Posts Tagged ‘money’

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People Find Money For Things They Want

Monday, March 9th, 2009

In planning for a business during a Depression, it pays to remember that people will find money to spend for things they want.  If it is cigarettes, alcohol, video games, chocolate, movies – it doesn’t matter if the person is unemployed or making a million dollars a year.  They will find the cash for it.

What that should tell you as a business person is that you need to know when to stop discounting.  If what you are selling has perceived value, like chocolate, people will pay $1 for a candy bar.  Will they go to a dollar store and see it for two for $1?  Maybe sometimes but check out stands at grocery stores are loaded with impulse items and nothing screams impulse items like chocolate.  It also is more than an impulse item.

Women, when they are having their time of the month find that chocolate helps them make it through rough times and also has a soothing chemical effect.  The same holds true with people with comfort food in general like potato chips.  The take away, if nothing else from this brief article is that people will pay for things that bring them comfort and joy, that can relieve their misery and at least make them think that things will get better, if only for a short time.

It wasn’t a surprise that opium dens took off in the Old West.  When settlers were uncomfortable about the future, cowboys were in-between cattle runs and people just wanted to get high, they would go to an opium den and smoke opium.  They found a way to come up with money to get their fix as junkies do.

Factor in people’s desires when making your business and marketing plans. It is true that during a Depression people will cut back their spending habits but some of the habits they have developed rely on addiction so they will continue to feed the addiction (if it is inexpensive enough) rather than trying to conquer the bad habit.  That is human nature, folks.

Be safe, sane, healthy, get wealthy and try to save some money.

 

Interested in any of my books?  You may want to make a stop over  here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale.   Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax”?   Please order it today.  The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars!

 If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book listed below.  Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book  go  to Rett Syndrome research.  One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes.   My daughter Arianna has Rett Syndrome and we are working to do all we can to make her life easier and find a cure in her lifetime.  Boys born with the Rett gene generally die at birth.

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

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

People Find Money For Things They Want

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Posted in Business | 1 Comment »

Was Mom Right After All About You At Least Still Having Health?

Thursday, February 26th, 2009

Ahhh, remember when Mom or neighbors would say if you lost some money or if you had some misfortune, “Ah, at least you got your health.”  Is Mom right in terms of business and money or is she just being mom and being polite and loving?  The answer is she was very right.

The cost of health can’t be measured until you start having bad health.  All of a sudden, and this rings true for people with disabilities and special needs, there is money that you need to come up with to get tools or equipment or services that can help you or your family.  You will find that simple inexpensive items have their prices jacked up if there is insurance reimbursement and it pays to get both the over-the-counter-price for medications as well as the insurance price to compare.  Go generic if you can.

Once you have health issues things that you would take for granted are roadblocks to earning a living, to even getting up in the morning sometimes.  Let’s take something as simple as breaking an arm – something I did rather stupidly a few years ago.  My emergency room visit came in at around $9,879 and my co-pay was only $100.  That covered x-rays, drugs to keep me from screaming like a mainiac and some bandages.  I had pain killers and antibiotics that would have run me about $400 and I only paid $50 for them.  I had therapy that was out of pocket $25 a visit an my insuance picked up the rest.

I didn’t have the cash to pay for the whole thing out of pocket but if I was out of work and didn’t have insurance back then I would have had to pay for all of that or go around in pain with one good arm and one broken arm.  If I had to set it myself I probably could have and then I would have had a healed arm that wouldn’t look right.

Like any other business, you pay for the professionalism and quality of service that you would expect from doctors and hospitals.  It isn’t cheap though.  Preventive medicine and good health, diet and exercise, as simple as they are to talk about, are what it is all about in trying to avoid hospital visits.

People who are out of work cannot afford to drop money like that and it is a good thing that the Cobra benefits will be continued and hopefully partially picked up by the Federal government.  It turns out that not only was Mom right, Mom had the right idea about keeping us healthy and trying to teach us good hygiene and health information.

Thanks Mom and thanks readers.  Stay healthy so you can get back to being wealthy.

Interested in any of my books?  You may want to make a stop over  here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale.   Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax”?   Please order it today.  The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars!

 If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book listed below.  Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book  go  to Rett Syndrome research.  One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes.   My daughter Arianna has Rett Syndrome and we are working to do all we can to make her life easier and find a cure in her lifetime.  Boys born with the Rett gene generally die at birth.

