Advance Finance Blog

Are You The Last Of The Big Spenders?

What kind of spender are you, anyway? According to a Readers Digest survey conducted by finance experts, mankind is divided into 5 different kinds of spenders. This may not be a new discovery but it formally defines us according to our spending habits. The research results do not specify if the results apply equally to [...]

Here We Are in the Middle of the Merry Month of May

Now I start worrying about June – what kind of month are you going to be? So far, May is indeed a Merry Month for me here in the Home Office. I hope everyone’s May is going as well as mine, but from the statistics, it is clear that the world is hovering on the [...]

Of Crossword Puzzles and Red Wine – A Study in Economics

How to stay normal when the whole world is crazy How is it possible, I ponder, as I fill in the C, that the answer to the clue “Warm up” in the New York Times crossword turns out to be ‘DEICE’? One of these days, I promise myself, I will dip into my pocket and [...]

Plan For the Life You Want

It is possible to plan for all of life’s eventualities, including the unforeseeable. “Money doesn’t create happiness. It can provide you with temporary happiness, but lasting happiness comes from what you do with your life,” Craig Torr says. As we age, we tend to want to do things rather than to buy things, he says. [...]

We Are Living In the ‘Sail Age’

Awash with romance in a new age of sail If you reach into your pockets you too can experience the luxury of a super-yacht worthy of an oligarch in the Mediterranean. In an age of mega-size cruise liners, there are some ships that still resemble ocean-going vessels rather than floating hotels. Perhaps the most romantic [...]

Someone Out There Is Waiting For You to Drop Your Vigilance

A stolen credit card is better than cash Online shopping, one of the latest innovations to society has opened many new doors both to serious shoppers and to serious thieves. It highlights the importance of protecting your credit card. The responsibility lies with credit card holders to safeguard their credit cards. Here is a list [...]

Who moved my bank?

My bank loves me but I don’t even like it back I went across the street late last night to deposit a check that had arrived in the mail. The miserable check was payment for an article that was submitted about 6 months ago and was finally published in February. The mall was closing up [...]

Where to Look For Some Spare Cash

There’s no guarantee you will find, but it’s worth a look Small change. Take a look under car seats and floor mats, glove compartments, dresser drawers and your spouse’s pockets or purse may not yield much at first, but be patient, and you’d be surprised how quickly these coins add up. Silver and gold, [...]

New Business Opportunities Opening Up

Get in at ground level Illegal businesses are the ‘in’ thing. They range from piracy and kidnapping off the East and West coasts of Africa, building and operating smuggling tunnels in places like Gaza and now fuel smuggling in North Africa. By all accounts, all these enterprises are highly profitable and their owners grow fatter [...]

Munch’s ‘The Scream’ Is Still Reverberating Around the World

Why can’t I do this? During a highly intense 12 minutes, the 1895 artwork was sold at Sotheby’s in New York City on Wednesday for a record $119,922,500. Neither the buyer’s name nor any details about the buyer was released. One of the most iconic images in art history, Edvard Munch’s "The Scream", has now [...]

Tax Evasion Is One Thing, but This Is Pretty Extreme

Wealthy Americans lining up to surrender their passports It seems that wherever you are, the IRS will find you eventually. About 1,780 expatriates gave up their nationality at U.S. embassies last year, up from 235 in 2008, according to Andy Sundberg, secretary of Geneva’s Overseas American Academy, citing figures from the government’s Federal Register. The [...]

How to Become a Member of the YouTube Millionaire Club

This man, Peter Cilliers, earns in excess of $100,000 a year doing what he loves In 2006, Cilliers, from Pretoria, South Africa, decided to begin his own weight loss campaign. As motivation, he created a video diary to record his journey. Now, his YouTube channel, SixPackFactory, boasts more than 48 million views. “I thought I [...]

I Spent Money And It Felt So Gooood!

Sometimes it feels so good to let go for a change It all started when my computer’s wireless system at home stopped working. My desktop computer worked fine but the laptop was dead. I called in my technician and he slaved away for ten minutes and then said, “Everything’s fine, it’s fixed. I brought it [...]

Questions You Should Be Asking About Social Security

At what age can I start collecting Social Security benefits? Workers can begin receiving benefits at age 62, but your benefit will be greater if you wait until your full retirement age, currently 66, or later. Widows, widowers, surviving children, the disabled and children of the disabled can start collecting earlier. Full retirement ages are [...]

