The Senior Fair and Forum will be held Thursday, October 6, at the Pennridge Senior Center, 146 East Main Street, Silverdale.  The free, public educational session will run from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. and is geared for area residents approaching 55 years of age or older. Information will be available from more than 20 organizations that are scheduled to attend, all focusing on Senior Citizen issues, concerns and lifestyles.

 One of the highlights of this year’s event will be the recognition and honoring of Nancy Keenan, long-time civic activist and elder care advocate, who passed away in December 2010. Scheduled to attend the event are representatives of Congress, the State Senate, State Representatives, Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Aging, as well as Directors, Chairpersons and members of the Bucks County Area Agency on Aging and County Commissioners Office.

 “Mrs. Keenan’s true passion was for the elderly. She became a mostly self-taught authority on elderly law and healthcare following her 1987 completion of the Close Up Foundation’s “Area Agency on Aging Advisory Council Leadership Forum” in Washington, D.C., noted Dean Souder, Vice President, Trust Officer of First Savings.  “She served as chairperson of the Bucks County Area Agency on Aging Advisory Council and also the Southeast Regional Council of the Pennsylvania Council on Aging. She also wrote ‘The Prime Time’ column in an area newspaper, covering issues of importance to the elderly, including Medicare program changes, guardianships, and living wills. Most notably, Mrs. Keenan was a driving force behind the building of the new Pennridge Community Senior Center in Silverdale. In addition she was instrumental in organizing the Pennridge Senior Center Association, Inc. Her advocacy was recognized with many well-earned accolades and awards at the state, county and municipal levels.”

 “Another new addition to this year’s Sr. Fair will be our version of the ‘Antique Roadshow’ with an appraiser on hand,” said Souder. “If you are interested in having an item appraised, bring it to the Fair; we ask that only one item per person be appraised, due to the time restraints.”

 In addition to the exhibitors and guest speakers; prizes, give-aways and refreshments will be available.  Further information can be obtained by calling First Savings at 215-257-5035.

It doesn’t matter what you invest in, you should be aware of what you are investing in, and have a rational basis for investing in it.  By no means am I saying that you need to be a total expert in everything that you invest it, but make sure you do have knowledge about your investments.  Depending on the investment you are looking at, how much you should be looking into them will be dictated to you. 

For mutual funds or ETF’s, one doesn’t need to analyze each of the stock or bond holdings that their fund invests in (that is the job of the investment manager), but you should be aware of the mutual fund company, the managers, what the mutual fund invests in (or can’t invest in), its performance in up and down markets, and other fundamental factors associated with the management firm and fund itself. 

If you are looking to delve into an individual bond or stock, than the work-load and familiarity associated with this purchase will get larger and more complicated.  I once had a client instruct me to buy a security because “it was going to replace Microsoft”.  When I asked the client about the stock they wished to invest in, they didn’t really know what they did or their business model.  When I explained these to the client, the client no longer wished to purchase the stock.  If you are going to invest in an individual stock or bond, invest in what you know.  

As an example, if you are holiday shopping and go to 10 different stores, and one of these stores is significantly busier than the others, and you have noticed this in past years, you may want to look into that retail outlet further.  On the other hand if 2 of these stores has 90% of their registers closed with few patrons and this is a pattern you have noticed before, it is probably a troublesome sign, and before investing or holding that stock, a lot more comfort about their other operations would be needed. 

For those investors who do not take the time to familiarize themselves with their investments (or potential investments), they risk losing money or underperforming in their investments relative to the appropriate index.  The uninformed investor may get lucky once or twice, but the odds are they will lose more times than they will win.  Conversely, a well informed buyer doesn’t automatically mean a profit will be derived, but the decision to buy and subsequently hold or sell the investment will be based on information rather than emotion. 

Securities and products offered through First Savings Securities, Inc.  Member FINRA / SIPC

NOT FDIC INSURED – MAY LOSE VALUE – NO BANK GUARANTEE – NOT INSURED BY ANY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AGENCY

The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations.  To determine which investment(s) are right for you, consult your financial advisor before investing.

• Make sure your heating system is checked annually by a professional. Also have your flue checked for any buildup and cleaned to lessen the risk of fire.  
• To conserve energy, make sure your home is properly insulated – particularly walls and attics. 
• To keep warm air in, caulk and weather strip doors and windowsills. 
• Install storm windows or cover windows with plastic from the inside to provide an additional layer of weather protection. 
• To avoid pipes from freezing, wrap them in insulation or layers of old newspapers; then cover with plastic to keep moisture out.  