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

 Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Was Mom Right After All About You At Least Still Having Health?

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Posted in Business, special needs | 2 Comments »

How To Budget Your Money For the End of the World

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

The most important thing in planning for the future, even for the end of the world as some Mayan doomsayers, is having the appropriate budget so you can have money for any end-of-the-world last minute sales and anything else that you might need.  If you are having an end-of-the-world party, and sure it is several years before the Mayan prophecy (which I think isn’t half as scary as the number of people that are unemployed these days), but it pays to plan ahead.

If you are running a business, make sure that you have a lot of water for sale, blankets, and canned foods.  Nothing will be great for business better than last minute purchases for water and sundries.  Sure, money will be meaningless at that point but as people use to say, people who have the most cash or toys when they die win.  Either that or they are still dead.

What if the end of the world doesn’t come?  Ah, well then how about a more practical budget where you can actually save money and keep living?

Make sure that you have enough money for food, water, shelter and warm clothing.  If you are in winter climates, if you can, think about leaving for warmer climates or make sure that you have energy.  If you are on unemployment or have Cobra payment plans, make sure that you are current with your reporting and payments respectively.  You need to keep the income stream flowing (even though it is a small one, it is better than nothing) and you need to have medical coverage.  The nationwide Federal Stimulus package should help with that.

Keep your sense of humor, even if it seems a bit on the dark side (like this blog entry) but deep down be like me and be the eternal optimist.  Yes, things are bad and yes it is hard.  There is still a lot of money staying stuck in constipated mode in the banking system and it needs to make it’s way out to people who need it.  Even though everybody is planning on saving all their money, people still need to eat, sleep and stay warm.  Also habits are tough to break and everybody has some addiction or vice that they are using to cope through things so try and insure that you are placing money in our budget for things like that.  It may be a great time to give up smoking, but if you are doing it at the same time you are a nervous wreck, you may be jeopardizing your health.

Keep food on hand for six months if it is canned – I wouldn’t go survival end-of-the-world nuts only because things expire.  It makes sense to keep a few gallons of water around the house, especially if you live in desert areas such as parts of the Western United States.

Be prepared still to pay taxes.  I suggest that for overkill that you have a third of your income put aside for tax liabilities for people who are working and making good money.  That should cover the Federal income taxes and a portion of any State taxes.  We don’t know how long AMT (the Alternative Minimum Tax – see some of my other blogs) will be “on hold”.  There are so many people who need money that I wonder what the IRS will be doing to go after people who are in the extreme wealth tax brackets.  I have no idea.  Make sure that you are saving your receipts and if you are making donations for charity that you are getting letters from the organizations and you are paying by check to keep a paper trail.  I know that Fat Tuesday is over but it doesn’t hurt for some Not So End of the World advice to make it through to an awesome financial afterlife.   Or at least you might get a bigger tax refund at tax time.  It is one or the other I guess.   It is very easy to get caught up in hysteria – and there is a lot of it and some of it justifiable – but you still have to pay your taxes.  I have been getting a lot of comments and e-mails and my advice is pretty much the same.  Vote with your pocket book and at this coming election in March.  Vote in State elections and if you have problems with people in office, vote them out or run yourself.  Do not try to avoid paying taxes.  Not only is it against the law, it will get you in trouble in other ways down the line as well.  If you are planning on buying a home, a boat or anything in the future or even getting a business line of credit, you will possibly and in some cases certainly need to show your tax returns.  That is the way it goes.  Okay, I am off my soapbox on that point.

If you are looking for financial investments all I can tell you is that for right now, cash is still king (I’ve been saying that for months now) but I am honestly looking for something that isn’t a con to put money in to get a reasonable rate of return.  No, I am not talking about Forex or other deals that are being hyped on the Internet.  I am talking about practical things.  Any investment that is genuinely in the infrastructure, if it applies to actual construction, may or may not be considered “green” has the potential not only for making money but being politically correct (whatever that means in this day and age).

So, sorry if the end-0f-the-world isn’t going to be with giant monsters, aliens or explosions.  It isn’t going to happen other than you maybe running out of cash or going deeper into debt than you would like to.  For whatever reason it is worth, you are not alone and historically tough times don’t last forever. 

Be safe, happy (for your sanity and it helps you make clearer decisions), healthy and try to hang onto your wealth.

 

Interested in any of my books?  You may want to make a stop over  here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale.   Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax”?   Please order it today.  The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars!

