You said, "Gold is a store of value". This is a perfect reason in these unprecedented times of financial distress to buy gold.
Yes, gold will do very well in inflationary times. That should be coming down the pike very soon at us - especially in light of the billions upon billions of dollars being manufactured and thrown into the system.
But, are you aware how well Gold did in the Great Depression? The metal was confiscated by the government (safe deposit boxes were actually broken into.) FDR ordered this so he could print dollars without limit. Gold held it's value, even rising through the depression. Lucky for those who defied the government edict. The mining stocks did very well. Homestake, the largest gold miner had a 10 fold increase in price during the depression and, I believe, was the best performer for those years.
Gold is a currency and insurance. It will rise in price dramatically only because the public will lose their faith in paper currency.
Can you write an article about the current and future prices of flat screen TVs? I'd love to know your opinion on whether it's best to buy one now, wait, or just not buy one at all with a recession looming.
I placed most of my investments in Credit Union term deposits a while back. They pay 4-4.5% - approximately 1% more than banks. (Canada)
A lot of the interest in stocks and mutual funds has been the enthusiasm of financial planners. Some are quite young and inexperienced. Then there are the commissions.
Up to that point I found the bank representatives to be quite pushy and I often came away with something I didn't really want.
I already have a tendency to skip a bit in some of the fluffier fiction that I read (a predictable mystery, for example.) I think it would be helpful for the last few chapters of a book where you just need to get through it for the sake of getting it read. For other works, however, I like to take my time (for isn't that the purpose?)
I think this technique is most beneficial for nonfiction works, studying for retention, and for cruising through your daily read list. I know that it gives advice for getting done with that pile of mags and papers on your end table. I also like that it helps to discern what is worth reading in the first place.
Whatever your need, I always wanted to know the "science" behind it. This was revealed quite clearly in this book.
1) To the commenter who wanted to know if you can view your own documents, the Kindle page on Amazon says, "Email your Word documents and pictures (.JPG, .GIF, .BMP, .PNG) to Kindle for easy on-the-go viewing."
2) To the one who was confused about the price comparison for NYT, I should have said, "$13.99 a month." So as the above Guest pointed out, at $13.99 on Kindle you'd pay $167.88 a year, but at the $6.70 weekly delivery price, you'd pay $348.40 a year. Now that I look at it that way, I"m getting $15 savings a month. (I was just dividing the monthly price by 4 before, so I got a smaller savings figure).
If I was a commuter who subscribed to the NYT to read on the train, I would DEFINITELY get a Kindle instead. But, as Mark Ross said, I'm not in one of the particular situations where one could save money with a Kindle. It's just gadget lust.
As long as your goal is 10, 20, or 30 years out--retirement, for example--then stocks are a fine investment.
The problem is that stocks did so well from about 1980 until the dotcom crash, that it was easy to imagine that stocks did well all the time. Even the 1987 crash didn't change that perception, because the market recovered so quickly. People started suggesting that most of your assets should go into stocks (for maximum returns). A few even suggested that you could get by without a cash reserve--using credit to bridge the gap, on the off chance that the market was down when you needed some cash.
I think that your short-term and medium-term goal should be funded with income, savings, and investments such as bonds of an appropriate maturity.
Retirement is an appropriate goal to be funded with stocks. In fact, a retired person should go on holding a substantial portfolio of stocks, because his goals--such as a comfortable standard of living--still have a time horizon of many years.
If you can still watch those TV's it is definitely worth it to to put converter boxes on them. If you shop for the boxes at Walmart, you can find them as low as $49.95 and with the $40.00 coupon, they are $9.95. Note add sales tax on the FULL PRICE of the box at your state's and local governments applicable percent rate. The Zenith and digital stream boxes are usually $59.95 which
would be reduced to $19.95 + (sale tax rate)*($59.95)
In fact, you buy it by ringing up at full price, then you swipe your coupon to take away your government $40 .
It takes time for your coupons to arrive after you order them and they expire 90 days after issuance. However, the boxes receive clear static free digital signals.
Only buy a new TV if you genuinely want a new TV. A new TV is nice if you wish to receive true HDTV. However if you are satisfied with the TV you currently receive and do not want to pony up the cost of a new one
then you should definitely get the converter box.
The only exception would be for hand held battery operated sets. Unfortunately, to my knowledge, there are no converter boxes for these and all converter boxes I've seen require electricity and are about the size of a small DVD player. That means you will need to buy a new battery operated portable TV after the digital conversion. I hope someone will see an entrepeneural opportunity and offer walkman sized converter boxes that run off AA or perhaps even C or D batteries so we can watch TV in parks, in Doctor's offices with no provided TV or at home during power outages (such as the hurricane IKE windstorm here in Ohio)
It is NOT TRUE that you will need a converter box if you are receiving cable TV through an analogue coax cable without a cable box. The cable companies must keep their analog signals on your cable line until the year 2012 so you will be able to use your TV as before. Only those of us who watch over the air television with literal metal antennas (many generically say rabbit ears but they could be a variety of shapes including loops or bowties) and who watch ordinary full power television stations transmitted on VHF and UHF must get the converter box.
