Wow I can't believe no one has mentioned an accouting degree. Haven't you ever heard the saying nothing is guaranteed in this life except death and taxes. When I earned my accounting degree in 1998, employers came to my college campus falling over themselves to hire the accounting graduates. I didn't even have to leave my campus to interview and had a job lined up 3 months prior to graduation. I know the job market isn't as inviting as it was 12 years ago when I was graduating but our firm has laid of ZERO people in the last two years, we are even looking to hire for the upcoming tax season. So Accouting all the way.
I agree you must definitely read all your mail, know what is going on with your debt, and if you choose not to pay or are unable to pay you cannot allow yourself to go into denial about it. That said- saying that you can go to jail because of your unpaid debt is a bit of a fear tactic. You are going to jail for contempt of court. You most certainly won't go to jail because of unpaid debt. You must however be responsible and at the very least contact your creditor before it goes to a third party collections agency to see what kind of arrangements can be made.
Also it's good to keep in mind that most companies will not fork out the legal expenses unless you owe a large amount of money and have assets to pursue- such as property that a lien can be placed on.
Understanding 2 women wrote this explains a bit of the spin on this article. But with that said I will have to disagree in our situation. My wife when we were living in Mobile, AL had us pick out a car that had no air conditioner. Now when I looked back that was a huge mistake as the heat is terrible in that part of the country. I have also negotiated the deals and have come up with some great ones and bargain until I get my price. I think a dealer will take advantage of a woman buying a car, just like they will during the servicing of a vehicle if they can get away with it. But I do think the points of what you should do above are worth following.
This is a great story about your dad and thanks for sharing it. I remember my Grandma also saying to us that we should take the little pieces of soap and put them together to save on having to buy more. Eating left overs and not eating out all the time as they remembered the hard times. As kids growing up we did not have it bad and our kids even better. I think the current generation of kids that have been so spoiled and electronic junkies are at least getting a bit of the taste of a bad economy which could be really good. Things go in cycles and I think this economic cycle is an awakening of the ways of the past and why many of those practices existed.
Joel,
In addition to the S-corp shareholder number being different (which spouses and family members can be counted as a single shareholder), S-corps can also have all their income as passive if they have no earnings and profits as a regular (c) corporation in the past. If they were formed as an S-corp, they can have 100% of their income as passive without worry. Also, LLCs can never be taxed as a regular (c) corporation, they only get taxed as either a partnership or s-corp.
Enjoyed your post. I remember Buffett's positive outlook on stocks in late 2008 or early 2009. It bolstered my desire to find great companies at good prices. I got back into the market in July 2009 and was glad I did.
Those who have less money than Buffett say he can afford to risk his billions, and with such a big wallet he moves, or is, the market. However, I recall Buffett saying he hates to risk money, and that those who have small portfolios should outperform the big players. Who is right? I'm think Buffett's right.
The best degree is the one that is desired and used. For example, I have a cousin whose parents refinanced their house to send him to school to become a pharmacist. He ended up miserable and didn't use the Bachelors of Science degree. Instead he ended up working in investment banking. Pharmacists are in demand and their pay is fairly lucrative, but that doesn't matter because the field made him miserable. Meanwhile the economy tanked and my cousins parents became financially wobbly. Their relationship rocky. They are now in the process of a messy divorce. The moral of the story- Before investing in a degree make sure you don't just look at the income it can produce. Make sure the job is something you can live with.
My vote is for any degree in the Medical Field. My mother used to tell us girls,"If you have a degree in the medical field, you'll always have a job!" My sister became an RN and I am a Physical Therapy Assistant. Mom was right!
I used the toothpast method, the bana method, AND the peanut butter method. NOTHING worked. my cd is still jank. I click on it and it says its loading then it just stops. it did that before. any methods i can use that ACTUALLY work and when i say work i mean work REALLY EXTREMLY good?? One that will get off almost ALL scratches?? thx for any help.
