Oil prices drop as spare storage capacity runs low-Reuters

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A customer fills his Aston Martin DB9 car at a petrol station, in south London, March 2, 2011. REUTERS/Andrew Winning

By Henning Gloystein

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Monday, with U.S. crude dropping nearly 3 percent to a six-year low as the dollar hit fresh highs and spare oil storage capacity runs low around the world.
U.S. crude fell to $43.57 in early trading, its lowest since March 2009, before rebounding to $44.34 by 3:35 a.m, still down almost half a dollar since its last settlement. Brent was trading at $54.32 a barrel, down 35 cents.
Traders said the price falls were due to diminishing spare capacity to store excess oil as well as the strong U.S. dollar.
China has been taking advantage of low prices to build up its strategic petroleum reserves (SPR), which have pushed its imports to record highs despite slowing economic demand, but analysts say new spare capacity will only become available later this year, denting near-term import needs.
"While the low crude oil prices are expected to incentivize crude stockbuild (in China), stockpiling activities at the SPRs this year will remain constrained by available spare capacity," said Wendy Yong, analyst at energy consultancy FGE.
"However, in anticipation of the start-up of another SPR site this year, crude imports could pick up later this year," she added.
Space capacity is also running low in the United States.
"Bearish comments from the International Energy Agency that the U.S. might soon run out of empty tanks to store crude and a suggestion that global supply was up 1.3 million barrels per day in February year on year at 94 million barrels weighed on sentiment," ANZ said.
More U.S. oil wells are likely to open after closures due to harsh winter conditions, which could put further pressure on prices, Morgan Stanley said.
Goldman Sachs said that a falling U.S. rig count would only translate into slightly lower production in the second quarter of this year.
Oil prices are also under pressure from the strong U.S. dollar, which remained close to multi-year highs.
The Fed's policy-setting committee meets this week with the expectation that it could tighten monetary policy as soon as June.
A stronger greenback makes commodities denominated in the dollar more expensive for holders of other currencies.
The euro slipped as low as $1.0457 (EUR=) early in the Asian session, its lowest since January 2003, and the currency has dropped about 25 percent versus the dollar since mid-2014.

(Additional reporting by Keith Wallis; Editing by Richard Pullin)

A Money To-Do List for People in Their 50s -Brian Wu

Once you get through your 30s and 40s, you might think you will finally be at a point when you can relax and not watch your money closely, and this may be true depending on your financial situation. However, when you reach your 50s, your financial work really isn’t done, and you need to remain vigilant to ensure your money works for you for the rest of your life.

When you reach your 50s, you could start feeling a financial pull from not only your children but your parents, as well. Regardless of the pull from your family, it is perfectly fine to begin focusing on yourself and putting your financial future first. There are several money to-do’s that you must work at to ensure your financial stability when you hit retirement.

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1. Double down on your retirement savings

Now that you are settled into your career and many of life’s largest expenses are hopefully behind you, it is time to put that money directly into your retirement savings. Increase your contributions to their maximum to really collect money into your retirement 401(k) plans.

If you feel you are behind on your retirement savings, you can take advantage of the catch-up contributions for your 401(k) and IRA that allow you to put back even more money than you normally can. If you want to save even more than you are allowed to with the extra contributions, you can consider opening a second IRA or Roth IRA to stash that extra cash away for retirement.

In addition to adding to your retirement plans, you may want to discuss dialing back the risk on your investments with your financial planner. When you do this and how much you reduce it depends largely on how much longer you plan to work and what your financial situation is at the time.

 2. Pay off debt

Now that you are in your 50s, you are most likely making more money than you ever have, as the prime earning years for most Americans are between ages 50 and 65. Instead of spending that income, consider using that extra money to aggressively pay off your debt. Credit card debt and any other type of loans should be taken care of first.

Once you have paid off this debt, move onto other bills that, while they aren’t actually debt, can easily take a bite out of your retirement savings. You most likely don’t have too many years left on your mortgage if you have lived in your home for quite some time, so why not pay it off? The more debt you get rid of now, the longer your retirement savings will last you.

 3. Grow your emergency fund

The same rules apply for people 50 or older as they do for everyone else. You should still try and save at least six months’ worth of income and store it in an easy-to-access location in case there is an emergency. After you turn 50, however, you may want to consider growing that emergency nest egg a little larger than the accepted six-month figure.

Assuming all of your retirement accounts are fully funded, you should try to stash away additional income to increase your emergency savings to one year’s worth of salary, and if possible, increase it even more, to two year’s worth of salary. Saving up that much for a rainy day should almost guarantee that you are ready for whatever type of financial emergency may arise, and it will keep you from having to dip into retirement savings to take care of expenses. Even if you don’t use that money for an emergency, it will still be there when you retire, giving you an automatic boost to your retirement.

Once you reach your 50s, you should be in one of the best financial positions of your life, and you need to use that position to your advantage to prepare for that day when you do retire. Work hard to eliminate any outstanding debt and get serious about your retirement so that you are adequately prepared for the day when you retired and aren’t earning a steady income.

Culled from wallstreetcheatsheet

The retirement savings gap between haves and have-nots is getting bigger-By Suzanne Woolley

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With the stock market up, the housing market largely recovered, and unemployment down, you'd think Americans would be in better shape to retire than they were in 2007. The opposite is true, according to a study released today by the National Institute on Retirement Security. While the value of 401(k) retirement savings accounts and IRAs hit a record high of $11.3 trillion at the end of 2013, the average American household isn't sharing in that wealth. The following three charts sum up the problem nicely.

Half of households haven't saved anything

While those of us lucky enough to have workplace retirement plans have benefited from the long bull market, a huge swath of America doesn't have retirement accounts such as 401(k)s or IRAs. Nearly 40 million working-age households don't have any retirement accounts, the report says. Whether someone has an account is closely tied to his or her income and wealth. Households with accounts have annual income that's 2.4 times higher than those that don't. The median retirement account balance when you look across all households? $2,500.

Even saver households haven't saved enough

For savers closest to retirement (from age 55 to 64), those with retirement accounts had a median balance of $100,000 in 2010. That's up to $104,000 today. Households that don't have retirement-specific accounts, though, are doing far worse in overall savings: They have about $14,500 today, up from $12,000. 

We're in trouble 

How bad is it? Fidelity Investments recommends that by age 55, a worker needs to have saved five times his current income to be on track for retirement. Others estimate far more, but even by that conservative standard, most people are falling short.  

Lest we all now crawl under a rock, the authors highlight reforms that could brighten the retirement outlook. (Not included in the report: the political feasibility of any of the reforms.) One basic suggestion is to strengthen Social Security, since it and Supplemental Security Income make up more than 90 percent of income for the bottom 25 percent of retirees, according to the report. That number falls to a still-hefty 70 percent for the middle 50 percent. Ways to do that include increasing benefits for low-wage workers, getting rid of the payroll tax cap, and adjusting the benefit formula so it keeps pace with the living costs faced by seniors.

The authors also note that making it easier for private employers to offer defined benefit pensions, as part of a national and state push to ensure that everyone has a retirement plan, would help. The trend toward automatically enrolling employees in 401(k)s has helped broaden the universe of workers who are saving for retirement, but few small employers offer such plans, and that's where you find many low-wage workers. 

Culled  from Bloomberg