1.3 Million Reasons to Like Sirius XM

Sirius XM Radio (Nasdaq: SIRI  ) initiated its subscriber guidance last week. The satellite radio giant expects to close out 2012 with 1.3 million more subscribers than it has now.
Some investors aren't impressed. Didn't Sirius XM tack on 1.7 million net accounts last year and 1.4 million more subs the year before that? Auto analysts see 2012 as the strongest year for new car sales in years. If new car smell is the lifeblood for satellite radio growth, why is CEO Mel Karmazin being so conservative?
Well, let's go over why closing out this year with 23.2 million subscribers won't be so shabby after all.
There's no such thing as an immaterial price increase
Sirius XM initiated a price increase last month. The company estimates that it will take 18 months for the hike to work its way through its existing members, but new accounts are getting hit with the 12% increase right away.
How can that not influence the conversion decision?
Let's set aside Netflix's (Nasdaq: NFLX  ) poorly received summertime plan to split its DVD plans from its streaming service. The move -- which essentially boosted prices by as much as 60% -- led to a flood of defections during the third quarter, and DVD plan subscribers continue to move on.
Let's look at the more modest increases at Costco (Nasdaq: COST  ) and Coinstar's (Nasdaq: CSTR  ) Redbox.
Warehouse club giant Costco bumped its annual memberships 10% higher in October. Redbox increased the price of its DVD rentals by 20% to $1.20 a night a few weeks later.
Redbox parent Coinstar still pulled through with blowout quarterly results during the holiday quarter. Analysts see modest growth out of Costco when it reports later this month. However, the strong numbers don't mean that the hig! her pric es didn't scare away at least some customers. Price matters. How can it not?
Applause for 1.3 million
There is a finite number of potential Sirius XM subscribers, and it's not simply the number of cars on the road. There is certainly potential for Sirius XM on boats, planes, and even at home, but let's look at the auto market where radio is largely consumed.
Peer-to-peer auto-sharing leader RelayRides claims that the average driver spends an average of just an hour a day on the road. Paying $14.49 a month -- or nearly $16 a month after tacking on the unpopular $1.42 monthly U.S. music royalty fee -- isn't going to be the same value proposition for a driver that's just using the car to shuttle the kids to school or make a short commute to work as it is for trucker or a courier. The higher the price, the smaller the potential market.
Sirius XM made it clear during last week's call. Karmazin claims that churn will increase from 1.9% last year to 2.1% this year based on the increase alone.
Let's work the math here. Churn is essentially the monthly rate of users canceling the service. At 2.1%, we're talking about roughly 460,000 cancellations a month for Sirius and XM services. The difference between 2.1% and 1.9% is close to 44,000 members. This isn't a big number, but over the course of the year we're talking about more than 500,000 subscribers canceling because of the price increase.
If it wasn't for the increase, one can argue that Sirius XM would be targeting 1.8 million net new subscribers this year.
Off the assembly line
More cars do mean more factory-installed receivers. That's great. Unfortunately, conversion rates -- the number of drivers who turn into paying subscribers once their free trial offers end -- have been inching lower over the past year. Just 44% of drivers are sticking with satellite radio, compared to 45% during the fourth quarter of 2010 and 46.4% during the fourth quarter of 2009.
Is it the pop! ularity of free streaming alternatives for smartphone owners? Pandora (NYSE: P  ) struck several new deals last month, bringing its tally to 23 automotive partners for seamless digital listening. Is it the maturing market? It can be rightfully argued that many of today's new cars are simply being bought by owners replacing their existing service.
Regardless of the reason, conversion rates at this year's higher price points are likely to continue to inch lower.
This isn't the end of the world for Sirius XM. This is a scalable model, and we're talking about simple math. Fewer additions paying more is still good business. There's a reason why Sirius XM expects revenue to climb 10% this year, while targeting adjusted EBITDA to rise by nearly 20%.
We also can't forget that Karmazin has been historically conservative in his outlooks. A year ago at this time, Sirius XM was only expecting to add 1.4 million more subscribers to its rolls in 2011. Reality delivered 1.7 million new members.
So cheer up, investors. The subscriber guidance isn't that bad based on the headwinds -- and it's probably too low based on Sirius XM's history of where it sets the bar.
Running of the bulls
I remain bullish on Sirius XM's future. It should come as no surprise that I'm promoting the CAPScall initiative for accountability by reiterating my bullish call on Sirius XM for Motley Fool CAPS.
XM Satellite Radio was a Rule Breakers recommendation before the Sirius XM merger. It's now gone from the scorecard, but if you want to discover the newsletter service's next Rule-Breaking multibagger, a free report reveals all.