Many towns have special stations called class A or low power. These will not be your usual ABC,CBS, NBC stations but may be stations that carry religious programs or over the air shopping networks. Those low power stations will continue to transmit an analog signal after February 17, 2009
Just so you know Mexico is not a "Third Wolrd" nation... Our GDP is above Canada's. You could perhaps call it a devoloping country. We are among world's 12th biggest economies... and we have much more culture than U.S.A. and Canada together. The whole world doesn't hate us. Actually they really like us, expcept obviously for people from USA. (We are all Americans... we are even more americans than you, our ancestors the Spaniards got here first)
I've always been curious about this stuff, but never really dove in. I'm curious if you can optimize your reading for "fun" reading like novels or whatever. In my mind it feels like I'd be flipping through pages like a madman instead of leisurely enjoying a book. But if I can speed up what I read a little bit and still enjoy it—hey, the more I can read the better!
Investing in the stock market gives you a variety of ways to invest your money in every industry. Now a days you can invest in various ETF's that feature companies throughout the world that don't trade in United States.
Just because you are buying at a lower point it doesn't mean you're buying cheap stock. The company may be highly overvalued to being with and even with the recent correction the company may still be overvalued. Even looking at the PE ratio tells you nothing because you need to look at future earnings, not historic earnings.
Just become some strategy worked during the Great Depression it doesn't mean it will happen today. Past performance is no guarantee of future returns. Someone dollar cost averaging into an index fund that tracked the Nikkei 225 index between 1990 and 2008 (a long time period) would have lost a lot of money because that index went down by about 70 per cent, yet before 1990 the Nikkei only went up.
I don't know this: it sounds like you're discouraging investing in stocks, which I'm a little wary about. I think I see your point—people are greedy and want the greatest possible return for their investment. But without investing in stocks, I can't see how most people could possibly afford to retire unless they make tons of money.
Don't you agree?
A $4 - $5 card seems like a quick cheat to these ideas. After considering the time some of these ideas will take... Considering what your time may be worth. But taking a few minutes to do one of these ideas definitely shows more appreciation. Might as well do something good and right and thoughtful. Thanks for the ideas! :)
I have to agree different states have different regulations. We move around quite a bit so we use www.efinancial.com. I love their learning center, if you are unfamiliar with insurance terms they have the information at your finger tips. In addition, if you are interested in the hot economic topics there interactive blog at Efinancial Blog is a great way to express your own opinions.
Listen everyone who is saying they have Park Place and would LOVE it if someone would share with them... I have news for you(If you haven't read it already). We ALL have park place!!!!
We just called the Waste Management company in our area and informed them that more often than not we only put out half a can in a week (go recycling!). So, now they' cut our bill in half. We just saved ourselves $200 a year.
I've had my Kindle for almost a year. I read so much, I actually unplugged my cable. Television has lost all it's appeal compared to a good book. My Kindle has already paid for itself, considering the greatly reduced price of books, not to mention the shelves I haven't had to buy. Plus, I get Newsweek for $1.43 a month. The wireless connection is great--I used my Kindle extensively in France and Italy earlier this year. Email and web surfing are effortless. I will say that Kindle works best on text oriented pages. Some pictures or graphics make it through, but most don't. But Kindle is about reading, and any avid reader will appreciate it.
I've done that before just to get wrinkles out of pants. Unless the clothing is heat sensitive and includes instructions like "DO NOT DRY" or "DO NOT EXPOSE TO HEAT", they should be fine.
I think we all know the fallacy of getting anywhere near the 8% return from the stock market others are suggesting. Even taking the low from the Dow Jones post 9/11/01 to the high of Oct 2007, the stock market only gained 25%, never mind the 40% drop in the last year and counting. Not paying off a debt to use spare cash elsewhere has never made much sense, ever.
from previous plays, i have parkplace (1 of 2 parts to getting $100,000). i was a couple spots away when i rolled the online dice. it rolled a 6.. if i had gotten a 7, i would have landed on boardwalk and thus received the 100K
i really do think it is rigged even though i do understand their methods and the necessity of controlling the game.
but still! i want the 100K!!!!
You said, "Gold is a store of value". This is a perfect reason in these unprecedented times of financial distress to buy gold.
Yes, gold will do very well in inflationary times. That should be coming down the pike very soon at us - especially in light of the billions upon billions of dollars being manufactured and thrown into the system.
