Triangle Financial Services

Wisdom of Wealth
Triangle Financial Services mission is to assist people and businesses to define and achieve their dreams through financial goals and guidance. Triangle strives to develop financial responsibility and independence through value living. July 2011 Volume 3, Issue 2

BIG NEWS: Baby is on the way! Time to get moving!

As many of you know, I am expecting our second child in the middle of August. We have adjusted our schedule to accommodate the birth. I will be taking only urgent or immediate need appointments for the first two weeks of August. After the baby is born I will be taking two weeks out of the office and then planning for the month of September. We will be taking urgent appointments only. We have been contacting everyone on our calendar for August and September client reviews to get in prior to the maternity/moving schedule. During September we will be moving our office. It has been a tough decision on where and when to go, but we have finally found the place. We are so excited at the opportunity to move into a Buyers Realty building on 31st Street and Ingersoll. Expect to see more information about our move and reminder of our location change for your next meeting. It is very important to me that you are taken care of while I am in transition. Lindsey will remain on staff full time to help you. She will be in contact with me to make certain you are taken care of. Do not hesitate to contact us. I am looking forward to sharing our new baby and new location at an open house on October 11th. Mark your calendars to swing by our new location and check us out. Until I see you next, take care!

Inside this issue:

2nd Quarter Market Updates Calendar Home Insurance Technology Update Pershing Fees Women & Money Conference

2 6 6 7 7 8

From Kendras Desk

Happy Summertime! I hope you are all enjoying this beautiful, outdoor season as much as we are. We have gone to the electronic newsletter and are always open to your feedback. Let us know what you find valuable. Hope you enjoy this update of the news at Triangle and our resources we have for you! Here for you always, Kendra

Wisdom of Wealth

The Quarter in Brief

For the first time in four quarters, U.S. stocks did not advance. The S&P 500 lost 0.39% in 2Q 2011, a quarter marked by worries over the debt carried by multiple European nations, the wrapup of the Feds second installment of quantitative easing, high gas prices and indications that the recovery was stalling. Yet as June ended, encouraging domestic indicators and better headlines from overseas helped to renew the collective appetite for risk.1

Domestic Economic Health

Much was made of the soft patch the economy had entered into this spring. Some key indicators seemed to confirm it. Consumer spending which had increased by 0.6% in March - was just +0.3% for April and flat for May. When adjusted for inflation, personal spending actually decreased by 0.1% in both those months. Retail sales were up 0.3% in April, down 0.2% in May. On the other hand, durable goods orders down 2.7% in April improved by 1.9% in May.3,4 Unemployment actually increased in the quarter. In March, the jobless rate was at 8.8%; in May, it had climbed back up to 9.1%. By May, annualized inflation had cranked up to 3.6%, and gasoline prices had risen 36.9% in a year. On the bright side, monthly consumer price increases had moderated: after 0.5% gains in the federal governments Consumer Price Index in February and March, prices respectively advanced by just 0.4% and 0.2% in April and May. Wholesale inflation was more pronounced, what with energy costs and supply disruptions in the wake of the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan: producer prices increased by 0.8% in April and 0.2% for May, bringing 12month wholesale inflation to 7.3% in May compared to 5.8% for March.5,6,7 As for the key American snapshot of the manufacturing and service sectors, the Institute for Supply Managements nonmanufacturing index went from 54.6 in May to 53.3 in June; its manufacturing gauge defied expectations, moving north to 55.3 in June from Mays 53.5 reading.8 In April, citing concern over the ballooning U.S. deficit, Standard & Poors cut the credit outlook for America from stable to negative. Moodys Investors Service made no such move. The federal debt ceiling was reached on May 16, and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner noted a hard deadline of August 2 to raise the debt cap. Congress mostly dithered on the issue during May and June, playing politics first and striving for compromise second. The Federal Reserves second round of quantitative easing ended June 30 and the impact wasnt as harsh as feared: though the end of QE2 meant the end of $600 billion thrown at the bond market, bond yields and stock prices actually increased slightly on July 1.9,10,11

