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Don't Be Fooled By DOW 13,000 | #stocks #investing #economy

If we take away FED bond buying, the payroll tax cut, unemployment extensions, the Bush tax cuts, and spending exceeding income over the holiday season, what would we have????

The analysis below doesn't even take into account the recent increases in gas and beef prices!

 

50+ Frugal Tips

I put all my quick tips in one post. Should save you about $500 to $800 dollars per year. Share the wealth I've given you by downloading my seminars or joining any of my programs (swagbucks, youdata, sponsored tweets, inbox dollars, or Zecco) in the sidebar. Happy savings!

• Don't use the canned air method to clean keyboards - it's expensive. Plug in your hairdryer and blast away.
• Candles last longer if you freeze them prior to burning
• For headaches, take a lime, cut it in half, and rub it on your forehead
• Got an itchy mosquito bite, try rubbing soap on it
• Use scotch tape to pull out a splinter
• Wrap celery in aluminum foil then refrigerate. It will last for weeks.
• Cut you S.O.S. pads in half – no more rusty, smelly pads
• To get a little more life out of worn out soles, try filling in the cracks and holes with hot glue.
• Covering a pot with a lid reduces cooking time and energy use. For extra energy savings, be sure to match the pot size to the burner size.
• If you’re shopping for appliances, check with the salesperson to see if there are any back room bargains. Sometimes a stove has a slight dent or a washing machine is scratched.
• Use GoDaddy to register a domain name (web site).
• Buy a battery tester and test “dead” batteries before tossing – lots of times its just one “dead” battery causing the trouble
• When your printer says your ink is low, pull out your cartridge and shake it to get another few days out of it
• White vinegar and bleach are great cleaners
• Drying your disposable razors (blades) extends their life – just use a towel
• Why keep a porch light on for hours when you can buy a battery powered push light  and use rechargeable batteries?
• Use a faraday flashlight
• Increasing the deductibles on auto and home insurance can save hundreds of dollars on premiums.
• Buy prescription eyeglasses at zennioptical
• To make your own miniature greenhouse, take an old egg carton; fill the individual sections with soil and seeds. Cover the top with a piece of plastic wrap. Before you know it, you will have the makings of a beautiful garden.
• Wad up some tinfoil and use it in your dryer instead of chemical coated sheets to get rid of static cling
• Grow your hair long for Locks of Love - a nonprofit organization that makes wigs for children who've lost their hair.
• "Feeder goldfish" cost less than 10 cents. Their food is around a $1 and lasts many months. One can use any type of glass bowl or antique canning jar to keep them in.
• Use honey for lip balm before you go to bed.
• Use un-waxed, unflavored floss to slice any soft cheeses, layer cakes, or homemade cinnamon buns from a roll.
• Bring your own water bottle everywhere. Refill the water bottle at water fountains.
• Camping Cooler - buy bottled water and freeze enough to fill your cooler. You won’t have to buy ice until four or five days into the event (when everyone else is making almost daily ice runs)
• Take produce into your office and have a "Take Some and Leave a Quarter" cup next to them. Use proceeds to buy plants for next year.
• If the A/C goes out in your car, try the $20 can of recharge from an auto parts
• Clean your windshield wipers with vinegar to extend the life of them
• Always stop at a local pawnshop when considering a new tool purchase, bicycles, vacuum cleaners, etc
• Slip those plastic grocery bags over your shoes when entering your garden, tie at the ankle. Keeps shoes nice and clean
