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Show DAILY C8 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Sunday, February 17, 2008 HERALD rW,V LOVE & MONEY STARTING OUT Go Abroad? The Readers Have Their Say r. Whether it's going home abroad, a lot to say about two recent columns in which I wrote about the possibility of moving my family overseas and the reasons my wife, Amy, is now open to that idea after spendingso many years opposed to it. As I wrote several weeks ago, Amy's change of heart stems in large part from her feeling that the 2004 move we By Jeffb. made to Louisi- Opdyke " ana from New Jersey isn't all she expected. She thought only vague glimpses. Ask me. about our lives abroad. ."a fid I she'd be returning home, to the can give you dozens--hunplace she and I grew up. What dreds of stories and advenshe has come to realize, intures that are as clear to me as stead, is that home is no longer here. The time she remembers 'the days they happened. "The worst that can happen is long past, and our hometown is Little more than just another city we've lived in. Love & Money: A Video recomreaders " Love & Money is now in Many mended that we take advanvideo podcasi format. Get '; tage of Amy's newfound willinformation on how to subscribe ingness to move. As part of his at vVSJ.comloveandmoney, ofcareer as a foreign-servic- e Where this.week you can watch 7 ficer, John Perdew, of Boulder, Jeff and Amy Opdyke talk about Colo., lived in Beirut, Moscow how they each want something and Frankfurt, and he says different from a vacatio- n"those assignments are the and how they resolve:.' bookmarks" of his family's life. (or not) those differences." As a result, he says, if we get the opportunity to move, he has one piece of advice: "GO!" is that you don't like. it. and "In a lifetime of Thanksgiveveryone wants to come home. At least you tried it. The worst ing dinners, birthday parties, trips to the beach, they all part would be not going, and meld together in a continuum always wondering what, you without defining markers," Mr. missed.", Perdew says. "Overseas living Starting in the late 1980s, resident: Colo., provides those markers. Our Englewood, Jeanne Tubb and her family Thanksgiving dinner in Paris, Christmases in Moscow and lived in England, New Zealand and Australia for a combined Frankfurt, our donkey ride into Petra, our safari in Kenya for 14 years. Ms. Tubb says, her kids "see the my birthday all stand out with world in ways that many U.S. crystal clarity. "Ask me about our lives children don't. They're interhere in the States between as- ested in different cultures, sensignments, and I can give you sitive to others' values and -. : e BARRON'S INSIGHT ByBillAlpert know that the world doesn't volve around U.S. culture," re- Returning to America, she says, "has been hard" for the family. Her children "had absorbed the Down Under culture lanfll found the American emphasis on material goods and the 'I did this' and 'I have that' statements, and the judgments exmany of their peers pressed by to be uncomfortable. My husband and I, expecting Colorado like it to be more used to be, found it difficult to adjust to the mindless nitpicking and competition over things that didn't really mat' ". ter. .'.' 7 "You are right," Ms. Tubb says, "one really cannot go back. But going forward is very exciting.".. laid-bac- k ; : Kirsten Alexander, in Rescue, Calif., sees overseas living from a different perspective: as a child dragged between five states and two European countries, and as a mom today. "Travel and the ability to adapt to new surroundings are exciting and will provide lifelong skills for any kid," she says, "but stability and close friends trump any and all of those desires." Cisco Could Provide an Opportunity $36 Calif-base- d expense of stock options, as tech investors still do). That revenue growth was solidly in the 12",,. to 17V range that Chief Executive Of-- . ficer John Chambers has said if 32: .3.0; "26. : is Cisco's expecta- long-ter- tion. But he warned that there could be a short-terdeviation: In January, order growth was below internal projections. 7 Revenue may be up just 10 in the April quarter. The company's corporate custom- - ers are wary of the economy's slowdown, Mr. Chambers says. Yet Cisco shares, down from their September level of more than S33 to a recent $23, look like a buy. The video upgrade of the '24. '22. 2007 '08 : Market Data Gmtm nmrp- Internet is clearly in its early stages. Orders for Cisco's CRS-high-en- d network router are up over 100 And YouTube has yet to go At its current price, Cisco stock now sells for just 15 times the $1.50 per share in earnings forecast for the fiscal year ending' July 2008. With Cisco's video prospects intact, its shares may soon retrace their lost ground. 1 For more Ms. Alexander says she "never knew where my next school would be. But my two boys (ages 11 and 13) have known one elementary, one middle and soon one high school. I have no school friends and still cannot seem to keep close friendships all that well. All the friends my boys have they knew in kindergarten and will be with them when they graduate." She offers an alternative to living overseas: "long-terstays as in over the summerin other countries, We've taken the boys to five European countries, on average a month at a time. I think you can give your children stability, broad world culture and keen adaptation skills by traveling frequently, yet giving them a stable base to come home to." final word goes to a reader from Cary, N.C., whose husband is in the military, and whose family has moved every few years. Several years ago, she says, "we moved to what should have been our last town," but then her husband's dream job came along and prompted another move. "It's hard for most of our family and friends to understand why we would do this," this woman says. "But for the overall of our family unit, moving again was the best choice. My children were devastated. However, they understand that their family will still be together and they will