Change favors the prepared mind. ~Louis Pasteur

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Global Economic Health

As the quarter ended, Greece seemed poised to stave off a near-term default with $17 billion more in loans from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union. Greeces parliament passed an austerity bill on June 29 including $40 billion in tax hikes and budget cuts.12 That wasnt the only notable economic development in Europe in the quarter. The European Central Bank raised its key interest rate to 1.25% (and seemed poised to raise it again in early July), making a move before the Bank of England and the Fed. Annualized inflation in the Eurozone was at 2.8% in April; it ticked down to 2.7% by June. Retail sales in the EU slumped by 1.1% in May, and by 2.8% in Germany. On the upside, Germanys manufacturing orders rose by 2.9% in April and 1.8% in May, and German business confidence improved in June.13,14,15 Chinas official manufacturing index declined in each month of the second quarter, falling to 50.9 by June. Its annualized inflation rate hit 5.5% in June, the highest in 34 months. Elsewhere, there were other signs of a slowdown: Indias PMI slipped in both May and June, reaching a low unseen since September. The key PMIs in South Korea and Taiwan also fell, with Taiwans showing sector contraction. Business sentiment in Japan fell to its lowest level in five quarters in 2Q 2011, an effect of the triple tragedy the nation suffered in March.16,17

Volume 3, Issue 2

World Markets
The worlds major stock market indices posted widely varying quarterly results. In Europe, Germanys DAX advanced a healthy 4.8%, and Irelands ISEQ gained 2.7%; Englands FTSE 100 managed to gain 0.6%, while the Dow Jones STOXX 600 slipped 1.1%. While the Nikkei 225 actually advanced 0.6% for 2Q 2011, many indices in Asia did not (Kospi, 0.3%; Sensex, -3.1%; Hang Seng, -4.8%; All Ordinaries, -4.8%; Shanghai Composite, 5.7%). Brazils Bovespa went -9.0% for the quarter. The MSCI World and Emerging Markets indices respectively lost 0.28% and 2.11% last quarter.18,19,20,21

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Wisdom of Wealth

Commodities Markets
While May and June were trying, the quarterly performances were not all bleak. Reviewing metals on the COMEX, we see that gold gained 4.4% (its eleventh positive quarter in a row) to go +5.7% for the year. Other metals posted quarterly losses (silver, -8.1%; platinum, 3.2%; palladium, 0.9%). The U.S. Dollar Index retreated 2.2% for the quarter.22,23 Moving to energy and crops, oil lost 10.6% in 2Q 2011 for its worst quarter since 4Q 2008 as the International Energy Agency elected to free up global reserves. While several key crops have had a great run over the past 12 months, the quarter was not kind to them: corn lost 10.0%, soybeans slipped 8.2% and wheat lost 20.0%. Rice pulled off a 6.1% quarterly advance.24,25

Real Estate
Instead of a bottom, we got a double dip: in June, the April S&P/ Case-Shiller Home Price Index came out and revealed a 4.0% year-over-year decrease in collective house prices across 20 metro areas. As for other barometers, June existing home sales (as measured by the National Association of Realtors) were down 15.3% from a year ago while June new home sales were up 13.5% from a year before.26,27,28 Mortgage rates fell in the quarter. Here were Freddie Macs Primary Mortgage Market Survey interest rate averages from March 31: 30-year FRMs, 4.86%; 1-year ARMs, 3.26%; 15-year FRMs, 4.09%; 5-year ARMs, 3.70%. The numbers from the June 30 survey: 30-year FRMs, 4.51%; 1-year ARMs, 2.97%; 15-year FRMs, 3.69%; 5-year ARMs, 2.97%.30

