I read an article on Friday about cybercriminals that were able to steal $45 million from ATMs. The ring leaders of the crime were based in New York and had established a network of fellow thieves in 27 countries to carry out the heist. The master minds were able to go into two foreign bank databases, eliminate the withdrawal limits on pre-paid debit cards, and create access codes. Others then loaded the access codes onto any kind of plastic card with a magnetic stripe that they could find and used those cards as ATM cards. They used old hotel keys, expired credit cards, or any type of card that could have the account data and access code loaded onto the magnetic strip.  Next the hackers established a common date and time that the group would  “flash mob” the ATMs to withdraw as much cash as they could in set time period. They apparently were able to steal $45 million from ATMs in 27 countries in just 10 hours. Wow! The article went onto say that none of the money was taken from customer accounts, but from special accounts at the foreign banks.

At this point you might say, ok, what does that have to do with us. The point is that the hackers are getting really good at coming up with new and more creative ways to commit cybercrime. As a result, it becomes more and more important to guard your personal information from would be thieves. Banks, or credit card companies will never ask for your account information in an email or over the phone. When you shop online, make sure that you are purchasing from a company that you know and when it comes to asking for your credit card make sure it is through a secure site over a secure computer or network that you know is safe. This only scratches the surface of things that you can do to protect your information, but the point is that the criminals are getting very good and you can never be too safe with your information.

Have a Great Day and find something truly amazing. If it seems too amazing to be true, then it probably is.

Thank you for stopping by.

Gary Saelens

President

Friday’s stronger than expected employment numbers helped push the stock market higher to all-time highs. It has been a wild and crazy ride since last fall. The proponents of a stronger market will cheer it on and say the bear market is over and that this rally is long overdue. The contrarians will say that this is just the bear market taking a break and it will not be long before it breaks and goes lower. I always wonder how the contrarians look at a sunny day, it may go something like this, “Sunny day, big deal, it won’t be long before it will be cloudy and rainy”. Thank you, Professor Gloom and Doom. All I know is that when the market is going up, everyone seems to be in a little better mood. It’s a lot more fun to see that our main companies that make up either the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) or the Standard and Poor 500 (S&P500) are enjoying stronger sales, better income and talk of expansion. Those are numbers and teams that I like to cheer on from the stands, because we know that the conversation in stands can turn ugly as it has for the last 3-4 years when our economy was not doing so well.

Customers will ask me where should they invest their money. Should they buy real estate, stocks, annuities, gold, antiques, etc.? My response often is “What do know about the investment and what do you feel comfortable investing in?”. If you understand the investment and you do not lay awake at night worrying about whether it is going up or down in value, then by all means invest. Does that mean that just because you understand gold, then you should invest everything in gold? Short answer, no. It always make sense to diversify your investments.

Is the market going higher or are the pundits going to be correct and the top is near. The last 3 years the saying has been “Sell in May and go away”, because May has been traditionally a poor month for the stock market. The easy decision is to sell, the hard decision is to decide when to get back into the market. I always tell customers that if you are a long term investor, and the investment is fundamentally sound, then holding on to it as a long term investment is a good practice.

Have a Great Day and find something truly amazing. It’s out there waiting for you to invest a little time in the process and  cheer it on.

Thanks for stopping by.

Gary Saelens

President

A wise individual once said that without rules we would have chaos. Ok, it may be debatable how wise, but it is a true statement. The question is what is the tipping point from not enough rules resulting in chaos and too many rules resulting in chaos. The banking business is regulated by a lot of rules. When I started in the business 30 plus years ago there were substantially less rules and regulations than there are now. As American citizens, we understand very clearly that if you do not play by the rules, then there will be consequences. It is the same in banking. At Gateway State Bank we spend a lot of time and money making sure that we are compliant with the rules and regulations.

If you borrowed money lately for a home, you may ask why does the bank need me to sign all of those forms. Shouldn’t it be as simple as signing the loan and mortgage on my house to secure the loan. You are correct, but throughout the years numerous rules and regulations have been passed by our legislators to help protect our rights as consumers. The majority of the forms that you sign to borrow money besides the loan and the mortgage are the result of years of consumer protection legislature. At Gateway State Bank we take all the rules and regulations very seriously and you can rest assured that we will be up to date with the most recent rules and regulations. We will also gladly explain any one of the forms that you may have questions about to make sure that your loan is in compliance. When I first started banking in 1982, we had a pad of notes that were about the size of a standard business envelope and the most important statement on the note was “I promise to pay”. We still have that language in today’s loan forms, but we just happen to have a few other forms that have to go with it.

Find something truly amazing today and try not to break any rules while you are looking for it. It’s out there.

Thank you for your business and for stopping by.

Gary Saelens

President

We all have a choice. We can live where we live or not. We can go to our church of choice. We can belong to organizations or not. We drive where ever we want or stay home. We can choose to work for one company or for another. You get the idea or not. I realize this makes it all sound like choices are simple. They are not. Sometimes, we make the wrong choice, but even then we can make a choice as how to correct a bad choice. Sometimes even the right choice does not seem real great after all the fanfare wears off, but even at this point we can make the choice to make the best of the situation. Most of you have heard me say at least a hundred times, “It is what it is, now what are you going to do about it”. At this point, you may be considering making a choice to not waste your time reading this, but stick with me for just a little longer.

In light of the happenings of the week, it brings out that we have a choice to live in this country or not. It seems at times that our rules and regulations can be oppressive at times, but I believe this is probably still the easiest and greatest country to live in. Our ancestors made the choice, often with great hardship, to move to this country many years ago because it was the land of opportunity, which also meant they were afforded many more choices than were available in the old country. Now today the media tells us that one of the Boston Marathon bombers publicly acknowledged in the past that he did not have American friends and furthermore, did not care for America nor our values. This individual had the right to have his opinion, but he also had the right to make the choice to leave America and go home. That would have been a much easier choice and less deadly.

Make the choice to find something truly amazing today. It’s out there waiting for you to notice.

Gary Saelens

President