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Fixing the money thing!

We have tackled many topics regarding your personal finances, however it’s time we tackled the pending financial disaster in America.

Today the stock market fell once again. Sound familiar?

Remember 2000 to 2003?

The stock market has fallen more than 2000 points since the first of the year, Is this just another minor market correction?

Why are the cost of goods going up at an alarming rate? Why are there so many forclosures on new homes? Why with so little unemployment are we seeing the kind of economic indicators we saw during the Carter administration? Should I be alarmed? What can I do to protect myself from a financial disaster if one should occur.

Doug intends to tackle these issues in this blog.

Lets look at some of the factors that have contributed to the unsettling times we are facing.

High national debt,the highest in history. High personal debt, also the highest in history. The blog host shows stastistics on his website that are alarming regarding personal debt and national debt.

Someone has to pay the piper.

Home forclosures are at a national record. In my sons 4 year old new home subdivision 1 out of every 5 houses is abandoned, in forclosure or severely behind on their payments.

Why?

Builders, bankers, realtors and their lobbies influenced the Government to modify lending rules several years ago to keep the housing boom going. The lenders were able to get people approved for loans that 2 0r 3 years earlier they would not have approved.

Buyers with considerable credit challenges were approved and the builders and realtors were thrilled. They could now get people in homes that they would not have qualified for before.

The problem comes in that the buyers were already in excessive debt and we just added hundreds of thousands to the burden. When you buy a new home the real estate taxes are based on the LAND only the first tax year.The second year the payment including taxes and insurance went up considerably. The third year,the loans were not fixed interest and the interest went up and so did the payment.

Buyers who were struggling to make the payment initially now were unable to make them at all.Thus forclosures! In many new home subdivisions people are just walking away from the home in the middle if the night.

The housing and mortgage industries are in a panic.The stock market is affected and so on and so forth.

Oh what tangled webs we weave in an effort to deceive!

THE STOCK MARKET

In 1960 only 2% of Americans owned stocks.

Then came the Mutual fund!

Today most Americans have Mutual funds through employer retirement plans like 401k’s, 403b’s, 457’s, IRA’s, and Roth IRA’s.

What does that mean?

The stock market is vastly overinflated.

Before mutual funds, the only people who owned stocks were people of means who were able to pay someone to watch, move, buy and sell on their behalf continuously.

Today the American people have been lied to by the brokers and agents who sell these mutual funds at big commissions and continued (Trail commissions ) even when the market goes down!

When the experts sell the mutual fund, owners are told to buy because the market is so good. When the market is low and the experts know what and when to buy the mutual fund brokers say again, buy now because the funds are a good value.

In other words, no matter what is happening they are giving you the exact same advice.

Sound a bit suspicious to you?

When in 2000 -2003 the market began it’s largest loss in history. The advice was exactly the same. It will come back, don’t worry!

Well, they were right! The market did come back. Over all, the average holder of mutual funds and stocks had vertually NO GAIN for 7 years!

How often can you afford those kind of setbacks?

Now, with the largest one week loss in the history of the stock market earlier this year and continued losses for thr first 6 months what do you suppose the advice of the mutual fund dealer is? Same old, Same old!

Why are we not suprised? They don’t want to give up those hefty commissions.

The stock market is more volatile than ever in it’s history and we predict a much longer and much larger loss than in 2000 -2003 over the next several years.

Can you afford it again?

What then should we do?

Lets start by using some of the common sense that our Government, Realtors, Builders , Bankers and Investment brokers seemed to have left on the Table of the BIG COMMISSION!

Start by developing an aggressive strategy to pay off all consumer debt!

First, make sure you have at least $2,000.00 in the savings accounts for immediate emergencies.

Then attack the debts one at a time starting with the highest intrest rate and going down.

Don’t add a little to each debt. Take all the extra money you can free up monthly and attack them one at a time!

Stop paying into retirement plans and eliminate consumer debt first.

That flies in the face of conventional wisdom due to the employers contribution.

Don’t let greed destroy you! Pay off the debt!!!

If a major economic downturn, recession or worse happens you will be on top and not at the bottom!

The choice is yours!

