Archive for December, 2008

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Why American Investments Are Long Term Better Than Overseas

Thursday, December 11th, 2008

After reading about how Bank of America had to strike verbage from their marketing about why they shouldn’t hire American employees because they cost so much I thought I would take the time to point out some basic business points that international investors may have missed:

1.  B of A did the bulk of their early business in the United States.  The American consumer was one of the easiest person to market to because they did demand a decent wage, health care, and a better quality of life for their education.  These are the kind of people that placed their money in banks like B of A and other banks to help them make money. It is a slap in the face to Americans that are so adverse to hiring the people who helped build them up internationally.  What would happen if people start boycotting B of A?

2.   India and Pakistan aren’t the most stable places in the world.  Yes, they are getting better and they are positioned as global leaders, like China,  but for most businesses, do you want to be in a position in the world where some crackpot can wipe out your electronic data or database by a bomb or an inexpensive bribe?  It is all well and good to look at acceptable losses on paper if things go south but once it happens in the real world, good luck explaining things to your stockholders.

Some Indian companies have all their data stored on hard drives in non-descript buildings. What is to prevent bribing an employee there any more than an employee here?  The difference is here, because we are (or were) well-paid you couldn’t buy us off so cheaply.

3.  America still has the land and resources to grow with.  Take a look at our land, our water, our forests.  We still have a lot of natural resources that will help us in the years to come if we manage them correctly.

4.  The American people are very flexible.  The reason is that Americans are made up of people from all over the world – India, Pakistan, China, Israel, Egypt, UAR, France, England, Turkey, Australia, Sweden, Germany, Russia, Mexico  and the list goes on and on and on.  Our rates can be pretty competitive and fair compared to the quality of work we put out if we get a chance at it.

5.  Good luck getting your product or service working without an American consumer to buy it.  The trade-off with keeping salaries and benefits low in other nations is that you end up with a broke, ill work force.  There is only so much you can sell them whereas we well-fed, healthy Americans, if cash flush, will buy all sorts of things.  What other country or countries are making it profitable to do business in if nobody is buying your goods? If Americans are working because money isn’t invested here, you will need to wait a couple of decades till China, Africa or India get their financial chops up to speed.  You as a company may go broke by then.

 

 

 

 6.  Don’t get me wrong, I have a great love for international business. I just don’t like to see America being bad mouthed by companies that helped get America in the situation that it is in.  I am saying that I welcome international investment and am inviting firms to set up shop here.   In fact, hire me!

7.  Have fun retiring or setting up factories in countries where you can’t go to sleep at night without knowing if when you wake up that a new government may be in power or terrorists have taken out your generators.  The U.S. has a great degree of stability for business.  Granted, some of our business laws need to be changed but hopefully that will be addressed by Congress and our new Administration.

Okay, I am done ranting.  Fire away with your comments.  Oh, and if you are having a hard time making ends meet, please check out the link for my book below on Practical Money Making.  Peace!

  Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement 

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Why American Investments Are Long Term Better Than Overseas

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Business | 1 Comment »

Mr.President, Don’t Forget Manufacturing

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008

This is an open post for our President-elect and members of Congress.  Please start getting legislation in place to make it business friendly for companies to start manufacturing in this country again.  We cannot afford to outsource anymore.  We are a service economy that doesn’t have enough money to employ people to service the economy.

With the initiatives coming on the table to promote “green” businesses and to get cash into the infrastructure, how about doing something that will benefit states for years to come after the roads, dams and buildings have been retrofitted or rebuilt? 

Put some incentives in place to get green manufacturing going so people can make a decent wage, hire people, and make something that isn’t dependent on other nations to provide us for.  Yes, people will pay for something going the cheapest they can.

But that is usually once if the product they are buying turns out to be crappy.  They realize the old adage of “You get what you paid for” and they generally “buy up” the second time around or return the original product and rebuy a higher end product even if it costs more.

 

 

U.S. manufacturing use to mean something and yes, a lot of manufacturing can be done by robots now but there has to be something that still requires the personal touch.  Manufacturing requires some skill sets other than basic high school English and Math and hopefully that will keep people’s brains going as well. Manufacturing can bring a lot of people into the workplace and those people will spend their paychecks right back into the workplace keeping the circle of money-life going and the economy buzzing.

