Warning: The Loan Sharks are Coming!

Hurry, Get Out Of The Credit Pool!! Here come the Sharks.

Loan sharks are people who loan money at extremely high interest rates. They are usually unscrupulous individuals who loan money to needy individuals and expect usually 25% to 50% interest or more.

You must pay it all back, including the interest by a certain date or the interest increases. Failure to repay the debt usually results in property damage or physical harm to you or one of your loved ones.

Well a bank called the First Premier Bank has stepped into the class of being a loan shark. Led by Miles Beacom, CEO of Premier Bankcard and a South Dakota credit card marketer, the bank has decided to offer credit cards to high risk individuals with a $300 credit limit.

They are offering an extremely high interest rate of 59.9 to 79.9 percent annual percentage rate (APR) on these cards.

People, the highest any bank has charged any high risk individuals, is around 25%. They are charging more than three times that rate.

If you were to charge just $100 on the card you would then owe them $80 dollars on top of the hundred you charged and for each hundred that you charge. That is almost double the money you charge. That is more than most unscrupulous loan sharks would charge you and the banks are supposed to be licensed to do a fair business in this country.

OUTRAGEOUS! TO SAY THE LEAST!

Where the hell are all the citizen or consumer watchdog groups or consumer protection agencies in this country when we need them? What about the government stepping in to squash this unfair business dealing. This isn’t right America!

The sad part is that they have sent the offers around to people who are bad at managing credit and probably don’t understand what the term amounts actually mean to them and they said that the return from the offer was almost double over the return they get from their lower interest offers to less risky customers.

I’d say they are definitely sharks taking advantage of a group of consumers, who are definitely ill advised as to whether to accept an offer like that or not.

You know, things are really getting out of hand in the banking world and I sure hope some organization can stop these sharks from feeding on more of the poor people they are targeting with their get rich scheme, that is intended to make high rates like this look normal to everyone, so that more banks can jump their rates to the moon just like they did.

There has to be some kind of consumer law against a business doing something like this to the hard working people in America.  There has to be!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, or God help us because the next depression will definitely end up being a recession! (That is if we don’t pull out of this one first.)

If your credit isn’t that good, you are better off getting a secured credit card and using that to build up your credit rating.

DO NOT ACCEPT ONE OF THE SHARK CARDS OR YOU WILL BE SHARK BAIT

Bankruptnooption.

Set up a Simple Budget, it’s Your Money!

I was always someone who was dead set against budgeting. I think that was mostly because I was younger and just didn’t realize the importance of setting one up.

I had more money than bills at that point in life and I just didn’t care about finances. But now that I have a lot more years under my belt and have all of the bills and things that go along with it, I realize that a budget isn’t something you make up to limit your spending. A budget is something you make up to be sure that you spend wisely and to let you know where you stand as far as your bills, other debts and savings are concerned. (You can opt to leave out any savings items from your budget if you want to, just don’t write any of them down. Simply take any extra cash each month and save or spend it like normal.)

So let’s get a spiral and make up a quick budget sheet you can use for every month of every year, to let you know at a glance where you stand financially for the month. This will enable you to save more and be able to afford more things that you want or need.

Let’s start by creating a spending sheet for your spare cash. You will only make one of these when you need to figure out what things you can eliminate or to figure out how much you spend in a month on a particular item, such as groceries, or clothes if you are not sure how much to budget every month for things like those.

Just label a page “Spare Cash” and every time you spend money write down what for and how much. Put down on this page everything you bought down to the penny, use several pages if you have to, and you will quickly see after a couple of months, just where all the spare money you have left after paying your bills, is actually going.

Someone I knew did this and found out that the candy bar they bought ever day after lunch, could easily pay their cable TV bill! They quickly gave up the candy to pay for the cable and they also lost weight by doing so. A Doubleheader!

You will be surprised to see just how much money you spend on things and may even end up with more money than you ever thought you would have, just by finding and then cutting out a few unnecessary items.

Once you have done this until you are satisfied that you know where your extra cash is going, we can now start to keep a budget. (You can actually skip the “Spare Cash” part and get straight to the budget if you want. But if you are ever wondering where all that extra money you may have each month is actually going, then make one up. It’s a real eyeopener!)

Now take one page and write the month and year across the very top. Draw a line down the middle, seperating it into two long columns.  On the top left,  label it “Income“. List all of the income you expect to earn after taxes for this month. As close to the penny as you can figure. Every dollar you know you will earn or get from somewhere or someone to bring home to spend this month.  Total up this column.

On the top right, label it “Expenses and Savings“. This is the column where you will list every expense for the month or anything you are saving for or making payments on. Put your most important bills first. Then list things like donate to charity, club dues, and anything else that cant hurt your credit or wont involve a penalty or late fee. They go on last. These are the things we can skip once in a while then catch back up on later. Everything you will spend money on or save money for in a month gets labeled and has an amount in this column. From bills, to food and clothing, to lunches and movies, to bank savings accounts and investments. Use the back of the page or more pages if needed.

When doing your budget, you can choose only to include the major items, if your the type of person who doesn’t sweat the little things and just spends pocket cash for movies, gasoline and such, or you can include everything you will put out money for and budget down to the penny! It’s up to you but even if you only include the have to pay expenses, at least you know if you are covered for those!

Once you have the total amount for everything you spend or save for in a month, including all of your bills, rent, car payments, utility’s, cable, food, clothing, gas, lunches, doughnuts, movies, bowling, pop, new sheets, tools, work clothes, savings accounts, get well soon cards from work, donations, lent money, anything- IRA’s etc., than you can figure out just where you stand financially for the month. So total this column, now.

Here is where we boil it all down and see what we have to do to pay for everything monthly. Subtract the total of the “Expenses and Savings” column from the total of the “Income” column and this will give you a total dollar amount that you will be either short or over for the month. This is an important number to know. It tells you whether or not you can afford everything you listed in the “Expenses and Savings” column for that month or if you have to hold off spending money on something until next month.

