CNBC Core Viewership Drops to 20-Year Low — Why that’s a good thing!

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According to the latest Nielsen data, CNBC’s prime viewership (age 25-54 demographic) just tumbled to a fresh 20 year low of just 37,000, the lowest since March 1993. CNBC’s Fast Money (fell 32% vs previous year), Mad Money (fell 42% year-over-year) and Kudlow (fell 52% year-over-year) all had all time low ratings in the “all viewers” category in August 2013.

So why is this a good thing?

This is good news for individual investors and their advocates because it means less people are being negatively influenced by CNBC’s misinformation.

CNBC’s goal is not to make you money, but to sell advertising.They want you to live in fear and react to every little hiccup in the market so that you’re glued to their network in order to receive investment advice from their guests and anchors. But if you make just one move to improve your portfolio’s performance this year, it should be turning off CNBC. In fact, you should tune out most of the financial media. 

If you’re invested for the long haul, it really doesn’t matter…

  • If inflation is up two-tenths of a percentage point this year,
  • Or if the Consumer Confidence Index dips 3%,
  • Or if the Bull Bear Sentiment Indicator switches from bullish to bearish.

Your portfolio should be positioned to withstand good times and bad. You shouldn’t be jumping in and out of the market or sectors based on news, politics, the economy, or any other event.

America’s Worst Charities

The Tampa Bay Times and the Center for Investigative Reporting identified the 50 worst charities in the US (see table below). These are organizations that purport to help the needy but devote pennies on the dollar to worth causes.  The Pulitzer Prize worthy series is published in the Tampa Bay Times: America’s Worst Charities.

Here’s an eye-opening and infuriating preview:

The worst charity in America operates from a metal warehouse behind a gas station in Holiday.

Every year, Kids Wish Network raises millions of dollars in donations in the name of dying children and their families.

Every year, it spends less than 3 cents on the dollar helping kids.

Most of the rest gets diverted to enrich the charity’s operators and the for-profit companies Kids Wish hires to drum up donations.

In the past decade alone, Kids Wish has channeled nearly $110 million donated for sick children to its corporate solicitors. An additional $4.8 million has gone to pay the charity’s founder and his own consulting firms.

The following tips can help you make an informed decision when the phone rings from a charity:

Key questions to ask the caller:

  • What is the full name of the charity?
  • Do you work for a paid fundraiser?
  • How much of my donation actually goes to charity?
  • Will any local programs directly benefit? If so, how?
  • What is the website address of the charity?

Key facts to know:

  • The best charities spend no more than 35 cents of every dollar raised on fundraising costs
  • America’s worst charities spend more than 80 cent of every dollar on fundraising
  • Charities that use telemarketing firms and fundraisers are far more likely to receive only a fraction of the money raised

 

