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Americans spend an estimated $40 billion a year on their pets, but a lot of people have trouble footing the bill for large veterinarian expenses. With that in mind, pet insurance could be a smart option - in some situations.

The Financial Planning Association doesn't recommend insurance for everyone. The group says it's best for people who would be hard-pressed to afford the tab of a major pet illness or accident. But even then, the group suggests sticking with catastrophic or major illness insurance, rather than a more comprehensive policy. A catastrophic/major illness policy won't cover checkups, vaccinations or routine bills, but your premiums would be lower than with more comprehensive coverage.

The FPA also offers other tips for minimizing pet-related costs, including these:

' Create a savings plan for pet expenses. This might not be feasible for many Americans who can't afford even their own emergency savings fund, but it would go a long way to meet unexpected pet costs.

' Ask your veterinarian about payment plans including lower financing costs if the need arises.

' Inquire about subsidized veterinarian clinics.

' If you haven't adopted a pet yet, research common medical ailments for various types of animals or breeds.

' Take your pet in for regular checkups and keep a watch for ailments that could develop into expensive problems.

What can anyone make of this crazy stock market?

Volatility has dropped a bit from earlier this year, but prices continue to bounce around plenty as investors adjust to a steady flow of mostly unsettling economic news. Some recent observations on stocks and related topics:

' If history offers clues, investors shouldn't expect much from the market near term.

Summer and early fall are traditionally a weak stretch. Since 1945, stocks in the Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 7.1 percent on average from November through April but only 1.6 percent from May through October, noted Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at Standard & Poor's Corp.
About one-fifth of the time, stocks actually lost ground.

It gets worse when you factor in a weak January, as we had this year. “When the S&P 500 fell in January, which happened 22 times since 1945, it posted an average decline of 2.1 percent in the subsequent May through October period, versus the average 1.6 percent advance for all May-October (periods) over the past 62 years,” said Stovall, who thinks a recession might still be coming.

' Plenty of investors have fled stocks for money-market mutual funds, only to be greeted by low yields.

Money funds have avoided the price declines that have hampered short-term bond funds lately, says the Money Fund Intelligence newsletter from Crane Data. They've also gained ground at the expense of banks and offer a safe haven for rattled equity investors.

In fact, money funds are as popular as ever, with assets recently topping $3.5 trillion for the first time, according to the Investment Company Institute. That's almost double their $1.9 trillion level of 2004.
Still, investors can't be too thrilled. Average money-fund yields cited by Crane have dipped to near 2 percent from 5 percent last year, underscoring the price investors pay when they seek safety en masse.

' What goes up comes back down, then goes back up again.

In investing circles, that describes the concept of “reversion to the mean,” the idea that stock-market returns will tend to cluster around a long-term, upwardly sloping trendline. It's also the basis of a new book by John K. Harris, a retired accounting professor and self-described “numbers guy.”

Harris wrote The Wall Street Traffic Light in response to a friend's question about when to sell stocks. He wound up sifting through years of market returns and spotted some recurring patterns. Harris calls reversion to the mean a “powerful magnet” that tends to lift market returns after slumps and cool results after big rallies.

He claims his system has correctly predicted market movements about four years out of five. It also has tended to keep investors in the market about 80 percent of the time. Notably, it's flashing a “green” or bullish signal for 2008. You can read more about Harris' approach at thewallstreettrafficlight.com.

' What goes up . . . part 2.

Fidelity Investments is urging investors not to flee the stock market in panic, and the mutual-fund giant has pulled out some interesting statistics to underscore its point.

Fidelity notes that the S&P 500, on 10 separate occasions since 1950,  has dropped more than 13 percent over three consecutive calendar months. But in eight of those 10 instances, the market rebounded by at least 20 percent over the following year. Following seven of the 10 sell-offs, the subsequent rally was large enough to recover all the prior decline.

“History has shown that some of the worst short-term losses in the stock market were often followed by rebounds,” Fidelity said in a commentary.

' If you work with a financial adviser, you probably have an exchange-traded fund in your portfolio — or will soon.