But, are you aware how well Gold did in the Great Depression? The metal was confiscated by the government (safe deposit boxes were actually broken into.) FDR ordered this so he could print dollars without limit. Gold held it's value, even rising through the depression. Lucky for those who defied the government edict. The mining stocks did very well. Homestake, the largest gold miner had a 10 fold increase in price during the depression and, I believe, was the best performer for those years.
Gold is a currency and insurance. It will rise in price dramatically only because the public will lose their faith in paper currency.
Good one :)
Paul,
Can you write an article about the current and future prices of flat screen TVs? I'd love to know your opinion on whether it's best to buy one now, wait, or just not buy one at all with a recession looming.
Thanks!
So, the obvious question is: how long did it take you to finish the book?!
I placed most of my investments in Credit Union term deposits a while back. They pay 4-4.5% - approximately 1% more than banks. (Canada)
A lot of the interest in stocks and mutual funds has been the enthusiasm of financial planners. Some are quite young and inexperienced. Then there are the commissions.
Up to that point I found the bank representatives to be quite pushy and I often came away with something I didn't really want.
I already have a tendency to skip a bit in some of the fluffier fiction that I read (a predictable mystery, for example.) I think it would be helpful for the last few chapters of a book where you just need to get through it for the sake of getting it read. For other works, however, I like to take my time (for isn't that the purpose?)
I think this technique is most beneficial for nonfiction works, studying for retention, and for cruising through your daily read list. I know that it gives advice for getting done with that pile of mags and papers on your end table. I also like that it helps to discern what is worth reading in the first place.
Whatever your need, I always wanted to know the "science" behind it. This was revealed quite clearly in this book.
Linsey
1) To the commenter who wanted to know if you can view your own documents, the Kindle page on Amazon says, "Email your Word documents and pictures (.JPG, .GIF, .BMP, .PNG) to Kindle for easy on-the-go viewing."
2) To the one who was confused about the price comparison for NYT, I should have said, "$13.99 a month." So as the above Guest pointed out, at $13.99 on Kindle you'd pay $167.88 a year, but at the $6.70 weekly delivery price, you'd pay $348.40 a year. Now that I look at it that way, I"m getting $15 savings a month. (I was just dividing the monthly price by 4 before, so I got a smaller savings figure).
If I was a commuter who subscribed to the NYT to read on the train, I would DEFINITELY get a Kindle instead. But, as Mark Ross said, I'm not in one of the particular situations where one could save money with a Kindle. It's just gadget lust.
I blog at www.shopliftingwithpermission.com.
As long as your goal is 10, 20, or 30 years out--retirement, for example--then stocks are a fine investment.
The problem is that stocks did so well from about 1980 until the dotcom crash, that it was easy to imagine that stocks did well all the time. Even the 1987 crash didn't change that perception, because the market recovered so quickly. People started suggesting that most of your assets should go into stocks (for maximum returns). A few even suggested that you could get by without a cash reserve--using credit to bridge the gap, on the off chance that the market was down when you needed some cash.
I think that your short-term and medium-term goal should be funded with income, savings, and investments such as bonds of an appropriate maturity.
Retirement is an appropriate goal to be funded with stocks. In fact, a retired person should go on holding a substantial portfolio of stocks, because his goals--such as a comfortable standard of living--still have a time horizon of many years.
6.70 per week * 52 weeks per year = 348.40 per year
13.99 per month * 12 months per year = 167.88 per year
If you can still watch those TV's it is definitely worth it to to put converter boxes on them. If you shop for the boxes at Walmart, you can find them as low as $49.95 and with the $40.00 coupon, they are $9.95. Note add sales tax on the FULL PRICE of the box at your state's and local governments applicable percent rate. The Zenith and digital stream boxes are usually $59.95 which
would be reduced to $19.95 + (sale tax rate)*($59.95)
In fact, you buy it by ringing up at full price, then you swipe your coupon to take away your government $40 .
It takes time for your coupons to arrive after you order them and they expire 90 days after issuance. However, the boxes receive clear static free digital signals.
Only buy a new TV if you genuinely want a new TV. A new TV is nice if you wish to receive true HDTV. However if you are satisfied with the TV you currently receive and do not want to pony up the cost of a new one
then you should definitely get the converter box.
The only exception would be for hand held battery operated sets. Unfortunately, to my knowledge, there are no converter boxes for these and all converter boxes I've seen require electricity and are about the size of a small DVD player. That means you will need to buy a new battery operated portable TV after the digital conversion. I hope someone will see an entrepeneural opportunity and offer walkman sized converter boxes that run off AA or perhaps even C or D batteries so we can watch TV in parks, in Doctor's offices with no provided TV or at home during power outages (such as the hurricane IKE windstorm here in Ohio)
It is NOT TRUE that you will need a converter box if you are receiving cable TV through an analogue coax cable without a cable box. The cable companies must keep their analog signals on your cable line until the year 2012 so you will be able to use your TV as before. Only those of us who watch over the air television with literal metal antennas (many generically say rabbit ears but they could be a variety of shapes including loops or bowties) and who watch ordinary full power television stations transmitted on VHF and UHF must get the converter box.
