Advance Finance Blog

You Are A Facebook User, Right?

admin — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 09:15:01 +0000

So where were you on Day 1?

To my everlasting disappointment I regret a missed opportunity. I was junior clerk in an engineering office downtown. Next door was a small insurance company. One of the clerks working there was a neighbor of mine in the street where I lived out in the suburbs. He was a few years older than I and we were only on nodding terms, both at home on the street and in the office corridors. From experience gained while working at the insurance company he started up his own insurance company. He collected money from friends by way of $1,000 “investment lots” and gave them shares in exchange. For some reason he never offered me any shares. His new company took off and became, and still is, a major international insurance company and his friends who invested became rich.

The Facebook story

Now it’s Facebook time. At the very start of the Facebook story, a guy called David Choe was asked to paint murals on the walls of the offices. Choe, who says his “dirty-style figure paintings combine themes of desire, degradation, and exaltation”, took shares in Facebook instead of a cash payment. He chose to gamble his fee and now the shares look like being the hottest property on the US stock market.

Street artist

Choe calls his painting style “dirty.” In his documentary, he says his smeared and smudged painting method comes from being left-handed when he was little. He told an art magazine, “dirty styles is painting on found object besides a blank piece of paper or blank white wall … so even before you start there’s some history, there’s some spills, chills and marks, then you keep creating more history on top of that, spilling, spraying, dripping, creaming, collaging, making a mess. I create hope from dark beginnings.”

The Facebook IPO

With Facebook being pitched in the $75-$100 billion range, those murals could turn out to be more expensive than the $140 million paid in 2006 for Pollock’s No 5, 1948, or even the $200.7 million paid at auction for a collection of Damien Hirst pieces in 2008. Jackson Pollock may lose his record for creating the most expensive painting ever, not to another enfant terrible of the art world, but to a minor Los Angeles mural painter who happened upon the Facebook offices in 2005.

New-found wealth

Although Choe declined to speak about his new-found wealth, his Facebook fanpage tells his story: “In 2005, internet entrepreneur Sean Parker, a longtime fan, asked him to paint graphic sexual murals in the interior of Facebook’s first Silicon Valley office, and in 2007, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg commissioned him to paint somewhat tamer murals for their next office.”

Millionaires and billionaires

David Choe could be the unlikeliest of all the millionaires and billionaires who will be minted by the social network’s flotation this year. If the company hits the top valuations being talked about, then Choe will have been paid about $200 million for the “graphic sexual murals” that adorned Facebook’s walls in its early years. Is he a good artist? Who cares?

I’m Checking My Diving Equipment This Weekend

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:57:01 +0000

Anyone interested in a diving expedition to Italy in March?

In case you missed it, there’s a fortune lurking and waiting to be lifted out of the sea off the coast of Italy. It’s in a safe place, it’s in shallow water and there are no sharks. All you will have to do is avoid the police and other treasure hunters.

FAQs

The size of the reward? Unknown, but it could run to zillions.

What will we be looking for? Cash, diamonds and other gems, precious metals, and anything that can be easily converted into cash.

Where is the treasure hidden? All over the SS Costa Concordia, which for your convenience is lying on her side.

What are the dangers? Thousands of other treasure seekers.

What accommodation is being offered? None. You sleep anywhere.

How will the weather be? Cold with the first hints of spring.

Why aren’t you waiting for the weather to warm up before you start diving? The authorities will get themselves organized by then and you won’t be able to get near the ship.

The race is on

Unlike the Titanic which sank in deep water with a fortune of treasure aboard and hard to get at, the Costa Concorde is on the surface of the sea, meaning that just about anyone can become a treasure hunter. You don’t need diving gear and you don’t have to have diving experience. If you can swim you will be in the game.

Personal treasure

The items of treasure should be easy to find. The moment the boat hit the rocks everyone seemed to sense there was a major problem. The order to ‘man the lifeboats’ confirmed their fears and they dropped everything and made for the decks, leaving their possessions where they were. Everything is still there and will remain there until the first wave of treasure hunters arrives and starts digging around, emptying closets and suitcases, scattering unwanted clothing and other objects everywhere in the mad search for valuables. If you are in the second wave you will have a rough time looking for things.

Company treasure

Besides the goods that the passengers brought on board there are valuable items which belonged to the ship. First of all there is all the restaurant and kitchenware which will emerge from the sea in perfect condition and is eminently saleable. Much of the furniture and furnishings can be salvaged and sold. Odd trinkets from the wreck have started washing up on the shore and have already found there way to eBay. Anything with the Costa Concorde logo or emblem is considered a collectors item.

What is everyone waiting for?

Firstly the water is very cold. Secondly the ship is apparently moving slightly and is considered to be highly dangerous. Thirdly and most important, there are still 15 people listed as missing. They are probably on the ship, meaning that it is technically a grave. Once all the bodies are out there will be a mad scramble to get on board. I can’t wait!

The Partners’ Meeting Took Place This Morning

admin — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:38:13 +0000

How much do I hate the IRS? This much!

It’s been a torrid morning and it’s left me in a ratty mood. If I had staff working in my office I would fire everyone right now! However, mine is a one-man writing practice. It’s kept pretty busy, or as busy as I want it to be. It allows for such pleasures as an extra-long lunch hour with a friend. The office is a few steps away from the bedroom and it boasts all modern conveniences such as a computer, fax and telephone.

Office hours

The biggest disadvantage of my business is the long hours; I work a 24-an-hour day. This doesn’t mean that I am working all the time, but the office is open to anyone who calls. The financing arrangements are simple. I finance everything. I have a partner who makes no contributions at all. When there is a cash crisis, I cut back and suffer in silence.

My partner

I have a partner, aka the Government, alias the IRS, also known as the Income Tax Department and secretly known by me at various times of the month as “The Bloodsucker”, “The Parasite”, “The Thief” and some shorter 4 letter versions of all the above.

The partners’ meeting

Because we are such close partners we meet regularly, and I as the active partner, divulge all the intimate secrets of the business. I tell him about my clients and about my new clients. I boast about the amount of work I have been doing and I list the amounts of writing I have done to impress him. He, being the sleeping partner, simply gazes at everything and remains silent. I was at his office this morning. We decided a long time ago to meet there and not where I work. Unlike my desk which is always covered with stacks of papers, little notes on the back of coffee-shop napkins and a hundred reference books, his desk is clear, containing only a computer screen and keyboard.

The partnership arrangement

We have a partnership agreement. It is simple and straightforward and is based directly on the sharing of income. This is what led to the argument this morning. After I had formally tabled the trading results for the past year my partner looked at me, smiled, nodded his head in delight and said “thirty-seven point three percent”. I laughed and thumped the table with my fist saying, “very funny indeed! Got any other jokes for me?” “I’ll check it,” he grumbled and went back to the keyboard and then said, “I beg your pardon, you are right. I made a mistake. Thirty-seven point one percent.” This time I hit the top of his desk with the palm of my hand, sending off a loud bang and causing the keyboard to leap into the air.

My partner is upset

“There is no need for that,” said my partner. “We have an agreement, after all.”

“What about your contribution?” I yelled. “What did you do to justify your share?”

“I am upset by your attitude,” he said. So my partner is upset? Who cares?

Can I Raid My Own Retirement Fund To Raise Cash For An Emergency?

admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:30:43 +0000

I’m more than short and my car just died

I need money desperately. My small engineering practice, meaning me, has been having a hard time finding work. Then I was offered a construction supervision job in the next town. It means I have to be on the site about 3 times a week. The money is good and the sixty mile drive is easy. All went well for the first month or so. I watched the excavations get under way and the foundations went smoothly.

Breakdown

It was early on a Monday morning g when the car died on the freeway. I managed to get it off the road and called a tow service. In the workshop the mechanic finally stood up and said “Go and buy yourself a new car, this one is finished.” After all these months with little or no income I finally found work and now the car is dead? I couldn’t believe it. What will I use for money? I remembered an ad I had seen in a paper a week ago. “Money from your retirement fund”? At home I prayed that I hadn’t thrown that paper away. It was lying in the recycle bin waiting to be collected.

The article

I read ether article quickly: When in dire financial straights it is possible to turn to one’s retirement accounts as a source of emergency cash. The Financial Security Index, an annual survey by Bankrate.com, found that people in the survey who are employed full time reported dipping into their retirement account at some point in 2010. Early withdrawals indicate that the people who withdrew the money did not have much money put away in case of emergency.

Retirement

According to CNN, retirement is becoming a dream that not many people believe they will be able to realize. A survey by the American Institute of CPA’s revealed that nearly 40 percent of working people surveyed believed they would not be able to afford to retire. Almost 56 percent said that they couldn’t afford retirement savings because food and gas costs were too high, and 55 percent had no idea how much would be necessary to save to retire. As a result of less confidence in the ability to retire, the younger set in the workforce are more apt to stay with an employer who offers a top shelf pension plan, according to Daily Finance. A Towers Watson survey revealed that 43 percent of respondents believed it was a great reason to stay at a job, up from 28 percent in 2009.

Retirement fund

My retirement fund is looking very healthy. I have been contributing for years and no matter what, I always managed to pay the premiums. Suddenly I’m faced with no money and I read in the papers that retirement is becoming a dream anyway. I need money now so I can keep working to the point where I can make my own decision about retirement. What I need is a car so I can make money. I’m off to the bank to visit my retirement fund.

Lawyer Withdraws $7.5 Million Dollar Lottery Claim

admin — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 09:52:14 +0000

A New York attorney’s decision to withdraw his claim on a multimillion dollar Iowa Lottery prize doesn’t put to rest officials’ questions about how he obtained the ticket.

Crawford Shaw, of Bedford, N.Y., withdrew his claim Thursday on a multimillion dollar Iowa Lottery prize just as mysteriously as he has made it, saying through a Des Moines law firm that he couldn’t satisfy lottery officials’ request for basic information about how he obtained the winning ticket. The lottery has asked the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the Iowa attorney general to investigate. Officials say Shaw submitted the ticket for redemption on behalf of a trust on Dec. 29, less than two hours before it expired, and has identified the recipient only as a corporation in the country of Belize. The lottery wants to know how Shaw obtained the ticket to make sure it wasn’t stolen and that a valid player bought it.

13 Months

It has been 13 months since the winning ticket was purchased at a Des Moines gas station in December 2010. The payout for the prize would have been $7.5 million cash, or $10.3 million spread over 25 years after taxes. Iowa lottery officials had given Shaw until Friday to provide the identities and contact information of anyone who purchased or possessed the ticket. Instead of claiming the prize in person, as is normally done, Shaw signed the ticket on behalf of the trust and shipped it by FedEx to a Des Moines law firm he had retained. Shaw, 76, sent a fax to the law firm Thursday saying he doesn’t know the identity of the purchaser. The firm relayed the information to lottery officials.

Fax

"In order that the claim be resolved without further controversy, Crawford Shaw, as Trustee for and on behalf of the Trust, does hereby withdraw the Claim and does hereby agree to take no further action to enforce the Claim," the fax signed by Shaw reads. Shaw signed the ticket on behalf of Bedford, N.Y.-based Hexham Investments Trust, though lottery officials have said he misspelled the name of the trust by leaving off the second "h." Shaw claimed not to be a beneficiary of the trust.

Strange situation

Iowa Lottery CEO Terry Rich said Thursday that it’s the strangest situation officials can recall in the 26-year history of the lottery. He declined to speculate on the details of the claim, saying if he knew more than what’s been released, lottery officials would probably be writing a check to a winner. Iowa law also prohibits employees and contractors of the lottery, their relatives and anyone younger than 21 from playing.

Jackpot

Shaw said Wednesday through the Des Moines-based Davis Brown Law Firm that if the jackpot were paid, the money would be donated to charity. He declined to comment further Thursday. Records show Shaw played at least a minor role in the collapse of Industrial Enterprises of America, a chemical company that was looted and bankrupted in 2009 by a stock manipulation scheme. Shaw helped found the company after taking control of a Houston-based shell corporation, serving as its CEO from 2004 to 2005.

The Amazing Apple

admin — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 08:17:29 +0000

Apple sold 37 million iPhones and 15.4 million iPads in its first quarter, ended Dec. 31.

Apple is truly an amazing story of our own times. A man, Steve Jobs, had a vision. So what, you say, we all have visions. But Steve Jobs had something that few of us have, the sheer tenacity, dedication and will to make his vision happen. He saw a new kind of communication device, a device that would put you in communication with the entire planet or that would enable you to talk to your kids while you were communicating with the rest of the world.

The first quarter’s results

Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone and iPod sales more than doubled from a year ago, far surpassing analyst expectations. "We would attribute it to just a breathtaking customer reception of the iPhone 4S," said Apple CEO Tim Cook on a conference call. Apple’s first-quarter profit more than doubled to $13.1 billion, from $6 billion a year ago. Sales surged 73% to $46.3 billion from $26.7 billion for the same period. The results blew past Wall Street expectations for the company. Apple shares jumped almost 8% in after-hours trading, to $453.16. As to the good old Mac computer, Apple’s Mac sales didn’t disappoint. The computer maker sold 5.2 million Macs in the quarter compared with 4.1 million a year ago. Apple projected $32.5 billion in revenue for its second quarter, slightly ahead of Thomson Reuters’ forecast.

The ‘I want’ gadget for all ages

I am a senior, well in my ‘golden years’. I use a computer with old software, because it suits me and I know where to find everything after years and years of use. I tried a new computer and couldn’t cope with the advances. One day about a year ago I saw someone in a coffee shop using something I had never seen before. “It’s the latest thing,” he explained patiently. “It’s called an iPad.” I sat and watched him surfing around the world, looking at new headlines in far-off countries and watching his stocks on stock exchange sites in real time. I knew in an instant that this was not for me. I was wrong. It didn’t take more than 6 months for me to walk into a store and buy one. Today I don’t know how I managed without it. I am eyeing an iPhone as well, after years of swearing that my first generation steam-operated cell phone is all I need. If my 5 year old grandson can handle one why can’t I? That’s what Steve Jobs did for the world he lived in and for future worlds, he made devices for everyone

Apple is No. 1

It was reported Tuesday that Apple became the No. 1 semiconductor customer in 2011. Demand for Apple’s iPads and iPhones boosted its use of chips 34% from a year ago, catapulting it over Samsung and Hewlett-Packard, according to the researcher. Verizon (VZ) reported on Tuesday that the company activated 4.3 million iPhones in its fourth quarter.

They Get You by the Teeth

admin — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 07:25:34 +0000

Lack of dental coverage sends patients running to ER for pain relief

While government-managed health care programs such as Medicaid pay for emergency room visits for adults seeking temporary relief from toothaches and other dental emergencies, coverage of outpatient dentist office treatment for those problems varies from state to state, according to a 2011 federal Medicaid report. Federally mandated preventive and other dental care usually ends when Medicaid recipients enter early adulthood. That leaves states to determine whether they will provide dental benefits to adult Medicaid patients and if so, what type and how much.

No Medicaid

The report shows that 10 states offer no Medicaid dental benefits to adults. The remaining states offer a jumble of services that leave many adults with inadequate and limited access to dental care. In addition, Medicare doesn’t cover routine dental care or most dental procedures such as cleanings, fillings, tooth extractions or dentures, Medicare spokeswoman Ellen Griffith said. As a result, many adult government health care program enrollees and uninsured Americans are turning to emergency care providers nationwide to manage the pain from dental problems. Unlike dentists or oral surgeons, ER doctors and other health care providers can’t pull a tooth or treat other dental problems.

The ER

One dentist estimates as many as 40% of the patients she sees needing an extraction had previously sought care in an ER. Those ER visits translate into higher costs for taxpayers as many patients return to the ER two or more times per dental problem to manage symptoms, according to the ADA. And, while the Affordable Care Act addresses dental care for children on Medicaid, the requirement doesn’t exist for adults, ADA spokesman Robert Raible said. "This funnels everyone to the ER, which is the most expensive place to get health care," said Sorkey.

Dental emergencies

Between 1.3% and 2.7% of all ER visits nationwide that don’t result in a hospital admission are dental emergencies, the HRSA report says. A 2011 South Carolina Dental Association study estimated a single ER visit for toothache pain resulted in a Medicaid reimbursement of $236. The report found a dentist’s office visit, which would include extraction of an infected tooth, would be about $107. "The key thing is the problem is not solved when they go to the emergency room," said Phil Latham, the Association’s executive director. "If they can go to a dental office, the problem is solved for half of the reimbursement."

The ADA

To better evaluate the impact of using the ER for relief of dental emergencies nationwide, the ADA is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to devise a methodology to get "broader and deeper numbers and look at key indicators for solutions," ADA President William Calnon said. Louisiana Medicaid Medical Director Rodney Wise said the state’s decision not to cover dental expenses for most Medicaid patients 21 and older is about money. South Carolina and Washington State cut adult Medicaid dental benefits last year, and other states, such as California, have reduced benefits in recent years in an effort meet budget cuts, according to state and federal reports.

New Watchdog Agency Reviewing Payday Lending

admin — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 09:45:42 +0000

Payday lending, an industry that brings in some $7 billion a year in fees nationwide

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said testimony from the session in Birmingham would help guide the development of future regulations. Recently appointed Director Richard Cordray said the bureau recognizes the need for short-term loans, but the lending needs to help consumers, not harm them. "Before this month, the federal government did not examine payday lenders," Cordray said. "Some state regulators have been examining payday lenders for compliance with their state laws. We hope to use our combined resources as effectively as possible."

Huge number of lenders

Officials said that about 19 million American households now have payday loans. With interest rates often in the teens and easy application procedures, lenders said they generate business through radio and television advertising, plus word-of-mouth and by locating offices in areas where other small-loan lenders are located. Many in the standing-room crowd of more than 400 were lending company customers or employees who wore "I Choose Payday Advance" stickers provided by the industry. Tanzy Bonner told a panel she got a payday loan to cover the cost of her 6-year-old’s birthday party; LaDonna Banks said she got one because she couldn’t work after donating a kidney to her brother.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

The Bureau has been in the spotlight because of Republican opposition to its formation and President Barack Obama’s use of a recess appointment earlier this month to tap Cordray, a former Ohio attorney general, as its director. With GOP legislators blocking the nomination because they said the agency lacks sufficient congressional oversight, Obama installed Cordray.

Payday loans

Often criticized by advocates for the poor, payday loans are short-term, high-interest loans that work like cash advances. Storefront payday loan operations are prevalent in middle- to lower-income areas around Alabama, sometimes taking over closed convenience stores or fast-food restaurants. Loan amounts in Alabama are capped at $500 by state law, which limits the maximum interest rate to 17.5 percent. An industry website said the annualized interest rate for a 14-day loan of $100 tops 456 percent.

Typical loan

In a typical transaction, a borrower writes a check for $117.50 and gets $100 from the payday lender, who holds the check for a short period before depositing it. If the customer needs the check held another two weeks, he pays another $17.50 fee.

Officials said more than 20 percent of Alabama households have taken out loans from payday storefronts or similar businesses at more than 1,000 locations statewide. Opponents said the businesses prey on people who lack access to traditional loans when they get in a pinch for cash.

Gouging for loans

"People get churned through the system six, eight, 10 times a year," said Stephen Stetson, a policy analyst at Alabama Arise, a Montgomery-based anti-poverty organization. "If we have laws against gouging for gas and water, we ought to have laws against gouging for loans. Listening to what you heard here today, you’d think my thousands of employees go to work every day to hurt their neighbors," he said. Rather than enacting sweeping federal rules, he said, states should concentrate on getting rid of "bad actors" in the business.

National Anti-Payday Lending Campaign on the Way

admin — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:18:31 +0000

Campaign hopes to free one million Blacks from debt

Rev. Dr. DeForest Soaries, senior pastor of the 7,000 member First Baptist Church of Lincoln Garden in Somerset, NJ is launching a national effort against one of the most predatory lending products: payday loans. This church-based movement was inspired by hundreds of contacts and phone calls Soaries received following his appearance in a 2010 CNN documentary, Almighty Debt. Hosted by Soledad O’Brien, the documentary shared the financial struggles of Lincoln Garden members facing foreclosure, finding student financial aid and adjusting to long-term unemployment.

CNN

According to CNN, the documentary also became the network’s second-highest rated program that year with 13.8 million viewers. What began as a 90-minute television program turned into a year-long advocacy effort with four specific objectives:

Education: distribution of information through churches, barbershops, community centers;
Direct Action: coordinating protests in front of payday stores;
Alternatives to payday loans: identifying alternatives available through credit unions, minority banks and other lenders;
Public policy: working with local leaders to initiate actions to restrict payday and other predatory practices.

Payday lending ills

Over the past decade, the ills of payday lending have been a focus of the Center for Responsible Lending. Through a series of state-based efforts partnering with local advocates, 17 states and the District of Columbia have enacted payday reforms, saying ‘no’ to triple digit interest rates and downward spiraling debt. Additionally, federal law protects military members and their families from the typical 400 percent interest rates of payday loans.

Short term loans

In recent years, however, the growth of new versions of small-dollar, short term loans such as Internet and bank payday loans threaten to circumvent all of these hard-fought consumer victories. In particular, bank payday loans lead to 175 days of indebtedness for the average borrower, twice as long as the maximum length of time the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has advised. With many banks allowing up to half of a customer’s monthly direct deposit income, or up to $750, an average 44 percent of a bank payday customer’s next deposit is used to repay bank payday loans. For older borrowers already living on fixed incomes, the average bank payday loan repayment from a Social Security check was 43 percent. Senior customers are also 2.6 times more likely to have used a bank payday loan than bank customers as a whole.

Older adults

Even without bank payday loans, more than 13 million older adults are considered economically insecure, living on $21,800 per year or less. One-fifth of older households have annual incomes below $50,000 but report spending more than 40 percent of their income on debt payments.

CRL research

CRL research has shown that communities of color are particularly vulnerable to payday loans. Across the country, the concentration of storefront lenders is typically greater in black and brown communities. Additionally, Missouri is the only state outside the Deep South with the greatest number of payday stores per capita. Persons and organizations desiring to join the advocacy effort are advised to contact Pastor Soaries at: fbc@fbcsomerset.com .

Once Ireland’s Richest Man, Sean Quinn Declares Bankruptcy

admin — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:40:10 +0000

Debts Exceed $2.7 Billion

Sean Quinn, once rated Ireland’s richest person was declared bankrupt Monday as a bank pursues him for debts exceeding $2.7 billion. Quinn’s lawyers withdrew his opposition to a Republic of Ireland bankruptcy order sought by the former Anglo Irish Bank, the reckless lender at the center of Ireland’s calamitous property crash. The bankruptcy judgment will force a thorough court investigation of Quinn’s finances, which the bank hopes will reveal capital and assets that it can reclaim from Quinn, his wife and five children.

Rags-to-riches stories

Quinn boasts one of Ireland’s most celebrated rags-to-riches stories. He grew up on a border farm in Northern Ireland’s County Fermanagh, left school barely literate at 14 and started his first construction-gravel business with a $150 bank loan. Within three decades Quinn had transformed his quarry into a nationwide cement company. He built and bought luxury hotels, pubs, apartment complexes and commercial properties throughout Ireland, Britain, Eastern Europe and Asia; founded Ireland’s third-largest insurance company; and took interests in glassworks, packaging and radiators.

Net worth

Quinn had a reported 2007 net worth of $6 billion but sank much of his fortune into Anglo months before the bank suffered crippling losses as the country’s decade-long property bubble burst. The Quinn family secretly built up to a 28 percent stake in Anglo shares using an ill-regulated financial instrument that hid the scale of their investment from other stockholders. As Anglo’s share price plunged, Quinn says the bank encouraged his family to borrow hundreds of millions specifically to buy more Anglo stock, a charge the bank denies.

Northern Ireland

Last week Quinn lost a Belfast legal battle to retain bankruptcy protection in the neighboring British territory of Northern Ireland. The judge there ruled that Quinn had misled a previous Belfast court that his main base of business was in Northern Ireland, rather than the Republic of Ireland. "I have never done a day’s work from southern Ireland in my life," Quinn, who has lived for decades in the Republic of Ireland, insisted to reporters outside the Belfast court last week. Dublin-based IBRC would have faced greater difficulty pursuing Quinn for debts in Northern Ireland. Quinn also could have returned to business within a year under U.K. bankruptcy law, whereas the Irish prevent bankrupts from holding company directorships for up to 12 years. Quinn said the tougher Irish rules meant he would be too old, 76 in the year 2024, to direct any new companies then.

Shifting ownership

The bank accuses Quinn of fraudulently shifting ownership of his foreign properties, including office blocks and shopping malls, to relatives and shell companies that remain under the Quinns’ surreptitious control. The Quinns deny these charges. His five children have filed a Dublin lawsuit against IBRC seeking to have the bulk of the family’s Anglo borrowing voided on the grounds that the bank should never have lent them the money in the first place. They also are seeking to have IBRC return businesses to their ownership that were seized in April 2011.

Identity Theft Lands Businessman in Court

admin — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 10:28:16 +0000

Alleged victim loses everything

The trial starts Thursday of a down-on-his-luck businessman Norman Glass, who stole another man’s identity and made millions selling his victim’s assets to unsuspecting buyers.

Get-rich-quick scheme

About six months ago Glass cooked up a get-rich-quick scheme after hearing about an American living in the UK, who owned a building lot as well as an apartment on 14^th Street. He began by assuming the identity of the property owner, a man named Kalev. Glass grew a beard and acquired a cane, a cap and the gait of a man 26 years his senior. He then created the documents that would enable Glass to present himself as Kalev. He began spending time outside the latter’s apartment building, where he collected Kalev’s mail and absorbed whatever information he could find. He used a computer to create a high-quality forgery of Kalev’s official identity card using Kalev’s personal information and his own photograph.

Sells Apartment

Next, according to Glass’s charge sheet, he placed an advertisement for Kalev’s apartment on an online classified-ads site, for $450,000. He also listed the lot with real estate agents and asked a prominent law firm to help him dispose of the property. At that point Glass also announced that he also had an apartment he wanted to sell. A man who is identified in Glass’s indictment only as D went for the bait. He was nearing retirement after working for the past 40 years at an engineering company where he was on the staff of a missile project. D and his wife met Glass at the upscale law office. There, in the presence of attorneys and real estate agents, a contract was signed. No one knew that Glass was not Kalev, the property’s real owner.

Payment

D agreed to give Glass 90 percent of the payment as soon as the property deed was assigned to him, and to pay the balance after the property development fees were paid.

The next day, Glass went alone to the Registry Office, carrying Kalev’s ID card and copies of the notarial seals used the previous day on the deed of sale: Glass had had them duplicated at a stationery store. No one at the registry office questioned his credentials, and he registered the lot to D and his wife. Afterward, as promised, D paid Glass from his retirement savings, in cash.