The Latest Gold Rush Is Out There on the Asteroids

I’m in the line–up: There’s gold in them thar stars There is no limit to man’s greed and his obsession with the unknown. Now the next frontier is mining in outer space. Google executives Larry Page and Eric Schmidt and filmmaker James Cameron are among those bankrolling a venture to survey and hopefully extract precious [...]

Figuring How to Afford Care for Your Confused, Elderly Father?

That may never cross your mind until you need more money to care for him. Natasha Shamone-Gilmore, 58, says, "I never thought about it.” She thinks about it a lot these days. Gilmore, a computer trainer in Maryland, now shares a modest home with her husband, 24-year-old son and 81-year-old father. Like millions of other [...]

How Much Is The Happiness Tipping Point?

Some say $50,000 a year and some say $70,000 The question, written in language that everyone understands, is: “How much money does it take to buy happiness?” A 2010 Princeton University study said that the benchmark for achieving happiness is a $75,000 salary. Above that amount, people reach a plateau, after which more money has [...]

Rare Penny

Start searching through your drawers! Not all pennies are created equal. A rare 1792 coin was auctioned off for a staggering sum of $1.15 million. What makes the penny so pricey? Officials explained that the penny was experimental in design and never put into circulation. Todd Imhof of Heritage Auctions said, "After 200 years, [...]

This Multi-Million Dollar Business Started With Less Than $100

I wonder if I can do something like this Jera and Brad Deal of Peoria, Illinois are "accidental entrepreneurs." This is an "only in America" story. Sticks and Stones The Deals are the owners of Sticks and Stones, a multi-million dollar company that makes keepsakes which are sold on-line, in catalogs, and [...]

Dad, where are we going for this year’s summer holiday?

I knew the question was coming and I still don’t know how to tell them I had been expecting the question for some time. Now it was on the table and I had to reply. “Listen, everyone, you know how rough things are down at the plant, reduced orders, guys being fired, no [...]

You Booked A Cheap Vacation. How You Can Upgrade

Start by getting a better airline seat, hotel room and car rental deal Upgrades are never guaranteed, but some, like those for car rentals and hotels, are easier to score than others. What’s the secret to upgrading? Start by using charm and simply asking for one. And if you do get one, remember [...]

What Are You Doing With Your Billion-Dollar Idea?

Start working on your company concept “The idea caught on like wildfire, but getting the concept off the ground was no picnic. Our first task was to convince designer brands to partner with us and sell in a way that was completely unfamiliar and unconventional," says Gilt co-founder Alexandra Wilkis Wilson. "If you [...]

Hollywood Is After Your Money

Here are some tips to help you save at the theaters The penny has dropped in Hollywood and the studios are working on producing big draws this year to get more people into theater seats. For us moviegoers it’s going to be an expensive year. Ticket prices In cities like New York, [...]

A Brief History of Gold

The story of gold is as rich and complex as the metal itself. Gold marches on an on. There is apparently no end to its usefulness and therefore to its value. Even ancient civilizations understood its scarcity and prized it. Held securely in national vaults as a reserve asset, gold has an irrefutable [...]

Of Ivory and Gold

Elephant slaughtered in front of calf Thirty-five mutilated elephant carcasses were found following a single attack by poachers at the Bouba N’Djida National Park, a popular safari destination in Cameroon. A terrified young elephant was seen cowering around his mother’s corpse, the only living elephant the photographer saw in the park for a [...]

Sheldon Adelson Planning a Giant Casino-Resort in Spain

35 Billion dollars should pay for something really nice Billionaire Sheldon Adelson, speaking at a press conference ahead of the opening of his new $4 billion casino property in Macau, the world’s largest casino destination, said on Wednesday he plans to spend $35 billion on a mini-Las Vegas strip in Spain where he is courting [...]

Summer’s here and the taxman is hovering

Couldn’t he leave me out, just this year? ‘Relentless’ is the word that comes to mind when I think about the IRS. They just never give up or have pity on anyone. Earn money and you’re a target. No excuses, no pleading, nothing will help. Here we are in the thick of tax season, and [...]

Did You Ever Think About Playing Golf For A Living?

This is a real case of the greener grass When I was younger, the thought of playing a sport in order to make a living seemed to be utterly ridiculous. It was something reserved for the very few. At the start of my engineering career I was apprenticed at a firm of engineers and the [...]

