Archive for March, 2007

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Small Business: eVenturing.org

Friday, March 9th, 2007

Part of the Kaufman Foundation (Ewing Kauffman–owner of the Kansas City Royals), eVenturing.org is great for entrepreneurs and small business owners. This is an all-encompassing site that has everything you might need when considering a small business or an entrepreneurial venture.

From eVenturing.org
Geared to those who are building companies that innovate and create jobs and wealth, Kauffman eVenturing is the trusted guide for entrepreneurs on the path to high growth. The site provides original articles, written by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, and aggregates “the best of the best” content on the Web related to starting and running high-impact companies.

Entrepreneurs will find the eVenturing site to be an interactive, vibrant, and vital place to make important connections, access help and advice, and find relevant, practical “just-in-time” information and tools.

Check more on the Kauffman Foundation.

Posted in Household, How To | No Comments »

Everbank.com

Thursday, March 8th, 2007

As you know I have had issues with Everbank since I signed up for the account a few months back. The saga continues . . . I have literally been trying to get my wife put on my checking account (the original paperwork I filled out had her on it, but they did not register the account that way) for 2 months. It is simply ridiculous. I blew a gasket as during this process I have been alerting them that my wife will need a ATM/Debit card, but now I was alerted via email that she needs to fill out a request form. Instead of getting up with a customer service rep over the phone I decided to vent through email. I explained the situation in full for the 10th time and said I was very disappointed in their inability to get us the correct information consistently. I told them this was basically their last chance. If this was fumbled my wife and I would take our business elsewhere (back to Netbank). I signed up for the account because of the teaser intro rate of 6.01% APR and we have done well by this. I am truly hoping after all of this is settled we will not to contact them again on any consistent rate. We shall see.

Posted in Banking | No Comments »

Stock, Wall Street Up

Wednesday, March 7th, 2007

I think a huge sigh went out over all of Wall Street and the financial world with the gains posted today. The Dow Jones Index, NASDAQ and S&P 500 all showed gains of over 1% with the NASDAQ almost 2% up. After more of a sell-off on Monday following the correction of February 27, doom and gloom was casting a pall over the street.

Personally I saw 2 of my own personal stock holdings jump back and give life back to my portfolio. Goldman Sachs (GS) was up 3.88% (197.37) after dropping to 190 just a couple trading days prior. I am still down overall on the stock, but i cannot pass up its P/E of under 10. Last Friday after a sell-off I built more of a position and by Monday afternoon I began to have some second thoughts.

My other poor performing stock is the New York Stock Exchange (NYX). It has figuratively killed me since I bought it. A couple weeks back I had faith after it had another big drop so I built a position in by doubling up. The end of yesterday I was down almost 16% on a cost basis–not good. Therefore, today’s skyrocket of over 7% was a welcomed sight. Wednesday and the several days following will be telling as 24.6 million shares of former seat holders become active. I am crossing my fingers even though I do believe that the company is financially solid.

Hopefully the volatility will wane so we can return to a more stable stock market.

Posted in Investing, Stock Market, Stocks | No Comments »

Stock GOOG and Stock AAPL

Tuesday, March 6th, 2007

Google (GOOG) stock is on my watch list for my retirement accounts. Its 52-week high was in the 510 range and now it is hovering around 440–about a 14% drop. Many claim Google has nothing but upside and I see little reason that it cannot rebound and gain at least 10% in the next few months.
The problem is the stock market has been volatile lately and it had disappointing growth last earning report. Yahoo! finance stock is making an effort to catch up to GOOG stock and this could be a drag on Google as well.

Apple (AAPL) stock is currently in my retirement account portfolio. It was in the $95 range after the announcement of the iPhone. Then lost steam quickly and dropped to 85, where I purchased it. This week AAPL stock was volitile and on Thursday it was up over 4% at one time during that day. I see Apple having a lot of upside. I think it can easily get back to 95 and in the next 6 months possibly $115.

These Wall Street stocks have tremendous upside potential, but Wall Street needs to calm down from last week’s trouble in order to get a clear picture of where these two stocks, and more are going.

Posted in Investing, Stock Market, Stocks | No Comments »

Federal Alternative Minimum Tax: AMT

Monday, March 5th, 2007

It’s time to worry about the the Federal Alternative Minimum Tax again as tax-season is upon us.

Leave it to Congress to create a tax to make sure that the very rich pay some taxes and then not have it indexed to inflation. Now millions on non-millionaires are getting trapped by this AMT. Not only that, you the tax-payer, are supposed to figure out if you are “qualified” for the federal alternative minimum tax and follow all the convoluted rules that apply–GET AN ACCOUNTANT! The Bush Administration’s tax cuts back in the first term were supposed to provide tax relief for all, but it has triggered the AMT to capture even more Americans. Once you have been caught into the web of the federal alternative minimum tax you are there forever; “qualifying” one year means that you will pay AMT for every following tax year–Yippee! There are members of Congress that want to get rid of the AMT, but it is a huge windfall for the federal government plus they are concerned about Iraq–not the AMT. So do not count on a change soon.

