Apr

26

Is your job secure (as much as it can be for these times)?

Have you been saving to buy a home?

Is your credit good?

…and the Government has a program that could put up to $8000 dollars you pay to them back into your pocket.

For more information read “First time home buyer tax credit.”

Apr

22

Commercial: CITI
“If you are stuggling to make payments your credit card is here to help”

Who exactly are these jokers talking to?

Those of us that do not use credit card all that much?

–or–

The people that have a problem with credit they fed more and more credit to for years and now have jacked up their rates to over 30%?

Many people that carry balances have found their credit line slashed (not such a bad thing) and their monthly interest rates raised above 30%.

Credit card companies have a captive audience they can now feed upon like loan sharks for awhile. These organizations screwed you by providing you access to cheap credit. Now they are screwing you by charging you massive interest.

What does 30% interest look like on a 10,000 balance?

If you plan on paying off the card in 36 months it looks like this:
Monthly Payment: $424.52
Interest Paid: $5,287.57

Back when you had a 12% rate it would have cost you $332.14 a month to pay off the balance over three years.

If you continue to make the minimum monthly payment (4% per month on the unpaid balance) here is what that looks like
Payment Period: 10 years
Interest Paid: $13,949.00
Balance still owed after 10 years: $1630.60

You monthly payment at $10,000 is $400.00. The balance declines each month. But, the credit card company is counting on you to continue using your card to keep the balance at or around $10,000.

A serious question for you…

Are your planning on no longer using your card?

Welcome to financial slavery.

It is time to cut up those cards and start paying them off. If you can trasnfer the balance to a lower interest card do so. But pay it off. Even if you can get a 20% rate it will only cost you $371.64 to pay it off over 4 years. That saves you a bit over $50 a month.

You will find more information and a link to a free Excel spreadsheet you can use to figure out how to get out of credit card debt.
http://www.everydollarmatters.com/your_debt.php

 

Apr

20

This is from my friend Earl. I thought it was provacative enough that I wanted to post it here so other could read it. As I have been saying for some time now, this mess was created by greedy businessmen that turned our banks and corporations into casino’s, and by a very small % of the American public that they allowed to live beyond their means feeding them more and more credit like a pusher would feed more crack to a junkie!

It is refreshing to hear others speaking up.

————————–

I have been doing a lot of research on the economic collapse the last few months and this is what finally surfaced..

It is now well understood what caused this… Not Democrats or Republicans. It’s both.
The systematic sale of America by our politicians / large companies is complete and it finally blew up in their face. They have taken almost 6 billion dollars in PAC money over the last 18 years from banking and Wall Street firms which have paid for the reconstruction of the monetary system to screw mainstream America. (This isn’t counting what they received from other special interest groups.) The frame work for the sub prime loans, hedge funds and everything else that was passed in to law such as the lessened ability for normal people to file for bankruptcy, credit card laws that allow banks to change your rate at will, was all bought and paid for with this money. We are now giving the same people who sold us out the ability to spend another 2 trillion dollars to try and cover their mistake.

America has turned from one of the largest manufacturers in the world to an economy based on “consumerism”.
Once the parasites realized what a wonderful host they had in the American consumer, they started doing everything possible to squeeze the blood out of profit margins and bottom lines. They paid laws so that companies could send nearly all of American manufacturing jobs over seas. They made pacts with world trade powers / parasites, which have made it impossible for Americans to get out of the “Host” role. Case in point. When Obama said he would rebuild our infrastructure with American workers and American products, the world trade community immediately filed a complaint stating that it would break trade laws and that we would have to use their materials.  This shows that we don’t even own our country anymore. It is run by the rich of the world  Jobs have gone; people have been taken by banks (mortgages) Wall Street (401k’s) Big Companies (NAFTA, World Trade, out sourcing).  A normal American does not have access to these politicians like big money / special interests and they do not have our needs in mind only their own. Our economy is bust because the teat has run dry. Simple math shows that if you take away our ability to earn money, then you have taken away our ability to consume. Plain and simple.  They have essentially cut off the tree limb while sitting on the wrong side.  But what do they care.. They made billions! If I made 10 billion dollars before the collapse and lost half after…  I’d still have 5 billion dollars..!!!..
Thus, now the free fall. The 2 trillion dollars was used to patch what is an already flawed system.  It won’t work unless a complete revamp of the “paid for policies” and world trade agreements.

Enough of my rant of realism..  I am tired of America being split in half by Republicans / Democrats. We are Americans and we have been sold out by a system that has been twisted to the point that it doesn’t work nor will ever work. I am embarrassed when we try to push our Democracy oops I mean “Greedocracy” upon other countries. No wonder they hate us..  I believe in a country where a simple man can go from rags to riches but I also believe that our country should “have our backs”. But this is not the case any more..  You are a number on a spread sheet.  The politicians are not accountable for the “Great Fleecing”. They can just say “Opps I made bad decision!”
The only power “Joe Six-pack” has in today’s economy is to unite economically. For example: Don’t buy gas for one day. Don’t pay taxes.
Do you know what would happen to this country is every American changed their tax exemptions to ten and then not pay at the end of the year? Would they arrest everyone in the country? I would guarantee they would start listening then. Maybe we need to demand that any government employee that takes a bribe or special interest money and is caught is accused and charged with treason. From the president to the guy who inspects the peanut butter plant.

