STRICTLY BUSINESS: ALL ABOUT A COMPANY'S 401K PLAN

Would you like to keep more of the money you make?

There's a simple way that employees can keep more of their earnings through immediate tax savings and tax-deferred investment growth -- by participating in company-sponsored 401(k) plans.

Less than 25 percent of eligible employees participate in their company's plan say Ellie Williams Clinton and Diane Pearl, co-authors of a new financial education book -- ""All About Your 401K Plan."

"A lot of people don't really understand how 401(k) plans work," said Clinton, a Cape Girardeau native and a partner in a St. Louis-based financial planning and education company, Moneywise.

"Many people are afraid to make the wrong investment choices or they believe retirement is too far away to make plans now," said Clinton. "This new book is designed to help overcome those concerns."

Clinton, who attended Central High School in Cape Girardeau and is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia, teamed up with Pearl, also a partner in Moneywise, to write the 200-page, soft-cover book that emphasizes the necessity of early retirement planning and opportunities provided by 401K and 403B plans.

Recent surveys suggest 80 percent of U.S. households face retirement with less than half the necessary income, and the situation is likely to get worse unless individuals take a look at building their own retirement funds.

"This book explains advantages and disadvantages of some investment options and provides a system for selecting the right investments," Clinton said.

The book is the second for Clinton and Pearl, who teamed up with Linda Bryant, a founding partner of Moneywise, to author a 192-page, soft-cover book, "99 Great Answers to Everyone's Investment Questions" in mid-1993.

Clinton, Pearl and Bryant founded Moneywise in May 1990. The St. Louis-based company provides educational programs to individuals and through the work place to teach people how to make the most of their paycheck and how to make company benefit plans work for them.

Before founding Moneywise, Clinton worked with Mark Twain Bancshares Inc. immediately after graduating from UM-Columbia with a bachelor's degree in business administration. She left Mark Twain to found Moneywise.

Pearl is a co-partner in the firm and in the book.

She is a graduate of Lake Land College, Mattoon, Ill., with an associate degree in retail management, was an investment club director for a major bank. Pearl's main concern was ongoing investment education for club membership. She developed the concept for "Organize With Moneywise," a 90-page guide designed to simplify record-keeping, and consolidating important documents.

Probus Publishing produced the book, which is available at bookstores nationwide, or may be ordered by calling 1-800-PROBUS-1.

New on the business scene

A new interior plant maintenance service has opened in Cape Girardeau.

Horticulturist Anne Foust, who has a number of years experience working with plants and gardening, including two years as a professional, has opened Green Gardens.

"We will install and maintain interior plants," said Foust, who has a degree in horticulture from Southeast Missouri State University.

Foust served as retail manager 1 1/2 years at Cape Garden Supply, a full-line garden center, selling plants, chemicals, fertilizers and other garden supplies.

Consumers can enjoy holiday music as they go from store to store in downtown Cape Girardeau.

The Downtown Merchants Association recently approved an agreement for a DMX music system that has been installed in the 100 and 200 blocks of Main Street, and the first two blocks of Themis, from the Mississippi River to Spanish Street.

The DMX system will provide music daily the year-round, from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Did you know?

What do Rocky Road Ice Cream and the Great Depressions have in common?

This year is the 65th birthday of the nutty flavor created by a candy maker and an ice cream maker only a few weeks after the October stock market crash that ushered in the Great Depression.

It was autumn of 1929, and in Oakland, Calif. Edy's Grand Ice Cream founders Joseph Edy (a candy maker) and William Dreyer (an ice cream maker) found an unusual way to calm their Black Thursday jitters -- the young confectioner and ice cream inventor created the world's first batch of Rocky Road ice cream.

While making a batch of chocolate ice cream at the Grand Avenue factory they had opened the previous year, Dreyer and Edy had the revolutionary idea to add nuts and marshmallows to the ice cream mix.

The two experimented with walnuts but discovered the walnuts left the ice cream with a bitter taste. They switched to almonds. Since miniature marshmallows did not yet exist, Dreyer and Edy used their wives' sewing scissors to cut the regular marshmallows into bite-size pieced.

They named their creation, "Rocky Road," not because it described the flavor they had created, but because they felt it was a comment on the times.

The idea to add nuts and other ingredients used as sundae toppings to the ice cream was a novel approach in 1929. The new flavor was an instant hit, and Dreyer and Edy continued to experiment with different ingredients and combinations. The pair is also credited with creating the candy mint flavor, better known as Peppermint.

Edy's Grand Ice Cream, headquartered in Oakland, is still experimenting and introducing new flavors. The introduction of Cookies 'N Cream in 1983 and Cookie Dough Ice Cream in 1992 are two flavors introduced in recent history that can rival the popularity of Rocky Road.