Citations. 1 - blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2011/06/30/data-points-u-s-markets-27/ [6/30/11] 2 - bea.gov/newsreleases/national/ pi/pinewsrelease.htm [6/27/11] 3 - census.gov/retail/marts/www/marts_current.pdf [6/14/11] 4 - bloomberg.com/news/201106-24/u-s-advance-report-on-durable-goods-for-may-text-.html [6/24/11] 5 - data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000 [6/29/11] 6 bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm [6/15/11] 7 - bls.gov/news.release/ppi.nr0.htm [6/14/11] 8 - ism.ws/ISMReport/MfgROB.cfm [7/6/11] 9 - money.usnews.com/money/ business-economy/articles/2011/04/18/what-sps-us-outlook-downgrade-means [4/18/11] 10 - money.cnn.com/2011/05/16/news/ economy/debt_ceiling_deadline/index.htm [5/16/11] 11 - fool.com/how-to-invest/personal-finance/savings/2011/07/05/what-does-qe2s-ending-mean-to-you.aspx [7/5/11] 12 - huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/29/greece-austerity-bill-greek_n_886760.html [6/29/11] 13 - online.wsj.com/article/ SB10001424052702303544604576429731982195632.html [7/6/11] 14 - smh.com.au/business/world-business/euro-zone-retailsales-slump-in-may-20110706-1h19l.html [7/6/11] 15 - bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-06/german-factory-orders-rise-ondomestic-demand.html [7/6/11] 16 - news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-07/01/c_13960799.htm [7/1/11] 17 - finfacts.ie/irishfinancenews/article_1022654.shtml [7/1/11] 18- online.wsj.com/article/ SB10001424052702303627104576413833704779332.html [7/1/11] 19 - online.barrons.com/article/ SB10001424052702303627104576413800819281550.html [6/30/11] 20 - online.wsj.com/article/ SB10001424052702303763404576416263003588324.html [7/1/11] 21 - mscibarra.com/products/indices/ international_equity_indices/gimi/stdindex/performance.html [6/30/11] 22 - bullionpricestoday.com/bullion-prices-mixed-insecond-quarter-2011/ [6/30/11] 23 - online.wsj.com/mdc/public/npage/2_3051.html?mod=mdc_curr_dtabnk&symb=DXY [7/6/11] 24 - blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2011/06/30/data-points-energy-metals-494/ [6/30/11] 25 - businessweek.com/news/2011-07-01/ corn-extends-worst-monthly-loss-since-2008-on-acreage-increase.html [7/1/11] 26 - blogs.forbes.com/morganbrennan/2011/06/29/whatcan-homeowners-learn-from-case-shillers-home-price-index/ [6/29/11] 27 - realtor.org/wps/wcm/ connect/04f71400474c15ff808c8e0e6e9f088e/REL1105EHS.pdf [6/21/11] 28 - census.gov/const/newressales.pdf [6/23/11] 29 freddiemac.com/pmms/ [7/5/11] 30 - bigcharts.marketwatch.com/historical/default.asp?symb=DJIA&closeDate=6%2F30% F10&x=0&y=0 [7/6/11] 31 - treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/interest-rates/Pages/TextView.aspx? data=realyieldAll [7/6/11] 32 - treasurydirect.gov/instit/annceresult/press/preanre/2001/ofm11001.pdf [1/10/01]

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Looking Back Looking Forward

The mixed 2Q performances of the major indices arent so bad when you consider the volatility (and swoon) of June.1 The new quarter begins with a few questions. Will a QE3 be
% CHANGE

Volume 3, Issue 2

needed? Will inflation become more of a factor? Will cheaper commodities help U.S. companies? Will Greece require further bailouts or loans before 2011 ends? Are Spain, Italy and Portugal next
2Q CHG

on the EU/IMF rescue list? How long can world financial markets put up with inaction on the U.S. debt ceiling? And finally, will Wall Street earnings be as impressive as some analysts think?
10-YR AVG

