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Welcome everyone to the December 28th, 2011 edition of the Cavalcade of Risk. The Cavalcade of Risk (or Cav of Risk for short), as is implicated by the name, is a bi-weekly blog carnival that features the top articles regarding risk management. Several of the realms of risk management covered relate to finances, insurance, and health.
My Personal Finance Journey is honored to be hosting the last Cav of 2011 this week. We’ve hosted the Cav two times thus far in 2011. On March 23rd of this year, we featured a bunch of very interesting articles and centered the Carnival around the theme of the riskiest jobs in the United States. What we saw was that fishing and logging-related jobs weighed in as the riskiest occupations, with MANY more deaths per 100,000 workers than the other top-ranking riskiest jobs. Next, on July 27th, we centered the theme of the carnival around the riskiest sports in the world. From this, we discovered that cave-diving, cheer leading, and horeracing all have inherent risks involved with taking on the hobby.
Continuing on with this theme of exploring high risk activities/jobs, the theme of this week’s carnival is the top 3 riskiest business start-up ideas in the market today. But, without further ado, let’s get on with the Carnival.
Listed below are this week’s Top 3 Editor’s Picks! Enjoy!
1. Nelson presents Not Everyone Needs Life Insurance posted at Canadian Finance Blog. Not everyone needs life insurance. This includes single people with no dependents to provide for and underage children not yet earning a meaningful income.
2. Emily Holbrook presents Extreme Risks of Reality TV Shows — Are They Insurable? posted at Risk Management Monitor. Fear Factor, Wipe Out, Survivor and even The Biggest Loser are all shows that put contestants at risk. And, in order to gain viewers’ attention (and ratings to keep advertisers happy), reality shows are constantly trying to one-up each other while in turn increasing their risk. So, how do these shows get away with it? Who would insure such insane acts? How do producers make sure they’re covered in case of an injury or death?
3. Ken Faulkenberry presents The Art of Position Sizing to Manage Money and Risk posted at AAAMP Blog. Learn how to use position size, scaling in, and scaling out to manage risk within your asset allocation.
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Risky Business Start-up Idea # 1 – Carpentry Contracting
This business idea made it on the risky business idea list because it is tied to the success/health of the housing industry. And, since that hasn’t been doing well the past 3 years or so, carpentry contracting has been in a permanent decline.
In my personal opinion, I think that carpentry contracting isn’t as risky of a business idea as some of the others on the list. Sure, if the housing market continues as it has been since 2008, carpentry might be in trouble. However, I believe that eventually, the housing market will rebound, and this will fall off of the list.
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And, listed below are the best of the rest!
Louise from the Colorado Health Insider posted about Colorado HealthInsurance Website Receives Praise From HHS, saying, “Between the national recognition garnered by Rocky Mountain Health Plans 30-year partnership with Grand Junction physicians, the fact that Colorado has been so proactive already in terms of establishing the framework for a health benefits exchange, and the praise from HHS for the new health insurance transparency website, it would appear that Colorado stands out as a leader in health care reform..”
Jaan Sidorov MD presents HHS Blinks On The Affordable Care Act’s Essential Health Benefit posted at The Disease Management Care Blog. In this post, Dr. Sidorov looks at how Washington proposes to settle the controversy over the Affordable Care Act’s ‘essential health benefit.’ While the threat was that HHS would require an out sized benefit package, Dr. Sidorov says common sense prevailed.
Phil presents Backing Up Civilization posted at Transparency Revolution and discusses risk mitigation.
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Risky Business Startup Idea # 2 – DVD, Video, and Game Rental Stores
This business idea, in my opinion, is not only a risky business, but it is one that simply should be avoided. Period. Netflix and Blockbuster online/mail order rental services have completely taken over this market.
Take a second and ask yourself one question – “how long has it been since you set foot in a physical video rental store?” For me, it has probably been about 4 years now. This business start-up idea is simply one that should be avoided.
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Paul Vachon presents How to Save Money on Home Insurance posted at The Frugal Toad. Home insurance is one of the most important forms of insurance you can purchase and in most cases, is required by your lender. Not all homeowners insurance policies offer the same coverage so it is important to shop for a home insurance quote.
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Risky Business Start-up Idea # 3 – Coin Laundry and Dry Cleaning Businesses
In the source article listing these business ideas (see link below), it mentions that coin laundry businesses are risky because there are 1) many established players in the market already and 2) very high capital start up costs (just think about buying 30 washers! haha). In addition, there are low profit margins, and the franchise fees are very high. All of these factors make for a risky venture.
However, setting the risk factor aside, I do believe that there will continue to be a market for these services/locations. People will always need to wash/dry their clothes, and especially in tough economic times, it’s unrealistic to think that EVERYONE will be able to afford a washer and dryer in their own home. So, all in all, I think that this business has risk, but since there is a demand, the risk can be managed.
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FMF presents Ten Insurance Policies You Need To Own posted at Free Money Finance. There are an incredible number and array of different types of insurance policies that you can purchase and quite a few that you should own. You may look at the number ten and think that is just way too many, but when you get right down to it, they might be just right to keep you and your family protected.
Philip Taylor presents Fix Your Finances and Quit Your Day Job posted at PT Money Personal Finance. Discusses the risks involved in quitting your day job and how to get your finances in order if you are looking to quit.
Well – that concludes this edition. Thanks for tuning in!
You can submit your blog article to the next edition of Cavalcade of Risk (scheduled for the middle of January and hosted by Political Calculations) using the handy carnival submission form.
Also, if you are interested in hosting the Cavalcade of Risk in the future, just send Henry (the organizer) an email by clicking here.
***Photo courtesy of http://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/01/53/75/1537512_ff3abfea.jpg
***Riskiest and safest business startup ideas ranking source – http://www.allbusiness.com/startups-risky-business-ideas/15561619-11.html
