Clipmarks | rmowery's Finanace collection

Being a millionaire just isn't the same these days

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 03:02:44 GMT

clipped by: rmowery

Being a millionaire just isn't the same these days

POSTED: 6:00 p.m. EDT, March 20, 2007

NEW YORK (AP) -- Renee Weese has reached an enviable goal -- she's become a millionaire. But like many others whose net worth has risen in recent years to seven figures, she doesn't feel particularly wealthy.

Not that long ago, the word "millionaire" conjured up visions of chauffeured limousines and extravagant shopping trips and elegant yachts. These days, a millionaire is more likely to be the guy or gal next door who saved carefully -- and perhaps benefited from the sharp run-up in housing prices -- but still worries about covering the exploding costs of children's educations, caring for aging parents and funding their own retirements.

Weese, 51, of Atlanta, Georgia, credits her good financial fortune to good-paying jobs and windfalls when her startup insurance company went public and, later, when it was taken over by a bigger insurer. Still, Weese worries about how far the money will go.

Tags: finance, money, millionaier, wealthy

Is this the subprime apocalypse? (Or is it just a scary story?)

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 03:29:52 GMT

clipped by: rmowery

Clip Source: money.cnn.com

Monday, March 12, 2007

Is this the subprime apocalypse? (Or is it just a scary story?)

So what's going to happen? I dunno. But when I'm weighing the likelihood of a prediction coming true--or worse, making a prediction myself--I try to remember some of what I've learned from psychologist Philip Tetlock. He's made a study of expert predictions, and he's found that they really aren't very good. They do about as well, he says, as "the moderately attentive reader of good newspapers."

Tags: subprime, real estate, us, economy, finance

8 Confessions Of A Former Verizon Sales Rep

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 03:29:19 GMT

clipped by: rmowery

Clip Source: consumerist.com

A former Verizon sales rep, let's call him Steve, wrote to us recently offering insider advice to all Consumerist readers. We were excited because by knowing how the sales force at Verizon are compensated, consumers can get an edge when haggling over a new phone. What? Haggling!? Over a phone!? Yes, even you can do it. Verizon Steve confesses all he knows, from the simple to the sublime...:

• Never get a 2-year contract. "The only benefit to a 2 yr contract is a $50 savings on your phone. Its not worth it. Take the $50 and get a 1 year then you can upgrade to a new phone every 10 months."

Tags: verizon, frugal, savings, cell phones

Taking home the jackpot

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 19:41:42 GMT

clipped by: rmowery
clipper's remarks: Smart guy to manage things the way he has.

Clip Source: money.cnn.com

Taking home the jackpot

Here's how one lucky winner spent his new-found fortune.

(Fortune Magazine) -- Brad Duke, 34, a manager for five Gold's Gym franchises in Idaho, pocketed a lump sum of $85 million after winning a $220 million Powerball jackpot in 2005. He spent the first month of his new life assembling a team of financial advisors. His goal: to use his winnings to become a billionaire. Here's what Duke has done with his money so far.

$45 million: Safe, low-risk investments such as municipal bonds

$35 million: Aggressive investments like oil and gas and real estate

$1.3 million: A family foundation

$63,000: A trip to Tahiti with 17 friends

$125,000: Mortgage retired on his 1,400-square-foot house

$65,000: New bicycles, including a $12,000 BMC road bike

$18,000: Student-loan repayment

$14,500: A used black VW Jetta

$12,000: Annual gift to each family member

By Ellen Florian Kratz, Fortune writer

February 28 2007: 7:46 AM EST

Tags: finance, lottery, money management

What's Wrong With American Companies?

Fri, 09 Feb 2007 02:33:52 GMT

clipped by: rmowery

Clip Source: www.fool.com

What's Wrong With American Companies?

It's no secret that international stocks have outperformed their American counterparts over the past five years. Indeed, the MSCI EAFE index has outperformed the S&P 500 by more than eight percentage points per year over the past five years.

While traditionally strong American large caps such as General Electric (NYSE: GE), Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT), and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) have struggled to break even over this period, international juggernauts such as Manulife Financial (NYSE: MFC), Toyota (NYSE: TM) and Allied Irish Banks (NYSE: AIB) have doubled.

