Peta Kills Animals
2 warnings about this post.
1. It’s not about money
2. It contains profanity
I usually restrain my self while writing because I don’t know who is going to read it and I don’t want something I said today coming back to haunt me 5 years from now, BUT not today…today the gloves are off and I’m disgusted at the hypocrisy of PETA.
If you click the Read More link, you’ve been warned.
Debit Card Overdrafts Generate Massive Profits
I just read an interesting story that says that banks collect more in overdraft fees from debit cards than they do in profit. The article points out that some banks make it difficult or impossible to opt out of the service. There’s a lot of mixed reactions about this article and I have mixed emotions about this myself.
Who Is Going To Pay For The Bank Failures?
Filed under: Banks, Finance, Politics, Rant, Uncategorized
I know that some people have been wondering when I’d do a rant on the bank failures and the bail outs after all, this is blog is Financial Rants, and to tell the truth, I’ve been in too much shock to really write. I mean, what the hell is the government doing and what does this mean really? OK, so the fed takes over these banks and AIG using tax payer money. I heard today that it could all cost a Trillion dollars of our money before it’s over. Does this mean we own it since we paid for it? When do we get our shares? Do we get dividends when/if they recover? I’m pretty sure that’s a no. When they sell all the assets of the banks, who is going to get to buy them? I wish I could say they will sell at a fair market value, but we know they will sell to their friends. I have no faith in the government. Where the hell is the money coming from? We are 9,667,305,947,089.83 in debt at the time I wrote this and it’s increasing at 1.84 Billion a day not counting the bank mess. So thanks to my curiosity and to get my mind off the bank mess, I decided to look up the deficit over the years and found this chart of deficits by president. And it pissed me off even more. I’m not an economist but I know that if we ran our bank accounts like Republicans run the budget, we’d be bankrupt in a month, and the Lambo would be repossessed.
Who’s to blame for all this mess? Is it the Republicans? Democrats? Greed? Stupidity? Corruption? Truthfully, I believe it was too big to be one thing. Yes, both the Democrats and Republicans could have done some things better, but to be fair, hind site is always 20/20. Right now, everyone is telling us what went wrong as if it was so damned apparent a blind monkey could have saw it coming a mile away.
So, what do you do if your bank is one of the unlucky ones? I found this article on MSN that has some handy info.
What to do if your bank is siezed
I do see one good thing coming out of this mess. There is no way that any politician will say it’s a good idea to divert Social Security to the stock market for a long time. At least I hope not.
I don’t want this blog to be about politics nor do I want to take sides on this blog. I created this blog to help people learn about money and to give people a few laughs along the way, not to promote my political views. But….
You know what else is pissing me off this week? Having my intelligence insulted by politicians. It’s one thing to screw up and put some incorrect info in an ad, but to have the media and factcheck.org prove it’s not just incorrect but a bald faced lie and to continue to claim it is true is just insulting.
The Banks Aren’t Telling You Everything or We’ll Change The Rules When We Feel Like It.
Filed under: Banks, Credit, Fees, Interest Rates, Rant, Spending
I ran across this story over on MSN.
10 Things Your Bank Won’t Tell You
One of the things it talks about is something I’ve suspected for a long time, some (if not all) banks post the big charges first, then the smaller charges and this of course increases the likelihood that you will have more overdraft fees. They claim that they do it for your benefit because a mortgage payment is more important than other payments. Maybe it is, but so is the multiple fees to their bottom line. If someone is already running on empty, an extra 100 bucks a month like the mother of three in the story is going to make things even harder. 100 bucks sounds like a lot but remember it’s only about 3 overdraft fees. Granted, we shouldn’t be running that close to empty, but things happen especially in today’s economy.
Another thing the article talks about is how banks can change the terms at any time. Take for example Bank Of America jacking the rates from 10%-12% to 27% or more even though the affected customers had done nothing wrong. They claim 94% had no increase last year. So just how many customers is 6%??? Well, their website says they serve approximately 53 million consumer households and I’ll guess some of those households have multiple people/accounts, but for the sake of simplicity, let’s go with 50 million which gives us 3 million affected customers. So you have better odds of having your rates tripled than you do at winning the freaking lottery even if you do nothing wrong. I wonder if the way they choose who gets nailed has anything to do with my paranoia from a few days ago when I asked if you were feeling paranoid yet.