Learn to adjust the dollar amount for items listed near the bottom of the  “Expenses and Savings” column for each month. You can put in things that you are saving for every month, like an expensive vacation and adjust that amount to be less or more every month to cover other bills if needed. You can make an extra small column to the right of (Expenses and Savings) and use it to keep a running total of how much you have saved or spent for each item through that month. This way you will know when you will afford the item or how much you spent on something so far and your budget now becomes a Spending and Savings record log also.

Budgets are great because they actually put you in control of your money. If you have enough money for all the necessary things after eliminating the unnecessary things, than you are doing good. But if you are short on paying a few bills for the month, than you can use your budget pages to easily figure out just what you can cut or who can wait to be paid so you can pay those bills.

When dealing with creditors it’s a handy tool to let you know just what you can afford as far as a reduced payment is concerned. Deal with your creditors and tell them your whole story and they may very well cut you some slack, especially if you know just what you can afford to pay them without getting behind on all your other bills.

If you get laid off and start to collect unemployment (make sure you have them take taxes out of your check) then redo your budget with the new income figures and see just what else you can eliminate in order to get by on the lower amount.

Remember, budgeting is nothing more than putting a jar on the table for each thing you will spend money on or save money for during that month and then taking all of your money and filling up the jars as needed. The only difference is that you are writing the jars on paper and writing in the money, that’s it!

Putting your finances on paper like this every month will help you control your money and why not control it, after all it’s yours isn’t it!

You can even get generic budget books at office supply stores or make your own custom pages with everything you need on them and have them copied so all you have to do is put in the amounts for each month. Make sure to leave a little extra space in the columns for any extra items that may crop up. Copy a dozen or more for each year and you will be set to spend your money wisely!

HOT TIP. If you are having trouble with several bills being due close together, than call each company and explain ( to the manager ) how all of your bills due at once is a hardship for you and ask them to adjust their due dates so they will be all be spread out during the month between your pay or unemployment checks.

Here is a link to News Radio950′s online budget calculator, It’s good but not as complete as your own budget on paper, but it may help with your own.  News Radio 950 Budget Calculator

Bankruptnooption.

Holidays done, back to the credit grind.

I have read what a lot of people say about credit and how important it is. Also how easy it is to lose. If you ask me, all the lenders are going to have a big problem a few years from now.

They will see someone walk in the door asking for a loan or a credit card and because of their current credit score, they will be turning away someone who had been hit by the recession with a job loss and loss of credit, who before that had excellent credit for many many years.

That person will have been back to work for some time and continuing with their excellent credit habits, but still carrying a bad credit score and will still get turned away because of the problem they had, (job loss) which was beyond their control.

Something is wrong with the credit recording system and it needs to be fixed fast. Will it be fair that a person who lost their job in the biggest recession in many years is turned away for a loan or credit card, when what happened was beyond their control.

Credit scores really seem to be just a roll of the dice away for anyone to lose their good credit standing, and that my friends is the whole problem with the credit system.

You would figure that as lenders who make money from the amount they lend, that they would want to change the system of credit scoring to let them also know the overall average credit score a person has and not just their credit rating after they have taken an unpreventable and unexpected  tumble down unemployment lane.

There is going to be a big sector of loans that will be lost to the lenders because of the way the scores are reported and it will not only hurt them, but it will hurt the individuals who fell victim to the big recession and lost their credit due to no fault of their own.

Something has got to change to get these used to be good credited people, back into the credit system and lessen the mark the recession has against their credit score.

Hell, even baseball players may have a bad night at bat, but are judged on their average hits for the season and not just their hits for that night, yet our current credit scoring is so old hat, that it would condemn them just because of that bad night.

The credit recording and reporting system needs to be changed to a more fair system for all. More of a life average, with how you have been scoring for the past several months factored in. Bankers and lenders better take notice and get the system up to date or they will lose a bundle.

That’s it, greed will get them to change it! And for all you job seekers, that’s how smart your perspective employer is, judging you completely by a bump in your credit history that was out of your control. That’s OK, could you imagine what it would be like to work in a place that would make such snap decisions on partial data like that anyway! Wow.

Bankruptnooption.

CONSTRUCTION ZONES now TICKET ZONES

I don’t know if anyone else has experienced this lately, but it seems as if construction zones at least in Wayne County Michigan are being left up well after the construction is finished.

So do you think it is fair to get a speeding ticket if the signs remain up, even thought the barrels are now moved way off the road, the lights are no longer blinking, no one has worked at the site for months and only a couple pieces of rusting equipment remain as eyesores a safe distance from the road.

I bet that this is being used as a new form of revenue for the cities and counties that are issuing the tickets. Maybe the county doesn’t have the manpower to remove them, but they had the manpower to put them up when they wanted, didn’t they.

Sounds like a new style of money-making machine for the hard times many cities are experiencing during this recession. They need more money to balance their budgets and that’s how they are getting some extra funds.

They surely had the manpower to put up the 10 or 12 signs marking the construction and I bet they are easier to take down. So why do they still remain. No workers for almost two months and tickets are still being written.

I think that a good lawyer could fight those tickets and get them all thrown out, because in order to have a construction zone,  it seems there should have to be construction that is at least taking place and with legitimate intervals between construction phases, not months. A one month maximum stoppage of work should be the legal time frame for having to remove them or the counties should be ticketed by the state or federal government for Impeding Traffic!

When the road crews do this, they do not realize it but they actually create much more of a hazard for everyone, including their own families as well. Many of the motorists who decide to disobey the construction speed limit, get angry when they come up on someone who is and they start to tail gait you, almost pushing you and then decide to pass you unsafely, while flipping you their I.Q. level. If you have obeyed the law then you definitely have experienced this more than once in a vacant construction zone.

Someday, some innocent person or people are going to get killed by one of those jug-heads during one of these construction sleep overs and then the highway department will have to face the music for involuntarily injuring or killing a motorist!

Yet this continues to go on regularly. Maybe they have imposed a new law that allows for tickets anywhere construction has taken place. That must be it.

