Archive for February, 2009
What is the First Time Home Buyers Tax Credit?
Congress has been blamed for pushing homeownership so much so that in part, they helped our subprime crisis evolve. After all, it’s easy for them to turn a regulatory eye when their constituents are happy and in nice homes. Having said that, in a desperate move to try to get people to buy homes again [...]
The Crisis of Credit Visualized & Cleverly Explained
Jonathan Jarvis creates a clever, easy to understand video of the credit crisis and how things work. It goes into complicated investment vehiceles and fiancial structures and is actually very imformative. It lays a little too much blame on Greenspan, but this is a video you will want to watch and share with your friends [...]
Review: Dear Mr. Buffett
General overview:
While the events of our market downturn are still fresh, Tavakoli writes a compelling line of events explaining what happened and why. Then on top of that she discusses what Warren Buffet thinks and what he would have done differently.
Maybe I didn’t realize the level as to Tavakoli’s expertise but it is expansive. Not [...]
Don’t Let Advertised Savings Trick You into Spending
Don’t you love it when people go shopping and come home with bags of new merchandise and justify their budget busting spending by saying, “I saved more than I spent.” When I go to the store and get tempted into buying something that is on sale, but wasn’t on my original shopping list, that the [...]
Review: The Ascent of Money
General overview:
For any one that loves money and history, this is the book for you. Ferguson does a fantastic job of telling stories and recapturing the events that lead to the environment that we know today. He successfully takes us from the origin of the word “bank” all the way to the IMF and does [...]
How to Save Money on Electronic Purchases
If you do the majority of your shopping for electronics at Best Buy, Circuit City, or RadioShack then you are most likely overspending-especially on smaller ticket items like computer hardware and cables. In many instances, I have seen markups of well over 100%; Monster Cables are a great example of this. In order to get [...]
Interview with Aisle 19’s CEO
We spoke with Aisle 19’s CEO David Rutz and we would like to share those Q and A’s with our readership so that they can best judge for themselves the merits of their offerings. Take a look and see what you think…comments always welcome…
Aisle19 Answers
We have been getting quite a bit of our readers writing in regarding Aisle19 (read here) and whether its on the up and up. We are going to compile some of the debates from both sides in an unbiased fashion but in the interest of full disclosure, we did get a message from Aisle19’s CEO [...]
Summary of Passed 2009 Stimulus
President Obama wanted a stimulus package on his desk before Pesident’s Day and surprisingly, he will have it. Below is a sumary of what is in the passed version of the 2009 stimulus, thanks to the Appropporiations Committee.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provides $311 billion in
appropriations, including the following critical investments:
Investments in Infrastructure and [...]
Better Save Than Sorry
I saw this on an ING billboard on my way to work today and I love it. I don’t know about you guys, but the recession-like economy is starting to show its colors. At first, most of us just pretended it was bad, but didn’t really care. Then, maybe we heard of a friend or [...]
ATM Fees Increase From Last Year
I get excited whenever I see one of my ATM’s or banks and automatically think that I should take some cash out, whether I need it or not. This is what ridiculous ATM fees have done to me. Nothing pains me more than taking out cash and getting charged a crazy amount just to get [...]
Economic Effects for the Average Person
Sure, we read about the economy every single day. About business crumbling, prices rising and money literally just getting printed in order to pay things away. Our government is pulling out all the stops in attempts to redeem a shred of what was lost but the only thing that is going to help is time. [...]
Home Heating Bill Tricks
Where I live the temperature gets low. We are talking like 12 degrees Fahrenheit, before the wind starts collecting its due. Being the apprentice of a Frugal Master (Frank) I have ratched down our heat to 65 (sometimes 68) degrees. Sure, we can do the usual things where we put on ectra layers but personally [...]
Don’t Buy Stuff You Can’t Afford
Hulurious video showing the obvious…kind of makes fun of everyone and has a nice irony in the ordering process.
Survival in Tough Times: Smart Shopping
This is a guest post from Al Jacobs, who is the publisher of OnTheMoneyTrail.com. His book is called Nobody’s Fool: A Skeptics Guide to Prosperity.
When economic times are good, you may be inclined to shop with little regard for price or value. But when conditions turn sour it’s another story. As your dollars must now be [...]