make the best of it. Kids will follow your example and make a situation positive if you help them through it. "We all have choices to make in life and challenges to face, and there are a lot more opportunities open to those who can be flexible and make the best of them." The well-bein- g Jeff Opdyke covers personal finance for The Wall Street Jour-na- l. Email: lovemoney(3wsj.com networks are to match older job seekers with potential employers. The former, in most cases, can post resumes on the sites and scan job openings; the latter can list jobs or purchase ads that target older workers. "Employers are recogniz" ing that older workers are knowledgeable, reliable and loyal," says E. ENCORE Scott Wingerter, chief operating officer of one job site, Online 34 23 (CSCO) Cisco Systems have dropped by a third since last fall. Perhaps that's why investors didn't V dump the stock when the huge network vendor finished its report on its fiscal second quarter, ended Jan. 26, with a surprise warning about slowing orders. Or maybe they realize that it's a good bet that order growth will revive as Cisco's customers upgrade the Internet to keep up with a swelling flood of video traffic. The San Jose, company said its revenue in the fiscal second quarter rose 16.5 from the prior-yea- r period to $9.8 billion. Earnings climbed 15 to $2.4 billion or 38 cents a share (ignoring the Washing Your Web Face When Duke University and Jeremy Welch, first typed his name into the Google search engine, information about a light heavyweight boxer from Lawrence, Kan., and a Houston lawyer were among the top results. Not seeing himself higher on the list, Mr. Welch decided to revamp his online persona. "I created the Jeremy Welch blog so when anyone looks for me online, the first results display a true description of me: student, musician and entrepreneur," he says. Mr. Welch is among many concerned twentysomethings with maintaining a positive online identity. And for good reason: According to a December survey by Careerbuilder.com, 45 of employers use search engines and sites to research job candidates. "Googling people's names and looking at Facebook is part of the job review process," says Doyle Albee, director of Boulder, firm Colo., communications Metzger Associates. 7 Other people go online to check out potential dates or business partners and may be deterred by your fraternity drinking pictures or blog posts about how much you hate your boss. Having an online identity that reflects well on you is critical. 21, social-networki- new-med- First Step: Inspect First, inspect what's already out there, suggests Mr. Albee. Review at least the first five pages of results from search engines including Google, Yahoo and MSN. If you have a fairly common name, add your middle name or initial, company, industry, hometown and( college. Poke around Web sites that aggregate blogs, such as technorati.com and blogsearch. google.com. Create alerts on search engines to monitor new mentions of your name online. Also review personal Web pages and profiles you control and use privacy settings to limit your most personal material to a specific network of close friends. "Clean your space and wash your face," suggests Tom Drugan, of online identity management firm Naymz.com "Remove anything on MySpace or Facebook you wouldn't want your mother to see." Ask for Help If a Web site includes embarrassing or incorrect information about you, ask the site owner to remove that content. Also ask owners to remove the relevant "cached" pages stored on search engines. (The search engines themselves rarely remove Web pages.) Or, for fees that range from a couple of dollars to thousands a month, online companies including Naymz.com, and ReputationDefender.com DefendMyName.com promise to scrub search engines for you, haggling with Web page owners and helping you create a fresh online identity. Another approach is to create so much favorable and accurate content about yourself that any skeletons fall to the bottom of search results. Create profiles on Linkedln, Facebook and Naymz.com, which tend to be indexed at rethe top of search-engin- e sults. Also, if you have an interest in or work for a particular industry, comment on industry-specifi- c blog posts, articles and book reviews and be sure to add your full name and a link to your profile. Also, consider buying your own domain name, such as Mr. Welch's jeremyrwelch.com. Add links between your pages and include keywords to "raise the tide of your pages on search engines," Mr. Drugan says. Email: shetly.banjowsJ.com'-- ' Online Match - Ups for Older Workers and Jobs Systems csco) stock price Cisco, With Recent Fullback By Shelly Banjo stories, see barrons.com V Between 2004 and 2014, the percentage of individuals in the work force age is expected to grow almost 74, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's almost twice the increase of any other age group. If you're thinking about switching jobs in later life or returning to work, check out the following sites: DinosaurExchange.com: 65-pl- Describes retirees with experience as "dinosaurs" and the companies that need that experience as "dinosaur hunters." Lists jobs world-widNo charge for job seekers or employers. Enrge.us: Specializes in helping retired government workers find jobs in the private sector. Individuals can post resumes (free), which companies can then peruse (for a fee). No job postings. ExecSearches.com: Helps nonprofit, government, education and health groups "fill g executive, midlevel and positions." Job seekers can receive emails alerting them to openings that fit their needs and skills. RetiredBrains.com: Allows users to search for part-tim- e e. fund-raisin- jobstemporary or project ase signments or jobs. RetireeWorkforce.com: Features about three dozen companies, including Sprint Nextel, that have posted open full-tim- ings. No charge to job seekers. RetirementJobs.com: Screens and identifies employers that offer an "age friendly" environment for older workers. No charge to job seekers; employers pay a fee to