The police

A week or so later, as D waited for Glass to call and tell him the sale was completed, the near-retiree instead got a call from Superintendent Ross of the police fraud unit. Ross summoned D and his wife to unit headquarters where he told them: "We think you are victims of a sting. You purchased a lot from a con artist who impersonated Kalev," Ross explained. In addition, the real Kalev filed a police complaint over the theft of the property. D and his wife were overwhelmed. "I felt as if my world had crashed around me. After 40 years of work, that was all the money I had and suddenly they tell me I’m left with nothing. They asked me to point out the man in the picture and all at once many things became clear. I am simply lost," said D.

Error

Glass, the police say, made one fatal error in his perfect sting: Somehow, one of the documents he gave the lawyers contained his real name. Fraud squad detectives created a sting of their own, stringing him along and arranging for a meeting at the law office, where he was arrested. In a search of Glass’s home after his arrest, police officers found the cap, the cane and eyeglasses he wore to the contract-signing at the lawyers’ office.

Glass denied any connection to the affair and claimed that someone framed him. The police have not found the money that D paid Glass, who owns no property that could be seized in order to repay D.

Be alert! Don’t be a victim!

Hey, I paid for my ticket! I want my money back!

admin — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 15:44:07 +0000

How do you mean he turned left instead of right?

Hundreds of telephones must be ringing in deserted offices around the world and in Italy today. The phones in insurance companies are unmanned on Saturdays and calling on Sunday won’t do any good either. Can you imagine the chaos that has already started and will continue for the next days, months and even years as insurance companies pass the buck from one to another? Can you explain, how, in the year 2012, a luxury cruise liner, the Costa Concordia, owned by the Carnival Corporation and operated by Costa Cruises, built in 2004 at a cost of about $570 million can hit a sand bank off the coast of Italy and end up on its side in the water with a huge hole in its bottom?

No ordinary ship

How could this ship, a modern cruise liner and the largest ship to be built in Italy at 114,500 tons, 950 feet long and 118 feet wide and able to carry 3,700 passengers and a crew of 1,100, come to such an ugly end? She is lying on her side about half submerged in the water like some mammoth sea creature waiting for the kindly sheriff to end her misery by putting a bullet through her head. The ship had 1,500 staterooms; 505 had private balconies and 55 had direct access to the central spa. The Costa Concordia had one of the world’s largest wellness centers at sea, the Samsara Spa, a two-level, 20,000 foot wellness area, with gym, a thalassotherapy pool, sauna, Turkish bath and a solarium. The ship also had four swimming pools, two with retractable covers, five spas and a poolside screen on the Pool deck. There were five onboard restaurants, thirteen bars, a cigar and cognac bar and a coffee and chocolate bar. Entertainment options included a three-level theater, casino and a discotheque. There was a children’s area equipped with PlayStation products, Grand Prix motor racing simulator and an Internet cafe.

Here come the insurance claims

In the “Claim Age” in which we live, I imagine that every single passenger and crew member who was on board on Friday evening will be lodging a claim against the ship’s owners, the Master, the helmsman, the cruise operator and anyone who has the any connection to the cruise-shipping industry. Even though the ship didn’t sink like the Titanic, who whose 100 year disaster will be commemorated in April this year, just about everything will be recovered but will have been ruined by immersion in sea water. If it is not soaked for a few weeks, the fumes of the salt will do the job.

Now what?

Naval engineers must all be hard at work working out a system of sealing the hull and hauling the giant back onto its bottom. Is there going to be fight over salvage rights, salvage fees and who gets what? Will the ship be fully repaired and made seaworthy again? Will you be booking a cruise on the Costa Concordia sometime in the future?

Stop Fooling Around With Beers And Buy Something Special To Drink!

admin — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:19:54 +0000

How to get rid of your excess money

Johnnie Walker Blue Label Blended Scotch Whiskey

Specially blended to recreate the authentic character and taste of some of the earliest whisky blends created in the 19th century, giving it a rich, peaty taste combined with a smooth, distinctly malty flavor. Every bottle is serial numbered and sold in a silk-lined box, accompanied by a certificate of authenticity. $245 for a 750 ml bottle.

Courvoisier L’Esprit, Decanter Number 10

L’Esprit de Courvoisier is a very rare, old cognac containing many of the finest vintages in history, some almost 200 years old. Made from a variety of blends, some which date back to Napoleon I, Courvoisier’s L’Esprit is smoky and rich, with fragrances of cinnamon and dried apricot flowers. The flavor is initially powerful but has a mellow aftertaste. $5,000.

Jenssen Arcana

98 years in oak barrels gives this cognac a rare complexity. Once the angels’ part is evaporated, the spirits offer an extraordinary concentrated cognac, with powerful, elegant and balanced aroma. The Arcana is an exceptional cognac it is put into carafes only on request. It is presented in a French mouth-blown crystal decanter. This presentation was awarded by the François the 1st’s luxury packaging in 2004. The carafes are numbered, sealed and certified. $5,200.

Hine Triomphe Talent De Thomas Hine

The Talent of Thomas Hine is not just a cognac. It’s an experience: The crystal decanter is designed by Baccarat, one of the world’s best makers of crystal products. In this great bottle we find a blend of very rare Grande Champagne cognacs, and finally: The cognac is in the crystal decanter, the bottle in a box. But not any box, it’s very rare wood from Maccasar ebony, imported from India. Each case is hand crafted. What’s more: You find four crystal tulip snifters, designed by Bernard Hine. Price: $6,030

Martell Creation Cognac

A rare blend of Cognacs from Frapin’s reserves, the Cuvée is bottled beneath a 24-karat gold stopper in a twisty crystal decanter that looks like a prop from a community Shakespeare staging. Flowery flavors combine with sweet spices, honey and toasted vanilla notes. $7,500.

Johnnie Walker: Le Voyage de Delamain

If you’re a fan of premium cognac, you’ll want to consider Delamain Le Voyage, which just picked up the Robb Report’s “Best of the Best” 2008 Spirit award. The Le Voyage is a blend of aged Grande Champagne cognacs from the Delamain cellars. The flavor carries subtle sensations of “Russian leather, the musky aroma of the tropics, the heady scent of tobacco from the Americas, of coffee from Africa heralding the spicy hints of the Far East and finally the bouquet of grapes from the hillsides of the Grande Champagne,” according to the company. Delamain has bottled the award-winning cognac blend in a Baccarat crystal decanter, which comes packaged in a fanned leather box. Each bottle will set you back $7,000.

Remy Martin Cognac Black Pearl Louis XIII

When you swish Remy Martin’s deep amber-colored Black Pearl Louis XIII around in your mouth, you are actually tasting 1,200 different 40 to 100-year old cognacs blended together. The swill is said to smell of flowers, fruits and spices, its flavor a mixture of ginger, cinnamon and Cuban cigars. $35,000.

Hennessy Beaute du Siecle Cognac

Taking just a sip of this limited-production Hennessy cognac would be a totally unique experience. Hennessy, a spirits division of LVMH’s Moët Hennessy, released a $200,000 bottle of Beauté du Siècle earlier this year, only 100 of which are available. But the exorbitant price is mostly a function of the extraordinary bottle which was designed by the contemporary French artist Jean-Michel Othoniel. Each collectible bottle comes with four gold-leaf adorned glasses which are housed in an aluminum-and-glass chest decorated with two colored Venetian glass beads. This mixture is blended from Hennessy’s reserves of 47 to 100-year-old cognacs. $200,000.

Henri IV, Cognac Grande Champagne

Cognac is the ultimate drinking luxury, especially when it is believed to be the world’s most expensive. Dubbed as the DNA of Cognac, Henri IV Dudognon Heritage is presented in an exquisite bottle. Produced since 1776 it is aged in barrels for more than 100 years. Exorbitantly priced, the liquor is bottled in a bottle dipped in 24 K Yellow Gold & Sterling Platinum and decorated with 6,500 certified brilliant cut diamonds. With an approximate weight of 8 Kilograms, it is filled with 100 cl. of Dudognon Heritage Cognac Grande Champagne that contains an alcohol content of 41%. This jeweled packing was master crafted by the well known jeweler Jose Davalos. $2 million.

My Disappearing Shopping Fund

admin — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 09:18:10 +0000

My money tree is bare and the there are no new buds

I have suffered a dramatic change. I have had to move from “spending” to “not spending”. I built my personal financial system carefully over years and years of spending money, sometimes cautiously, sometimes rashly and sometimes wildly. At all times I planned, saved and budgeted, always keeping spending directly linked to earning. Now I’m in a “hold spending” period. I saved hundreds of dollars in 2011 by getting some good deals on financial products. You can do it too.

Our shopping expeditions

Years ago I fell into the habit of accompanying my wife on her trips to the supermarket. These outings ranged from ‘totally boring’ to ‘mildly interesting’ until I discovered that there’s a man’s world in the supermarket. I discovered the 10 varieties of olives, the 20 varieties of pickles and the carousel of fiery hot spices. I found the exotic cheese counter and the cheap tee-shirt rack. I bought what I fancied. My job was great, the salary package was generous and I always had money in the bank.

Job collapse

At about 9am one morning I received a phone call from the owner of the company I was managing: “We are closing down. Not enough work, blah, blah, blah… the faltering hi-tech industry, yak, yak, yak… Our shopping trips changed. I still accompany my wife. We go to the supermarket – with a list. We buy the items on the list and come home. Money saved: Considerable.

I’ve made some changes

In the good old days when I had a problem with money, my first port of call would be the bank and my friendly bank manager who would always lean over backwards to help me. That’s gone. These days when I have a problem with money I put as much distance as I can between me and the bank. I’m just another customer and I’ve never met the manager. I changed banks recently, mainly because the bank on Pine Street offered better deals than the bank on Elm Street. If the bank can treat me a casual customer, then I can treat the bank as a casual service.

Check your insurances

I had sudden urge to make sure my “papers” were in order in case I got hit by a bus. The results were surprising. Other than stuff like life insurance, pension and savings which I regard as a ‘do not open’ box unless the agent is present, I looked at such fascinating items as household and auto insurance. It’s been years since I received these policies. If you work on the basis of ‘no claims, no look’ as I do, the years slip away. I took them out and called a couple of new acquaintances in the insurance business. Surprise! The trusty old agents I had used all these years were no longer looking after my interests. They were renewing my policies every year without looking at the premiums. I replaced these policies with a new agent and saved huge amounts of money for the same coverage. I also told the new agent that I would be shopping around for new quotations at every renewal date. If the old agents didn’t look after me do I still have to look after them?

Retirement: Plan B

admin — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:13:14 +0000

The good news is that we are living longer.

This means that we have many extra years to enjoy ourselves with our friends and family, with our food, drink and other earthly pleasures. As long as we keep popping all the anti-cholesterol, anti-sugar and anti-high blood pressure pills we keep going. We do all the blood tests every year, the doctor never gets out of his seat behind the desk, he simply analyzes the results, prescribes the right pills and we keep going.

The bad news

We are outliving our money. This means that our pensions, retirement plans and nest-eggs are all drying up while we still need them. So the race is on. Will we outlive our pension and end up poor and the miserable objects of state care, or will the pension outlive us and allow us to spend a respectable and pleasant old age in a retirement home? 0Medical breakthroughs and healthier lifestyles are expanding our life expectancies and you simply can’t count on departing the way our parents and grandparents did.

The working retired

As a result, some retirees are returning to work, others are selling everything, buying a mobile home and roaming around the country. One friend exchanged his expensive apartment for a fancy yacht and is permanently moored in a Mediterranean port. He never stops talking about the wine, the hot food and the hot women.

Retiring

We still get the State old age pension or monthly social security check but they buy less every month and if you venture outside the US you have to convert the US dollars into another currency. The result is frightening. Now that you know you are faced with a longer retirement, you have two choices:

Put off your retirement as long as you can.
Start planning your retirement more carefully and long before you retire.

As a final fall-back situation, there are always reverse mortgages or viaticals after your pockets run dry in retirement.

Retirement planning

We are surrounded by giant conspiracies which are constantly trying to erode our nest egg, and the biggest ‘retirement killer’ is our simple inability to maximize our retirement savings. Retirement planning isn’t a full-time job, but a full-time job is what you may face if you fail to plan your retirement. Do you know how much you’ll need for a comfortable retirement? Have you lined up your future income and expenses to see if you’re sitting pretty or spooning down cat food? You’re not alone if you’re shaking your head. Last year’s 18th annual Retirement Confidence Survey indicated that less than half of American workers have taken the time to make basic retirement calculations.

Retirement services

There are retirement services which can help with tax planning and retirement account trends. They can suggest portfolios to help retirees achieve ideal asset-allocation strategies. Don’t wait until it’s too late! Seize control of your future by grabbing the wheel while you still can. No one will help you when you are sleeping on a bench in the park.

No Article Today – Gone Fishing!

admin — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:25:49 +0000

With 800 Pound Tuna Running Who Wants To Stay In And Work?

I am sure that even the editor of this website will understand my sentiments. Did you read this Bluefin Tuna article in the weekend paper? If you did, I’m sure you’re headed for the ocean with an extra heavy-duty rod and reel, despite the cold and wet weather.

Living at the coast

This is always a problem. I used to live a few miles inland when I was a freelancing engineer and there were days in every week when I had a problem working. I was torn between the magnificent golf course along the top of the cliffs and taking my boat out fishing. Unfortunately neither of these activities could bring in money and most times I weakened I turned around and went back home to work.

A Bluefin Tuna

color:black">Fishing boat owner Carlos Rafael was elated when one of his trawlers snared an 881lb bluefin tuna. But his joy was short-lived. US fishery enforcement agents seized the fish when the crew returned to port in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Mr. Rafael had tuna permits but was told catching tuna with a net was illegal. This fish has to be caught by hand gear such as rod and reel, harpoon or hand line.

color:black">We were honest
color:black">"We didn’t try to hide anything," Mr. Rafael told The Standard-Times newspaper of New Bedford, a famous whaling era port south of Boston. "We did everything by the book. No-one ever told me we couldn’t catch it with a net."

color:black">Highly prized

color:black">A fish that big is hugely valuable, prized by sushi-lovers for its tender red meat. A 754lb tuna recently sold for nearly 396,000 dollars. Mr. Rafael’s fish will be sold overseas, but he will get no share of the proceeds if regulators find a violation, The Standard-Times reported. The money would instead go into the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fund that also holds money collected for fishery fines.

color:black">Tuna permits

color:black">Mr. Rafael says he will probably surrender his tuna permits now. "What good are they if I can’t catch them?" he said. The tuna was probably inadvertently snagged as Mr. Rafael’s crew set a net to catch bottom-dwellers, he said. "They probably got it in the mid-water when they were setting out and it just got corralled in the net," he said. "That only happens once in a blue moon."

color:black">Fishing reminder

color:black">Yesterday the NOAA issued a reminder that bluefin tuna cannot be caught legally in trawl nets, even by accident. It said the bluefin tuna now reproducing off the coast were below 30% of their population level in the 1970s and the fish take a long time to rebound because they are slow to grow and reproduce. The rules aim to take away any incentive to chase and keep the highly coveted fish, beyond what is allowed. "It is important to carefully follow the regulations so US fishermen can retain their share, and the associated jobs and profits, of this international resource," the NOAA said.

U.S. Life Expectancy at an All–time High

admin — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 06:59:11 +0000

Make sure you have enough money!

The good news is that life expectancy in the US is the highest it has ever been. The bad news is that many of us will run out of money before we die. The immediate effect on every American is that you should rush off and check if you can afford to live to a ripe old age – plus. Nothing is free, as we all know and the extra years are being tacked on at the end, not the beginning.

The pills

In case you don’t get it, those are the years when you are popping expensive pills to keep everything working; those are the years when you are living it up in an expensive retirement community somewhere in the Sun Belt. Those are the years when you need money.

The Active Retirees

As a result of this longevity, a new social class, known as the Active Retirees has developed. It is a reputable and much respected occupation. I am one of them. I spend my days in front of the computer, out there in cyberspace, surfing for information, gliding from one link to the next, marveling at the endlessness of the information highway. My ophthalmologist, who I visit at 3 month intervals because she insists I can get glaucoma at any moment, warned me about excessive computer use and says that she sees a definite change on the retina thing at the back of my eye. “It has developed the format of a computer screen,” she noted two visits ago. “At last!” I breathed thankfully.

The mornings

My days are well taken care of. The mornings are crammed full of retirement activity. I eat a late breakfast and browse the newspapers briefly; the news is always depressing: unemployment, bad economy, terrible politics, dormant job market, social revolution. I tackle the NY Times crossword with varying results, check my miserable stock portfolio for signs of life, read the health tips, log into my bank account and take a fleeting glance at my overdraft, and by then it’s almost time for lunch.

Afternoons

After lunch things slow down considerably ending in a nap, but an active retiree never forgets that he may be called upon at any time to take or fetch a grandchild to some unheard of place miles from the nearest internet café or coffee shop. My nights are generally sleepless and I can vouch for the fact that there’s nothing to watch on the TV after midnight.

Internet earnings

To keep my brain active, I do intensive research on the internet, following ads that claim you can make $10,000 a month by just sitting in front of your computer and not moving. It’s not true. There are sites where you can earn small amounts of money. On just about all of them you will sweat blood to pull in a few measly dollars that won’t pay for anything. You will, of course, have to pay for this advice.

If You Are Spending So Much Already, Spend a Little Extra

admin — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 11:00:05 +0000

If it’s worth taking with its worth insuring

Read this and think again about paying for insurance when you are in doubt about it. We heard an awful money story yesterday. Our neighbors and good friends, Joan and Alec, decided to go on a romantic ‘once in a lifetime’ holiday. It also coincided with a major wedding anniversary giving it special ‘meaning’. It involved a trans-Atlantic cruise, a family visit in the states, a flight to Moscow, some Russian sightseeing and then a flight home. Alec, a lawyer, spent hours poring over brochures and maps and finally came up with this suggestion. Joan loved it and all the bookings were made.

They pack

“It’s going to be cold ashore, pack some warm clothes,” advised Alec, thinking about walking knee deep in the snow in Moscow. “I will. Do you think they dress in the evenings? Should I take my jewelry?” asked Joan and then without waiting for an answer opened the safe and dropped her collection precious of necklaces, rings and brooches into a couple of leather pouches and put those into her extra-large travelling handbag. “I’ll call for a cab,” said Alec when everything was ready.

They set sail

The boat left Italy on a Thursday evening and floated along the Mediterranean. The public lounge was full of people all circulating with drinks in their hands and introducing themselves to each other. The atmosphere was great. Joan and Alec were delighted with their choice of holiday.

Miami

The ship docked in Miami Port after an exhilarating voyage and Joan and Alec found a cab to take them to the railway station. They had bookings on a train trip to visit family in Pittsburgh. On arrival, brother-in-law was standing on the platform to give them a hand with the cases and soon they were finally in his car on the way to his home in the suburbs. Suddenly Joan let out an agonizing shriek. “Stop! My Handbag! It’s on the train!” Brother-in-law made a U-turn on the spot and roared back to the station. The train was still standing in the same position, but the handbag was nowhere to be seen. Joan burst into tears and Alec went into a hypnotic trance.

Back to the car

In the car brother-in-law asked “what was in the handbag?”

“My 45 year old collection of gold and diamond jewelry,” explained Joan tearfully. “Well, you will replace it with modern pieces. The insurance will pay for everything,” said brother-in-law.

“What insurance? shouted Alec. “Nothing was insured!” The rest of the drive home took place in silence. In fact most of the rest of the holiday, meaning the flight to Moscow, the sightseeing in Russia and the flight home took place in silence.

Back home

“It’s cost us an untold fortune,” said Alec when he described what had happened. “Joan loved jewelry and I too had an eye for good pieces, so over all the 45 years of our marriage I have been buying and investing in jewelry. Some of those pieces were worth tens, maybe even more, of thousands of dollars. All gone! All through my stupidity of not believing in insurance!”

CAUGHT FOR STEALING PAYDAY LOANS

admin — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:43:39 +0000

Woman who headed Dwelling House scandal gets 12 1/2 years

This 44 year old woman, Elexa Manos-Becton, has spent her adult life stealing and getting token punishments. Today, finally, the woman who found an accounting glitch and terminally undermined Dwelling House Savings & Loan was sentenced to 12 1/2 years in prison for bank fraud and money laundering, and ordered to do what she can to pay back the $2.47 million she and friends siphoned from the venerable Hill District institution.

What she discovered

The Coraopolis woman accidentally discovered that if she took out payday loans and instructed the lenders to take repayment from a Dwelling House account that did not have sufficient funds, she was never charged for the withdrawal. So she settled down and repeated the exercise about 200 times. She also shared the discovery with at least two friends who she met in jail, plus her son, all of whom have pleaded guilty.

Apologies

"I’d like to publicly apologize to the Lavelles, the Hill District family that owned Dwelling House, the employees and the customers," Ms. Manos-Becton said. "It was not my intention to put the bank out of business. "

Sentence

Her attorney, Assistant Federal Public Defender Jay J. Finkelstein, said she should get a 92-month sentence in light of her psychiatric disorders, drug and alcohol problems, troubled childhood and occasional attempts to cooperate with prosecutors. Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Hull, though, pointed out that Ms. Manos-Becton has 29 convictions in her past, including 20 for thefts and others for drug, gun and prostitution crimes. During the years when she was bleeding Dwelling House, she spent the money on drugs and "exorbitant living," he said. U.S. District Judge Alan N. Bloch said her life was "an endless pattern of criminal behavior.

Culmination of a lifetime

"The defendant has received only slaps on the wrist," Judge Bloch said, so she "kept rolling the dice. This crime seems to be the culmination of a lifetime spent stealing." Ms. Manos-Becton’s bond was revoked and she was immediately taken into custody by U.S. marshals. Her son, Dimitri Manos, and friend Veronica Smith are scheduled to be sentenced Thursday, closing out the prosecutions of the four people indicted in Dwelling House’s demise.

iPhone, jPhone, kPhone, and all the way to zPhone

admin — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 11:02:18 +0000

They are pouring out of China

We all knew it would happen so why are we surprised to hear that there are iPhone copies? These copies are pouring out of China at a fraction of the price. Beware, they are expected to work fractionally compared to the real thing. An iPhone is an expensive item. It is sweeping the world. Everyone wants one, from the smallest kids to the golden agers, and of course, many people cannot afford one. This is where the copies and the fakes come into their own.

The gadget fans

Long, winding queues of gadget fans are lining up to throw their money at the latest flashy i-product, a treatment usually reserved for Apple. But here in China a home-grown brand is inspiring its own platoon of highly-motivated buyers. More than 300 people lined up around the block in Hong Kong on January 1st to get their hands on Meizu’s latest phone. And that was mirrored in cities across China. It’s all for this: the Meizu MX.

Is this an iPhone?

The easiest way to handle the design was obviously to make an exact copy so it’s difficult to know if you are looking at a genuine iPhone or a knock off. It’s easy to see where the company found its inspiration. Some Chinese consumers love it. Among those lined up today, aviation management student Kenny Tang said, "It looks like the iPhone but inside the software, the UI, the design is completely different. "Three days on from its launch, people are still lining up here in Hong Kong for the Meizu MX. It looks like an iPhone, but it only costs 400 dollars."

Latest hardware

Loaded with the latest hardware, it’s a lot cheaper than the iPhone 4S at 650 U.S. dollars or the Samsung Galaxy Nexus at 700. And that’s helping these so-called "shanzhai" firms – the Chinese term for manufacturers known originally for knock-offs. Now they’re moving up the value chain to sell their own branded products.

Salaries in China

"As everyone knows, the average salary in China isn’t that high right now. So this is definitely more affordable than some of the other mainstream phones in the market. But at the same time we don’t sacrifice on specifications." The problem, though, is scale. Big players like Apple and Samsung pay far less for the components inside their phones than smaller handset makers. And that means tighter profit margins for the shanzhai players, says Analyst Mark Newman. “I don’t think these Chinese brands are going to compete head-to-head in the mainstream market but more in the mid to low end, especially in China – in the domestic market. But they don’t have a lot of scale and so it’s going to be difficult for them to compete with Samsung."

The Huawei phone

There is hope though. Huawei was once a small player. It now commands eleven percent of the mainland market. With more than 950 million mobile phone users in mainland China, shanzhai firms like Meizu have plenty of room to grow. Especially as more consumers look for smartphones at reasonable prices.

The 3 Certainties in Life: Death, Taxes and Bank Charges

admin — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 07:29:22 +0000

How to save on banking costs

Whatever you do in or with the bank costs you money, from talking to a teller to withdrawing a large amount of cash. Agreed they are all petty charges but add them up and you will see the big picture. Even getting your statement printed on a sheet of paper costs you these days. Sometimes I think the bank has forgotten that it is in business because its customers keep their cash there!

New fees

Thinking up new fees is the bank’s money-raising strategy which brings in an estimated $12 billion a year. Yep, the banks are having a rough time but that doesn’t mean that you have to pay for it. Bank fees are here to stay, but here’s how to avoid some of them:

Understand the fees

A study by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that disclosure documents averaged 111 pages long. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is being pressed to require banks to publish a one-page disclosure of all fees. But do your best to understand what you’re up against, you can only fight things you know about.

Demand waivers

A big demand may come with direct deposit. "Often, something as simple as having direct deposit of your paycheck or Social Security payment is enough to get monthly maintenance fees waived." But often you’ve got to ask for the waiver, it won’t be offered automatically.

Be a "good" customer

Customers who are likely to be rewarded with waived fees are those with multiple accounts, such as checking, savings, a credit card, mortgage or car loan, in other words, the more business you do with your bank, the more leverage you have in staving off fees.

Sign up for alerts

Some banks allow you, at no charge, to get email or text message alerts of balances. This can help you avoid fees for overdrafts and minimum balances. This service generally isn’t offered, however, unless you request it. Some online money management sites also provide such alerts.

Rethink your checking account

If you have an interest-earning checking account, you may pay an average of $14 a month in fees unless you keep a balance in the thousands, according to a recent study by Bankrate.com. But on non-interest checking accounts, the monthly fee averages less than $5 a month, waived with a balance of $585. To save on fees, consider a non-interest account.

Move to a credit union

In September the Bank of America announced plans to impose a $5-per-month fee for the privilege of using their debit cards. About 700,000 people moved their accounts to lower-fee credit unions. In November the $5 fee was dropped. So if you’re considering a move this might be the time to politely remind your big bank that it isn’t the only game in town. New customers take note: Some banks now levy fees for closing accounts opened within the previous 90 or 180 days.

Go online

Online banks such as Ally, ING Direct and EverBank have lower overhead than brick-and-mortar banks, which can mean lower fees. Banking online with your current institution also may help you avoid increasingly common charges for paper statements.

The Titanic Is Back

admin — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 11:25:58 +0000

This time it’s a money-raising voyage

I watched a rerun of the Titanic movie on the TV the other evening. I was devastated at the portrayal of the horrific disaster which resulted in the deaths of 1,517 people. This has to be one of the most unnecessary tragedies in history. And the fascinating and horrific story carries on and on. April 15 marks one hundred years since that terrible day. Look how far we’ve come in naval navigation in the past 100 years. The sad part of this story is that the Titanic disaster could probably happen today.