If you have any questions or would like information on Business, Personal or Life & Health insurance, contact First Savings Insurance at the Perkasie, Quakertown, or New Britain offices. 215-257-5035.

Committee members who planted the seeds for the Giving Tree include left to right: Kim Weichel, Val Gentile, Anne Kriebel and Sam Tancredi.

Fruits of the Giving Tree!

A “Giving Tree” sprouted in the First Savings Administration Building during the holidays!  The many leaves from this special tree each contained a suggestion for a food product or gift item to be donated to area residents in need during the holiday season.   Employees were invited to pick the leaves to help make the holiday season a little brighter for families in the Central and Upper Bucks County area.

More than 30 wrapped gifts were collected for area needy families and four carloads of food items and toiletries were donated to Pennridge FISH, the Quakertown Food Pantry, the New Britain Food Larder and “Give a Christmas” program sponsored by the Doylestown Intelligencer.

There are two emotions in investing – fear and greed.  These emotions often lead investors onto the wrong path.  It is these emotions that cause ‘flocking’ in investments which can and do lead to bubbles.  Greed leads investors to buy into ‘hot’ investments and sectors even when pricing and fundamentals do not support them, while it is fear that leads investors to often sell at or near bottoms or go too conservative when opportunities are prevalent.

The simple investment wisdom of buy low and sell high unfortunately is contrary to human emotion and because of fear and greed, many investors do the opposite.  There are many ways to take the ‘emotion’ out of investing.  Using a structured approach to buying and selling investments, investing at the proper risk level, not trying to time the market, using fundamental analysis all can help take the emotion out of investing.  One of the best methods to take the emotion out of investing is using a periodic rebalancing and repositioning in your portfolio.

Repositioning is simply selling one investment for another investment.  This can be done because the original investment is no longer performing well, the manager(s) left (in the case of mutual funds), the investment approach of the fund changed or many other reasons.  Make sure that the reasons why you purchased your initial investment still hold true.

Rebalancing is a very often overlooked tool and one of the best methods to take the emotion out of investing and sell high and buy low.  Simply put, your investments will act (or at least should) differently over different periods of time.  While some investments do well, others may not do as well or even struggle (this is not a simple sign to reposition the underperforming asset – remember to compare this to the appropriate peer group).  What rebalancing would say is to sell some of the better performing asset and purchase some of the lower investment.  As an example, suppose one has just 2 investments equally weighted at 50% each.  Because investment A does much better than investment B, the weightings become skewed and investment A becomes 70% of your portfolio.  Rebalancing would say sell some of Investment A to bring it back down to 50% and place the proceeds in investment B.  As the markets cycle, investment B may perform better, but through your action of rebalancing, you sold some of the Investment A shares high and bought investment B lower, thus setting your portfolio up to not only avoid a big drop (if investment A falls), but also experience an uptrend (if investment B starts to do better).  Decide how far you will let your investment deviate and follow this course of action (take the emotion out of the investments).

Securities and products offered through Papalia Securities, Inc.  Member FINRA / SIPC

NOT FDIC INSURED – MAY LOSE VALUE – NO BANK GUARANTEE – NOT INSURED BY ANY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AGENCY

The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations.  To determine which investment(s) are right for you, consult your financial advisor before investing.

The new & improved First Savings Branch Office at Poole's Corner!

Pooles’ Corner before the transformation by First Savings

“First Savings is very excited to announce that our tenth branch office is now open at the corner of Route 202 and Route 313 in Buckingham Township,” said Fed Schea, First Savings President and Chief Executive Officer.   Located just outside of Doylestown, the new office is situated on a parcel of property that has been known as Poole’s Corner since the mid 1800’s.  “After a successful reclamation of the property, the longtime eyesore has been converted into a longtime community partner,” noted Schea. Unoccupied since 2001, the site had most recently served as a convenience store and gasoline station until it was closed.

To celebrate the new office, a “Very Green Grand Opening” is being held from September 23 through October 9.  As part of the celebration, the first 200 people to stop by will receive a tree sapling in conjunction with Heritage Conservancy, plus a tote bag made from recycled material.  In addition, there will be a drawing for a Cannondale Hybrid Bike from Cycle Sports of Doylestown, a digital book reader, an iPad Ò  and an iPod Ò Touch.  Of course, no purchase or transaction is necessary!  Hot dogs and beverages will also be served during business hours Friday & Saturday, Sept. 24, 25 and Oct. 1,2,8,9.

