Avoid These 4 Common but COSTLY Retirement Income Mistakes - Kiplinger's Personal Finance

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As you near retirement, it becomes clear the responsibility for most aspects of your financial life will fall squarely on your own shoulders. The paychecks you earned will now be replaced by the paychecks you create.  For most, those paychecks will need to last for years and cover various expenses throughout our retirement. 

Unfortunately, the mistakes you make with your retirement income can have devastating consequences for even the best laid plans.

Consider these four common mistakes to avoid: 

Mistake #1: Not Having a Budget Specific to Retirement 

This may seem obvious, however, it’s probably much more common than you realize. When teaching retirement courses, I ask our students how many have formalized budgets as their guide to track monthly expenses.  I’m always shocked by how few actually have anything more than a budget “in their head.” 

Many of those who do have something in place did not make the appropriate adjustments for retirement.  Using old assumptions like “you will only need 80%” of your pre-retirement income can be dangerous, especially if you plan to be more active in those early years.  Take time to understand what your fixed monthly expenses will be once you retire, along with your anticipated discretionary spending for things like travel, leisure or just spoiling the grandkids.  

Without a clear budget, how will you (or your financial adviser) be able to make some of the most important retirement decisions you face, such as when to begin taking Social Security benefits, choosing the right pension elections or determining what mix of investments, insurance or banking products are appropriate for you? The answer is you CAN’T. 

Mistake #2: Not Having a Written Income Plan

A written income plan is a MUST.  Similar to a budget, most people never have an actual income plan during their working years because their paycheck was their income plan. Earning money and accumulating wealth is often the primary focus throughout our careers.  In retirement, the responsibility now falls on you to create your own monthly paycheck from your  basket of resources, including Social Security benefits, pensions, CDs, investments, annuities, etc.

A well-designed written plan should bring clarity as to when, how much and from which sources income is needed to cover fixed expenses and discretionary spending.  It should also identify what percentage of your fixed monthly expenses will be covered by fixed sources of income, such as Social Security and pension, sometimes referred to as your Income Security Score. The goal should be to get this score as close to 100% as possible to avoid your monthly income being dependent on market performance. 

Just like a retirement budget, a written income plan will help you make better decisions about the timing of taking retirement benefits and best combination of investments and insurance products to fill in any gaps or shortfalls. 

Mistake #3: Co-Mingling Your Money

The idea of separating your money based on its purpose works in concert with creating a written income plan (see above).  As your written plan begins to take form, you should be able to identify gaps, such as the amount of your monthly expenses that are not covered by fixed sources of income, such as Social Security and pensions. Combined with your other retirement needs and desires, you can now begin to allocate your resources appropriately based on purpose.

The visual of a house can demonstrate this concept:

In this example, there are three areas with different purposes, typical to many retirees. 

• The foundation represents safety and would include things such as your Social Security benefits, pensions, CDs and annuities.  It’s from this segment you should create your monthly income.
• The walls of the house could be dedicated to things such as health care and inflation and could include using tools like alternative investments, real estate or life insurance. 
• The roof represents the growth piece of retirement and may be dedicated to market-based investments, such as stocks, mutual funds or ETFs. 

REALIZE that how much is allocated to each section is completely different for everyone. For example, retirees whose benefits include multiple sources of fixed income may dedicate more of their money to risk-based solutions, compared with someone whose only source of guaranteed income may be from monthly Social Security. A lack of guaranteed* monthly income may require more to be allocated to different tools such as CDs or annuities.  There is never a one-size-fits-all solution.

Mistake #4: Taking Regular Distributions from Fluctuating Accounts

This is probably the most dangerous thing a retiree can do when creating monthly income, because they are now at the mercy of the returns in the market and something called sequence of returns risk.  This is all about the order in which the market returns hit your portfolio once you retire.  It’s random and unpredictable and can have devasting consequences if left to chance, as this example** shows. 

These two portfolios are exactly the same except the order of actual market returns was reversed in the second example.  It’s here that you can see the importance of separating your money by purpose to avoid relying on recurring distributions from something so random.  This is certainly one of the biggest risks many retirees will face during their retirement but often one of the areas most often left to chance. 

Avoid these common mistakes to enjoy all that your retirement can offer!

*Annuity guarantees are backed by the financial strength and claims paying ability of the issuing insurance company. Financial products and services if recommended may include investment advisory fees, commissions and/or other charges.