My Morning Spilt-Milk Cry

I known that crying doesn’t help but it makes me feel better Way back in October 2010 I discovered a financial company who advertised that they could help me rescue some money of mine that I had left in a locked up country. I contacted them and they undertook and completed the job smoothly and [...]

Saudi Millionaire Splurges $136,000 on Vintage Bubbly in Dubai

We all missed the party Some people have major money, so much that they never have to gulp and think, “am I overdoing things, am I being ostentatious, should I hold back on the spending?” This man chose a bottle of champagne to express himself. Others go for art or stamps or fancy cars. Me, [...]

Shopping At the Dollar Stores

Even Walmart and Target have a $1 Bargain Shopping area in their stores Are the Dollar stores really a bargain hunters dream? In their haste to grab a deal, many shoppers fail to realize dollar stores aren’t always the bargain they seem. Is It Really $1? There are truly many great deals to be [...]

Announcing A New Working Class – “The Actively Retired”

The internet as a workplace for the unemployed, er…, the actively retired I am a member of the “Actively Retired Class”. This means you are retired but you have to work because you spent most of your life ignoring retirement. You never saved, never opened a retirement fund and sneered at anyone who [...]

Spring is Sprung…

Just what we need to change the money climate as well Spring has sprung in this part of the world and the warmer weather, the change to summer time and last week’s optimism at the stock exchange has put a whole new look on the world. Let’s use this change to transform our dark and [...]

The Logic and Illogic of the Lotto

Americans plunked down about $1.5 billion on the biggest jackpot in history No, it wasn’t me that won the mega jackpot of $640 million. I never even bought a ticket in the end. What happened is that I got caught up in my own dream and never made it to the ticket kiosk. Like every [...]

Mega Millions standing at $476 million

Don’t miss this opportunity! It’s beyond imagination! No one picked the six correct numbers in the latest multi-state Mega Millions lottery game, sending the jackpot to a record $476 million for the Friday drawing. Tuesday night’s jackpot was $363 million, fed by weeks of drawings without a top winner. The previous record jackpot in [...]

Meet the New Mr. and Mrs. Rich on the Block

They won their money in Europe. But as long as you win, it’s not important where A couple from Largs in Ayrshire have been named as the winners of the £161 million Euromillions jackpot. The prize was Europe’s biggest ever and was capped after a series of rollovers. The huge windfall catapults them to number [...]

Unlike The Ship Itself, the Story of the Titanic Goes On Forever

The Titanic’s heartbeats keep going. Now it will cost you $20 to see the exhibition As the 100th anniversary date of the Titanic nears, a museum in Belfast launches a landmark attraction. “That’s where she was built. That’s where she was designed. That’s where the workers lived.” Noel Molloy is a man with a mission [...]

My Investment Adviser Tells Me to Buy Apple

At $600 a pop I must be mad, I say I am not a crazy about Apple. I have strong feelings about the company mainly because they have taken my grandchildren from me. Since the kids acquired iPods, iPads and iPhones, I have turned into a lonely man with no one to talk [...]

What I Did With My Spare Cash

I visit my investment adviser with $10,000 and ask for advice Last week I found myself in an unusual situation, in fact a first for me. I received a call for the bank to please drop in and see them. I was puzzled, I am in the black for the first time in [...]

The Sugared Nut Financial Indicator

I can tell when I’m feeling rich! Every Saturday the downtown mall in our city holds an arts and crafts fair. In addition to the usual arts and crafts many other stalls set up shop and offer a variety of wares. Popular items in the ‘non-art’ area are olives and home [...]

Slim Heads Billionaire League Today. Gates Running Second

Brazil’s Eike Batista, currently 10th, vows to be No. 1 position by 2015 The Bloomberg Billionaires Index takes measure of the world’s wealthiest people based on market and economic changes and is updated every business day at 5:30 p.m. in New York. Get onto this list and you get great publicity. No. 1 – [...]

Apple Fans Can’t Get Enough

Apple’s 4G iPad debuts in Australia Apple’s latest iPad was another hot-seller on Friday, with hundreds queuing at stores across Asia to be the first to get their hands on the 4G-ready tablet computer as the company’s share price hit $600 for the first time. Progressive development The new iPad is a progressive development [...]

Welcome to Scamland: Keep an Eye on Your Money

How to tell when you are being ripped off Basic rule: The more advanced the technology, the more imaginative the con. Unless you’re a hermit living in a cave with no internet, cellphone, bank card or car, there is someone out there after your money. Like most internet users, I receive an attempted scam via [...]