A new world order
These aren't isolated events, either. A recent issue of Forbes listed its "2,000 Biggest Companies in the World" and found that, of the stocks in their study, "foreign stocks delivered many of the best short- and long-term stock market values." For instance:

One-Year ...

Tags: international stocks, overseas, foriegn stocks, american companies

You Can Learn a Lot From a Rich Girl

Tue, 07 Nov 2006 07:43:58 GMT

clipped by: rmowery

Clip Source: www.violentacres.com

November 5th, 2006

Driving home from the bar one evening, my friend Marilyn confided in me that she was afraid. In six months, she would be graduating from grad school and her parents were going to cut her off financially for the first time in 26 years. Marilyn works twice a week (8 hours total) waiting tables to pay for pot and shoes, but everything else from her rent to her groceries has been paid for by her parents. Marilyn, at 26, doesn’t know how to balance a checkbook and has no idea what a gallon of milk costs. On top of that, she managed to secretly charge up some credit cards to the tune of $12,000 and that debt alone was overwhelming her. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like when she had to pay all of her own bills, plus the credit card debt. She fucked up big time and rather than admit that to her parents (who amassed their wealth through careful, responsible investments) she was desperately confiding in her older friend hoping for a magic solution to her problems.

I suppose she came to me because I’ve been there. If any of you consider me obnoxious and self important now, you should have known me when I was in high school. At that time, I hadn’t ever had to struggle for anything in my life. Everything from material things to academic achievements were mine without the slightest bit of work or effort on my part. So when I sat in my high school physics class and the theories being taught did not instantly become clear to me, I turned up my little nose, crossed my arms, and refused to learn the material at all because it was obviously beneath me. Physics was beneath me. This was my response to a challenge that required more than a few seconds to accomplish.

Tags: money, finance, rich. wealth, debt, credit

25 Rules to Grow Rich By

Thu, 19 Oct 2006 18:46:14 GMT

clipped by: rmowery

Clip Source: money.cnn.com

25 Rules to Grow Rich By

Follow these guidelines and feel confident that you'll be making the right financial decisions.

Type of Project:

Avg job cost
(2005 Natl Avg):

What will you get back?

% Cost recovered

Value at sale

Get your local results from
Remodeling Online's 2005 Cost vs. Value Report

1 of 25

1. For return on investment, the best home renovation is to upgrade an old bathroom. Kitchens come in second.

The return on investment on a mid-range bath modernization is 102% of its cost. Kitchens can add about 90% of their costs to the home's value.

Another home improvement that can pay off is window replacement. Not only does this job return about 90% on investment when the house is resold, it saves on energy bills every year.

As a rule, upscale improvements pay off at lower rates than mid-range or inexpensive ones. And making a house bigger and more luxurious that those of your neighbors will also cost a lot more than they'll return when the house is sold.

Tags: finance, money, wealth, wealth tips

The easiest way to get rich

Mon, 16 Oct 2006 18:26:58 GMT

clipped by: rmowery
clipper's remarks: Common Sense, but thought it was fairly well written.

Clip Source: www.paulstips.com

The easiest way to get rich

Monday, 16 October 2006

Judging by their behavior, most people have an obsession with wealth. Politicians promise to create it, most popular magazines are filled with gossip about those who have it, and the average person spends much of their adult life trying to obtain it. We are creatures obsessed with money, partly for what it can buy, but also as a thing of value in itself.

But most people misunderstand money. They don't really know how to obtain it, or how to hold onto it once they have it.

If you're interested in getting rich, I'm going to give you the simplest formula for doing so. In fact, if you follow it you're virtually guaranteed to build enough wealth to get you into the top 5% of society. As the shampoo advertisement says: "It won't happen overnight, but it will happen".

The hardest way to get rich

Before I go into my formula, let me tell you about hard ways to get rich.

And speaking of lotteries, gambling is another very difficult way to get rich. Sure, some people buy a lottery ticket and win big, but most don't. You can gamble your entire life and you'll most likely end up broke rather than wealthy.

One of the hardest is to be born into it. Of course, if you happen to enter this world as a Hilton, a Gates or a Windsor, then life is sweet. But since 99.9999% of the population aren't that lucky, I'm assuming you didn't win that particular lottery.

When I was younger, I thought the easiest way to get rich was to become famous through some kind of creative act. Stephen King got rich writing horror novels, so why not me?