**This sample portfolio illustration is hypothetical only. It is not intended to represent any particular investment or performance.  The above spreadsheet is for illustrative purposes only and does not represent any specific investment recommendation. Investing involves risk and loss of principal. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

This article was written by and presents the views of our contributing adviser, not the Kiplinger editorial staff. You can check adviser records with the SEC or with FINRA.

Certified Financial Planner & Retirement Planning Specialist, Empowered Financial Management

Nicholas Toman, CFP®, is a lead retirement planner and investment adviser with Empowered Financial Management, a firm that specializes in retirement planning for those individuals within five to seven years of retirement or who have recently retired and no longer wish to serve as their own financial adviser. Nicholas is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater with a BBA in accounting and has been a Certified Financial Planner since 2014.

Investment Advisory Services offered through BCJ Capital Management LLC, an (SEC) Registered Investment Adviser.  Information presented is for educational purposes only. It should not be considered specific investment advice, does not take into consideration your specific situation, and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any securities or investment strategies. Investments involve risk and are not guaranteed, and past performance is no guarantee of future results. For specific tax advice on any strategy, consult with a qualified tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed herein.

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The Simple Reason You Should Ignore the GameStop Mania - Motley Fool

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If you're thinking about buying GameStop (NYSE:GME)stock, you're not alone.

Google searches for "should I buy GameStop stock" have skyrocketed this week, and the stock name has trended multiple times on Twitter. A combination of a massive short squeeze and gamma squeeze has pushed shares of video game retailer up more than 2,000% at times this year, and plenty of other heavily shorted consumer stocks have surged along with it, like AMC Entertainment, BlackBerry, and Express.

In one version of this story, a group of retail traders who converse on social media site Reddit took on Wall Street hedge funds and won. But for other retail investors in other versions, this story is not going to have a happy ending. 

As exciting as the mania around GameStop may seem, there's a simple reason for investors to avoid it and the other stocks that are being squeezed.

Image source: Getty Images.

A zero-sum game

At its best, the stock market is a vehicle for creating generational wealth, and one that can benefit all participants. Though there are always buyers and sellers, everyone can win if sellers are cashing out long-term gains to use those funds for retirement, for example, rather than eating short-term losses.

But at its worst, the stock market is a casino, a giant pool of bettors looking to make a quick score. Not everyone can come out on top in this case, and it quickly devolves into a zero-sum game, with a winner and loser on every trade. The stakes are only exacerbated with options trading, which has driven much of the activity in GameStop and the other squeezes. 

When stock trading becomes divorced from fundamentals, as has happened with GameStop and AMC, buying them is no different than taking a spin of the roulette wheel. By doing so, you're essentially gambling that someone will come along and pay more for that stock. This type of speculation -- when traders bid up an asset regardless of its fundamental value -- is sometimes called the greater fool theory on the premise that you can flip those shares to some other sucker. This thinking is common in market bubbles.

Understand loss aversion

One of the most powerful psychological forces in investing and behavioral economics is loss aversion. According to this theory, developed by psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahnemann, the pain of losses is twice as powerful on one's psyche as the joy of gains. So as a stock trader, you are going to feel the loss of every dollar you lose betting on a stock like GameStop twice as much (on a psychological level) as you would feel the joy from gaining $2 in share value. As volatile as this stock is, that's a lot of pain to compensate for if things go poorly.

With short-term trading and options trading, where greed can easily trigger excessive behavior, I'd take this idea a step further. Even a price gain won't be satisfying because you'll still feel like you could have had a bigger gain had you gotten in sooner, and that kind of approach often leads to greater risk-taking and large, easily preventable losses in the end.

By trading in GameStop and AMC now, normal odds-making would suggest you have a 50/50 chance of the price rising or falling, but psychologically the odds are already against you, and the risk of a big loss financially and psychologically just isn't worth it.

Sleep easy

One of the benefits of long-term, buy-and-hold investing is that there's a lot less stress involved than there is in what is essentially day trading. Buy-and-hold means you don't have to monitor every market movement. You just have to find high-quality companies to invest in and stick with them. Take Warren Buffett, one of the best stock investors of all time and a man who built a fortune with precisely this philosophy. Buffett has advised, "Only buy something that you'd be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years."

Remember that a stock is a share of ownership in a business, not a turn at the craps table, and businesses don't double or triple in value overnight -- certainly not without any relevant news.