Relics

There are, of course many relics and artifacts from the Titanic in private hands, such as items in the hands of survivors who clutched them when they jumped off the boat, collectors, traders, and others. And there are items brought up from the ocean bed by various expeditions since the site of the wreck was discovered. The biggest collection of Titanic artifacts is to be sold off as a single lot in an auction timed for the 100th anniversary in April of the sinking of the famed ocean liner.

2007 valuation

The 5,500 item collection, valued in 2007 at $189 million, was recovered from seven research and recovery expeditions to the Titanic wreck site in the North Atlantic Ocean between 1987 and 2004, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The seller is the Titanic’s court-appointed salvor, Premier Exhibitions, a museum exhibition company, whose subsidiary RMS Titanic Inc. is the only company permitted by law to recover objects from the Titanic, the filing said. The items, which were not identified in the filing, will be sold as a complete collection and offered for sale as one lot by Guernsey’s Auctioneers in New York.

RMS Titanic Inc.

Christopher Davino, president of RMS Titanic, said in the Dec. 23 filing: "We expect to identify a buyer capable of serving as a proper steward of the collection and the wreck site, while continuing to build upon the work that RMST and its partners in the oceanographic and archeological communities have accomplished." Applications will be considered up until April 1 and accepted bidders will participate at an April 15 auction at a so far undisclosed New York venue, the filing said. A spokeswoman for Guernsey’s declined to comment but said an auction preview would be held next week in New York.

Approval

The auction must be approved by a federal court judge in Virginia, which ultimately controls whether any buyer will be an acceptable steward of the collection and wreck site, the filing said. The auction is one of several events marking the 100th anniversary of the doomed passenger liner that set sail from England on April 10, 1912, and sank five days later in the North Atlantic after hitting an iceberg.

The movie in 3-D

The acclaimed Hollywood epic Titanic, the second biggest box-office film of all time after Avatar, will reach movie theaters worldwide in a 3-D version in early April.

Cops: Man Tried To Use $1M Bill at NC Walmart

admin — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 16:33:13 +0000

Do you have change for a million-dollar bill?

Police say a North Carolina man insisted his million-dollar note was real when he was buying $476 worth of items at a Walmart.

Investigators told the Winston-Salem Journal that 53-year-old Michael Fuller tried to buy a vacuum cleaner, a microwave oven and other items. Store employees called police after his insistence that the bill was legit, and Fuller was arrested.

The largest bill in circulation is $100. The government stopped making bills of up to $10,000 in 1969.

Fuller was charged with attempting to obtain property by false pretense and uttering a forged instrument. He is in jail on a $17,500 bond, and it isn’t clear if he has an attorney. He is scheduled to be in court Tuesday.

Here’s My Financial Plan For 2012

admin — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 09:56:14 +0000

This is going to be my ‘rainy-day’ day year

Ever since that recession started back in 2008 causing the values of securities tied to U.S. real estate pricing to crash, damaging financial institutions globally and sinking my little portfolio into the mud, I have been living frugally, rather like Old Scrooge. First I stopped spending on things I didn’t need and than I stopped spending on things I did need. 4 years later I am still scrimping and saving like mad, not spending a penny if I can help it. I mean I even walk the mile to work and back every day to save the train fare! Yes, in winter too!

Good luck

But good luck was with me all the way. Firstly I never had a single emergency in all that time that would have forced me to break open my savings. Secondly and most importantly, my income remained stable so with all my holding back on cash, my savings flourished. Now, 4 years later, I have built up a nice pile of money and I have decided that 2012 will be “The Year of the Big Spender”.

My running hobby

I am going to spend on my hobbies. I am a jogger and a marathon runner. This year I will start by buying myself a new running outfit, maybe even two. They will include the latest expensive running shoes. After that shorts, vests, headbands, towels and all the other paraphernalia that I have done without for the past 5 years. I will also enter for the London, New York and Paris marathons, something I never did before because of the cost of getting to these cities. And while I am in them, I will stay an extra 2 or 3 weeks and enjoy the sights.

My painting hobby

I painted in Italy years ago, in the good old days. I am going back to paint there again. Maybe even twice, once in Venice and again in Tuscany. I may make a third trip to France and paint in the footsteps of Monet, my impressionist hero. I will start in Paris at the museums where his art hangs and then go down to Giverny where he lived and worked. I will also buy Monet prints.

My cooking hobby

I want to spice up my life in 2012 by attending a couple of cooking courses in Italy. I am busy researching the subject at the moment and deciding which ‘tastes’ I think I will enjoy the most. Italian food varies dramatically from the south to the north.

My opera hobby

I have been to many operas. I love the sights and the sounds of a well performed opera. I have also seen opera in most of the world great opera houses, La Scala,

Covent Garden, Paris, the Metropolitan in New York and many others. It’s time to see the Sydney Opera House. So that’s my destination for my first flight. My ticket is booked for the January 15. And on January 21st I will see Mozart’s Magic Flute!

Plan B

Maybe I should work for another couple of years to boost my savings? Nah, I’m spending it!

Some Intrastate Online Gambling May Be Going Legal

admin — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 07:43:44 +0000

Online poker may be back!

Legal experts say that a new opinion from the Justice Department opens the door for states to allow various forms of online gambling operated by lotteries and other gambling interests.

The country gains

Proponents of legalized online gambling say the online gambling industry could provide new sources of revenue for state coffers. But others, including large casino interests that prefer a national system limited to online poker, say that the free-flowing nature of the Internet is ill-suited for state gambling plans, which would attempt to limit online gambling to within a given state’s borders.

The 1961 Wire Act

The opinion from the Justice Department reverses a policy which held that most forms of online gambling were illegal under the Federal Wire Act; the 1961 act prohibits bets from passing through communications lines that cross state borders.

In a sweeping reversal, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel said that such gambling within a state would no longer be considered illegal because the Wire Act, a law with contradictory language that has long been the subject of debate, doesn’t apply to any forms of gambling other than sports betting.

Indian tribes and casinos.

Online gambling experts said the change essentially gives states the green light to allow gambling within their borders. That is a victory for advocates of state-regulated online gambling, which include companies hoping to provide technology for online gambling and in some cases lotteries and others that operate gambling in states, such as Indian tribes or casinos.

Online poker

Washington, D.C., voted this year to allow its lottery to operate online poker, but the law hasn’t yet been implemented. Several state lotteries, meanwhile, already have been offering subscription services for lotteries online for the past few years.

Online gambling

Online gambling became a major industry some years back. It was the advent of the internet that grew that market and many people were quick to understand the money-making possibilities that online gambling offered. Online casinos mushroomed on the World Wide Web and the casinos flourished. There were money-making spin-offs as well. In order to gamble for money you had to establish a credit account in an online casino. To do this you had to transfer money into your account. The US tried to halt the gambling but found it impossible. What they did do was to stop the use of credit cards to transfer money and this led to the overnight birth of money transfer systems.

Other industries

Other industries benefited from the online gambling industry as well; for example the bottle shops where gamblers bought their drinks to keep them going at home while they gambled. Then came the home computer stores who sold PCs and Macs to would-be gamblers.

The downside

And there was a downside: Addiction was the worst of these. Solitary gamblers sat at home and gambled away their life’s savings in an attempt to hit the big one, the jackpot that would bring them millions. And then there were the kids who sat at home gambling their parent’s money while they were away at work.

Now it’s all coming back!

Looks Like We’ll Have To Save Money In 2012 As Well…

admin — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 14:56:36 +0000

Stay away from grocery brands

You don’t have to give up on all your favorite grocery brands and go totally generic. Learn how to use coupons so you can buy your favorite name-brand items for pennies on the dollar by combining coupons with sales. Base your purchases on price rather than brand and you will be saving.

Buy marked-down groceries

Marked-down groceries are typically soon-to-be-expiring items (dairy products, meat, and produce). Not all stores offer markdowns, and store policies can vary widely. The best way to find out is to ask the produce manager what they do with produce, dairy, or meat products that are nearing their sell-by dates.

Shop at the Dollar Store

Dollar stores often have great prices on spices as well as plastic bags. You can buy Nature’s Own sandwich bread and hamburger buns for just $1 each at the Dollar Store, more than 50 percent off what you would pay at the grocery store. Check their prices from time to time.

Buying in bulk

Buying grains, dried beans, as well as many other basic ingredients with long storage lives in large quantities will usually save you at least 20 percent, if not more. Call up a few friends and neighbors, buy in bulk and split the costs if you don’t have enough storage space or if there’s no money in the budget. It is normally much more cost- effective to purchase meat and staple ingredients in bulk.

Use a crock pot

A crock pot is a great tool in your moneysaving campaign. You can pop ingredients for dinner in it in the morning and have a hot meal all ready by 5:00 p.m. Many of the newer crock pots even have time-delay features on them so that you can set them to turn on later in the day.

Meatless meals

Meatless doesn’t have to mean calorie-free or tasteless! When my husband and I were living on a beans-and-rice budget while he was in law school, we couldn’t afford to buy a lot of meat. We often served breakfast foods for dinner. Or we’d have soup and a roll.

Bake it in your bread machine

Why buy bread and buns when you can bake them yourself? Check out the pros and cons of owning your own bread machine. But borrow one to make sure it will work for you before you go out and invest in one.

Use smaller amounts

Train yourself to use two-thirds of the amount you usually do and you’ll save 33 percent. Use half the amount of washing soaps, detergents, condiments, etc. and you start saving instantly!

Stay away from the grocery store

Eat all your own stocks of food before you go shopping. Learn to make meals out of items you already have on hand.

Walmart and Target offer to match prices

Walmart and Target both match competitors’ prices. Just bring the competitor’s ad in to verify the price. So if you see a great deal on grapes or bread at a grocery store miles away and Walmart is just two blocks away, bring the grocery store’s ad to Walmart and get the same deals.

Multi-Million Man Mel Gibson Divorced!

admin — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 12:44:41 +0000

Now Worth only $425 million

Although most of the financial arrangements are not finalized until well after the divorce takes place, there is always speculation when a high net worth divorce is on the horizon. Remember, not so far back when Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren went through their highly-public divorce? The final settlement was estimated at around $100 million.

Now we have another hot gossip item

It will make the “major divorce” list, but it won’t be made public. This one is between Mel Gibson and his wife Robyn Gibson, with estimates of the settlement running to around $450 million, half of Gibson’s net worth of $850 million.

How much money?

I am speechless! Robyn Gibson has walked out of her marriage clutching about 450 million dollars! She and Gibson were married for 26 years and have one daughter, six sons and three grandchildren. Does Robyn know how much money 450 million dollars is? What is Robyn going to do with it? Let’s say she spends a million on a new home for each of her children and 5 million on a new home for herself, she will be left with 439 million. If she invests it in the bank and gets only 3 percent on it she will be earning 13 million a year or over a million a month. Robyn, just working your way through the interest is going to be a challenge.

Not the only one

Robyn is not alone, in fact she will be joining an exclusive club whose members are women who have walked out of marriages with full briefcases. Take a look at a few of them:

Laura Andrassy

Ever heard of this woman? She was married to Australian golfer Greg Norman and her settlement was $103 million. Norman and Andrassy married in 1981 and were divorced in 2006 after 25 years.

Amy Irving

Leading actress Amy Irving was once married to Steven Spielberg. On their divorce she received an estimated $100 million settlement after a judge controversially vacated a prenuptial agreement written on a napkin.

Irina Abramovich

It had been speculated that the divorce settlement between Roman and Irina Abramovitch settlement could have left her the world’s richest ever divorcee. But according to a Russian business daily, Mrs. Abramovich will get a mere $300 million, much less than the $5.5 billion suggested by the British press. The figure includes the value of homes in Britain and in the Moscow region, as well as a yacht, and private plane.

Soraya Khashoggi

For almost two decades, Saudi billionaire entrepreneur and arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi held the record for the most expensive divorce settlement in history. Although they filed for divorce in 1974, it took Soraya until 1979 to sue her ex-husband for the rights to cash in the wake of their breakup. The settlement amount was $874 million.

Chairlady of the club: Anna Murdoch Mann

Anna Murdoch Mann, newspaper mogul Rupert Murdoch’s ex-wife, received $1.7 billion, $110 million in cash, from the couple’s infamous 1999 split, in what is called the "most expensive" divorce settlement in history.

I Am Determined To Become An Old Master!

admin — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 15:55:45 +0000

Using one’s talents to make money

This has to be the most logical approach. You don’t have to study, you don’t have to buy knowledge from anyone else, you just get in these and do it all by yourself. It’s a simple money-making strategy. You put your own talents out to work for you!

I paint

I have been painting since I was a kid. There have always been paints and brushes in my room and I never hesitated to pick up a brush and start daubing at a sheet of paper or a canvas. My parents were proud of me and there are a few very old paintings of mine hanging in their home and in the homes of various aunts and uncles who couldn’t say no. Now that I’m in my fifties and still looking for a way to make some good money, I have decided that I must seriously use my talent.

I quit my job

I handed in my resignation at the office today, and on Sunday, January 1^st 2012, you will find me in my studio creating “old masters”. I have built up quite a stock already and I want to add to it so that I can hold an exhibition with a nice variety of paintings to offer to buyers and dealers. I have many of my older works too, but many of them just don’t have what it takes to make them great, that spark that makes people want to hang them on their walls.

My first exhibition

I am organizing my first exhibition and the problems are many. First of all I have to find a good venue, one with proper lighting and other amenities. It must have a decent floor and be located where people want to come, where it is convenient s and where there is parking. Then there is the matter of framing. Paintings on canvas must be framed, otherwise they look cheap and nasty and I want them to look expensive and great. Framing is unbelievably expensive. I have done a deal with a joinery shop instead of a framer. They will put a nice pine frame around each canvas.

Opening and such

I’m thinking about a cheese and wine ‘do’ for the opening and I have spoken to my next door neighbor who does spare time catering for small affairs, to see what she can suggest and give me an estimate for a modest party. I still have to think about an invitation list and design invitations in order to get a quote from the printer. And then there is the matter of advertising. Finally I need a curator, known to be very expensive individuals, who will put the whole thing together for me and allow me to get back to my easel and continue working. In my wildest dreams about exhibitions, I never thought about half these items. And I’m sure there are many items I still haven’t covered…

A Loan

So this exhibition will be one that kicks of in the bank manager’s office with a request for a loan…

All You Need Is One Great Idea!

admin — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 09:27:08 +0000

A few months hard work could set you up forever…

Come up with a crazy idea and find enough crazy people to sell it to and you’re made!

But it may work only in America, where the irreverent, tacky and politically incorrect is making millions for at least one business. Carson Home Accents, a 41-year-old, family-owned company is manufacturing and selling RedNek Wine Glasses.

Wine glasses

The project started about 10 months ago and the wine glass consists of a Ball Mason jar glued on top of a Libbey candlestick holder. In less than a year, the product has racked up $5 million in sales. “The RedNek Wine Glass has quickly become a phenomenon,” said John Hill, vice president of Carson Home Accents. “One of our salespeople saw this item on a shelf at a Hallmark store,” said Hill. “We contacted the inventor of the product and signed a licensing deal with her that allowed us to sell RedNek Wine Glasses. The inventor, Okie Morris, calls herself a ‘repurposer’. “I use old things and give them a new twist,” she said.

It just took

Morris was in a thrift store when she spotted an old Mason jar in one room and a Libbey candlestick holder in another. “It just hit me to put these two items together and call it a redneck wine glass,” she said. Carson started manufacturing the glasses in March. Costing about $6.50 to make, and selling for about $15, Carson Home Accents produced 2,000 of its RedNek Wine Glasses in April. By June, orders had picked up to 70,000 glasses, said Hill.

Bestseller list

The RedNek Wine Glass is currently No.1 on the bestsellers list for glassware and drinkware items on Amazon. “It has been in the top 100 in this category for the past 26 days,” said Grace Chung, a holiday trend expert at Amazon. Chung said the RedNek Wine Glass and other quirky novelty items seem especially popular with gift seekers this year, adding that the wine glass and the “Toilet Mug”, another hot seller on Amazon, are “fun, unique ideas that don’t cost a fortune.” As with most fads, they will probably burn out as quickly as they ignite.

So what?

So what if it burns out after a few months? The money will have been made and many people will be wondering what made them buy the thing in the first place. No large amounts of money were spent, but, and this is the point, large amounts of money will have been made.

It’s the idea

It’s the idea that will do it. All you need to make a killing like this is a bright idea. Remember that we live in a country with an enormous population, something around 300 million people. If 1 percent of the population buys your invention, meaning 3 million people, and you make 10 cents off every sale, you will have cleared $300,000!

And all you have to be is an armchair inventor with one good idea…

Me and My Financial Adviser

admin — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:09:58 +0000

A third of adults say that running out of money is their top retirement concern

I am contemplating retirement. I have done my homework ten times over until I am satisfied that I can afford to retire. I have all my numbers on half a dozen spreadsheets so I went to the bank, with the spreadsheets, and asked to see the financial adviser. I would be totally hysterical if I retired only to find that I am still here living the life of Riley but my money has gone, spent or stolen and leaving me high and dry. I managed to rebuild my retirement nest egg after a couple of disastrous years on the stock exchange and I’d like to know that someone more or at least as capable as me will be looking after things when I retire.

Navigating between the scams

There are major investment scams out there. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., has said that Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme is an extreme example of the many scams lurking out there that can trap unsuspecting investors. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a record 735 enforcement actions in the 12 months ended Sept. 30.

Addressing the risk of outliving my money

I’m old, I grew up in different times and I don’t always understand what’s going on now. I find that many products today are very complex and some brokers can’t even explain them very well. "If you don’t understand how it makes money for you, what fees and commissions or costs you have to pay, then you shouldn’t be investing in that particular investment," says a financial adviser.

What I’m going to do

My first call will be at BrokerCheck. This will allow me to search for brokers and their firms that are currently or previously registered with FINRA to learn about their education, where they have worked previously and whether they have a history of disciplinary actions or complaints. I may also call the state securities regulator for more information.

Interviews and a list of questions

I will interview advisers and ask them all my questions. We will be talking about my money, all the money I have and the money I expect to last longer than me. I am not hesitant or shy about asking questions, even the stupid ones.

Questions

I will also ask the financial planner:

What experience do you have?
What are your qualifications?
What licenses do you have?
What products and services do you recommend?
Will you be the only person working with me?
How are you compensated? For example: Do you charge a flat hourly rate (or "à la carte" rate) for services? Is the fee a percentage of assets under management?
Do you receive a commission or a referral fee paid by the product or service providers that you sell?
What organizations are you and your firm regulated by?
Will you provide a written agreement that details the services and fees that will be provided?

Welcome Home From the War, Men

admin — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 08:30:15 +0000

One war may be over but the battle may be just beginning for returning vets

War is hell, but coming home from the battlefield may be worse. American forces who survived their tours of duty in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere are returning home to a faltering economy, poor job prospects, questionable education and job-training opportunities. The unemployment rate for veterans aged 20 to 24 has averaged 30 percent this year, more than double that of others the same age, though the rate for older veterans closely matches that of civilians.

Tough transition

Part of the problem is that the transition from day to day life in Iraq or Afghanistan to Main Steet USA is simply so jarring that returning military personnel are in a state of virtual shell shock, unable to easily switch from worrying about roadside bombs to keeping track of the Starbucks flavor of the month, the latest Twitter jargon or shopping app. Aggravating the situation, says a group called Ohio Combat Veterans, is that so few Americans today have served in the military. "Ninety-nine percent of Americans have not served in the military. That means veterans make up less than 1 percent of the population," the group says on its Web site. "Yet 25% of the nation’s homeless are veterans."

Navigating the bureaucracy

Many veterans, however, have trouble navigating the bureaucracy and red tape that accompany government programs, partly because of the after-effects of their combat service. In Iraq and Afghanistan, notes Hutchison, more than 40,000 troops have been physically wounded. The estimates are that over 300,000 will suffer from PTSD or Traumatic Brain Injury, severely complicating the return to civilian life.

Financial pitfalls

Ohio Combat Veterans

"It’s shell shock for a lot of them, going from such a structured lifestyle to a lifestyle that’s got so many variables,” said group founder Daniel Hutchison, 29, in a New York Times story today. “They’re dealing with all the emotional things they went through, and they feel like they’re alone.” Hutchison was so affected by the difficulties and roadblocks he and his returning comrades faced that he uses his combat disability check to cover the start-up costs of his group, which tries to ease the transition and find jobs for returning War on Terror veterans.

Jobs programs for veterans

Besides volunteer groups like Hutchison’s, there are any number of official government and industry-sponsored jobs programs for veterans, including:

U.S. Labor Department administers the Jobs for Veterans Act;
Veterans Affairs Department has numerous training and placement services;
State employment service offices in every state.

All states provide special programs for veterans.

Payday loan providers

Besides facing the challenge of finding or returning to a job, veterans face numerous financial risks and are often targeted by unscrupulous businesses, including payday loan providers and shady car dealers. Supposedly reputable businesses have also taken advantage of veterans, sometimes through ignorance of the legal protections afforded to veterans, other times simply because they can get away with it.

Happy birthday WWW!

admin — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 09:40:13 +0000

It’s hard to believe that you’re already 21 years old

The Internet made small starts in the 1950s and 1960s with the development of computers. It started with communication between mainframe computers and terminals and then expanded to connections between computers and then early research into packet switching.

Internet History

For most people, use of the Internet was not possible until the invention of the World Wide Web. That was the Big Bang of the Internet. Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web at CERN, The European Organization for Nuclear Research, in Geneva, Switzerland. He made the first successful hypertext communication on December 25, 1990, an auspicious Christmas Day.

The internet today

Some days I feel as though I live in the internet. My day starts when I stagger from the bedroom to the computer in the study to pick up my email. At that time of the day I am mainly interested in any new work that may have floated in during the night. Work may consist of small engineering tasks such as a short spec, or requests for business letters which often end “…or else” or regular articles I write. After a shower and breakfast I attend to those tasks. I also check the status of my bank account, read the news headlines from a couple of different papers, take a look at how the stock exchange is behaving and then I reply to emails. By then it’s lunch-time.

The phone calls

An important part of the internet has become the VoIP "phone calls". I work from home and large part of every day is spent with “Skype” open to my remote office and long discussions take place on various business topics. In the evenings we often talk to children overseas at no charge at all.

Shopping

I spend time browsing for goods on the internet. I don’t often buy there but I look at the goods and then go shopping in a store, knowing in advance what I want to buy. I do buy books and I have bought (and sold) odd items on eBay.

Information

As far as information is concerned there is nothing that one cannot find on the internet, whether it is information about an object or a person. My company spends time checking prospective employees on social networking sites before any hire is finalized.

Company websites

The internet is today the major source of all information about a company or a business and an allowance for the website maintenance has become a major part of company budgets.

Personal information

My address book and my personal phone book are on the web. I have a reminder service the let’s me know a day prior to a grandchild’s and other important birthdays. My appointments are stored on my computer diary and reminders come over the net. The last thing I do on my way to bed every night is to look at tomorrow’s appointments.

Smartphones

Much of the Internet focus is now moving to smart phones. I have friends who run their entire business from their phone. Of course backing everything up is critical.

New world

The internet is the new world; well, not so new. Happy 21^st www!

Surviving Christmas

admin — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 09:06:58 +0000

Christmas is stressful, and when things go wrong, they can go terribly wrong

Christmas may have warm and fuzzy associations of tinsel, carols and family, but for those who put it all together, it can mean a month of frenetic running around, planning, shopping, cooking and, not least, socializing with family, friends and colleagues.

Behind the stove

For many a worn-out wife and mother, Christmas Day itself is a marathon behind the stove, starting right after packing away the empty wrappings while husband and children busy themselves with their spoils. Or it may be a day full of those nearest and dearest, but who all have different needs and agendas, as well as temperaments.

Think differently

Life coach Kate Emmerson, who spoke on the topic “Navigating the festive season” at a recent workshop, suggests that it’s time to think differently about Christmas, and avoid it “crashing into your space” like it usually does. “Most of us don’t take time out over this period, and get caught up in family obligations and guilty feelings about having to attend events,” says Emmerson. “Rather than go barreling into it this time, try to simplify things. “Get the family together as soon as possible and decide on gifts to be exchanged. Put a monetary cap on the spending, or decide to make gifts for each other,” she suggests. Some sensible people have entered into no-gifts pacts within their families, except for those for the children and between spouses.

In-laws

The most stressful scenario for many is having to spend time with the in-laws, enduring a week or two of entrenched family dynamics that might involve constant spats. Firstly, adjust your expectations. “Living in the hope that this year everyone will get along is only going to make the disappointment more heartfelt. Aim for polite and courteous behavior, anything more than that will be a bonus.” Secondly, maintain your dignity. “Be a gracious hostess and treat everyone with respect.” Thirdly, choose your battles. “Occasions will crop up that can potentially explode. In each case, weigh up how much the issue means to you and whether it’s worth upsetting everyone.”

Stress

Dr. Justin Kennedy, a research academic who specializes in the field of stress, says that one of the reasons the festive season is so stressful is because “it’s a time when dysfunctional communities come together to pretend everything is OK,” when in fact it tends to highlight interpersonal problems, the lack of a partner or spouse or the absence of someone close who died or moved away. It’s important to compromise in these situations, he says, so everyone’s needs and wants are fairly negotiated. If you need to, take some time out. “Also, try to live in the moment. Stop thinking of what could have or should have been, or what lies ahead. Really be on holiday, take the time to relax and engage fully with those around you,” he suggests.

Don’t be a martyr

“Let go of some of the responsibilities, or share them with the other adults in the family. When you have friends over, ask them to bring one dish each as a contribution to the meal. And not every meal has to be a lavish affair.”

Here’s to happy, relaxed holidays for all.

Sometimes Too Much (Money) Can Be Unhealthy

admin — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 08:54:59 +0000

Armed gang steals millions from Dubai royal family

When you read this you will understand how lucky you are not having too much money and therefore not a target for the bad guys. Members of an armed gang are on trial after being charged with stealing millions from the Dubai royal family. The $3,100,000 they made off with was the royal family’s “holiday spending money” set aside for its visit to London on June 24.

It wasn’t a joke

Royal aide Abdullah Shakeri, who testified from behind a protective screen, said he thought members of the gang were only joking when they first approached him outside the Emirates Bank in Knightsbridge, West London with the demand to “put the cases down or I’ll shoot you in the face”. The Daily Mail reports that the robbers then repeated their threat and told Shakeri he would be shot if he did not flee the scene.

£50 notes

Prosecutor Alexandra Felix said the money was divided into £50 notes, held in two suitcases. “The royal family was in the UK and required money for their stay here,” Felix said. “Mr Shakeri had made arrangements to collect the money. He and the manager went into a room to count the money. The cash was in £50 note bundles in suitcases.”

