Giving like no one else

Go to http://elephanthunters.wordpress.com/2009/12/15/give-like-no-one-else/ and read Daniel Tardy’s blogpost titled “Give Like No One Else”.  It highlights last week’s festivities at Lampo, which was full of surprises and the generosity of that great company.  I would also recommend reading some of the comments other readers have left, lots of nice people saying nice things.

Free Seth Godin E-book

Writer/Author guru Seth Godin is offering a new E-book for free.  The book features more than seventy big thinkers, each sharing an idea for you to think about as we head into the new year, including Dave Ramsey.

Visit Seth’s blog at http://sethgodin.typepad.com, or take a direct link to his post http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/12/what-matters-now-get-the-free-ebook.html, or click here to go right to the .pdf download.

Dave Live in California

Dave will be hosting a 2-hour event at the Cherritos Center of the Performing Arts (California) in January.  I suspect this will be a bit similar to the Town Hall For Hope event which explained a lot of the common mis-conceptions that were going around about the recession.  I believe the greatest benefit from that event was the history and facts of our economy when it went through troubled times, and snapped back!  It would be interesting to hear what he has for us since the economy has been improving.

For tickets go to https://www.daveramsey.com/dave-live/registration/city/los%20angeles/date/20100121/

I just want to hear him say “I told you so” a bunch of times.  That would be worth the price of admission!

Dave Reads: Credit Card companies charge you

Dave read an article posted on USA Today about the plan credit card companies have to “help” you get a better interest rate: Keep Charging.  If you charge a certain amount on your credit cards you could be eligible for a rebate on your interest.  A rebate on interest charges?

The original article is posted at http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/credit/2009-11-20-citi-rates_N.htm

Also check out this post on the benefits and similarities of Debit Cards: http://moneyplansos.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/is-your-credit-card-safer/

Dave Reads: Black Friday Doorbusters

The day before Thanksgiving Dave read an article from CNNMoney.com (also posted on Yahoo Finance).  His comments expand upon the article’s premise that these “Doorbuster” deals often are not all that great of a deal after all, especially if you don’t have a plan before entering the “limited quantities/no raincheck” retail store.  To read the entire article:  http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/108212/dirty-secrets-of-black-friday-doorbusters

 

Christmas is coming! Christmas is coming!

I know Christmas is coming when Dave does his annual rant on the grim outlook on Christmas spending in various media outlets.   Every year a journalist or news organization releases their study and commentary on how retail spending will be down this Christmas.

Dave reads a release from CNN News that shows the average of surveyed respondents will spend $22 less this holiday season.  Here is the link to that article: http://money.cnn.com/2009/10/20/news/economy/NRF_holiday_spending/index.htm?section=money_latest

And here is their survey from 2008, which states the survey shows consumers planning to increase spending by a “paltry” 1.9% – this in the midst of a recession.  By the way, spending really WAS down in 2008 – this in the midst of a recession! http://www.nrf.com/modules.php?name=News&op=viewlive&sp_id=590

2007: http://www.nrf.com/modules.php?name=News&op=viewlive&sp_id=386 - warning of consumer’s conservative approach to shopping

2006: http://www.nrf.com/modules.php?name=News&op=viewlive&sp_id=150   - forecasts a 5% increase over 2005 in this article they called “Subdued Holiday Gains”

By the way, this year Christmas is in December.  (I’m just giving you advance notice so it doesn’t catch you by surprise).

Sunk-cost Analysis

Kathy from Ft. Worth called Dave and asked if she should take $75K out of her non-retirement mutual funds to pay off the mortgage.  Dave said “In about 30 seconds”.   One of the ways to ask yourself if you should take savings out to pay off debt is to use a “Sunk-cost Analysis”.  The Harvard Investment Newsletter describes this as a way to ask yourself this question: If you didn’t own an item would you buy it today.  Here is another way to look at how this “Sunk-cost Analysis” works:

If your house was paid for and had no debt, would you borrow $100,000.00 to invest in mutual funds?  Most people would say “No”.  But if you had $100K in non-retirement savings and owed $100K on your house it would be as if you had borrowed on your house to invest.  Pay it off and be debt free.

That still seems pretty scary to most people, but there are two advantages to paying off debt with savings:

1) You can replace savings rather quickly when you don’t have any debt payments.
2) If you really don’t like being debt free with a paid-for house you can easily get a mortgage and go back into debt.

Dave Ramsey on ABC – Economic Reality Check

Dave was involved in a discussion about the current state of the economy on ABC with Liz Ann Sonders.  Click on this link to watch the 4 1/2 minute piece from ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=8869132

Listen to the wiener in the steakhouse

Never has an “I told you so” been so deserved when it comes to finances.  One year ago the media and most of the financial advisors were screaming about the downfall of the economy.  We had begun a recession, and by God we were going to make it a good one!  But there was one man who went against the grain, different than the rest, a wiener in the steakhouse: Dave Ramsey.  He was asked to appear on numerous television shows and interviewed for magazines and other radio stations.  His message throughout the gloom-and-doom: Stay calm.  Don’t sell.  This isn’t as bad as it seems.

Last week the Dow Jones Industrial average hit 10,000 points again.  We are not back to where we were two years ago and an additional 4%+ Americans are out of work, but all this pales in comparison to the news reports that caused thousands of US citizens to panic unnecessarily. 

Facts: September 2008 the DOW was at 11,139.62.  It dropped 21% by the end of the year and an additional 34% by March 9, 2009 (total 41% from September 29 to March 9).  It has since gained 65% (6,547 in March compared to 10,015 on October 14, 2009).  WOW!  Using the same calculations and dates:

NASDAQ: Lost 26% from Sept-Dec 2008, lost an additional 19% through March 9, 2009 (total loss 40%), but gained 58% since then.

S&P 500: Lost 25% from Sept-Dec 2008, lost an additional 25% through March 9, 2009 (total loss 44%), but gained 61% since then.

And there is more to come, that is almost certain.  If you review your mutual fund statements and concur with the facts that the market has increased 40%-60% since the low on March 9th, 2009 then you should join me in listening to the wiener in the steakhouse.  Don’t freak out, things are not as bad as they seem, and we’re all going to be OK.

By the way, I’ll brag too.  Check out two posts from last year: 700 points for $700 Billion Dollars  and Word Of The Week: Dividend

A Balloon Artist

The final call in the 2nd hour of the Dave Ramsey Show on 10/8/09 caught my interest.  He called himself a “Balloon Artist”.  Having never heard anyone classify themselves that way so I decided to do a search.  I found the caller’s website: Jason Vaughn from Arnold, MO is the Balloon Artist at http://www.higherhopeentertainment.com/ .  Go check out some of the pictures and posts he has, it is really interesting.

I also found this site: http://higherhope.balloonhq.com/ which has a bunch of pictures of his work as well.  Some of these are REALLY creative!

He also posted three PodCasts last year which you can listen from the website or search for “BalloonCast” in iTunes.

Follow him on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/higherhopedecor