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Newlyweds Need to Reconcile Investment Styles
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June is one of the most popular months for weddings. This may be due, in part, to June being named for Juno, the Roman goddess of women and marriage. Of course, Juno and her husband, Jupiter, probably had very little trouble with money, but if you are getting married this month, you and your spouse will need to work together on your finances - which means, among other things, that you will have to reconcile your investment styles.
As you set up a household together and establish common long-term financial goals, you will need to make investing a priority. But you and your spouse may well have different attitudes about investing, and some of those differences may be due to your respective genders. A major, long-term study by researchers at the University of California found that women trade stocks less often than men, do more research before making an investment decision, and tend to stick with their investments longer.
The results? Women investors' portfolios outperformed those of men by 1.4 percent a year, according to the study. So, one might conclude that women's "buy-and-hold" investing style can pay off in the long run.
While it may be useful for you and your spouse to keep these gender-based tendencies in mind, you will still have to work out some common ground as you create investment strategies to meet your objectives. The key is open and frequent communication. Talk to each other and learn what the other is thinking. Ask yourselves these types of questions: Do we both want to save for a house? If so, when do we want to buy it? If we have children, do we want to help them pay for college? Do we want to retire at about the same time? What does each of us want to do during retirement?
Once you've started talking about these and other issues, you'll be able to start creating appropriate investment strategies. And after you begin investing, you may well find that you can discover ways to "complement" each other's tendencies and preferences - that is, your "aggressive" choices can balance your spouse's "conservative" ones, or vice versa.
However - and this is an important "however" - both you and your spouse still need to be aware of the potential dangers of staying too much in your "comfort zone." If you are an aggressive investor, willing to take greater risks with your principle in exchange for potentially higher returns, you still could get "burned" by chasing after too many "hot" stocks, many of which will have already cooled by the time you invest, and, in any case, may not be suitable for your needs. On the other hand, if your spouse is a conservative investor and consistently favors "conservative" investments such as bonds and Certificates of Deposit, he or she might not get the growth potential needed to help you achieve your joint goals. Furthermore, fixed-rate investments can incur "inflation risk" - the risk that their returns may not even keep up with the inflation rate.
As newlyweds, it's important for you and your spouse to learn to adapt to each other's personal styles in many ways - and it's just as important to accommodate each other's investment styles. It can take some work, but it's well worth the effort.
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GPA grows trade, market share
Intermodal volume up 20 percent
port photo
Rubber tired gantry cranes handle cargo at the Chatham Intermodal Container Transfer Facility at the Port of Savannah. The Georgia Ports Authority's Mason Mega Rail project will double rail lift capacity to 1 million containers per year by 2020 - photo by Provided

The Georgia Ports Authority achieved 14 percent growth in March container volumes, moving 355,208 20-foot equivalent unit (TEU) containers.

From July 2017 to March, TEU container trade grew by 9 percent, or 255,786 additional units for a total of 3.08 million, a new record for Savannah.

"Savannah's continued strength is a reflection of our customers' commitment, Georgia's leadership, and the many dedicated service providers, GPA employees and ILA members who come together every day to achieve great things," said GPA Executive Director Griff Lynch. "March marked our 17th consecutive month of business expansion thanks, in part, to a strong economy and growing market share."

Intermodal rail volumes jumped by 20 percent in March and 15.4 percent for the fiscal year to date, for a total of 318,454 containers handled over nine months – another record for the GPA.

"As the numbers show, our rail cargo is growing at a faster pace than our overall trade," GPA Chairman Jimmy Allgood said. "This is important because rail is playing a key role in our responsible growth strategy. We anticipate our rail infrastructure investments to take 250,000 trucks off the road each year by 2020."

The GPA recently broke ground on its Mason Mega Rail Terminal, on which the Port of Savannah will build 10,000-foot unit trains within its own footprint. From the expanded rail infrastructure at Garden City Terminal, Class I rail providers CSX and Norfolk Southern will provide direct rail service to major Southeast and Midwestern markets from Memphis to St. Louis, Chicago to Cincinnati.

An added benefit is that the Mason Mega Rail project will move all rail switching on terminal – improving vehicle traffic flow around the port.

In August, the GPA will open its Appalachian Regional Port in Murray County. Located in an industrial belt, including the production and export of carpet and flooring, automobiles and tires, the ARP will provide an alternative to all-truck transit to Northwest Georgia.

Each round-trip container moved via the Appalachian Regional Port will offset 710 truck miles on Georgia highways.

March was also a strong month for roll-on/roll-off auto and machinery units at the Port of Brunswick and Ocean Terminal in Savannah. Colonel's Island Terminal in Brunswick handled 66,144 cars, trucks and tractors, while Ocean Terminal added 4,050, for a total 70,194, a 17.2 percent increase.

"The global economy is thriving and our volumes are following suit," Lynch said. "As existing accounts grow their footprint in the expanding auto facility in Brunswick, Georgia's competitive logistical advantages are drawing additional business across all of our docks."

Lynch noted that for the fiscal year to date, Mayor's Point breakbulk terminal in Brunswick grew by 44 percent (34,515 tons) to reach 112,728 tons of forest products. At East River Terminal, bulk cargo expanded by 34 percent July-March (189,918 tons) for a total of 750,384 tons.

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