One of the benefits of living in DC is the opportunity attend the pomp and circumstance of presidential inaugurations. Well, its that time again and President Obama’s swearing in celebrations are well under way in town. We are off to attend a free concert – check it out HBO – and meet various friends.
In the meantime, here is a news posting on the controversy surrounding the price tag for the festivities. Check it out and decide for yourself. For our part – we are going to party.
To follow up on our earlier post about Suze Orman’s class last night on Oprah’s Best Life Series, we wanted to share some of the scariness of what the credit cards are up to.
Apparently if you have a credit card and you are paying the minimum and adding to your balance monthly, then it is obvious that you are living on your credit card. Right? Lenders are closing these accounts and then changing the interest rate to 32%.
In this economy that is going to put a lot of folks under.
I think we haven’t seen the worst yet.
If you are living on your credit card right now, get back on the right path and do it fast. It appears they’ll be no letting up from the credit cards. We might be giving them billions of dollars but they aren’t showing the love to your average citizen.
I don’t know if you saw this or not, but ABC news is carrying the story of a former Wall Street whiz who lost everything in the market crash. The guy went from making $750,000 per year to delivering pizzas for $7.50 an hour.
Moral of the story: diversify your assets and save your money.
According to Reuters newswire Zimbabwe will soon introduce the 100 billion dollar note.
This from the article:
Hyper-inflation has forced the central bank to keep issuing new banknotes which quickly become almost worthless. There is an official exchange rate, but most Zimbabweans resort to the informal market for currency transactions. As well as the Z$100 trillion dollar note, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe plans to launch Z$10 trillion, Z$20 trillion and Z$50 trillion notes, the Herald newspaper reported.
We wanted to share with our readers a great deal on learning about your FICO score and helping to get out of debt.
Not sure what your FICO score is? From now until January 22 at 10:00 p.m. CT, Oprah viewers can get a 50 percent discount on the SuzeOrmanFICO® kit from myFICO®.com. Click here to order the SuzeOrmanFICO kit. The 50 percent discount will be automatically deducted from the retail price of $49.95 at checkout (special price for Oprah viewers will be $24.97).
It has a great little video that tells you everything that is offered in this kit. I’d have to say that it would be well worth your money if you are in debt or are interested in improving your FICO score for purchasing a home, buying a car, etc.
Here is some of what it offers: Action Plan personalized to your credit report and goals 3 Credit Reports (from all three FICO reporting agencies) – these can be used throughout the year so you can work to improve your score over time. Debt Eliminator – all sorts of tools for getting lower interest rates and organizing which cards to pay off first, etc. Fairness – It checks the fairness of rates to make sure you are getting a fair deal based on your FICO score. Affordability – It works with your details to determine if you can afford something, i.e. new car, etc. New House – It judges whether you can afford your home both today and tomorrow. Where you Stand – It also shows you what you’d be paying if your FICO was better or worse. Reminders for Bills – Automatically sent to your email. Stop Credit Harassment – If it has gotten to this point there are ways to get relief.
I don’t know if we’ll buy it ourselves, but it seems like a great tool for anyone in debt. It might be worth it for us just to improve our FICOs any and give good tips to our readers though!
We just finished watching Suze Orman on Oprah’s Best Life Series (I’d recommend the whole series!) First we’d have to say that James has changed his tune about Suze. She tells it as it is and doesn’t let up.
The class started out with Suze being hammered by a restaurant owner who was criticizing her for telling people not to eat out.
Apparently Suze gave her advice on Oprah last week that folks who were in economic difficulties or uncertainties should do the following:
1. Not spend anything for a day.
2. Not use a credit card for a week.
3. Not eat out for a month.
She got lots of flack for from restaurant owners, including this guy who Skyped in. Suze just gave it back to him, pointing out that he himself had credit card debt and shouldn’t be eating out, and that sacrifices today will mean more prosperity for everyone in the long term. If you want to see the show it will be available on Oprah tomorrow.
Here are a few of the other tidbits that we really liked from the show:
Be honest with yourself on what you can spend.
FICO uses the debt to available debt as a ratio in figuring your credit rating.
8 months of emergency funding is recommended in this economy.
It is better to do nothing than something you don’t understand.
Listen to yourself and do what is right for you, not even your financial advisor or us DINKs.
For those who are interested, Oprah is heavily in cash and Suze in municipal bonds. Both have been criticized for their action in the past, but are doing better for having done what they felt comfortable with. Suze recommends General Obligation Municipal Bonds if you are wanting to buy them, as these aren’t reliant on tax levies.
Overall it was a great show and I’ll be adding more posts over the next few days since there was so much to think about and pass on to our readers.
Here is also the homework from the class with a great number of fabulous tools for getting yourself back on track financially. The Action Plans sections also has some great content.
By now, you’ve probably familar with the woes of banking giant Citigroup. For over a year and a half, the company has been hit by huge subprime losses, a decline in investment banking activity and a general shrinking of economy activity. In short, its not news that Citigroup is in a big mess.
The decline isn’t news, but its impressive nontheless. Think about it. – Its telling that despite an army of lobbyists, billions of dollars in income, the finest minds in banking and the full backing of the government of the United States – economic forces have brought one of the worlds largest banks to the edge of bankruptcy. If nothing else you have to be impressed at the titanic power of markets to create this kind of destruction.
Avoid shopping for food when you’re hungry — you’ll buy more. Also, try to shop without the kids — they tend to lobby for their favorite junk food. Finally, when you do go shopping, bring a list. Using a list will keep your expenses down by building some discipline into the processes.