So watch your speed in those dead and deadly construction zones, or you might not notice who is getting ready to watch you open your purse or wallet. And don’t argue with the police officer about it, that may get you a bigger fine, if not thrown in jail, even if it is the highway department that they should be ticketing, not you.

Bankruptnooption.

Investor.gov

The government launched a new site for investors of all sizes. It’s called Investor.gov.

This site is being built up as a wealth of information for investors. The good thing is that you can ask questions and they will answer them.

Thanks again for doing something for Americans when we can use it the most!

Now don’t get me wrong, I think that this is a very good thing for the American public, but I just can’t wait to ask them during this near depression, How a person should invest their unemployment checks “wisely”? and Will my unemployment extensions be enough to let me buy back the foreclosed house that I lost?

Fair Questions considering all that is going on in America.

Bankruptnooption.

Obama expands retirement savings to include “all” Americans.

I guess the government is looking out for us all again. They are testing a plan that would make it OK for companies to automatically enroll a new worker into their savings plan (401k) no matter what their wage and deduct up to 3% of your wages weekly towards that plan, unless you remember to tell your new employer that you don’t want to participate.

The report said that the government was very concerned that not many people were able to save for their retirement. So they feel that by doing this for us, all Americans will have a good amount saved up for their retirement.

The experts say you should have 11 years of 70% of your yearly income (after taxes) saved up to live on for 15 years at 75% of your regular income level. They say that you will be living comfortably. But that doesn’t include savings for health situations, travel or debt. They say you only have to save 70% of your wage for 11 years,  because you will be getting about 30% of your wage from social security.

So if you make $20 an hour, $14 after taxes for thirty years you have to bank about $20,000 for each of the 11 years of retirement savings, totaling $220,000.00 for your 15 year retirement. You will get $12,500 for social security annually. Dividing $220,000 by 15 gives you $14,500 a year + the $12,500 social security and you will live on $27,000 a year. Just hope you die in 15 years and don’t have any big problems along the way.

If you do what the experts say, at $8.00 an hour for thirty years and after all the savings and math you would clock in at poverty level, about $10,830 a year to live on.

Now under the presidents savings plan of 3% after working for 30 years at $8.00 an hour, your savings is $15,000. Divide by 15 plus your 30% social security ( if it’s still there) and you live on $6,000 a year, that’s only around 1/2 of poverty level. You can’t afford nothing. You can’t live.

So in order for all Americans to retire at or above poverty level on a 3% automatic retirement program, the minimum wage would have to double immediately and then keep up with inflation yearly. Don’t hold your breath.

Yes we all should save more for our retirement than necessary, but frankly speaking, unless you make upwards of six figures in this country you can’t even afford to send your kids to college, or private school, much less retire.

To take away wages from people who are below poverty wage already is wrong, when they need every penny they make now just to try to live. Many people will not be reminded by the new employer, or will not know that they can opt out of the savings plan or it will be automatically withdrawn. This will cause hardships by them trying to live on less income, unknowingly.

This will just cause more paperwork for all those above poverty level human resource people, when all us poor new hires that do know about it, come marching up to the human resource office on the first pay day, to opt out of retirement savings because we just can’t afford it.

Let the people decide where their money should go. For the government to decide anything about your money, beyond taking out taxes is wrong. Especially when it involves people with incomes below poverty level.

Bankruptnooption.

Why do we accept crap in America?

Why do we let crap be imported and sold in this country? I have often said that if Taiwan or China used their own tools they produce to repair the things in their country that are broken, than their countries have got to be falling apart.

I know that most any American who has spent a few of their hard earned bucks on things at the store, has at one time bought something that was foreign made and has used it, only to have it break on the first use or shortly after-wards. If there is anyone who hasn’t please raise your hand.

Why do we let so many of these companies import this cheep crap for us to buy. The real problem is that it isn’t changing. We all have bought something that looked good, only to have to throw it away because it’s really junk and we didn’t pay enough to make returning it worth while.

Do we as Americans want this to keep happening to our children and their kids in the future? I don’t think so. So ——————–what do we do now?

How do we separate the legitimate products that are made overseas that are good, from the junk that is being sold so someone can turn a quick buck off of unsuspecting consumers.

We have to find a system that works and use it. The only suggestion I have for now is to only buy things that are cheep but look good, from stores that you visit regularly. Now if it turns out to be crap make sure you take it back the next time you return to that store and get a refund. Why not, it was your hard earned money you spent for it in the first place, no matter how much it cost.

By returning every item that ends up being junk and not just throwing it away, maybe the stores will get the message and stop offering crap like that for sale in the first place.

So until someone comes up with a better idea to police this junk flooding our consumer markets, than let’s all pitch in and give the stores the message first.

Maybe that will end up being enough to stop companies from trying to sell that imported crap to our stores any more, because the stores know we will just end up bringing the junk back to them anyway.

Bankruptnooption.

9v batteries for $3.50 a piece!

Dear Business Professionals,

Since when did the cost of batteries get to be equal to the cost of the cheep toys that use them? Wow, three and a half bucks for a 9 volt battery, that’s unbelievable! You can get a cheep radio for $2.00.

What is minimum wage now, about seven or eight bucks. Imagine having to work for over half an hour to be able to buy a 9 volt radio battery.

What is wrong with this picture? Why should a 9 volt battery cost that much. That’s absurd!

Wages in this country are out of sync with prices of the common goods we use daily. Sure I can fully understand paying exuberant prices for luxury items, that’s to be expected. But a luxury battery?

Come on people, the middle and lower classes are being raked over the coals when ever they open their wallets to purchase daily goods and services in this country and it’s killing America.

There are so many people involved in manufacturing processes now days compared to years ago. Today you see rooms and rooms full of high paid executives gathering around their cappuccino machines in their executive meeting rooms, where as before, you saw a couple of bright guys around a drafting table and they were able to get more done in a week than most of those executive meetings accomplish in a month.

