Reuters Money

China imports in the grocery store: A cause for concern

With Chinese products dominating more than just the shelves of dollar stores, it shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise — if you’re surprised at all — that imports from the largest nation in the world are increasingly finding their way into American grocery stores.

But the Chinese imports are starting to crop up in parts of the store that were more typically dominated by U.S. grown products or those from Central America. One such place is the freezer case, where imports are up 20 percent over the past decade and it is no longer unusual to find frozen vegetables that originated in China.

Even so, China still accounts for only seven percent of the overall market of frozen fruits and vegetable — up from two percent in 1999, notes Corey Henry, vice president of the American Frozen Food Institute,

“So, yes, imports from China have grown quite a bit, but still represent a small segment of the overall fruit and vegetable market,” Henry says. “China is the fourth largest foreign supplier of fruit and vegetables with Mexico, Canada and Chile the top three.”

But, if you shift away from frozen and fresh fruits and vegetables, where influence is growing but not yet commanding, you need not stray too far to see domination.

As American as apples are (apple pie and all), Chinese apples dominate the apple juice market in the U.S. — the mainstay of brands including Motts, Tree Top and Apple & Eve. Chinese apple juice concentrate, a crystallized concoction reconstituted in the states, accounts for about 60 percent of the U.S. apple juice supply.

To get an idea of the stakes of this battle in the war of public perception of food from China, look no further than two niche grocery chains that are associated with the higher end of the marketplace.

From books to homes: Swap your way to big savings

Sometimes a gift is more like a curse. Self-described “cheap” booklover and avid library user Alyssa Lester wasn’t over the moon when she found a new ereader under the Christmas tree last year. “I love my Kindle, but didn’t want to buy one because I would have to start buying books and I don’t have a lot of extra money in my budget for that,” she says.

While searching online for ebook alternatives, Lester stumbled upon the recently-launched website eBookFling.com, which allows readers to lend Kindle and Nook ebooks for a free, two-week period, acting as a secondary media market for literary lovers.

Lester has been swapping books for more than a month and says the site has not only helped her to save money, but has usurped her regular treks to the library for popular titles.

“Have you heard of the Hunger Games trilogy? I read the first book and literally couldn’t wait for the second book and within a few hours, someone had offered to lend it to me,” she says of her experience on the site.

Once a publisher opens a lending period on an ebook title, purchasers of that media are able to share the book once via email. EBookFling has capitalized on this lending period, connecting traders through a credit system: lend a title — earn a credit. If you’re not willing to trade your titles, you can purchase credits for $2.99 which will give you access to the tens of thousands of lenders on the site.

EBookFling adds its name to a growing list of swap, exchange and barter sites designed to link consumers in a virtual trading post, encouraging consumers to seek more value out of goods that would otherwise collect dust.

But what about copyright laws and fair payment to creators of media? George Burke, CEO and founder of eBookFling, says the digitized media space actually has the potential to ensure authors get a fair shake.

Need a loan? 4 tips to improve your debt health

You’re young, ready to start a family and make the most significant investment of your life — the purchase of your first home. You’ve saved for a sizable down payment, but have you assessed your debt health?

The Great Recession has driven home the perils of plastic dependency, yet the average credit card debt per household in the U.S. is $14,750, according to CreditCards.com. And, in March alone, there were 144,657 consumer bankruptcy filings, up 41 percent from February’s total of 102,686.

“Right now, in this economy, credit is essential to getting a mortgage. There are different kinds of mortgages, but credit is a huge factor, along with the value of the property and your income,” says Tracy Becker, author of the Credit Solutions Kit and founder of credit restoration company North Shore Advisory.

Debtscore.com — a free financial tool developed by oweing.com — is designed to take the guess work out of assessing your debt health and help “borrowers understand for the first time how much debt is appropriate for their age, income and educational level.”