Have You Considered Downsizing Your Home?

Are you going to stay on in that mansion? We just downsized and are still in the “looking for things” stage, an irritating and nerve-wracking process, which I hope will come to an end in the next week or so. We were living in a large apartment downtown and it was time to move on. [...]

Retirement, Like Death and Taxes, Is Inevitable

Unless you decide to keep working to the very last minute What it means that you have to do some planning for your retirement, even if it’s minimal. You could, of course, ignore the whole issue and leave it for someone else to deal with and hope that he or she is sensible and trustworthy. [...]

Thanks To Spanx, Sara Blakely Is a Billionaire At 41!

Customers say, We were smitten from the beginning. If you have an idea, don’t push it to the back of your mind and mutter that you will do something about it some other time. Act immediately! Great ideas don’t come around that often. You may never have another great idea. If you have one, use [...]

Lottery Winner Sticks To Previous Life

Why should I change my lifestyle just because I won a $1 million jackpot? Amanda Clayton, who says she owns two homes and a new car, receives $200 a month in food assistance from the state-issued Michigan Bridge Card, which is meant to benefit lower-income residents in the nation’s eighth most economically depressed state. The [...]

Am I Supporting Greece All By Myself?

Or are there others out there helping too? Did you see the headlines before the NY Stock Exchange opened today: Wall Street to fall on Tuesday on renewed concerns that Greece and private bondholders may not meet a looming deadline… Let me explain I am a Sunday afternoon NY stock exchange investor. That means [...]

Things Are Still Rough Money-Wise And You Need Free Stuff?

Don’t spend frivolously; there are still some free goodies out there. There are a few sites on the internet that list free stuff. Others put sections of their sites for the use of those who are happy to give things away. You can find all sorts of things, from clothing to furniture. Take a look [...]

Engineer Becomes Writer: Saves Money

How to live better and spend less money By profession I am an engineer, with a university degree, diplomas, certifications, recommendations, etc. With all that came expensive suits and shoes, silk ties, a fancy car and a permanent throbbing headache. In addition there were clients and others who I had to entertain and be nice [...]

I’m Staying Home and Saving Money…

Doesn’t mean not going to the movies It cost me almost $70 to fill my car this morning! That’s it! I’m not going anywhere this weekend. I will sit in front of the TV set and save money. How ridiculous can this gas price get? Next thing we’ll have to sell our cars and walk [...]

Australian Woman Takes on Nigerian Scammers and Loses

How to turn the tables on a Nigerian scammer in one easy lesson Nigerian email scams are as commonplace as the Internet itself. If you have an email account you receive scam mail from a Nigerian sender. I sometimes read these letters and fantasize about turning the tables and making money out of them. So [...]

Take 80 Million Dollars and Go and Bid For “The Scream”

Celebrated painting headed for the auction block Edvard Munch was a Norwegian Symbolist painter and an important figure in the expressionist art world. His best-known composition, ‘The Scream’, is part of a series called The Frieze of Life, in which Munch explored the themes of love, fear, death, melancholia, and anxiety. Munch made four versions [...]

Susan Turns 70 and Throws A Party

A recession is as good a time to celebrate as any We spent the evening at Susan’s 70th birthday party on Tuesday evening. It was a modest affair in the local church hall with many guests, there must have been 60 or 70, and lots of good finger-food. Had we known about the food part we [...]

Online Sales of Rhino Horn to be Investigated

Anything that sells for $10,000 a pound must draw attention, right? People are selling anything and everything these days in order to raise a little extra cash, and some are doing very well in this business, especially by selling “old” or “unwanted” goods that have been cluttering up their homes for years. But going out [...]

Save Money by Getting Free Ebooks Legally

Are there sales on eBooks? Sure there are! I’ve got an iPad and I downloaded the free Kindle App. Now I’m looking for cheap books. There’s no need to keep a stack of books. My iPad/Kindle replaces them all. I’m thinking of joining the Philadelphia Free Library. For $15 per year, they offer out of [...]

If You Are Retiring Don’t Rely On Living On Less

Cost of living does not automatically drop the day you retire We all assume we will need to spend less in retirement. But is this true? You have probably heard of the "income replacement ratio" – the amount of money you will receive after retirement compared with your pre-retirement salary. Most retirement plans will feature [...]