Colleges slashing tuition, offering 3-year degrees

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- A growing number of colleges are taking extreme measures to attract more students by cutting tuition or speeding up the rate at which they graduate.
While some private colleges are introducing double-digit percentage cuts in tuition or freezing prices altogether, other schools are offering three-year degree programs or four-year graduation guarantees.
In part, these schools are responding to consumers' concerns about the rising cost of college, said Tony Pals, spokesman for the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. "These types of initiatives have been used to some degree in the past, but have become increasingly prevalent since the economic downturn -- and we expect to continue to see them spread," he said.
But colleges have their own motivations as well. By offering a more competitive price, they are ultimately hoping to attract more students -- and increase their bottom line, said Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of financial aid website Finaid.org.
"This is about boosting enrollment, local competition and improving an individual school's finances rather than any noble purpose," Kantrowitz said.
While making school more affordable for students has become more common, it's still far from a widespread trend. Many more schools continue to hike tuition, he said. Overall, tuition at private colleges has been increasing more than 4% each year for the past three years, according to the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.
Tuition at a discount: After seeing enrollment decline for the first time in a decade, the University of Charleston, in West Virginia, cut its tuition by 22% to $19,500 per year.
In addition, Seton Hall University in New Jersey, Lincoln College in Illinois, and Pennsylvania's Cabrini College have all slashed tuition by at least 10% for the upcoming academic year.

5 colleges slashing tuition

But there's a tradeoff: ! "Te mporary tuition cuts and freezes are usually accompanied by financial aid cuts -- so the money isn't all going back to students," Kantrowitz said.
The University of Charleston, for example, may be slashing tuition but it's also reducing the amount of financial assistance that's available to students to $10 million from $15 million.
Instead of making cuts, other schools are freezing tuition at current levels or giving students four-year tuition guarantees.
For the upcoming academic year, Burlington College in Vermont is guaranteeing it won't increase tuition for four years. Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts is also holding tuition steady -- its first tuition freeze since 1968.
"[C]olleges and universities cannot continue to threaten access and add to already burgeoning loan burdens for students," Mount Holyoke president Lynn Pasquerella said in a statement.
Pals said at least 14 additional colleges have frozen tuition for the upcoming school year -- the highest number of tuition freezes on record.
Other colleges are joining forces with community colleges to increase enrollment and lower costs for students.
Baylor University in Texas, for example, is offering a pilot program this fall where students can take most of their classes at a local community college for a year or two before transferring to Baylor, where they will eventually graduate.
Texas students enrolled in the program that take 12 hours at McLennan Community College and three hours at Baylor will pay about $20,000 per year -- less than half of Baylor's $45,000 annual cost, including tuition, fees, and room and board.
A degree in four years or less: With average tuition at four-year private colleges costing $28,500 a year, according to the College Board, failing to graduate on time is a costly proposition. As a result, some colleges are reducing the time it takes to graduate or guaranteeing that students will get their degree in four years.
Beginn ing next year, Ashland University in Ohio is granting bachelor's degrees that can be completed in three years instead of four -- saving students an estimated $34,000 in tuition costs and giving them a year's head start in the work force.

College 101: Everything you need to know

Ohio's Baldwin-Wallace College is introducing a "Four-Year Graduation Guarantee" program this fall. Under the program, the school guarantees that students who meet certain requirements, like maintaining a GPA of 2.0 or higher, will graduate in four years. If not, the college will pay for the extra time.
Some colleges are taking it a step further by offering joint-degree programs that allow students to graduate with both a bachelor's and master's degree in four years. Simmons College in Boston is offering joint-degrees in areas including social work and public policy, while Wilson College in Pennsylvania is launching a program that lets students graduate with both a bachelor's and master's degree in humanities.
Meanwhile, Lipscomb University in Tennessee is reducing the number of credits students need to take to graduate on time from 132 hours to 126 hours for the 2012 school year -- the equivalent of about two classes.