Make it easy on yourself and your mental state. Buy top-notch stocks and save the gambling for the casino.

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Washington Approves More SEAL Training In State Parks, But Not As Much As Navy Requested - KUOW News and Information

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Washington state has approved a request to use multiple Washington state parks to train Navy SEALs. But the move Thursday came with significant amendments to what the Navy requested. 

The permits would expand the five parks previously used for Navy SEAL training to 16 or 17. The Navy had requested access to 28 state parks as a way to diversify its training sites. Officials had said a small number of sites can become too familiar to trainees overtime.

The commissioners called their move “difficult,” “hard” and “probably the toughest decision” of a 10-year commission career.

The director of the Washington State Parks Commission can now issue the Navy’s permits.

Public pushback

The requests received a great deal of pushback. A public comment meeting Tuesday saw more than 50 of the 62 commenters strongly opposed to the Navy using state parks as training grounds. A large majority felt they’d unwittingly be surveilled, something the Navy said wouldn’t happen.

But some commenters and commissioners said just the perception of being watched might cause more harm than whether the SEAL trainees actually watched the public.

“I do believe, even if they’re not actually being surveilled, even if it is a misconception, I believe there is actually an impact to knowing this is happening. … I believe that people go to these parks to release their anxiety and that this increases their anxiety,” said Seattle commissioner Sophia Danenberg, who has several close family members in the Navy.

State parks commissioners approved the permits in a 4-3 vote, with measures to protect plants and animals of concern, important cultural areas and spots where people camp. For the first nine months, an amendment to the permits will also limit when the SEAL trainees are allowed in the parks – a direct result of public concerns.

Changes to permit request

Navy trainees can’t be in the park in the daytime. They’d be allowed to enter permitted areas under cover of darkness and must leave the parks as daylight dawns. Commission chair Steve Milner of Chelan proposed the amendment because he said it would limit the majority of potential interactions between day-use recreationalists and SEAL trainees. He said day-use outweighs overnight park use by nine to one.

“(It’s) not 100 percent, there are local and regional visitors who camp in these parks. I don’t mean to say otherwise. I think that this creates a partition allowing those people who object to the presence of the military to be in the park during the day and gives us a trial period,” Milner said.

But the restriction could be lifted after nine months. The Navy could also lose its permits at any time, if any restrictions to protect the environment and public aren’t followed.

Why Washington state parks are ideal

The Navy says Washington’s coastline provides challenging, cold water training for its elite SEAL program.

At night, around eight SEAL trainees would likely dive out of a submersible vessel. They’d then swim onto a beach and head into the park to disappear. The trainees would carry simulated weapons that cannot fire live ammunition but would appear real. Over the course of a year, there could be 50-75 training exercises, spread out over all the permitted areas, State Parks staff said.

According to the Navy, the only other cold water training is based in Alaska, but that is limited in scope. At a November 2020 meeting, Navy officials told parks commissioners that no other place provides the types of conditions present in Puget Sound. 

They say current Navy property is too smooth and wide, for the safety of other vessels. Puget Sound’s natural currents and coastlines, on the other hand, make up a “critical cornerstone for (the Navy’s) overall development of our SEAL operators,” Warrant Officer Esteban Alvarado said last year.

The Navy says they’ve never had complaints about their previous training in Washington’s state parks. But if a park guest happened upon their training exercises, they would tell the recreationalist what they’re doing and leave.

Commissioner Mike Latimer, of Yakima, a veteran Navy officer, said in the Navy’s 30-year history of using Washington state parks as training grounds, there has never been a complaint about seeing trainees. He said they’re trying to be covert.

Latimer strongly opposed “the misconceptions, stereotypes and negative biases” that he said spread fear among the public.

“It is a fact that you are under more surveillance with the use of your cell phone, your computer, your smart TV and other electronic devices that you have in your home and in your vehicles,” he said.

Still, Seattle commissioner Ken Bounds said the Navy could – and should – find other places to train. The Navy is also looking at private property, potentially around 60 or 70 sites, according to State Parks staff. 

Bounds said the question to the commission was: Is this activity appropriate at state parks? His answer was no.

“The military owns a lot of property (from the Baja Peninsula to Alaska). They can purchase other property, as they have done. So the question I ask is: Why pick state parks to conduct training, where there are opportunities elsewhere?” Bounds said.

