I love shopping at the farmer's market for their wonderful fruit and veggies. I am always disappointed in the fall when our market's shut down for the winter. The best thing I found at the farmer's market was a local organic farm that sold grass fed beef. We have been buying direct from "Glen Ashton Farms" for 3 years and are always impressed by this couple and their operation. They are a very professional and bring a whole new meaning to customer service. Last year we placed our meat order a little late and they managed to fit us in. They truly go above and beyond! I would love to hear about your favorite find at your local Farmer's Market?
A tan is the body's natural protection mechanism from UV light. It seems like a given perhaps, that UV, whether from the sun or a lamp, the skins response will be similar. If you forget this while tanning, you will be like the person who wrote this article. Ultimately, burns are what cause cancer, whether outside or in a booth. Tanning is to protect you from burns - to build your natural SPF. There is a reason why darker nationalities and certain skin types don't burn as easily as white skin types... more melanin, more protection. Never forget that.
I use envelopes for budgeting too, but in a different way. Every time I spend, I would keep the receipts and put into different envelops. For example, food, groceries, entertainment, etc. At the end of every month, I would take them out and record the total for the month for a particular envelope. Over a few months, I would have learned how much to allocate each month. But be warned, this process is something I would try to avoid doing every month.
I know around what my score is, but don't know exactly. I just check every year on the free annual government credit report to make sure everything is ok.
If a Ponzi scheme needs, by Phil's definition, an ever increasing stream of new investors to continue paying out, than Social Security may indeed be a Ponzi scheme. In 1950 there were 16.5 workers to every SS benificiary. By 1970 the ratio was 3.7 to 1. By 1990, 3.4 to 1, and in 2010, 2.9 to one. (From the SS website). We can either cut benefits, raise payroll taxes, or bring in new "investors". Otherwise, the system will face bankruptcy in the next 20 years.
“A lot of people in America think there is a trust — that we take your money in payroll taxes and then we hold it for you and then when you retire, we give it back to you.
But that’s not the way it works. There is no trust ‘fund’ — just IOUs that I saw firsthand.” President Bush, 2005
I appreciate what you are saying in the article, but it is really hard to take people seriously when they dress up as zombies and walk around like the walking dead, holding fists full of cash while trying to make a point. Looks like one big Frat party to me.
The poor many times live in high crime areas, since they do not have the money or dependable transportation to move to safer areas far from the inner city. Inner city businesses have to pay more for insurance (arson threats), losses through shop lifting ( and employee theft), and the cost of private security guards. All of those costs are passed on to the poor customers.
Fortunately, the opportunity to learn how to manage money and invest is available free through the local library through books and free internet and computers. Twenty five years ago, my wife and I learned how to invest in real estate by borrowing many excellent books on the subject-all from the library. But, sadly, many people are not motivated to do that.
Good one, Philip. Lots of interesting comments, including the huffy ones.
The single point I might quibble with is your characterization of the people harmed by events of the past five years or so as unlucky. No doubt some of the misfortunes people have suffered are just that, misfortunes. If my well water started delivering poison water as the result of natural processes eating into some ancient rock deposit, I'd say I had bad luck.
If a few dozen neighbors permitted a natural gas company to institute hydraulic fracking as the result of lax state regulations and following legislation that took oversight out of the EPA's hands, and then our wells began running poison water, my answer would be more complicated. We had bad luck but we had also been exploited, and that includes the neighbors that made some money out of the deal.
I'm a capitalist too (in my own "eking out a meager existence" kind of way). But I'm little bitter that the capitalists who made huge bets in the derivatives markets—and then lost—got bailed out by the government. I'm rather more bitter that we still don't have rules in place to prevent the exact same thing from happening again.
For example, we know which banks have exposure to the European debt crisis because they've lent money to the states that might default, because there are rules that require it. But we have no idea which banks have exposure because they've entered into a credit default swap and will owe money if there's a default.
If there's a major default, those banks will need to be bailed out again. (We can't let them fail—they're systemically important.) If there's no default, they'll make bags of money, much of which will go to big bonuses for the bankers, and what's left will go to the bank's shareholders. But where's the fee for the taxpayer's who're on the hook for all that unknown, unmeasurable risk? Where's the transparency that will let us at least have some insight into just how much we might owe?
It is interesting to see the "99%" out on wall street. Personally, I am all for owning to change yourself, rather than blaming others and trying to take it out on them, but that group does indeed have some valid points there.
The stock market is the personal bank account of Wall Street. Based upon their behavior over the last few years, I've decided to pull all of my money out of the market and routinely root for failure of the market. It is corrupt and filled with inside traders. It used to be that fundamentals drove the price of stocks. Now it is fear and greed. The government has not done it's job to maintain fair markets. Nothing has changed to prevent this mess from happening again.