 If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book listed below.  Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book  go  to Rett Syndrome research.  One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes.   My daughter Arianna has Rett Syndrome and we are working to do all we can to make her life easier and find a cure in her lifetime.  Boys born with the Rett gene generally die at birth.

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

 Kim Isaac Greenblatt

 

How To Budget Your Money For the End of the World

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Posted in Business | 6 Comments »

Government May Have Partial Nationalization of Banks

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

With all the concern about the Federal government nationalizing banks, you have to understand that there is a major incentive to NOT want to do that. Our country is based on capitalism, albeit it has been a modified form and with the last few decades we have been in what can be called world wide capitalism at it’s best. People and countries moving markets left and right. We didn’t have any checks or balances. Okay, so moving forward what can we do?

For the short term, unless somebody comes up with something else, the Federal government is looking to step in to help cover bad loans. Personally, I think it is a bad idea and that businesses should be allowed to die off if they are bankrupt. People have been cut off left and right already so at this point there isn’t much left of a lot of the beasts except a debt filled corporate carcass.

Unfortunately, that isn’t how things look to be going and a lot of companies may be saved with the Federal govt stepping in. Saved is a generous word since there will be major accountability issues and probably a lot more red tape than the companies had before.

Ultimately it isn’t going to help the average taxpayer until jobs are being created again and wealth starts getting back into the hands of the American and subsequently world population.

There will be more of a freefall in the stock market like Monday was if more and more banks get partial or complete subsidies to run their business.  The share values of stocks will be worth next to yuck and phooey in terms of price.  Where is a good place to put your money?  I am open to suggestions.

Be safe and healthy!

 

Interested in any of my books?  You may want to make a stop over  here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale.   Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax”?   Please order it today.  The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars!

 If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book listed below.  Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book  go  to Rett Syndrome research.  One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes.   My daughter Arianna has Rett Syndrome and we are working to do all we can to make her life easier and find a cure in her lifetime.  Boys born with the Rett gene generally die at birth.

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

 Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Government May Have Partial Nationalization of Banks

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Monday Might Be Bounce Day If Stimulus Package Is Approved

Saturday, February 7th, 2009

Monday will be the big day and possibly the most watched day in terms of stock market movement because people are expecting things to get better once the stimulus package is announced and signed by both Congressional houses.  The financial realites are that it will take months if not years to see if the money being released into the economy is having an affect on business and the people.   

 

marketbounce

 

 

For people who are out of work and waiting for their unemployment checks, are debating whether to pay their medical insurance premium or the mortgage payment or their utility bill because they don’t have enough money, this coming Monday will be like any other day.  A day where they need money and they need it now.  The money that Congress is approving has to make it through to the people who need it so they can get employed and can pay their bills.

I still don’t expect anything other than a bounce because people now are being forced into savings mode.  The problem is companies across the globe are expecting people to buy their goods and services.  The companies that are waiting for clients or customers will be out of luck.  Unless they have access to cash to tide them over a little longer, they will have to lay off more people and possibly shudder their doors.  That will create a vicious cycle and somebody somewhere has to break it and start spending or hiring.  Possibly do both.

 

Some pundits think that once the stock market starts to recover that in six months the US economy will begin it’s recovery.  They are basing it on past recessions/Depressions but this time the problems are international and it may take a longer time till we bottom out.  I think that we still are at least a ways away from a bottom.  Maybe it is a year away.  The flip side of the coin is that when I see everybody shorting stocks (myself included) it tells me that we are on the way to the end of a cycle.  Whether it is a good cycle or a unicycle and I am just clowning around – only time will tell.  If you decide to invest next week, keep your investments tight and set stop loss goals.

 

ecounicyc

 

Good luck, stay healthy, get wealthy, become wiser and be happy! 

Interested in any of my books?  You may want to make a stop over  here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale. If you like poker, Heroes (the TV series), comic books, Watchmen, etc, there may be some fast links to get you to what you are looking for.  Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax”?   Please order it today.  The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars!

 If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book listed below.  Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book  go  to Rett Syndrome research.  One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes.   My daughter Arianna has Rett Syndrome and we are working to do all we can to make her life easier and find a cure in her lifetime.  Boys born with the Rett gene generally die at birth.

