strategies for baby boomers it's all ahead on today's first business. wed. sept. 15th you're watching first business: financial news, analysis and today's investment ideas. another record for gold it has just hit another all-time high of 1272 an ounce yesterday. we are now joined by ira epstein / the linn group. what exactly is driving gold prices higher? i think it's a matter of uncertainty and seasonality at this time of year but the uncertainty really has confusion going. people are moving out of paper and into

hard assets. i wanna go over some data from a recent report from the world gold council. is the fundamental picture prices? there is not enough gold and that's why prices are moving higher. more people are buying than selling and you have a finite supply of gold that comes on to the market each year so prices are being driven higher as people dump other assets. if you look at the 15 year chart for gold it looks like it is on a unsustainable track. it doesn't really make you wanna buy gold. what do you think of that? it depends what you call unsustainable and for what period of time. we are at the

strongest part of the year typically for gold going into the years end. from early september until the end of december is one of the strongest parts for the gold market. if you can tell me what the stock market and the dollar is going to do i can give you a better prediction on gold. the problem is you cannot so people are just moving into the gold market because they want assurance of owning a hard asset right now. so you are buying gold on the brakes? even though those breaks are very shallow? they have been unbelievably shallow which i was not expecting. i wanted some deeper breaks in all fairness. when i was on the show last time i was predicting 1300 by year end and i am staying with that possibly 13 and a quarter. that is the number we have heard from other

traders as well. thank you for joining us ira epstein / the linn group. we are now joined by joe cusick / options express. can gold and stocks go up at the same time? it doesn't seem to make sense. you typically would not see that but we are actually seeing another precious metal silver which is also a industrial metal because it is used in allot of chips and things of that nature in the industrial side. it is actually outperforming gold so as people move in to gold because they are hearing potential quantitative easing and the potential for long-term inflation you see stocks coming in and people participating in those. gold is going up as well because of a weak dollar but silver is outperforming it. that is telling us that the industrials could be performing well which is always good for stocks. do you think that traders are seeing this rally in stocks over

the last week or so as an opportunity to sell in to that rally? i think you are seeing some of the swing traders. the short-term traders. you are seeing them take advantage of selling into this rally. what we are really waiting for more as traders is see if the fund managers who have under invested come in to this market that has really been running to the upside in the last eight sessions almost a percent every day. yesterday that activity had actually hit that resistance point that we seen across all the markets. right now i think we are waiting for the big money to see if they are going to make a move because they do not want to miss this train if in fact there is some more upside. that is very true we do need to see some conviction. thank you very much for joining us joe cusick / options express. technology once reserved for futuristic sy-fy tv shows is beginning to appear in manufactering plants. at this year's international

manufactering technology show going on now in chicago we tapped into tech that has the wow factor.mum's the word on our end we wouldn't want to cause an international incident.a robot so smart it can fill a bin and then close it up for shipping.or play hand of black jack if you prefer. the dual armed robot is making it's first public appearance on the trade show floor at the international manufactering and technology show." your typical robot is a single arm device with 6 axis of control these robots just like you and i have two arms and rotating torso and this just opens up a whole world of possiblilities for robot applications."one of the applications is shot blasting metal pieces used in the defense, automotive and medical devices sectors. the guyson company is among the first to hire the two armed robot." has this replaced any people at your company? i'm afraid it does but the way i look at is having the robots do the drugery work or work that requires frees humans for more creative work."robotics tend to target jobs that dirty,

dangerous or degrading to humans as those tasks can now be performed by machines the yaskawa company which created the double armed robot says it survived the recession by doubling down on research and development and looks to washington to a first on the floor the only dual armed robot research and development-stepped up during the recession " has this replaced any people at your company? i'm afraid it does but the way i look at is having the robots do the drugery work or work that requires frees humans for more creative work." " your typical robot is a single arm device with 6 axis of control these robots just like you and i have two arms and rotating torso and this just opens up a whole world of possiblilities for robot applications."robots have always been targeted at jobs that are dirty, dangerous, or degrading to the human spirit."we didn't want to say good bye to anyone if possible so we put our self to application of the dual arm." " has this replaced any people at your company? i'm afraid it does but the way i look at is having the robots do the drugery work or work that requires frees humans for more creative work." "flow from the stand point of we are not wasting any time when we are putting something