The ratio of managers per employees has increased drastically over the years and now for every product sold, or every service provided, the company that created  it, has to pay a lot of high paid people, including the workers who made it.

Now to top it all off, the guy who owns the company wants to make the same amount of profit with a hundred executives and engineers as the company that has only one of each. So the workers are the ones who sacrifice the proper pay increases that should equal cost of living increases. Thus the middle and lower class workers slide backward at a rate that eventually brings down the economy. That’s when America coughs and we experience recessions.

People, the way we do business in this country has to change and wages, prices, and people involved in business have to come to a little more even playing field or nothing will ever progress in this nation again!

Employers, start paying your people a living wage again like Ford did years ago. Share a little more of those profits with your workforce and you will realize that you will have a much more dedicated work force and you make more profits over the long haul by doing so.

You have forgotten that it only took a few good people in the beginning who were paid fairly, to start making a profit for you. So go out and find the right individuals to take your company to the next plateau, and ditch the dead weight. Pay everyone a good fair livable wage, right down to the janitor and now watch your profits soar.

It doesn’t take a business degree, an engineer, or a manager to solve 95 % of a companies problems, so why employ more than 5% in those categories when it’s not necessary. Don’t tell me you never talked to a regular employee that had some good answers or I’ll say you are not being truthful.

Some of the wealthiest people in this country never had a degree in business until they got involved in it. They just had the smarts, the guts and the intestinal fortitude to go out and get the job done, and that’s it.

Thank You for your time concerning this matter.

Bankruptnooption.

Laugh a little, It makes the blood flow better!

Forgotten and Lost Money.

Don’t forget that buried in your state government site is a section that you can search to see if any money is being held because they can not locate you. Old Bank Accounts, Undeliverable Taxes and More. Its yours so check it out.

Just go to your State Government Treasury site and look around, You may be Rich!

In the mean time click Unclaimed.org for the main .org site for lost money and other items.

Also you can check Missing Money.com I don’t know if they charge a fee for you to collect, but if they do, go to your state treasury site, or find the US treasury site.

Bankruptnooption.

Mortgage Companies, still Greedy with Their Customers.

Even though the economy is as bad as it is, there is still a majority of lenders that are unwilling to work with their borrowers.

For many people out there, some of the help that they would need is as simple as moving one missed payment to the end of the loan period. Still yet with all the bailout help and pressure from the government, many mortgage lenders still are not willing to help in any manner, except offering to remortgage at a lower rate.

That doesn’t help anyone who missed a few pay checks or is temporarily between jobs. To that group who are just a payment or two behind and caught between jobs, they have the attitude of so what. We can’t do a thing for you and they are hoping they will foreclose. That will give them a chance to make more money off the same home by selling the home again.

They would rather gamble on making more from the combined sales of the home, than give just a little help to those of their long time faithful customers who are struggling.

It is very sad that American Mortgage companies are willing to dump many long term customers, in hopes of making a profit. This amounts to nothing more than greed. They are not showing any loyalty to their customers or that they care. They are not practicing good American business relations with their customers at all.

To the companies who are not showing an ounce of flexibility or kindness, to the people who are loosing everything; You have forgotten that in the future, those customers will probably be getting another mortgage, once they are all cleared up with their financial problems that happened because their jobs were cut. These people will once again be in the market for a home mortgage and they will not return to any company with that kind of blatant dis concern for their customers, especially during a financial crisis.

You should actually be doing business in a less compassionate, dictated country instead of America.

So from all of your dedicated customers that lost their homes because of your Scroogeish ways, We will be seeing you around and we still believe in a little word of mouth advertising (good or bad) even though you apparently don’t and are not worried about your future sales either.

Look for the next story;  Why those in foreclosure are taking everything and the kitchen sink when they leave!!!!

Bankruptnooption.

You have Won $232 Million, or Have You?

I guess that anyone who would win the lottery for any large amount, would be happy with what they receive. Just like the guy who won the $232 Million is happy to be receiving a check for $88.5 Million. That’s 39% of what he won.

I guess if I had won that, I would take the check and walk away also, without ever looking back. But seeing as I haven’t won a lottery for more than five bucks, I have to ask if this is fair or not.

The amount kept in taxes was almost 62%, that’s between 1/2 and  3/4 of what the prize was. Is it fair to advertise to the public that you will win $232 Mil when they know they will only be handing you a check for $88.5 Mil. Sorta sounds like it laps into the realm of false advertising, doesn’t it?

How would you feel if at Christmas, someone got you the complete boxed set of music Cd’s from the 80′s. Now out of the 10 that makes the complete set, they only give you 4 and keep bragging all day long to your other relatives how they got you the complete boxed set of Cd’s.

Don’t get me wrong, I fully believe that if you are going to have a government that provides services to the country, then there has to be taxes. But over 60%, and on a prize, which is the next thing that is closest to getting a gift from someone. Come on,  isn’t that a little extreme!

How much of something do you have to have before you own it. Isn’t it over 50% ?  If you purchase something or win a prize, don’t you have to receive over half the item in order to be able to say it is yours, no matter what it is. You can’t have something if you have, or are given less than half of what it is. You only have part of something. So how can the prize be advertised as being $232 Million, when you get only 39% of it to keep.

How much tax do people pay if they win a car from a promotion or raffle? State sales tax, about 6-10% and income tax at your bracket level, if you claim it.  So what is the difference, that new car was probably worth over $20,000 and you don’t have to pay over 60% in tax on that. Now if you won that new car, only to find out that it doesn’t have a motor or wheels or seats or doors, you’d be steamed also, because you expect the full thing that was advertised to win, not part of a new car!

Taxes on awards, prizes and winnings are way off base and something should be done to change it, so that anyone who walks away with something they won, at least walks away with more than half, so they legally can say it’s theirs and it wasn’t false advertised, either.

By the way, I know someone who is selling a set of four used tires, for $100 bucks. So send me a check for $100 and I will send you two of them in return. What a deal hey!

Bankruptnooption.

May America Prosper, Through Generous Means.