I live in New Jersey where it gets hot and humid enough to require A/C, at least during the afternoon. On the warmer nights when it only drops between 65-70 F (which is cool compared to say Florida), it is still warm to open up the windows. Plus it doesn't get that "cool" until maybe 3 or 4 in the morning, several hours after bed time.
With that said however, I do try to use the A/C sparingly. Often I don't turn it on until late afternoon or early evening and I usually turn it off before bed and switch to the ceiling fan. Thankfully I'm far enough north to get the occasional break from the heat and humidity where I won't need to have the A/C on for a few days. On those days I leave the windows open for fresh air and just use the ceiling fans if necessary.
There's kind of a giant problem with this article. Dozens of experimental studies that have sent men and women to go buy the same car show that men systematically get better deals. And it has nothignn to do with the bargaining ability of the shopper or their rationality - rather sellers assume they have to give men a better deal to get them to buy and assume that they can take advantage of women.
OK, the original article was obnoxious* so I can see how you'd be defensive. But how your wife feels about your car choice is irrelevant? Really? Marriage is a partnership. I think it would be awfully immature for someone to buy an expensive flashy car without consulting, or against the wishes of, his/her spouse. I hope I am just misreading your comment.
* You can't come up with gender stereotypes, apply them to individuals you've never met (wouldn't the reader know better than you which people are more 'into' cars in their own relationships?), and get an out because you buried a one-sentence disclaimer in a 700-word article. Sorry. This could have easily been an article about having the partner less emotionally-involved with any big purchase decision being responsible for it. But that probably doesn't get as many pageviews as divisive 'boys vs girls' nonsense.
The last decade was not the result of free market reckless home buying. Government intervention and meddling into the housing and credit markets is exactly what is responsible for the "crisis". Gov't intervention has slowly eroded the ability of the banks/lenders to determine credit risk by the following:
Namely the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) signed into law by Jimmy Carter in 1979 and given more teeth by President Clinton which essentially forces banks to lend to less creditworthy borrowers. What this law does is force banks who take FDIC insurance to be subject to the CRA, pretty much stepping on their right to make decisions about lending and borrowing and forcing them to lend to lower income people who they, the lender, deemed not creditworthy.
Two other factors are major players in this category: government sponsored enterprises (GSE's) called Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Fannie and Freddie were both lenders and buyers of higher-risk loans from banks who were forced by the CRA to lend. Banks initially forced to lend, no longer minded lending to poor credit candidates because they knew they could unload the assets, in part, onto these tax-payer supported institutions thus reducing the risk the lender or bank was taking in making the loan.
You mention the Fed, who you are correct is not a gov't agency, but rather the legal and monopolistic (by Government mandate see: Federal Reserve Act 1913) currency issuer in the U.S. They set interest rates. Interest rates set by the Fed go a long way in determining how credit and currency use. This determines how people, the public be they lenders or borrowers of credit, act in relation to utilizing and lending credit.
In summary, you're laying blame at the feet of the free market for the housing crisis is wrong. The housing crisis of late was caused by meddling government regulation and a free market on housing, money, credit, etc have not existed for quite a long time.
I perceive the author to be saying this: The government is trying to prop up the failing housing market by enticing people to buy. And worst they enticing people to buy houses they can't afford in order to continue the bubble. However, the author points out as a home owner he wants prices to stabilize and stay up because it affects the value of his own home. As a prospective buyer one would want prices to go down because they'll get more bang for their credit buck. And yet as prices dip and credit is still loose the psychology of it is that people will shop for bigger, more expensive homes because the credit is cheap.
The author still seems to miss the point when he says home ownership needs to be one of responsibility and affordability. Unfortunately, the situation as it is now, the gov't trying to reinflate a bubble, neither the former or the latter will occur. The housing market needs a serious correction. That correction is going to screw a lot of current homeowners who bought in the last 10 yrs especially ones who overbought, overpaid. Despite the interest rates set so low, housing prices still aren't low enough to warrant snatching up real estate.