God Bless America and God Bless Americans! ( I do not consider the stool-worms that got us into this mess Americans..)

Thanks for listening… I look forward to responses from anyone who cares..

Apr

19

I recently added a page talking about buying stocks on 2009. We all pretty much took a beating anywhere from 30-50%.

This does not mean we should completely abandon the market. When investing it is always prudent to take the long view. Warren Buffet does and it works for him.

But, I want to caution you. The medias mentality is still “day to day.” They advice us as if we are all mutual fund or hedge fund managers that need to show some substantial gain each quarter.

Anyhow, the objectives for being in the market for 2009 are…

  • Buy solid companies with solid futures
  • Preferably buy companies that consistantly pay dividends
  • Only commit money if you can afford to hold the security for 3 years or more
  • If your securities rise, put trade triggers in place to guarantee a profit. If you are interested in more of the details click here

    •  

    Apr

    16

    In the face of all the evidence that has surfaced that the previous administration sponsored torture, your decision to look forward is really a decision to close your eyes and ignore this cancer. But closing ones eyes has never made cancer go away, nor will it here.

    I do not care how obscene these people we captured may have been. To stoop to their tactics only makes our behavior the same as theirs.

    Your decision was nothing more than playing politics. Sorry, it is time to play justice.

     

    Apr

    15

    I do not want to minimize the protests of the Tea-Baggers. They have a right like every one of us to protest and speak their mind…

    Okay…FOX fair and balanced news promoted the Tea Bag events with more press and fever than they promote American Idol. Hannity, Cavuto, and all the other biased right-wing entertainers showed up. They all declared this a great success?

    Each day I watch shows like Countdown and Racheal Maddow. Why? Strictly for entertainment value. Every day I think what is the right wing media going to do today to top what they did yesterday. These days they seldom let me down. The amount of material they have to work with would be the envy of most comedy sitcom writers. I am sure Larry David is quite envious.

    Make no mistake, the folks on the left are biased every bit as much as those on the right. Biased, but not absurd. The Fox tea-bag coverage was a joke. The Cameras had to take tight shots because the turnouts were so small. Think about this… there are millions of registered Republicans and they could not come up with a turnout that was higher than the average attendance to a Sacramento River Cats game.

    Seriously, until we can get people like Colin Powell back in the conservative game, and find some right-wing entertainers that are not stooges we can have a counterpoint to the current administration.

    But really what Americans are looking for at the moment is everyone to come to the table with their ideas and a willingness to solve problems. The right wing response these days sounds a lot like someone in a row boat that created a leak and is now complaining about the ways that the others are bailing the water out.

    Note to Fox news entertainers. I believe todays turnout spoke loud and clear what your own base thought about the event, let alone the rest of us!

    Keep entertaining me folks. These days we all need a good laugh.

    Apr

    14

    Don’t you find it ironic that is is not Bloomberg TV, CNBC, or even the Wall Street Journal or Barrons where you can find objective reporting. No, we have to go to Jon Stewart and the Daily Show on the Comedy Channel to get real investigative journalism when it comes to Business Reporting.

    Apr

    11

    Glenn Beck can come up with some real doosies, but this one was even out there for Beck.

    Today he had Thomas Paine come back from the dead (I am not making this up) and give a speach about our current times and call us pretty much to insurrection against our government.

    Apr

    9

    I think we forget that majority out there are the people who have managed their finances in a sane and conservative way. For many of us that can stay employed these can be some good years for investing your money and saving for your retirement.

    I am not trying to be a cheerleader here. In fact, I think we are years from getting out of this mess. But, I look at this this way. If you are fifty [My Son’s definition of antiquity] you still have fifteen years until retirement. That is certainly enough time to to have a long position with respect to your finances.

    Blogs are really a transient form of communiction. Many of the subjects I want to address are far from transient. They are lifelong behaviors. As such, these blogs are going to be little more than a brief description and a link to a page on my site.

    My main focus for this is for people who are in good finanacial shape. If this is not your case my main site has a great deal of content for people that need to dig themselves out. You can start by “clicking here”.

    For those of you that do not need to start at the beginning… I hope my first topic does not drive you away. But, I felt real strong about leading off with this.

    “click here”. 

     

    Apr

    7

    If you read the Red Cross Report titled “ICRS Report on the Treatment of Fourteen High Value Detainees in CIA Custody” and answer yes then you need to take a close look in the mirror.

    I am not soft on crime. I think the people whose life work is to plot to kill us need to be hunted, captured, and brought to justice through due process. What we did in Guantanomo IS CRIMINAL, and the people that sponsored this need to be brought to justice.

    What we did makes us no better than Bin Laden, no better than Pol Pot, no better than the nut job Nazis. This matter is not about Democrats or Republicans. This matter is not about our National security.

    This is a matter strictly about what is right and what is wrong.

    I DO NOT understand the current Administration’s reluctance to deal with this matter. Frankly, this matter is more important than any other problem our nation is currently facing. Not dealing with this head-on is a real threat to our integrity as a Democratic nation.

    Read for yourself. http://www.nybooks.com/icrc-report.pdf

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