Most advisers in a new survey said ETFs have changed the way they invest for clients, and most called ETFs the most innovative investment vehicle of the past two decades. Only 4 percent of respondents said they don't use ETFs for clients.

The poll was sponsored by the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and State Street Global Advisors, which offers an ETF family.

ETFs, like mutual funds, are diversified portfolios of stocks, bonds or other assets. But they trade at different prices through the day, like regular stocks. Advisers like the low costs of ETFs, along with their tax efficiency, relatively pure investment approaches and intraday-trading ability.

Among drawbacks, advisers noted many ETFs are built around new, untested indexes or methodologies.

This article appeared in the June 15 issue of the Arizona Republic

Reach Wiles at russ.wiles@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8616.

Arizona Real Estate Commissioner Sam Wercinski has an agenda.

The former Valley real-estate agent has been on the job about 18 months, and many in the state's real-estate industry have heard it because of the agency's statewide Community Outreach and Education Program.

Wercinski, who has spoken to groups in every Arizona county multiple times, is trying to crackdown crack down on illegal subdivisions or subdividers.

To some, these are wildcat developers or subdivisions, but Wercinski doesn't call them that and neither does anyone at the Department of Real Estate anymore.

 “We aren't going after legal, unregulated developments,” he said. “Illegal subdivisions aren't providing disclosure of problems to buyers, and they aren't putting in the necessary infrastructure.”

For example, he said someone might buy a lot in an illegal subdivision that is accessed by a dirt road and then one day there's a fence in front of that road , and the   landowner can't get in. That dirt road is owned by someone else, and the landowner is stuck.

The Real Estate Department's new statistics show illegal-subdivision problems are up despite the slowdown in the housing market.

The agency currently has 106 investigations into these problems properties. That compares to with 82 last year.

Wercinski's other key issues include education to prevent consumers from being harmed in the real-estate market. , which includes the state's Home Buyer's Bill of Rights. Go to www.re.state.az.us to read it.

The Real Estate Department is also working with other state agencies and law-enforcement groups to put together a list of drop houses drophouses in Arizona and the people who own the properties. The list is expected out later this year.

These should be good times for transit. High gas prices are increasing demand. And, indeed, transit ridership is up.

In a normal market, this would be good news for the supplier. More demand means more revenue.

Transit, however, is heavily subsidized -- even its operating costs and for all riders, not just the poor.

So, more demand can mean heavier losses, particularly when rising gas prices are also increasing costs for transit operators.

If we are entering into a period of sustained high gas prices, transit economics should be realigned so that increased demand is an opportunity, not a burden.

Transit prices should be based on full operating costs, with the poor receiving vouchers.

From the political notebook:

I'm back from a two-week tour of Europe and I'll resume regular blogging, although we've entered the NFL's quiet period and not much is likely to happen until July.

First, a little side note about the trip. Amazing. Started in Madrid, then to Barcelona, then through the French Riveria, down into Italy, including Florence and Rome. It was an incredible trip, a whirlwind of sights, sounds and tastes. I never thought I'd visit the Vatican and see the Sistine Chapel. Never thought I'd get to visit the French Riveria or walk the streets of Barcelona. I even got to see Tom Hanks.

We were in Rome while they were shooting the sequel to the DaVinci Code. Our group was approaching the Pantheon when security diverted us around the square. Then someone in our group noticed Hanks and director Ron Howard. Very cool. Oh, yea, the Pantheon was pretty neat, too.

I got to go on the trip because my wife takes a tour group of high school kids to Europe every  year, and this is the second time I've tagged along as a chaperone. I know, traveling with 30 students might seem like punishment to some, but I've found it to be just the opposite. The kids she has taken are so smart and dependable that it gives you a lot of hope for the future.

On the sports scene, most of Europe is enthralled with soccer and the Euro Cup. But a good number of people are following the NBA playoffs. They love their hoops in Europe. They call it "basket" there, and all of Spain is rooting for Lakers center Pau Gasol.

But it's always nice to be home, too, even when it's 110. I'm just getting back into the swing of work, and I'll keep you up on the Cardinals news as it develops.