A young Middle Eastern

Shakeri described the man who held him at gunpoint as a young Middle Eastern man with short dark gelled hair and a leather jacket. “He had a gun. I think it was a black automatic handgun. He pointed it at me,” Shakeri said. The man then shouted for an accomplice, whom Shakeri described as a black man wearing a white hard hat and a “high visibility jacket.” The accomplice reportedly told Shakeri and the other royal family staff to run into a nearby shop. “We did as we were asked so we went into a H&M just next to the bank,” Shakeri said.

The diplomatic protection group

After the robbers fled, the royal family staff radioed the diplomatic protection group, who pursued the suspects. A man who fitted the description of the first suspect was spotted just 300 feet from the crime scene but escaped and has yet to be found.

An officer spotted the suspect throwing a metallic object under a car, which he thought was a gun but turned out to be two mobile phones.

Getaway driver nailed

The police were able to apprehend getaway driver Johnathon Haynes, 36, along with the royal family’s stolen cash. They also found the hard hat, the jacket and a passport for Trevor Mair, 46, inside the car. When Haynes was handcuffed, he reportedly said, “Yes, OK, fair enough. Are you going to take me to the police station now because I’m a bit cold?”

Another high-profile heist

The trial comes on the heels of another high-profile heist targeting a Dubai royal. Princess Arwa of the royal family of Sharjah and Ras Al-Khaimah was robbed on October 30 of approximately $230,000 in cash and personal items, including three Chanel and Prada handbags, an iPad, and a smartphone.

Did I Save Enough?

admin — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 12:13:49 +0000

I’m headed for the retirement home with limited money

On the one hand I’m proud of myself – I saved enough to afford to move into a retirement home. On the other hand I feel a bit ashamed – I won’t have much money left after I have paid for my unit at the retirement home. I should have saved more. But I couldn’t afford to and anyway retirement and old age were light-years away. As it was, it was a constant argument whether to feed the retirement fund or spending and enjoying the money. I would have loved the extra dinner out every week! So here I am, full of remorse mixed with relief and wondering what the next years will bring.

How I saved

I was a civil engineer. I did fairly well in my small practice. I bought a retirement annuity programmed to kick in at 65, and I worked and waited until I was 68 to collect on my Social Security to maximize my payments. Here and there I stashed small amounts in other savings plans, but we preferred to live well and to spend on things we enjoyed.

Was it enough?

At the time I set up my plan, it was enough. However, things change. Inflation brought huge changes and then the retirement industry itself grew and became expensive. Today it is a huge and competitive market and prices have soared. I always thought that my large, mortgage-free house would bring in enough to get me into any retirement scheme. Not so.

Making the decision

Making the decision to move to a retirement community was a tough one. Deciding on which one was even tougher. These places have mushroomed and each one offers more to attract residents. I decided to live where we can afford to live comfortably and not to try and keep up with Jones. This is the best idea I could come up with to offset the loss of purchasing power I had experienced in my short-sighted retirement strategy. And I’m happy with my choice. We never mixed with the high-flying crowd when I was making the money, why start now?

Amenities

The place we have chosen is in the direction of the town where two of our children and their families live, so it makes it easier for them to visit. As to the amenities, the center offers a medical clinic, a dining room, library, arts center, evening lectures and concerts, a swimming pool and a gym. They run a shuttle bus into the close-by town and there is even a small supermarket on the premises if we wish to eat in. We are going to make this move work for us.

The apartment

We have purchased a small 3 roomed apartment, consisting of a living room with kitchenette, bedroom and a small “study”, big enough for a work space so that I can continue working and writing. So we have started downsizing in anticipation. This may be the hardest part of this whole exercise!

This Cat Doesn’t Want a Payday Loan

admin — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 22:14:44 +0000

Woman Leaves $13M Fortune to Pet Cat

A 4-year-old stray cat that was rescued from the streets of Rome has inherited a $13 million fortune from its owner, the wealthy widow of an Italian property tycoon. Maria Assunta left the fortune to her beloved kitty Tommaso when she died two weeks ago…

Tommaso the cat

Maria Assunta left the fortune to her beloved kitty Tommaso when she died two weeks ago at the age of 94. The feline’s newfound riches include cash, as well as properties in Rome, Milan and land in Calabria.

No heirs

As her health began to fail two years ago, Assunta, who had no children, began to seek out a way to see that Tommaso was properly cared for after she died. In November 2009, she bequeathed her entire estate to the alley cat that she’d rescued. Initially, Assunta had instructed her attorneys to "identify an animal welfare association or group to which to leave the estate and the commitment of looking after Tommaso," according to the Daily Telegraph. Unable to find a satisfactory association to see to it that Tommaso was loved and cared for, Assunta decided to leave all her money to the cat via her nurse, Stefania, who cared for her until her dying day. Her last name has not been disclosed.

The nurse

"She had become very fond of the nurse who assisted her," Anna Orecchioni, one of the lawyers, told Il Messaggero newspaper. "We’re convinced that Stefania is the right person to carry out the old lady’s wishes. She loves animals just like the woman she devoted herself to right up until the end." Stefania told the Telegraph that she had no idea the woman that she was caring for was so incredibly wealthy.

Lonely

"The old lady suffered from loneliness," the nurse said. "She looked after that cat more than you’d look after a son. “I promised her that I would look after the cat when she was no longer around. She wanted to be sure that Tommaso would be loved and cuddled. But I never imagined that she had this sort of wealth," she said. "She was very discreet and quite. I knew very little of her private life. She only told me that she had suffered from loneliness a lot."

Undisclosed address

Tommaso and Stefania, along with another cat, are living outside Rome at an address that is undisclosed, so to avoid con artists and potential kidnappers. "We have gotten lots of email messages from candidates who wanted to adopt the little Tommasino," the cat’s lawyer told ABC News.

No 3

The windfall for Tommaso places him No.3 on the list of wealthy pets, behind Kalu the chimp, whose owner left him $80 million and top dog Gunther IV, a German shepherd who inherited $372 million from his father, Gunther III, the beloved companion of an eccentric German countess. Real estate magnate Leona Helmsley famously left $12 million to her little dog Trouble, although her human descendents contested, and Trouble’s pot was cut to $2 million.

Money, ‘A Means to an End’

admin — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 08:48:25 +0000

Anyone can prepare for the good times; smart people prepare for bad times.

What happens when we are bombarded daily by media images of people who drive fancy cars and live in big mansions, holiday in Barbados and travel first class, drink fancy cocktails and send their kids to private schools overseas? What happens is that these shallow chronicles of consumption skew our relationship with money to a point where many people see money as a badge to display.

Different money

Money comes in lots of different ways. Some of the jet-setters may have inherited their wealth, robbed a bank or belong to the noveau riche class, and some are actually hardworking entrepreneurs who have invested years, effort and resources on an idea until it became a business success. The latter, which hopefully the majority look up to, have had their challenges, including the failures and sacrifices that come with the entrepreneur’s path; it’s called blood, sweat and tears!

The successful

There are very few successful business people who did not have to work hard and who hit gold on their first attempt. Even some of the world’s most renowned entrepreneurs, like Richard Branson and Mark Shuttleworth, will tell you that the first thing they tried bombed spectacularly but they kept at it, refining their approach and sometimes even leaving behind their first career choice to try something new.

Easy come, easy go

Money that comes easily is difficult to appreciate; remember the saying and song: “Easy come, easy go”? The truth is, money doesn’t buy happiness, success does. Though success is often accompanied by wealth, it is not the money that makes us happy, it’s getting it; it’s the pursuit that is often tied to a vision that makes having money such a pleasure.

Lottery winners

There is evidence aplenty if you Google past lottery winners. The tales of woe far outnumber the tales of happiness. Filling in lucky numbers on a form does not equate with working hard for your success, and the emotional baggage that accompanies these sudden wins makes that clear.

Extra cash

When we get extra cash, such as employment bonuses, the question should not be how to spend it, but rather how to save it or invest it. Many see money as something that lets us buy things, things to validate us as important or successful people and things we probably don’t need. Things don’t make you happy, but what does is to use money as a tool to liberate you from debt and to make things happen, to create a better future, not just for yourself but for your family and for your community.

Put it to work

The first thing to do when you get money is to think about how you can get it to work for you and liberate you from working hard for it. It may take a dollar at a time but believe me, a dollar at a time is a dollar closer to comfortable retirement, a dollar closer to paying off your debt and a dollar closer to financial freedom.

Have Suitcase, Will Travel. Wait…, Did You Buy Travel Insurance?

admin — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 07:16:26 +0000

My neighbor says he couldn’t afford the policy

My wife interrupted my writing this morning and said the downstairs neighbors had returned home and we should go and visit them. Two months ago they left to join their daughter and her children in the south of France. We found them in their living room. Sam looked okay but Susan looked terrible. She was pale, thin and her hands were shaking. “What’s wrong?” we asked. And out came the horror story.

At first

“The first few weeks were wonderful. It was school holidays. We hi red a car and traveled around and saw the sights. We spent quality time with our grandchildren. We took them to Paris. We ate in a couple of real French restaurants and we saw a few shows. It was marvelous. We came home in time for school and settled into a routine in the village where we were living. One morning I woke up feeling ill,” said Susan. “As the day wore on I felt worse and worse and by evening I was practically unconscious.”

Hospital

Sam took over. “I took her to a hospital in a nearby town. In the emergency room they started working on her and finally a doctor came out and in very poor English explained that they did not understand what was wrong with Susan and he thought they were losing her. “She seems to have an infection throughout her body. From the blood tests we think it may be septicemia or peritonitis. I don’t have experience…”

Operation

In the end, as a last resort in an effort to save her, they cut her open, washed her out and stitched her up. “That’s all we could do. I am very sorry. I do not think she will recover.” Sam was desperate to get her home as quickly as possible. The next morning he managed to get tickets on a flight, bundled Susan up and took her to the airport. She said, “I sat in that plane literally holding myself together. I don’t remember much of the flight.” Sam said, “It was an absolute nightmare.”

Recovery

Here at home she is attended by doctors, a nurse comes and takes blood samples every day, a physiotherapist is working to get her back in shape and they are both feeling much happier. Susan is not out of the woods yet but she has a fighting chance.

Questions

Of course as long-time neighbors and as friends we asked many questions. In the end, I managed to ask the wrong one. “Sam,” I asked, “we both have good medical insurance schemes and we both pay high premiums for that pleasure. “Why didn’t you call them, when this happened? As far as I know they would have sent a doctor out to see you and to help get Susan back.” He looked at me for a minute. “I never bought travel insurance. At our ages and with both our medical histories it cost about $12 a day each. For 2 months that would have been $1450. Would you have paid that?”

Do not travel without travel insurance!

Lost Your Job? Try Freelancing Until Things Improve

admin — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 09:14:55 +0000

Freelancing may be an ideal solution for you

For most of us, having a good and steady job is of paramount importance. But when that job goes out the window it feels as though one has been hit by a disaster. Many people cannot face the thought of having to start looking for another job. To make matters worse, the harder the times, the tougher the competition among the jobseekers. It happened to me and it took most of a year to find a way around it,

Freelancing

There is an alternative to working for a boss, freelancing. In simple terms this means getting onto your feet and peddling your particular skill or knowledge in the market place. Basic requirements involve some legwork and dealing with things like printing business cards and advertising material such as flyers ands maybe even doing a little cheap advertising. I did a minimum amount on the internet for free.

What can you offer?

Common freelancing fields include many different types of writing such as data processing, technical writing, business writing, grant writing, copywriting, journalism, computer programming and graphic design, consulting, and many other professional and creative services. These days blog writing attracts many freelancers.

Your deal

Freelance practice varies greatly. Some freelancers ask clients to sign written contracts or vice-versa, while others, like me, take work based on verbal agreements. Some freelancers may provide written estimates of work and request deposits from clients. Take care, if it’s possible. I once undertook freelance work on the basis of an exchange of emails. The work was ordered, I did the writing, submitted it and it was graciously accepted with thanks. I’m sure the work was used but I never heard from the client again and the email address I had been writing to never worked again.

Payment

Payment also varies greatly. Freelancers may charge by the day or hour, or on a lump sum basis. Some consultants adopt a value-based pricing method based on the perceived value of the results to the client. Payment arrangements may be upfront, percentage upfront, or all on completion. For more complex projects, a contract may set a payment schedule based on milestones or outcomes.

The advantages

Most of the benefits are pretty basic:

No boss
No fixed hours.
No driving to work if you work from home.
Wide variety of assignments.
Possibility of establishing a good network of clients.

The disadvantages

These are pretty clear too

No fixed salary.
No regular cash flow.
You have to deal with the income tax department.
You will have to organize your own health insurance
You can only earn as much as you can work.
No bonuses, holiday pay or other perks.
The loneliness of the freelance worker.
I find myself in front of the computer at 3am.

The internet

Once again it’s the internet to the rescue. The internet has opened up many freelance opportunities and provides access to available markets. Outsourcing, which is popular in slow economic times, is heavily reliant on the internet to provide access to remote workers. It’s up to the freelancer to take advantage.

An Unclaimed Iowa Lottery Jackpot Will Expire On December 29

admin — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:51:20 +0000

Even if claimed, winner gets $2M less due to fallen interest rates

It sounds a little like that joke we’ve all heard: "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" If a number wins the lottery and no one claims it, is it mine? Well, here’s a number that won and no one has claimed it. And time appears to be running out on somebody’s multimillion-dollar lottery win.

One month countdown

Terry Rich, chief operating officer of the Iowa Lottery, said Tuesday the one-month countdown has begun for a Hot Lotto ticket that matched the jackpot numbers in last year’s Dec. 29 drawing. The winning ticket was purchased at a Des Moines convenience store and will expire this Dec. 29 if the prize isn’t claimed by then, he said. "It is sad to see this huge prize continue to sit there without being claimed. Someone legitimately won this money and we want them to take it home," Rich said in a statement. "It could make a huge difference in someone’s life, or several peoples lives, just in time for the holidays."

Annualized payments

Rich noted that the down economy has impacted the unclaimed lottery jackpot as well. Although the majority of recent winners have chosen a lump-sum payment, he said, recipients also can choose to receive their winnings as annualized payments over time. At the time the big prize was won last December, the estimated annualized jackpot amount was $16.5 million, Rich said. However, that estimate was based upon the cash on hand from the sale of tickets along with the amount in interest that would be generated over time after the lottery invested the money. While the cash value of the jackpot remains unchanged at $10.75 million, current low interest rates mean the annualized jackpot amount has fallen to an estimated $14.4 million, he noted.

A topsy-turvy story

"This has been a topsy-turvy story all the way around," Rich said. "But we’re hoping that our reminders will cause someone to double-check their ticket and realize they’re the big winner before the expiration date." He said that the lottery does not release a ticket’s date or time of sale for security reasons. "Some information is kept as our way to double-check that the winner is legitimate," he said.

Des Moines

According to the lottery, the winning Hot Lotto jackpot ticket was purchased at the Quik Trip on Des Moines’ northeast side. The prize will expire at 4 p.m. Dec. 29 if it isn’t claimed by then. Iowa lottery officials say only a handful of U.S. lottery prizes that were larger have gone unclaimed. The largest recent U.S. lottery prize that expired without being claimed was a $68 million Mega Millions ticket purchased in Brooklyn, N.Y., for a December 2002 drawing.

If it is unclaimed

If the prize expires without being claimed, the money from the jackpot will go back to the 15 lotteries that offer Hot Lotto in proportion to the percentage of sales that came from each state.

Dubai Is Rich But the Big Golf Bucks Are Still In the US

admin — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 17:19:40 +0000

Golf’s top two players go head-to-head in an attempt to finish top of the money list for 2011

Luke Donald, World No. 1 and fellow British star Rory McIlroy will do battle at the Dubai World Championship, the $7.5 million season-ending climax to the Race to Dubai. Donald is bidding to become the first player to finish a season top of both the European and United States PGA Tour money lists, while McIlroy still wants to add gloss to a year which saw him clinch his first major at the U.S. Open, a feat that still eludes Donald.

Who will finish top?

Donald looked a certainty to secure a historic double until recently. The Englishman remains in the driving seat but McIlroy’s superb end-of-season form, culminating in Sunday’s Hong Kong Open win, means the Northern Irishman can still overtake his Ryder Cup teammate. For McIlroy to finish top, he must win on Sunday. Even then the odds are stacked in Donald’s favor as he needs only to finish ninth, should McIlroy win, to end 2011 top of the pile.

How much is it worth?

As well as a $7.5 million tournament prize fund, there is another $7.5 million bonus fund that will be shared out between the top 15 players in the Race to Dubai, with the winner receiving a $1.5 million cut. Donald has won a whopping $5.2 million in European Tour events this season, while McIlroy has $4.1 million to his name.

However, clinching the first prize will lift McIlroy up to $5.3 million, meaning anything up to ninth place, which would take Donald onto $5.4 million, is good enough for the current leader. Remarkably, should Donald share ninth place with one other player, he will finish ahead of McIlroy by just $7!

Richer than America?

No! The big money is still to be won across the Atlantic. Luke Donald has piled up $6.7 million from 19 PGA Tour events this season. Even if he was to win the Dubai showpiece, the 34-year-old’s European prize fund would still be less than his earnings from the United States.

Likely outcome?

The sheer consistency of Donald’s form this season indicates he is likely to get the top-nine placing he needs, regardless of what McIlroy achieves in Dubai. In just 12 European Tour events, six fewer than McIlroy, Donald has had three wins, two seconds, a fourth, a sixth, an eighth, a ninth, an 11th, a 45th at the U.S. Open and a missed cut at the British Open. And McIlroy, who was overhauled by Lee Westwood in 2009 after leading the inaugural Race to Dubai going into the final event, has admitted that he is feeling fatigued this week. A virus has sent his white blood cell count "very low" and McIlroy told reporters he is awaiting the results of tests, after visiting a doctor on his arrival from Hong Kong.

My golfing days

They were not exactly a disaster, but then I never worked at the game and never practiced. Who knows what may have been? Could I have made it to Dubai?

My Computer Is My Lifeline

admin — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:00:36 +0000

It is my connection to the world and it is my connection to my very thin pension, so I guard it with my life. No children are allowed to touch it and no grandchildren are even allowed to look at it.

A couple of days ago it did something very strange. A minute later I spied Pete, the next door kid crossing the lawn and I yelled out of the window. He is 16 and by all accounts a computer whiz. I’ve seen his bedroom – it looks like Mission Control. He changed direction and came into my house. I told him what had just happened on my computer. He leaned over, clicked a couple of keys on the keyboard and the problem was solved.

As he walked away, I called after him; “Hey, Pete, aren’t you going to tell me what was wrong with my computer?”

“It was an ID ten T error.”

I really didn’t want to appear stupid, but I had to know what the problem was.

“An ID 10 T error? What’s that, Pete?”

He grinned. “I can’t believe that you haven’t heard of an ID 10 T error before! Write it down and you’ll figure it out,” he said as he walked out the door.

So, I wrote it down. I D I O T.

I used to like Pete.

A Short History of Superman and the Reasons You Threw Out Those Old Comics

admin — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 08:42:28 +0000

Go and check again to see if you have any old comics lying around!

In January 1933, Jerry Siegel wrote a story entitled “The Reign of the Super-Man”. Siegel and Joe Shuster then created a comic book entitled “The Superman” later in 1933. Later, in 1934, Siegel had trouble falling asleep and decided to pass the time creating dramatic elements for a comic strip. Building on his previous ideas, he envisioned a child on a far-off planet named Krypton, where all the residents had super-powers. Because Krypton would soon explode, the boy was sent to Earth by his father, where he became Superman.

Action Comics

Action Comics was started by publisher Jack Liebowitz. The first issue had a print run of 200,000 copies, although sales of the series would soon approach 1,000,000 a month. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were paid $10 per page, for a total of $130 for their work on this issue. Action Comics #1 (June 1938) is the first issue of the comic book series Action Comics. It features the first appearance of several comic book heroes, most notably the Jerry Siegel/Joe Shuster creation Superman.

Subscriber

I lived in Africa in those days and I was allowed to subscribe to two periodicals. I chose Action Comics and The Wizard. I cannot remember why I chose these two or how I knew about them. I can remember my parent’s disapproval of my choices. I can also remember hanging around the front gate waiting for the postman to deliver my monthly ‘getaway’. And I clearly remember the little pile of comics lying on the floor in the corner of my bedroom. I read them over and over, I traced the drawings, I knew the names not only of all the characters but also the creators. I became a secret Superman, letting my imagination fly and writing my own Super-adventures. We moved and moved again and somewhere in between I lost sight of my beloved comics. I guess your collection disappeared too!

Nicholas Cage

Nic Cage made roughly $2 million last week by selling one of his rare comic books.

He originally bought his copy at an auction in 1997 for around $150,000. The actor put “Action Comics No. 1”, which features the debut of Superman in popular culture and is believed to be one of only 100 left in existence, in an online auction, in which 50 people bid on the item. The comic, which was graded at 9.0, making it the best condition of an "Action No. 1" that has ever been graded by the leading comic book grading company, Certified Guaranty Company, eventually sold for $2,161,000. It is the first comic to sell for more than $2 million at auction. The previous record was $1.5 million for a less well-preserved copy of Action Comics No. 1 sold in March 2010.

There are others

Experts believe only about five others, all in private hands, are of near-equal quality to Cage’s copy and only one, the legendary "Edgar Church Collection" copy, which has never been publicly viewed, might exceed it.

If Your Car Is Like Mine, It Needs Replacing

admin — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:58:22 +0000

What you should know when you are shopping for your next car

I gave someone a lift the other day. As she climbed into the car she said, “Hey, you’re driving a New York car!” I understood immediately. My car is full of bumps, scratches and dents. My wife has an ongoing argument with a concrete column in our underground parking garage. It’s time to change it.

The right vehicle

You will wind up as a very unhappy car owner if you haven’t thought carefully about how many people and how much luggage or gear you need to carry.

What is the old car worth?

Whether you plan to trade it in or sell it, your current car can be an important factor in your budget. Checking the right Web site and maybe your local newspaper will give you a realistic valuation. Selling it directly instead of just trading it may also mean a sizable difference in what you get for it, though it may take a while longer to clinch a deal.

New or used

Cars are built better now than in the past, so used cars make a lot of sense. But if you get a rebate or other cost break, the math may be on the side of a new vehicle.

Leasing or buying

Leasing provides lower monthly payments than buying with an auto loan. But it’s not for everybody. If you don’t have money for a down payment or if you trade your car every two or three years, you may be a good candidate for a lease.

Set a target price

The Internet has made it easier than ever to find out the dealer’s cost for each vehicle and its options. That’s the first step to getting the best possible deal.

Shopping for money

If you plan to buy with a loan, check your credit union or local bank quotes online to find the lowest rate. Getting a pre-approved loan will give you added confidence in negotiating a good price.

Negotiating a lease

In the complicated world of leasing, the dealer will have the upper hand unless you learn the jargon and how to negotiate the various segments of a lease deal.

Negotiating a purchase

If you are doing it yourself, get bids from several dealers, keeping the focus on the dealer’s invoice price, which you will know from your research. You may be able to get bids without trudging from showroom to showroom.

Hate haggling? Use a car-shopping service

Auto-buying services, such as Web sites or discount clubs, make things easy with pretty good, no-haggle prices. But with most of them, you get quotations from only one dealer. Consumer services that shop several dealers near you may deliver even better prices.

Don’t let the deal-closer close out your savings

The finance manager isn’t there just for the paperwork. He or she wants to sell you high-profit financial and mechanical add-ons. These are seldom worth the money.

You Have To Buy Christmas Gifts for Loved Ones but You Have No Money

admin — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 09:20:53 +0000

A few under-$50 ideas: Start by classifying your gift recipient.

A Fitness Freak

The Taylor Biggest Loser Scale ($33.08 at bestbuy.com) tracks not just weight but body fat and BMI, and calculates how many calories you need to eat per day to maintain your weight. The AquaJogger buoyancy belt ($44.95 at aquajogger.com) guarantees a full-body water workout that’s easy on the joints. In case of emergency, the VITAband ($39.90 at vitaband.net) bracelet stores your medical history and emergency contacts. The Delaney Plus Running Pack ($39 at camelbak.com) holds keys, I.D., cash, an energy bar and a 24-ounce water bottle.

A gardener

These items are ideal for people who love gardening. The Paper Braid Garden Hat ($28 from The New York Botanical Garden Shop, nybg.org), lightweight and stylish. The Dramm Colormark Rain Wand in six colors ($26.00 from The New York Botanical Garden Shop, nybg.org) can help you water hard-to-reach plants. The glazed Green Stoneware Compost Crock ($29.95 at gardeners.com) holds a gallon of food scraps.

The outdoorsman

Birders will enjoy the Olympus Roamer PC III Classic Binoculars ($39.99 at sportchalet.com). The water-repellent Stowaway Day Pack ($34.95 at llbean.com) weighs just 14 ounces. Fishermen and boaters will love the Grace Digital Audio ECO Extreme Rugged All-Terrain Speaker Case ($49.99 at gracedigitalaudio.com).

The Pet Lover

Your pooch will preen wearing fancy changeable dog collars (starting at $40 at canineconvertiblescollars.com) with rhinestones or polka dots and eating Cloud Star’s Holiday Buddy Biscuits, an all-natural gingerbread-flavored treat (cloudstar.com, about $6.50 at pet retailers nationwide).

For the one who has everything

For men who fly, eShave’s Travel Kit is TSA-approved with all of the grooming essentials for a smooth shave on-the-go ($40 at eshave.com). In the kitchen the Bamboo Box Knife Holder ($49 from vivaterra.com) is filled with hundreds of bamboo skewers to keep your knives secure without dulling their blades.

The Foodie

Pasolivo’s Extra-Virgin Olive Oil, infused with lime ($25 for 375 ml at pasolivo.com). Salt and pepper ground from these mini Saltwerks and Pepperwerks mills ($10.95 each at crateandbarrel.com). Mixologists will find infinite uses for hibiscus, lavender, rose and fire orchid–infused Elixirs ($12.95 per 9-ounce bottle at floralinfusions.com). A pairing of Colston Bassett Stilton and Marshall’s Farm honey ($42 for the duo at cowgirlcreamery.com) calls for a honey dipper ($2.95 at crateandbarrel.com).

The Gamer

NZXT’s sleek Avatar S Laser Gaming Mouse has onboard memory for personalized settings ($39.99 at newegg.com). Joystick-It ($17.99 or a two-pack for $29.99 at thinkgeek.com) is the world’s first retro arcade-style joystick for iPads. The New York Times Brain Challenger features puzzles and games like Suduko and Hangman ($49.95 at hammacher.com). For more high-tech fun, Thrustmaster Ferrari-licensed Gamepad turns gamers into armchair racers ($39.95 at thrustmaster.com).