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

 Kim Isaac Greenblatt

Monday Might Be Bounce Day If Stimulus Package Is Approved

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Ground Hog Day and Financial Survival

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

Ah, Groundhog Day. This is the day that the groundhog comes out and if he sees his shadow we get another few weeks of winter. At this point, it looks like we are in for at least a few years of a financial winter with the cold, dry realities of people being laid off and workers hanging onto their jobs for dear life. Like the groundhog who manages his business by living underground and coming out for food, water and material to build his lodging with, we will continue to strive to make money, stay in business and for our own financial survival go to ground by trying to save money and hold onto what we have got. Some reminders to my fellow and sister groundhogs:

1. Make sure in your financial survival planning that you still cover payments for food, shelter and clothing and things that will cost you more if you don’t take care of them:
a. Medical insurance – stop grousing about how expensive it is – if you need to spend two hours in a hospital emergency room in a bed you might find yourself in a worse case than if you had a $10,000 credit card debt.
b. Auto insurance – unless you are planning on skipping town if you are in an accident, you better make sure you have at least bare minimum coverage. I know a lot of people are dropping their insurance but you need to have something or if you are caught in some states they will yank your driver’s license.

2. Find something inexpensive that you can do to stay sane. Try knitting, learning a new skill that you can do that doesn’t cost anything. Try juggling, pottery, etc. Things that will force you to use your hands will also help you focus on getting out of your head and stop worrying over things that you can’t control. It will keep you relaxed and keeping you from beating the wife and kids and kicking the dog – or groundhog.

3.  Keep cans of food and water and home and make sure that you throw out expired food. 

4.  As part of bill paying, if you are in a cold climate, make sure your heating bills are paid.  This has been and looks to be a bad winter for some parts of the country.  Places like Kentucky are getting hammered by the cold as well.

Like the groundhog, we will make it through the winter of our financial problems and as long as we have food, clothing and shelter and an attitude that we will make it, we will make it. Right?  And like the groundhog, let’s pretend we don’t see our shadow so we can try to get out of this supply destruction phase of our economic travels a little sooner than later..

 

grhound

 

 Interested in any of my books?  You may want to make a stop over  here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale. If you like poker, Heroes (the TV series), comic books, Watchmen, etc, there may be some fast links to get you to what you are looking for.  Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax”?   Please order it today.  The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars!

 If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book listed below.  Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book  go  to Rett Syndrome research.  One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes.   My daughter Arianna has Rett Syndrome and we are working to do all we can to make her life easier and find a cure in her lifetime.  Boys born with the Rett gene generally die at birth.

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

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

 

Ground Hog Day and Financial Survival

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Posted in Business | 1 Comment »

I am calling it – we are in a Depression

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

No matter what people are calling it, it is a Depression.  When money is stuck in constipated mode in banks, business is slow, and there are millions being laid off or under utilized for jobs, we are in a Depression.

 

soupline1

 

The President and Congress have to do something.  Already farmers who can’t afford water are going to let some of their crops go and have smaller harvests.  That cuts into our food supply.  People who are out of work cannot afford to buy goods, services or pay their bills.  That will cause more companies to lay off or fold.  I have a solution.

The solution is to get the money into the hands of the average person by doing something to get more jobs going faster.  How about crash courses in skills that the government is still in need of?  The government still needs computer programmers, attornies, technicians, engineers, social scientists and linguists.

We need the space race going again and fast.  We need to get out of the Depression by uniting everybody together in a race for Mars.  We need to get large and small companies funding so they can employ people and get the national economy, and by extension, foreign economies going.

Realizing it won’t happen over night, we all still need to live over the next six months to a year till things get going.  If the President and Congress wanted to make a difference, the economic stimulus package should be $10,000 per family but even that would blow us out of the water in the long haul with inflation.  A lot of American cities will be turning into ghost towns.  Look at Detroit.  People either will need to migrate out of their cities like in the Dust Bowl days or government needs to do something to get off shore jobs back in America.

There are a lot of problems going on internationally and I would expect our Administration to address them.  The first priority though is to get an economic recovery going.  Everybody can talk and think clearly when they have a roof over their head, some clothes on their backs and food on their tables and stomachs.  If people are going to be hurting in one of those three areas they will make bad decisions and we don’t want things to drop into chaos.

I am hoping the infrastructure programs take off and lead to more programs and work.  We need to rebuild our roads, dams, etc – long time readers know that is one of my harp points.  My concern is that the execution of the plan will not be co-opted by corruption and the money not getting to employ people or by getting shoddy materials.

People, keep our politicians accountable!