People, once employed,  will be available for qualifying for home loans because they will have steady jobs.  The housing market can regain some of the ground that it lost.  We realize this won’t happen overnight but please, let us get started with something to help out local state and city economies now! Our schools need to hire teachers that will help parents bring home the fact that they need to work to make a living.  We’ve had overall a good quality of life on the whole.  We need to do what we can to raise the quality of life of those who are suffering and sustain the level that we’ve worked hard to get.

Manufacturing helped bring that quality of life to America. 

Local manufacturing bring moneys to local economies.  Make the tax breaks decent but not completely free and companies will stick around.  Other companies are investing in America – land is cheap right now in a lot of places and the government should do what it can to help us get more people investing and working here.  I still think this is one of the best places in the world to live in, Mr. President, don’t you?

Don’t let our nation become a follower instead of a leader as we move forward in the century, Mr. President.

Thanks for your time and good luck with your new job!

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Mr. President, don’t forget manufacturing.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Business | Comments Off

Why Banks Aren’t Lending –Yet

Tuesday, December 9th, 2008

Question for Kim: “With all this bailout cash the banks are getting, how come they aren’t lending buckets of money out yet?”

My answer is that I think I have figured it out so bear with me as I explain it.  They are sitting on cash or they are investing it in US Treasury instruments.  Like you, I thought at first that this might be a bad idea but if you stop and think about it, this may (and the operative word here is MAY) be the way to go for a very short time to try and balance between the depression we are in and the huge monster called inflation waiting just around the corner.  I still think it isn’t fair that the banks get to have a huge cash rebate while the rest of us are scrambling to see what we need to do because the money rules changed over the last ten years (maybe more or less).

 

 

 

 As I’ve stated in another article, I think we are in financial constipation mode.  The money from the Fed is “stuck” if you will in banks who are scared and waiting to see what else the government is going to do.  Right now, some banks are taking the money they have received and turning around and buying T-bills.  That may not be a bad idea because the Federal government needs to get money invested back in itself.  As we all have seen, the Fed (and other governments) can always print more money when they need it.  The trick is to use it to fight inflation.

There isn’t really a trick that they can pull out of their hat to fight deflation other than to get more money into the system.  And there is the problem.  There is already plenty of money out there so by rights, things should be adjusting up in cost.  They aren’t yet because people don’t have the money to spend.  Companies (well some of them) don’t and the Fed is trying to get more money coming in for them to use so the US dollar doesn’t stay flattened like a leaky tire.

The next step for the Fed and the banks should be to get their proposed infrastructure programs going and this time, keep the money domestically and fairly distributed so locals (that is people in the United States) can benefit from the money and not outsource the business to countries that will turn around and bad mouth us anyways.

As you know, I am an open minded international kind of guy but right now, if America falls too much further financially, the rest of the world will have big problems as well so we have to take care of things here at home first.

It is only a few more weeks until our Presidential Elect gets sworn in to become President and he is already hustling on getting some programs going.  The finalized tax regulations for the Fed should be coming out soon (fingers and toes crossed) and we can see there what might be on the books to help individuals directly.

None of this will be an overnight fix, so make sure that you have enough in savings and access to food, clothing and shelter.  It isn’t the end of the world. It just seems like it these days.

Remember, we as a nation, will have a lot of debt.  We can always print more money to make the money, well, not as valuable, as it was to minimize the debt income.  We just aren’t there yet and nobody is quite sure what is going on or what will work or won’t.

So, back to your original question, when will they start lending again?  (I get asked this alot these days).  Some of them are, though they are more stringent with their requirements.  If the auto industry gets their cash infusion or a piece of it (they may need to wait for the lame duck Administration to leave) there may be more cash going out in the next few months.  Remember that banks are in business to make money and they are over-reacting just like you or I would.  They were lending all kinds of money almost as speculators during the real estate boom and credit card issuance boom.  Now, they are freaking out and they may, in some cases for those of us with decent credit, be throwing the baby out with the bathwater by cutting their credit and not issuing money to people who need it. 

People have long memories when it comes to who helps them out in a financial pinch and they will learn that some banks may have a harder time getting and retaining their clients unless they really have great interest rates or go back to giving free toaster ovens.

 

  Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement 

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Business | 1 Comment »

Infrastruture Plans Look To Become A Reality

Monday, December 8th, 2008

President-elect Obama said in his weekly radio address that he will be investing time and money in our infrastructure.  The president-elect’s economic package will have five main components: making public buildings more energy efficient; investing in infrastructure on the order of the 1950s-era interstate highway system; upgrading school buildings; expanding broadband Internet access; and, making the health care industry more technologically advanced.