The Techie

iPad accessories at builtny.com. The IomegaSuperHero Backup and Charger for iPhone ($49.95 at staples.com) secures all contacts and photos for Apple iPhone 4, 3GS, 3G and iPod touch. Able Planet’s S1250 In-Ear/Hook Headphones come with three different sizes of ComfortFit eartips, allowing you to focus on the music instead of that-thing-in-your-ear ($49.99 at adorama.com). Brookstone’s Wireless Key Finder sounds an alarm for lost keys ($50 at brookstone.com while the Password Vault keeps track of up to 400 user names, ATM pins and passwords ($49.95 at hammacher.com).

Wow! Only 23 Days to Christmas! Time to Start Shopping

admin — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 16:51:45 +0000

Move in now, the deals have begun

We did the Black Friday thing, made it through Cyber Monday and here we are, getting ready for the big splurge, Christmas. And we know that the retailers know for sure: we shoppers love a good deal. So, if you want us to keep spending, you keep slashing those prices!

No principles

"This is not the season to be standing on principle," said Joel Bines, managing director in the global retail practice at AlixPartners. "All retailers need to have their foot on the gas in terms of promotions." Even though Black Friday weekend and Cyber Monday notched new records, those key shopping days were not enough to lift retailers out of the doldrums, they said. Persistently high unemployment and uncertainty about the economy continue to weigh on shoppers, especially in the lower income brackets. "We’ve got dual economies, the middle and upper middle class are spending and the lower part of the spectrum is having a very difficult time," Bines explained.

Holiday Money

That was reflected in November’s same-store sales reports, an important gauge of a retailer’s health, which measures sales at stores that have been open for at least a year. While high-end consumers showed they still had an appetite for luxury goods, with department stores like Saks and Nordstrom beating expectations, discounters and big-box stores like Kohl’s, Target and J.C. Penney disappointed. "It’s the higher income consumers that are carrying the day and the luxury stores that show the results," added Alison Paul, vice-chairman of Deloitte’s retail & distribution sector.

Target

Target’s same-store sales fell short of estimates despite an extremely busy Black Friday shopping weekend, when high-end items like the 8GB iPod Touch, Westinghouse’s 46-inch LCD HDTV and the Leapster Lappad were among the bestsellers.

Black Friday!

Doorbuster deals and promotions may have driven foot traffic and sales to retailers like Target at the end of November, but as most consumers reconsider their budgets, there will likely be a lull in the next few weeks, Bines said. "We’re not off to the races, let’s put it that way." For now, the National Retail Federation said it is sticking with its earlier forecast for overall holiday retail sales to increase 2.8% to $465.6 billion during the months of November and December.

Deals

To keep consumers in the shopping spirit, here are some of the post-Black Friday deals retailers are rolling out: Target announced another toy sale Thursday, where shoppers can buy one get one half off from Dec. 4 through Dec. 10. The discount giant also said it would feature one deeply-discounted toy a day in stores and online until Christmas.

Toys

Toys R Us said it will kick off "Super Sale Saturday" starting at 6 a.m. Dec. 3, with over 85 doorbusters like $30 off Razor scooters, buy one get one free on packs of Moshi Monsters and buy one get one half off on Uglydolls.

Best Buy

Best Buy is offering free smart phones throughout December with the purchase of a two-year plan and Amazon is launching "Holiday Flurry Deals Week" starting Sunday, Dec. 4. That’s in addition to free shipping offers throughout the month from retailers across the board, including Wal-Mart

I’ve Found My Ultimate Lifestyle

admin — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 08:28:25 +0000

Can you imagine non-stop luxury travel at sea?

This is it! A life of exploring every exotic corner of the globe, experiencing myriad different cultures, then returning to the comfort of your own home, sleeping in your own bed and waking up to your own belongings every day? There’s only one way to experience this way of life and it’s called “The World”. It’s the largest privately owned residential yacht on earth. This lifestyle has to be seen to be believed and only a select few get to experience all it has to offer. I visited and now I’m thinking hard.

A 200 passenger list

After embarking, the first thing that struck me was how few people there appeared to be onboard despite the fact that at least 200 were on the passenger list. But this is not a cruise ship temporarily lodging hundreds of holiday makers; this is a gracious home housing a choice number of quietly powerful people who have chosen this private adventurous and enviable lifestyle.

The ship

A tour of the 640 foot long and 100 foot wide ship was fascinating. Plush corridors give way to the 165 private residences of various sizes, all with balconies that provide their owners with a window on the world. Outside the big pool was cool and waiting. The residential director proudly lead me through the many restaurants and bars, a theatre, a non-denominational place of worship, a library, conference rooms, a cigar club, boutiques, a spa and all the high-end amenities you would expect. The excursion ended on Deck 10. There resides what seems like the jewel in the residential crown, a six-bedroom haven of pure opulence currently on the resale market.

Food and wine

Many themed restaurants support an eclectic mix of tastes, but it was Fredy’s Deli that reminded me this is indeed a home, complete with its own mini-gourmet market. It’s stocked with everyday essentials, fresh local produce and specialty items from different ports to support a night in with a home-cooked meal. The wine cellars are vast, holding 12,000 bottles and, according to the head sommelier, residents have a selection of 600 different wine labels onboard, sourced from 18 countries. The master chef showed off the inner workings of the kitchens.

Some facts

Since it first set sail in March 2002, The World has visited more than 800 ports in approximately 140 countries with an average stay of 2.5 days in each port. Its continuous worldwide itinerary, which is determined by the captains and the residents, enables this floating abode to span the globe every two to three years. There are two carefully planned expeditions each year that transport the residents and guests to exotic destinations, some rarely seen. A collective favorite seems to have been the Antarctic, where the residents retraced the last leg of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s epic hike to Stromness. The next expedition is to Madagascar in December en route to South Africa.

Prices

The ship’s residences range in price from $65,000 to $6 million. A number of residences currently available for resale. Annual maintenance fees are additional.

Man Accidentally Gives Away Life Savings Hidden Away In Donated Suit

admin — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 09:21:43 +0000

"No good deed goes unpunished."

That adage has proved true for an elderly Illinois man who accidentally gave away his entire life savings when making a clothing donation to his local Goodwill.

The 80-year-old man, who didn’t trust banks, had kept his life savings of $13,000 sewn inside the lining of one of his suits. He is currently appealing for the money’s return so that he can care for his wife, who has Stage 4 cancer.

Goodwill spokeswoman Dana Engelbert said the charity has searched the Moline store where the man made his donation but could not find the suit in question. "We’re sorting through the donations that came in at the time," Engelbert explained. Goodwill employees are also searching through bins of donated clothes transported from the Moline facility to a regional warehouse in Iowa City.

"We’re hoping it’s still there and we can find it for them," Engelbert said, "It’s their life savings. It’s important."

The man’s daughter, who says he is remaining anonymous because he is "devastated and embarrassed" by the story, is offering a $1,000 reward for the suit’s new owner to return the cash.

Americans Are Unprepared For Retirement

admin — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 10:21:54 +0000

Retirement problems among small business owners at crisis levels

Retirement? Ah, I can’t wait to read those Golden Years. Let’s see, I’ll be 59 in February, meaning I have only another 6 years or so until I hit the deck chair and the beach. Wow, I can hardly wait! Dream on. Unless you have been saving for those Golden Years since you were in your twenties I have news for you. And if you have been saving all those years, I have other news for you.

Those Golden Years

Seventy-five percent of small business owners said that Americans are so financially unprepared for retirement that it’s becoming a crisis, according to a survey by Nationwide Financials released Monday. Still, less than 20 percent of small business owners say they offer employees a 401(k) or other employee self-funded retirement plan.

More bad news

Americans are becoming increasingly concerned about retirement as the economic downturn stymied income growth and wreaked havoc on investments such as stock portfolios and homes. More than three quarters of middle-class Americans said they don’t think they’ll be able to afford to retire until they’re 80, according to a recent survey from Wells Fargo. And two-thirds of Americans ranked not having enough money for retirement as their top financial concern in a recent Gallup poll, up from 53 percent 10 years ago.

Retirement anxiety

Despite the retirement anxiety, only 11 percent of small business owners said they plan to offer an employee-sponsored 401(k) plan in the next two years, the Nationwide survey found. And while nearly 80 percent of small business owners say having a retirement plan is important for attracting more qualified employees, more than half say it’s too expensive.

Congress

That’s why some members of congress are trying to get a bill passed that would encourage small business owners to pool their resources and offer plans that are less expensive than single employer plans, potentially making some of the administrative responsibilities easier, according to Nationwide officials.

Not only the US

The US isn’t the only country where small business owners are struggling to offer retirement options. Due to the economic climate, the British government recently decided to delay auto-enrolling workers at businesses with fewer than 50 employees in pension programs by one year, according to the Telegraph.

What to do?

Start thinking today about an alternative to retiring. It’s a difficult project and requires creative thinking. I was hit with enforced retirement at age 63. At that stage I was aware that the retirement clock was ticking faster than usual and I was busy feeding money into my pension fund as fast as I could. I thought that I would like to work until I was about 70. The engineering company I was managing was closed down overnight and I found myself on the sand on the beach, no deckchair.

Creative thinking

I sat on that beach for about 6 months with a pen and notebook, writing down every crazy retirement and money making idea that flashed across my mental screen. Today I am a writer.

The Thanksgiving Weekend Post Mortem

admin — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:55:38 +0000

Fire up your computers, it’s Cyber Monday

By all accounts retail sales broke records during the Thanksgiving weekend; they brought much needed relief, boosted the long-suffering economy and raised retailers’ hopes for the best holiday shopping season ever. According to the National Retail Federation, sales were up to $52 billion from $45 billion last year. A record 226 million shoppers visited stores and websites over the Black Friday weekend, up from 212 million last year. The average holiday shopper spent about $400 over the weekend, up from $365 last year.

Cyber Monday

These figures augur well for sales today, which is known as Cyber Monday for all the online promotions. Cyber Monday was the biggest online shopping day of the year in 2010. Online shopping is increasing in popularity as the Black Friday in-store frenzy reaches unheard-of levels, including incidents of gunfire and pepper spray.

Half the population

More than half the adult U.S. population, meaning about 123 million people plan to shop from the safety of their office or home computer today, NRF says. Cyber Monday was the biggest online shopping day last year and reached $1 billion, according to Web-tracking company ComScore. The Monday after Thanksgiving used to be the first day many people had high-speed Internet access when they returned to their offices. Most people who use office computers now have high-speed Internet at home and likely on their mobile devices. But retailers step up the Web-based promotions so much that consumers are now conditioned to keep shopping anyway.

New Deal

Retailers have tried to figure out "what’s the new deal that consumers just can’t pass up for Cyber Monday," says John Squire, chief strategy officer for IBM Smart Commerce, which analyzes the transactions on retail websites. Many retailers are planning to offer Cyber Monday deals during lunchtime to cater to office-based shoppers, says NRF spokeswoman Ellen Davis, who named the day in 2005. Some are expected to offer 30% off everything, something seldom seen in stores. "While the Cyber Monday trend began with many people shopping from work, it has evolved into a day where people shop for deals as soon as they get up in the morning and right before they go to bed and almost every hour in between," Davis says.

Consumer confidence

Big Black Friday weekends aren’t always a sign of consumers’ confidence in the economy: The previous top weekend was in the depths of the recession in 2008. But this year’s holiday shopping was more of a splurge than a frantic search for cheap necessities. "Many of the purchases this weekend were for ‘self-gifting’ and many more discretionary categories than we saw in 2008," Davis says.

Shopper response

Despite some backlash against earlier store openings on Thanksgiving, the trend is sure to accelerate due to the response from shoppers, Davis says. "Consumers vote with their feet and vote with their wallets," she says. "Midnight is now the magic hour for Black Friday shopping." So of you feel left our after Black Friday, you can make up the loss today. Fire up your computer and start searching…

How He Made His Fortune…

admin — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 09:26:49 +0000

A young man asked an old rich man how he had made his money.

The old guy fingered his worsted wool vest and said, “Well, son, it was 1932. It was at the depth of the Great Depression and I was down to my last nickel. I invested that nickel in an apple. I spent the entire day polishing the apple and, at the end of the day, I sold the apple for ten cents.

“The next morning, I invested those ten cents in two apples. I spent the entire day polishing them and sold them at 5:00 pm for 20 cents. I continued this system for a month, by the end of which I’d accumulated a fortune of $1.37.

“Then my wife’s father died and left us two million dollars."

Hello Black Friday, Goodbye Money

admin — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 07:53:44 +0000

Reminder: The day following Thanksgiving Day is called Black Friday

The name originated in Philadelphia, where it was originally used to describe the heavy pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day after Thanksgiving. Later an alternative explanation began to be offered: that "Black Friday" indicates the point at which retailers begin to turn a profit, or are "in the black". We know why I call it Black Friday: it is named for my mood as I watch my family spending my hard earned money at the sales.

Opening time

For many years, it was common for retailers holding sales to open at 6:00, but lately many had crept to 5:00 or even 4:00. This was taken to a new extreme in 2011, when several retailers, including Target, Kohls, Macy’s, Best Buy, and Bealls, will open at midnight for the first time, forcing employees to either go without enough sleep or miss all or part of Thanksgiving with family. Walmart will open at 10:00 on Thanksgiving night and Toys ‘R’ Us at 9:00. In 2010, Sears was open on Thanksgiving Day.

Now we have Super Saturday

Walmart stores nationwide will host a sale, Super Saturday, which will offer some Black-Friday-style deals. The event starts Nov. 5 at 11 a.m. and will go on while supplies last or until midnight Saturday.

Consumer expectations

According to the retail industry trade group, the National Retail Federation, today’s consumer has high expectations. They already expect retailers to offer low prices and strong promotions, but they also want to know what they’re getting on top of that. The Christmas Price Guarantee speaks to other consumers who want a great deal, and are concerned about when they should time their purchases to get it. With this guarantee, shoppers know that if they see an item they purchased advertised for less at another store between Nov. 1 and Dec. 25, Walmart will refund the difference in the form of a Walmart gift card.

Walmart

A sample of Walmart’s electronics deals for its Super Saturday promotion include a Nook Color e-reader, that will be priced at $199. It was selling for $249, Walmart said. An Xbox 360 250 gigabyte console with Kinect is priced at $399, plus you get a $50 Walmart gift card. A Sanyo 42-inch LCD TV will be selling for $398, down from $448.

Shopping around

So at the end of the day, shoppers have a lot of offers to consider, and many are taking the time to do just that. The NRF said that in times of economic uncertainty consumers are willing to devote the time to find the "best" deal and they will shop all over the place, cherry picking the best deals. People also aren’t discriminating. They will buy toys at a grocery store or stocking stuffers at a wholesale club, the NRF said.

And that explains all the activity, and also the early start times that many retailers are planning for the Black Friday madness. Kohl’s, Macy’s and Target are all planning to open at midnight on the day after Thanksgiving, which is traditionally one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

How We Love To Gamble With Our Hard Earned Money

admin — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 09:14:25 +0000

Massachusetts to get legal casinos

The Governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick has signed a bill legalizing casinos in the state. Supporters say this will create thousands of jobs while generating hundreds of millions in revenues. Patrick said that it would not be the solution to all of the state’s economic problems, nor would it be the cause of all social ills.

4 Casinos

The bill allows for three resort-style casinos and one slots parlor in the state. It gives reference for granting the license earmarked for Southeastern Massachusetts to a federally recognized Indian tribe. The governor said he hoped to appoint someone to chair a five-member gambling commission that is created by new law within the next couple of weeks, but it could be years before the first casino opens in Massachusetts.

Then came trouble

The ink was barely dry on Gov. Deval Patrick’s signature before the state’s new casino law was embroiled in a legal challenge. KG Urban Enterprises, which hopes to develop a casino in New Bedford, immediately filed suit in U.S. District Court in Boston claiming the legislation gives an unfair advantage to any federally recognized Indian tribe seeking to secure the casino license set aside for Southeastern Massachusetts. “The playing field isn’t level. The act is riddled with explicit, race-based set-asides that give federally recognized Indian tribes a categorical advantage over all other applicants in seeking a gaming license in Southeastern Massachusetts,” the complaint says.

More…

In addition, because the law prohibits any consideration of an application for the Southeastern license by any non-Indian before July 31, 2012, the complaint argues that the area will be at a competitive disadvantage to Western Massachusetts and the Boston area, where bidding could begin sooner. KG seeks an immediate injunction to block any action from being taken under the legislation.

The law denies…

“The casino gaming law signed by the governor denies us the opportunity to compete for the Southeast license in a fair, open and competitive licensing application process,” said Andrew Stern, managing director and principal of KG. “More importantly, the law illegally denies the people of New Bedford and southeastern Massachusetts an opportunity equal to the one afforded citizens living in western Massachusetts and in the Greater Boston region. Accordingly, we have been left with no choice but to challenge the legality of the law’s tribal carve-out provisions in federal court.” The complaint lists Patrick and members of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission as defendants. The commission was set up by the new law and none of the five members has been named.

As always

It seems that most casinos are born in pain and with many problems and it may be fair to say that these continue through the life of the casino. On the other hand, gambling is a major international commercial activity, with the legal gambling market totaling an estimated $335 billion in 2009. Since the advent of the Internet much of what used to be casino gambling has moved to online gambling, also fraught with problems and now the home to serious gambling addiction.

Save Money – Don’t Fall For Internet Scams

admin — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 08:41:38 +0000

Financial scams abound on the Internet.

Since the Internet crosses borders and allows people to create fake identities for themselves, money scams keep cropping up. However, people still fall for them. Here are 5 financial scams that you should be on the lookout for. If you get an offer or Email like these, delete it. Replying to them confirms that you exist and use your computer.

The Nigerian Banker

These letters still arrive and lately there have been some from countries other than Nigeria. There are many variations of it, and they are usually recognizable as scams by poor spelling and bad grammar. The only bank account referred to in these letters is yours, meaning hit the delete button when you see the letter

I’ve just been mugged

When it comes to Internet financial scams, this one has become quite fashionable. I’ve received emergency emails from friends. All of them have been on holiday in Barcelona, Rome or London where they were mugged, though miraculously, their passports were spared. And they want me to please wire them some money. This is another obvious financial scam, in spite of the fact that it seems to come from someone you know. What has actually happened is that your friend or relative’s Email password was hacked and the hacker is sending out these Emails to their entire Email address book.

Your eBay/PayPal/Bank account has been frozen or limited

The trouble with this financial scam is that it can really happen. You could get a real Email from any of these companies telling you that there was a problem and they’ve temporarily frozen your accounts. Fortunately, there are two foolproof ways to find out if it’s for real or not: First, if they ask you to Email back a password, that’s a sure sign that it’s a fraudster. No financial institution would ever ask you to send a password, account number or other information via Email since it’s not secure. Mouse over any links in the Email. Then, look down at the bottom left hand corner of your screen. It should show where the link goes to. If it’s not ebay.com, paypal.com, etc. it’s a financial scammer and you should stay far away.

Low Cost Viagra

This one ought to be obvious by now, but people fall for it every day. There is one way to get Viagra: you go to a doctor and get a prescription which you then fill at a pharmacy. If you get an Email for low cost Viagra or other drugs or other products which should be expensive, delete it. At best, you’ll get a worthless knockoff. At worst, your credit card number will be stolen or you’ll be sent fake Viagra which contains dangerous chemicals which can kill you.

Free Music, Games, Porn, etc.

No matter what it is, don’t download things from the Internet unless you know the website is reliable. If you do download stuff, be sure to scan it first with a virus scanner. Many of these so called “free” products are fakes. They are financial scams where they install a key logger along with your free game or music. Then, they can harvest your bank password and other information, stealing every last penny you own.

Shopping As Recommended By the International Herald Tribune

admin — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 09:34:51 +0000

You need major money for this

I have the International Herald Tribune delivered to my front door every morning. I am ashamed (or proud) to say that the prime reason is that I am hooked on the New York Times crossword. This is how I escape from the muddled, angry world we live in. This puzzle has become a cult around the world. It has quite a few blogs which discuss the daily puzzle, analyze the puzzle–maker (known among us solvers as a ‘cruciverbalist’) and his or her evil intentions. But I do read the news too and when I cannot complete the crossword I scan the paper from top to bottom. So yesterday, the day of an impossible Sunday puzzle, I decided to take my newspaper addiction one step further. Shopping. I will buy everything the paper advertises, I decided in my moment of madness.

The start

I barely made it past page 1. I used to think that this is a paper for the people. Not my kind of people.

Page 1

The ad is for a Patek Philippe watch. “Begin you own tradition” says the ad. I got the price by email: “The suggested retail price for the Patek Philippe Annual Calendar Chronograph Automatic Rose Gold (5960R) is $79,800. If you have any questions about this item, please send an email to…”

Page 2

The only ad here is a picture of a leopard and the word Cartier. This is simply a reminder: “If you are shopping for leopard start at Cartier.” No price.

Page 5

Full page ad of a very smooth looking woman wearing a great pair of earrings. Bad picture taken from too low down giving her size 16 feet. No price.

Page 7

Belles Montres. International Luxury Watch salon to be held in Paris this weekend. Do I need to look for a back-up unit for the watch I bought on page 1?

Page 20

Celine has a good picture of a shopping bag. No price. I guess the message is, “get one for your lady and let her fill it at Christmas time”.

Page 21

My weakness – art. Lempertz, an auction house in Cologne shows a Maz Ernst oil painting consisting of 3 human figures or 3 sheaves of wheat, I couldn’t decide. The estimated price is €600,000 to €800,000. The other painting is by Wassily Kandinsky, a watercolor carrying an estimated price of is €900,000 to €1,000,000. The sale will be held on December 2. I will not be there.

Page 24

Ermenegildo Zegna. “Passion for life” The ad shows 2 pictures of a gold watch, front and back views. Difficult to find the price but the watch has some great reviews from shoppers. The closes price I could find for the Monterubello Chrono model advertised in the paper is $28,300.

Page 25

Roger Federer and a Rolex Oyster Perpetual Date watch, almost a standard ad these days. $8,150. Much cheaper than I thought it would be. Perhaps a kind reader…, or my publisher…

Conclusion

I will continue with the daily crossword. No more news and no more shopping.

7 In 10 Seniors Will Need Help With Eating, Dressing and Bathing

admin — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 10:06:07 +0000

Who will provide these services?

I never gave this subject a thought until I hit my seventies and then watched my friends drifting into retirement homes, frail care centers, Alzheimer’s homes and other such places. Then I went from not thinking to sheer panic overnight. In the morning we rushed over to a retirement home and checked to see what it was all about. Three hours later we left, feeling elated to know that we could be looked after and depressed to discover that we could hardly afford such a place.

The financial side

Retirement homes are expensive, period. First you have to acquire the apartment at an expensive purchase price. As the retirement home industry burgeons so the cost of apartments rockets. Then you have to pay a monthly maintenance fee which covers many of the amenities but excludes food and a caregiver. Sure they have clinics staffed by nurses, dentists and other medical people and will call an ambulance to rush you off to the hospital but your own private caregiver, the one who feeds, dresses and bathes you, is your own private business.

The CLASS program

The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) program, a part of the health-reform law, established a national, voluntary insurance program for purchasing community living services. It was designed to expand options for people who require long-term help. But in mid-October, the Obama administration shut down the program, saying it was not financially feasible. Last week, a panel of long-term-care experts tried to answer the now-what questions raised in the wake of that decision. Among them: What can those who were likely to benefit from the CLASS Act do now to pay for their current or anticipated long-term-care needs? How can the country deliver and finance long-term-care for its rapidly aging population? What role will providers play as Medicare and Medicaid payments are cut?

Long-term care

These are legitimate questions that must be addressed, said Howard Gleckman, a resident fellow at the Urban Institute. "We are in an era of funding constraint by the government that will get worse long before it ever gets better. The question is: ‘Why don’t we confront it?’"

Costs

What’s more, the cost of long-term-care itself is not trivial. Nursing homes cost on average $87,235 annually, according to a 2011 MetLife study. One year in an assisted-living facility is now $41,724. Adult day services are $70 per day, and home health aides cost $21 per hour. At the moment, the options for paying for long-term care are limited. Medicare doesn’t cover all that much and just 12% of adults age 65 or older have private insurance, according to the Urban Institute. As a result, many families pay out of pocket until they exhaust their resources and turn to Medicaid.

Rationing

Is the answer to start rationing long-term care? "The dirty little secret is that we do that already," Gleckman said. He said health-care professionals often find elderly Americans dead in their house for a week or more. “Working-class people don’t have any insurance. They don’t have any savings. One of them gets sick, the other one has to take care of them for as long as they can, and then one of the spouses dies and what happens?

What Would You Do In This Situation?

admin — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 10:07:01 +0000

Philip Turner calls it the dearest bottle of milk and chocolate bar he’s ever bought

Last week Mr. Turner went to a nearby fuel station in his town with a $50 bill to buy some necessities of life and as part of his change was given a $20 note defaced on both sides. On one side it says: ‘Suck it. Now you can’t buy anything.’ On the other it says: ‘Happy birthday.’

No takers

No business will accept it and the bank won’t change it. "I bought two liters of milk and a bar of chocolate. I handed over a $50 note and got two twenties back and some loose change," Turner said. "The next morning I went to spend it in town and was told: ‘We can’t accept that. It is all written on.’ Then I went back to the garage where they gave it to me and I was told that they wouldn’t accept it because it had been written on.

Another try

"I came back to the garage the following night and the manager said to take it to the bank and change it over. I went to the bank and they said it was disfigured and they couldn’t change it and they’d have to send it to the RBA and they may say its worth less than $20. I pulled into the police station and they said that the garage didn’t break any law by giving me phony money. But I am lumbered with this note that nobody wants and I can’t spend it.

Expensive milk

"So it has cost me $29 for two liters of milk and a chocolate bar. I’m stuck with $20 that may as well be monopoly money."

Man Reportedly Finds $500,000 Treasure in Storage Unit

admin — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:07:02 +0000

Why hasn’t this happened to me?

A San Jose man reportedly stumbled on to $500,000 worth of gold and silver after bidding on an abandoned storage unit. The man, identified only as John, apparently paid $1,100 for the unit only to see his blind investment turn into a goldmine after a number of rare coins and a few gold and silver bars were found in a blue Rubbermaid container inside the unit.

Storage units

In recent years storage unit auctions have gained wide-spread recognition after becoming reality fodder for shows like Storage Wars and Spike TV’s Auction Hunters.

3 month limit

In California a storage unit is available for auction if the rental has not been paid for three months. Bidders are able to view the storage unit from outside for five minutes to glean what they can, and then the bidding starts. While some units are worth little, the possibility of a big payoff draws treasure hunters who are willing to take a chance.