So for crying out loud, keep your checkbook balanced and don’t count of the float time that we used to have. With the advances in technology, there isn’t much time left. Postpone buying whatever shiny new toy that is calling your name and build up a cushion.
If you must use credit then Compare Credit Cards and get the best rates you can.
Don’t Believe Everything You Hear
I try to keep politics out of this blog because I’ve always heard you don’t talk about religion or politics.
But I have to call BS on a news story. I heard Sarah Palin say that she put the state Westwind II jet on eBay and decided to find out the story. I was a little curious.
Seems she listed it 3 times at 2.5 million in 2007 after the state paid close to 2.7 million in 2005 but it didn’t reach the minimum and had a broker sell it for 2.1 million.
http://www.mercurynews.com/politics/ci_10385036
Not to say that Obama hasn’t misrepresented McCain’s quotes, but McCain has done it more and worse. At least as far as I can tell.
Here’s a site to keep an eye on if you want the facts. As a matter of fact, read some of the info and prepare to become more cynical.
There’s no wonder why Americans are apathetic to politics. If they really want to reform it, how about making a law that all quotes are true and they have to keep all those promises they make. Now that would be true reform.
The Value Of Education
Filed under: Education, Investing, Rant, Saving, Spending, Uncategorized
We’ve heard all our lives that education is important. I think most people look at education as a structured school activity that ends when they graduate, but I believe it’s much more. I tend to think of education as a daily activity. I also think education comes from many different places. We can also learn from some pretty unlikely places.
The important thing to keep in mind is that not all you’ll learn is correct and the world is changing really fast. This is not to say that there’s no point in learning if it’s going to change soon, what it means is that education is a life time activity.
I watched a finance show recently that gives advice to callers and was amazed that some of the advice was so shallow that it was worthless. It didn’t take into account the whole story. One caller wanted to know about investments and instead of saying learn how they work, and know how to protect yourself, the advice was buy and hold. I fell for that thinking a few years ago and watched my stock go from 30 a share to 4 bucks a share. I should sell them but I keep them as a reminder to not fall for so called experts’ bad advice. It was an expensive lesson but well worth it.
Another caller asked about buying a piece of art and was told not to buy. She treated it like he was blowing more than 20 grand without taking into account if it was undervalued and/or likely to increase in value over the next few years. Granted art is unpredictable and it could lose value, but to not even mention it, was enough to make my blood boil.
Some things don’t change, like spend less than you make or you’ll eventually pay dearly. I was looking over an article I wrote a long time and was pleasantly surprised that it was still 100% true. Granted that I wanted it to be valuable for a long time, but things change and the economy has been really changing lately.
Here’s one of the articles I wrote
I’m going to track the rest down and bring them into Financial Comedy over the next few weeks.
Feeling Paranoid Yet?
Filed under: Credit, FICO, Rant, Spending, Statistics, Uncategorized
When I read this article on MSN, I felt sick, then angry and then decided to share it with everyone.
The idea that we are so analyzed that everything we buy can be used in such a manner is upsetting.
Have you ever went to the store to pick up a few things and got to the checkout and realized that it’s a strange combination? For example, electrical tape to fix that wire, hand lotion because your hands are cracked, those little potting tools, a feather duster and cat food? Well instead of just freaking out the cashier with this very unusual combination, it has the potential to affect your credit score if you forgot to bring cash. Did the shopping visual make you laugh or just disturb you?
This may sound like a paranoid rant but considering that most of the criteria these companies use are secret, we can’t be sure. I’d like to think I’m overreacting, but read the full article and judge for yourself. Personally I feel like Bob Seger was right in Feel Like A Number.
Christmas?!?!?!?! Already?!?!?!
Filed under: Charity, Christmas, Holiday, Rant, Saving, Spending, Uncategorized
This is August right? Isn’t it too early for Christmas?