Tax Deductions I Haven’t Used Yet

Tax deductions are always welcome Here we are 6 weeks before the dreaded tax-time of the year. Many people opt to do their taxes themselves, and many make errors like forgetting to include their Social Security number. Another common mistake is forgetting potential tax deductions. Take a look at this list of the most overlooked [...]

Get Your Money Out: Here Goes Oil Again

Why are we not surprised? With turmoil raging from one end of the Middle East to the other and with the Middle East the world’s oil barrel, it is a miracle that the oil price has not gone through the roof. But now it seems that the controls that usually keep the oil price stable [...]

How would you like to be money-free?

Meaning you don’t have to earn any longer It’s an age-old dream: to be independent of money. Not to have to worry about working. Not to have to worry whether you will earn enough to get you through the month. Not worrying about being fired. Well, my old friend Sid has done it. He is [...]

A Survivor’s Guide for the Perplexed Supermarket Shopper

How to fight the supermarket conspiracy The combination of products, temperature, aroma, background music, and décor of your supermarket is not coincidental. It is all part of the conspiracy to distract and hypnotize you to waste as much money as possible. Dangerous For decades now, leading researchers and marketers have devoted their professional lives [...]

Life in the Web

How to earn in Cyberspace I livein the Web. I moved here about ten years ago when the engineering company I was managing closed down in the wake of the Dot Com collapse. It was a smooth transition from temporary to permanent residence. Inside the Web, a major city out here in Cyberspace, I have [...]

What’s The Connection between Skyscrapers and Economic Turmoil?

“Once I built a tower up to the sun, brick and rivet and lime. Once I built a tower, now it’s done. Brother, can you spare a dime?” The Empire State Building was completed in 1931, the same year “Yip” Harburg wrote this lyric. The song grew to become an anthem to unemployed American builders [...]

Hey, I’m Working an Extra Day for the Same Salary This Month! Not Fair!

Everything you wanted to know about February 29th February has 29 days since 2012 is a leap year. Leap Years are needed to keep our calendar in alignment with the Earth’s revolutions around the sun. It takes the Earth approximately 365.242199 days to circle once around the Sun. If we didn’t add the day on [...]

You Were Probably a Stamp Collector As Well

Remember what stamp collecting was like back in the 60’s? Back in the sixties collecting stamps was all the rage. There were articles in the newspapers and every city had stamp dealers. Most of the collectors did it for the hobby while others thought about future values. 50 years later I’m sitting with a cupboard [...]

You Are A Facebook User, Right?

So where were you on Day 1? To my everlasting disappointment I regret a missed opportunity. I was junior clerk in an engineering office downtown. Next door was a small insurance company. One of the clerks working there was a neighbor of mine in the street where I lived out in the suburbs. He was [...]

I’m Checking My Diving Equipment This Weekend

Anyone interested in a diving expedition to Italy in March? In case you missed it, there’s a fortune lurking and waiting to be lifted out of the sea off the coast of Italy. It’s in a safe place, it’s in shallow water and there are no sharks. All you will have to do is avoid [...]

The Partners’ Meeting Took Place This Morning

How much do I hate the IRS? This much! It’s been a torrid morning and it’s left me in a ratty mood. If I had staff working in my office I would fire everyone right now! However, mine is a one-man writing practice. It’s kept pretty busy, or as busy as I want it to [...]

Can I Raid My Own Retirement Fund To Raise Cash For An Emergency?

I’m more than short and my car just died I need money desperately. My small engineering practice, meaning me, has been having a hard time finding work. Then I was offered a construction supervision job in the next town. It means I have to be on the site about 3 times a week. The money [...]

Lawyer Withdraws $7.5 Million Dollar Lottery Claim

A New York attorney’s decision to withdraw his claim on a multimillion dollar Iowa Lottery prize doesn’t put to rest officials’ questions about how he obtained the ticket. Crawford Shaw, of Bedford, N.Y., withdrew his claim Thursday on a multimillion dollar Iowa Lottery prize just as mysteriously as he has made it, saying through a [...]

The Amazing Apple

Apple sold 37 million iPhones and 15.4 million iPads in its first quarter, ended Dec. 31. Apple is truly an amazing story of our own times. A man, Steve Jobs, had a vision. So what, you say, we all have visions. But Steve Jobs had something that few of us have, the sheer tenacity, dedication [...]

They Get You by the Teeth

Lack of dental coverage sends patients running to ER for pain relief While government-managed health care programs such as Medicaid pay for emergency room visits for adults seeking temporary relief from toothaches and other dental emergencies, coverage of outpatient dentist office treatment for those problems varies from state to state, according to a 2011 federal [...]