Most of the advice that brokers/money managers give make no sense. Why should an individual keep their money in the market as it implodes? This is good for the system but not good for the individual. All people giving investing advice should have all their holdings in the market visible to all clients at all times to validate their behavior is consistent with their advice.
I am tired of the thieves on Wall Street stealing my nest egg and will keep the money invested that I can afford to lose, $0.00. Investing in the market is the same as playing financial Russian Roulette. I would rather see inflation eat it rather than support such a corrupt system.
Protesters are not asking for more government involvement. They are asking for fairness which is impossible from scumbags pursuing profits. The role of government is as arbitrator between the various factions of society. Unfortunately, government has been bought off by the greediest 1%.
You imply government interference has caused problems in a number of industries. Morons like Greenspan assumed that self interest would prevent deregulated financial thieves from imploding the market and he was WRONG. The only self interest is for profits regardless of impact to the system. Capitalism died on the day that the GOVERNMENT bailed out wall street. Do you want to amend your opinion about what government should get involved in? I'm sure you would have hung yourself by now if they did not intervene.
Answers to your questions:
Both parties gamed the system. Bad faith on both sides. Buyer lied and financier knew it but did not care because they knew they were not going to keep the load. Justice would be served if the home owner lost the property AND the banker went to jail for money laundering. The took bad loans and passed them off as triple AAA rated loads. This is money laundering. If you punish the buyer you must punish the financier and as you know we are all still waiting for this.
Because government is the administrator of medicare and medicaid they are trying to reduce the cost of medicine. A simple solution is to compete with for profit insurance companies. They provide no value to society and should go out of business like the US mail.
I will always trust government over corporations. Corporations are in business to make money and as we have learned throughout our history are willing to work people 20 hours a day, 7 days a week, with little wages and no insurance.
You said in a comment "Looking at the statements of the people calling themselves the 99%, I don't see any from people who want something for nothing. Almost all the ones I see are from people who've been unlucky."
Call it what you will. People advocation forgiving all debt do want something for nothing. I fear that the US has become such a nanny state that people are now expecting the Federal Government to take care of their every want. I just want them to allow me to pursue happiness, not provide it.
Do you intend to turn this personal finance blog into an advocacy for left leaning causes? I'm more into capitalism, where my success or failure depends on my actions, not the feds.
I think OWS message is pretty clear. We have been sold out by our leaders for the profits of corporations. It effects all ages and level of income negatively.. unless you are the 1% I am proud of the people showing up and support their efforts.
Please don't be fooled by all this talk about electricity. Even the poster who attempted to downplay the electric costs didn't go far enough... Water softeners use almost no electricity, they work on the pressure of the water and only need to use electricity for the valves during regeneration and for the display. At 5 watts (which is what that poster quoted), you are looking at about $5 per year in electricity costs. $7 if you are in a high cost area of the U.S.
5 watts x 24 hours/day x 365 days/year
= 5 x 24 x 365 watt hours
= 43,800 watt hours
= 43.8 kilowatt hours
with electricity being, on average 10 cents per kilowatt hour, that would be
$4.38 for the year.
So please, anyone (including the writer of this article) who talks about the power consumption of a water softener being a consideration, it really isn't, unless you live somewhere where you have to run a generator 24/7 to power your water softener. :o)
Philip, you're wrong. It IS anger at the 1%. Hence the calls for the disgorging of wealth and the beheading of those who don't. I'm sorry, but this is pure greed. And the fact that Democrat politicians are starting to jump on the bandwagon and endorsing the protestors demonstrates the mendacity of the protests.
There communist, socialists and marxists They hate capitalism. They want everything for free and want forgiven for all their debts so try and put a spin on that. Unions are now involved your not seeing the big picture. Half these people were paid to go and picket and the ones that were carrying signs written in English they couldn't even read it. Geroge Sorros has money invested in this. Your typical left wing spin won't work on me.
It's an interesting movement. I'm not a political person, but I'm pretty pissed off that Wall Street has gotten away with what basically amounts to criminal activity, with the blessing of the government. Makes you realize you're in this on your own, and that it's not wise to trust anyone in politics. I would like to do some more research on this movement, as others point out this article has some holes in it. I think I probably align with this movement because it's less political and more about getting the "99%" to realize how much we've been f'd over by the super rich.