• Bigger isn’t always better, buy only what you need if it is a perishable product
• Don’t bring the children shopping. You will accomplish the task quicker; you’ll avoid spending extra on stuff “seen on TV”.
• Shop secondhand stores for toys
• Some fifteen states offer tax-free days or tax-free weekends, with most coming in August. That’s an automatic savings of at least five percent in most cases, so plan accordingly.
• Consolidate your student loan.
• Don’t use another bank’s ATM
• Kick the (fill in the blank) habit. If you stop using alcohol, tobacco, and junk food, you’ll save thousands of $$$ over your lifetime and probably live longer and healthier!
• Use a voltmeter to check all batteries and make sure they are “dead”.
• For cash gifts, consider a payment plan like 10 checks for $10 with each dated a different month.
• Ask you dentist, doctor, and hair stylist for their old magazines – read recipes, cut out coupons – then recycle them
• Buy used eyeglass frames at thrift shops and then have new lenses made for you prescription
• Have your kids make a homemade kite
• Use local police auctions or Internet-based ones to get bikes, jewelry, cars, etc.
• For urban dwellers taking public transportation, ask your employer for a transit check, a subsidy employers get for alleviating gridlock
• Use Styrofoam peanuts to re-fill a beanbag chair
• Place wanted signs (instead of for sale signs) on bulletin boards for furniture, cars, and other big ticket items
• Turn empty matchbooks into a portable sewing kit
• Make you windshield wipers last for one more season by lightly sanding the rubber edge with sandpaper
• Your bed mattress will last longer if you “spin in the spring, flip in the fall”
• Bread tabs can be used to mark electrical cords at the outlet/power strip
• Remove shelves from a dead refrigerator and mount shelves in the garage/basement
• Use a wine cork to replace missing pot handles – attach with a screw
• A broccoli style rubber band makes a great jar opener
• Bubble wrap is great cushioning for people who must stand while on the job
• Use garlic powder to keep the varmints out, It’s a wonderful natural plant protector
• Ask elderly relatives and neighbors who are unable to drive if they need a lift to the supermarket – they’ll offer to pay for your gas
• Check rent – to – own stores for cosmetically damaged or otherwise non rentable items
• Call area attractions and ask if they have any “free to the public” events scheduled or regular “free admittance” times 
• If you re a senior citizen, always ask about senior discount everywhere you travel, shop, eat, or lodge!
• Check with local high schools that have shop classes. Often they sell wood scraps left over from student projects
• Inquire with dry cleaners about left items for sale
• Inquire about abandoned TVs, VCRs, Stereos, and DVD players at local repair shops 
• Use mesh bags (the kind turkeys/onions/potatoes are packed in) as scouring pads
• To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge, add an empty paper towel roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.
• Cut old bread bags in half and use the bottom half as sandwich bags
• Old hangers make good pegboard hooks
• If an envelope is over one ounce but under 2, you don’t need 2 first class stamps, have it weighed for exact postage
• Your dog will love “dead tennis balls” left at public tennis courts
• Serrated edges from aluminum foil boxes (or a wax paper boxes) can be made into picture frame hangers
• Save you old pickle jars and the liquid inside. Slice up cucumbers and re-pack. In four days – pickles!
• Put a teaspoon or two of baking soda into the shoes before you wear them. Great odor eliminator
• Use 100% cornstarch instead of Baby Powder
• Change your own motor oil
• Cut old bread bags in half and use the bottom half as sandwich bags