How much does college actually cost?

While tuition cuts and freezes likely won't have an impact on the quality of the education that the colleges provide -- unless enrollments increase so much that the student-to-teacher ratio climbs too high -- some fast-tracked degrees are another matter, Kantrowitz said.
"If you eliminate core requirements to become more job-focused, it may allow you to cut a semester off, but the purpose of core requirements is to teach the very basic skills like the ability to write and read critically that also have an impact on job performance," he said. 

Recession Lessons: 3 New Money Rules

The McMansion-owning, designer-bag toting, new-Mercedes-driving consumer is, well, so 2006. These days, faced with scary job prospects, fat credit card bills (that Louis Vuitton tote wasn�t even worth it, was it?!) and houses worth much less than we paid for them, the American consumer looks a lot different than she used to. In fact, she�s living by a whole new set of rules (or, at least, she should be). Here�s a look at what they are:

New Rule #1

Old Rule: Save 3 – 6 months worth of income in your �emergency fund�
New Rule: Save 8 – 12 months worth of income in your �emergency fund�
Back when jobs were plentiful and it was easy to tap into your home equity for cash, you could get away with having an �emergency fund� — money you�d use in case something happened, like you lost your job or had to fix the roof, that had just three to six months worth of income in it. “Now, that�s not enough,” says Elle Kaplan, the CEO of Lexion Capital Management. �You need at least eight months to a year.”
That�s because unemployment is still high and layoffs are common, so you may need a larger cushion. �Desperation can foil a job search,� she adds. “You don�t want to have to take a job that could hurt your career trajectory simply because you don�t have the money to keep searching for a better opportunity.”

New Rule #2

Old Rule: Go to grad school
New Rule: Do a cost-benefit analysis before taking on any school debt
Just a few years ago, it was common to head to grad school when you couldn�t decide on a career path after graduation, or you just simply hated the job you ended up with. These days, jumping into grad school is risky because you will likely take on tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt and not be able to land a job that pays well.
�You have to ask yourself: does this make sense financially?� says Suki Shah, co-founder of career-s! earch we bsite, GetHired.com. As a general rule of thumb, you shouldn�t take on more debt than what you expect your starting salary to be, experts say. For example, if your starting salary is $50,000, don�t take on more than $50,000 in debt.
“It�s also important to look at the job market for the job you hope to get,” Shah says. �Are people getting jobs in that industry?� These days, you may be better off taking a professional development course in the field you want to move into or going to school part-time. Doing so will minimize the amount of debt you�ll have to take on.

New Rule #3

Old Rule: Buy a home
New Rule: Consider renting
A few years ago, everyone from personal finance gurus to Joe-schmo were screaming, �Buy, buy, buy!� from their overpriced rooftops. �Pre-2007, a lot of people were buying as big of a house as they could afford and then trying to flip it,� says Brian Conroy, a financial planner at Savant Capital Management.
But the tune has changed completely — to the point that in many cases, it�s simply better to rent than to buy. “It�s usually only a good idea to buy if you plan to stay in the house for a least five to ten years,” says Kaplan. �You have to expect slow appreciation.” Even then, it�s important to do your homework on everything from pricing to location to construction quality.

Gingrich: U.S. should reconsider gold standard

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is calling for the United States to think about returning to the gold standard.
Speaking at a foreign policy forum in South Carolina on Tuesday, Gingrich advocated a "commission on gold to look at the whole concept of how do we get back to hard money."
Gingrich, a former Speaker of the House, has spoken in favor of a "hard money" policy in the past, but these were his strongest comments to support reinstating the gold standard.
Gingrich would model his "gold commission" after one put in place after Ronald Reagan was elected, when the nation was battling double-digit inflation. But even then, the commission overwhelmingly rejected the idea of a return to the gold standard.
One of only two members of the 17-member commission to endorse a return to the gold standard was Ron Paul, one of Gingrich's rivals for the GOP nomination.
The United States first moved away from the gold standard, under which the dollar was backed by the nation's gold reserves, in 1933, and dropped it altogether in 1971. Despite support for its return by some on the political right, few mainstream economists support its reinstatement.