I recently started paying more attention to my daughter's birdie-eating habits. I try to buy mostly organics and lesser-processed foods, which gets expensive. I use small dishes and custard cups for serving her meal components. It's a visual reminder that small amounts of a variety of things is the best way to serve a kid's meal. For example, I quit making the entire box of Annie's mac-n-cheese and realized that I can get 5 or more servings out of a box, when I consider that she only needs about a 1/4 or 1/2 cup of pasta along with her other parts of her meal. This way, it's less focus on the not-that-great food (pasta) and more emphasis on the others (veggies, fruit, etc). I store the extra noodles and the packet of cheese in a mason jar, and can just dump in a new box into the jar when I need to re-up. WIN!
Hi Phil - I very much enjoyed your write up. I'm surprised more people haven't discussed the possibility of deflation. I wrote my quick blurb on why Deflation Is Out Of The Question before finding this article, and have included it in my Katana wrap.
This here is a great point:
In particular, wages are generally sticky on the downside. That means that rather than a smooth adjustment with wage cuts, deflation tends to produce high unemployment.
Furthermore, its all about having boat loads of cash!
It used to be common to have deflation. Under a gold standard, you have to expect that any period of inflation will be offset by a period of deflation to get back to gold parity. (In the real world it's more complicated than that, because changes in the gold supply affect the price level as well.)
If you know deflation is a real possibility, you manage your finances in a particular way. In particular, you avoid debt and you're very careful about long-term, fixed-price contracts.
Since we left the gold standard, though, we haven't had any offsetting deflations. After three or four generations, I think people can be excused for arranging their finances without proper care for the possibility of deflation.
I would say your first tip might be a hindrance to someone getting the best deal possible. Chester L. Karrass’ course states that people who are not aware of a “fair” price and start lower, usually end up getting a better deal than those who negotiate with a fair price in mind. American’s negotiate with “fair” in mind, other countries like China and Russia play hardball. Just look at our current trade agreement with China.
What an amazing write up,the advent of television, " the fast life", " I need this thing NOW" attitude has lead to uncontrolled spending and albeit utilization of credit- has lead to wasteful expenditure . After finishing graduate school, medical school and then residency.I remember an incident when I had moved to a new town to begin my job as an attending physician. Already in neck deep debt, no savings ( try living in NYC on a resident stipend :) ), I did not have money to buy a mattress and spring box . Though I did have a host of credit cards I had decided during residency not to accumulate any more debt on the credit cards.Buy if you have money after you have saved was my motto. I brought the cheapest futon that money could afford, picked up a pillow and comforter from walmart and slept on the carpeted floor till I could afford a mattress. That night was the best sleep I ever had. Credit does good to great things if used wisely, but beware of the trap, I have seen the wisest men make foolish mistakes with credit.
My mother-in-law came with us when we purchased our car. We knew what we wanted, had done the research... but my husband and I just aren't that great at dealing. A few hours later with all the i's dotted and t's crossed, my mother-in-law negotiated $2,000 off our new car. I'm forever grateful to her for saving us that money.
In regards to unlocking region code restrictions, SPECIFICALLY for a multi DVD player that apparently is marked as an ALL REGION player, but fails to play U.S. DVDs and simply spits out, "Wrong Region" when a disc is put in. The player is a Konzert multi player, model MD-680. The instruction manual actually shows region 3 (I'm guessing since it was made in Korea) AND region ALL right below that. It used to play any U.S. DVD, but has suddenly stopped accepting them and instead mocks me by saying, "Wrong Region". Help?
A speech therapy degree is great. People will be knocking down your door to hire you on. You have the option to work at the following: school, private clinic, home health, rehab centers, hospitals, or contract work. You can start your own clinic or be your own boss with home health. You also have a variety of populations that you can work with from infants to geriatrics. You can usually make decent money and often make your own hours. And last, but certainly not least, you are improving the quality of life for a person!
Wow I can't believe no one has mentioned an accouting degree. Haven't you ever heard the saying nothing is guaranteed in this life except death and taxes. When I earned my accounting degree in 1998, employers came to my college campus falling over themselves to hire the accounting graduates. I didn't even have to leave my campus to interview and had a job lined up 3 months prior to graduation. I know the job market isn't as inviting as it was 12 years ago when I was graduating but our firm has laid of ZERO people in the last two years, we are even looking to hire for the upcoming tax season. So Accouting all the way.