The 50 Worst, Ranked by Money Blown on Soliciting Costs

Rank Charity name Total raised by solicitors Paid to solicitors % spent on direct cash aid
1 Kids Wish Network $127.8 million $109.8 million 2.5%
2 Cancer Fund of America $98.0 million $80.4 million 0.9%
3 Children’s Wish Foundation International $96.8 million $63.6 million 10.8%
4 American Breast Cancer Foundation $80.8 million $59.8 million 5.3%
5 Firefighters Charitable Foundation $63.8 million $54.7 million 8.4%
6 Breast Cancer Relief Foundation $63.9 million $44.8 million 2.2%
7 International Union of Police Associations, AFL-CIO $57.2 million $41.4 million 0.5%
8 National Veterans Service Fund $70.2 million $36.9 million 7.8%
9 American Association of State Troopers $45.0 million $36.0 million 8.6%
10 Children’s Cancer Fund of America $37.5 million $29.2 million 5.3%
11 Children’s Cancer Recovery Foundation $34.7 million $27.6 million 0.6%
12 Youth Development Fund $29.7 million $24.5 million 0.8%
13 Committee For Missing Children $26.9 million $23.8 million 0.8%
14 Association for Firefighters and Paramedics $23.2 million $20.8 million 3.1%
15 Project Cure (Bradenton, FL) $51.5 million $20.4 million 0.0%
16 National Caregiving Foundation $22.3 million $18.1 million 3.5%
17 Operation Lookout National Center for Missing Youth $19.6 million $16.1 million 0.0%
18 United States Deputy Sheriffs’ Association $23.1 million $15.9 million 0.6%
19 Vietnow National Headquarters $18.1 million $15.9 million 2.9%
20 Police Protective Fund $34.9 million $14.8 million 0.8%
21 National Cancer Coalition $41.5 million $14.0 million 1.1%
22 Woman To Woman Breast Cancer Foundation $14.5 million $13.7 million 0.4%
23 American Foundation For Disabled Children $16.4 million $13.4 million 0.8%
24 The Veterans Fund $15.7 million $12.9 million 2.3%
25 Heart Support of America $33.0 million $11.0 million 3.4%
26 Veterans Assistance Foundation $12.2 million $11.0 million 10.5%
27 Children’s Charity Fund $14.3 million $10.5 million 2.3%
28 Wishing Well Foundation USA $12.4 million $9.8 million 4.6%
29 Defeat Diabetes Foundation $13.8 million $8.3 million 0.1%
30 Disabled Police Officers of America Inc. $10.3 million $8.1 million 2.5%
31 National Police Defense Foundation $9.9 million $7.8 million 5.8%
32 American Association of the Deaf & Blind $10.3 million $7.8 million 0.1%
33 Reserve Police Officers Association $8.7 million $7.7 million 1.1%
34 Optimal Medical Foundation $7.9 million $7.6 million 1.0%
35 Disabled Police and Sheriffs Foundation $9.0 million $7.6 million 1.0%
36 Disabled Police Officers Counseling Center $8.2 million $6.9 million 0.1%
37 Children’s Leukemia Research Association $9.8 million $6.8 million 11.1%
38 United Breast Cancer Foundation $11.6 million $6.6 million 6.3%
39 Shiloh International Ministries $8.0 million $6.2 million 1.3%
40 Circle of Friends For American Veterans $7.8 million $5.7 million 6.5%
41 Find the Children $7.6 million $5.0 million 5.7%
42 Survivors and Victims Empowered $7.7 million $4.8 million 0.0%
43 Firefighters Assistance Fund $5.6 million $4.6 million 3.2%
44 Caring for Our Children Foundation $4.7 million $4.1 million 1.6%
45 National Narcotic Officers Associations Coalition $4.8 million $4.0 million 0.0%
46 American Foundation for Children With AIDS $5.2 million $3.0 million 0.0%
47 Our American Veterans $2.6 million $2.3 million 2.3%
48 Roger Wyburn-Mason & Jack M Blount Foundation For Eradication of Rheumatoid Disease $8.4 million $1.8 million 0.0%
49 Firefighters Burn Fund $2.0 million $1.7 million 1.5%
50 Hope Cancer Fund $1.9 million $1.6 million 0.5%

Source: Tampa Bay Times

Annual Returns by Asset Class

These charts show how different asset classes rank each year over the past 10 years (best performers on top).  This is an excellent demonstration of how hard it is to predict the future and how often the least-popular investments outperform common expectations.

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Source: J.P. Morgan

The Cost Of Sitting On Cash

According to the latest financial security index by Bankrate.com, here’s how Americans prefer to invest money that they don’t need for more than 10 years:

26% say they prefer cash for long-term investments.  Cash is arguably a great place to store your wealth briefly, however 80 years of data show cash is a horrible long-term investment. 

The following chart shows that cash has averaged a negative real, after-tax return (be sure to click on the chart for a closer look).  Inflation and taxes are killers.

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“Americans not saving enough is well-documented, but hunkering down in cash investments and settling for low returns will only magnify the problem of not having a sufficient nest egg to meet longer-range financial goals such as retirement,” said Greg McBride, CFA, Bankrate.com’s senior financial analyst. “Other choices may not do the trick either, as real estate is not only very cash-intensive, but often illiquid. And precious metals spit out zero cash flows, with gains solely dependent on price appreciation.”
Sources:
BankRate.com
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