Local currencies: 'In the U.S. we don't trust'

Chief among the problems is that with a dollar pegged to gold, U.S. goods could become uncompetitive on the global markets compared to goods priced in euros or yen.
The return to a gold standard is a central point in the campaign of Paul, a Congressman from Texas who also advocates abolishing the Federal Reserve.
In his comments Tuesday, Gingrich also spoke sharply against the Fed, saying it should focus on keeping prices in check, dropping the dual mandate of job growth and fighting inflation.
"We need to say to the Federal Reserve: Your only job is to maintain the stability of the dollar because we want a dollar to be worth thirty years from now what it is worth now," he said. &q! uot;Hard money is a discipline. It means you can't inflate away your difficulties."
The Fed has become a major target of Republicans in the last year. Republican congressional leaders wrote to the Fed in September asking it to not take any additional steps to help spur the economy.
Other leading Republicans have echoed Gingrich's call to end the Fed's dual mandate. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, another presidential candidate, even suggested Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke might be guilty of treason if the Fed moved to buy more Treasuries in an attempt to spur greater growth. 

Forex Trading Software – Why Should You Choose Forex Robot?

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Thеѕе are reasons that a trader can go for these Forex trading software. Thеу are available in a fаntаѕtіс range of price and with different qualities. Yου can сhοοѕе the one which fulfills your needs and suitable with your temperament of trading. Bυt be careful bυу an authentic product from genuine source. Don’t waste your money in buying scams as a bounty of them are available in market.

Pace of Mutual Fund Flows to Slow, FRC Study Says

Mutual fund net sales posted a record-high year in 2009 and despite their strong flows year-to-date through April this year ($187 billion), Financial Research Corporation (FRC) expects they will slow down overall by the end of 2010, according to the fourth edition of FRC's Mutual Fund Market Sizing study, released Monday, June 7.
Findings in the study indicate that investors appear to have stopped chasing equity market performance and are shortening their average mutual fund holding periods. FRC predicts flows into mutual funds will begin to normalize in 2011 and continue rising through 2014. This study is based on an analysis of FRC's database of mutual fund assets and net sales, FRC IMPACT, and FRC's Advisor Insight Series, as well as data from various industry sources, including the Investment Company Institute (ICI).
"Generally speaking, we do not expect 2010 to be a repeat of 2009's record-breaking performance," said Bridget Bearden, the study's author, in a statement. "However, we do expect 2010 net sales to remain high relative to the period prior to the financial crisis of 2008."
The study said there were several factors shaping the marketplace, including risk adversity within the larger investor population, not just with retirees, and declining levels of asset "stickiness."
Examining the factors that drove mutual fund inflows to new highs in 2009, FRC noticed that although equities rebounded strongly during 2009, investors didn't respond like they have during historical equity market upticks and were simply unwilling to take on more risk at the time.
"Investors are still too risk averse to invest new money into products that are traditionally associated with higher risk levels," commented Bearden. "Generally speaking, what we are seeing is a lull in investor performance-chasing behavior."
FRC also analyzed average long-term mutual fund holding periods, identifying that they reached their high in 2005 and 2006 at an average holding period of 4.4 years, and subsequently declining to 3.8 years at the end of 2007 followed by a 2.9-year holding period at the end of 2008.
"The huge drop in 2008 is indicative of the anomalous and tumultuous market environment; however, we also anticipate holding periods to continue to decline through the rest of 2010," noted Bearden.
Other findings in FRC's study:
Declining Advisor Headcounts -- The advisory landscape has shifted dramatically over the past year. The number of retail advisors declined 17% between 2009 and 2010. Specifically, advisors in the independent channel declined due to consolidation and closures of independent broker/dealers, while advisor headcount in the insurance channel fell due to insurance firms spinning off non-core brokerage arms.
Advisors Still Drive Fund Sales -- Despite a reduction in the advisory force, retail advisors still represented nearly 60% of total mutual fund gross sales for 2009, representing the channel's stability as a core mutual fund distribution channel.
RIAs Largest Opportunity for Asset Managers -- In addition to being the largest generator of mutual fund gross sales among intermediary channels, FRC projects the RIA channel to more than double its mutual fund assets by 2014.