together so when we get to a one a day rate which is around 2016 we will builduing one of these out of the fort worth plant everyday."coming up tomorrow how manufactering companies are gearing toward energy efficiency. mum's the word on our end we wouldn't want to cause an international incident. coming up tomorrow how manufactering companies are gearing toward energy efficiency. still to come steps to take if you're thinking of switching careers an expert joins us later on. but first how the recession has taken a toll on baby boomers' nest eggs that's coming up next.

it was more surreal than anything. you're under fire. you're getting blown up. there's definitely adrenaline. there was the explosion, and i remember just opening my eyes, and it got both of my legs. i had surgery after surgery, you know, i was on a lot of pain medicine. "what's going to happen next? and how long am i going to be here?" the wounded warrior project dropped off a backpack for me. and it had everything in there that i could possibly have needed at that time. peer visitors, people who have been where i had been before, said, "look, brother, "everything's going to be okay. "three months from now, or four months "from now, a year from now, you'll be fine." that type of thing was an invaluable service. to be honest, i don't know if i would be as well adjusted as i am now if it wasn't for them. to learn more, call... or visit woundedwarriorproject.org.

not everyone who gets meningitis...dies. the infection spread so fast. (overlapping voices) preteens a teens should get vaccined against meningoccaningis, a rare but serious disse. healthials aren'thonly voices rommendinit for baby boomers the financial crisis has wiped out so much of their net worth since 2007 and they are now retiring into the worst economy since the great depression. we are now joined by mark miller / "the hard times guide to retirement security". how can baby boomers between the ages of the mid 40's and 60's survive an adjust to today's economy? the first thing i will say is this is not a book about magical solutions. i am a financial journalist so i am not putting any idea forword as this is the solution. there is not one thing you can do that makes everything great. i have put together a compendium of all the best most creative ideas

that i have come across that i think are the right approaches. nothing i recommend is a quick just do this and everything will be great. one of the main things people will need to do is readjust the balance of how long their working lives will last and also readjust expectations about spending and retirement. i think we have to recalibrate those things. you say it's important to redefine what retirement security is. it is not so much what you have saved but about having a guaranteed income, what do you mean by that? i think over the last few decades we have had a kind of controlled experiment in self directed retirement. mainly the 401k and the ira system. those have replaced what we used to have in the private sector which was the defined benefit pension where you would receive a check every month. those have evaporated for most people who

work in the private sector. what we've had over the last the few decades is the equivalent of retirement investing which is the same as retirement security. there is really a broader picture people need to look at, investing in the 401k is important and it will continue to be important. the broader picture of things involving the real estate, what you think you will spend in retirement, your debt and your insurance picture. the broad picture i am looking at is how would you finance a amount of time that could last several decades after working ends. when you talk about real estate are you talking about paying off your home so you don't have a mortgage? real estate is a real conundrum right now a lot of boomers are under water on mortgages. housing values in some parts of the country are down 40 or 50 percent. if you are planning on staying in your

home for the long-haul which most americans say they are the question becomes how will you do that most efficiently. debt reduction or getting rid of the mortgage as soon as you retire is important. the trend used to be seniors got rid of debt as retirement approached but with the housing bubble that trend actually reversed. we started seeing increases in debt loads amongst older americans so we need to work to get back to where we were because that interest cost is just an inhibitor on your cash flow. let's talk about changing career strategies as well. older people are going to have to work longer we are talking about potentially until age 70. that is the social security debate that is going on. whether the so called full retirement age will go to 70 and a lot of my work is looking at redefining what retirement really is. the whole retirement at 65 idea is very antiquated i think. it is outdated from the 19th century. we are living healthier longer lives now and we are going to want to work longer. what will

work like for those age 50 and up? the real problem we are facing is a workplace that still practices age discrimination. i usually tell people who are out of work in this recession, having worked in corporate america, that it's time for reinvention. maybe even a second career or the entrepreneurial path. i personally think the 50 + entrepreneurialship is going to be a big trend. it will be very hard for a lot of people to break back into the workforce. a lot of people are trying to replicate the work that they had but i think the odds of that are not great. all very good ideas. thank you for joining us mark miller / "the hard times guide to retirement security". and still ahead tips for those of you thinking of making a career change paul eggers has that next.