I agree you must definitely read all your mail, know what is going on with your debt, and if you choose not to pay or are unable to pay you cannot allow yourself to go into denial about it. That said- saying that you can go to jail because of your unpaid debt is a bit of a fear tactic. You are going to jail for contempt of court. You most certainly won't go to jail because of unpaid debt. You must however be responsible and at the very least contact your creditor before it goes to a third party collections agency to see what kind of arrangements can be made.
Also it's good to keep in mind that most companies will not fork out the legal expenses unless you owe a large amount of money and have assets to pursue- such as property that a lien can be placed on.
Understanding 2 women wrote this explains a bit of the spin on this article. But with that said I will have to disagree in our situation. My wife when we were living in Mobile, AL had us pick out a car that had no air conditioner. Now when I looked back that was a huge mistake as the heat is terrible in that part of the country. I have also negotiated the deals and have come up with some great ones and bargain until I get my price. I think a dealer will take advantage of a woman buying a car, just like they will during the servicing of a vehicle if they can get away with it. But I do think the points of what you should do above are worth following.
This is a great story about your dad and thanks for sharing it. I remember my Grandma also saying to us that we should take the little pieces of soap and put them together to save on having to buy more. Eating left overs and not eating out all the time as they remembered the hard times. As kids growing up we did not have it bad and our kids even better. I think the current generation of kids that have been so spoiled and electronic junkies are at least getting a bit of the taste of a bad economy which could be really good. Things go in cycles and I think this economic cycle is an awakening of the ways of the past and why many of those practices existed.
Joel,
In addition to the S-corp shareholder number being different (which spouses and family members can be counted as a single shareholder), S-corps can also have all their income as passive if they have no earnings and profits as a regular (c) corporation in the past. If they were formed as an S-corp, they can have 100% of their income as passive without worry. Also, LLCs can never be taxed as a regular (c) corporation, they only get taxed as either a partnership or s-corp.
Enjoyed your post. I remember Buffett's positive outlook on stocks in late 2008 or early 2009. It bolstered my desire to find great companies at good prices. I got back into the market in July 2009 and was glad I did.
Those who have less money than Buffett say he can afford to risk his billions, and with such a big wallet he moves, or is, the market. However, I recall Buffett saying he hates to risk money, and that those who have small portfolios should outperform the big players. Who is right? I'm think Buffett's right.
The best degree is the one that is desired and used. For example, I have a cousin whose parents refinanced their house to send him to school to become a pharmacist. He ended up miserable and didn't use the Bachelors of Science degree. Instead he ended up working in investment banking. Pharmacists are in demand and their pay is fairly lucrative, but that doesn't matter because the field made him miserable. Meanwhile the economy tanked and my cousins parents became financially wobbly. Their relationship rocky. They are now in the process of a messy divorce. The moral of the story- Before investing in a degree make sure you don't just look at the income it can produce. Make sure the job is something you can live with.
Christine
dazed1821@AOL.COM
My vote is for any degree in the Medical Field. My mother used to tell us girls,"If you have a degree in the medical field, you'll always have a job!" My sister became an RN and I am a Physical Therapy Assistant. Mom was right!
I used the toothpast method, the bana method, AND the peanut butter method. NOTHING worked. my cd is still jank. I click on it and it says its loading then it just stops. it did that before. any methods i can use that ACTUALLY work and when i say work i mean work REALLY EXTREMLY good?? One that will get off almost ALL scratches?? thx for any help.
I live in New Jersey where it gets hot and humid enough to require A/C, at least during the afternoon. On the warmer nights when it only drops between 65-70 F (which is cool compared to say Florida), it is still warm to open up the windows. Plus it doesn't get that "cool" until maybe 3 or 4 in the morning, several hours after bed time.