I'm now much wiser and realize that the vast majority of novelists never even get published. Of those who do, most wallow in obscurity. Only very few make it anywhere near the best-seller list, and only one in a million will achieve any kind of serious wealth.

Tags: finance, weatlh, wealth building, money

Congress Plans to Remove mortgage interest deductions?

Sun, 08 Oct 2006 17:26:37 GMT

clipped by: rmowery
clipper's remarks: Anyone hear anything about this?

Clip Source: ahaa.ahaanow.org

Congress is debating altering mortgage interest deductions, putting your homeownership at risk. Under U.S. tax code, mortgage interest on your home is currently deductible. If Congress changes or removes mortgage interest deductions you could be paying many thousands of dollars more each year.

Join with AHAA and add your voice to a petition urging Congress to keep its HANDS OFF the mortgage interest deduction.

Please fill out the form below:

PETITION: "Mortgage interest deductions allow millions of homeowners like me to live the American dream and afford our own homes. By signing this petition I urge Congress to keep its HANDS OFF the mortgage interest deduction".

Thousands of dollars in tax breaks for homeowners may be in jeopardy.

Tags: mortgage interest, deductions, finance, housing

Cut Your Tech Bills

Tue, 26 Sep 2006 14:50:13 GMT

clipped by: rmowery

Clip Source: www.forbes.com

Cut Your Tech Bills

You like chatting online and you spend too much time on YouTube. You're addicted to your cellphone. And what's a Sunday night without HBO? But even if you're tied to your Internet, phone and TV services, you can still find ways to pay less for them.

As cable, satellite, telecommunications and wireless carriers duel over your business, some great deals are out there. Companies throw discounts and perks to win your business from competitors, and your existing providers might even fight harder to keep you. Use this tip sheet to help you trim your technology bills.

In Pictures: How To Cut Your Tech Bills

Tags: tech bills, finance, savings, technology, internet, cable

How to marry a billionaire?

Mon, 25 Sep 2006 21:49:50 GMT

clipped by: rmowery
clipper's remarks: I thought the part about the cars they drive was the most interesting. Similar to what the author of the Millionaire next door states in his books.

Clip Source: news.com.com

How to marry a billionaire? Start with Forbes list

Nowadays, it takes a minimum of $1 billion to make Forbes 400 Richest Americans list, according to the magazine's yearly survey, published this week.

The titans of tech are all still there. Bill Gates (No. 1, $53 billion) remains the wealthiest American for the 13th year in a row. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen (No. 5, $16 billion), Oracle's Larry Ellison (No. 4, $19.5 billion), and Michael Dell (No. 9, $15.5 billion) are still in the top 10. Google team Sergey Brin (No. 12, $14.1 billion) and Larry Page (No. 13, at 14.0 billion), both 33, are the youngest American billionaires, according to Forbes. Others making a showing are Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer (No. 15, $13.6 billion), eBay founder Pierre Omidyar (No. 32, $7.7 billion), Apple Computer's Steve Jobs (No. 49, $4.9 billion), Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos (No. 70, $3.6 billion), Mark Cuban (No. 133, $2.3 billion), and Yahoo's Jerry Yang (No. 140, $2.2 billion) and David Filo (No. 117, $2.5 billion).

Sneaker billionaires Sergey Brin and Larry Page each own an environmentally responsible Toyota Prius and have jointly invested in the electronic Tesla Roadster. A Mercedes-Benz E320 station wagon is owned by middle-aged mother of two Abigail Johnson (No. 16, $13 billion), the Fidelity Investments heiress. The grandfatherly Warren Buffett owns--what else?--a Cadillac. He bought it after auctioning off his Lincoln Town Car on eBay in August.

But many of the wealthiest Americans don't use their cars to flaunt their status or fulfill a need for speed. Also on Forbes' list were a BMW, an SUV, a station wagon and several Mercedes sedans.

One interesting bit of humor is the fact that some of the purchases by these billionaires followed conventional cliches of car ownership for their generation to the letter.

Tags: wealth, cars, billionaires, luxury, finance

Taking passwords to the grave

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 15:02:48 GMT

clipped by: rmowery

Clip Source: news.com.com

Taking passwords to the grave

William Talcott, a prominent San Francisco poet with dual Irish citizenship, had fans all over the world. But when he died in June of bone marrow cancer, his daughter couldn't notify most of his contacts because his e-mail account--and the online address book he used--was locked up.