Unexpected find

The reported find, in Contra Costa County, was so unexpected that even though the auction was held by American Auctioneers, the subject of A&E’s Storage Wars, there were no cameras present when the cache was discovered. Even without cameras Laura Dotson, the co-owner of American Auctioneers along with husband Dan, still said she was delighted. "It helps, it solidifies what we’re doing in the business," Dotson told ABCNews.com. "It shows hope that with all these units, that there is treasure to be found."

Anonymous buyer

Although the buyer prefers to remain anonymous, Dotson said he called her after getting the gold and silver appraised. According to Dotson, the first thing he said was, "Wow, this is a wonderful life."

Money makers

John Cardoza of Storage Auction Experts, which was not involved in the auction, told ABC News that for people who know what they’re doing, "Six out of seven units can make money." However, he stresses that the chance to make half a million dollars off a $1,100 bid is a rare. "I hear similar stories about once a year," said Cardoza.

Deceased owner

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the unit was owned by a recently deceased elderly woman. Cardoza says that since the storage units must be listed in the paper prior to the auction, some bidders use names to try to decipher what’s in the unit. "What some people do is, they look at the names. If it’s Ethel or Myrtle, it sounds older," said Cardoza, who says an older person may have more collectibles than a younger person. While the coins were apparently found in the unlikeliest of treasure chests, a Rubbermaid container, it was said to have been so heavy that it took 3 men to carry it out. Dotson says the plastic container initially piqued the buyer’s interest, although for more pragmatic reasons. "He said that he liked it was in plastic and clean and easy to move," said Dotson. "It’s a chance of a lifetime."

Check through Those Drawers Again: Maybe There’s an Old Yellow Diamond in There

admin — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 09:47:24 +0000

Yellow diamond nets record price

Sotheby’s have reported that a huge yellow diamond known as the “Sun-Drop Diamond” sold for $12.36 million, a world record for a yellow diamond, at auction on Tuesday. The diamond, the world’s largest pear-shaped fancy vivid yellow, weighing 110.03 carats, was the top lot at Sotheby’s semi-annual jewelry sale in Geneva on Tuesday night which netted a total of $70.17 million. “What financial crisis? We sold nearly every one of the big diamonds within our expectations,” said David Bennett, chairman of Sotheby’s jewelry department in Europe and the Middle East.

The yellow

The yellow diamond was discovered in South Africa last year and cut and polished by New York-based Cora International which put it up for sale, Sotheby’s said. The stone had a pre-sale estimate of between $11-million and $15-million. The buyer is a private individual who wished to remain anonymous. “It sold for a record for a yellow diamond … It was exactly within our expectation for this spectacular stone,” Bennett told reporters. Yellow diamonds have become rare and are fetching higher prices, said Hoda Esphahani, president of SAFDICO USA (South African Diamond Corporation).

SAFDICO

This is the manufacturing arm of London-based top jeweler Graff Diamonds, owned by Laurence Graff, which last week announced it plans to raise about $1 billion in a Hong Kong listing next year. Graff did not attend the sale, as he is currently in China.

Second place

The second priciest lot was a cushion-shaped white diamond weighing 38.88 carats which sold for $6.96 million. But several major jewels were stranded on the block, with just 81.8 percent of 500 lots on offer finding new owners. Among unsold lots were a fancy intense blue pear-shaped diamond ring that Sotheby’s had expected to fetch up to $10-million and a suite of imperial diamond jewels from the mid-19th century which the auction house said may have been from the jewel box of Catherine I, wife of Peter the Great of Russia.

Vintage pieces

Prices for vintage signature pieces soared. A 1930s vintage necklace by French jeweler Cartier, composed of five strands of graduated natural pearls set with diamond plaques, fetched $3.342 million, roughly three times its pre-sale estimate. Gem experts and traders said that prices were strong for top-quality stones but that lesser ones were shunned.

Hot market

Johnny Kneller, the Antwerp-based CEO of SAFDICO, told Reuters: “The market is very hot. Times elsewhere are very bad and the world economy is very bad. But diamonds and colored stones are very much in demand and prices are quite high. We are getting into prices per carat that are quite punchy. So people are hesitating. It has to be top quality to bring top price. Prices are still strong especially for diamonds and top-quality colored stones like rubies, Kashmir sapphires and pearls; they are the winners of the day.”

“Divine Jewels”.

It has been announced that Christies is launching a new investment fund “Divine Jewels”.

Look What’s Going around on the Internet

admin — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:41:07 +0000

These are possibly the 5 best sentences you’ll ever read:

You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity, by legislating the wealth out of prosperity.

What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

The government cannot give to anybody, anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work, because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

SUMMARIZING…

Says it all in 1 sentence….

The problems we face today are there because the people who work for a living are outnumbered by those who vote for a living.

Is Your Child Messing With Paints? Encourage Him…

admin — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 09:27:23 +0000

Kieron will make more money than Monet

His name is Kieron Williamson and he is a child art prodigy. If you haven’t heard of him yet, be assured that you will – and often. He is already being hailed as a Mini- Monet. He held an exhibition in England this week to showcase his work and left the exhibition with more than £100,000 (about $160,000) in his pocket after all his paintings were snatched up by eager buyers. No different to any other child his age, the boy wonder still wears his school uniform while playing with friends after school in the lane outside his house or zooming around on inline skates.

Money

Some parents who have their eyes on a secure old age for themselves via a child who will be earning huge amounts of money in years to come, will opt for football, tennis or car racing as a means to a secure old age. A career in art is something else entirely.

Talent

Kieron lives in the English countryside. Many would say that it is not exactly the place where you would find a child prodigy who later that evening would be on his way to his first art exhibition to fill his pockets with huge amount of money. But the real question is, where do you expect to find these talented children? What sets them apart from the rest? The reality is despite his talent he is just like any other kid and you would expect to find him amused in activities that others his age partake in.

A 7 year-old

It was only two years ago when the seven-year-old made a ripple from his skills with pastels and acrylics depicting the countryside near his home in Norfolk. How work attracted the praise of many and soon had a waiting list of 680 buyers. During that time the interest in the young British artist has grown fast, with a waiting list of nearly 6,000 people including Americans, Chinese and Germans who are all keen to get their hands on a Kieron original.

Paintings

Some of Kieron’s paintings which he sold for £2,000 have gone on to sell for £10,000. At his fifth exhibition, so far his greatest success, he sold one painting for £15,595.

Talent

The boy’s talents seem miraculous; his father is an electrician and his mother a nutritionist and both are completely non-artistic. The first sign of his talent came when he and his parents were in Cornwall on their first family holiday. While the family admired the bay, the then very young Kieron created a striking drawing with pencils.

Art studio

Kieron started his painting career on the kitchen table, but times have changed and he now has his own studio, which is cluttered with easels, paints, palettes and other painting paraphernalia. He has books full of pencil sketches, but he paints in oils, pastels and watercolors. He is skilled in many mediums. Talking about his paintings, Kieron said: “I like painting stormy skies and I’ve painted lots of marshes, and I like painting windmills.”

5 Ways to Survive the Festive Season

admin — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 11:11:59 +0000

It’s 40 days to Christmas

However many days it is to Christmas, and without knowing the exact number, I am certain there is not enough time to do everything I want, or have to do. Look at my overcrowded program. In the next few weeks, the following events have found their way into my program:

Birthdays for my niece, brother-in-law, stepson and son,
My bridge club’s annual treasure-hunt day,
The annual Christmas picnic at the country club,
The office party,
A farewell for my parents who are going overseas on an extended trip.

And then, of course, Christmas itself.

Requirements

All of these events have their own traditions and requirements. In addition I haven’t helped matters by becoming the default maker of mince pies for all festivities. I think I’m buying about six bottles of fruit mince this year.

How to cope?

Over the past year since last Christmas I have put my mind to the problem and these are the things I have figured out to make all this not quite so bad:

Don’t take a child or, even worse, children, shopping.
Make a plan with small things to do every day so that I don’t feel so panicky.
Take one event at a time, but do all the shopping now!
Give up on the perfectionism. I don’t have to take home-made ice-cream to my brother-in-law’s party; bought will do.
The birthday cake doesn’t have to be a work of art.

Sundry gifts

For my niece, brother-in-law, stepson and son’s birthdays which luckily come as the real cold weather arrives, it will be thick colorful sweat shirts. For the bridge club and country club do’s I will take a bottle of red wine, always a winner. For my parents on their departure overseas, I have already bought my father an under-the-shirt money belt. My mother got a folding hairbrush. Then we get to the serious celebrations.

Make lots of lists

Nothing comforts or helps you get through everything quite as well as a good list.

The most important list, and the one that is going to cost you serious money, is the gift list. At the top, of course is my husband, followed by the kids. They have been talking about new bikes this year, with the words “off-road” and “mountain bikes” scattered into the conversations. I did a bit of surfing on the internet. Gulp. And there are 3 kids. Triple gulp. And that is the end of the “Gift List”.

Parties

The office party is an easy one. In the next few days I will receive a budget from the officer manager and I will shop according to that. The drinks are generally sodas and beers and there is no expensive liquor buying. The party we will be throwing at home is different. Here all the neighbors will bring eats, wines and beers. But here the men, and some of the women, want something a little stronger to drink and that costs. Once again I will be working all year…

Staying Within Budget Is Better Than Taking Loans

admin — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:01:53 +0000

Here are some cost-cutting ideas

America and the rest of the world are having a rough time financially and it doesn’t seem as though things will improve any time soon. This economic crisis affects most of us every day as we tighten our belts and keep our wallets in check. But like a dieter craving sweets, temptation is always skulking around, begging us to spend. However, there are simple things you can do when the cravings start to bite.

Wait

The best thing you can do to stay on budget is tell yourself to wait. We see something on television, online or in a store and think we just have to have it. Tell yourself, “Wait.” How many times have we given in to that urge, only to see the item gather dust or wind up in the next garage sale? Chances are it is a whim brought on by budget fatigue, and the burning desire will go away. If the feeling persists, then maybe it is something worth saving for.

Thinking ahead

Realistic frugality begins with a realistic plan. If a budget is too restrictive, it adds stress to your life. That type of gnawing pressure may lead to abandoning the budget altogether. Make your plan realistic, but not a last resort starvation diet. Thinking long term can help. Instead of seeing savings and frugality as a chore, think big picture. You and your family will be happier if you don’t have to strain to pay off last month’s splurge.

Don’t forego fun

While a budget must begin with month-to-month obligations and essentials such as mortgage, groceries, car insurance and utilities, it should also include an item for “fun”. If you enjoy sports, make sure to include some greens fees or club dues. If concerts or theater are your thing, figure in a ticket every couple of months. Another way to achieve this is to keep a “fun fund,” which is reserved only for a specific goal. Instead of giving in to every impulse, focus on the really satisfying ones and put a little away toward it out of every paycheck. Maybe there is a trip you want to take, or one luxury item that you truly want. With a little patience and persistence, it can be yours.

Cutting corners

For the day-to-day items, there are many things you can do to cut corners. Here are just a few suggestions to get the ball rolling.

Most beauty schools and community colleges offer cut-rate haircuts and beauty services, as students need opportunities to practice their craft. While that may sound risky, rest assured most places only let advanced students touch the paying customers.
Second-hand and thrift stores are a wonderful resource for items we use every day.
Flea markets, garage sales and Craigslist are good, too. Somebody once said one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Go explore. You never know what you might find for a song.
Fuel expenses are one of the worst drains on our resources these days. Try public transportation, carpooling and consolidating trips. Remember, the less time you are behind the wheel, the less you are spending.

I Have To Build Onto the House for the New Baby

admin — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 15:47:57 +0000

What’s the deal with a Second Mortgage?

We’re having another baby and I have no solution other than to add a room to the house. I need to know all about second mortgages. I can’t afford to pay heavy fees and charges.

Check the Terms

Every lender is different, so do some comparison shopping. Run the figures and figure out which deal is best for your needs, not the needs of the lender. Compare several lenders, and ask them to make proposals based on your credit reports and financial situation.

Compare offers

Once you have various offers, sit down and assess the fees, terms, interest rates, and any other relevant data. A lower interest rate on a short loan may not be worth the higher fees, but it can make a big difference on a long-term loan. Pay particular attention to early payment fees, penalties, and other hidden fees.

Choose Carefully

If the sub-prime mortgage crisis taught us nothing else, it has made us aware that adjustable rate mortgages can be a real problem if you aren’t careful. Under most circumstances you will get better terms as well as consistency by applying for a fixed-rate loan. With interest rates at historically low levels, there is virtually no reason not to lock in. Discuss how long it will take to pay the loan, when, and how. Sometimes you can get an additional interest discount if you agree to have your payment taken out of your checking account automatically. Find out what other options you have to reduce your rates.

Negotiate

While a lender may try to make you feel as if they are doing you a favor by loaning you money, the fact is that you are the one doing the favor. Their income depends upon your interest. Just about everything can be negotiated, from application fees to rates and right on down to postage. Be aggressive but remain polite. Remember, the contracts are drawn up in such a way as to separate you from as much of your money as possible; your goal is to prevent that from happening. Being able to show other offers you received during your search will provide a good incentive for your loan officer to work harder for your business.

Specials

While it may seem strange to get a special on a loan, they do exist. From reductions in fees to discounts for applying online instead of in person, there is almost always a way to reduce how much you spend for your second mortgage application and process.

Hidden Savings

One of the advantages to taking a second mortgage instead of a line of credit or racking up debt on credit cards is being able to deduct your application expenses and interest payments from your income taxes. While this is certainly not a good reason to incur more debt, it can alleviate some of the stress involved in taking out a second mortgage. With good negotiation, proper arrangements, and an eye to the additional benefits of taking a loan instead of accumulating bad debt, it is possible to save money.

What’s Actually Happening In the Social Security System?

admin — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 10:45:29 +0000

Exploding 5 misconceptions that threaten the system

Social Security is coming under attack. It happened during the stock boom of the 1990s, and it is happening again. The first challenge arose from hope: that savers would get more retirement income for their money if they bought stocks. But the idea of privatization was not popular with the public.

This time it’s fear

Now, the attack comes from fear; fear that Social Security has serious financial problems and is headed for disaster. A CNN/Opinion Research poll found that 60 percent of adults who aren’t retired expect to get zero from Social Security in their older age. They’re mistaken. As misinformation and mistrust grow, however, it becomes important to explore several Social Security myths that endanger the system’s public support.

Myth No. 1

Social Security is not going bankrupt. Even in the unlikely event that nothing changes and the program’s entire surplus runs out in 2036, as projected, checks would keep coming. Payroll taxes at current rates would cover 77 percent of all the future benefits promised. That’s true for young and old alike, and includes inflation adjustments.

Myth No. 2

I’d be better off if I’d kept my Social Security taxes in my own investment account. Really? You will faithfully to put that money aside, every year of your working life, in a mix of stocks and bonds, without ever skipping a year. You’d need to invest far more than you probably realize to match the benefits Social Security pays. Take a 65-year-old couple with a single breadwinner who earned the average wage. At retirement, they’d currently get about $2,170 a month, plus inflation adjustments, for life, the Urban Institute reports. To equal that sum in private savings, they’d need to have about $580,000. Are you likely to save that much?

Myth No. 3

In 1983, Congress made changes to Social Security to build a fund that would pay for boomers when they retire, so it’s not fair to change benefits now. It raised taxes and cut some future benefits to cure an imminent insolvency. The trust fund reserves, now $2.6 trillion, were a by-product of the decisions made. Congress never veered from its vision of intergenerational compact: Working people pay for those who don’t, or can’t, work anymore. On the flip side, the compact requires older people to make some concessions so that younger people can afford it.

Myth No. 4

You should get out of Social Security the amount you put in. No. Social Security is not an individual investment program. Your taxes paid for the earlier generation of retirees. Current workers are paying for you. The total amount of your benefit depends on how much you earned, whether you get a spousal benefit, when you retire and how long you live.

Myth No. 5

Social Security helps old people, not younger people like me. Wrong. It provides income support to qualified widows and widowers with young children, as well as orphans. Just as important, it saves young families from the cost of supporting older parents who, without Social Security, wouldn’t have enough money to live on. It also provides benefits for workers who become disabled.

Finally

If young people switched their payroll taxes into private accounts, the government would have to borrow $6.5 trillion or more to keep paying out benefits to current retirees. That means higher deficits, higher income taxes, further slashes in spending, or all three. It’s smarter and cheaper to fix the current program and put everyone’s mind at rest.

All about Olives, Wine and the Stock Exchange

admin — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 15:38:43 +0000

I can see a pattern developing

Today is Friday, so the NYSE will be up. How do I know? Because it’s Friday. So in future I will always sell on Fridays and buy on Tuesdays, the day it is always down. Anyone else want to try my theory with me? You have just acquired this winning formula for free. Just send in your check before 12 midnight so you beat the wicked witch and have to pay double for the same information.

Wednesday

Wednesday, also known as “Italy Day” was a disaster. It looked as there was no bottom to the stock exchange barrel and I sat and watched my money dribbling out of the hole at the bottom. Then Mr. Berluscone mumbled the magic words, “OK. I’ll go” and on Thursday the hole was plugged. Today, Friday, it seems that all is forgiven and we’re in the midst of a major economic boom. I am breathing much easier. It does my heart good to watch the numbers rolling upwards.

Who’s next?

The economic tidal wave seems to be confined to the Mediterranean Countries. This of course has nothing to do with abundant sunshine, fat juicy olives and unlimited wine, all of which are great distractions to the economy players. The fall from financial grace began in Greece, to the accompaniment of wine and olives, spread to Portugal with much wine and olives, fluttered along to Italy with unlimited wine and olives and this time, Berlusconi. It will no doubt move back to Portugal for more wine and olives and bite into Spain with wine and olives. We are going to drink wine and eat olives for some time to come. All of this, of course, depends on whether someone understands what’s going on and knows how to fix it.

Further along

France has shoreline on the Mediterranean, but we won’t look into their economics or their wine. On the opposite end is Turkey with a major chunk of the country fronting onto the Mediterranean. They have wine and olives, but somehow they are different. Perhaps they will be lucky and escape the financial breakdown.

The eastern end

This is the problematic end. There is Syria followed in quick succession by Lebanon and then Israel. After that it’s into Africa where the wine and olives are mainly sand and no water. Syria is deep in social problems and their economic system is probably on its knees and being financed by hopeful buyers. The Syrian olive continues to flourish and is much sought after. Lebanon, once the financial capital of the Middle East is under the management of the Hezbollah who seem to have unlimited financial backing. I haven’t seen olives from Lebanon for some years. Israel carries on, fueled by unlimited brainpower and good financial management and maintains high quality, if low quantity, wine and olives.

The Mediterranean

All told, the Mediterranean is a great part of the world to live in. Wine, olives and never a dull moment!

My Car Must Be Worth At Least Double Your Offer!

admin — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:08:02 +0000

How you can more for your used car

It’s time to change my car. It’s 6 years old and looks it and I need something new and shiny in my life. The car has to go.

The used car market

There are always people buying and selling cars. It’s one of the main games in our auto-crazy world. Sometimes the market favors the buyer and sometimes the seller.

If you are selling your used car, the market is currently putting you in the driver’s seat when you sit down at the negotiating table. The New York Times reports that the value of used cars two to five years old has gone up as much as 20% in just one year. A fuel efficient compact car that would have fetched $8,800 in 2010 is now catching bids of as much as $10,500, but those prices are dependent on a variety of factors. Read on to learn what you can do to make sure your used car is ready to catch the highest offer.

Clean It

This is an obvious action, but do it: Spend the $150 to have it professionally detailed so it looks like it did when you first purchased it.

Make It Look Like His or Hers

A prospective buyer wants the car to look like his or hers, not yours. Remove all of those personal knick knacks that add a little bit of you to your vehicle.

Fix the Body

Small dents probably won’t be too expensive to fix and you’ll probably get a large portion of the money back when you sell it. The difference between “excellent” and “good” is substantial when somebody is assigning value to your car.

Maintenance

Before you sell it, make sure all maintenance is up to date and have the dates of when the work was completed. Don’t get it all done the day you take it to the dealer to sell. You want to show the prospective buyer that you have taken care of your car.

Disclose

Have any repair or maintenance receipts ready to show the prospective buyer. People are naturally skeptical when purchasing a car, so revealing what has gone wrong with it goes a long way in establishing trust. Remember that your buyer can find a used car anywhere. A potential buyer’s experience with you will be a large factor in his or her decision to purchase.

Be Realistic

If you go to one of the trusted sites that gives you a value for your car, know that these are estimates. Be willing to take a little less and feel like you got a fair deal, but know your bottom line and stick to it. The less you’re willing to deal, the longer you’ll have to hold on to your car.

The Bottom Line

Used car prices are up, but only for those who have taken care of their car. If you’re planning to sell your car soon, do it now. Experts say that prices are up but they won’t stay that way for long.

I Have Been Searching For Grandpa’s Papers Without Success

admin — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 11:36:49 +0000

There’s money at the end of this rainbow, I just know it

According to family legend, grandpa was a great traveler. In addition to the legend I have proof of his wanderings by way of postcards and faded black and white photographs. My mother also told me stories of how grandpa, who was very rich, would buy things on the spur of the moment. “If he walked past a building and he liked the architecture or the entrance, he would go inside, ask for the owner and try and strike a deal to buy it. I distinctly remember a house in Stubbs Road in Hong Kong, a mansion with huge palm trees and a view of the pyramids in Cairo and a stone building in King David Street in Jerusalem.”

The papers?

No, I don’t know where the papers are, said mother when I questioned her. There is no sign of these properties anywhere. So, I search. I have searched the house where he lived, so much so that the present occupiers are sick of me pestering them. “There is nothing here!” they yell. I have been to the bank, looked through numerous files and books under the strict supervision of the manager and his staff. Nothing. Hardly a sign that the old man ever trod the green marble floor. I spoke to his caregiver who tended him in the last few months. She shakes her head and asks if I know anyone who needs a caregiver. Why am I doing all this? Easy, it’s in the interest of raising some money so I can get rid of my boss.

Background

Here’s my reasoning. I pick up the paper and see this article: Three residential sites were auctioned by the Hong Kong government at a value well over the predicted rates, reinforcing the belief that the curbs on property have not had any negative impact on demand and there may have been some expansion of the economy in the first quarter of this year after all.

The Winner

The highlight of the auction was a site on Stubbs Road which was bought by Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited for $578 million. The original estimate for this sale was put at about $565 million. There has been a move by the government to put a damper on the real estate prices. But the Stubbs Road sale indicates that this is not seriously impacting the demand for luxury apartments even as prime real estate is getting scarcer by the day in Hong Kong.

Dealers

According to a property analyst, Eva Lee, Hong Kong’s economy may have expanded by over 5% in the first quarter of 2011. Real estate dealers are still confident of selling properties at prices above the current rates within a space of two years. Housing in Hong Kong is considered to be the most expensive according to a survey by Savills Plc. Home sales however, have reached the lowest over a period of two years.

Wouldn’t you search?

The Story of a Business – a Joke

admin — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 13:54:16 +0000

The drink now pay later plan

Helga is the proprietor of a bar. She realizes that virtually all of her customers are unemployed alcoholics and, as such, can no longer afford to patronize her bar. To solve this problem, she comes up with a new marketing plan that allows her customers to drink now, but pay later. Helga keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers’ loans). Word gets around about Helga’s "drink now, pay later" marketing strategy and, as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Helga’s bar. Soon she has the largest sales volume for any bar in town.

No immediate payment

By providing her customers freedom from immediate payment demands, Helga gets no resistance when, at regular intervals, she substantially increases her prices for wine and beer, the most consumed beverages. Consequently, Helga’s gross sales volume increases massively.

Here comes the bank

A young and dynamic vice-president at the local bank recognizes that these customer debts constitute valuable future assets and increases Helga’s borrowing limit. He sees no reason for any undue concern, since he has the debts of the unemployed alcoholics as collateral. At the bank’s corporate headquarters, expert traders figure a way to make huge commissions, and transform these customer loans into DRINKBONDS. These "securities" then are bundled and traded on international securities markets.

Securities

Naive investors don’t really understand that the securities being sold to them as "AA" "Secured Bonds" really are debts of unemployed alcoholics. Nevertheless, the bond prices continuously climb and the securities soon become the hottest-selling items for some of the nation’s leading brokerage houses.

The risk manager
One day, even though the bond prices still are climbing, a risk manager at the original local bank decides that the time has come to demand payment on the debts incurred by the drinkers at Helga’s bar. He so informs Helga. Helga then demands payment from her alcoholic patrons, but being unemployed alcoholics they cannot pay back their drinking debts.

Bankruptcy
Since Helga cannot fulfill her loan obligations she is forced into bankruptcy. The bar closes and Helga’s 11 employees lose their jobs. Overnight, DRINKBOND prices drop by 90%. The collapsed bond asset value destroys the bank’s liquidity and prevents it from issuing new loans, thus freezing credit and economic activity in the community. The suppliers of Helga’s bar had granted her generous payment extensions and had invested their firms’ pension funds in the BOND securities. They find they are now faced with having to write off her bad debt and with losing over 90% of the presumed value of the bonds.

More bankruptcy
Her wine supplier also claims bankruptcy, closing the doors on a family business that had endured for three generations. Her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor, who immediately closes the local plant and lays off 150 workers. Fortunately though, the bank, the brokerage houses and their respective executives are saved and bailed out by a multibillion dollar no-strings attached cash infusion from the government. The funds required for this bailout are obtained by new taxes levied on employed, middle-class, non-drinkers who have never been in Helga’s bar.

Now do you understand?

When you’re at the casino…

admin — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 12:27:44 +0000

Do you visit the casino to win money or to have fun?

There’s a big difference between visiting a casino to win money or to spend an evening having fun, knowing that you are going to have to pay for it. Fun costs money everywhere, whether it’s at Disneyland or at the local fairground. There are no more free lunches.

I go to the casino

It’s not very often that we make the long drive to the nearest casino and once we arrive there I give my wife a bucket of coins and wish her good luck, while I make my way to a special row of slot machines, the Progressive Slots. These are different.

Progressive slots

In Progressive Slots the jackpot grows with each bet made in any of the machines in the Progressive Slots link. Sometimes it may even reach huge amounts exceeding hundreds of thousands of credits. There have been jackpot payouts exceeding a million dollars. In a typical online casino group, slot machines may be linked across a number of casinos. For every bet made, the jackpot increases, as a portion of each bet is added to the jackpot. One can see the amount of the jackpot at ay given moment. The excitement of playing increases as the jackpot grows. Even if a player does not win the jackpot, it is possible for him to walk away with a handsome win if he understands the nature of the games and can identify the right slots to play.

A special tip for progressive slots

Always play the maximum bet. Most progressive slots require that the maximum bet is played in order to qualify for the jackpot win. You would hate to see 3 or 4 cherries appear on the screen and hear the bell ringing, signifying a jackpot, and you had only deposited 1 or 2 coins in the slot instead of the required 4 coins to qualify for the jackpot.