On a skewed note, I was watching on 60 Minutes that they were showing studies where people who are hungry and eat less tend to live longer lives.  I am going to take a cue from that and maybe start watching what I am eating and cutting my portions down even more than I am doing now.  I walk 1.5 – 2 miles a day and I know that watching one’s diet is an important thing to take care of as well if one wants to have a profitable life.

Keep those questions and comments coming, folks.  Anything I can do to help – ask away.

Be safe, happy, healthy, wealthy and wise.

Interested in any of my books?  You may want to make a stop over  here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale. If you like poker, Heroes (the TV series), comic books, Watchmen, etc, there may be some fast links to get you to what you are looking for.  Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax”?   Please order it today.  The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars!

 If you are laid off, looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book listed below.  Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book  go  to Rett Syndrome research.  One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes.   My daughter Arianna has Rett Syndrome and we are working to do all we can to make her life easier and find a cure in her lifetime.  Boys born with the Rett gene generally die at birth.

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

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

I am calling it – we are in a Depression

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Posted in Business | 3 Comments »

Stock Market Still Holding Pattern With Slight Drift Down

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

A reader emailed me asking me what I thought of the direction of the stock market after the election speech and the stock market activity on Jan 21 2009.  I am sticking to my guns that the stock market is probably going to hover with some spikes and dips and if anything, at least through Spring, will have a bias slightly drifting down.

 

economymove

Why do I think that way?  Inefficient Digestion, or more to the point Inefficient Consumption.  The economy isn’t like a well-oiled, hyper tuned race car engine that burns fuel efficiently.  The race car slugs down the fuel and rockets forward.  At least these days the economy isn’t like that.  The economy is more along the lines of a land cruiser or Winnebago.  It takes time to turn the corner as it guzzles cash  and even more time to make a 180 degree turn.  Yes, there is money being pumped into business but that money needs to make it to the average person.  That person is on the other side of the curve at this point in time.  We also need more jobs created quickly to get that cash fuel to the average citizen.  The economy is going to slowly digest the money.  We hope that there will be some left over for us more schmoes who are waiting for the Winnebago to get to us so we can get back on board making money.  Okay, so it is a goofy analogy and it is all over the place but you get the gist of what I am saying.

My own opinion is that as we get good news from company earnings (like IBMs) recently we will see some slight pops but if you look at stocks a few days later (like Intel) you will see the drift of concern is still present and the stocks are going back down.  Depending on the industry, you will see a test of the bottom and in some cases you will see the value get blown out of the water.  What criteria can you judge to see how low can we go?

1.  If a company is still making money and profitable with future earnings still looking consistent, nothing short of war or a major disaster to one of the company’s buildings will keep the value of the stock too low. 

2.  If the company is heavily in debt and already in the single digits, there may be some more room to go down as we witnessed with Bank of America the other day.  Going from around $7 to $5 a share had to have been a yucky feeling to those who thought they bought in at the bottom.

I am sitting on the fence as to whether it makes sense to go long term in stocks right now.  The only reason is that like everybody else, I am waiting, waiting, waiting for something to indicate that the rise and fall of the money waves will somewhere start washing us on the shores of good news more than bad.  The media though does glom in on the bad news and you, dear reader and potential investing person, need to keep in mind that bad news sells just as much as good news.  For every headline about the economy being on the road to recovery there are more about companies laying off more people.

Earliest I think that the supply destruction might slow down?  After the earnings season in the first quarter so maybe around May might be when companies will start to show a profit on their balance sheets.  At that point, they may have lowered everybody’s expectations too low so any news will be good news.

Don’t discount the negative aspect news of war.  If things somewhere globally go haywire, that may adversely cause low stocks to go even lower.  The difference, depending on whether factories are being blown up or not, might mean that you have a great buying opportunity because the stock may bounce back in a day or in some cases right before the closing bell.   Brave sailor of finance, due your own due diligence and be careful as we sail together in the sea of holding pattern.

Keep those questions and comments coming, folks!

 Interested in any of my books?  You may want to make a stop over  here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale. If you like poker, Heroes (the TV series), comic books, Watchmen, etc, there may be some fast links to get you to what you are looking for.  Have you read my book, “Bad Tax Idea, Good Tax”?   Please order it today.  The tips inside can save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars!