I love shopping at the farmer's market for their wonderful fruit and veggies. I am always disappointed in the fall when our market's shut down for the winter. The best thing I found at the farmer's market was a local organic farm that sold grass fed beef. We have been buying direct from "Glen Ashton Farms" for 3 years and are always impressed by this couple and their operation. They are a very professional and bring a whole new meaning to customer service. Last year we placed our meat order a little late and they managed to fit us in. They truly go above and beyond! I would love to hear about your favorite find at your local Farmer's Market?
A tan is the body's natural protection mechanism from UV light. It seems like a given perhaps, that UV, whether from the sun or a lamp, the skins response will be similar. If you forget this while tanning, you will be like the person who wrote this article. Ultimately, burns are what cause cancer, whether outside or in a booth. Tanning is to protect you from burns - to build your natural SPF. There is a reason why darker nationalities and certain skin types don't burn as easily as white skin types... more melanin, more protection. Never forget that.
I use envelopes for budgeting too, but in a different way. Every time I spend, I would keep the receipts and put into different envelops. For example, food, groceries, entertainment, etc. At the end of every month, I would take them out and record the total for the month for a particular envelope. Over a few months, I would have learned how much to allocate each month. But be warned, this process is something I would try to avoid doing every month.
I know around what my score is, but don't know exactly. I just check every year on the free annual government credit report to make sure everything is ok.
If a Ponzi scheme needs, by Phil's definition, an ever increasing stream of new investors to continue paying out, than Social Security may indeed be a Ponzi scheme. In 1950 there were 16.5 workers to every SS benificiary. By 1970 the ratio was 3.7 to 1. By 1990, 3.4 to 1, and in 2010, 2.9 to one. (From the SS website). We can either cut benefits, raise payroll taxes, or bring in new "investors". Otherwise, the system will face bankruptcy in the next 20 years.
“A lot of people in America think there is a trust — that we take your money in payroll taxes and then we hold it for you and then when you retire, we give it back to you.
But that’s not the way it works. There is no trust ‘fund’ — just IOUs that I saw firsthand.” President Bush, 2005
If it walks like a duck..........
I appreciate what you are saying in the article, but it is really hard to take people seriously when they dress up as zombies and walk around like the walking dead, holding fists full of cash while trying to make a point. Looks like one big Frat party to me.
The poor many times live in high crime areas, since they do not have the money or dependable transportation to move to safer areas far from the inner city. Inner city businesses have to pay more for insurance (arson threats), losses through shop lifting ( and employee theft), and the cost of private security guards. All of those costs are passed on to the poor customers.
Fortunately, the opportunity to learn how to manage money and invest is available free through the local library through books and free internet and computers. Twenty five years ago, my wife and I learned how to invest in real estate by borrowing many excellent books on the subject-all from the library. But, sadly, many people are not motivated to do that.
Good one, Philip. Lots of interesting comments, including the huffy ones.
The single point I might quibble with is your characterization of the people harmed by events of the past five years or so as unlucky. No doubt some of the misfortunes people have suffered are just that, misfortunes. If my well water started delivering poison water as the result of natural processes eating into some ancient rock deposit, I'd say I had bad luck.
If a few dozen neighbors permitted a natural gas company to institute hydraulic fracking as the result of lax state regulations and following legislation that took oversight out of the EPA's hands, and then our wells began running poison water, my answer would be more complicated. We had bad luck but we had also been exploited, and that includes the neighbors that made some money out of the deal.
I'm a capitalist too (in my own "eking out a meager existence" kind of way). But I'm little bitter that the capitalists who made huge bets in the derivatives markets—and then lost—got bailed out by the government. I'm rather more bitter that we still don't have rules in place to prevent the exact same thing from happening again.
For example, we know which banks have exposure to the European debt crisis because they've lent money to the states that might default, because there are rules that require it. But we have no idea which banks have exposure because they've entered into a credit default swap and will owe money if there's a default.
If there's a major default, those banks will need to be bailed out again. (We can't let them fail—they're systemically important.) If there's no default, they'll make bags of money, much of which will go to big bonuses for the bankers, and what's left will go to the bank's shareholders. But where's the fee for the taxpayer's who're on the hook for all that unknown, unmeasurable risk? Where's the transparency that will let us at least have some insight into just how much we might owe?
It is interesting to see the "99%" out on wall street. Personally, I am all for owning to change yourself, rather than blaming others and trying to take it out on them, but that group does indeed have some valid points there.
The stock market is the personal bank account of Wall Street. Based upon their behavior over the last few years, I've decided to pull all of my money out of the market and routinely root for failure of the market. It is corrupt and filled with inside traders. It used to be that fundamentals drove the price of stocks. Now it is fear and greed. The government has not done it's job to maintain fair markets. Nothing has changed to prevent this mess from happening again.