Life changing wins

Look at this progressive slot story: A 42-year-old man won $1 million when he hit the jackpot on a progressive penny slot machine he was playing at a casino, officials announced. The unemployed Ramona resident, whose name was not released, was playing the machine for $2.50 per spin Wednesday night when he won, officials said. He is the first person to win a million dollars on the slot machines since that casino opened in 2007.

The other system

The other way to win a million in a flash is to play the Lotto. The odds at about 1 in 14 million are enormous but someone wins. All it takes is for your 6 numbers to come up. You could go to bed and wake up to the news that you have won a staggering amount of money and that you are now free to change your life.

Money from the internet

Put the words “Winning money” into Google and start surfing. Be careful, many of the websites that come up are scams or fakes but there are reasonable honest sites where one can win money. Do not give them any details about yourself and do not send money to play or participate. And keep your fingers crossed…

You Don’t Have To Spend Like Crazy

admin — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 09:41:18 +0000

You’ll have to place a bid, but you’ll get your product dirt cheap

Thanks to the internet, there are some interesting new ways to shop. There are many websites offering deals, everything from daily deals to members-only private sales. But when it comes to real jaw-dropping deals, there’s one company that seems to have figured out a way to really deliver. It must be working for its customers because the company has been around for years and more and more people are using it.

QuiBids

The company is called QuiBids and they auction the hottest, most in-demand electronics like iPads and iPods, MAC and PC notebooks, HDTV’s as well as other items like gift cards from the top retailers. Like other online retailers, everything they sell is brand new with manufacturer’s warrantees. But, unlike other sites, the prices people pay are nowhere near retail.

How low are the prices?

Here are some recent winning bids that we verified QuiBids customers have paid for items:

$33.84 for a new iPad 32 GB (retail $600)

$22.10 for a new Nikon D90 Digital SLR Camera (retail $1070)

$61.73 for a MacBook Pro (retail $1800)

$24.02 for a Sumsung 46” LED HDTV (retail $1945)

Our first reaction on seeing these prices was disbelief. After all, how could QuiBids sell these items for so little?

Bidding Fee

There is a bidding fee. When a bid is placed for an item on QuiBids, the company collects a small fee from the bidder. The fee to bid is only about 60 cents, but based on the volume of sales and bids, the company is able to collect enough to make up for the ridiculous prices the items sell for.

Fun

Best of all, participating in the QuiBids auction is fun. Because each bid costs a little to place, shoppers can strategize when to place their bids. Each auction has a strict time limit. When you place your bid, the system adds a little time to the auction to see if any other bids come in. If you have the winning bid when the clock runs out, you win the item for that price. According to QuiBids CEO Matt Beckham, “Thousands of new customers are trying QuiBids every day. We must be doing something right.”

Buy Now

The best part of QuiBids may be the “Buy Now” feature. This allows bidders who did not win an auction to still buy the product they want and apply the cost of the bids they placed as a discount on the regular product price. Today, it’s more important than ever to seek out the best possible deals on must-have items and QuiBids seems to have figured out a way to give savvy shoppers the opportunity to nab products at very low prices. Add in the excitement of the auction, and the fact that their “Buy Now” feature means that you can’t overpay, and it means there is simply no reason not to try it out for yourself.

Does Your Travel Budget Have Spare Dollars?

admin — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:28:05 +0000

If it has, join us in Bologna, Italy for some serious eating

Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. It is the seventh largest city in terms of population and it is the heart of a metropolitan area of about 1,000,000 inhabitants. It is home to the world’s oldest university, fifth-largest church and 24 miles of elegant porticos. The problem is that you can miss them because of the temptation to spend all your time eating. Bologna is the culinary capital of a country that celebrates food.

The sights

In a nation of Premier League city breaks, Bologna is still on the bench, over-shadowed by the crowd-pleasers Florence, Venice and Rome. But it deserves a place on the pitch, and not just for the food. Piazza Maggiore and the adjoining Piazza Nettuno are the centre of the action. But there aren’t postcard stands or tour groups to be seen. Instead, businessmen bustle past and young Bolognese flirt around Neptune’s fountain. There is a great gelateria right there. Opposite the medieval palace on one side is the vast San Petronio Basilica, which you will admire between licks of ice cream.

The church

Work on the world’s fifth-largest church started in 1390, and it was designed to be grander than Saint Peter’s in Rome. But apparently when the Vatican got wind of this, funds were switched elsewhere. Its facade is still incomplete, but the lofty interior is worth seeing. The porticos are another feat of local craftsmanship. There is an uphill trek along a 2 mile long portico to the Sanctuary of Madonna di San Luca. At the end of the return journey you will find the Trattoria Meloncello, which serves the best meatballs in town. There’s no menu: a waiter lists the options, including the city’s most famous export. Don’t order spaghetti Bolognese here. It is a la ragu and served strictly with tagliatelle, a local pasta considered the perfect size to soak up the sauce.

Evening

By evening, Bologna bubbles. Walk along the shop-lined Via Independenzia, which leads to the main square. Here you will observe the passeggiata, the Italian evening stroll, to see, be seen and enjoy an aperitif or two along the way.

Nicknames

The city has three nicknames: la dotta (the learned), la grassa (the fat one) and la rossa (the red one). The learned are everywhere, the city’s students, a powerful force here since the university was established in 1088. The red refers to Bologna’s terracotta roofs and pinky-orange walls, but it also describes Bologna’s politics.

A rich city

The city of Bologna was selected to participate in the Universal Exposition of Shanghai 2010 together with 45 other cities from around the world. Bologna is also one of the richest cities in Italy, often ranking as one of the top cities in terms of quality of life in the country: it was ranked 5th in 2006, and 12th in 2007, out of 103 Italian cities. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, and it has spectacular history, art, cuisine, music and culture.

Designer Coffee to the Rescue

admin — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 16:09:27 +0000

Keep drinking coffee and help save America

Widely criticized for putting small local coffee shops out of business, Starbucks has launched "Create Jobs for USA," a program to raise funds for American small businesses. In an interview with AOL/Huffington Post, CEO Howard Schultz cited his concerns about government gridlock and the unemployment crisis as his reasons for creating the program. Schultz also called on corporate leaders to help solve the jobs crisis.

The campaign

The marketing tactic is that which was first made popular by Lance Armstrong, colorful wristbands. Starting today, Starbucks customers will be able to buy $5 bracelets along with their lattes, woven in red, white, and blue, inscribed with the word "indivisible" etched on a metal charm. Schultz emphasized that the bracelets were made in America.

The proceeds

Proceeds of wristband sales will go to the “Opportunity Finance Network”, a nonprofit umbrella organization that supports hundreds of Community Development Financial Institutions, local organizations that lend money at low interest rates to small business owners in underserved areas. The Seattle-based coffee brewer has already given $5 million to the cause.

Opportunity Finance Network

Schultz said he hopes to raise "tens of millions of dollars." In 2008, the Opportunity Finance Network estimates that these financial institutions loaned out $5.53 billion to small businesses. While banks claim the demand for small business loans has fallen significantly, Schultz said the numbers on the ground disagree: Demand for Opportunity Network micro-loans has been increasing for 13 consecutive quarters, he said.

Available

The current Starbucks campaign, Schultz acknowledged, is more about spreading the word that these loans are available. Most small business owners and Americans are largely unaware that there’s money available. According to some small-business advocates, however, increased access to capital may not address the full problem. "From the research we’ve conducted, we haven’t found a great appetite among our membership for business loans," said Cynthia Magnuson, spokeswoman for the National Federation of Independent Business.

A sense of solidarity

"Create Jobs for USA" employs a marketing tactic, the bracelet, that is usually used by charities, to fund a micro-loan program, a concept that was pioneered in the developing world. But as the choice of inscription indicates, Schultz hopes the idea will energize a sense of the national solidarity, as every American can feel that they are doing their own small part to heal the country in a way the government, Schulz believes, has failed to do. "People want human connection," he said. Starbucks, despite selling what most would consider a luxury good, has been doing very well since the recession, Schultz claims. He believes a large part of that is the sense of community fostered in its stores, some of which he claims have become informal job centers.

Lay offs

Starbucks wasn’t totally immune to the recession, however. The chain closed 600 U.S. stores in 2008 and laid off 12,000 employees. However, in the ensuing years, people have kept buying coffee. While the overall economy is still soft in the wake of the recession, Starbucks has been performing well. In the third quarter, profit was up 34%. Schultz said customers are still buying the same expensive drinks that there were gulping before the downturn started.

Welcome To the Retired Old Geezers’ Club

admin — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 07:30:51 +0000

We are here to protect you from yourself

It’s open season on retirees like me: We are fair game to the predators. The hunters are out there, watching you, checking on you waiting for you. The instant that you slow down or lose concentration they will pounce in and strip you of every cent you have.

Look at my story

I worked my entire working life. I opened a pension saving account way back near the start of my career. I paid into it faithfully every month, moaning about the high premiums. Eventually I retired with a smile knowing that I had a nice plan going. But now that I’m there, it’s not what they told me. Sure, the money is there, I’m here but things have changed. Dramatically.

What changed

Everything has changed. Prices have soared beyond belief. Things we used to buy without thinking in my salary days are now totally beyond our means. We used to eat out at restaurants. These days if we decide to eat out at all, it’s a choice between different burger places. Gas has become a problem. A service on the car leads to a major debate between my wife and I. For that we have to miss out something else. We have money. In the days when I socked it away with a holiday in mind, a hotel room ran to $100 a night. Today we’re looking at $250. Clothes? We hardly buy anything new these days. The supermarket? We do minimum shopping. Now comes the bad news…

Investing

In all my planning over all the years, I counted on being able to invest my nest-egg money and earning interest on it. In the early years it was at least 10%, then it dropped to 8%. I never, in my wildest dreams, thought about 0 or 1%. Is this what I was saving for?

Offers to retirees

I saw this small ad in the paper the other day: “We promise you at least 8% on your money.” So I called and I got a very professional voice who started by saying: “Sir, I need to know what amount we are talking about. Can you please indicate if it is less than $20,000 or over $100,000?”

“It’s well over a hundred,” I say. The guy got very excited and said, “Sir, with an amount like that I believe we can promise you a return of well over ten percent on your investment.”

No such thing

I got quite excited at the thought that I could be earning a monthly amount of say $2,000 in interest on my investment. That would me back in restaurants and a couple of nice sweaters for the coming winter. I could even afford a set of new tires for the car. “How do you invest the money?” I asked. “Oh…, er…, um…, it’s a, you, know…”

I hung up at that point.

Retirement Wreckers

I was breathing heavily at this point. I nearly fell for it. Retirement scams could leave you in the poor house. These days, retirement scams range from the out and out fraud, where scammers intentionally separate seniors from their capital, to the more benign cases such as employers misusing or squandering the assets in a 401(k) plan.

Remember The Movie, Slumdog Millionaire?

admin — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 15:35:50 +0000

Why don’t you go play the game like this guy?

Here’s a great story! Every one of us wished this was me! A poor government clerk from a desolate region of eastern India has become the first person ever to win $1 million on an Indian game show. Sushil Kumar’s staggering win on the popular Indian version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" has transformed him into a role model for millions of aspiring youth yearning to escape their lives of poverty and find a role in India’s burgeoning economy. His win echoes the plot of the 2008 Oscar-winning film "Slumdog Millionaire," whose impoverished protagonist won the grand prize on the show.

They wept

Kumar and his wife of four months wept when Indian movie legend Amitabh Bachchan, the show’s host, handed them a check for 50 million rupees, just over $1 million, after the contestant gave all the right answers. "You have created history!” Bachchan said.

To be aired next week

Before Kumar went on the program, which was taped Tuesday and will air next week, he earned $120 a month as a government office worker and supplemented his income by working as a private tutor in the small town of Motihari in the eastern state of Bihar. Kumar, the 26-year-old son of a farm laborer, told viewers his family was so poor they couldn’t afford a television set, forcing him to go to a neighbor’s home to watch the quiz show. Watching him tick off correct answer after correct answer, his neighbors persuaded him to try out for the show, he said.

Mumbai

The trip to the Mumbai studio where the show is taped was his first ride in a plane and his first visit to a big city. Before arriving on the set, Kumar was confident of winning $50,000 or $100,000, but the jackpot seemed like a distant dream. Just before the 13th question, he considered walking away with the $200,000 he had in hand but decided to take advantage of the option to peek at the final question. “When I looked at the question, I didn’t think I knew the answer but I knew that two of the four options were definitely not correct," Kumar said.

Options

Kumar still had one of four lifelines granted on the show, the convenient double dip option that allows a contestant to offer two possible answers to a question. The show’s organizers declined to reveal the final question before it is aired next week, saying only that it dealt with history.

The money

Kumar has clear, if modest, plans for the money. He said he will use some to pay for a preparatory course so he can take India’s tough civil service exam, which could lead to a secure and prestigious lifetime job. He said he will also buy a new home for his wife, pay off his parents’ debts and give his four brothers startup cash so they can set up small businesses.

Library

He also plans to build a library in Motihari so the children of his village will have access to the books and knowledge he so desperately craved, he said.

Go Viral – Make Some Money

admin — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 20:59:05 +0000

This one is easy: just make a great U-tube video that everyone will want to see

Read this and you will see how easy it is to make money. We writers and researchers, who live in the Internet, day in and day out, know that there must be an easy way somewhere.

A birthday present

Katie Clem posted a video on YouTube this month of her daughter Lily’s poignant and funny reaction to her sixth birthday present, a trip to Disney-land, for her friends and family. Then it went viral. In three weeks, it has been watched about five million times, and Lily has become a minor Internet celebrity. Of far more importance, at least to Lily’s parents, the video is poised to make enough money from advertisements to send Lily to college. Got that? We are talking about serious money!

Create a video

Creating a video that attracts millions of viewers and becomes a pop culture phenomenon involves an unpredictable cocktail of luck and timing. A dash of cute babies or people acting like idiots can only help. But once a video goes viral, making some cold cash depends on quick action.

Here’s how

Here is some advice on how to take advantage of your 15 minutes of Internet fame from people who did just that. There is no single recipe for creating a viral video, but the videos that become sensations share a few common traits. Take the time to identify the video by writing a detailed title and description so people and search engines can find it easily, said Kevin Allocca, manager of YouTube Trends. Share it widely on social networks and let people embed the video on other Web sites.

Funny

It seems to help if the videos include funny people, especially old people and babies, animals and dancing, especially when the dancers are babies. Make a video that is universal yet original to you, recommends Randy McEntee, who posted an iPhone video, "Talking Twin Babies," showing his twin baby boys having an animated conversation in gibberish.

U-Tube ads

If your video is on the road to viral success, YouTube, a part of Google, is eager to make money from you. It will send you an e-mail asking if you want to become a partner. If you give your permission, the site will run ads alongside your video and share more than half the revenue with you, sending you a check each month. Some of the people behind viral videos, like the father of the boy coming down from dental anesthesia in "David After Dentist," have made more than $100,000 from YouTube ads. Mrs. Clem has made $3,000 in three weeks and stands to make much more because Disney wants to use her video in a TV ad.

Influential sites

The most important element is whether influential sites post the video. When the site Reddit posted Mr. McEntee’s video, for instance, its views jumped from 1,000 to six million in three days.

Go do it now!

The Day the Internet Stood Still

admin — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 09:34:12 +0000

Global chaos reigns

I remember quite clearly how it was before the Internet arrived. Actually I can remember how it was before… Never mind!

Day 1

8am: Millions of workers arrive at their desks across the US and discover that there is no internet access. At first it is believed it’s only a few companies, but unbeknown to Americans the problem is worldwide.

9am: The porn industry collapses.

10am: Realizing that they cannot bitch about internetlessness on Twitter, millions of calls are made from cellphones to internet service providers who can offer no answers. Technicians are on the problem.

Still Day 1

1pm: News outlets start calling the lack of internet in America a “very, very serious problem”. It is also reported that the internet has not been working in Europe and Asia for at least a week before the problem is reported in America, proving once again that Americans have no idea what is going on outside their country.

3pm: Reports emerge that work has stopped across America in the absence of e-mail. Many companies implement emergency measures whereby employees are forced to communicate in person. Technicians say they’re still trying to restore the internet.

7pm: President Barack Obama addresses the American people and calls for calm.

Networks air Baywatch and Seinfeld re-runs to distract the public. Oprah offers to do a live broadcast.

Midnight: A gathering is staged at Silicon Valley where software developers, IT geeks and Star Wars fans commit suicide en masse.

Day 2

Millions wake up hoping that the internet crisis was just a bad dream, but remain in bed and refuse to go to work when they realize it wasn’t. Wall Street doesn’t open. Everything tumbles, but fast food industry shares soar as Americans turn to their second favorite pastime in their time of difficulty. The makers of Valium and Prozac also report record gains. In some parts of the US, police report having to deal with cases of vandalism perpetrated by Facebook junkies and Twitterholics who begin scribbling their rambling on subway trains, bridges and walls of public buildings. Hospitals across the world are overwhelmed with cases of neck injuries caused by people staring at their phones waiting for internet services to be restored. Technicians still cannot find the source of the problem.

Day 3

Obama says that it is unclear “if” or “when” the internet will work again, but urges Americans to remain calm. Riots break out across the globe and the homes of telecommunication CEOs are broken into. Martial law is declared in most major cities across the globe. Religious nuts start coming out of the woodwork.

Day 4

Riots come to a halt as most are too depressed to leave their homes, leaving the streets of cities deserted. Those who do leave, do so only to restock on Prozac. A new unexplained behavior starts to emerge in some places whereby heavily drugged individuals start digging up and chewing fiber-optic cables at night. Others have resorted to eating hard drives and other computer components. Electricity grids start collapsing everywhere as a result of missing fiber-optic cabling. Governments recognize the seriousness of the cable problem and give orders to shoot “cable gobblers”. But the problem is uncontrollable, especially as Prozac and Valium supplies run out worldwide.

Day 5

Emergency sessions are called at the UN to plan the restoration of the internet and to strategize ways to govern during the crisis.

Death – Life Insurance to the Rescue

admin — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 08:18:00 +0000

The trouble with life insurance is that you have to die to collect

People will figure out how to make a buck out of anything. This includes death. Since the year dot people have been making money on death. Death sells, for the reason that it is the big unavoidable. Likewise, life insurance has always been a very lucrative business.

Alternatives

There are no alternatives to death, but there are to life insurance, meaning there are ways you can benefit before you depart. To find out how you must first understand the concept of a "life settlement", and to understand that, you must understand what its immediate predecessor, the "viatical settlement" are all about.

Viatical Settlements

Let’s say that you are diagnosed with a terminal illness, but you don’t have sufficient money for treatment or even to keep yourself comfortable until you die. But let’s say that you do have a life insurance policy, although in such a case you’ll find that it does you little good until you do cash it in. So, you find somebody who will buy your insurance policy now at some reduced value, knowing that very shortly they will be able to cash it in. This gives you the money for treatments to hopefully slow the progress of your disease and also maybe keep you somewhat comfortable until you finally kick the bucket.

Investors’ perspective

From the investors’ perspective, they have examined your medical records and prognosis and know with some certainty that you are going to die within a couple of years. When you die, the investors know that your life insurance policy will now pay them as the named beneficiaries, so they will get the money that they paid you for the policy plus some. It is then just a simple matter of taking their total profit on the policy, and dividing it by how many years you actually live, and that is their return on their investment.

Your insurance policy

So, let’s say that you have a $300,000 life insurance policy, your oncologist tells you that at best you have two years to live, and so the investors pay you $200,000 for it and you name them the beneficiaries of the policy. If in fact you die in two years, the investors will have made a profit of $100,000 split over two years, or what amounts to a $50,000 per year return, although this will be a pre-tax profit and income taxes will be owed on it. Still, not bad for a $200,000 investment.

Life Settlements

Assume that you have an old codger who is 65 and had a significant decline in health, such as a stroke or major heart attack, but who once upon a time bought a $1 million life insurance policy. A quick glance at your handy pocket guide to Actuarial Tables & Life Expectancies reveals that the old codger is supposed to die, on average, within five years. So, you go to the old codger and say, "Hey, I’m willing to buy your life insurance policy from you for $500,000 paid immediately." From your viewpoint, this is a good investment. If he cashes it in by 70 as predicted, then you get paid $1 million on the policy, meaning that you’ve made $500,000 over 5 years (less any premiums you have to pay to keep the policy up). In round numbers, this is a $100,000 per year pre-tax profit on your original $500,000 investment.

Its Toy Catalog Time Again

admin — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 09:22:01 +0000

December comes around faster than the money…

It seems like only yesterday that the mailbox bulged with catalogs and here they are again! This Toy attack begins in September to prepare us mad Christmas shoppers for an early start. I actually like the toy catalogs because I have widespread grandchildren and I hate the toy stores with their miles of aisles where it is impossible to decide on anything.

The toys

How does one decide between a wind-up racing granny, a hunched grey-haired figure hanging onto a walker or a slot car racing granny in a wheel chair? Ageism, sexism, and disabilityism seem to be this year’s theme. Seeing these infirm granny toys tip over and crash must be a hoot on Christmas morning.

“Educational” section

Under the educational section are several items related to money. There is green money soap, guaranteed to contain real U.S. currency up to a $50 bill. Supposed to provide incentive for kids to wash their hands, a kind of cleanliness roulette. What kid would not just cut the bar apart to get at that bill? Other educational toys in this catalog are a take-out plastic food toy designed to give children exposure to "ethnic" foods including Italian, Mexican, Chinese, and Japanese dinners.

Fun section

Under the category of Put Some Fun in Your Stocking (all items under $10) is a pencil sharpener shaped like a nose. Insert pencils in nostrils, twist. Good lesson for kids. Another sharpener is shaped like a naked behind. Insert pencil where? Presumably for the adults, a garden gnome that perpetually moons the neighbors, and spouse remote controls that issue orders like, "Honey, pour me a cold one." All these toys are interspersed with more common and less frightful classic children’s games and toys.

Museum catalog

And finally, there is a sophisticated and expensive museum catalog that includes a build-it-yourself wand scanner so your kids can practice their chosen profession, TSA airport screener? For girls 6 and up, a perfume mixing lab; the creative cosmetics lab kit is for ages 12 and up. Is this science for girls? The adult and child size skeletons are just creepy.

Portfolio

How about the board game called ‘Portfolio’. This is a strategic game of asset management. "Players buy and sell stocks and bonds, deal with inflation and battle world economic factors as they compete to build the best portfolio." Ages 12 and up, no batteries required.

Art and geography

Another card game exposes kids to art, not to appreciate its beauty, but to collect it through "ruthless auction bidding" to teach shrewd art collecting. For devoted parents, there are sample standardized tests from all 50 states to give your children at each grade level, to make sure they are on-track in school.

Our old toys

Whatever happened to the old, sensible toys we had when we were young? Remember monopoly and scrabble, they taught us the property and investment market and spelling and survived for years. Sometimes it seems like the electronics age is not always a step forward.

Here Are 3 Questions (and answers) About Your Retirement

admin — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 15:25:22 +0000

Question 1: How long will you live?

Bingo! This is the key question to retirement. Laura Carstensen, Ph.D., director of Stanford University’s Center on Longevity says, "You could plan your money really well if you knew exactly when you were going to die. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. None of us has a guarantee."

What to do?

But you can buy another kind of guarantee, an assurance that, however long you live your money will not run out. It’s sold by life insurance companies, and it’s called an ‘immediate annuity’. Annuities have gotten a bad name, largely because of the abusive sales of "deferred" annuities, a kind of fee-heavy investment. But ‘immediate annuities’ are different.

Question 2: How much will I earn on my investments?

It used to be that any college freshman who hadn’t dozed through Economics 101 could tell you what investments will earn in the long run. Drawing on 85 years of market data compiled by the Chicago research firm Ibbotson Associates, everyone assumed U.S. stocks would earn about 10 percent a year on average; bonds, around 5.5 percent; and a half-stock and half-bond portfolio, around 8 percent.

Answer

Suppose you had saved $500,000 by age 60. If all went well, you’d have a bit more than $1 million in the bank by age 70. At today’s annuity rates, that would buy you an annual income of $87,000 for the rest of your life. Not bad. But if you’d had the misfortune of turning 60 in 2000, the dawn of the ‘lost decade’, you’d have reached retirement 10 years later with barely the same $500,000 you started with. Your annual annuity income from that sum today: just $39,000.

What to do?

You can build in a margin of safety by plugging very low returns into your retirement calculators.

Question 3: How much income will I need?

Now you’re ready to adjust your plan based on shifting market realities. But what, exactly, are you supposed to adjust? It’s not as though you can decide to live longer or choose what your investments will return. There is, however, one big question over which you do have some power, says Alicia Munnell, Ph.D., director of the Boston College Center for Retirement Research: how much income you will need to be comfortable.

What to do?

Save. Regularly. The benefit of saving more each month is obvious. If markets perform well, a dollar saved today could grow to two dollars or five dollars at retirement. Even if the markets produce one lost decade after another between now and your retirement, a dollar saved is still a dollar you wouldn’t otherwise have in the future. That’s why planners who once advised saving 10 percent of your salary now recommend 15 percent. It’s all about the margin of safety.

Maybe you shouldn’t retire after all. Good health and employer willing, you can also choose when to retire. "Retiring later is a very powerful lever," says Munnell. "It completely changes the arithmetic."

How?

It raises your monthly Social Security benefits.

It allows your retirement savings to accumulate for more years, possibly helping you regain lost ground.

It shaves the number of years you’ll need to live off your savings. Remember, just because you work longer doesn’t guarantee you’ll live longer.

Finally, you can choose to live on less income than you may have initially aimed for.

Gaddafi’s Gone: Where Is His Money?

admin — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 10:35:45 +0000

Like all dictators he stashed cash all over the world

True to the deeds of all dictators, Gaddafi “took” and hid money out of his country. The Gaddafi family could have billions of dollars of funds hidden in secret bank accounts in Dubai, south-east Asia and the Persian Gulf, much of it likely to have come from Libya’s vast oil revenues, according to analysis by leading Middle East experts. Figures being bandied about in the immediate aftermath of Gaddafi’s death are reaching $160 billion and it will no doubt be along time before the real figure is known.

Shortfall in oil revenues

Professor Tim Niblock, a specialist in Middle Eastern politics at the University of Exeter, has identified a gap of several billion dollars a year between the amounts Libya makes from its oil reserves and government spending, a shortfall he expects has contributed greatly to the wealth of Muammar Gaddafi and his nine children.

Difficult to work out

"It is very, very difficult to work out with any degree of certainty just how much they have because the ruling elite hides it in all sorts of places," said Niblock, who is also vice president of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies.

Where?

Where the Gaddafis have hidden their vast funds is anybody’s guess, although Niblock expects that most of it is "in bank accounts and liquid assets in Dubai, the Gulf and south-east Asia" rather than in relatively transparent countries such as the UK, where the Libyan state has invested in London properties and in companies such as Pearson Group, owner of the Financial Times. In addition to squirreling away much of their income, the Gaddafis have spent fortunes over the years propping up various African regimes, with Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe, widely acknowledged to be one of the recipients, Niblock said.