 If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book listed below.  Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book  go  to Rett Syndrome research.  One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes.   My daughter Arianna has Rett Syndrome and we are working to do all we can to make her life easier and find a cure in her lifetime.  Boys born with the Rett gene generally die at birth.

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

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

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Posted in Business | 4 Comments »

New Washer Dryer Economics

Tuesday, January 6th, 2009

Today, as part of our New Year, new approach to doing things (which hopefully will be better than last years for all of us), we will start the talk about business, money and economics with a washer and a dryer.  Before I hear the jokes and jeering about “cleaning up” our “laundering” cash, I want to point out how my recent purchase of the machines reflects on our economy.

 

lowendwasher

 

I ordered a few days ago a new washer and dryer.  It wasn’t as simple looking as the one pictured here.  I had to get with the units two podiums for the machines to rest on so that Sharren and I won’t break our backs.  After all,  the new machines are front loaders and they are big.  I was able to order them from Sears and they matched prices with Best Buy.  There are rebates to be mailed in and so far so good.   Like most Americans, I looked for bargains and figured after the holidays that this would be the ideal time to check things out.  The upside was making me feel pretty good about myself and my decision to get the goods now.

The downside was the sticker shock.  Yes, our previous washer and dryer were over 6 years old but the motors sounded like they were twenty years old.  That is funny because our fridge is about 20 years old and that is still running great though I want to get around in half a year’s time to replace it with a more energy efficient model.  To get a nice washer and dryer that are energy efficient, manage water correctly and efficiently, dry quickly, etc has run me almost three thousand dollars.  I had to swallow hard when I made the purchase but the hope is that the machines will save me money, energy and time over at least 7 years.  I broke down and got the warranty on the machines only because I have experience with the electronics in machines these days and even though there aren’t any moving parts, fuses, bulbs and sensors blow.  I also didn’t buy the top of the line models which would have set me back another $800 or so for a slightly faster rpm cycle machine and an LCD monitor (something else to break or get scratched).  Thanks to my friend, Debbie, for going along and helping me do the legwork and research in getting the new machines which was almost as hard as looking to buy a new automobile.

In the current economic environment, as people have machinery break down, the first thing they will do is try to fix the machine.  I am all for that.  In the case of my washer and dryer, it wouldn’t have been cost efficient.  The same holds true for automobiles.  On a used car, at what point do you decide, okay, I don’t want to spend three thousand dollars to repair the engine and I will put that money towards a new car.  The plus side is you will get a new car, generally no major repairs for about five years, etc.  The downside is that you are now a little deeper in debt trying to pay off the balance on that new car.  My answer is that sometimes you need to bite the bullet and buy what you need.  Trust me, I wasn’t thrilled with the idea and have scrambled as to where the money is coming from in the budget to cover the unexpected expense.

What price can I put on Sharren and I having to wait hours for clothes to dry or washing things?  Do we want to spend our entire weekends just washing clothes?  Those of you with kids (or wardrobe animals) know what I am talking about.  To be able to have clothes ready in an hour or two is a modern industrial society miracle. 

People know that and that is why they pay for the higher end machines, new machines and last year’s models if they go on sale to replace their old machines.  That tells me that despite the bad news, doom and gloom, people are basically people (like the old song) and if they need to replace something, they will go ahead and do it.  Yes, people will do without but at a certain point, if you are trying to take care of your family and can save time by having a washing machine and dryer that work and can get the laundry done while you are changing diapers, going grocery shopping, mowing the lawn, cooking, etc, it is worth the expense.

Most of the machinery is not made in America any more.  Ah.  So my suggestion is that we seriously look into getting back on track on producing products here in the United States.  America needs to get back on track with manufacturing, creating goods as well as services inside the country.  In the long run it will be a win-win situation for everybody.

The machines will be delivered later today, so by the time you are reading this,  the should be installed.  I will write more about the perils of buying new machinery later on if something comes up with them.

 Interested in any of my books?  You may want to make a stop over  here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale. If you like poker, Heroes (the TV series), comic books, Watchmen, etc, there may be some fast links to get you to what you are looking for.

 If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book listed below.  Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book  go  to Rett Syndrome research.  One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes.   My daughter Arianna has Rett Syndrome and we are working to do all we can to make her life easier and find a cure in her lifetime.  Boys born with the Rett gene generally die at birth.

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

  

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

New Washer Dryer Economics

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Middle East, Pakistan, India, War and Economy

Tuesday, December 30th, 2008

Question from a reader:”In your opinion, how will the situation in the Middle East affect the economy?”