A debt-to-income ratio — the number used by many lenders to assess loan candidates — doesn’t adjust according to age, whereas this tool grades your debt health more strictly as you get older, taking into account your earning power through the years, JB Orecchia, CEO of oweing.com and former executive vice president of marketing for freecreditreport.com, says.

“The main need for the service was we saw people were paying the minimum payments on their bills and they weren’t making any headway in terms of paying down their debt and they also didn’t know exactly where to start,” Orecchia says.

A credit score tells you what you can borrow whereas a debt score tells you what you should borrow. Everyone is entitled to a free annual credit report from each of the three nationwide credit agencies: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. Log on to annualcreditreport.com for your quarterly update.

Mobile Currency Trading: There’s an app for that

The days of haggling over the phone with your broker or hunching over your online brokerage account may become a thing of the past with the advent of mobile trading.

Investors are increasingly turning to their mobile phones and tablets to trade on-the-go in a new trend that is shaping the 24-hour trading cycle.

“Futures and forex trade around the clock, so you’re not always at a computer or you’re not always at your desk,” says Nicole Sherrod, director of trading at TD Ameritrade. “Our clients in the evening can trade futures and forex and monitor their positions through their phone apps.”

In a year-long study on trading trends, the investment firm found its technology rollouts have helped to increase mobile trading by 125 percent.

Whereas larger firms like E*Trade and Charles Schwab offer retail investors the ability to trade stocks, only TD Ameritrade currently gives clients the mobile platform to trade currencies. E*Trade offers futures trading, but not currencies; Schwab offers options trading, but not currencies or futures; and Fidelity Investments offers similar services as TD Ameritrade, but they do not offer futures trading. Schwab says it is investigating currency trading. Fidelity, although it is “sensitive to (its) customer base,” has no specific plans to offer futures trading anytime soon, according to a spokesperson.

Being close to the markets at all times provides investors with quicker access to make gains and limit losses. “You’re seeing all of the news today: it’s all about oil, it’s all about commodities and currency fluctuations based on what’s going on in the Middle East,” Sherrod says, noting that complex options, futures and forex trading features have been “gaining a lot of traction” with retail investors. “We feel that this type of technology helps them gain more visibility about the market and, as such, they’re trading smarter; they’re making better trading decisions,” she continued.

But beware of making a snap trade based on emotion or a change of environment while on the road, warns Peter Misek, managing director at Jefferies & Co., an investment firm.

Saving safeguards: How to avert financial disaster

The Japanese tsunami and nuclear disaster has triggered a lot of serious thinking about personal disaster planning.

While my hopes and prayers are with the Japanese people as they attend to their needs and recover, it’s an ongoing reminder that we have to consider and plan for worst-case scenarios in our own lives.

Protecting against a disaster requires financial triage. Most of us never think about the need to do this until faced with a life-changing event. The single-best “first responder” safeguard against all kinds of catastrophes is a combination of adequate savings and insurance.

You need a protection plan in case a Black Swan (rare but troubling) event hits your life. In one year, my family experienced serious illness, major loss of income and lightning hit our house. What are the odds of that happening?

Fortunately, I was doubling our normal monthly savings two years prior to our annus horribilus. Although the rate of return was practically zero, I kept cash in a liquid but safe money-market mutual fund. That way I could cover at least a year’s worth of mortgage, property taxes and the basic deductible for our health insurance plan (almost $6,000 at the time). I also had enough to cover the out-of-pocket amount for our home insurance policy ($1,000).

A brief note on insurance: Don’t sweat the small stuff. You want to cover huge bills like serious illnesses and accidents along with catastrophic losses like house fires. Several of my neighbors have been scorched after lightning strikes (one couple had no home insurance and had to spend all of their savings).

Higher deductibles will lower your premiums, but make sure to cover major losses that are annually adjusted to inflation.

How to beat the energy tax

With crude oil prices once again shooting above $100 a barrel, getting a fill-up at the gas pump is getting pricey again. I just spent $60 to fill up my minivan over the weekend.