Y-T-D

1-YR CHG

DJIA NASDAQ S&P 500

REAL YIELD

+7.23 +4.55 +5.01

6/30 RATE

+0.77 -0.27 -0.39

1 YR AGO

+27.01 +31.49 +28.13

5 YRS AGO

+1.82 +2.84 +0.79

10 YRS AGO

10 YR TIPS

0.75%

1.15%

2.54%

3.52%

Sources: online.wsj.com, bigcharts.com, treasury.gov, treasurydirect.gov - 6/30/111,30,31,32 Indices are unmanaged, do not incur fees or expenses, and cannot be invested into directly. These returns do not include dividends. This material was prepared by MarketingLibrary.Net Inc., and does not necessarily represent the views of the presenting party, nor their affiliates. This information should not be construed as investment, tax or legal advice and may not be relied on for the purpose of avoiding any Federal tax penalty. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is a price-weighted index of 30 actively traded blue-chip stocks. The NASDAQ Composite Index is an unmanaged, market-weighted index of all over-the-counter common stocks traded on the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation System. The Standard & Poor's 500 (S&P 500) is an unmanaged group of securities considered to be representative of the stock market in general. It is not possible to invest directly in an index. NYSE Group, Inc. (NYSE:NYX) operates two securities exchanges: the New York Stock Exchange (the NYSE) and NYSE Arca (formerly known as the Archipelago Exchange, or ArcaEx, and the Pacific Exchange). NYSE Group is a leading provider of securities listing, trading and market data products and services. The New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. (NYMEX) is the world's largest physical commodity futures exchange and the preeminent trading forum for energy and precious metals, with trading conducted through two divisions the NYMEX Division, home to the energy, platinum, and palladium markets, and the COMEX Division, on which all other metals trade. The DAX 30 is a Blue Chip stock market index consisting of the 30 major German companies trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The Irish Stock Exchange (ISE) is Ireland's only stock exchange and has been in existence since 1793. The FTSE 100 Index is a share index of the 100 most highly capitalized companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. With a fixed number of 600 components, the STOXX Europe 600 Index represents large, mid and small capitalization companies across 18 countries of the European region. Nikkei 225 (Ticker: ^N225) is a stock market index for the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE). The Nikkei average is the most watched index of Asian stocks. The Korea Composite Stock Price Index or KOSPI is the index of all common stocks traded on the Stock Market Division. BSE Sensex or Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitivity Index is a value-weighted index composed of 30 stocks that started January 1, 1986. The Hang Seng Index is a free-float capitalization-weighted index of selection of companies from the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. The S&P/ASX All Ordinaries Index represents the 500 largest companies in the Australian equities market. The SSE Composite Index is an index of all stocks (A shares and B shares) that are traded at the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The Bovespa, the benchmark stock index of Brazil, is the second largest in the Americas, and the leading exchange in Latin America. The MSCI World Index is a free-float weighted equity index that includes developed world markets, and does not include emerging markets. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index is a float-adjusted market capitalization index consisting of indices in more than 25 emerging economies. The US Dollar Index measures the performance of the U.S. dollar against a basket of six currencies. Additional risks are associated with international investing, such as currency fluctuations, political and economic instability and differences in accounting standards. All information is believed to be from reliable sources; however we make no representation as to its completeness or accuracy. All economic and performance data is historical and not indicative of future results. Market indices discussed are unmanaged. Investors cannot invest in unmanaged indices. The publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting or other professional services. If assistance is needed, the reader is advised to engage the services of a competent professional.

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Wisdom of Wealth

Upcoming Events
Alternating Tuesdays & Thursdays thru October 14th: No evening appointments August & September: Kendra on maternity leave Our office will be open but no appointments will be scheduled. September 1 (tenatively) Moving Day! Our office will be temporaily closed as we move our office and get set up in the new space. September 5: Labor Day Markets, Harbour, & Triangle will be closed September 6: Board of Advisors Meeting 6pm October 8: Women & Money Conference 9am - 3pm, breakfast & lunch provided Polk County Convention Complex www.iowawomenandmoney.com

Wise people serve others sincerely, putting the needs of others above their own. ~Dalai Lama

Is your home properly insured?

