Archive for August, 2006
Monday, August 21st, 2006
The Ultimate Real Estate Investment
Like most people, I have a mortage on my home and although it is currently at a very low interest rate (3.25% ARM), it will eventually adjust sometime next year. Unlike many other people, however, who might have difficulty with raising interest rates on an ARM, I won’t be one of them. I am close [...]
3 Comments » - Posted in Money Management,Real Estate by RichSlick
Saturday, August 19th, 2006
Bye, Bye Amex Gold Card and Hello Amex True Earnings
This week I received my Amex Gold Card bill and received some new and unwelcoming Terms & Conditions. Among the many new “enhancements” of the card is a higher fee: $125/year up from $90/year; elimination of the Membership Rewards Program and conversion to a new Rewards System of which I’ll know nothing about until October; [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Credit Cards by RichSlick
Friday, August 18th, 2006
Synthetic Financial Disasters – Baby Boomer Armageddon Part II
Last night on CNBC I watched a program discussing the Baby Boomer retirement predicament. Several analysts were guest of the show and they spewed some interesting statistics regarding Boomer demographics, net worth and retirement issues. I’ve written about this issue before in Synthetic Financial Disaster – Baby Boomer Armageddon and after watching the show I [...]
4 Comments » - Posted in Financial Safety by RichSlick
Friday, August 18th, 2006
Cascading Expense Lifestyles – The Computer
Over the years, I must have purchased a dozen computers, many of which I don’t really remember. I do however recall the first computer I purchased. It was a 386DX with 4mb of RAM and a 100mb hard drive. I think I paid $1300 for it years ago. Today, you can buy something many times [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Cascading Expenses by RichSlick
Thursday, August 17th, 2006
Quicken 2007
I was an avid user of Quicken during its early days. Over the years (after Quicken version 4), Intuit began cluttering the interface with so many windows and mostly useless features that I began using it less and less. When Quicken 2000 came around, the interfaces had been converted to “web pages” vs. traditional windows [...]
3 Comments » - Posted in Money Management by RichSlick
Wednesday, August 16th, 2006
The New Pension Bill – Who really benefits?
While I’ve glanced at some of the benefits the new pension bill to be signed by the President, I was somewhat skeptical about who the true beneficiaries would be once it’s passed. Let’s face it, legislators mainly pass bills that either benefit mega corporations or the legislators themselves so I have to wonder what the [...]
3 Comments » - Posted in Financial Safety by RichSlick
Wednesday, August 16th, 2006
Cascading Expense Lifestyles – The Auto
My dad is a great guy. As a teenager, he purchased cars for all of his sons (four of us). Although he never purchased us new cars, he always managed to find the money to buy us our own wheels. At the time, as a teenage kid, I really didn’t appreciate getting stuck with a [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Cascading Expenses by RichSlick
Tuesday, August 15th, 2006
Passive/Aggressive Credit Card Terms Part II
I wrote about the new diabolical Terms some credit card companies are sneaking into their disclosure forms a few days ago and last night, I received an updated “Supplement to the Notice of Change in Terms” on my Bank of America credit card. It’s a two page micro fine printed sheet and here are the [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Credit Cards by RichSlick
Monday, August 14th, 2006
Cascading Expense Lifestyles – The DVD Player
We received our first DVD player in 1998 as a gift. At the time, we were extremely impressed with the video quality of the movies we watched. Our first DVD purchase was Braveheart; I recall popping in a bag of popcorn in the microwave as we sat down to watch our first feature. I couldn’t [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Cascading Expenses by RichSlick
Sunday, August 13th, 2006
Cascading Expense Lifestyles – PS2, XBOX, GameCube, Ninento DS
Console games and portable game players provide a great deal of entertainment. They come in handy during rainy days or cold weather that keeps you indoors but they do come with a high price. Over the years, we’ve managed to accumulate a PS2 (received as a gift 5 years ago) XBox (also a gift), Gamecube [...]