Talcott, 69, a friend of beatnik Neil Cassidy, apparently took his password to the grave.

It's a vexing, and increasingly common problem for families mourning the loss of loved ones. As more and more people move their lives, address books, calendars, financial information, online, they are taking a risk that some information formerly filed away in folders and desks might never recovered. That is, unless they share their passwords, which poses security threats.

Tags: passwords, grave, email, death, estate planning

Liberty Dollar Says NO to the US Mint Allegations

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 05:35:23 GMT

clipped by: rmowery
clipper's remarks: I never thought about it much, but I suppose if lots of people find new ways to exchange and barter - that this imposes problems not only for the US mint, but for the IRS in collecting taxes, etc.

Clip Source: intlib.blogspot.com

Liberty Dollar Says NO to the US Mint Allegations

The United States Mint inadvertently may have done THE LIBERTY DOLLAR, an acclaimed private, non-government currency and favorite numismatic item distributed by NORFED, Inc., a favor by posting a “Warning” on its website on September 14 entitled, “Liberty Dollars Not Legal Tender, United States Mint Warns Consumers.” NORFED states that the last thing they want is for someone to be confused that the gold and silver based Liberty Dollar has some connection with the Federal Government’s fiat money, which is based upon nothing more than popular acceptance for lack of an alternative.

Since the introduction in 1998 of the Liberty Dollar every effort has been made to promote and market the Liberty Dollar with educational tools by clearly and repeatedly pointing out that the Liberty Dollar is not United States Mint fiat money, is not legal tender, is not a coin, is not currency in the sense of governmental coinage, and is not money in the sense of governmental coinage. (Currency and money have varied dictionary definitions. In its own interest the Liberty Dollar has every incentive to clarify that the Liberty Dollar has no connection with the Feds - and that’s what has been done, and continues to be done, over and over.)

Any claim of the forgoing would be contrary to the purpose and function of the Liberty Dollar, which, in addition to its being a numismatic item is a means of voluntary barter.

Tags: us government, money, liberty dollar, currency, exchange, barter

Get Your Finances Organized

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 20:54:10 GMT

clipped by: rmowery

Clip Source: www.parade.com

personal finance on PARADE™

Get Your Finances Organized

By Lynn Brenner

Published: September 17, 2006

You carry your basic financial information in your head—like the name of your bank, the location of your checkbook, where to find last year’s tax return. (OK, it might take a while to put your hands on that return, but you know where to look.) But does anyone else know what you know? No? Then create a one-page crib sheet. It’s the smartest, easiest way to prepare for the unexpected. If anything happens to you, it will be vital to your survivors. And if you’re ever forced to flee a natural disaster, it will help you reconstruct your financial records.

What You Should List

Contact information. Write down the names and phone numbers of family members, your closest friend, your doctor, any professional advisers (lawyer, tax accountant, broker, insurance agent) and the person who handles employee benefits where you work.

Tags: finances, organinzing, finance, organize records

Posh dorms, amenities becoming the norm at college

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 19:51:30 GMT

clipped by: rmowery
clipper's remarks: Sounds like a scene from Rodney Dangerfield's movie "Back to School".

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

Posh dorms, amenities becoming the norm at college

POSTED: 2:48 p.m. EDT, September 14, 2006

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Somewhere along the way, college life has gotten a whole lot more posh.

On a number of campuses, students are able to hire personal maids to clean and do their laundry. They pay moving crews to pack and transport their stuff -- plasma TVs and other high-end electronics included. And they're living large in housing that looks like anything but a dorm.

"You know it's good when your parents walk in the room and say 'Can I live here?"' says Niki Pochopien, a 21-year-old senior who just moved into swanky new living quarters for students at DePaul University in Chicago.

New York University sophomore Josh Hoffman, front, takes a limousine to school with his friends.

Known as Loft-Right, the mod-looking structure has all the amenities: expansive city views, granite countertops in the kitchen and bathrooms, modern designer furniture and satellite TV hookups. The lobby lounge -- like something out of a hip hotel -- has a pool table and fireplace, and soon will have a Starbucks and tanning and hair salons next door.

Tags: posh dorms, college life, hot tubs, limo, college