Even if the numerous Middle Eastern fights for freedom are resolved soon — unlikely at this point — we will still be hostage to foreign oil producers. Each increase in the price of oil is a direct energy tax on our transportation budgets.

Since conservatives in Congress appear unwilling to greenlight a comprehensive federal policy that will boost alternative energy, renewable electricity or green buildings, you’ll have to jumpstart your own conservation plan.

I don’t need to tell you how much gasoline is costing you at the pump. Across the entire U.S. economy, every extra penny at the pump costs us $1.38 billion, according to the U.S. Energy Administration. And that doesn’t include fuel surcharges that delivery services add on or the embedded costs of any consumer goods that need to be shipped.

If you commute by car — public transportation is better where available — you can’t avoid those extra dollars at the gas pump. But you can buy a fuel-efficient vehicle if you need to replace one.

Surprisingly, the smallest cars aren’t necessarily the most energy stingy. You can buy a pint-sized sub-compact and find that slightly larger car is more efficient.

The Mini Cooper, a pixie-like sub-compact with a 1.6-liter engine and manual transmission, averages 29 miles to the gallon in the city and 36 mpg on the highway. That’s not bad if your current vehicle is getting under 20 mpg.

Cap One makes big offer to match your miles: fine print here

Capital One just laid down a deal that is worth reporting: Sign up for its Capital One Venture Card, and the company will give you as many airline miles as you already have. The company kicked off its “Match My Miles Challenge” this morning (March 10) by offering to match as many as 100,000 miles per customer, on a first-come, first-serve basis, until it has given out one billion miles.

“This is an especially good offer,” says Bill Hardekopf of LowCards.com, a card comparison website. It’s “one of the most generous new offers to emerge during a season when credit card companies have significantly intensified their marketing efforts.”

Here’s the fine print: You have to apply for the card, get accepted, and then spend $1,000 on it within 90 days. Then you must supply proof of your existing miles in other programs. You have to move fast enough to do that before the offer ends. There’s a $59 annual fee that is waived for your first year. You’ll also get 10,000 extra free miles once you post that $1,000 in charges over the first 90 days.  The card typically offers two miles for every dollar spent on it, which will continue.

And here are the risks: You could accumulate a whole bunch of miles that you don’t use, and end up having to pay $59 a year (or more, if Cap One raises its annual fee) to keep them. Airlines could eventually downgrade the value of your miles, by requiring more for flights and upgrades, or add blackout dates (the Cap One program currently doesn’t have them).  And, you could sign up for the card and then find the deal has expired before you win your points.

Bottom line? It still sounds like a good deal for frequent flyers who already have fat mileage accounts. Despite tougher legislation and regulation, credit cards remain lucrative for issuers, and so competition will continue. If the Cap One card ends up less rewarding than you hope and expect, you can always switch to some other card down the road.

6 tips for losing weight without losing your wallet

I used to be fat. Not morbidly obese, but I was tipping the scales at more than 200 pounds, dragging my miserable self to plus-sized lady shops, wishing the label read size six and not size 16. I managed to lose 70 pounds (and keep it off ) through good-ol’ exercise and healthy eating — sans personal trainers, expensive nutrition plans, complicated supplement guides or fad workout regimes. Do I know a thing or two about losing weight and saving money? Yeah, I do.

There is a common misconception that losing weight requires ample amounts of cash; the more nutritious the food is the more it will cost the consumer. Not true, says Bethany Thayer, a registered dietitian and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association.

“You can buy a 10-ounce bag of potato chips for $2.59 and someone might think that’s a good deal but you can get, for that same price, four pounds of fresh red potatoes which are going to have vitamin C, fiber and all kinds of nutrients, or three pounds of carrots, which again, are loaded with vitamins and minerals,” she says.

