TOO

Teekay Offshore Partners LP

Technology

Double Your Money with This Big Data Play on Real Estate

If you think the tech economy is slowing down, try to rent a home or apartment in San Francisco.

According to a new report from the real estate experts at Nested, the city now has the highest rents around. Not just in the United States – but in the entire world.

It's no doubt largely due to the fact that the tech boom in SF and Silicon Valley is running at full speed, leaving the city with a vacancy rate below 3%.

Nested based its results not on average rents but on the price people pay per square foot. In San Francisco, renters pay $4.75, the highest among more than 100 cities around the world the agency studied.

While San Francisco lies in the epicenter of the tech sector, it's not the only city with soaring rents.

Not surprisingly, Wall Street is getting in on the act. The number of financier-owned rental properties in the United States jumped 60% last year.

You can get in on this act, too.

You see, Wall Street needs data – a lot of data – to help them make their real estate investing decisions.

They're paying top dollar for that data – and most of them are buying it from the tech company I want to tell you about today.

It's already doubled once for my longtime readers.

And it's poised to double again - fast - if you make your move now...

Retirement

What Too Much Risk Really "Looks" Like and Why You Should Care

Many investors think that having "too much" risk isn't a big deal…

… until it hits "home."

That's the case for 6.2 million American who have invested roughly $224 billion in Fidelity's Freedom Funds and who recently found out – the hard way – just how much risk the fund managers have taken on to boost performance… arguably, without telling them.

The Freedom Funds, in case you are not familiar with 'em, are Fidelity's largest retirement fund grouping and worth more than $1 billion a year in management and fee revenue to the Boston-based financial services company.

Based on "target dates," the Freedom Funds are supposed to be a one-size, easy-to-use investment that diversifies investments and automatically manages risks by reducing them as fund participants age.

When you're young, for example, you might choose the Fidelity Freedom 2060 Fund as a way to set it and forget it for the next 42 years. Somebody only two years away from retirement, by contrast, may opt for the Fidelity Freedom 2020 Fund.

The appeal is terrific.

Over time you're supposed to get great performance and decreasing volatility – risk by any other name – that ensures your hard-earned retirement funds will be there when it's time to call it quits.

Hence, the "targeted date" moniker.

Here's why I'm not a fan of target date funds - and you shouldn't be ether...

Trading Strategies

Part I: $4 Trillion in Profit Potential When "Big Data" Becomes Too Big

Equifax announced last week that the intensely private personal data it had in its possession for 143 million Americans had been hacked.

That's one in every two people.

People who…

…didn't ask to be "customers."

…now have a lifelong problem because of Equifax.

…may never recover financially.

I smell a rat.

Harsh?

Yes, and to my way of thinking, deservedly so.

Equifax maintained the financial equivalent of the "holy grail." Social Security numbers, driver license numbers, addresses, bank accounts, dates of birth, and more.

Everything needed to create a "new you."

I'm livid and not just because all this information has been stolen, either.

What really chaps my hide is that criminals can now use this information to file tax returns, claim refunds, access medical records, rent apartments, buy houses, take out loans, and more – all without you knowing for years to come.

This goes way beyond simple identity theft...