“We need action – and action now,” Obama said.  “We won’t do it the old Washington way,” Obama said. “We won’t just throw money at the problem. We’ll measure progress by the reforms we make and the results we achieve – by the jobs we create, by the energy we save, by whether America is more competitive in the world.”

 

 

 

Readers of my blog know that I have been yammering for infrastructure planning for awhile now.  Congrats and here is hoping that it starts to make a difference in the lives of people in our country.  The results won’t be seen overnight but as long as the money is spent in America, with American companies and people who are living here are going to be able to work the jobs, we should be okay.

The dollar number for the proposed economic stimulus package is looking as of now to be between $400 billion to $700 billion dollars.  Hopefully, that money will get down to where it is needed, in our pockets and purses so we can save and spend with it.

Remember that our President-elect also stated that the economy will get worse before it gets better.  The question  will be there, for how long will it be worse?  Make sure you have savings and a decent job to weather the rough financial storm that we are trying to navigate through.

 

Also, here is a question from a reader: “How much money has the IRS collected from examinations and Levies and Liens?  In other words, there isn’t much incentive for them to stop auditing us, is there?”

My answer, and I probably will go more into audit stuff in another blog, is you are right.  Remember, the IRS is out to get people who aren’t paying what they should and there isn’t a reason they should stop audits, is there?  If you knew you could just put down any amount of money and know that there weren’t any consequences you would do it right?  Think really HARD before you answer that since we all know how human nature works.

To answer your question, I believe the IRS collected $23.5 billion dollars from examinations and $31.8 billion from Levies and Liens in 2007.   I will try and get to more IRS statistics for you in the near future. They tend to be very sobering, if nothing else.   Don’t be scared, just make sure you keep great records and if you aren’t doing your own tax research hire a good tax professional.

I am taking new clients, by the way.

 Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement 

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Comments on President-elect Obama’s infrastructure plan and answering an audit money question.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Business | 1 Comment »

Flexibility in dealing with Special Needs

Sunday, December 7th, 2008

One of the biggest things that you need to do when dealing with special needs is to remember to be flexible. It means if something isn’t working in your life, in your loved one’s life or in the overall scheme of care for any requirements that you need to maintain a great quality of life (or at bare minimum a decent one), stop and re evaluate.

When Arianna had her VNS (Vagus Nerve Stimulator) placed in her, Sharren and I were scared and we weren’t sure if that was the right thing to do. It was to help Arianna from getting seizures.  For a few years, it turned out that it was okay because based on what we were seeing, we saw Arianna grow and thrive.

We had the VNS turned off over a year ago because of some problems. It didn’t seem to be helping her anymore.   and it is looking more and more that Arianna and other Rett Syndrome girls suffer from dystonia, which causes seizure like symptoms.  We had Arianna’s VNS removed a few weeks ago and she is doing great now.  She had partial paralysis on one arm and her cheek and that seems to be sorting itself out. 

Each person’s situation is different and what works for one,may not work for another. So, if the VNS is working for you or your loved one, super.  If not, you may want to consult with your medical team and reconsider.

Try to make the best decisions you can at the time with the advice from the medical community and people who have gone through what you are going through before.  It isn’t easy and it isn’t always a straight line.

Be willing to keep an open mind on some things and on others, particularly your children’s, partner’s or your health, be certain that you don’t do anything to make things worse. 

The same holds true in less serious situations.  If there is a certain activity that can’t be done because somebody is under the weather that day, make sure that you reschedule to get to it another day.  One example would be soccer practice if your child is in AYSO (a great program by the way that just finished it’s current season).

Be sure to err on the side of doing more fun things than less if you can to keep joy in your family’s life.  Notice that I said “fun” and that shouldn’t be equated with “expensive” or even “things that cost money to have fun”.

But that is for another article. 

In the meantime, relax, stay flexible and remember that there will always be things that you HAVE to do.  Know the difference so you can know what things you might WANT do.  When well-meaning friends or relatives start up with you, take a second, sit down, listen and try to avoid punching them in the nose.  Realizing that you know the best things to do for your situation, it sometimes doesn’t hurt to listen, you might hear something or read something in one of their emails that might make sense or open a new perspective for you.