You can keep on doing the same thing you are doing now in whch case if the above
You can keep on doing the same thing you are doing now in whch case if the above happens you will be destroyed financially.

Or you can do something different.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.

Are you willing to bet we are wrong?

Doug’s Money Matters is a section of the VAJoe Blog to ask for quick financial tips and advice from an expert with more than 20 years experience in counseling families to live without debt and to reach there financial potential. Please leave comments on this Blog. You can learn more about the Money Matters advisor at his website. The posts and comments by JoeMoneyMatters reflect his two decades of financial counseling expereince. VAJoe.com does not endorse any financial strategies, but offers this blog as a service to its site members for discussion.

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What in the heck is going on here?

Are you watching the stock market? The Mortgage crisis? The oil situation?

We are free falling into the worst economic period since the great depression.

Think not? Consider this.

The Wall Street Journal says fuel prices could go to between $8.00 and $12.00 by years end. The Housing market that everyone thought would begin to rebound by mid summer is now predicted to continue to tumble for several more years. The world economic scene has NEVER been so vulnerable.

Iran vs Israel? Can you say WWIII? China owns everything of any value in the US and what they don’t own they are negotiating for right now.

Individual Debt is 10 times higher than just 5 years ago.

When we started in financial services 15 1/2 years ago 88% of disposable income of the average American family was dedicated to personal debt. today 135% is dedicated to debt.

How is that possible? We spend far more than we earn on average by using debt to pay for food gas utilities clothing perishable goods.

Where does that leave us?

IMPENDING DISASTER!

We coach thousands of families yearly who are average income earners with a home, 2 kids, 2 cars, both Mom and; Dad work, they feel like they are getting along alright until we do a reflective budget.

SHOCK & AWE!

They are upside down by hundreds even thousands of dollars per month.
How is it that they don’t know? They stretch the check by carrying more and more debt each month. The sad news is that if they don’t submit to some serious changes in the money management they will loose the house, go bankrupt, divorce. 78% of the families who go through this scenario divorce within 3 years.

What impact is this having on the stock market? Check your mutual funds since January.

Conservative speculators say we will see a much greater loss of value in the market this time than in 2000-2003 and it will last far longer.

What can we do? What should we do first?

STOP THE BLEEDING!!!

Do what ever you have to do to get back to better than break even and then have an aggressive strategy to eliminate debt.

STOP the contribution to the 401k, retirement plan etc, temporarily and pay down debt. That flies in the face of everything we have been taught but we must get free from the slavery created by debt.

More later.

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By Jim Spiri
June 26, 2008

Baseball is a wonderful sport. Field of Dreams is among the best movies ever made. A correlation between life on the diamond and life in the real world, has many parallels. But among the best plays ever, which happens on very rare occasions, is the triple play. As a teen, I was able to experience it only a couple of times during summer league. In the real world lately, it seems as though we are on the verge of a big time triple play. Only this is not a game.

I thought it fitting this week to call this article “Triple Play”. It’s been a busy three days around here. Just so all of you know what I’m talking about, my son and his wife became the parents of three boys on Monday the 23rd. That’s right, triplets. Jesse, Jacob and James arrived between 1018 hrs and 1022 hrs on Monday morning. They came early, but it was expected that would happen. My son, the US Army Helicopter pilot and his wife are rather beside themselves at what now is a daunting task ahead of them. But with much care, assistance from family, and lots of prayer, all will be fine. It is just a long road ahead that will be traveled one step at a time.

In other news this week….the Bush administration seemed to have upped the tempo a bit about going for its own triple play. As things heat up continually in Afghanistan, most recently due to the blazing jail house attack that freed 1100 or so “bad guys” including around 400-Taliban fighters, lots of attention has been in that direction by the media. And, just as Iraq has been being reported that immense security improvements have been made in the past year, and definitely such is the case, only last night more casualties were reported with the loss of three US Army soldiers in Mosul by IED. And still yet, another report this week told of meetings between US and Israeli officials who were said to have discussed the option of attacking Iran. Israel has recently been doing high profile maneuvers and letting the word out that it has no intention of letting Iran have nuclear capabilities. US officials are said to have been urging restraint on Israel’s part, however most observes have concluded that joint planning for such an attack is already in the works. And there you have it folks, out at first, out at second, and perhaps out at third. We’ll see.