Most of the advice that brokers/money managers give make no sense. Why should an individual keep their money in the market as it implodes? This is good for the system but not good for the individual. All people giving investing advice should have all their holdings in the market visible to all clients at all times to validate their behavior is consistent with their advice.
I am tired of the thieves on Wall Street stealing my nest egg and will keep the money invested that I can afford to lose, $0.00. Investing in the market is the same as playing financial Russian Roulette. I would rather see inflation eat it rather than support such a corrupt system.
Protesters are not asking for more government involvement. They are asking for fairness which is impossible from scumbags pursuing profits. The role of government is as arbitrator between the various factions of society. Unfortunately, government has been bought off by the greediest 1%.
You imply government interference has caused problems in a number of industries. Morons like Greenspan assumed that self interest would prevent deregulated financial thieves from imploding the market and he was WRONG. The only self interest is for profits regardless of impact to the system. Capitalism died on the day that the GOVERNMENT bailed out wall street. Do you want to amend your opinion about what government should get involved in? I'm sure you would have hung yourself by now if they did not intervene.
Answers to your questions:
Both parties gamed the system. Bad faith on both sides. Buyer lied and financier knew it but did not care because they knew they were not going to keep the load. Justice would be served if the home owner lost the property AND the banker went to jail for money laundering. The took bad loans and passed them off as triple AAA rated loads. This is money laundering. If you punish the buyer you must punish the financier and as you know we are all still waiting for this.
Because government is the administrator of medicare and medicaid they are trying to reduce the cost of medicine. A simple solution is to compete with for profit insurance companies. They provide no value to society and should go out of business like the US mail.
I will always trust government over corporations. Corporations are in business to make money and as we have learned throughout our history are willing to work people 20 hours a day, 7 days a week, with little wages and no insurance.
You said in a comment "Looking at the statements of the people calling themselves the 99%, I don't see any from people who want something for nothing. Almost all the ones I see are from people who've been unlucky."
Call it what you will. People advocation forgiving all debt do want something for nothing. I fear that the US has become such a nanny state that people are now expecting the Federal Government to take care of their every want. I just want them to allow me to pursue happiness, not provide it.
Do you intend to turn this personal finance blog into an advocacy for left leaning causes? I'm more into capitalism, where my success or failure depends on my actions, not the feds.
I think OWS message is pretty clear. We have been sold out by our leaders for the profits of corporations. It effects all ages and level of income negatively.. unless you are the 1% I am proud of the people showing up and support their efforts.
Can anyone say Credit Union?
Please don't be fooled by all this talk about electricity. Even the poster who attempted to downplay the electric costs didn't go far enough... Water softeners use almost no electricity, they work on the pressure of the water and only need to use electricity for the valves during regeneration and for the display. At 5 watts (which is what that poster quoted), you are looking at about $5 per year in electricity costs. $7 if you are in a high cost area of the U.S.
5 watts x 24 hours/day x 365 days/year
= 5 x 24 x 365 watt hours
= 43,800 watt hours
= 43.8 kilowatt hours
with electricity being, on average 10 cents per kilowatt hour, that would be
$4.38 for the year.
So please, anyone (including the writer of this article) who talks about the power consumption of a water softener being a consideration, it really isn't, unless you live somewhere where you have to run a generator 24/7 to power your water softener. :o)
Philip, you're wrong. It IS anger at the 1%. Hence the calls for the disgorging of wealth and the beheading of those who don't. I'm sorry, but this is pure greed. And the fact that Democrat politicians are starting to jump on the bandwagon and endorsing the protestors demonstrates the mendacity of the protests.
There communist, socialists and marxists They hate capitalism. They want everything for free and want forgiven for all their debts so try and put a spin on that. Unions are now involved your not seeing the big picture. Half these people were paid to go and picket and the ones that were carrying signs written in English they couldn't even read it. Geroge Sorros has money invested in this. Your typical left wing spin won't work on me.
Yes, I am prepared.
Once a month, max.
Yes, I do know my credit score.
I can and do live without a cell phone. Happily.
Mine is in the lower 800s.
\0/
A bit late, but here is my conference recap (I put it on my blogging blog):
http://www.blogthority.com/715/2011-financial-blogger-conference-roundup/
It's an interesting movement. I'm not a political person, but I'm pretty pissed off that Wall Street has gotten away with what basically amounts to criminal activity, with the blessing of the government. Makes you realize you're in this on your own, and that it's not wise to trust anyone in politics. I would like to do some more research on this movement, as others point out this article has some holes in it. I think I probably align with this movement because it's less political and more about getting the "99%" to realize how much we've been f'd over by the super rich.