FINANCIAL HOUSEKEEPING | Properly calculate your paint and wallpaper needs
While painting and wallpapering might not seem like financial chores, they are the kind of job where not knowing your needs leads to costly waste.
With that in mind, MetLife included a paint calculator and a wallpaper calculator on the company website, where you can enter the dimensions of the room – including doors and windows – to determine just how much paint or paper you will need to get the job done. The better your measurements, the more accurate the calculator, the less waste (and fewer stops in the middle of the job from running out of supplies) you’ll have.
To find the calculators most directly, go to and enter “paint calculator” or “wallpaper calculator” in the site search tool.
SHORT COURSE | Separately managed accounts
A separately managed account (SMA) is an investment portfolio of stocks, bonds, cash and other individual securities, managed by a professional money manager. You own the individual securities – as compared with a mutual fund, where your shares represent a piece of ownership in the underlying investments – which creates more flexibility and freedom to manage toward certain goals and preferences, such as tax efficiency.
Portfolio managers may oversee dozens, or even hundreds, of separately managed accounts; while your account is “separate” and distinct from all others, it may be run in a similar or even the exact same way as other portfolios. This is one reason why an investor should examine the account to see just how individualized and personal the advice and action will be.