But for the record, my job as a catcher was to cover home plate, no matter what the consequences.

What I enjoyed most about being a catcher on the field was that I had to know every possible scenario for each and every pitch that was thrown to the batter. I had to know it before it was thrown, and be prepared for whatever transpired. As I mentioned earlier, there are many parallels between baseball and real life. And herein lies the point of this writing.

I’ve never forgotten about how it was that we went into Afghanistan back in 2001, which seems like a life-time ago. It was the first time as a father I experienced having my own son sent to war. It was only a couple of months after having just lost our oldest son, a Marine. Things were still very raw. Then, in 2003, the nation saw fit to go back into Iraq and finish something that had twelve years earlier been incomplete. It was the second time as a father I saw my son off to war. And now, it’s mid 2008, and I look towards the horizon and see storm clouds brewing once again, only the target is Iran. I know once again, should the commander in chief tell my son to “saddle up”, my son would be ready in a heartbeat for his fifth deployment in the past seven years, only this time, the next generation on deck, would be awaiting his return.

It is a very difficult play, the triple play, but it can be pulled off, but not without perfect coordination and excellent timing. And remember, it is very rarely pulled off successfully , something akin to triplet boys being born naturally without using any artificial measures.

Covering home plate, the catcher must be willing to hold onto the ball and never drop it, even when some opponent is barreling around third racing to plow into the catcher as he awaits the throw from his teammates to tag the runner out before he scores. Never let the opponent score and the last line of defense is the one covering home plate. Such is the case in this global triple play that is possibly about to take place. There were lots of errors leading up to the events of 9/11. After the disaster of the twin towers, we as a nation, and rightly so, embarked upon an “easy out” on first. Come to find out, the cave dwellers weren’t so stupid as we suspected, errors were made at Tora Bora, and just when we thought the bottom of the ninth was going to end the game, we’ve all been witness to many extra innings.

There were severe errors made leading up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, at least that is what many believe these days in 2008. Then, once again, when we all thought the bottom of the 9th was in view, like the banner telling us, “Mission Accomplished”, it became clear that it had gone into extra innings.

That brings us to today.

I remember living in Australia for a few years when my kids were little. They learned the sports games down under, which I never could actually figure out completely. The closest thing to baseball was cricket. What I couldn’t stand about cricket was the fact that the game took an unbelievable amount of time to play, sometimes days, just for one game. It made no sense to me. I think I can speak for the rest of the fans covering home plate across the nation when I say, “if we’re going to another game, I hope it does not go into extra innings”.

A good catcher hones his skills by learning from all the errors made in previous games. I figure that’s one reason there’s 162 games in a professional baseball season. There is a real possibility that Iran has pushed the envelope too damn far. In many respects, I feel they’ve crossed the line way more than once. I don’t want to see extra innings anymore. I love having triplet grandsons now. And I always liked being a part of a successful triple play as a young baseball player. But if we go to war directly with Iran, even though we’ve already been fighting them in the streets of Iraq for many years, those in charge, all the way up the chain of command, better execute it perfectly this time, for if they don’t, there just may not be a next season.

I for one will cover home plate with my entire body, soul and spirit, whatever betides.

Sincerely,

Jim Spiri
Jimspiri@yahoo.com

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It’s Tuesday, so The Crawfish and his people have staged their weekly break-in to the vajoe.com blog headquarters. The website staff didn’t even realize we were there. As per usual, they have nothing to do with the comments in this column.

Senator Dodd’s on the Senate Banking Committee and somehow gets special “VIP Treatment” on a loan that saves him $77,500 over what a real citizen can get. Meanwhile, he excoriates the home loan industry including the company (Countrywide) that gave him the preferential treatment. By showing this blatant hypocrisy, he has exponentially increased his chances of being named as Obamessiah’s running mate.

John McCain has ads out now that trumpet his concern about Glo-Bull Warming over the past 5 years and how he has opposed the W Administration on this issue. Meanwhile, the actual temps have been declining for TEN years…….do the math. He’s proving again that he’s really a Democrat.