Whether you are purchasing a new home or refinancing your current home, now is the perfect time to make sure your home is properly insured. In case there's ever a total loss of your home, you want to make sure you have adequate coverage to rebuild. For most homeowners, this is the most important reason to purchase homeowners insurance in the first place. If your homeowner policy does not provide enough coverage to pay for your loss, you may end up paying the difference between the total cost to rebuild and the amount of coverage provided by the homeowners policy. That's why it's important to notify your agent about additions or improvements to your home, because these affect the replacement cost. According to a 2008 study by Marshall and Swift, a research firm, 64% of homes are undervalued for insurance purposes. There are several things you can do to avoid being underinsured.: Have your insurance agent survey your property and calculate the replacement cost of your home. 1. Insure your home to 100% of the replacement value. 2. Make sure your policy has inflation protection coverage. 3. Inquire about personal property endorsements that cover special items such as jewelry, furs, computers and fine art. 4. Be sure to tell your agent when you make improvements or additions to your home or purchase additional valuable items. To avoid being overinsured, have your insurance agent conduct a survey of your home to calculate the replacement cost. It's a good idea to have an up-to-date inventory of your personal belongings. Photos, videotape and digital disks are a good way to record what you have. Be sure to keep these files and tapes in a safe place off premises, such as a safe deposit box. Just like you review your financial plan annually with Kendra, it is equally important to review your insurance protection annually. Dont wait until a loss happens!

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Submitted by Mila Schwarz, American Family Insurance Agent

Are you online?

In todays world, if a business doesnt have an online presence, its very likely that the younger generation will never know you exist. Over the last few months, we have been working hard to increase our visibility online. Were on Facebook Visit & like Triangle Financial (you can find a direct link on our website, www.trianglefsinc.com) to get inspirational & thoughtful quotes, fun money facts, and links to articles we have been reading online. We have a Blog Visit our website, www.trianglefsinc.com to Button to receive updates via email (or your

Volume 3, Issue 2

favorite RSS reader) when we have a new post. You can help Do you have a general investment question that others might have too? Many of the basic questions we get make great articles for our website, so we welcome any ideas and feedback from you, our clients. Our website as a resource Our website offers:

read our blog. We are working towards semiweekly posts, but have been busy wrapping up appointments this month and havent had as much time to post. That should change when we arent trying to get four months of appointments done in two months! If you like what you read and would like to be notified when we update, click on the orange RSS

Blog Upcoming events Newsletter archives Links to investment companies for online access

Pershing Statement Fees

Do you have a Pershing brokerage account? If so, you may want to consider signing up for online statements. Over the past year, we have been working to identify and transition those of you with these accounts to online statements, as Pershing has had to start charging for paper statements. Beginning with the June statement, each paper statement will cost $0.75 each. If you would like to 'Go green' and stop your paper statements for Pershing, please call or email us and we will send you instructions. For all your other accounts, visit our website, www.trianglefsinc.com & click on the Resources > Investment Links tab. From there, click on the investment company you would like to switch to online statements, and you will be taken to their website. Don't see the company you are looking for? Email us and we can help you find the right place to sign up.

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1614 Center St. Des Moines, IA 50314 Phone: 515-282-8962 Fax: 515-288-8372 E-mail: kerkamaa@hirep.net

When you are finished enjoying this quarters newsletter, please share the articles with friends and family who may find them interesting. Securities and Advisory Services offered through Harbour Investments, inc

Women & Money Conference

Come join other women at this hands-on event to increase your financial literacy, no matter what your current level of financial knowledge is and build sound money management skills. This one day FREE workshop includes a couple of keynote speakers and several workshops for you to choose from. Watch for more information on this event at www.iowawomenandmoney. com!

Milestone Birthdays Lonne F. 7/1 Terry D. 7/31 Kyle M. 7/31 Judy G. 8/5 Korene R. 8/6 Nancy G. 8/9 Shelly S. 8/19 Sarah J. 8/28 Jay W. 9/20