Case in point. A major credit company announced that they were laying off about 4000 more employees because of low PROFITS. About 75% lower than last year. Wow. They still made a 25% PROFIT and they still choose to lay them off so their profit will be CLOSER TO LAST YEAR.

Definition of PROFIT: the excess of returns over expenditure in a transaction or series of transactions ; especially : the excess of the selling price of goods over their cost, : a gain.

This company received from the government stimulus, $3,360,000,000.00 That’s almost Three and a half billion folks. Now wouldn’t one think that with the loan and them making a PROFIT, they shouldn’t be laying off 4000 workers. They should be accepting the lower PROFIT as a gain (which it is), that’s reflective of the tough times, and keep the 4000 employees until they actually don’t make a PROFIT and can’t afford to pay them another check. Then they should use the 3.3 billion to pay and keep the employees. Isn’t that what some of this stimulus money was for?

Shouldn’t the workers pay be budgeted into the earnings they made before they turned a PROFIT anyway? Shouldn’t the workers pay be coming from the 3.3 billion and only if they didn’t turn a PROFIT?

Why then are these companies being allowed to borrow from the stimulus package and still yet turn a PROFIT? Then increase that PROFIT by laying off 4000 more workers?

That boils down to the American public loaning them cash, to make a PROFIT and lay off more workers to make that PROFIT bigger. In other words your tax dollars just went towards laying off 4000 of your hard working fellow Americans and the company that did it just put extra cash in their pocket.

That is nothing but pure old, Wanna have more, Gotta have more, GREED and as long as these companies are allowed to keep borrowing money and increasing PROFITS by laying people off, then it isn’t going to get any better any time soon my friend.

Definition of GREED: a selfish and excessive desire for more of something (as money) than is needed.

I would like to see a freeze on layoffs, to the point of canceling the way they are giving out the stimulus money right now (and they don’t even know how the companies are spending it as of yet). Then putting a bunch of accountants to work , monitoring all companies earnings every quarter and only paying out enough to cover actual shortages if they didn’t turn a PROFIT, so they could continue to operate and keep all their workers. Then cut off the stimulus when they start to turn a PROFIT again, and so on.

Wouldn’t that be real stimulus and wouldn’t that be easy to keep track of also? With no more laid off workers the economy would slowly start to grow again. You would begin to hear that the unemployment rate is starting to decline at a slow and steady pace, then and only then would things begin to turn around for good and not just temporarily. I don’t care how much they give these companies, without a plan for the companies to abide by to use the money, they are going to just keep finding ways at the expense of workers and the economy, to stuff more into their own pockets, yeah, you remember — GREED.

When Henry Ford started out, he realized that he would have to employ many workers and that he must pay his workers a GENEROUS wage, well enough for them to thrive and well enough to enable his own workers to buy his own product, if he wanted to succeed and he did! He actually succeeded through GENEROUS actions, not GREED.

Definition of GENEROUS: : liberal in giving, : marked by abundance or ample proportions.

Please let American Businesses see the light and the wrong of being greedy.

May America Prosper, Through Generous Means!

Bankruptnooption.

Closing dealers, open an Automall – Autopark.

For all you dealers who are being let go, don’t take it lying down. Fight back. Here’s how.

Get together with many others in your area and start up some chains of Automalls or Autoparks.! Yep you heard me right, Automalls or Autoparks.

It’s not a new idea by any sense of the word and a few dealerships are already somewhat half set up this way.

First sit down together as adults, not squabbling children and throw the idea on the table. Now see what will work best for everyone, by either splitting items up between Automalls or by just keeping everyones Automall the same plan as the others. You can even group together monetarily as partners, or just as friends and advisors. Now here’s what I envision. Remember you will build up to it, adding new things all the time.

I want to see these dealerships turn into very small used car sales lots, splitting the inventory between the group. Now don’t get rid of your repair garages, because they will be needed for prepping and repairing ALL, yes I said, All makes of cars. Your garage will become your very own General Auto Repair Facility, After market part Installation, and Customization Center, for your Automall.

Good. Now let’s start to get some people in the doors. First off, the group will subcontract with several local stores in the area. You will be subcontracting with your local auto parts stores, your local tire stores, your local stereo, car alarm, and window repair shops, your local performance shops, detail and customizing shops in the area as well. Now if one chooses Murray’s and one chooses Auto Zone, then you sort that stuff out, or host both, I don’t care what you choose, but figure it out for the good of all, Bottom Line. Just remember the more you pattern your malls with the same selections, the better your chances of success, when working together as a chain.

The large main lots at each Automall, will become with the help of some easily fabricated steel buildings, small rows of Walk through, sidewalk covered, strip malls (sort of like an art or a street fair), but only permanent, with a small front for each of the companies you choose, to sell items for their main stores by displays, catalog and computer monitors.

Someone comes in and goes to the Local performance shop outlet you chose and buys a set of headers from the catalog or display, at a small discount because you stock only display merchandise, keeping all the general stock at the mother stores. No warehouse, no parts storage, except for your General Garage items used frequently, so they don’t have to be shipped from the part stores. Customers can go pick up their merchandise at the branch that has it, nearest their house, have it shipped from the branch right to their house, or the parts can be quickly delivered to your General Auto Center for installation by your trained mechanics. Tires, Shocks, Mufflers, stereos, alarms, the list is endless. Anything Sold or Installed on any car A-Z and Anything Repaired on any car A-Z, All in one location. With sales commission for the Autopark too. Still Good.

You can even go so far as having a store front on the strip, to host the first public – Online Shopping Internet Store. Complete with computers and a sales staff, to help the customers in finding parts at the online companies you choose to host, then phoning in the orders for the customers. The items are either shipped to their house or your General Garage for later installation, after you notify them the parts are in. That type of store will become a franchise deal in the next several years. You subcontract with the stores you choose to host online, like JC Whitney, that don’t have real stores, or just a couple. Now, you are an Outlet for a lot more businesses than your mall could ever accommodate.