All Financial Matters on the AMT

Posted in Taxes | No Comments »

Personal Finance Education Websites

Sunday, March 4th, 2007

Many people want to learn more on personal finance and investing, but do not know where to start. Websites like this one and other personal finance sites are great tools. I also wanted to let you know of other resources available to get you up-to-speed on a wide variety of financial topics.

I would recommend watching Mad Money for investing. He is one of the few who will go step-by-step to help you invest smarter. This can buttress a general investing education you can get from doing some homework. Obviously, there are loads of investing books so look around and see what others have to say about it.

These are from from the only options available. You can easily go to Kiplinger, Money, Smartmoney, Yahoo! Finance, Google Finance, etc. These are all informative and can hold your hand until you get the hang of certain topics you might not have mastered yet.

These are great personal finance education websites to start. Ask around and get people’s opinions on what sources to use. I would recommend using as many reliable sources as possible. It is not easy, but we all want to do better with our money.

Posted in Banking, Budgeting, Credit Cards, Healthcare, Household, How To, Insurance, Investing, Real Estate, Retirement, Stock Market, Stocks, Taxes | No Comments »

Causes of the Stock Market Crash

Saturday, March 3rd, 2007

The history of the causes of a stock market crash are wide in variety. Tuesday’s dash down was mainly caused by computer glitches in addition to a 9% drop in the Chinese stock market. In a micro mindset there is little you can do to prevent the causes of a stock market crash from manifesting. On a macro level things can be done, but it would require the SEC to impose more draconian measures–which will not happen.
Stock market growth had been the norm since the lull of last May in the stock market. S&P 500 stocks have continued to break all-time highs. This went along will geopolitical tension, rising oil prices, a trade deficit, an unbalanced checkbook from Congress, etc. Reaching stock market highs were the norm, but that might have gone out the window. Tuesday will change stock on wall street, the mutual fund market, the amex market; it will change all markets. This is because the herd on wall street causes the big investment houses, mutual funds, etc. to move the market. Many will panic and many will not, but the stock market will not be the same for a while.

This might become a bigger trend of a stock market crash and meltdown, but it is difficult to measure the causes of the stock market crash while it is happening.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Stock Market Uncertainty

Friday, March 2nd, 2007

The stock market has been behaving erratically this week and do not think that it will stop soon. When the market has a day like it did on Tuesday the herd of Wall Street takes notice as well as the casual investor.

Cool heads prevail. Do not panic and consider this an opportunity to buy some stock at a discounted price. You will need to do your homework in order to determine which stocks are the right ones. High dividends and day-to-day needs will lead the way. The high yield comforts the blow of a downturn in the market and people still need toothpaste no matter what the economy is like.

I feel fortunate that I had about 1/3 in cash. I was nervous about the market because I was slightly negative on the it back in June of 2006. I also invested much of my funds in Altria (MO) and Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B). Altria (MO) has a 4.0% yield and Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) is Warren Buffet’s horse and I felt comfortable with him at the helm.

In the next several days I will need to decide if it is time to increase some positions and take advantage of the lower prices.

Posted in Investing, Stock Market | No Comments »

Clear Checkbook

Thursday, March 1st, 2007

Although I do not recommend still writing a lot of personal checks Clear Checkbook is a source to keep track of all your transactions.

You should automate so you do not need to remember to:

  • write a check
  • get postage stamps
  • send the check on time

Money Musings interview with the founder of Clear Checkbook:

Posted in Banking, Household | No Comments »

Comcast, Linksys and My Internet Connection

Thursday, March 1st, 2007

While owning a house has been a positive experience so far, occurrences of last Thursday are ones that I do not cherish.  A couple weeks ago it was about zero degrees for over a week straight.  During this period I thought that my pipes had frozen; it turned out that it was only the pilot light that was blown out.  Unfortunately, the week after it warmer up and my exterior pipe connected to my sump pump blew out the ejector pump.  This in turn drenched my router and modem that I had in the utility closet (there because Comcast would not add another coaxial cable upstairs). So Comcast will be fired soon.Conversely, Linksys really came through.  Although I had to spend hours on the phone with them they are going to replace the router even though it was my fault.  Now that is customer service! Now I am going to switch from Comcast to Earthlink because they are the only other ISP in my area.  I hope this will work better than Comcast has.

Posted in Household | No Comments »

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