Assets

Most of the state’s investments are made by the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), a "sovereign wealth fund" set up in 2006 to spend the country’s oil money, which has an estimated $70 billion of assets. LIA bought 3% of Pearson last year for £224m, making it one of the group’s biggest shareholders. Its UK property investments include Portman House, a 146,550 square foot retail complex in Oxford Street, London, which houses retailers such as Boots and New Look, and an office at 14 Cornhill, opposite the Bank of England in the City.

UK interests

About 150 British companies have established a presence in Libya since the US and Europe lifted economic sanctions in 2004, after the country renounced terrorism, ceased its nuclear weapons program and handed over two suspects in the Lockerbie bombing case.

Oil Companies

The high profilers have been the oil companies, keen to tap Libya’s vast reserves of fossil fuels. In a deal brokered in 2007, BP signed a £560m exploration agreement allowing it to search for oil and gas, offshore and onshore, in a joint venture with the Libya Investment Corporation. Shell is also exploring for oil in Libya as western companies seek to capitalize on a country with the largest oil reserves in Africa and substantial supplies of gas. High street retailers such as Marks & Spencer, Next, Monsoon and Accessorize have also set up in the country to serve the growing middle-class population, as oil revenues have "trickled down" into the broader Libyan population.

Obama Touts Jobs Plan for Veterans

admin — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 13:54:46 +0000

Companies have promised to hire 25,000 veterans

Here’s a drop of good news: President Barack Obama on Wednesday praised a series of companies that have promised to hire 25,000 veterans or military spouses within two years, calling it a sign of patriotism and business savvy. He pushed his economic agenda anew to a military audience.

No fighting for jobs

"We ask you to fight, to sacrifice, to risk your lives for your country," Obama told an audience of thousands of people at Joint Base Langley-Eustis. "The last thing you should have to do is fight for a job when you come home. Not here. Not in the United States of America."

Major companies

In their comments, Obama sought to assure veterans and their families that the country was behind them and that employers are, too. The American Logistics Association, which includes major companies like Tyson Foods Inc. and Coca-Cola Co., is pledging to hire 25,000 people by the end of 2013. The president said that every company should want to hire veterans because of their leadership experience, mastery of cutting-edge technology and other skills. Obama is asking Congress to approve separate tax credits worth thousands of dollars for businesses that hire veterans who’ve been out of work for at least six months, including those with disabilities.

Returning Heroes tax credit

Obama has proposed a Returning Heroes tax credit of up to $5,600 for businesses that hire unemployed veterans who have been out of work for six months or more, as well as a Wounded Warriors tax credit of nearly $10,000 for unemployed veterans with service-related disabilities who also have been looking for work for at least six months.

Vote for it

"When I first proposed this idea in a joint session of Congress, people stood up and applauded on both sides of the aisle," Obama said about tax credits to encourage hiring of veterans. "So when it comes for a vote in the Senate, I expect to get votes from both sides of the aisle. Don’t just applaud about it. Vote for it."

Jobs bill

As Obama has been traveling, lawmakers back in Washington were taking the first steps to break his nearly $450 billion jobs bill into pieces for possible votes. It’s the only way elements of the measure stand a chance of passing, given that Senate Republicans blocked action on the full package last week. The bus trip has given the president the opportunity to promote elements of his jobs plan in places the White House says would benefit most should the measures pass.

Teacher layoffs

Obama has spoken at high schools and community colleges where the administration says new spending would prevent teacher layoffs, as well as a small, regional area airport near Asheville, N.C., where Obama pressed for government funds to renovate an outdated runway.

Latest on jobs

Today’s news on jobs is that new claims for unemployment benefits fell last week, according to a government report on Thursday that showed layoffs in recent weeks had dropped to levels last seen in April.

The Money Go Round – a Joke

admin — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 15:55:14 +0000

On the shores of the Black Sea

It is raining and the little town looks totally deserted. It is going through tough times, everybody is in debt and everybody is living on credit. Suddenly, a rich tourist comes to town. He enters the only hotel, lays a 100 Euro note on the reception counter, and goes to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to choose one.

The hotel proprietor takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the butcher. The butcher takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the goat farmer. The goat farmer takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the supplier of his feed and fuel. The supplier of feed and fuel takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the town’s prostitute that in these hard times, gave him “services" on credit.

The hooker runs to the hotel, and pays off her debt with the 100 Euro note to the hotel proprietor to pay for the rooms that she rented when she brought her clients there.

The hotel proprietor then lays the 100 Euro note back on the counter so that the rich tourist will not suspect anything. At that moment, the tourist comes down after inspecting all the rooms, and takes his 100 Euro note, after saying that he did not like any of the rooms, and leaves town.

No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now without debt, and looks to the future with a lot of optimism.

Anti-Wall Street Movement Spreading By the Day

admin — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 16:22:51 +0000

Wall Street goes global!

We could be seeing the start of a worldwide pandemic, meaning “an epidemic of infectious disease that is spreading through human populations across multiple continents, or even worldwide”. Throughout the country, from several dozen people in Jackson, Miss., to some 2,000 each in Pittsburgh and Chicago, the protest gained momentum.

Sunday the day of rest

The protesters at the heart of the Occupy Wall Street movement were planning a day of rest Sunday, a day after rallies across the globe drew thousands who marched and chanted and, in some cases, grew violent. In New York City, the group that insists on being leaderless had nothing on its agenda save its nightly assembly and one committee meeting. In the weeks that the protesters have occupied a park in lower Manhattan, Sundays have been used to recuperate.

Chicago

In Chicago, about 175 people were arrested in the early hours after refusing to obey a police order to leave a park that closed at 11 p.m. They were in somewhat of a contrast to demonstrators elsewhere, who have taken care to follow laws in order to continue protesting. Still, the arrests were mostly peaceful, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Rome

Saturday, billed as "a global day of protest", demonstrators gathered in cities throughout the world to rally against what they see as corporate greed and Wall Street’s role in the financial crisis. In Rome, rioters hijacked a peaceful gathering and smashed windows, tore up sidewalks and torched vehicles. Repair costs were estimated at $1.4 million, the mayor said Sunday.

The banks

As many as 1,000 demonstrators also paraded to a Chase bank branch in New York, banging drums, blowing horns and carrying signs decrying corporate greed. A few went inside the bank to close their accounts, but the group didn’t stop other customers from getting inside or seek to blockade the business. Lily Paulina of Brooklyn said she was taking her money out because she was upset that JPMorgan Chase was making billions of dollars, while its customers struggled with bank fees and home foreclosures. "The Chase bank is making tons of money off of everyone, while people in the working class are fighting just to keep a living wage in their neighborhood," the 29-year-old United Auto Workers organizer said.

Europe

Overseas, tens of thousands nicknamed "The Indignant" marched in cities across Europe, as the protests that began in New York linked up with long-running demonstrations against government cost-cutting and failed financial policies in Europe. Protesters also turned out in Australia and Asia.

Another Facebook revolution

Just like the social revolutions that hit Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria, Israel and other countries, this economic protest will spin out of control very quickly. Directed by email postings, it is virtually impossible to stop it. It is in the nature of a “happening” instead of an armed uprising. What’s interesting is the outcome: will this cause a change in the global economy which is teetering anyway or will it just die from natural causes in the end? Difficult to predict.

Pull Out Your Money – Its That Time Of The Year Again

admin — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 10:24:39 +0000

The 2012 cars are on the way

Despite the fragile economy, American car buyers are lining up to test drive fuel-efficient four-doors. The demand for automobiles, coupled with a comeback in production for Japanese carmakers, means the auto industry is heating up. For car buyers there are plenty of great models to choose from, from domestic as well as import brands. Yet there’s always that nagging feeling: is it worth waiting for something even better just around the corner?

Toyota

If you’re looking for a mid-sized family car, wait until 2012, when most of the biggest sellers in this category will be redesigned and updated with more efficient engines and advanced technologies. Toyota Motors is rolling out a new version of its Camry, and next year, virtually all of its major rivals will be updated too. That will be the best time for car shopping.

GM Malibu

GM is aiming to get a jump on the rest of the pack by moving up the debut of the 2013 Chevrolet Malibu ECO by three months, to early 2012. It’s a so-called "mild hybrid" that gets 38 miles per gallon through the use of an electric-motor generator and features like regenerative braking and start-stop technology, providing nice fuel economy without the price premium of some other hybrids on the market.

Ford, Honda and Nissan

Take a look at new Ford Fusion, featuring a sleek design previewed in the EVOS concept form. The production version will debut in January at the Detroit auto show, and will go on sale later in 2012. Also expected next year are redesigned versions of the Honda Accord and Nissan Altima, two other big players in the mid-sized segment. No doubt it’ll be a buyers’ market for mid-sized cars. Later this year, Honda will be rolling out its 2012 CR-V, with more aggressive styling and better fuel economy, and Ford will be introducing a redesigned 2012 Escape, with three new fuel-efficient engine choices, including a 1.6-liter EcoBoost engine that is expected to get better highway mileage than the current 31-mpg Escape Hybrid. Toyota is also expected to introduce a new version of the Rav4, including a plug-in version developed with electric vehicle maker Tesla Motors.

Tesla

The creator of the $100,000 plug-in Tesla roadster will start selling a more affordable electric sedan, the $50,000 Model S, in mid-2012. It’ll debut with a 300-mile range battery, followed by smaller batteries later next year. The Model S will go a long way toward establishing whether Tesla has staying power as an independent carmaker.

Hybrid-electric

There are a number of other plug-ins and hybrid-electric vehicles coming to market in 2012, including a plug-in version of Toyota’s Prius hybrid. Toyota has two other Prius derivatives also launching in 2012. Meanwhile Ford, which is launching its Focus EV before the end of the year, will add two new plug-in vehicles in 2012, the C-MAX Hybrid and C-MAX Energi. Both are small, five-passenger minivans.

If you are a speed merchant, you won’t have to wait long for the redesigned 2012 Porsche 911 Carrera. It goes on sale starting in February. Chevrolet is also introducing the fastest Camaro convertible ever, the 2013 ZL1, with 580 horsepower, in the showrooms in late 2012.

This Is the Right Time to Finance

admin — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 14:45:07 +0000

If you qualify, here’s how

Mortgage rates are at their lowest levels ever, making this a great opportunity to refinance. However, those who want to refinance in today’s tough lending environment face hurdles. Credit scores must be higher than they used to be. Debt loads must be smaller. Employment must be documented. The biggest obstacle is a lack of home equity. Some people owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. They’re considered "underwater." Banks aren’t inclined to lend to them. But for those with stable jobs, extra cash, little debt and some home equity, low rates could allow for sharply reduced mortgage payments.

When refinancing is impossible

The lowest rates are generally reserved for those with credit scores of 720 or more, said Mark Goldman, a Southern California mortgage broker who lectures at San Diego State University. About 40 percent of US homeowners have scores that high.

You’ll also typically need at least 10 percent equity in your home. Depending on where your home is, the required equity might be as high as 20 percent. “Only the select few can qualify," said Goldman.

When to refinance

If you’ve been paying your mortgage for 15 years or more, it’s sometimes not wise to refinance. In the latter years of a mortgage, a larger portion of your payment applies to principal. That builds equity. If you refinance late in your loan and don’t reduce the loan’s duration from, say 30 to 15 years, you’ll build less equity. In some states, you might also face prepayment penalties if you pay off your mortgage early or refinance. In some cases, though, these penalties can be waived.

What you may need

Homeowners need to produce pay stubs and bank statements to document assets and income. Lenders generally frown on household debt that exceeds 45 percent of a family’s gross income. A solid credit score of at least 680 is also important, said Mike Anderson, a broker. That’s because lower credit are typically subject to higher extra fees. "Once you get below 680, it gets dicey," said Anderson. "With all the add-on fees, it may not be worth it." The low rates, if they can be had, can produce big savings. A homeowner would have to pay roughly $1,074 a month for a 30-year, $200,000 fixed mortgage at 5 percent. If that rate were cut to 4 percent, the payment would drop to $955. The savings would be $119 a month, or $1,428 a year.

What will it cost?

Homeowners typically pay a few thousand in closing costs. An appraisal fee can cost 1 percent of the loan value. Extra costs include application, inspection, notary and recording fees. These fees, called points, now average 0.8 point on a 30-year fixed mortgage. One point equals 1 percent of the loan amount. That means the 0.8 percent in extra fees on a $200,000 loan would run $1,600. An example of how fees can increase costs: This week’s average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage is 3.94 percent. It’s the first time it’s ever been below 4 percent. But once extra fees are added in, the effective average rate rises to 4.12 percent.

Everyone Has A Money Story…

admin — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 11:33:18 +0000

If you had problems understanding the recent financial mess, this might help clear things up

Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Detroit. She realizes that virtually all of her customers are unemployed and, as such, can no longer afford to patronize her bar.

To solve this problem, she comes up with a new marketing plan that allows her customers to drink now, but pay later. Heidi keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers’ loans).

Word gets around

Word gets around about Heidi’s "drink now, pay later" marketing strategy and, as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Heidi’s bar. Soon she has the largest sales volume for any bar in Detroit. By providing her customers freedom from immediate payment demands, Heidi gets no resistance when, at regular intervals, she substantially increases her prices for wine and beer, the most consumed beverages.

Consequently, Heidi’s gross sales volume increases massively.

The bank

A young and dynamic vice-president at Heidi’s local bank recognizes that these customer debts constitute valuable future assets and increases Heidi’s borrowing limit.

He sees no reason for any undue concern, since he has the debts of the unemployed alcoholics as collateral! At the bank’s corporate headquarters, expert traders figure a way to make huge commissions, and transform these customer loans into DRINK BONDS. These "securities" then are bundled and traded on international securities markets.

Investors

Naive investors don’t really understand that the securities being sold to them as "AAA Secured Bonds" really are debts of unemployed alcoholics. Nevertheless, the bond prices continuously climb, and the securities soon become the hottest-selling items for some of the nation’s leading brokerage houses.

The risk manager

One day, even though the bond prices still are climbing, a risk manager at the original local bank decides that the time has come to demand payment on the debts incurred by Heidi’s bar. He so informs Heidi and she demands payment from her alcoholic patrons, but being unemployed alcoholics they cannot pay back their drinking debts.

Bankruptcy

Since Heidi cannot fulfill her loan obligations to the bank she is forced into bankruptcy. The bar closes and Heidi’s 11 employees lose their jobs. Overnight, DRINK BOND prices drop by 90%. The collapsed bond asset value destroys the bank’s liquidity and prevents it from issuing new loans, thus freezing credit and economic activity in the community. The suppliers of Heidi’s bar had granted her generous payment extensions and had invested their firms’ pension funds in the BOND securities. They find they are now faced with having to write off her bad debt and with losing over 90% of the presumed value of the bonds.

The wine supplier

Her wine supplier also claims bankruptcy, closing the doors on a family business that had endured for three generations, her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor, who immediately closes the local plant and lays off 150 workers. In addition, the laid-off workers’ pension funds and IRA’S all suffer substantial loss in value.

Bailout

Fortunately though, the bank, the brokerage houses and their respective executives are saved and bailed out by a multibillion dollar no-strings attached cash infusion from the government. The funds required for this bailout are obtained by new taxes levied on employed, middle-class, nondrinkers who have never been in or heard of Heidi’s bar.

Now do you understand?

If You Are Thinking Of Retiring, Think Again

admin — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 10:16:25 +0000

For Many Seniors, There May Be No Retirement

When I was 40 years old and I thought wistfully about retirement in another 20 years or so, it all seemed so romantic. Huge pension, unlimited money, great car, little cottage with a picket fence, the whole 9 yards. Now I’m 67 and there is no way I can even think of retirement. The problem? Everything is so expensive. My once great pension is now a pittance. Like many older people, my money is in my home. … I’m stuck.

Unexpected expenses

In the 1990s my mother became ill and needed long-term care so I tapped my individual retirement account for funds and stopped making contributions. Then came the tumultuous stock-market ups and downs of the past decade, dealing the IRA another blow. To make ends meet, I went back to work part time last September, as a data-entry clerk at a senior center. I now hope to retire by age 70, but I’ll have a hard time doing so if I can’t sell my house. Many older people find themselves in this position: still working or in need of a job.

Keep on working

More than three in five U.S. workers in their 50s and 60s plan on working past 65 and 47% of that group say they’ll do so because they’ll need the money or health benefits. In this tight labor market, working into your golden years isn’t easy. And you’ll have to make your age and years on the job come across as assets, not liabilities. In addition, with the current market upheaval, you’ll need a financial plan that puts your savings on the fast track and takes into account how Social Security and Medicare benefits could be affected.

Same job

For many older workers, the easiest option may be to continue with their current employer. This means making themselves essential. Workers should take on new projects when possible. And it’s crucial to stay on top of the latest technology being used; you don’t want to be perceived as the old guy who doesn’t know what’s going on. Older employees also can put their experience to use by volunteering to mentor younger workers either formally or informally.

If you cannot

Of course, some workers may have to take illness or physical limitations into account. If you feel like you can no longer manage physical labor, late hours or travel, talk to your manager about moving to a different position, says Beverly Harvey, a career coach. Suggest the position you’d like to move to and show how you’re qualified for it, she says.

Phased retirement

Another option is phased retirement programs that let workers gradually reduce their hours, says Cornelia Gamlem, president of human-resources consulting firm GEMS Group. There also are job-sharing arrangements, she says. For instance, if you and a co-worker are both thinking of paring your work hours, approach management with a plan detailing how you could divide your time and responsibilities. Just keep in mind that a change to your full-time status could affect your eligibility for benefits such as health insurance or a 401(k) match.

Are You Trying to Rent In This Landlord Market?

admin — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 10:00:20 +0000

It’s a landlord’s delight

Renting an apartment was never a cake-walk, but it was fairly straight forward. Now easy renting is history. Renting an apartment in this crumbling economy has become a nightmare. More and more people are looking to rent, while the number of available rentals is down. Landlords have the upper hand and can afford to be much more selective about who they rent to. The renter has to be savvier than ever to ensure a happy outcome.

Not good for the renter

According to Christina Argon of EBay, rents went up 2 percent in the first quarter of 2011 and are expected to rise 3 or 4 percent over the rest of the year. Vacancy rates, however, are dropping as renters are choosing to stay put. Vacancy rates are down 6.2 percent from this time last year. The trends point to an improvement in the housing market and may be an early sign of economic recovery. It is not, however, currently a great position for the renter to be in. Rents are rising, vacancies are scarcer, competition is tougher for properties, and landlords are less willing to make concessions or offer incentives.

Study the market

But there are many things a prospective tenant can do to hedge bets in the rental game. The first is to begin early and do your research. Start a month or two before your current lease expires. Once you find a house or apartment you like, contact the County Clerk to search the public records for legal action or liens against the property. Remember, each rental you apply for will require a background search with accompanying application fee. It is best to narrow the field as much as possible ahead of time.

Check, check, check

Landlords today routinely check credit scores and criminal backgrounds. While some blotches on the credit report do not necessarily spell rejection from landlords, they will be turned off by consistent late payments on utilities and other bills. Make sure your background is clean. One or two minor marks will not disqualify a person, but any pattern of legal problems could be very difficult to overcome.

Lock in a lease

When you find the place that you can afford and that meets your needs, and your landlord approves of you, Argon suggests trying to lock that rate into a lease of 12 or 18 months. Experts say rents will only go up in the foreseeable future. Keep it as low as you can for as long as you can.

Less than a third of income

Another factor to consider is what you can afford. You may have set ideas on this, depending on your own needs and spending patterns. But one needs to consider this from the landlord’s perspective. Generally speaking, a landlord will consider a prospective tenant who earns at least three times the rent. A person looking to rent an apartment for $1,000 a month will likely be rejected if they do not have an income of $3,000 a month, or roughly $39,000 annually.

My Grandchildren and Apple

admin — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 16:02:14 +0000

We have become a no-talk family

Steve Jobs didn’t hit a home run every time, but he got more men on base than most CEOs, and that made all the difference. He certainly succeeded with my family. The children and grandchildren were over for dinner on Sunday and after the usual greeting and kiss, each of them hauled his personal Apple piece out of his pocket and retreated into the instrument. Conversation ceased.

Apple instruments

Three grandsons are post school and waiting to go to college. They are all in search of jobs while they wait for the year to begin. All 3, as far as I could see, had iPads in their hands and when I did manage to squeeze a question in, I asked what they were so busy with. They replied that they are combing the Internet looking for jobs. Two younger grandchildren were busy with iPods, both bought with their own earnings, they assured me. It seems that they both have great reputations as baby sitters and waiters down at the beach cafe. They were playing games that made my mind boggle.

Oh that iPhone

I’m seriously thinking of trading in my old steam-driven first generation mobile phone for one of these iPhones, the latest model 4S. My main problems is that knowing Steve Jobs and the legacy he left at Apple, my 4S model will be made obsolete by Model 5 as I leave the store. Three grandchildren were busy with their iPhones as we sat and talked after dinner. When I asked what they were doing, I got a couple of smothered answers and an explanation from a parent, “they’re probably playing games against each other!” And that’s exactly what they were doing.

Apple stock

Apple’s stock is up an astonishing 7,000% since Jobs returned from an exile in 1997, much of the success came from steady, patient work, not brilliant flashes of inspiration. But it was also combined with understanding what people want, that people always want the latest, and most important of all, a fine understanding of “the next step”. When the iPod landed in his lap Jobs was quick to seize on it and refine it over years, turning a mere gadget into a lifestyle.

The Apps

I had to ask 3 times what an “App” is and I finally had it explained to me. These iPod and iPads are partly ‘empty shells’ into which you can add all sorts of Apps, meaning software programs like games, calculators, books, newspapers and magazines, There is a huge selection of Apps. Some are free and for others, and here is Steve Jobs’ genius, you have to pay. Not large amounts, but you have to pay a few dollars for a game or the right to read the New York Times on your iPhone. Of course if a few million iPad or iPod users buy an App for $2.99 you would be talking about $9 million. And if that happens a couple of times a day or week, well… Apple will be laughing. The whole concept is sheer genius.

The Man Who Changed the World

admin — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 09:52:23 +0000

Steve Jobs dead at 56

I bought an iPad exactly 1 year ago and from the second day I had it, I understood that it is a sophisticated money-making making machine. In addition, it changed my life and many of the ways that I pass the time. All that is due to Steve Jobs, the modern day visionary, who changed the world. People like him come very rarely and they leave a huge footprint on out planet

The college drop-out

A college drop-out and the son of adoptive parents, Jobs changed the technology world in the late 1970s, when the Apple II became the first personal computer to gain a wide following. He did it again in 1984 with the Macintosh, which he built on the breakthrough technologies developed at Xerox Parc and elsewhere to create the personal computing experience as we know it today. The rebel streak that’s central to his persona got him tossed out of the company in 1985, but he returned in 1997 and after a few years began the rollout of a troika of products: the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad, that again upended the established order in major industries. Steve Jobs changed the daily habits of millions around the globe.

Homage

His death after a years-long battle with pancreatic cancer sparked an immediate outpouring of tributes as world leaders, business rivals and fans alike lamented the tragedy of his premature passing and celebrated his monumental achievements. President Barack Obama said: "The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented." Fans paid homage to Jobs outside Apple stores around the world, from Los Angeles to Sydney. Outside one store in New York City, mourners laid candles, bouquets of flowers, an apple and an iPod Touch in a makeshift memorial. In San Francisco, they held up black-and-white portraits of Jobs on their iPads. Many websites, including Apple’s own, were transformed into online memorials, a testament to the digital creativity that Jobs inspired.

Net Worth

Jobs in his trademark uniform of black mock-turtleneck and blue jeans, was deemed the heart and soul of a company that rivals Exxon Mobil as the most valuable in America. Forbes estimates Jobs’ net worth at $7 billion. It was not immediately known how his estate would be handled.

The Apple start

Born in San Francisco, son of adoptive parents, Jobs started Apple Computer with friend Steve Wozniak in his parent’s garage 1976. Six years ago, Jobs had talked about how a sense of his mortality was a major driver behind that vision.

History

Following high school graduation in 1972, Jobs enrolled at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Although he dropped out after only one semester he continued auditing classes at Reed, while sleeping on the floor in friends’ rooms, returning Coke bottles for food money, and getting weekly free meals at the local Hare Krishna temple. Jobs later said, "If I had never dropped in on that single calligraphy course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts."

Rest in Peace, Steve Jobs.

Can You Save Too Much For Retirement?

admin — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 08:23:37 +0000

How much is enough?

Life is an ever-changing scene. We have no idea what will be tomorrow, or next year or at the time we are about to retire. We have to find some sort of balance that makes sense today and will make sense in the future, not an easy task. Will taxes go up? What about inflation? How much do I need in retirement to continue my lifestyle? With so many questions, spread out across so many years, it’s hard to know if you’re saving too much or too little unless you do a little planning.

Retirement plans

Most retirement investment planning, at least when you’re in your early twenties, focuses on two accounts – a 401(k) and an IRA, typically a Roth IRA. The contribution limits are $16,500 for the 401(k) and $4,000 for the IRA, higher if you are permitted a catch-up contribution due to your age. If you were to max out your contribution to both, that’s a hefty $20,500 a year towards your retirement. That’s a lot of money for anyone to be contributing and I’d argue that contributing $20,500 each year until you retire is too much. Unless you make a lot of money, contributing that amount will put a significant strain on your current lifestyle and that’s a tradeoff that you may not want to make.

Calculating How Much

How much will you need in retirement? Ask ten people and you’ll get ten numbers. They will all be wrong. I do something simple, I calculate how much money I need to live on today and use the 4% rule. The 4% rule is a retirement rule of thumb that says you can only spend 4% of your nest egg each year if you want it to last for the rest of your life. With appreciation and interest, a 4% drawdown is ideal. That means if you want $40,000 a year in income, you’ll need a $1 million in retirement savings. If you want $80,000 a year, that’s $2 million. Calculating how much you need will depend on your lifestyle, so that’s up to you.

Retirement age

From there, you’ll want to set the finish line at 65 (or whenever), and calculate how much you need to save each year in order to reach that number. Then, calculate how much those savings will grow given rates of appreciation (minus inflation). You can use whatever growth rate you feel comfortable with, I personally use 7% (and 3% inflation). That will give you how much you need to save each year.

Taxes

One point I purposely overlooked was taxes. Contributions to your 401(k) are tax deductible but you pay income taxes on the disbursements during retirement. If you need $80,000 a year and it comes entirely from a 401(k), you’ll need to save for more because you’ll be taxed on that income. I conveniently ignored it because it complicates things and I just figured that any Social Security payments would help offset that tax so that the math would come out close enough. I could be wrong but for the sake of simplicity, that’s where we’re going.

So, are you on track with your retirement savings?