Now lets get the customers satisfied and happy. I know most customers, dad’s, mom’s, etc., wouldn’t mind waiting around to get their new car stereo or ground effects package, installed on their ride, in your General Garage, if and only if, there was somewhere that had all the necessities they needed, while waiting. Also things to keep the kids entertained, as well as having somewhere to water and walk the dog. Now that you are becoming more family orientated and customer friendly, which is part of what keeps them coming back, you need to expand into your old spaces.

So hence forth Your New Food and Entertainment area, located on your mall grounds, in the old building.

First off we need to set up a contract with one or two types of fast food places for variety and put in a Dairy Queen. Give them a place near the front of the lot to operate. How about your main showroom. You don’t need that anymore because the used car management and sales staff will have their own out building on the corner of the used sales lot, to do business. Besides we can make the drive through pass right in front of the restaurants, right off the main road, convenient. Have some outdoor adjoined seating around the restaurants, where they can eat and feed Fido a few scraps at the same time, just like they do at home. All the people driving by, will see others with or without their dogs sitting out and enjoying food or ice cream and it will become a magnet, just like the lines in front of the ice cream shops pull you in.

Let’s clear out a space behind the Food Court and expand more now, next to the your General Garage Facility, so that after they eat, the customers can stroll to the Entertainment mall! The Entertainment mall will house; TheAutomall Arcade – All Racing Games All The Time, The Car Toy Store – From A-Z all car or driving or racing related toys with (hobby centers too) and The Go Cart Run, with Radio Controll + Slot Cars tracks as well. Don’t forget to include a couple of places like The Car Collectibles, or The Racing Merchandise shop, or an Auto Interior Store, (your wife and daughter will love setting that up), with all the goodies that the gals will need for the insides of their rides. Just make sure you post every shop you promote, on the “YOU ARE HERE” MAP BOARDS located in the different sections of your Automall. We want NO ATTRACTION OVERLOOKED!

Now let’s go a little further and subcontract with a local car wash facility and a local oil change shop and put one of each, right next to the used car lot to help them out. Make them easily accessed from the main road and by an access road from the Garage as well. Let’s make a few deals with the states we are in and attach to your new (metal constructed) used car sales office, a DMV, or Secretary of State office, to service all of your customers State driving needs. Don’t forget a small Taxi Stand by the General Service Garage and Remember to serve your community, by keeping a couple of parking spots Reserved for Ambulances that are between calls, so they can park and save gas. With paramedics parked on site and chatting with the people who wander past them, everybody feels more at ease with the huge crowds you will develop. Besides it will help lower your insurance rates as well!

Now that you are in good with the state and your local city, you can subcontract a local driving school to join in the fun. The sky’s your limit, you decide what’s next. Maybe a small playground or small kiddie carnival rides, under a movie screen, in an old fashioned Drive In Movie setting, showing movies on the huge screen mounted on the side of the fast food court, that faces the main parking lot, with cruise night being on Friday or Saturday night. Just don’t build the monkey bars over a cement pad, like when we were kid’s, or you might have to add a couple more spots for the ambulances.

You see, with a little imagination and creativity, along with that good old American, Go Get Em Attitude, I know you guys will be around a long time. Who knows, when things pick back up and the manufacturers realize, that they acted too quickly, by letting so many dealers go all at once and they need more dealers to keep up with the new demands, maybe they will beat a path to your door so they can have their new line of cars sold by the best Automall or Autopark chain around! How about that for a turnaround, hey! Sure beats a regular dealership any day! Plan on Expanding. LOL.

I am going to stop here and let you continue my Automall Dream idea, with a group or chain of dealers that are closing around you. I hope you all join in and even if you have to sell a few dealerships for capitol, to make one mall or park. Just work together and play nice and fair, reasoning things out for everyone involved. No Greed Allowed. Remember, All For One, and One For All! I wish you all, Full and Complete Happiness and Success, on your New En devours.

Now go get it done and I’ll be seeing everyone at the Automall or Autopark.

P.S. I’m Looking for a position, so someday I can retire happy also!

Bankruptnooption.

Eliminating Dealerships, and Why?

Almost 800 Chrysler and 1100 GM dealers, will have to become creative or go out of business by October of 2010. Maybe sell some used cars or another brand. Maybe branch out into more service or create Auto Parks, that’s what I’d do, because I sure wouldn’t go under. More about that idea in the next post for all of those unfortunate dealers.

They will be getting the pink slips from the manufacturers. Supply and demand rule how many cars will be sold at any given time, so why give them pink slips. Why not just let them sell what they can or downsize  or fold on their own, if they can’t make it. I don’t get how putting them all out of business, will streamline and help the manufacturers, when the dealerships are privately owned in the first place. What is it I am missing?

For now many will just turn out the lights and call it quits. Sending their employees packing to the unemployment lines of America, where they will become more of a burden on an already ailing economy, and that can’t be good. Things will eventually get better and there will be a larger population also. Sales of everything will go up and more and more people will again be added on, to sell the items.

Dealerships will always strive to sell the most they can from each location in the future, before adding others again. They will strive to remain lean and green this time around. But more will definitely be needed again, so why cut them now? Let them sink or swim at their own pace and we won’t loose as many, or have to replace as many later.

With these cuts now, we will have thousands of people from dealers, who will only add to the statistics before things get better.  Things will only turn around when companies realize they have to accept the profits for the number of employees they do have and not lay more off. That will become the turning point where unemployment numbers start to decline steadily and America gets going again.

Less profits and no more workforce cuts to keep profits up, is what is needed to change things. I feel they are wrong to cut their privately owned sales teams by this many and send them to the unemployment line. This can’t be good for anyone and will only hurt the economy more, just when we need these kind of cuts less, so that things will start to turn around.

What do you think about the dealership cuts?

Bankruptnooption.

Even the homeless must pay rent? WHAT!

In New York, the homeless shelters are charging rent to the individuals staying there. I can understand maybe as high as $50 – $100 bucks a month to cover incidentals like water, electric and such, but a whopping $345 , for a room for two people to share that’s no bigger than a jail cell, you have got to be kidding. Oh yea, they expect you to save up money from your checks (no job no shelter) so you can get your own place to live after six months is up. Unbelievable!