With that said however, I do try to use the A/C sparingly. Often I don't turn it on until late afternoon or early evening and I usually turn it off before bed and switch to the ceiling fan. Thankfully I'm far enough north to get the occasional break from the heat and humidity where I won't need to have the A/C on for a few days. On those days I leave the windows open for fresh air and just use the ceiling fans if necessary.
There's kind of a giant problem with this article. Dozens of experimental studies that have sent men and women to go buy the same car show that men systematically get better deals. And it has nothignn to do with the bargaining ability of the shopper or their rationality - rather sellers assume they have to give men a better deal to get them to buy and assume that they can take advantage of women.
So really this post is just wishful. Sorry.
OK, the original article was obnoxious* so I can see how you'd be defensive. But how your wife feels about your car choice is irrelevant? Really? Marriage is a partnership. I think it would be awfully immature for someone to buy an expensive flashy car without consulting, or against the wishes of, his/her spouse. I hope I am just misreading your comment.
* You can't come up with gender stereotypes, apply them to individuals you've never met (wouldn't the reader know better than you which people are more 'into' cars in their own relationships?), and get an out because you buried a one-sentence disclaimer in a 700-word article. Sorry. This could have easily been an article about having the partner less emotionally-involved with any big purchase decision being responsible for it. But that probably doesn't get as many pageviews as divisive 'boys vs girls' nonsense.
The last decade was not the result of free market reckless home buying. Government intervention and meddling into the housing and credit markets is exactly what is responsible for the "crisis". Gov't intervention has slowly eroded the ability of the banks/lenders to determine credit risk by the following:
Namely the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) signed into law by Jimmy Carter in 1979 and given more teeth by President Clinton which essentially forces banks to lend to less creditworthy borrowers. What this law does is force banks who take FDIC insurance to be subject to the CRA, pretty much stepping on their right to make decisions about lending and borrowing and forcing them to lend to lower income people who they, the lender, deemed not creditworthy.
Two other factors are major players in this category: government sponsored enterprises (GSE's) called Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Fannie and Freddie were both lenders and buyers of higher-risk loans from banks who were forced by the CRA to lend. Banks initially forced to lend, no longer minded lending to poor credit candidates because they knew they could unload the assets, in part, onto these tax-payer supported institutions thus reducing the risk the lender or bank was taking in making the loan.
You mention the Fed, who you are correct is not a gov't agency, but rather the legal and monopolistic (by Government mandate see: Federal Reserve Act 1913) currency issuer in the U.S. They set interest rates. Interest rates set by the Fed go a long way in determining how credit and currency use. This determines how people, the public be they lenders or borrowers of credit, act in relation to utilizing and lending credit.
In summary, you're laying blame at the feet of the free market for the housing crisis is wrong. The housing crisis of late was caused by meddling government regulation and a free market on housing, money, credit, etc have not existed for quite a long time.
I perceive the author to be saying this: The government is trying to prop up the failing housing market by enticing people to buy. And worst they enticing people to buy houses they can't afford in order to continue the bubble. However, the author points out as a home owner he wants prices to stabilize and stay up because it affects the value of his own home. As a prospective buyer one would want prices to go down because they'll get more bang for their credit buck. And yet as prices dip and credit is still loose the psychology of it is that people will shop for bigger, more expensive homes because the credit is cheap.
The author still seems to miss the point when he says home ownership needs to be one of responsibility and affordability. Unfortunately, the situation as it is now, the gov't trying to reinflate a bubble, neither the former or the latter will occur. The housing market needs a serious correction. That correction is going to screw a lot of current homeowners who bought in the last 10 yrs especially ones who overbought, overpaid. Despite the interest rates set so low, housing prices still aren't low enough to warrant snatching up real estate.
I recently started paying more attention to my daughter's birdie-eating habits. I try to buy mostly organics and lesser-processed foods, which gets expensive. I use small dishes and custard cups for serving her meal components. It's a visual reminder that small amounts of a variety of things is the best way to serve a kid's meal. For example, I quit making the entire box of Annie's mac-n-cheese and realized that I can get 5 or more servings out of a box, when I consider that she only needs about a 1/4 or 1/2 cup of pasta along with her other parts of her meal. This way, it's less focus on the not-that-great food (pasta) and more emphasis on the others (veggies, fruit, etc). I store the extra noodles and the packet of cheese in a mason jar, and can just dump in a new box into the jar when I need to re-up. WIN!