Speaking of Glo-Bull Warming, The Prophet Algoracle is in the news again. He was criticized a while back for the energy usage at his Tennessee mansion. He reacted by putting in solar panels and supposedly doing other green things to it. The results are now in. In the year since the improvements were made, his house used 213,000 kilowatt hours of energy, which is enough to power 232 average sized American homes for a month. It is also a 10% INCREASE in energy usage from the way it was before the greening. There is no word on how green his private jets have become in that same time period.

Senator Obamessiah has now proclaimed that he will not allow any increase in the lands available for oil and natural gas drilling if he is elected. On the basis of that declaration alone, he is not fit to serve in any elected office.

Zimbabwe’s dictator, Robert Mugabe, will stop at nothing to keep his power. Since he came in second in the initial election, he has had his thugs terrorize the opposition. He has had the wife of a regional opposition party brutally killed, along with a lot of others. He has declared the opposition party rallies to be treasonous. His thugs have threatened the voters. The opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, found refuge in the Dutch Embassy, after being tipped off that the security forces were on their way to arrest him. It looks like there’s gonna have to be an international armed intervention to remove Mugabe. Will the Democrats oppose it, like they opposed any action in Rwanda during THAT butchery?

Israel has agreed to a six month rearming/resupply/training period for Hamas and its terrorists. Oh, wait. They’re calling it a cease fire. My bad.

Keeping with Palestinian nutjobs, former Princeton professor Richard Falk, now a member of the UN Human Rights Council charged with investigating Israeli violations of civil rights in Palestinian territories (notice how the UN will never do anything about muslim terrorists, but will gladly investigate Israel for defending herself), is now demanding an investigation by the UN on the 9-11 attacks and the destruction of the WTC towers, saying that it was all an inside job by the USA. The Crawfish says that he’s an idiot, but the impending destruction of the UN building might be done by Americans. (insert sound of vajoe.com editor smacking The Crawfish upside the head here!)

A federal judge in the N’awlins area, Judge Thomas Porteous, is facing possible impeachment because of a few no-no’s he committed, such as fraud involved with the debt that got him into bankruptcy problems, making false statements in his personal bankruptcy proceedings, and accepting gifts from lawyers who had cases coming up in his court. Imagine that. A Clinton appointee who is facing impeachment with lying under oath as one of the possible charges. If it had been lying about sex, he’d be being praised by all of the Dim-ocrat Party and the media.

On the subject of Clinton appointees, his former Navy Secretary, Richard Danzig, is in line to become the National Security Advisor if the Obamessiah wins in November. Danzig’s latest public quote is, “Winnie the Pooh seems to me to be a fundamental text on national security.” Yep. He sounds intelligent enough to be an Obama supporter.

Back to N’awlins. Currently, the Mississippi River is flooding major parts of the heartland. The people are doing their best to fight back the floods, but are in many cases being defeated. They stand together and deal with the aftermath together. You don’t see them ignoring evacuation requests, looting, and whining that W and FEMA aren’t doing enough for them. They are also not demanding huge sums of money and complaining when there is only $300,000 per household being sent to them. They aren’t leeches.

The Supremes upheld the construction of the border fence. Of course, the Dim-ocrats are crying foul. They couldn’t find any valid political reason to force the stoppage, so they tried to make an end run around the voters by having the enviro-nuts take it to court. That still didn’t work. Fourteen House Dim-ocrats, including seven major committee chairs, filed an amicus brief in support of the enviro-nuts. The Dim-ocrat Party, opposing national security for decades.

PETA is upset with Jessica Simpson for wearing a t-shirt that said, “Real Girls Eat Meat!”
a) It was a dig at her boyfriend’s former girlfriend, Carrie Underwood, who is a vegetarian.
b) Who cares what PETA says?
c) Jessica can eat (insert sound of editor smacking The Crawfish upside the head AGAIN!)……never mind. I won’t go there. I’ll just say that Tony Romo’s smiling a lot lately.
d) I belong to PETA…People Eating Tasty Animals.

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