New Watchdog Agency Reviewing Payday Lending

Payday lending, an industry that brings in some $7 billion a year in fees nationwide The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said testimony from the session in Birmingham would help guide the development of future regulations. Recently appointed Director Richard Cordray said the bureau recognizes the need for short-term loans, but the lending needs to help [...]

National Anti-Payday Lending Campaign on the Way

Campaign hopes to free one million Blacks from debt Rev. Dr. DeForest Soaries, senior pastor of the 7,000 member First Baptist Church of Lincoln Garden in Somerset, NJ is launching a national effort against one of the most predatory lending products: payday loans. This church-based movement was inspired by hundreds of contacts and phone calls [...]

Once Ireland’s Richest Man, Sean Quinn Declares Bankruptcy

Debts Exceed $2.7 Billion Sean Quinn, once rated Ireland’s richest person was declared bankrupt Monday as a bank pursues him for debts exceeding $2.7 billion. Quinn’s lawyers withdrew his opposition to a Republic of Ireland bankruptcy order sought by the former Anglo Irish Bank, the reckless lender at the center of Ireland’s calamitous property crash. [...]

Identity Theft Lands Businessman in Court

Alleged victim loses everything The trial starts Thursday of a down-on-his-luck businessman Norman Glass, who stole another man’s identity and made millions selling his victim’s assets to unsuspecting buyers. Get-rich-quick scheme About six months ago Glass cooked up a get-rich-quick scheme after hearing about an American living in the UK, who owned a building [...]

Hey, I paid for my ticket! I want my money back!

How do you mean he turned left instead of right? Hundreds of telephones must be ringing in deserted offices around the world and in Italy today. The phones in insurance companies are unmanned on Saturdays and calling on Sunday won’t do any good either. Can you imagine the chaos that has already started and will [...]

Stop Fooling Around With Beers And Buy Something Special To Drink!

How to get rid of your excess money Johnnie Walker Blue Label Blended Scotch Whiskey Specially blended to recreate the authentic character and taste of some of the earliest whisky blends created in the 19th century, giving it a rich, peaty taste combined with a smooth, distinctly malty flavor. Every bottle is serial numbered [...]

My Disappearing Shopping Fund

My money tree is bare and the there are no new buds I have suffered a dramatic change. I have had to move from “spending” to “not spending”. I built my personal financial system carefully over years and years of spending money, sometimes cautiously, sometimes rashly and sometimes wildly. At all times I planned, saved [...]

No Article Today – Gone Fishing!

With 800 Pound Tuna Running Who Wants To Stay In And Work? I am sure that even the editor of this website will understand my sentiments. Did you read this Bluefin Tuna article in the weekend paper? If you did, I’m sure you’re headed for the ocean with an extra heavy-duty rod and reel, despite [...]

U.S. Life Expectancy at an All–time High

Make sure you have enough money! The good news is that life expectancy in the US is the highest it has ever been. The bad news is that many of us will run out of money before we die. The immediate effect on every American is that you should rush off and check if you [...]

If You Are Spending So Much Already, Spend a Little Extra

If it’s worth taking with its worth insuring Read this and think again about paying for insurance when you are in doubt about it. We heard an awful money story yesterday. Our neighbors and good friends, Joan and Alec, decided to go on a romantic ‘once in a lifetime’ holiday. It also coincided with a [...]

CAUGHT FOR STEALING PAYDAY LOANS

Woman who headed Dwelling House scandal gets 12 1/2 years This 44 year old woman, Elexa Manos-Becton, has spent her adult life stealing and getting token punishments. Today, finally, the woman who found an accounting glitch and terminally undermined Dwelling House Savings & Loan was sentenced to 12 1/2 years in prison for bank fraud [...]

iPhone, jPhone, kPhone, and all the way to zPhone

They are pouring out of China We all knew it would happen so why are we surprised to hear that there are iPhone copies? These copies are pouring out of China at a fraction of the price. Beware, they are expected to work fractionally compared to the real thing. An iPhone is an expensive item. [...]

The 3 Certainties in Life: Death, Taxes and Bank Charges

How to save on banking costs Whatever you do in or with the bank costs you money, from talking to a teller to withdrawing a large amount of cash. Agreed they are all petty charges but add them up and you will see the big picture. Even getting your statement printed on a sheet of [...]