 

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5 Ways To Cut Your Cable Bill

1. Call your cable company to ask about both bare Internet, and Internet plus the cheapest cable TV service.  The FCC requires them to have a basic tier of cable service that runs about $12/mo but you usually have to explicitly ask about it. I have WOW and its bare bones cable service is called Limited Basic Service
2. Get shows directly from the network.  NBC Video Rewind |  CBS Innertube
3. Sign up for hulu or use joost
4. Hook up an old fashioned antennae and get HDTV for free
5. Watch classic TV shows on YouTube.

 

A Bucket A Day Saves $36

I'm a big believer in rain water harvesting. But admittedly, we are not quite there yet. So I kept thinking of ways to conserve water and save on the bill.

Before we shower, we take a bucket, turn on the water, and fill the bucket as we wait for hot water. We then use this water for washing dishes and filling the humidifier. This saves us about $3 a month! 

 

Credit Scores Demystified #video

Water Saving Techniques

Watering can

If you’re interested in harvesting rain water, you don’t actually need to purchase a rain barrel. Use what you have on hand - buckets, coolers, plastic or rubber tubs, and even a child’s old wading pool.

Instead of saving for a rainy day, let the rainy day save for you.

Retail Investors Whipsawed by Changing Rules of the Game

We all have seen the real estate bubble unfold because banks, brokers, buyers, regulators, and Wall Street all looked a blind eye. Less conspicuous, but just as damaging, was the greatest financial crime in history. Today I will attempt to document how governments, regulators, brokerage firms, and foreign banks are crushing the retail investor.

• Deutsche Bank is liquidating the PowerShares DB Crude Oil Double Long ETN (DXO). Deutsche Bank said: “Limitations imposed by the exchange on which Deutsche Bank manages the exposure of the Notes have resulted in a “regulatory event” as defined in the terms of the Notes, which has caused Deutsche Bank to redeem the Notes.”
• In an effort to stem the effect that the seemingly inevitable regulation will have on futures-based commodity funds, multiple ETF issuers have halted share creation. Thus, these securities trade at huge premiums to the underlying commodity (market distortions).
• FINRA announced that it would be increasing margin requirements for leveraged ETFs as of Dec. 1. These changes will require margin for leveraged funds to be  "commensurate" with the degree to which they are leveraged. FINRA's warning set off a domino effect as firms like Edward Jones, Ameriprise, and UBS ceased selling leveraged funds to investors.
• Switzerland’s oldest bank, is telling wealthy clients to sell their U.S. assets, or switch banks, because of concerns new rules will saddle investors with tax obligations in the USA. U.S. proposals to extend reporting requirements for banks whose clients buy American stocks and bonds coupled with estate tax liabilities have put Switzerland’s traditional bank secrecy at risk.
• Canada's Royalty Trusts are similar to U.S. master limited partnerships in that they generally pay out a substantial portion of their cash flow in the form of monthly distributions. The Canadian government wants a piece of that. In 2001, in what has come to be known as the "Halloween Surprise" for its announcement on October 31st, 2006, these trusts will have to change their structure and their payouts or face huge tax consequences.

Stop The Carbon Tax

While Al Gore, Bono, and the United Nations want to place a carbon tax on us, they remain silent about these alternatives:

1. GOOGLE "city sues man for cancelling trash service"
2. New home construction should use rain harvesting
3. Re-build communities so churches, schools, and shopping are within walking distance
4. Have governments’ do more than symbolic efforts
5. Stop Saturday mail delivery
6. Put timers on streetlights
7. Automate toilet flushing in public areas (stadiums where 100,000 fans flush toilets)
8. Use public service announcements and direct mail to convince businesses to turn off computers and fluorescent lights at the end of the day
9. Go back to local organic farming
10. Find alternatives to all the petroleum based products we use (Ammonia, Anesthetics, Antihistamines, Artificial limbs, Artificial Turf…Lip Stick, Milk Jugs, Nail Polish, Oil Filters, Pantyhose, Perfume, Petroleum Jelly, Rubber Cement, Rubbing Alcohol, Shampoo, Shaving Cream, Shoes, Toothpaste, Trash Bags, Upholstery, Vitamin Capsules, Yarn)

Earthlights

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The Natural Gas Trade Turns To Poisin Gas! #investing #fraud

I have been a big fan of using natural gas for transportation and electricity generation. Unfortunately I was buying the commodity thru stock ticker GAZ when it was near $8 and has since dropped like a rock.

My strategy was to sell out of the money covered call options and wait for the move up. The move up has occured thanks to MARKET MANIPULATION!

First, the real value (Net Asset Value) of GAZ on 2/16  was $3.05. Yesterday it closed at $4.41. Why was it selling at a premium? The managers of GAZ  (iPath) have halted share creation in order to avoid bumping against limits set by regulators like the Commodities Futures Trading Commission. Too much speculative demand w/o enough supply.

Second, the SEC is allowing naked shorting on this security. Sellers don't have to deliver any supply of this product even though it is collateral!

The Power Stuctures Keep You Poor #video

 

 

 

 

Products Made To Fall Apart. The Cost of Walmart!

At our newly opened Slave Mart, I saw shoes for $4.99. So when they wear out in a few months, you buy new ones!

Cheapness -- and the decline in durability that has accompanied it -- has triggered an astonishing increase in the amount of clothing we buy. In the mid-1990s, the average American bought 28 items of clothing a year. Today, we buy 59 items. We also throw away an average of 83 pounds of textiles per person, mostly discarded apparel, each year. That's four times as much as we did in 1980.