If they are just ranting or aren’t opening that new perspective, you still can be flexible enough to forgive them and save being the tower of strength when you need to deal with hospital stays, school preparations, dealing with government agencies, and jerks.

Just a reminder that if you run a business or are dealing with your day job to do what you need to do to stay open and keep working.  In this economy, you need to keep an income stream.

My thoughts and prayers are with you, and of course, please stay flexible!  Try to have a happy holiday without spending too much money!  If you are also interested in trying to deal with our current economic situation, you may want to check out my book. 

Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement 

 

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Business, special needs | Comments Off

Ten Businesses You Might Not Want To Be In For The Immediate Future

Saturday, December 6th, 2008

1. Worm Farming – despite the draw for making millions (of worms, not dollars), you are better off not getting into this as a business in the next few years.  The reason is that unless you, yourself, are going to be using the wigglers, there is too much competition for fertilizer generators over the next few years.  Oh, sure, worm castings (that is fancy talk for their poo) are like Superman style fertilizer.  A few castings mixed with water and you have Super Fertilizer.  You have to be careful when you use it so you don’t kill or burn your plants but the stuff works.  You can try to sell the stuff but the chain stores already carry similar products and you will have to undercut them.  As a footnote, yes, the worms are self-sustaining and to some, they are awesome pets (well, if you mean by “awesome” that they don’t bark in the middle of the night or crow like roosters in the morning), they still take up space and make castings.

 

 

 

2. Medical technician – I think we have way more radiologists (x-ray technicians), phlebotomists (the people who draw blood for lab work or donations), and other technical chops related to medical needs unless you actually are programming code for heart pumps, firmware, etc.  Thanks to tons of websites and surveys stating how much of a need we would have for these types of jobs I see that (at least in major cities), there is a surplus of these type of people.  If I am work, drop me a line or post below and give us your take on this particular aspect of business.

 For people coming to America to look for positions in these fields as well, for the immediate future, more and more hospitals and private medical services are limiting their hours, closing their doors, and just finding it not cost effective due to tough insurance reimbursements to stay in business.  Also, if you are thinking of working in India, they already have a surplus of medical technicians there was well.  If you are going into this field to carry on the family business, go for it, otherwise, you may want to rethink this vocation.

 

 

3. Medical billing – This particular gig has been hyped up even more than being a medical technician.  Too many people are doing this and there aren’t enough doctors, hospitals or solvent insurance companies to make a living with this.  You may get some accounts but competition is pretty fierce out there already.

4. Recruiter Business -  With more and more companies requiring you to apply through their Internet portals, the position of recruiter is being delegated for specific niche positions or industries where they require a little more extensive screening than their websites offer.  If you think you have the skills for that niche, I would say give it a try,  otherwise, I have seen more recruiters fail than succeed in the last few years.  Start up costs may be low but failure rate is high.

5. Childcare Facilities – Much to the chagrin of some working mothers, you are seeing more and more childcare facilities close.  The reasons?  It could be one of the Three “L”s:  Licensing problems, liability issues, lawsuits.  Daycare centers boom and bust in terms of being scrutinized by local authorities depending on how many kids get hurt and what makes it into the media.  A lot of daycare centers try working under the table with cash only.  That isn’t a good idea, especially if you get caught.  For existing daycare centers, with more parents getting laid off, they aren’t getting paid and in some cases their kids are being yanked from the centers. 

You also better make sure you have a lot of insurance and you have the appropriate legal documents for the parents to sign.  Despite all of that, you still may get sued.  That would take the joy out of taking care of kids for me. 

Ah, you may be saying, “Kim, but I have a huge house. My sister and I love children and we can handle it.  I raised ten kids of my own.” 

Okay, but you really want to make sure that you know what you are doing.  There is a difference between taking care of your own kids and a bunch of other kids that you don’t know about.  What if one of them has a predilection for starting fires at four years old?  In any case, good luck, keep the kids away from sharp objects and make sure you have some liability protection. Check out your local economic market before you decide to start up this gig.  A lot of popular markets are just glutted.

 

 

6.   Web Designer - Unless you have some artistic talent that you have won awards with, or a burning desire to do this (in which case you will overcome the odds and be a success at ANYTHING you do) I would stay away from this.  The market is not only saturated, there are too many tools available that allow you to build your own for free from the ground up.  The pay isn’t what it use to be and it takes time to build up your client base and skills to make a decent living doing this.

