BCS_101724_LQ

http://www.thebattlecreekshopper.com BATTLE CREEK SHOPPER NEWS Thursday, October 17, 2024 13

JOB

Continued from Page 12

The Freshman Career Exploration Fair last week at Battle Creel Public Schools

helps students in the freshman career academies decide on a pathway for

their future courses of study. (Shopper News photo by Shelly Kehrle-Sulser)

more, and hopefully to give kids a
real experience about what work
looks like, what careers look like
while they’re in high school, and
they can build relationships with
hopefully, employers and teachers
to help them advance to where they
want to go when they graduate. So
it’s just been a fantastic relationship
between Goodwill employers and
Battle Creek Central to help their
kids with the career academies.”
Goodwill is more than just the
retail stores, he said, referring to the
Financial Opportunity Center, the
Goodwill Connects youth employ-
ment program and other opportuni-
ties.
“There’s a real need for these kind
of skill sets,” he said of the trades.
“We started a pre-apprenticeship

program this year. We partnered with

KCC (Kellogg Community College.)

We transported the kids from their

home to KCC out at the manufactur-

ing center, and KCC provided the

instructors for that. We fed the kids

while we were in this five week pro-

gram , itwas on five Saturdays in a

row, so it was a great opportunity for

kids to talk to people in the trades.

They actually got to build some

things when they were at KCC. And

wonderful instructors said they really

were bonding with the kids.”

The retail stores help finance those

programs, he said.

“These services are all free to the

people who come to us,” he said,

“but that’s because we have support

from the Kellogg Foundation, the

United Way, the IRS, and from the

general public donating to us. We

use those dollars to fund programs

like this.”

Fifth/Third Bank was one of the seven financial institutions at the career

exploration fair representing the finance career pathway. (Shopper News photo by

Shelly Kehrle-Sulser)

Vote for solid investment

strategies

With the presidential elec-

tion just a few weeks away,

the public is naturally inter-

ested in not just the outcome

but what the results will

mean for issues of national

importance. As a citizen, you

likely share these concerns

— but how about as an

investor? After the votes are

counted — or even before

— should you make some

moves in anticipation of pos-

sible changes in policy?

Let’s look at the big pic-

ture first, through the lens of

history. The financial mar-

kets have performed well —

and at times, not so well —

under Democratic and

Republican presidents alike.

And the same is true about

which party controlled Con-

gress.

While it might be an over-

statement to say that deci-

sions made in Washington

have no effect on the mar-

kets, it’s not always so easy

to draw a direct line between

what happens there and how

the markets perform. For one

thing, political candidates

often make promises that are

not fulfilled, or, if they are,

have different results than

intended. Also, other institu-

tions can have a significant

impact on the markets. For

example, the Federal

Reserve, which controls

short-term interest rates, can

certainly affect many market

sectors. And there will

always be external events,

such as foreign conflicts and

even natural disasters, that

can make short-term impacts

on the investment world.

So, rather than making

changes to your portfolio in

anticipation of what might

happen if certain candidates

get elected, or even in

response to actual policy

changes, look to other fac-

tors to drive your investment

decisions.

These factors should

include the following:

• Your goals – You proba-
  bly have short- and long-
  term goals you’d like to
  achieve. For your short-term
  goals, such as a wedding, a
  down payment on a house or
  a long vacation, you may
  want to invest in instruments
  that provide stability of prin-
  cipal. For your long-term
  goals, most important of
  which may be a comfortable
  retirement, you’ll need to
  own a reasonable number of
  growth-oriented invest-
  ments.


• Your risk tolerance –
  When you build and main-
  tain your investment portfo-
  lio, you’ll need to accommo-
  date your individual risk tol-
  erance. All investments carry
  some type of risk, but you
  need to be comfortable with
  the overall risk level of your
  investments.


• Your time horizon –

Where you are in life is an

important consideration

when investing. When you

are young and just starting

out in your career, you may

be able to focus more on

growth, as you have time to

overcome the inevitable

short-term market down-

turns. But as you near retire-

ment, you may want to con-

solidate any gains you may

have achieved, and lower

your risk level, by moving

your portfolio toward a

somewhat more conservative

approach. Even in retire-

ment, though, you will need

some growth potential to

stay ahead of inflation.

• Your needs for liquidity


• As you invest, you’ll need
  to maintain an adequate
  amount of cash and cash
  equivalents in your holdings.
  Without this liquidity, you
  might be forced to sell long-
  term investments in case you
  have unexpected expenses.
  In any case, when it comes
  to investing, you may want
  to pay less attention to what
  names are on the ballot —
  and instead “vote” for the
  longer-term strategies that
  reflect your needs and goals.

This article was written by

Edward Jones for use by

your local Edward Jones

Financial Advisor.

Financial FOCUSFinancial FOCUS

Working Together for your Financial Future

RENEA PERRY

Financial Advisor

(269) 963-

edwardjones.com/renea-perry