I Won the Colorado Lottery!

Yep, it’s true; I’m the proud winner of Saturday nights Colorado Lottery-I matched 4 of the 6 numbers. What did I do with my winnings? In my opinion, this tells allot about how we think about money and gives some indicators of future financial success….more later

I was recently reading an article by Budgeting in the Fun Stuff called Top Lottery Myths Debunked. We aren’t going to debunk any myths here but Crystal mentions: Read more »

There is an interesting article over at Yahoo Finance titled: Tech Billionaire Reid Hoffman: College Is Worth the Cost, But Be Thoughtful About It.  This subject matter gets discussed endlessly and everyone has an opinion! I like the content of this article because these folks are successful and have had actual experience. Read more »

Recently I’ve had many emails asking me-where have you been? Well, I started my first personal financial blog back in 2005 and it was In Cash Flow We Trust. It was on the Blogger format. The explosion of personal financial blogs had not yet occurred and about this time I discovered some very interesting blogs; some of which were not to far on their journey including: Free Money Finance,  Consumerism  Commentary, Five Cent Nickel and Boston Gal’s open Wallet to name a few. Read more »

Here's to all You Savers in America

President Obama has escalated his tax battle with Republicans, submitting a budget that would nearly triple tax rates on dividend income! The proposed increase would boost the top rate on dividend taxes from 15% this year to 43.4% next year. This includes a new proposal to tax dividends at the same rate as regular income-39.6%

For me, this moronic move is a slap in the face to all “middle class” savers who are just trying to build cash flow through their investments-why in the world would you penalize investors for saving and making prudent investment choices? This proposed budget really disgusts me-what about you?

Do you think dividends should be taxed as regular income?

I wrote a post about a friend of mine who moved into her new home before closing.  Here’s an update to the story. My friend had qualified for her loan and was very anxious to move from her ex’s house. She and the realtor decided that they would take a chance and have her move in.

She was very anxious and moved in-even cleaning the carpets, paying the movers and painting the place! Last week she heard from the bank; the loan had not been approved, there were problems with the HOA. The bank discovered that the HOA had several financial problems. The swimming pool has a crack in it and has not been open for 3 years!! She was devastated to say the least.

Not to beat a dead horse but this is exactly why you never want to move in before the close. Here’s another interesting phenomenon that is playing out in this rough economic climate-people are saving money by not paying their HOA fees. This really is a scary development. All the HOA can do is to put a lien against your property forcing you to pay it off before you can sell your property. However, in the meantime the dues go uncollected and all the deferred maintenance does not get done.

My friend is moving out this month to a rental while she regroups. I’m glad she is taking this step so as to avoid more problems-but what a mess.

Have you ever seen something like this? What would be your advice?

I saw an article at MSN Money titled The High Cost of Finding Love. I’ve long held the premise that loneliness can cost men and women a boat load of money and can completely derail all budgeting efforts.

For the moment let’s put love aside and concentrate on the pit falls singles can fall into in their basic need of companionship-it can get very expensive! Flexo recently was exploring Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, so let’s see where companionship fits in. There we go just above Physiological and Safety. I think an argument can be made that companionship is for many people, the foundation of Maslow’s hierarchy; how else can you explain seeing a homeless couple on the street corner? So, what does this companionship cost? Read more »

Have you ever seen a “normal” family of loving brothers and sisters turn into savages towards each other? Well, I have, and the catalyst was always the death of a parent(s). Wow! The fighting, the terrible things siblings say to each other!! What can be done to lessen or eliminate this ugly happening>

Here are some tips from the Wall Street Journal’s Weekend Investor:

• Don’t let the sheer volume of stuff paralyze you
• Do hire help. Estate liquidators, senior movers and organizers can connect you with movers, cleaners and charities
• Don’t fight. Come up with a system for distributing stuff among your family members.
• Do keep track of what you give away. Take pictures of valuable objects.
• Don’t expect to hit the jackpot. The market for china, mahogany furniture and other collectibles has softened.
• Go slow-but don’t stall out
• Take care of financial matters quickly.
• Dole out the heirlooms diplomatically.
• Document deductions.

Hopefully, the above will serve as guidelines to  you and your siblings. This is another great reason why it’s imperative for parents to have bullet proof wills that clearly spell out their intentions.

Have you gone through this? What helped you through this very tough time?

I was reading a post over at Everybody Loves Your Money called Are You Going to Buy Facebook Stock? He has decided that he doesn’t have a good chance to get it at a reasonable price….Maybe, maybe not.

I’ve traded IPO’s for years, note the term, traded; in my mind this stock will be a short term trade, maybe even a day trade. Here’s how I decide if I’m going all in. I love all the hype associated with Facebook-this can be used to your investing advantage. Since I use Scottrade, I don’t worry about getting any initial stock allocation.

I watch how the stock opens-you should see the initial flippers of this stock unloading their shares. They have made a profit and want to Free up the money for the next kill. Assuming I continue to see incoming orders for the stock, I will jump in. I buy at the market and then watch it closely. I’m happy to go in and out with a 15-20% profit for the day. If the strength continues into the closing-I will hold on to the stock and look at selling it over the next couple of days.

One thing I’ve learned about IPO’s is to forget the valuations. Valuations are for long term investors. I know for me, Facebook is just a trade and I want to catch the momentum wave and leave-without being to much of a piggy

Good Luck-Are you planning on trading this bad boy just for the fun of it?

Would you risk moving into your new home before closing? Here is the situation: a friend of mine separated from her husband and needed to get into something rather quickly. She was fortunate to be able to move in with family members while the dust settled. She lives in Denver, Colorado and quickly realized that decent rentals were very pricey. In fact, she literally could buy a home for less money than the current prices of rentals.

She found a condo that was ready to move in without any major renovations necessary. The owner was very motivated as he was moving out of the country to be with his new love….that’s another story!

He allowed her to move into his condo and paint to her liking before the actual closing of the house. I’m sure you can see the inherent risks in my friends moving into this condo before closing. For instance, the seller could change their mind and she would be out in the cold. All the improvements she is making could be all for naught and I’m sure there may be other things that haven’t even been thought about!

Well, she moved in today and the closing is scheduled for the end of this month. To complicate matters-she found out last week that her employer is going to cut everyone’s salary in the next 30 days. Fortunately, she is already pre-approved for the loan but this factor could really make it a tight squeeze for her. She desperately wants the safety and security that a home can provide but she remains cautiously optimistic.

Would you move into a home before closing? Do you know others that have made the move before closing? Please share your thoughts!

I had dinner with a friend of mine last night. She is a part time student in college and also holds down a job as a waitress. She doesn’t have a bank account and keeps all her cash at home….Recently her apartment complex was broken into and she lost her emergency saving stash of $3000.00!

For her, that’s a huge amount and she has what she believes are legitimate reasons for not having it in a bank, money market or stock account. I didn’t want to pursue her options at the time because she was so upset. But, what about using that money to buy a MasterCard Gift Card, American Express or anything that might protect her from robbery!

I’m guessing that she is worried about paying taxes but the amount of taxes would be inconsequential compared to losing the entire $3000!

Do you have friends who are off the financial grid? What do they do to protect their money?