You can only stay there six months and in the room, you are not allowed much more than your clothes. No TV. or Radio, and then they slap a curfew on top of all that. For $345 bucks. Ridiculous. They are making people pay so much, that most of them say they are unable to save little to nothing after paying the rent, plus buying all of their food, clothing, personal hygiene items and such.

These are supposed to be public shelters that help people, who are having a tough time financially, and they go and dip off the top of every persons monthly earnings, rent like that, and for what they are giving. These people would do better in a cardboard box in a warm climate, behind a Red Cross building somewhere. At least they could save some money then. (Why isn’t the Red Cross creating or finding shelter for those who need it? There’s people living in tents out there!)

These shelters are usually subsidized by tax money or government programs that are paid back to the states and cities. So why the heck are they Raking these poor folks over the coals, for anything that they can get. This should be outlawed and in my opinion, any place caught doing this, should have to answer up to the States Attorney General, as to why they are gouging these poor folks.

There are people out here hurting right now, many without jobs much less a home to stay in anymore. For cities to charge rent like that to someone who is down on their luck and hurting and homeless because of the economy and not because they just weren’t trying, is absurd, unjust, uncalled for and seems a little unamerican also.

There is an economic crisis going on right now, not only in our country, but around the world as well. Don’t they understand what that means? Millions are now homeless and jobless. Millions more will walk down the same path, before this all gets better! And they have the nerve, when the government is bailing out GM and Chrysler to charge these poor people rent like that, when they don’t have much more left, than the clothes on their backs and a job that didn’t earn them enough to keep them out of a shelter anyway. Bull———- That’s just not the American way, or is it?

Bankruptnooption.

Update on: Government scares hundreds for a picture.

See original article, Government scares hundreds for a picture.

Update: The pictures ended up costing over $350,000 for everything, including fuel for the two airplanes. Hollywood could have made a 30 second commercial for that price and not flown the planes at all to do it! What a shame and waste of good technology.

But that’s not the story now, the story is they did hand someone their own resignation to sign, who was titled an Aide, White House military aide Louis Caldera. He is to resign on account of it, taking the blow for his boss, Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The Aid said it was his fault and apologized for it. Defense Secretary Robert Gates spent time apologizing also. My question is why should the aid be the fall guy. Shouldn’t the boss get it, after all he is the one who is supposedly in charge isn’t he?

Workers are just that. They have overseers that are supposed to keep an eye on them and those people are the ones in charge. Workers should be given an extra chance over a boss because they aren’t the bosses and don’t know everything or they would be the boss.

I don’t care where you work, there should be fair justice served, especially when it comes to important positions. The ones in charge should have programs of checks and balances set up, so that things like this could not happen in any department. I feel the boss should be the one let go for not running things correctly in the first place. It’s to late for a safety net now, which they are planning to put in place. The damage was already done.

So now we all know that fall guys are here to stay and things are not changing as fast as some would lead others to believe. Otherwise it never would have happened.

I hope that this is corrected and I also hope the safety nets are set up for every department, like they should have been, to prevent unusual things like that from ever happening again. Those programs or safety nets should feed information completely back to the President, because I imagine it must have been very embarrassing, for the Commander and Chief, to not have know about the flight through restricted air space, no matter how lame a reason for it.

Even if it was supposed to be his birthday surprise, he should have been informed. Trust me, he will get a lot more practice at being surprised, because he not only works in the Government, but he is a Dad also, and that’s always full of surprises.

Bankruptnooption.

WARNING, YOUR TAX REFUND MAY BE LESS NEXT YEAR.

Many tax refunds will be less next year? Yes.

And by how much you ask? It will be different for everybody and some may not be affected at all.

Am I one that will get less? Ask your tax advisor. Everyones situation is different.

Will I have to change anything this year to compensate for next year? If your advisor says you will get back less , than ask them if you should change your exemptions at work, so you will pay enough taxes this year to cover the shortage.

Why will some people be getting back less next year when they file their taxes? The stimulus tax cut that increased paychecks and gave a check to others on social security, did not compensate for certain conditions and some people received more than they were supposed to. So instead of making you repay them outright, they will be cutting your tax refunds next year by the amount you were overpaid.

How many people will this affect? Millions.

If people don’t plan ahead by paying more taxes from each paycheck, will it cause them to have to pay in next year? Those who normally owe taxes, break even or get back only a small amount every year, will probably end up paying something.

If people are having to deduct more taxes from their pay, how is that supposed to stimulate the economy? Everyone who received something will get to keep some of it, which will benefit the economy.

Did those on unemployment receive anything? They got a pay increase also but many are yet to see it.

Will they have to pay back some of it also? Ask your tax advisor. All unemployment is taxable so you should have taxes withheld from your checks anyway.

Will this hurt the economy next year if it isn’t much better by then? Yes, because the tax rebates will be less next year, and many who don’t plan ahead will get caught owing taxes, so they might end up having to borrow, money to pay them.

How could this happen? For this to happen, there were many people who make six figures that didn’t do their jobs very well.

Who do they work for? The Government.

Will they be reprimanded? This is yet to be seen.

Will it ever happen again? Probably.

Why? We don’t know.

Bankruptnooption.

Government scares hundreds, for a picture.

My Gosh, what were they thinking when they planned a costly, poorly communicated, unintelligent, photo shoot that would amount to an extremely sad and hurtful April fools joke, if that’s what they had only meant it to be. It was on the same level as yelling “Fire” in a crowded movie theater, or mentioning “something you shouldn’t” while in school or on an airplane. Actions that would definitely get anyone in trouble if they did them. There are laws against these types of actions now days,  laws that you would have to face. But will they.