Maybe I’m just getting really old but I can remember when Christmas didn’t get advertised until after Thanksgiving. Then it was the Monday after Thanksgiving. Then it was around Halloween. I just looked at the TV guide and The Count down to Christmas is on QVC. What’s next? 4th of July, May 1st?
It’s not that I have a lot against ( actually I hate it) a holiday that forces us to buy useless crap that means little to give to people so we feel better about ourselves. I mean REALLY. Is it just so we don’t look like cheap skates? I think it’s 90% to look good. The only people who should get presents on Christmas is children, and that’s only because they believe in the magic of Santa and haven’t been brainwashed by corporate media.
Do me a favor and give to charity, give to the homeless person on the corner, donate to save the planet, anything but going into debt just to buy a bunch of cheap useless crap. If you really have to buy a present, buy something that means something, and that the recipient actually needs. If they really really want a novelty singing fish, they can buy it themselves.
Wouldn’t it be better to give to friends, family and loved ones all year instead of making them wait 364 days to get loads of stuff? I can bet your gift and mine would really stand out if it showed up on August 25th.
Think of the fun of dropping hints all year and actually being able to find that perfect gift for your family and friends. Better yet, think of the insanity of a Ground Hogs day present…think of the wrapping paper.
Even better, Think of having Good will toward men 365 days a year.
Viva La Revolution!!! Chri$tma$ Anarchy!!! Who’s with me?
Financial Education
Filed under: Education, Investing, Rant, Robert Kiyosaki, Statistics
While reading my ever growing list of blogs today I ran across this post with the statistics about what students know. It’s pretty sad and disturbing.
The State of Financial Education in the U.S.
Here’s another minor rant.
When the government made the change that allowed companies to switch from Pension plans to 401k etc plans and the schools didn’t start teaching finance to school kids they did a severe disservice to Americans. What they did was make millions of people enter the stock market without teaching them anything about it. The equivalent of forcing people to drive without teaching how to drive or driver testing. The results are the same, CRASH!!! Only difference is that one crash is early and the other later in life.
I think it was Rich Dad’s Prophecy that talked about how our lack of financial education is going to cause severe problems when the baby boomers are forced to start withdrawing money from their retirement plan.
I find it insane that they will be forced to withdraw regardless of how the market is or even if they want to sell off their holdings. I’m hoping that someone figures it out and changes the rule but I’m not holding my breath.
I’m not saying that we should stop contributing to our 401k etc plans since it’s pretax and has employer matching. However learn how it works. Stop believing everything the experts say and learn for yourself. Education never ends.
Extra Money
Here comes a minor rant.
I’m sure you know people who complain about not having enough money and being broke all the time. How many of those people are doing ANYTHING to change it? Complaining does nothing, NOTHING to solve the problem. It may feel good to vent but after you’re finished venting, you need to get off your butt and do something.
I believe there is money all around us. It’s there for the people with open eyes and a desire. I know it is in America and I have a feeling it’s in almost every country in the world. Heck (I’m trying to watch my language), you can find money on the ground walking to your car.
When you say you can’t afford something, you give your mind permission to shut down. Ask yourself how you can afford it and your mind will usually answer you.
Need more money? Here’s a few ways to increase your income.
Sell some of the crap you don’t need on Ebay or Craig’s list. Why keep something you’ll never need? Especially something that will decline in value such as electronics or clothes. The life span of electronics is short and fashion is always changing.
Get a part time job.
Start a home based business. There are reputable companies that take little money or none to start. Just a lot of hard work.
If you have skills, post an ad on Craig’s List or grocery store bulletin boards and offer to teach other people or write a book.
Even better, use the extra to invest or pay down high interest debt or prepare yourself for the next opportunity. There will be a lot of millionaires created by the housing crash. Have you ever heard the term to buy when there’s blood in the street? Some experts are saying it’s almost over. I forecast prices to start going up within the next few months.
The possibilities are endless. All it takes is an open mind.
The important thing to do is have multiple streams of income or a backup plan.
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