Many towns have special stations called class A or low power. These will not be your usual ABC,CBS, NBC stations but may be stations that carry religious programs or over the air shopping networks. Those low power stations will continue to transmit an analog signal after February 17, 2009
Just so you know Mexico is not a "Third Wolrd" nation... Our GDP is above Canada's. You could perhaps call it a devoloping country. We are among world's 12th biggest economies... and we have much more culture than U.S.A. and Canada together. The whole world doesn't hate us. Actually they really like us, expcept obviously for people from USA. (We are all Americans... we are even more americans than you, our ancestors the Spaniards got here first)
I've always been curious about this stuff, but never really dove in. I'm curious if you can optimize your reading for "fun" reading like novels or whatever. In my mind it feels like I'd be flipping through pages like a madman instead of leisurely enjoying a book. But if I can speed up what I read a little bit and still enjoy it—hey, the more I can read the better!
Investing in the stock market gives you a variety of ways to invest your money in every industry. Now a days you can invest in various ETF's that feature companies throughout the world that don't trade in United States.
Just because you are buying at a lower point it doesn't mean you're buying cheap stock. The company may be highly overvalued to being with and even with the recent correction the company may still be overvalued. Even looking at the PE ratio tells you nothing because you need to look at future earnings, not historic earnings.
Just become some strategy worked during the Great Depression it doesn't mean it will happen today. Past performance is no guarantee of future returns. Someone dollar cost averaging into an index fund that tracked the Nikkei 225 index between 1990 and 2008 (a long time period) would have lost a lot of money because that index went down by about 70 per cent, yet before 1990 the Nikkei only went up.
I don't know this: it sounds like you're discouraging investing in stocks, which I'm a little wary about. I think I see your point—people are greedy and want the greatest possible return for their investment. But without investing in stocks, I can't see how most people could possibly afford to retire unless they make tons of money.
Don't you agree?
A $4 - $5 card seems like a quick cheat to these ideas. After considering the time some of these ideas will take... Considering what your time may be worth. But taking a few minutes to do one of these ideas definitely shows more appreciation. Might as well do something good and right and thoughtful. Thanks for the ideas! :)
I have to agree different states have different regulations. We move around quite a bit so we use www.efinancial.com. I love their learning center, if you are unfamiliar with insurance terms they have the information at your finger tips. In addition, if you are interested in the hot economic topics there interactive blog at Efinancial Blog is a great way to express your own opinions.
Listen everyone who is saying they have Park Place and would LOVE it if someone would share with them... I have news for you(If you haven't read it already). We ALL have park place!!!!
Thursdays often have all the weekend events---free and not free--so it's important to get that one too. There are a few papers still worth their ink.
Margaret Garcia-Couoh
We just called the Waste Management company in our area and informed them that more often than not we only put out half a can in a week (go recycling!). So, now they' cut our bill in half. We just saved ourselves $200 a year.
Margaret Garcia-Couoh
I've had my Kindle for almost a year. I read so much, I actually unplugged my cable. Television has lost all it's appeal compared to a good book. My Kindle has already paid for itself, considering the greatly reduced price of books, not to mention the shelves I haven't had to buy. Plus, I get Newsweek for $1.43 a month. The wireless connection is great--I used my Kindle extensively in France and Italy earlier this year. Email and web surfing are effortless. I will say that Kindle works best on text oriented pages. Some pictures or graphics make it through, but most don't. But Kindle is about reading, and any avid reader will appreciate it.
I've done that before just to get wrinkles out of pants. Unless the clothing is heat sensitive and includes instructions like "DO NOT DRY" or "DO NOT EXPOSE TO HEAT", they should be fine.
Sorry to hear about that lousy experience.
I think we all know the fallacy of getting anywhere near the 8% return from the stock market others are suggesting. Even taking the low from the Dow Jones post 9/11/01 to the high of Oct 2007, the stock market only gained 25%, never mind the 40% drop in the last year and counting. Not paying off a debt to use spare cash elsewhere has never made much sense, ever.
from previous plays, i have parkplace (1 of 2 parts to getting $100,000). i was a couple spots away when i rolled the online dice. it rolled a 6.. if i had gotten a 7, i would have landed on boardwalk and thus received the 100K
i really do think it is rigged even though i do understand their methods and the necessity of controlling the game.
but still! i want the 100K!!!!