The Titanic Is Back

This time it’s a money-raising voyage I watched a rerun of the Titanic movie on the TV the other evening. I was devastated at the portrayal of the horrific disaster which resulted in the deaths of 1,517 people. This has to be one of the most unnecessary tragedies in history. And the fascinating and horrific [...]

Cops: Man Tried To Use $1M Bill at NC Walmart

Do you have change for a million-dollar bill? Police say a North Carolina man insisted his million-dollar note was real when he was buying $476 worth of items at a Walmart. Investigators told the Winston-Salem Journal that 53-year-old Michael Fuller tried to buy a vacuum cleaner, a microwave oven and other items. Store employees [...]

Here’s My Financial Plan For 2012

This is going to be my ‘rainy-day’ day year Ever since that recession started back in 2008 causing the values of securities tied to U.S. real estate pricing to crash, damaging financial institutions globally and sinking my little portfolio into the mud, I have been living frugally, rather like Old Scrooge. First I stopped spending [...]

Some Intrastate Online Gambling May Be Going Legal

Online poker may be back! Legal experts say that a new opinion from the Justice Department opens the door for states to allow various forms of online gambling operated by lotteries and other gambling interests. The country gains Proponents of legalized online gambling say the online gambling industry could provide new sources of revenue [...]

Looks Like We’ll Have To Save Money In 2012 As Well…

Stay away from grocery brands You don’t have to give up on all your favorite grocery brands and go totally generic. Learn how to use coupons so you can buy your favorite name-brand items for pennies on the dollar by combining coupons with sales. Base your purchases on price rather than brand and you will [...]

Multi-Million Man Mel Gibson Divorced!

Now Worth only $425 million Although most of the financial arrangements are not finalized until well after the divorce takes place, there is always speculation when a high net worth divorce is on the horizon. Remember, not so far back when Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren went through their highly-public divorce? The final settlement [...]

I Am Determined To Become An Old Master!

Using one’s talents to make money This has to be the most logical approach. You don’t have to study, you don’t have to buy knowledge from anyone else, you just get in these and do it all by yourself. It’s a simple money-making strategy. You put your own talents out to work for you! [...]

All You Need Is One Great Idea!

A few months hard work could set you up forever… Come up with a crazy idea and find enough crazy people to sell it to and you’re made! But it may work only in America, where the irreverent, tacky and politically incorrect is making millions for at least one business. Carson Home Accents, a 41-year-old, [...]

Me and My Financial Adviser

A third of adults say that running out of money is their top retirement concern I am contemplating retirement. I have done my homework ten times over until I am satisfied that I can afford to retire. I have all my numbers on half a dozen spreadsheets so I went to the bank, with the [...]

Welcome Home From the War, Men

One war may be over but the battle may be just beginning for returning vets War is hell, but coming home from the battlefield may be worse. American forces who survived their tours of duty in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere are returning home to a faltering economy, poor job prospects, questionable education and job-training opportunities. [...]

Happy birthday WWW!

It’s hard to believe that you’re already 21 years old The Internet made small starts in the 1950s and 1960s with the development of computers. It started with communication between mainframe computers and terminals and then expanded to connections between computers and then early research into packet switching. Internet History For most people, use [...]

Surviving Christmas

Christmas is stressful, and when things go wrong, they can go terribly wrong Christmas may have warm and fuzzy associations of tinsel, carols and family, but for those who put it all together, it can mean a month of frenetic running around, planning, shopping, cooking and, not least, socializing with family, friends and colleagues. [...]

Sometimes Too Much (Money) Can Be Unhealthy

Armed gang steals millions from Dubai royal family When you read this you will understand how lucky you are not having too much money and therefore not a target for the bad guys. Members of an armed gang are on trial after being charged with stealing millions from the Dubai royal family. The $3,100,000 they [...]

Did I Save Enough?

I’m headed for the retirement home with limited money On the one hand I’m proud of myself – I saved enough to afford to move into a retirement home. On the other hand I feel a bit ashamed – I won’t have much money left after I have paid for my unit at the retirement [...]

This Cat Doesn’t Want a Payday Loan

Woman Leaves $13M Fortune to Pet Cat A 4-year-old stray cat that was rescued from the streets of Rome has inherited a $13 million fortune from its owner, the wealthy widow of an Italian property tycoon. Maria Assunta left the fortune to her beloved kitty Tommaso when she died two weeks ago… Tommaso the [...]