Hi Phil - I very much enjoyed your write up. I'm surprised more people haven't discussed the possibility of deflation. I wrote my quick blurb on why Deflation Is Out Of The Question before finding this article, and have included it in my Katana wrap.
This here is a great point:
In particular, wages are generally sticky on the downside. That means that rather than a smooth adjustment with wage cuts, deflation tends to produce high unemployment.
Furthermore, its all about having boat loads of cash!
Cheers,
Sam
It used to be common to have deflation. Under a gold standard, you have to expect that any period of inflation will be offset by a period of deflation to get back to gold parity. (In the real world it's more complicated than that, because changes in the gold supply affect the price level as well.)
If you know deflation is a real possibility, you manage your finances in a particular way. In particular, you avoid debt and you're very careful about long-term, fixed-price contracts.
Since we left the gold standard, though, we haven't had any offsetting deflations. After three or four generations, I think people can be excused for arranging their finances without proper care for the possibility of deflation.
Debt isn't essential for growth, but growth can be a lot faster with debt.
If each business has to finance its own growth entirely out of profits, growth is going to be very slow.
I talk a bit out the difference between financing production (versus consumption) with debt in this post:
http://www.wisebread.com/good-debt-bad-debt
I would say your first tip might be a hindrance to someone getting the best deal possible. Chester L. Karrass’ course states that people who are not aware of a “fair” price and start lower, usually end up getting a better deal than those who negotiate with a fair price in mind. American’s negotiate with “fair” in mind, other countries like China and Russia play hardball. Just look at our current trade agreement with China.
What an amazing write up,the advent of television, " the fast life", " I need this thing NOW" attitude has lead to uncontrolled spending and albeit utilization of credit- has lead to wasteful expenditure . After finishing graduate school, medical school and then residency.I remember an incident when I had moved to a new town to begin my job as an attending physician. Already in neck deep debt, no savings ( try living in NYC on a resident stipend :) ), I did not have money to buy a mattress and spring box . Though I did have a host of credit cards I had decided during residency not to accumulate any more debt on the credit cards.Buy if you have money after you have saved was my motto. I brought the cheapest futon that money could afford, picked up a pillow and comforter from walmart and slept on the carpeted floor till I could afford a mattress. That night was the best sleep I ever had. Credit does good to great things if used wisely, but beware of the trap, I have seen the wisest men make foolish mistakes with credit.
LOVE THIS!
Your dad sounds like a very wise man, and I'm sure that you have many pearls to pick from.
Thank you for sharing this.
My mother-in-law came with us when we purchased our car. We knew what we wanted, had done the research... but my husband and I just aren't that great at dealing. A few hours later with all the i's dotted and t's crossed, my mother-in-law negotiated $2,000 off our new car. I'm forever grateful to her for saving us that money.
Lee's Lower on the Waist Stretch Jeans. They give you youth and confidence.
In regards to unlocking region code restrictions, SPECIFICALLY for a multi DVD player that apparently is marked as an ALL REGION player, but fails to play U.S. DVDs and simply spits out, "Wrong Region" when a disc is put in. The player is a Konzert multi player, model MD-680. The instruction manual actually shows region 3 (I'm guessing since it was made in Korea) AND region ALL right below that. It used to play any U.S. DVD, but has suddenly stopped accepting them and instead mocks me by saying, "Wrong Region". Help?
A speech therapy degree is great. People will be knocking down your door to hire you on. You have the option to work at the following: school, private clinic, home health, rehab centers, hospitals, or contract work. You can start your own clinic or be your own boss with home health. You also have a variety of populations that you can work with from infants to geriatrics. You can usually make decent money and often make your own hours. And last, but certainly not least, you are improving the quality of life for a person!