Other commissioners said state parks serve other special use permits, such as cell phone towers, PUD easements and wildfire, search and rescue and law enforcement training.

SEPA review

Under a State Environmental Policy Act review, known as SEPA, State Parks staff tried to determine what types of environmental and public harm could come from the Navy’s permit request. Each park was reviewed separately, and restrictions were placed in sensitive areas or where the public might be made aware of the trainees’ presence.

Staff said the Navy paid Washington State Parks more than $29,000 for work that went into the three-year review process.

The Navy previously said it would move operations if members noticed any sensitive species nearby. There would also be restricted times on certain areas, like during nesting windows, and spots where the trainees could only travel by trail, so as to avoid sensitive species.

Any whales sightings must be reported to the Ocean Wise Research Whale Alert System.

The permits also require the Navy to let park staff know when training would happen and to meet with them on-site after training to assess any harm caused.

Any climbing exercises at Deception Pass must stick to established routes. Removing vegetation, like moss and lichen, is prohibited.

Staff requested a 1,000-foot buffer around any campsites, creating overnight exclusion areas.

More public feedback

Members of the public noted that’s about 0.2 mile, which could be walked in about four minutes.

“Will campers be informed that if they wander more than four minutes from camp, they might end up in a military incursion?” asked Seth Roland, who often takes groups of kids on night hikes while camping at state parks.

Roland spoke at a recent State Parks public comment meeting, where the thought of being observed had many members of the public on edge.

The large majority of commenters asked to deny the Navy’s permit request, many referring to the training exercises as “war games.”

David Jones, a self-described “Navy brat,” who said his father and son are Navy officers, said he valued the institution but also depended on state parks for his “health and renewal.”

Speaking to the commissioners, Jones said, “Protecting (the feeling at state parks), that’s your responsibility. … I know the Navy has to continually train to stay sharp. … This is not a problem that you need to solve for the Navy.”

It’s that “creepiness factor,” dubbed by Danenberg at a Nov. 19 meeting, that concerned many people.

Laurie Keith called South Whidbey State Park “my gym, my health spa and my church.” She said that feeling would be disrupted, particularly for women who had previously experienced trauma, especially sexual abuse.

“I can accept that these SEAL trainees are highly trained and will not come after me, but that doesn’t matter to my nervous system,” Keith said.

Sarah Griffin, with the Seattle Aquarium, said the aquarium was concerned increased vessel traffic could harm Puget Sound’s already endangered resident orcas. She said 15 of the proposed training sites are within the orcas’ critical habitat. A 2019 proposed critical habitat expansion would envelop all of the requested 28 training sites.

“Increased noise and disturbances from Navy vessels will detract from orcas’ foraging time, reducing their food intake when they are already struggling to find salmon,” Griffin said.

Griffin asked the Navy to consider the orcas’ seasonal movements so it can avoid areas when orcas are nearby. She also asked to require the Navy to use whale report alert systems and sighting networks to be able to “adjust activities on real-time information.”

Some people worried that park attendance would drop, which would in turn decrease revenue. Others said it would be “unacceptably cruel” to limit certain park usage during the pandemic, just as parks have seen an exponential increase in recreationalists looking for an escape.

Opponents said the Navy should use its own shoreline or private lands instead of public recreational areas.

Steve Erikson, with Whidbey Environmental Action Network, said the group would pursue litigation if the Navy’s permits were approved. A change.org petition by the group has so far garnered more than 6,600 signatures.

Those in favor of the program said sailors have to train to stay safe – and after around 30 years of prior training exercises, there haven’t been any complaints. Out of 62 commenters, only eight voiced support for the training program expansion.

Mike Spence said he lived near one of the five parks that have previously been used for training. Spence said sometimes, after the park has closed at night, he thinks he’s seen “Navy special forces boats and divers working in the waters adjacent to the park.” He said he didn’t realize what he’d seen until this SEPA process came across his radar.

“I am witness to the Navy taking effective precautions to ensure there was no chance of public interaction. … The Navy’s long history of using five state parks was a proving ground for this expansion request, and they passed with flying colors,” Spence said.

Joe Kunzler said he enjoys state parks – and even though this decision is “a tough one,” he said it’s important to consider the real lives of the SEAL trainees.

“If they don’t train properly, things can happen to them, where they don’t come back the same – or not at all. … We should be honored to provide that training and not complain. We should always smile and know that those are ‘our guys,’” Kunzler said.