Americans spend roughly $30 billion annually on weight-loss products and programs, yet the country is fat and getting fatter. Two-thirds of Americans are overweight and an estimated 79 million adults, approximately one-third of the population, are considered prediabetic, according to the Center for Disease Control.  Obesity-related diseases account for nearly 10 percent of U.S. medical spending, or an estimated $147 billion a year.

Obesity will not only affect how much you dole out in medical expenses, but it can also affect how you’re going to pay for them. Due to a loss of productivity and workplace discrimination, a difference in weight of two standard deviations (approximately 65 lbs) is associated with a difference in wages of nine percent, according to the research paper The Impact of Obesity on Wages by John Crawley for the Journal of Human Resources.

“In absolute value, this is equivalent to the wage effect of roughly one and a half years of education or three years of work experience,” Crawley writes.

Don’t want to end up as a statistic? Listen up: Here are some tips to get you on your way to a new healthy lifestyle without breaking the bank.

Is cable still worth it?

Emily Smith, 28, a writer in Gainesville, Florida, canceled her cable subscription in favor of Internet-only streaming two years ago. “I was hooked on a ton of TV, so it was a big change,” she says. An even bigger one was the $70 fall in monthly bills.

With this week’s announcement that Warner Bros is to offer movies through Facebook, it is clear watching online is no longer the time-consuming, jittery method it once was. Here’s how you could be saving.

What’s out there

Let’s start with the free options. You can stream current TV shows on Hulu or TV networks’ own websites, available from hours to a few days after they air on television. Both also offer a sizable back catalog of older shows.

Next, low cost. Netflix used to be known primarily for DVDs that would arrive through your door -– now its service is just as geared toward watching online. It currently offers unlimited online viewing for $7.99 a month, with a free month’s trial. Less of an up-to-the-minute episode player, it’s great for watching movies and mostly previous seasons of TV shows you missed first-time round.

Then there’s Amazon Instant Video, which offers a catalog of more than 90,000 movies and TV shows. A single rental typically costs between 99 cents and $3.99. You can also rent TV shows by season. If you’ve joined Amazon Prime, 5,000 videos in their catalog are already included with your $79 annual membership.

Apple’s iTunes has also been getting in on the act. For 99 cents per episode, you can stream episodes of current TV shows as early as a day after they air. Like Amazon, most new movies are available to stream the same day they are released on DVD.

Make inflation a personal fight

It’s time to get personal with inflation. First you have to stop pretending that the government’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a precise guide to the cost of living.

For those on Social Security and workers whose wages are indexed to the CPI (lucky you), the index is a Rosetta Stone, although not a very good one. It may not be an accurate reflection on your cost of living.

To see how inflation impacts your life, you need to take two separate views: your daily living expenses and your long-term portfolio.

In the most recent CPI report, for example, the government told us that the overall rate of inflation rose 1.6 percent annually (through January). That figure alone is kind of meaningless and a convenient fiction that masks the true impact of the cost of living on your life. Let’s break that down.

The bulk of the increase — some two-thirds — was due to increases in energy and food prices. No surprise there. In many places, gas is more than $4 a gallon at the pump. Since most food is transported by truck and modern agriculture is perilously dependent upon fossil fuels, those prices went up, too.

With continuing turmoil in and around Middle East oil fields, the price of petroleum has breached the $100-a-barrel mark. Since it’s unlikely that Egypt, Libya, Bahrain and other hot spots will resolve their long-standing political conflicts any time soon, don’t look for any major breaks in energy prices in the near future. Breaking down the energy price impact even more, if you’re stuck in a car commute or do a lot of driving, you’ll feel this part of inflation most acutely. Gasoline prices alone soared more than 13 percent in the government’s last CPI report. They’re up even more to date.

The food sub-index, as I mentioned earlier, also has been climbing, although surprisingly you will see that eating at home is costing more than going out, but not by much. The “food-at-home” CPI component was up more than two percent compared to a 1.5 percent rise in the “food away from home” number.