Imagine this, someone in our government somehow decides that we need a new photo of one of the Air Force One 747 jets, using the Statue of Liberty as a Background in the photo. So on a crisp blue Monday Morning as New York city awakens, workers are starting their days at their desks, high above the ground in all of the sky scrapers around the site of the World Trade Center Attacks on 9-11.  They decide to send the 747 and a fighter jet with a photographer aboard, to do a few low, fly-by passes near the statue, so they can get some good shots to show how they are better spending taxpayer money these days during the recession.

Now, unless you have a way to notify a complete city, full of workers, business travelers, visitors and tourists, that you are planning to do this and you better make darn sure there will not be one person in the city that doesn’t know, then I don’t think it is sounds like such a good idea to do.

The news coverage on Monday 4-27-09 told of the panic that it caused and of the hundreds of people that ran out of the buildings, into the streets when they heard the planes pass by at such a low altitude. Go figure, would anyone living in America who remembers the attack on 9-11 be expected to react differently, I don’t think so.

So what happened? Why didn’t they let everyone know?  The authorities they did let know, were told not to let anyone else know! Even still, how could they miss the fact that they should tell the cities inhabitant’s? Doing that without letting the people know was similar to tripping the big red handle that says “Pull In case of Fire”, only for a major metropolitan city and all at the same time.  How could the reaction of the people possibly have been overlooked?  I don’t know. Maybe poor communication or a lack of technology is to blame.

We are in an age where kids in T.V. commercials are proudly proclaiming to the world , that they are very young and with their computers and their digital cameras they are busy cropping, cutting and pasting, making photos, movies, and posters just for fun.

In this day and time we have computers and professionals in movie studios, who can make a giant space ship hover over Washington D.C.. Why then,  if they needed a shot of a plane flying past a monument that is located in a critical area with restricted air space regulations, wouldn’t they realize that they can have a picture or a whole movie made, without actually flying the plane past the statue at all, thus eliminating the need to think of possibly scaring anybody.

When the president brought his Blackberry to Washington with him, they had to make many changes before he could use it. Now combine that issue with the photo issue and it kind of leaves America wondering a bit about how technologically advanced our government really is, or is it possible that technology isn’t keeping up with the pace that the government really needs? Could that be the reason for the apparent lack of technological use or the apparent lack of communication that caused this to happen?

I guess as citizens these are questions that will remain unanswered to us, but probably heavily looked at by the government. Will technological advancements be made in the future to prevent this type of thing from happening again? We will never know.

One thing we do know, is that the area is restricted air space and for a good reason. There are rules set that explain how to use it and lists of who needs to be notified of exceptions, if there are requests for them, and the people should be on the list also, in certain circumstances. Now if we can get them to follow rules and laws like we as citizens are expected, then this whole thing would never have happened. Period.

Bankruptnooption.

One Year Protection Plans for New Car Buyers.

I know that this don’t sound like too bad of a deal, but before you buy you better weigh the facts.

Many people who have been laid off are highly skilled professionals. I don’t know the numbers because no one has studied this so far, but I have heard enough.

Many of these people have been out of work for more than a year now and a lot had to actually change to another field or get more schooling to find work.

Do you think things are getting better already? If you do and you are so secure in your position, as to bet your good credit on the fact that you will land a job in your field before the 1 year protection plan runs out, then go ahead because it is a good deal for you.

Personally, the way things are looking right now, I know I wouldn’t risk my credit on those kind of stakes, unless they would agree to cancel the loan with no repercussions to my credit if after a year I was still jobless.

Take it from myself and other professionals out here who have been jobless now for over 8 months or better, that you could end up in a mess with a deal like that. Hey if your car is decent then just hold onto it until you hear for at least three consecutive months, that the national unemployment rate has dropped and then go find a good deal.

The deals will still be out there and maybe you will end up with a new car that is fresh off the assembly line again like they used to be , instead of one that has sat on a storage lot for months in the harsh weather, that had to be jump started because the battery was dead from sitting.

I want the economy and all the companies to rebound more than anyone, because I’m loosing it all too. But for the auto companies to offer an incentive like that in these especially shaky times, selling products that have sat to long already and still yet wanting top dollar for them, is not to good a deal any way you look at it.

You be the judge on this one and oh yea, I don’t have a battery charger, but ask the guy down the street with the new car because I think he had to buy one. That’s if he hasn’t sold the charger already for food because, he’s since lost his job and now he’s loosing his house and his car. Go Figure That!

Bankruptnooption.

Job Sites, are they Getting Gready in a time of Pain.

There are millions of people who used to be productive members of society and a necessary part of the function of their companies, who no longer have a job and are forced to find another by using any available method they can find.

One of the better known methods is a job site. These are sites that usually make a minimal amount of money for offering you their services and in a lot of cases their service is free.

But I have noticed a trend that is growing among some of these sites, the new ones in particular and I think that with the amount of people out there right now who need these sites, they are starting to capitalize on that need factor and are starting to offer less free help and more help that will cost you. Many new and creative features are being implemented that require you to pay for what you got for free before. These new features branch off of their old service and expand whatever it was to the new degree of becoming a whole new service to offer if you will pay for it.

Just two things that stand out, remain the fact that they are serving the unemployed and things haven’t gotten any better yet, here in our country. You following me with this.

So why would companies set out to make more money, especially from those that can’t afford it in the first place. These people are looking for a Job so they can pay their Bills, and you are trying to get more out of what they have left to live on and at the time when they need the most help. Hugh I never thought that was part of the American Dream of becoming a business owner before. Now everyone knows times are bad in the country and for millions of people right now they are the worst they have ever been. So why would any fine outstanding company do this, especially at the time they can help people the most.

Implement your new services later on when things get better, if you give a darn about the country that you are doing business in. Stand up for your right to do business and with fair practices for all, but don’t stand here in the country that lets you conduct your business and turn around and take advantage of the bad times and the unfortunate people who are in the same country suffering unlike yourself. That will never be the American way. If we as a people do not still have a say in things that go on around us, that take advantage of our friends and the ones we love, then we will no longer be able to refer to this Great Country as America, The Home of The Free and The Land of the Brave.

Bankruptnooption.