7. Mediator - People use to try to get into this business because they thought it was “easy money”.  Ha!  The field is glutted with a lot of bad mediators who got into this business because they didn’t need to go to law school to be able to actually make money in the legal system.  Please don’t get me wrong.  I am a mediator-arbitrator and I make some money at this.  The operative word in the last sentence is “SOME”.  

It has taken me a LONG time to get to this position and over the years more and more people have gotten into the profession, at least here in Southern California.  By all means learn the skills of mediation and negotiation and if you decide to get into this business, be aware that you need to do a lot of pro bono (that means “for free”) work in order to get your own practice going. 

Unfortunately, there are already a lot of people doing just that in this business.  Similar to the other gigs, if you have a burning desire to do this, realize you won’t get rich if you make it in this business.  You will have a hard enough time trying to just make a living at it.

8. Travel Agent - There use to be a need for this job for people who are on the go and didn’t have time to plan their vacations.  Now, thanks to easy access to websites that will do everything for you except fill your airplane with gas and tuck you in your bed in your hotel room in French Polynesia’s Bora Bora, it is all self-service.  If there are any perks (discount flights, hotel stays off season, etc) think of getting a gig where you can earn enough money to pay for the travel perks yourself without having to sweat a few years to actually reap the benefits of the discounts. 

A lot of the airlines and hotels are dealing directly with the public and offering greater discounts, seasonally speaking, to their guests directly. 

9. Telephone Sales -  More and more people are simply getting on the DNC (Do Not Call) list and they are not tolerating cold calls by phone.  Because of so much fraud over the years and misleading phone calls, the entire industry has been hung up on.  Unless you really are into cold calling and getting a lot of rejection, I would stay away from this job.

 

10. Anything that you start up that has a buzz word that you have to ask yourself will sound stupid one to two years from now.  Right now, the buzz word is “green”.  “We are going green.”  “You know that our environmentally safe products are great because we’ve gone green.” 

With all due respect to all the groups mentioned here, a few years ago in different markets you   could have purchased products and done business with people who were “Freedom Supporting”  “Black Owned” “Christian Values” “American” “100% European” “World Wide Web Enabled” “Child Friendly” “Meatlovers Only”, etc. 

 

 

You get the picture. 

There are a lot of marketing buzzwords or causes that have come and gone.  Now, because of the environment, everything is “Green” and of course, “Eco Friendly”.  Don’t get me wrong.  That may be a GREAT marketing tool in some markets.  If you are actually selling only goods that are  “Made In America” that is a legitimate and honest hook and the tenth point in this article doesn’t apply to you. 

Take for example my case. 

I have a vested interest in finding a cure and treatments for Rett Syndrome for my daughter, Arianna.  I go to Rett functions and see other girls with the Rett gene.  Their is a lot of love, suffering and joy in our lives.  Making people aware of Rett Syndrome is important to me.  Part of all my proceeds from all my book sales go to researching a cure for Rett Syndrome.  Rett Syndrome affects a girl born once every fifteen minutes.  Boys born with the Rett gene die at birth.  The disease affects people regardless of race, creed and color and it is often misdiagnosed.  I have been saying that (and following through) for years.  It is part of what I do. 

If whatever it is you are doing is important to you, like staying green, go ahead and use that in your business as part of the name or marketing.

Just note that the tenth point applies to people who throw the name on for the marketing appeal as a hook to get customers to check them out and weasel their way into getting you to buy something. 

Just do yourself a favor and unless you actually are going to live and breathe your cause, pick a name that you won’t regret a few years down the line if you are still in business that long.

Good luck!  If you  think that I may owe you guys and gals an article on ten businesses that you might want to be in, drop me a line or post…

Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement 

 
Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Tags: ,
Posted in Business | 2 Comments »

Ten Money Making Tips for College Students For the Holidays

Friday, December 5th, 2008

1.   Start planning where you will work for other holidays now.  Yes, it is too late (maybe not but I am a realist)  for Christmas time now but start thinking about where you want to work (if you aren’t going to be around campus) for Spring Break.  If there is an internship or particular job that you want – start looking now.  Depression or not, there will be work out there somewhere.