This Medical Device Stock Could Double your Money

In today's uneven stock market, investors end up overlooking many appealing companies. And right now, they are particularly ignoring growth stocks. This usually happens when fears surface that the global economy could be heading into recession.
In times of economic stress, the health care sector is usually seen as a safe haven. But recently, many leaders in the industry have also been out of favor.

The passing of a historic health care bill in the United States last year has increased concerns that regulation will cut into profits of health care firms. Among those concerns: a 2.3% excise tax on medical-device sales, set to begin in 2013. This is obviously a negative aspect, but it isn't likely to adversely affect the inherent appeal of companies with leading devices, technologies and global growth platforms.
Add it all up, and I see a rare opportunity for investors to buy quality health care stocks.

Medical device firm St. Jude (NYSE: STJ), for instance, has such appeal. Besides a focus on growth, one of the company's main goals is to save and improve lives with its medical devices, which have become vital in the treatment of cardiac, neurologic and chronic-pain disorders. The company makes, for example, mechanical heart valves and implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), which detect cardiac arrhythmia and correct it by delivering shocks to the heart.
This wide range of technologically sophisticated devices is being widely adopted across the world, which has put the St. Jude on a remarkable growth trajectory. Last year, healthy sales of existing products, new product introductions and increased global reach resulted in a 10% sales growth to $5.2 billion, compared with $4.7 billion in the year before. In fact, 2010 marked the first time sales exceeded $5 billion. Earnings growth was even better, rising more than 20% to $2.75 per diluted share. In addition,! foreign sales -- which make up more than half of the company's total sales -- are growing in excess of 20% a year.
The company is also impressively profitable. Last year alone, it boasted a net profit margin of almost 18%. This represented the highest margin in the past five years, placing the company well ahead of rivals and the market in general. To put this into perspective, the health care industry as a whole has a net margin of roughly 6%, while the S&P500 average is only about 12%.
Growth expectations for all of 2011 speak to St. Jude's operating consistency. Analyst projections are currently calling for sales growth of 10% to $5.7 billion and $3.27 in earnings per share, a growth of nearly 20%. But these levels of annual increases are nothing new to existing shareholders. In the past five years, annual sales and profit growth have averaged 12% and 21.5%, respectively. The past decade is equally impressive, with annual sales growth of 16% and annual profit growth of 22%.
St. Jude also has a healthy new lineup of devices that will likely drive growth going forward. Included in the new product mix are neuromodulation devices that deliver small amounts of electricity to the nervous system to help treat chronic conditions such as Parkinson's disease and migraine headaches. Its management team estimates 18 new growth drivers should generate $18 billion in additional sales within the next five years.
In terms of archrivals, St. Jude competes against pure-play rivals such as Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) and Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX). Medtronic boasts a market capitalization of nearly $36 billion, which is close to three times St Jude's market cap of $12.5 billion. But despite an equally impressive lineup of medical devices, its already substantial size is a barrier to double-digit growth. Boston Scientific has a current market cap of less than $9 billion, but has had obstacles to overcome, including the acquisition of Guidant back in 20! 06, whic h hamstrung it with too much debt, and manufacturing problems that continued well after the purchase was completed.

Investing Online is an Investment to Your Success

While investing online, one has to ensure that they have the correct mindset to go into the future business. One has to have a definite aim and plan accordingly to reach a successful stance. There are many areas that have to be given the importance and prioritized when an online advertisement is designed. Not all the avenues can be catered to by a single individual who owns the website. Hence it is always advisable to allocate work to the specific task holders and segregate the work according to their expertise. It is not always done this way, however by dividing the work in a professional manner helps in achieving success.
It is always what one gets is what one pays for. So there is absolutely no point in saving money by getting things done free in an online investment. One has to look at the long term benefits before making any kind of decisions pertaining to finances or the investment amount. One has to be sure that the job has to be done right with the right kind of knowledge. This will ensure that one does not really try and save money initially and end up losing more than what they actually try and save, at the end of the complete process.
One has to keep imposing a lot of questions to oneself when considering the correct recruit for online marketing efforts. By asking questions, one finds out answers that will provide solutions to the requirement. This in turn aids in making the right decision for the existing situation. Thus online marketing is just not another job that is carried out but it’s an investment into the individual’s future. Each and every decision taken is important and by investing online with all the above mentioned points in mind, one is sure to have the investment to success.