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Prime Times Weekly feature of the Mail Tribune , Medford, Oregon Taking Stock Club president Gayle Titus discusses a best pick on a stock listing form. Photos by Bob Pennell Coffee cups, reading glasses, calculators and paperwork cover the table where members of the Lithia Ladies Investment Club meet in Ashland. Judy Wilbur sits at the far right. Seniors not content with the broker-knows-best philosophy are turning to one of 60 investment clubs in the valley. Some Rogue Valley seniors see investment clubs as the best way to enhance assets in retirement By JOHN DARLING The day is long past when retired people could live off savings, Social Security and the appreciation of their real estate. Now they need to be fairly savvy investors, putting their money where it will be secure yet give them the maximum income to get through an ever-lengthening lifespan. From left, Mary Woodward, Kate Culbertson, Judy Wilbur and Maureen Dawson listen to the minutes of their last meeting. Seniors in the Rogue Valley are responding to the challenge, joining one of the area's 60 investment clubs, learning to research stocks on the Internet and mastering the art of putting eggs in diverse baskets, with tax-exempt bonds and well-established mutual funds being the favorites, said broker Lyn Hennyon of Strand, Atkinson, Williams & York in Medford. "This is their sacred money," she said. "It's what they're going to have to live on the rest of their lives. They can't earn it again, so they're looking for safe investments that will give good income in preference to more growth." The first rule, said retired financial planner Jean Conger, 58, of Ashland, is to diversify, spreading your money among bonds, mutual funds, stocks or real estate, with some in safe, easily liquefiable "cash vehicles" such as certificates of deposit, treasury bills or metals. "You don't want it all in one place, like stocks," she said. "The market could drop 500 points in one day and wipe you out and once you hit your 50s, there isn't enough time to make it back." Leaving the bulk of your assets in real estate may seem safe, Conger added, but all it takes is a medical emergency -- "a 95 percent probability in old age" -- along with a recession and you not only lose a bundle but could face a long sale period. Younger seniors, age 50-65, tend to favor stocks, said broker Larry Stiner of Edward Jones in Ashland, while those past 65 perceive stocks as riskier and lean toward the security and more certain interest earnings of tax-free bonds. "If, for example, you put $10,000 in a 5 percent bond, you get $500 interest a year and that's very attractive to seniors, who don't have time to make mistakes and are looking for good income without worry," Stiner said. Right now, bonds are in the 4.6 to 6 percent range, a three-year high, he said. Stiner said he helps younger seniors find stocks that have a track record of increasing dividends over eight of the last 10 years. "This is important because when you're in retirement, you don't get pay raises." And if you have fixed-income investments, you stand to get pay cuts -- in the form of inflation. "If you've got a fixed income at 8 percent and are living with 3 percent inflation," said Hennyon, who also advises Rogue Valley Manor's "Hilltop Rollers" investment club, "you are looking at losing half your purchasing power over 20 years." That may not have been so worrisome in the past, when a minority lived 20 years after retirement, but with today's life-extending medical advances, said Hennyon, "I plan for people to live in the 90-100 range." "If you retire at 65, figure on a 30-year retirement. If investors come to me and they're 85 and still playing golf every day, I tell them to plan for another 15 years." To counter inflation, seniors are advised to put some of their money on growth vehicles, such as stocks or stock mutual funds. If you want a 10 percent return, a good strategy is to look for part of it in dividends or interest and part in "hope," which means growth, said Hennyon. "If you get bonds at 8 percent, you need 2 percent in hope; if you have stocks yielding 2 percent, you need 8 percent in hope." Many seniors recognize that stocks, though they may have their ups and downs, have posted the best performance of any investment over the long term. Many are not content with a broker-knows-best approach and are joining one of the local investment clubs. Members usually meet monthly in one member's home to share hot leads garnered from research on the net, in Valueline reports (analyses of all publicly held companies, kept at most libraries), from "Better Investing," the magazine of the National Association of Investment Clubs, to which most clubs belong, and watching CNBC, the all-investment channel, said Gayle Titus, president of Lithia Ladies Investment Club in Ashland. Club members invest $25 to $50 a month each, then they buy online, she said. Other clubs may take the club nest egg to their broker. The Ashland club tries to diversify by spreading their dollars over many different industries, including computers, retail and energy, Titus said. Local NAIC member clubs present three-hour classes, open to all other club members, on such topics as beginning investing, how to select stocks to study, how to choose stocks within the same industry and how to sell your stocks. Through NAIC, club members have access to software which guides them to the most potentially profitable targets. You fill in all the boxes about revenues, liabilities and price-earning ratios and the software tells you to either hold, buy or sell, Titus said. Not all older people eschew stocks. "I'm probably far more liberal with my investing now than I was at 35," said retired school teacher Vicki Keeney, 61, of Central Point, a member of the Silver and Gold Investment Club. "That's because I know a lot more about stocks now." However, seniors are tending to avoid the "dot.com stocks," such as Intel, Microsoft and Amazon, because they don't understand them as well as traditional or Blue Chip properties and because of suspicions that sudden prosperity of "tekkies" could just as easily go the other way, Hennyon said. "Many were alive in the crash of 1929 and remember what their parents went through," Hennyon said. "They're careful. 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