2.   Cash in on natural talent.  If you can sing, dance, juggle, or balance a cat on your nose, think about doing work as a sales person or waiter.  If places are hiring, they want people with talent and a lot of companies will hire people after making them go through an actual audition.  Besides the craigslists of the world, check out advertising local pennysavers, notes on supermarket bulletin boards and school bookstores.

3.  Be the first to hit up professors and anybody on campus for work.  Whether it is baby-stting, sleep depriviation studies or just to set up chairs for the holiday alumni dance, if they are looking for work in the student body pool of talent, get in early and say that you are available.

4.   If you are honest, offer to do odd jobs and chores for neighbors around the campus or your home.  People may be swamped for the holidays and need somebody to mow their lawn (West Coast), shovel their driveway (Midwest) or replant their soil (anywhere where rain or winds have massacred their land).

5.   Offer to teach something that you do well inexpensively.  There may be people who want to learn how to draw.  Start using your artistic chops (if you have them) to teach people how to do that.  Even better if you have practical chops like masonry or plumbing.   Offer to do that kind of work for an inexpensive rate plus parts if they don’t want to take the time to learn from you.  The truth is, with people saving money, they will learn practical skills from you faster than creative skills.

 

 

6.   Clean out that closet and ebay anything that you haven’t used in five years.  Unless there is some real tight attachment or a lover or parent bought you something, get rid of it while people are thinking of buying (at least a little).

7.  As a follow-up to number 6, for big items – garage sale.  Get the signs out and have a yard or garage sale and get rid of all that crap that is in good shape that you can still sell.

8.  Look for seasonal driving jobs if you have a good driving record.  There will be a LOT of heavy drinking this holiday season and there will be a big need for designated drivers.

9.   Offer to clean up after a party or parties for a reasonable fee.  A buck is a buck – just get the ground rules and cost before you start work.  Lots of people like to throw holiday parties but they hate clean up afterwards.

10.   Recycle for cash all those bottles and cans that you have been collecting and while you are at it, turn all that loose change (if you have any) into cash.  Don’t use the Coinstar machines that charge a whopping 7 plus percent interest (I’ve seen it higher) and try to roll your own coin and take it to a bank to cash or deposit.

These are just a start.  Let me know how things work out for you and any more ideas you have.   Best of luck for the holidays!

  Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement 

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Tags: , ,
Posted in Business | 1 Comment »

Business Impact-Tax Law Changes For 2009 Part 2

Thursday, December 4th, 2008

As a follow-up to my previous installment on the 2009 tax changes, let’s talk about business impact with the upcoming tax law changes.

With the increase in the Section 179 allowance, businesses can write off faster something that they are depreciating.  In fact, because of the limit change, they may be able to write off all of their expenditure for their taxes when they file their 2008 returns.  The new ceiling of $250,000 is pretty high and if you have the expenditure that fits for your particular case, more power to you and your business.

There are rumors of hiring incentives in the form of tax credits (as proposed in the Presidential election, remember that?) of $3000 per new employee at the time of this blog going to employers in 2009 and beyond so that means for December, unless companies have to, they will hold off hiring anybody until 2009.  If you are unemployed, be forewarned.  The good news is that means starting in January 2009 look for the job markets to open up at least a little bit.

Companies should do what they can to get their income streams realized for 2008 since they are not sure what will happen with tax law changes for 2009.  The incoming Administration will have to find a medium ground to not only get people employed but to get businesses profitable.  We don’t want to have inflation problems but right now there are so many other issues that need to be resolved that is just another issue in the que.

Federal programs should be starting up to fill in the gap for dried up HELOCSand other loans that business people need to get their sole proprietorships going.  There should be more coming out of the IRS website soon.  If you are a business and have run out of funds from a bank hopefully another program should be coming up to fill in the gap.  For the short term, go back to the lender and ask them what’s up especially since banks are getting bailed out.

 

 

If you live in a designated disaster area, you may want to crunch the numbers and see if it makes sense in what year you apply your losses.  This would apply to the Midwestern Disaster Relief victims and any other designated Federal disaster area.   

The usual rules of business apply as well.  Depending on the nature of your gig, you may want to adjust orders for new goods or tweak your production levels to account for economic changes.  That could mean that in some cases, if you are manufacturing things used for flood relief, for example, you may be making more portable shelters, etc than before. 

 Let’s see, what else…

Federal losses can be taken for this year and back two years.  California losses currently have no carry back provision.  That is expected to change though in 2011.  Not much help now though.