 

mideast

 

My answer is that so far, there has been a tremendous amount of money spent on fighting.  There will always be a budget for national defense in America, as well as other nations.  There are companies that end up benefiting from military build-up and from de-militarization.  Right now, I don’t see a drop down in money being spent in defense.  Some people argue that war spending drains an economy and can help create a depression.  Some people argue that war spending helps keep people employed.    Both topics can be argued and talked about for days so let me get back on track to your original question and try to keep the answer a little shorter than a week.

There will be short term drops and freak-outs and horrible analogies as events happen like the actions that are happening in the Middle East right now.  Pundits will say “Oil is shooting up in price because of long term fears that there will be major war, etc”.  Oil prices are reacting to a certain degree to fear and the kick-in is from news already previously released that there would be cut backs in oil production around the world as part of the supply destruction that we are seeing.  This is still holiday time and I have not seen any spike in volume of stock trades so honestly I don’t think it will amount to anything for the short term other than some drops in prices as normal knee jerk responses to international situations.  We’ve had worse situations and in fact, the situation in India and Pakistan is more of a concern for the markets (or it should have been) than the media has been saying but it is jazzier to complain and be afraid of the tensions in the Middle East.   Personally, I would be scared that Pakistan or India accidentally launch a tactical nuke at one another rather than anyplace else in the Middle East at this point in time.  Hopefully all the tension and conflict is getting resolved over there as well.

Over the long haul, I have to cop the answer that it is hard to say.  You are asking me to make a decision about something that I don’t have a lot of input in and I am not a fortune teller, even though I do, from time to time, can accurately forecast a few things – but, hey, anybody can do that if they are honest and have all the available information in front of them.  Since I don’t know how President Elect Obama will react to the Middle East (and India and Pakistan), I don’t know how the other nations in the Middle East will respond, I can only say that any changes are reactions and over-reactions as expectations to how the future will be.   If you are scared about investing, stay in cash.  If you are scared about the nature of cash and inflation, run to gold or silver.  I think the truth is that it is somewhere in between for right now.  It would be smart to not over react because you might miss an opportunity to make some money.

If companies you are investing in have good fundamentals, remember that wars and fighting don’t last forever, even though they seem like it.  There are always moments of peace and commerce.  I am not making this up, just look at history.  England, Japan and Germany were at one time or another our enemy and now our friends.  We have great trade relations with them.   In India and Pakistan, relatives are separated by a border and they cross it to visit one another on holidays while their countries may be fussing about.  In the long run, it makes good business sense to have peace because it is great for mutual commerce.  Everybody can make money in business that way.

You will see and hear a lot of horrible doom and gloom news articles because they will get your attention.  War is a horrible situation but the cold reality is that when you are thousands of miles away and watching it on a wide screen 1080p screen while cooking your dinner in a microwave and talking on your cellphone, it really doesn’t affect you as much as getting clobbered in the middle of the fighting.  Since wars these days tend to be localized relatively speaking, overall sales of goods and services aren’t affected unless the countries involved in the conflict clearly are major consumers of whatever it is we are talking about (say bananas) and they decide they don’t want to buy bananas anymore.  The banana market dries up, etc.  That is just one example.  I like bananas and want to keep the banana market going. 

There is also the fact that news stories about peace don’t get clicks or people to stop and read what you are writing.  Whenever any good news or resolutions come to pass they are brushed over or sent over to the back pages of the web article.  I still am old-fashioned and think that peace is great.  People generally have more things in common than they realize than things that can drive them apart from my experience, regardless of race, creed, color or religion.

 

1230prayer

 

Let’s all pray for a peaceful New Year.

Interested in any of my books?  You may want to make a stop over  here. Please click through to purchase my books and some other interesting items that actually ARE on sale. If you like poker, Heroes (the TV series), comic books, Watchmen, etc, there may be some fast links to get you to what you are looking for.

 If you are looking for a day job, part time work, suggestions for saving money or investing, please check out my book listed below.  Part of all the proceeds from the sales of that book  go  to Rett Syndrome research.  One girl is born with Rett Syndrome worldwide every fifteen minutes.   My daughter Arianna has Rett Syndrome and we are working to do all we can to make her life easier and find a cure in her lifetime.  Boys born with the Rett gene generally die at birth.

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

  

Kim Isaac Greenblatt

 Middle East, Pakistan, India,  War and Economy

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