Wed 31 Oct 2007
I first saw comedian Tim Slagle about a decade ago. He has a great act full of political and social commentary. One part of his act that always stuck with me was his Halloween Taxes bit:
Tim Slagle MP3’s can be downloaded at Amazon.com
Tue 30 Oct 2007
Okay, no realtors really said anything that pessimistic. But realtors are coming under fire for being too optimistic.
Hey, realtors are just salespeople and what salesperson would be suicidal enough to tell you it’s a terrible time to buy their product? Are they painting an overly rosy picture? Maybe. But I’m kinda glad they are. I can guarantee you the home market will not improve if realtors go around preaching doom and gloom. How can you expect America home-buyers to get optimistic if the realtors aren’t?
Sun 28 Oct 2007
I have a credit card that I haven’t used in over a year and it has no balance on it. The card issuer (whose name rhymes with ‘Wank Of America’) sent me a letter informing me that my balance interest rate was going up several points and my cash advance interest rate would be 24.9%! I never had late payments plus I paid off my balance and my thanks is a hike in the interest rate? Maybe it’s punishment for me politely asking them to stop sending me more offers (a request they agreed to but have never honored).
I was already hoping that I would never have to use that card again, just because I’ve pretty much eliminated my credit card debt and want to keep it eliminated. Now I really have an incentive not to use it! You would think they’d want to do something to encourage me to use their card but instead they do something that makes me outright contemptuous of them.
Have American credit card companies reached the point where they think they have so many Americans over a barrel that they can completely abandon all attempts at cultivating goodwill with their customers?
Sat 27 Oct 2007
A weekly, themed batch of worthy readings or links relevant to your wallet…
The California wild fires have reminded us once again about the importance of being prepared for natural and man-made disasters. Hopefully you’ll never have to confront the loss of your home and possessions but as the cliche says, “failing to plan is planning to fail”.
DISASTER-PROOF YOUR IMPORTANT PAPERS
You’re a good record-keeper but are you a good safe-keeper of records? From Bankrate.
CAN YOU MAKE IT ON YOUR OWN FOR 72 HOURS?
Imagine that you have no electricity, no gas, no water and no telephone service. All kinds of tips for surviving for 72 hours after different types of disasters and outages of services.
WHAT’S YOUR STUFF WORTH?
Motley Fool explains how and why insurance claims adjusters assign value to your property plus what to look for in an appraiser. Just because you think something is very valuable does not mean the insurance company will agree. This piece was a real eye-opener for me.
FINANCIAL CHECKLIST FOR DISASTER PREPAREDNESS
Experiments In Finance examines what to do before and after a disaster to speed up your financial recovery.
HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE?
Finance Is Personal talks about the documenting of your possessions for the insurance company in case of fire or other disaster.
BEWARE OF HOLES IN THE BANK-BOX SAFETY NET
You stashed your important papers and valuables in a bank safety deposit box. What happens when the bank burns down or gets flooded or gets robbed? What exactly is the bank liable for? Bet you hadn’t thought of that! Another good one from Bankrate.
Sat 27 Oct 2007
Entertaining spoof here of a news broadcast used to talk about the debt problems of America. Not sure what the origins are of this clip but I thought it did a pretty good job of making it’s point while making me laugh.
Here’s DNN- Debt Network News:
Thu 25 Oct 2007
There’s two sides to understanding money, there’s the logical number-crunching aspect and then there’s the more nebulous emotional aspect that even the most stoic is forced to contend with. I find myself drawn to the study of the psychology of money because I know that many of my past money mistakes were as rooted in feelings as they were in ignorance.
Below are links to several of the more interesting articles I read recently on the psychology of money. I hope you find them as insightful as I did.
Investment Professionals Confronting Their Clients’ Emotional Money Issues
Insight into how investment planners often have to help client’s confront their emotions before they can confront their portfolios.
Money, Marriage, And Divorce
For half the people I know who are divorced, money played a significant role in destroying their marriage. This article talks about hoarders and spenders and how money can be used as a weapon in a marriage.
How Las Vegas Reveals America’s Thinking About Money
What better place than Vegas to study our relationship with money? This is a big piece that really gets into our views on money as individuals and as a society.
A Shrink And A Financial Planner Team Up
An in-depth case study where a financial planner asks help from a psychologist in getting to the heart of a client’s money issues.
Wed 24 Oct 2007
The media, especially the news networks, love to talk about all the things wrong with the economy because…well I’m not sure why. No question, we have problems, serious problems, but some tings could be worse and some things are looking pretty damn good. There is good news about the American economy out there and opportunities for the optimistic, you just have to look a little harder for it.
This editorial at SmartMoney, Struggling U.S. Economy Will Prevail as Always looks at all the things we have going against us and then explains why you shouldn’t despair. And I’m in agreement.
Sometimes we get knocked down by outside forces and sometimes we bring it on ourselves but always, we bounce back. Some may consider it naive but I have the utmost confidence in our economy’s ability to stage a comeback in spite of the incompetence of our elected officials and our populace’s tendency to get a little over-confident at times.