George Renquist, a Marine veteran whose family has served in the military for four generations, said they’d offered their own beachfront property in the San Juan Islands as a place for SEALs to train.

“That offer still stands. We may have been visited. We’d never know it,” Renquist said.

Courtney Flatt covers natural resources and environmental issues for Northwest Public Broadcasting. She is based in Washington's Tri-Cities. On Twitter: @courtneyflatt

Copyright 2021 Northwest Public Broadcasting. To see more, visit nwpb.org [Copyright 2021 Northwest News Network]

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Trelleborg Launches Next Generation Turcon(R) VL Seal(R) II for Hydraulic Aircraft Systems - Yahoo Finance

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FORT WAYNE, IN / ACCESSWIRE / January 28, 2021 / Trelleborg Sealing Solutions Aerospace launches the unique and revolutionary Turcon® VL Seal® II for hydraulic sealing of actuators in flight controls and landing gear, and seals in landing gear shock absorbers.

Caption: Hydraulic cylinder containing Trelleborg Sealing Solutions Turcon® VL Seal® II seals

Based on the groundbreaking and well-proven Turcon® VL Seal®, this new generation seal offers enhanced sealing efficiency, easier installation, and even greater reliability. Extensive testing proves its outstanding ‘zero' leakage performance, to extend service life and minimize planned maintenance.

Torben Andersen, Director Aerospace Segment Management, says: "With Turcon® VL Seal® II, Trelleborg Sealing Solutions clearly shows that it is leading the revolution in aircraft hydraulic sealing. The performance of this seal is well beyond other seals on the market.

"During the five year development period, we undertook among other tests, rapid multi-million cycle testing on an advanced test bench that achieves pressure rise rates of up to 360,000 psi per second, and enables accelerated high frequency cycling up to 5 Hz, under maximum pressure or extreme temperature conditions. This enabled us to test potential designs for the improved seal in just weeks rather than months, considerably shortening the proving time, and enabling us to reach the perfect seal design early in the testing phase."

Compared to the Turcon® VL Seal®, which now represents the standard for this type of hydraulic seal, the Turcon® VL Seal® II back-pumping performance more than doubled up to 3,000 psi and nearly doubled at pressures up to 5,000 psi. Accumulative leakage was around 4 milliliters less and significantly lower (around a half) from 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 cycles.

Turcon® VL Seal® II is a unidirectional rod seal for reciprocating movements, consisting of an "L" shaped Turcon® jacket energized by an O-Ring. The innovative design of the seal combines the unique back pumping capability of the Turcon® VL Seal® with new patented features. An angled seal back allows seal width adjustment to service pressure, improving leakage control, while a leading protective front lip safeguards the sealing edge during hardware assembly. In addition, the seal's FEA optimized design improves support for and containment of the O-Ring.

‘Sealed for life' means the seal lasts as long as the actuator itself. In addition, negating the need for drain lines and with a profile that allows smaller hardware design, the seal can make a significant contribution to an aircraft manufacturer's goal of weight reduction and fuel efficiency. Used in a tandem sealing system, flight safety is increased and back pumping enhanced.

Turcon® VL Seal® II is available in a range of Turcon® materials for use in a wide variety of extreme operating conditions. These are combined with O-Ring compounds suitable for use in all hydraulic fluids and service parameters.

Exceeding current aerospace standards for seal performance, Turcon® VL Seal® II is designed for installation in AS4716 O-Ring housing grooves, enabling fitment in place of other O-Ring-energized and Turcon® solutions, including the original Turcon® VL Seal®, Turcon® Plus Seal®, Turcon® Wedgpak® and Turcon® Variseal®, as well as other seal designs for these housing grooves. A metric version is also available.

For further information on the Turcon® VL Seal® II go to www.tss.trelleborg.com or register for the upcoming webinar, Extend the lifetime of hydraulic aircraft systems.

