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Wal-Mart (WMT) sales were down for the first time in 10 years. Read the New York Times article describing the fallout.
Written by Nagel on November 30th, 2006 with no comments.
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For about a year-and-a-half my wife and I had a joint savings account with ING Direct online. ING has a very competitive interest rate for a savings account and you can easily transfer money from a checking account at another bank to savings account at ING. These facts along with their superior customer service convinced us to stay.
While I still do like ING very much I have decided to move our savings account to E-LOAN online. Their current APR is over one percent higher than ING’s so it was strickly a money decision. Since I will be handling the account the customer service will not be as big of an issue if E-LOAN’s does not compare well to ING in that category. However, if customer service is essential to you you should consider ING.
The online application process was simple and my account should be open by Friday along with my initial deposit. I will update you as I learn more about E-LOAN.
Check out this post by MyMoneyBlog–if you can get a 0% credit card he offers up a great idea.
Blueprint walks you through how to do the 0% balance transfer online.
MYMoneyBlog with more on checking and savings accounts.
Written by Nagel on November 30th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Household.
Sales of existing homes posted a tiny increase in October but the median home price fell by a record amount. Analysts forecast more price declines in coming months as the once-booming housing market undergoes a painful correction.
The National Association of Realtors announced on Tuesday that existing home sales were up 0.5 percent. This market the first increase in existing home sales after seven straight bad months. However, the median home price was $221,000 which is 3.5% under what it was in October 2005 (this is the biggest drop ever).
However, the median price for a home sold dropped to $221,000 in October, a decline of 3.5 percent from a year ago. That was the biggest year-over-year price decline on record.
Many buyers are waiting for the bottom of the market and many predict that it will continue to get worse before it gets consistently better. Many others believe that this housing decline could be the impetus for a recession for the U.S. economy.
Written by Nagel on November 29th, 2006 with no comments.
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The Ford Motor Company plans to get about $18 billion in financing. This marks another blow to the U.S. auto industry. Ford’s negative cash flow and continuing balance sheet problems will not go away soon and the $18 billion is no panacea. Ford, General Motors and Chrysler all have to compete in the world automobile market in an era of globalization and free trade where most of their competition does not have to healthcare and pension costs that the Americans do.
Since the 1970s the manufacturing industry in the U.S. has become almost nil and the automobile industry’s issues are just another reminder. One way to help make U.S. automakers more competitive is not a Chrysler-like bailout, but having the federal government make some fundamental changes to our healthcare and pension systems. If the government could come to some solution for these country-wide issues it might bailout Ford, GM, etc. as well as many other companies that face the same issues our auto industry deal with daily.
Ford lost $7 billion during the first nine months of 2006 and has said it won’t return to profitability until 2009. I would say that is wishful thinking unless their pension plans are reworked and healthcare becomes universal in America. Bill Ford Jr. should be screaming to everyone that will listen that universal healthcare and reformed pensions are the way to save America’s failing industries.
Written by Nagel on November 28th, 2006 with no comments.
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The store credit card is usually offered up with a temping teaser to get you to sign up. Sometimes it is 20% off your first purchase or 0% financing for 12 months. However, you need to beware of store credit cards.
1) They hurt your credit score. Do not open a store credit card before you want to buy a car or a home.
2) If you get a good financing deal in the credit card teaser and you do not pay back the balance before that special financing window is over you will be in for a rude awakening when you are paying a 22% interest rate back-dated to the time of purchase.
3) Store credit cards always have a high APR so you cannot carry a balance on them.
Now if you have good credit and have a home and car and plenty of emergency funds then it can be ok to get that Best Buy card or Kohl’s card. Just understand that they are not like typical credit cards.
Written by Nagel on November 27th, 2006 with no comments.
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I am not going to recommend buying salt stocks because I know little about this, but I think Morningstar’s article about salt is interesting.
It goes to show that if you can aquire knowledge about something specific like salt you can be ahead of the game because issues like this are rarely covered on Wall Street, financial magazines or newspapers. Investing your money in what you know is always a good idea because understanding an indusr=try, or commodity in this case, is half the battle in being successful at investing.
Written by Nagel on November 24th, 2006 with no comments.
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The Holiday Season in the United States is when many Americans go a little overboard with their holiday spirit. It is not unusual for people to spend over $1,000 on Holiday gifts. That is fine if you can afford to spend $1,000 on gifts, but if you cannot you need to be realistic about how much you can afford.
Some methods to help you out of the bind of holiday debt can be helpful. Try to convince your family to do a “Secret Santa” this year so you only have to buy one gift for that part of your family. Also, it is great to get kids what they want for presents come holiday time, so do so, but look for deals. Kids do not know, nor care, how much you spent on them. So be creative. Be thoughtful in your gift giving. Many people will appreciate a gift with special meaning than a gift card to Home Depot. These gifts are not necessarily expensive and can often be dirt cheap. So you are giving to others and yourself.
Written by Nagel on November 23rd, 2006 with no comments.
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Oil is up over $60, Wall Street was slow on Tuesday with little economic news and Black Friday is nearly upon us (shopping Black Friday, not Wall Street Black Friday). These are not all necessarily correlated in any way, but that is the economic news for the day. Trading of stocks is typically low before Thanksgiving and even slower on the half-day the stock market takes on the Friday following Thanksgiving.
Remember the 30-day wash rule. If you have stock that are down now is the time to harvest that loss. It can be used as a loss on your tax return for 2006 (up to $3,000 each year and it can be rolled over from previous years). Just sell a stock that is negative for you and wait 30 days. After the 30 days you are allowed to buy that stock back and still take the loss on it for this year’s tax return.
Written by Nagel on November 22nd, 2006 with no comments.
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At the end of each stock market day news reporters will give you the results of the Dow 30 stocks. You probably have wondered what exactly does the Dow Jones Industrial Index consist of?
The list of companies that are the Dow 30 stocks are companies you will recognize. The Dow Jones Industrial is used by most to measure the stock market and economy in the United States.
The Dow 30 stocks are used as a stock market barometer, but I would suggest to use the S & P 500 as your measuring stick. The Dow 30 stocks are only 30 large cap companies while the S & P 500 is a much broader index that looks at 500 companies and creates a better picture of the overall stock market.
So ignore the news reports of the Dow 30 stocks and look for the S & P 500 to guide your thoughts on the overall stock market condition.
Written by Nagel on November 21st, 2006 with no comments.
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Wednesday the Fed released minutes from the FOMC meeting detailing that housing activity would continue to pull down on economic growth for the next 3+ quarters,. Investors are trying to determine how much of an effect this fact will have on the U.S. economy as a whole and consumer spending since the start of holiday shopping is just around the corner. The U.S. Commerce Department revealed that Housing Starts were down 14.6% in October to 1.49 mln units. This was more than exopected and was the lowest level since July 2000. Building Permits did no better and went down 6.3% to its lowest level since December 1997.
The Fed is trying to produce a soft landing for the housing market so some of these numbers are expected, but somewhat more alarming than hoped.
Written by Nagel on November 19th, 2006 with no comments.
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