The new branch will feature a full line of traditional personal and business banking products as well as an ATM; however, the office features a non-traditional teller area where both the customers and the First Savings’ representative have seating available while conducting their transactions and business.

Grand Opening offers include up to $150 Cash Back and a Special CD Rate with the opening of a new personal checking account.  Offer details are available at the branch office.

“We’re thrilled to have a presence in the Central Bucks area and very happy to be involved with, and support, the Chamber of Commerce, the Michener Museum, the Mercer Museum, the Central Bucks Y as well as other non-profits and charitable groups in the Central and Upper Bucks area,” said Schea.   This branch marks the second location in the Central Bucks area joining the New Britain office that opened in 2008.  Preliminary work has also started on another branch in the Doylestown area located at the intersection of Cold Spring Creamery Road and Route 413 in Buckingham Township.  Expected completion date is the summer of 2011. 

Heading up the team at the Poole’s Corner Branch will be Kevin Banks, Market Manager; Mike Nagy, Customer Service Manager; Rachel Smith, Head Teller and Rachel Hunsberger.  The hours of operation remain the same as other branch locations: Mon. through Wed. 8:30 to 5:00, Thurs. 8:30 to 6:00, Fri. 8:30 to 7:00 and Sat. 8:30 to noon.  “We invite you all to visit our newest branch location during our Very Green Grand Opening!”

For more information about First Savings’ new Poole’s Corner branch, call 215-257-5035 or visit www.FirstSavingsOnline.com.

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To learn more and take a virtual tour of FinanceWorks, visit our website, www.FirstSavingsOnline.com.  Remember, FinanceWorks is FREE with our personal online banking!!

The measurement or fraction of one-half gets talked about in many different ways.  A glass ½ full or empty of course brings images of a person who is either an optimist or a pessimist.  Certainly growing up getting ½ the questions right on a test would produce a grade of 50%, or an F, which is not something any student should strive for or be proud of.

Within the investment world a ½ decision can be a very costly mistake.  When one purchases an investment (whether it be a stock, bond, mutual fund, or any other type of security or commodity), they MUST keep in mind that they have only fulfilled ½ of their responsibility.  The other half of their responsibility is the SELL decision.  In a lot of cases this Sell decision can actually be more important than their initial buy decision.

After purchasing an investment (lets say 100 shares of an individual stock), the investor must decide at what price is that stock fully valued (monitoring the fundamentals and earnings, etc. of the company will not be discussed at this time, although this definitely needs to be factored into the equation to have the most updated picture and price target).  The investor must decide at what price(s) they will either sell their full investment or a piece of their investment.

In an example, to watch a stock earn 100% and subsequently lose 60% means a 20% loss from their initial investment (assuming no sales along the way).  On the other hand a person who sells ½ their position after making 100% can then look at the 60% drop as an opportunity to possibly more than double their shares (assuming they still like the fundamentals of the stock).  Even if the stock never corrects by that 60%, the sell decision still means that the investor is ‘playing with house money’ and has nothing to lose (so to say).  Think of all the people who invested in Enron or Lehman Brothers (to name just two) and never sold any shares as they went up and up!

By no means are we advocating short-term trading and getting in and out of positions quickly (remember this is market timing and studies show you must be correct over 80% of the time to break even).  However, we are advocating monitoring your price target for your investment (adjust as necessary), and sell all or a part of the investment over time.  This will be a form of rebalancing (sell high) that will allow you to purchase another investment (buy low).

Keep in mind any investment purchased or sold should also be looked at in view of each investor’s asset allocation strategy and their personal risk tolerance.

Securities and products offered through First Savings Securities, Inc.  Member FINRA / SIPC

NOT FDIC INSURED – MAY LOSE VALUE – NO BANK GUARANTEE – NOT INSURED BY ANY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AGENCY

The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations.  To determine which investment(s) are right for you, consult your financial advisor before investing.

For the fifteenth consecutive year, customers of First Savings are invited to have a hot dog and soda on Friday, June 18 in celebration of the bank’s  anniversary.  “This is just a small token of appreciation to our customers,” said Fred Schea, president and chief executive officer of the bank.  “We’re very fortunate to have such a large base of loyal customers in the communities that we serve, and this is an opportunity to thank them for the trust and confidence that they have shown us.”

The free hotdogs and beverages will be available at all nine bank branch locations of First Savings and will be prepared and served by bank officers and staff members from 3:00p.m. to 6:00p.m.  “Our annual Hot Dog Day is just one way our staff comes together with management to interact and thank all of our customers.”  Founded on June 22, 1922, this year marks the financial institution’s 88th anniversary.