For more information or high-resolution pictures, please contact:
Simone Bundshuh
Tel: +49 (0) 711 7864 580
Email: Simone.bundshuh@trelleborg.com

US Media Contact:
Dawn Fontaine
Tel: 617-536-8887
Email: dawn@rippleeffectpr.com

About Trelleborg Sealing Solutions and Trelleborg Group

Trelleborg Sealing Solutions is one of the world's leading developers, manufacturers and suppliers of precision seals, bearings and custom-molded polymer components. It focuses on meeting the most demanding needs of aerospace, automotive and general industrial customers. Its network extends to over 25 production facilities and more than 50 customer solutions centers globally. The business area accelerates the progress of its customers through outstanding local support, an unrivalled product range including patented products and proprietary materials, a portfolio of established brands, unique process offerings, its ServicePLUS value chain solution and ‘Ease of Doing Business' philosophy.www.tss.trelleborg.com

Trelleborg is a world leader in engineered polymer solutions that seal, damp and protect critical applications in demanding environments. Its innovative solutions accelerate performance for customers in a sustainable way. The Trelleborg Group has annual sales of about SEK 37 billion (EUR 3.46 billion, USD 3.87 billion) and operations in about 50 countries. The Group comprises three business areas: Trelleborg Industrial Solutions, Trelleborg Sealing Solutions and Trelleborg Wheel Systems, and a reporting segment, Businesses Under Development. The Trelleborg share has been listed on the Stock Exchange since 1964 and is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm, Large Cap. www.trelleborg.com

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SOURCE: Trelleborg Sealing Solutions

View source version on accesswire.com:
https://www.accesswire.com/626656/Trelleborg-Launches-Next-Generation-TurconR-VL-SealR-II-for-Hydraulic-Aircraft-Systems

Originally published January 29, 2021, 12:25 AM

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VIDEO: Seal scoots back into ocean in Kill Devil Hills - NewsWest9.com

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Biden should avoid America’s toxic history wars - Financial Times

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Within hours of being sworn in as US president last week, Joe Biden scrapped Donald Trump’s 1776 Commission. Rarely has an executive reversal been more richly earned.

Mr Trump launched the body — named for the year the American colonies declared independence from Britain — shortly before the election in an attempt to shift voters’ focus on to America’s culture wars amid a pandemic he failed to contain. His stated goal was to promote teaching of “the miracle of American history”. His real one was to stoke outrage about the left’s focus on the legacy of slave ownership. He believed that if the election could be more about the Black Lives Matter protests than Covid-19, he might have a chance. The gambit failed.

The US now has a president whose overriding priority is to defeat the pandemic. But racial injustice is at the heart of how Mr Biden views coronavirus, and much else. This may tempt him to follow the abolition of what he has called the “offensive, counterfactual” 1776 Commission by endorsing what is seen as its opposite — the 1619 project. That series of articles, which brought the New York Times a Pulitzer Prize, argues that historians should date the US’s founding from the year slaves first arrived on its shores.

These are irreconcilable narratives. One sees America as essentially good; the other as mostly bad. The choice is between seeing history as glory or gory. This is no academic matter. When countries re-litigate what happened yesterday, they debate who owns tomorrow. As countries such as India can attest, history wars often turn lethal.

There can be little dispute that the 1776 Commission’s account of US history is a whitewash. In a report published on Martin Luther King Day — two days before Mr Trump left office — the commission depicted America’s founding fathers as flawless individuals who wrote an unimprovable constitution. The 41-page report, written almost entirely by non-historians, contained no footnotes. It attributed the philosophical origin of leftwing “identity politics” to John Calhoun, a mid-19th century slave-owning senator. Its list of threats to democracy also grouped America’s early 20th century progressive movement with Italian fascism. From an academic point of view, it did not pass the laugh test.

There is nothing laughable about the 1619 Project. It is a detailed effort to re-evaluate America’s history that has sparked debate among accredited historians. But its explanation for the war of independence had factual errors and made the highly contentious argument that it was provoked by Britain’s plans to abolish slavery. Still, the project’s basic case — that slavery is entwined in America’s story from the start and its legacy remains today — is hard to dispute.

Conservatives see the 1619 narrative as a threat to America’s exceptionalist creed and something to exploit. The country’s demographic trajectory is unstoppable — it is set to become a majority-minority country within a quarter of a century. There is nothing Republicans can do about that. But they can tap the US electorate’s deep patriotism if the Democrats make missteps.

Five years from now, the US will mark the 250th anniversary of its declaration of independence from Britain. By then, it is conceivable that celebrating 1776 will be as loaded as honouring Christopher Columbus. Many now refer to the day named after the explorer as Indigenous Peoples’ Day owing to the Europeans’ catastrophic effect on the Americas (chiefly via smallpox).