given the fact that the typical worker stays at a job for seven to 10 years most americans will have as many as 10 different jobs in a lifetime. with unemployment now here 10% it is now the time to consider a new job and maybe even a career change. we are now joined by kimberly bishop, kimberlybishop.net. what is the first task that one should consider when taking on a new job or career change. research is so important. it is about

identifying where the demand is in the future and where the opportunities will lie. one resource available to people is the u.s. bureau of labor statistics occupational handbook identify some of those so start with that. the second set is to identify your transferrable skills. what do you bring to the table? people can do this by sitting down and going through the course of their career and identifying what experiences they had and where they had great accomplishments in their career. the key here is to not think about your job title. stay thinking about your skills. let's talk about those statistics that show job growth. what industries are hiring right now? health-care management, information security, and accounting those are some of them. additionally i always remind people there are certain functional positions that every company needs. things like sales, legal issues,

finance, h.r. support. finding functional needs and gaining expertise in those roles provides people with skills that are very transferable between careers. how can you gain experience if you are considering a job change where you may not have the experience in that new field? one way is doing volunteer work, another way is through doing internships, people often do outside projects and one thing that is often overlooked is finding opportunities within your own company and that is about being involved in cross functioning task forces with things that are going on outside of your particular job. this can give you exposure to other departments and exposure to gaining new skills. how important is it to consider the salary of a new field when considering a job change? it

should absolutely be a part of your research every single person has the threshold to where they need to be on the compensation side. in addition to looking at the skill sets and can you do the job you also need to find out if those jobs are paying at the level you are looking for and what you need it within your own life. it is just a part of the research process as you go through it. additionally people often think that they have to start at the bottom when they make a career change. sometimes that is the case but many times people are able to transition in at different levels so that's another part of the research people need to do to figure out where they will fit in that new industry. there are a lot of talks about social media in regards to a job change, how can you use those new technologies to your advantage? it is most important to have a

complete and updated professional profile. as a recruiter i will often come across people who do not have a complete profile and that is just not helpful to the job seeker. one thing to do is make sure it is updated, complete, identifies your skills, contact information is very clear, and it is important that it is professional. another thing people can do is join groups and engage in some of those networks that are on line. the key here is to make sure you have a multi dimensional approach in your job change. make sure it is not just about being on line or about networking but that you are approaching it from both perspectives. jobs and careers are being presented to people through a multitude of venues. you want to make sure you are in all the places that you can

be. thank you very much for joining us kimberly bishop, kimberlybishop.net.

who loves a dividend more than

matt shapiro/mws capital ? this is so you. i have been calling for dividend and stock buybacks for my big three including cisco and of course microsoft and intel. wfinally got&the news yesterday that cisco ran up to 22 but kind of backed off and a little disappointment in the scale of the dividend. only 1 or 2% and realize they have $40 billion on hand and another hundred 25 billion market cap. so they are sitting on so muc sh it seems like they are areholders. the stock moved up on the new so where does it go from here? i think what they could have done is sell debt like microsoft. yo saw microsoft jumped really nicely the last couple of days. cisco kind of had a muted reaction.

remember they have so much cash on hand, i have been calling for more dividends and actually bond sales in all these coanies so i would like to see could be worth as much as 25 or $27 if the company was more aggressive. they seem to really want to hold on to this cash and i think they really need to get it out there and sell some bonds, buy back stock, and put down a bigger dividend. so share the wealth. thank you souc for&joining us matt shapiro/mw capital.