Since 1995, the number of toasters and other small electro-thermal appliances sold in the U.S. each year increased from 188 million to 279 million. We buy more than 2 billion bath towels a year, up from 1.4 billion in 1994.

In a paper [PDF] that came out last year, three business professors illustrate how inducing manufacturers to cut product quality enhances Walmart's competitive position. "Because lower quality products are usually cheaper to produce, it is often argued that discount retailers induce lower quality in order to drive down prices. Our model suggests, however, that the competitive and bargaining position effects provide incentives to induce lower quality regardless of changes in production costs," the authors write.

Walmart is also a master at getting shoppers to buy more than they came for. It employs all of the techniques that have been shown to spur "unplanned buying," according to a recent study [PDF] in the Journal of Marketing. The study found that large stores that promote the concept of one-stop shopping and can only be reached by car generate the most impulse buys. Marketing messages that evoke abstract shopping goals are also highly effective at inducing people to put more stuff in their carts.

According to the study, the least amount of unplanned buying occurs when a shopping trip involves multiple stores, each with a specific product focus, and the customer arrives on foot or by mass transit -- in other words, when you shop at small neighborhood and downtown retailers.

You get your education, work, but nothing every changes #video

 

 

 

Most New Businesses Fail

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 44 percent of new establishments were still in existence 4 years after their birth. Dun and Bradstreet surveys show that 60 percent of businesses fail in their first five years.

So how do you guarantee success? Start a business with built in downside controls. This is what practical entrepreneurship is all about. Diversify your revenue streams, spend the most time on marketing, get paid in cash where you can, and set realistic goals!

Thrive in a Jobless Economy

What Does Well in a Bad Economy?

Stockpiling. When the stock market drops, orders surge for freeze-dried food, survival kits and emergency supplies, says Nitro-Pak president Harry Weyandt. One best seller: a $3,375 food reserve that feeds four people for three months.

Gardening. Sales of vegetable seeds and transplants are up 30% from 2008 at W. Atlee Burpee, the USA's largest seed company. The National Gardening Association says 7 million more households will grow food this year than in 2008 — a 19% rise. A book on building root cellars is the top seller at Johnny's Selected Seeds in Winslow, Maine, supervisor Joann Matuzas says.

Canning. Jarden Corp. says sales of its Ball and Kerr canning and preserving products are up more than 30% from 2008. Sonya Staffan, owner of The Jam and Jelly Lady commercial cannery in Lebanon, Ohio, is offering twice as many classes this year.

Sewing. More people are learning to sew so they can mend clothes and make home décor, says Rachel Cohen, spokeswoman for SVP Worldwide, owner of sewing-products makers Singer and Husqvarna Viking.

Relocating. Steve Saltman, general manager of LandAndFarm.com, a national real estate company, says more customers want to "live simply in a less-expensive place." Jonathan Rawles of SurvivalRealty.com says more people moving to rural areas "are specifically worried about economic and social instability."

In urban areas, thrift stores and Goodwill do well. Donations are down, but buyers are coming in droves.

Cheapo Food Tips That Save You Hundreds!!!!

• Eat in more often and cook from scratch as often as possible
• Avoid convenience foods like fast food and prepackaged foods
• See if the store brand meets your needs
• Look for the “dented can” shopping cart as soon as you enter the store
• Bring your own coffee and soda to work rather than buy from a vending machine.
• Use the pricebook
• Buy in bulk when the price book tells you to
• Buy your foil, wax paper, plastic wrap from restaurant supply stores
• Plant a garden
• Use food dehydrators. Here are plans to build your own food dehydrator
• If you can’t do a garden. Check out farm stands, farmers markets, and “pick your own” farms
• Order water at a restaurant instead of soft drinks, coffee, tea or alcohol
• Shop Aldi and other no frills grocery stores
• Become a vegan
• When inside a supermarket, ask the deli manager what time they mark down food items at night 
• Buy chuck roasts. Cook and shred the meat for soups, stews, and BBQ beef
• Subscribe to the 99 cent chef blog
• Utilize freezer meals

 

 

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