By 2026, will America’s left have renamed Independence Day as Slavery Day? To raise that possibility is to highlight the debate’s incendiary potential. That is one reason Mr Biden should avoid it. There are two more. The first is he has his hands full with governing. In his first week, Mr Biden issued a record number of executive orders. Within his first 100 days, he wants to make inroads into four overlapping emergencies — the pandemic, the economic crisis, global warming and racial injustice. Mr Trump mistook gesture politics for governing. Mr Biden should not. The best thing he can do for America’s minorities, especially African-Americans, is to focus on economic security and criminal justice reform.

The second reason is that Mr Biden is not a historian. Nor is the Republican party. Some suggest Mr Biden should set up a presidential commission on US history. That could help defuse the tension. A better course would be to leave the debate to others. If there is one thing on which 1776-ers and 1619-ers might agree, it is that the US government is not equipped to study history — let alone teach it.

edward.luce@ft.com

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How employers can avoid 'performative allyship' - Yahoo Sports

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Performative allyship is when companies say they are against a certain type of injustice, without doing the hard work of changing their behaviour or the structures that uphold these problems. Photo: Getty

In the days of protest after the killing of George Floyd, companies flooded social media pledging their support for Black Lives Matter and the push for racial equality.

However, amid the flurry of corporate statements of solidarity with the Black community came criticism. Many diversity experts and social justice and equity advocates pointed out that real change goes far beyond a post on Instagram and a financial donation.

Unemployment figures reveal huge race disparities in the UK. Coronavirus pandemic-fuelled job cuts have disproportionately affected black, Asian and other minority ethnic workers, who experienced a 5.3% drop in employment in the year to September 2020, compared to 0.2% of white workers. Major businesses including Google (GOOG), Facebook (FB), Amazon (AMZN), McDonald's (MCD), Pinterest (PINS)and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) also faced new legal battles over allegations of racism and sexism.

By ignoring their own biases and discriminatory practices but proclaiming their support for equality, companies run the risk of engaging in “performative allyship” as a PR exercise. But what exactly is it, and how can employers avoid it?

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Essentially, performative allyship is when companies say they are against a certain type of injustice, without doing the hard work of changing their behaviour or the structures that uphold these problems. Not only does this negatively affect the causes, but also employees too.

“To go beyond performative allyship, true allies use their power, influence, expertise, resources, skills, and relationships to push back against long-standing inequities and make meaningful change,” says Sheila Brassel, a senior associate in research at Catalyst.

There are many examples of performative allyship among corporate businesses, including posting articles on social media without taking any further action to press for change. These actions may be as small as starting relevant conversations at work, or making different spending decisions.

In the workplace, it might manifest as a company that commemorates Equal Pay Day but does not actually audit its own salaries by gender and race to assess the extent to which there are pay gaps within the organisation. It’s also the executive who proclaims their support for Black Lives Matter, but who continues to work with companies with a history of marginalising black employees and communities.

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Performative allyship hurts the people it purports to promote because it gives the impression of “doing something” when nothing of substance has occurred. For employees, it can be deeply demoralising. So how can businesses take real action on inequality?

“As an employer, a critical starting place is simply identifying where your organisation might be unintentionally maintaining inequities. This means analysing data — and possibly gathering new data — using an intersectional lens,” says Brassel.

This means carrying out civil rights audits that examine workforce demographics, hiring practices and company culture. And if problems arise, they should be addressed by businesses rather than explained away or swept under the carpet.

“Look at disparities in representation and inclusion. Challenge yourself to think differently. Track and measure, get familiar with your metrics. Then, you have to follow through and close the gaps.”

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Xochitl Ledesma, Catalyst’s director of Leading for Equity and Inclusion, says there are several big milestones to aim for by improving hiring practices and development opportunities for employees. “Having a more diverse board or C-suite takes time to implement. But it’s the greatest sign of commitment an organisation can have,” Ledesma says.

“Diverse leadership provides diverse thought and strategy to an organisation. It also shows members of underrepresented and marginalised groups that they can grow and be promoted.”

Allyship isn’t just about what ideals we hold, but also the work we do too. Structural change isn’t always easy and it takes time, but it’s this action that will lead to a substantive, visible shift in workplaces.

“It requires an understanding of the work that needs to be done and that we all play a role. Then, we need to take sometimes difficult actions to make substantive, meaningful change,” Brassel adds. “By gathering the data and asking yourself pointed questions about inequities in your organisation, you can channel your intentions for change into actual change. Which is what we need.”

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