post openings and access the site's database. Seniors4Hlre.org: In addition to resumes, individuals can post ads, which appear on the site's home page. Workforce50.com: Formerly SeniorJobBank.org. No charge to job seekers, who can store up to three resumes. Offers a large number of resources and articles about job searches. YourEncore.com: Founded by Procter & Gamble and Eli Lilly. Specializes in placing retired scientists and engineers with employers that join the site. Jobs primarily involve "part-tim- e technical assignments." By Glenn Ruffenach What You Need to Know About the Rebates by economic clouds in an year, Congress recently approved a stimulus package that includes special payments to more than 130 million households. President Bush signed the package into law last Wednesday. While the basic ingredi- ents may TOM HERMAN'S sound Worried Pie, parts can be tricky and even counterintuitive, as readers have been quick to pointteut. Here are the basics and a few tips: For most people who pay federal income tax, the payments will be as much as $600 for an individual, or as much as $1,200 for a married couple $300 per filing jointly-pl- us child. But many people will get e less than that, and many taxpayers will get nothing at all. For example, the payments begin to phase out for those whose adjusted gross in come exceeds, a certa fill amount. For single Sjrnat tnresnoia is ?b,uuu. yor mar ried couples, it's $1 upper-incom- The phaseout works ' like this: You lose 5 of the dollar amount above the applicable cap, such as $50 for each $1,000 over the threshold. For example, a married couple filing jointly with no kids and income for 2007 of $174,000 wouldn't qualify for a Treasury payment this year. Neither would a single person (with no kids) and income for 2007 of $87,000. The IRS says the vast majority of Americans who qualify for the payment "will not have to do anything other than file their 2007 individual income tax return" to receive their payment this year. The IRS will use information on the return' to determine eligibility and calculate the amount of the payment. Linda Stiff, acting IRS commissioner, says the first payments are expected to be issued in May. Many people should file a return for 2007 even if they aren't required to do so and don't owe any federal income tax, That's because the new law calls for payments to many people who have no tax liability, e such as "low-incom- workers e or those who receive Social Security benefits or veterans' disability compensation, pension or survivors' benefits received from the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2007," the IRS says. These people will be eligible to receive a payment of $300 ($600 on a joint return) if they had at least $3,000 of qualifying income, the IRS . says. Procrastinators, take note: If you're among the millions of people who file for an automatic extension, you won't get your Treasury payment until after you send in your return. A Treasury official says Uncle Sam will not tax the stimulus payments. Rumors that these payments will reduce refund your federal income-tanext year are wrong, officials say. For more details, see the IRS Web site (irs.gov). x Send your question to us at askdowjones.sunday03(3wsj.com and include your name, address and telephone number. Questions may be edited; we regret that we cannot answer every letter. Stability Counts as ETF World Gets Crowded As more players rush into exchahge-traded-fun- d market, some funds are getting crowded out and investors may want to take a closer look at their ETFs' staying power. Early this month, ETF pro-- . vider Claymore Securities announced plans to liquidate 11 funds. Investors who don't sell their shares before Feb. 28 will be sent INDEXING the value of & EJPS their shares in- - eluding any capi tal; gains and dividends. ETF experts see more liquidations on the horizon. liquidations can be a headache for investors: They have to find a new place to put their money to work, and those holding the liquidated fund in a taxable account have to pay taxes on any gains received. If the ETF is less than a year old as are most of the Claymore funds being liquidated investors have short-tergains, which are generally taxed at higher rates than long-tergains. d As the number of ETFs grows rapidly, not all of these funds can survive, analysts say. Fund providers launched 270 new ETFs last year, up from 156 in 2006. While there were 21 U.S. ETF managers as of January, the three largest managers ac- counted for roughly 87 of the market, according to ETF manager State Street Global Advisors. ' "There's an awful lot of people out there carving out a few percenf wf the market, says Lee Kranefuss, head of the iShares operation at Barclays Global Investors, the largest ETF provider. The market downturn is making g the environment for new ETFs even already-challengin- worse. "I think there's going to be .lots more ETFs that end up liquidating," and many of them may be funds that are not yet a year old, says Jeffrey Ptak, director of ETF analysis at investment re- search firm Morningstar. Some of the ETFs most likely to liquidate are nar rowly focused funds, industry experts say. One of the ETFs that Claymore plans to shutter this month, for example, invests only in companies that research, develop, produce, license or market vaccines. "You've got these very targeted niche products, they're very volatile, and in this sort of environment, it's going to be an uphill battle for them to gather assets," Mr. Ptak says. Investors should check out an ETF's total assets before diving in. As of Jan. 31, 144 of the 677 ETFs tracked by Morningstar had roughly $10 million or less in assets, and survival is "a lot more challenging at asset levels like that," Mr. Ptak says. While investors shouldn't necessarily avoid a small ETF, he says, they should subject it to greater scrutiny. "If an ETF has really struggled to gather assets," Mr. Ptak says, "the market is telling you something, which is maybe this strategy is not going to make sense." By Eleanor Use |