November 10th, 2009 — retirement
2008 everyone lost their shirt.
2009 everyone gets their shirt back?
Year to Date Jan 1, 2009 to Oct 31, 2009: 26.49%
This year going well for retirement accounts, if you left them alone. Did you leave yours alone? Or did you make some radical changes? If so what happened?
February 20th, 2009 — debt, economy
The government is promoting bad behavior, because we certainly don’t want to put stimulus forth and give people a whopping 8 or 10 dollars in their check and think that they ought to save it. And in terms of modifications. I’ll tell you what, I have an idea, the new administration is big on computers and technology, how about this President and new administration. Why don’t you put up a website to have people vote on the internet as a referendum to see if we really want to subsidize the losers mortgages, or would we like to at least buy cars and buy houses in foreclosure and give them to people who might have a chance to actually prosper down the road, and reward people that could carry the water instead of drink the water.
Rick…Rick, they’re like putty in your hands..did you hear that.
No, no they’re not Joe, they’re not putty in our hands.
This is America, how many of you people want to pay for your neighbors mortgage…that has an extra bathroom and can’t pay their bills. Raise their hand. President Obama are you listening?
Cuba used to have mansions and a relatively decent economy they moved from the individual to collective now they are driving ‘54 Chevy’s. Maybe the last great car to come out of Detroit.
Hey Rick, how about the notion that was pointed out that you could go down to 2% on the mortgage…and still have 40% not be able to do it. So why are we trying to keep them in the house.
You can go down to -2% (mortgage interest rates), they still can’t afford the house.
I know Mr. Summers is a great economist, but I would love to know the answer to that one!
Were thinking of having a Chicago tea party in July. All you capitalist that want to show up at Lake Michigan, I’m going to start organizing it.
February 3rd, 2009 — debt, economy
How much money per taxpayer is all the bailout and stimulus really worth? Many taxpaying citizens like myself really do think the money would be better off going back to the taxpayers. But how much really?
I have heard numbers from $1 million per taxpayer, and other figures all over the place.
Here is your answer.
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/news/0901/gallery.money_summit/index.html
September 17th, 2008 — economy
What a mess.
What happened to letting the market work? I think our economy just took a huge step backward today. This bailout is saying, if you’re going to screw up, make sure you do it BIG BIG BIG. That way the US government will come in and save your behind.
How in the world can the Government justify this bailout, but not other bailouts? I believe we are now being setup for an ever large crushing blow in the future, this rescue attempt certainly will not and cannot work. The 85 billion may as well have been flushed down the toilet, or better at least been distributed out to taxpayers as a tax cut or a stimulus package.
This combination of a failing company combined with the federal government is like asking for a hangover. The US government has never successfully run any enterprise, now somehow they are going to be able to salvage AIG? Not going to happen. 2 years from now, when this “loan” comes due, AIG will be in the exact same position as today, and we’ll be extending or increasing the loan – directly from the tax payer. Again.
June 27th, 2007 — google calculators
Calculate your ending value from a simple compound investment, like a savings account.
June 25th, 2007 — debt
In an effort to help financial
services organizations collect on large volumes of uncollected debt,
Experian(R), a global information solutions provider, today announced the
launch of Collection Triggers(SM). Collection Triggers is a robust and
flexible collections solution that monitors a company’s portfolio of
collections accounts. When new information on one of these accounts becomes
available, indicating the possibility of recovering the debt, the organization
is notified within 24 hours and can then resume efforts to contact the
consumer and collect the outstanding debt.
So you are now getting back on your feet and are ready to start paying off old debt? The old advice was to just call one creditor at a time and setup a payment plan with them. This would avoid the barrage of calls and mail from all your old creditors at once, and allow you to pay off the debts one at a time. But if one of those creditors subscribes to this new collection trigger service, as soon as you start making payments to one creditor, you are going to “trigger” others to start coming after you.
Read the full press release: Experian Collection Triggers
June 14th, 2007 — taxes
Well it’s that time again tomorrow. If you file estimated quarterly taxes, better have your check book ready. This year the payments are really hurting to send in. The reason is your estimates are based on your previous years earnings. Well this year my earnings are down quite a bit. Sending in these payments is taking a much larger chunk of income than it did last year. I know I’ll get back the difference when I file my final yearly return, but still…
I guess I wouldn’t mind taxes as much if I thought the system was more fair, but it is sorely unfair right now. There is so much government waste and fraud that I feel my money is being flushed away. I see pictures on the news of hundreds of unused FEMA trailers sitting and rotting away in a parking lot down south. I think, one of those should be MY trailer, I bought it!
Anyway…that is my tax rant for the day.
March 11th, 2007 — news
Michigan was the only state in the nation to see its home prices decline in value in 2006. The national average was a 5.87 percent increase, compared with Michigan’s -0.44 percent decline. Ouch. Michigan has been losing so many jobs especially on the east side of the state, Detroit and the surrounding areas are seeing a skyrocketing foreclosure rate. Statistics like this are even more reason to stay away from risky loans and work to pay off your home. If you are on an interest only loan you received within the last few years, you are actually losing ground. In the past you could get away with interest only as you could count on your home value increasing.
Michigan needs a big turnaround, and soon. I am still bewildered why the people of Michigan re-elected Gov Granholm, instead of a proven business leader in Dick DeVos.
March 5th, 2007 — interest rates
Through 4/30/07 HSBC is offering a 6 % rate on savings accounts. This is only for “new money”. So it will not jump up the rate on any money you currently have on deposit (arg), but if you add new money to your account, it will receive the new rate. Here is the fine print on “new money”
New Money Period is January 29, 2007 through April 30, 2007. Starting Balance means the available balance in your account as of the close of business on January 26, 2007. New Money means funds not previously held by any member of the HSBC Group deposited during the New Money Period less any withdrawals, and it excludes your Starting Balance as calculated below. New Money must be in available funds for the promotional rate to apply.
February 23rd, 2007 — debt