned. However, we must stop to look at what the root cause of the obesity epidemic is.

No matter where you shop or what supermarket or convenience store you go into, there is junk food everywhere. Besides tasting absolutely delicious, junk food serves yet another purpose. It's cheap. I recently conducted my own set of tests in an effort to figure out which one was healthier- choosing the predominantly processed food diet or opting for a diet that was rich in health fruits, nuts and grains (which I labeled the "perimeter" diet). What I was able to discover is that while conducting studies for the perimeter diet by shopping the perimeter of the store where all of the fresh produce is does not have to be as expensive if you play your cards right.

The trick to a successful perimeter or 'healthy' diet is getting to know your fruits and vegetables (as well as the supermarket that you typically shop in. If you're really into organic produce, you might be better served waiting until something goes on sale or shopping at a local farmer's market. But that's just it: know which fruits and veggies are in season- this way you can make an informed decision and know what to purchase ahead of time. It's a simple method of supply and demand. If a particular fruit or vegetable is in season, then chances are that there will be more of it available, which will naturally mean a lower price that you would wind up having to pay at the register.

Processed food diets can be cost-effective in the fact that what you are purchasing may last longer due to the fact that it has an exponential shelf life. The most popular example of this can be found in Twinkies. However, the problems come into play because most processed foods contain artificial additives and names of things that we cannot even pronounce, which is never a good sign. Just think, the names of those things that you cannot pronounce are the very same things that you are preparing to put into your body! How do you feel about that? Also, many processed foods contain a high amount of sugar and fat, which is sure to contribute towards all sorts of dietary problems (even if adequate exercise needs are being met). The bottom line? Shop the perimeter, and know your fruits and veggies for optimal health!

Blue Cross NC

Blue Shield NC

Hormone Therapy Plus Radiation Therapy Produce Better Survival Outcomes

Recently, there has been numerous study reports published that address the benefits of Hormone therapy combined with Radiation therapy in treating prostate cancer. This article wishes to provide readers some helpful updates with regards to the new standard treatment for prostate cancer.

In 1995 to 2005, a randomized study was jointly conducted by the National Cancer Institute of Canada, the United Kingdom Medical Research Council and the Southwest Oncology Group in the United States. 1,205 men with high risk prostate cancer in the United States, Canada and in United Kingdom were part of the study. These men were assigned with either receiving hormone therapy alone or a combined hormone therapy (with external beam radiation treatment). Follow ups were made among patients for an average of at least 6 years and findings from this study presents that adding radiation therapy significantly reduced the risk of death among the study group given with the combined therapy.

In another study report published by Bolla et al from an EORTC study in 1997 showed an increase in the probability of a progression-free and overall survival of European patients diagnosed with a locally advance prostate cancer high risk (T1-2 and T3-4NO-1MO) tumors. Patients who were given external beam radiation therapy plus an adjuvant hormonal therapy for three years showed an increase in survival rates compared to the patients who received external beam radiation therapy alone. Additional data from the American studies show similar results. According to this study, two to three years of hormone therapy combined with radiotherapy improves survival among patients but is accompanied by a number of adverse effects such as impotence, hot flashes and risk of acquiring heart attacks.

Horwitz et al reported a US study (RTOG 92-02) in 2008 that radiotherapy plus extended adjuvant hormone therapy for 28 months increased the probability of the disease-free survival and disease-specific survival rates among its study group. The group who received a combined therapy obtained a lower probability of a local progression of the prostate tumor and biochemical failure rates were also lowered. The combined therapy prevented further metastasis (spread) among its study group compared to the radiation therapy group. Overall the survival rates in this study showed an increase rates among patients with a pre-treatment Gleason score of 8-10 with no metastasis to the lymph node or the pelvis with a PSA level of 150 ng/ml and below.

Prostate cancer is believed to be caused by an exposure to the male hormones testosterone. An increase in the testosterone levels in the body stimulates prostate cancer cells to grow. Hormone therapy is given to patients diagnosed with prostate cancer as a means to decease the testosterone levels in the body, it is also referred as the Androgen Deprivation Therapy (in which production of male hormones are prevented). Radiation therapy is given to directly kill and destroy the cancer cells by using external beam radiation.

Numerous studies conclude that combination of hormone therapy plus radiation therapy promotes good survival rates. Hormone therapy helps by reducing tumor growth. It also potentiates killing of the cancer cells when combined with radiotherapy.

Urieashashlu Ul is an experienced prostate cancer health expert who has been helping people with prostate cancer. You can visit his site to learn more about the prostate cancer treatments.