Any debt that is forgiven has to be counted as income.  This is a reminder for credit card debt as well as any other business debt that is forgiven. 

I think that is all I can come up with.  I am running on empty now…

If anybody else has anything they want to add or questions drop me a line or post and we will cover it.

  Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Business Impact – Tax Changes for 2009 – Part II.

Tags: ,
Posted in Business | Comments Off

Watch Out For Surprise Repayment Rates on Loans

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008

Question from a reader:”I was one of the fortunate people who had a HELOC and I noticed that despite interest rate drops I still am being dinged a lot of money.  When I called to ask for help they said to check the terms of my loan.  I did and I still don’t understand what is happening.”

My answer is to check your monthly bill and your original contract for verbiage stating that you will be paying a variety of “either/or” amounts including possibly 1% of the total outstanding balance due.  It doesn’t make sense financially from a bank’s point of view if they don’t have some mechanism in place to insure that you repay at a realistic rate.  You also have to watch out that you are comfortable with the unfavorable situation that you might find yourself in with the low rate but the required minimum of either the finance charge, 1% of the total outstanding due or whatever else your option might be.

With the freezing and thaw of HELOCs (well, there isn’t realy a thaw-a lot of people aren’t getting their HELOCs back), people who were trying to take money out as a cushion are finding that they still are paying a lot of money for the privilege of having cash at their fingertips.  It is a judgment call especially since banks have been tight with cash and it may be worth paying extra money in return for having the access to larger sums of money when you need it.  That is a personal call.

In your specific case, re-read your original agreement that you signed with your lender and double check your bill that you receive monthly.  I have to believe that it is spelled out pretty graphically what the terms are for interest and repayment.  It is not uncommon though for people to gloss over those details until they find themselves stuck in a loan and making payments that they didn’t realize were so large.

In general, when you are signing papers for any kind of loan – automobile, credit card, home or boat- read the fine print and if you aren’t sure of something, take the time to ask.  Make yourself a cooling off period as well where you can sit down after reading the documentation, think about it and then go back and ask any questions that you need to.  Then you can sign the paperwork.

 

 

 

If you have already signed the paperwork and are deep into the loan, you may try to renegotiate or look elsewhere for financing.  It isn’t clear when banks are going to start loosening their purse strings (which to me doesn’t make sense since they were bailed out) and get back to their job of lending money. 

If you also have been stashing money aside, make sure you can get some sort of interest rate for it even if it is next to nothing.  Every little bit of savings helps.  It is the incremental changes that over the long haul make a difference and cause you to have large changes!

Let me take a quick second and talk about credit cards here as well.  Credit card applications and paperwork show the monthly and annual interest rates in every statement and how they calculate their balances.  Some of them are quite hefty and since there isn’t any tax benefit either for having outstanding credit card balances, they should be paid down as soon as possible.  The same holds true for loans where no payment is due for up to a year later.  You may not have to make a payment till a year from now but you better believe that interest may start accruing from the day you take possession of whatever it is that you are buying.  That great deal on the big screen tv for $600 may end up costing you over $1000 two to three years later.

Car loans are pretty straightforward compared to home loans but they still can be misleading.  Again, the previous reminders apply no matter what the price of the car.    One thing to watch for is when you initially negotiate terms that you try to watch it so you aren’t overpaying for the vehicle in higher interest rates.  Another downside for missing payments with car loans is that somebody, sometime will come along with a tow truck and repossess your car from you.

 

 

 In any event, to my reader, good luck with your specific financial situation. 

 Practical Money Making-Surviving Recession, Layoffs, Credit Problems, Generating Passive Income Streams, Working Full Time or Part Time and Retirement 

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Tags: ,
Posted in Business | 1 Comment »

The 4th carnival of special needs and money

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008

Welcome to the December 2, 2008 edition of special needs and money.
Here we are again folks with our fourth blog carnival! A short one this time around.

special needs-the emotional roller coaster

Nancy Miller presents The Positive Effects of Faith posted at Radiology Technician Schools.

 

special needs-the money go round

Kevin Dawson presents The 10 Commandments of Direct Marketing #2 – Your USP posted at Kevin Dawson’s Copywriting & Traffic, saying, “Value of a USP”

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of special needs and money using our carnival submission form.

See you soon!

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

You are reading the fourth carnival of special needs and money at the profitable blog.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Business, special needs | Comments Off

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »