This week's advice is plain and simple: buy now! Whatever it is my friends, just buy it. Our lovely powers that be have decided to hand out tax credits for nearly anything worthwhile. If you've got a gas guzzling car, get your $3500 or $4500 while it is still available to get a new vehicle. In my opinion, new cars are the way to go. You will get your money's worth out of the vehicle if you know how to drive. If you pump the brakes like Arnold pumping iron or floor it every time the light turns green, that is your problem. On top of this deal, you can take a tax deduction for the sales tax paid on your new vehicle. Not everyone can qualify for that program, but almost everyone qualifies for the energy credit. Get those windows, doors, furnaces, air conditioners, and other energy effient products to make your home a better place and more marketable in the future. Uncle Sam will credit you up to $1500 for it.
While we're on the topic of homes, you need to get your home now. Foreclosures continue to drive the values/prices of homes down throughout every market. The oversupply from too many subdivisions also makes this a buyer's market. You can even lock up vacant lots for that future home years down the road. I would not advise purchasing a condominium in Chicago at this time. Sorry friends, but owning a condo now is like saying you have a Mike Vick rookie card. It was awfully cool in 2004, but now everybody has one. A market study last fall considered the units currently available in the market combined with those completed over the next two years create a twelve year supply just by themselves. That doesn't consider all of the units that people own, rent, and live in. In addition to the $8000 first time home buyer credit that you definitely want to get in on, mortgage rates remain relatively low. Even if you don't have all that much capital, you can likely qualify for an FHA loan at 97% loan to value. Eventually interest rates are going to skyrocket to pay for all these jackass free money plans, cover the costs of all the unemployed people, and make all those bad government bank/car company acquisitions go away. I would suggest looking at localized banks and mortgage brokers since larger banks really don't give a damn about your potential business.
I know this advice has spanned some pretty costly walks of life, so if you don't have a small nest egg sitting around just buy something else. Credit card interest rates remain low (which doesn't mean you should buy Season 12 of Thundercats on DVD or the newest online version of Leasure Suit Larry) so you can afford to get some new furniture or redo that ugly room in the house. Let's just look at it for what it is...buy whatever the hell you want because the rest of us will just have to pay for it anyway. That's the new American way. You have to earn what you get, or someone else will pay for it. We wonder why we've slipped behind other countries in production, intelligence, and other measures when fewer people work, but more people get paid. If you don't want to get a job, just keep having more kids. Don't be surprised though when I stop by for dinner one night to recoup some of the money you're stealing from me. So in closing, my extremely facetious advice would be to just keep buying. If you're good enough at it, you probably will never have to pay for it.
Ode to Nader
While we're on the topic of spending money in a ridiculous fashion, go out and get yourself a Wii. It is a very versatile entertainment option for all ages. It gets your butt off the couch for the most part and leads to some pretty hilarious movements. Any of the sports games are fun for a crowd. The Wii Fit is fun for awhile, but it gets to be a pain. I have yet to try the new Wii Motion Plus, so I can't report on that. We usually stick to group games, so I'm not to sure about the Marios and the Zeldas. By the way, whatever happened to Kid Icarus? He was good enough for the Nintendo cartoon on Saturday mornings, but once that ended he dropped off the face of the earth. I'm just saying; he seemed more interesting than Metroid. Overall, don't look for your games like Grand Theft Auto or EA Sports on this console, but have some cartoony fun with this system. It will give you something else to do with your time and get people together.
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I completely agree that our system needs to be fixed. Too many people are using the welfare and unemployment systems as a hand out instead of a hand up. More inspectors need to be hired to police the system. That alone, in my opinion, could save states and the federal government hundreds of thousands (probably even millions) of dollars.
ReplyDeleteFar too many times, I've witnessed at the Wal-Mart check out, people in front of me using their food stamps or other government aid to get free cereal, milk and other groceries. Of course, this same family has two transactions. The first consisting of the food stamp purchases, followed by a second transaction of cigarettes, X-Box 360, iPods, various electronics, etc. I HAVE a job and can't afford high tech electronics. You're damn right that I'll be stopping by their double wide to play that f'ing X-Box 360, eat some Cheerios and have a sandwich that my tax dollars basically bought them because they are too fat and lazy to get off their ass and get a job - - - Yes, that's right...get a job. And don't give me this bull shit that there aren't any jobs right now because of the recession. Open your local newspaper and check the Help Wanted Ads. I guarantee there are dozens of jobs listed. They may not be glamorous, they may not pay well, they may not jive with your college degree, but it's a job and it puts food on the table and pays some of the bills. After getting your paycheck from that fast food job, or whatever it may be, and you are still not able to pay all of your bills or provide for your family, then you may seek supplemental income through the welfare / food stamp systems. That is what the system was designed for. After a while, a better paying job may open up and you may be hired. That's when you stop taking the welfare and give back to the system by contributing taxes.
One final complaint is the disability payments issued in this country. I've worked with many people who were perfectly capable of working a 40 hour work week, but would stop at 20 hours just so they could collect social security disability checks because they were injured in some capacity years ago. Why work when the government will pay you to stay home? And don't even get me started on people who are morbidly obese and collect disability. What exactly is their disability? I wasn't aware that fat was a condition. Some larger people may have a legitimate medical condition which contributes to their weight gain, but for the most part the fat was brought on by their lifestyle. Now, they are getting disability checks, parking in the handicap spots and using the motorized carts at Wal-Mart because of their "disability." At the same time, a 90-year-old man who put in his time and worked hard his entire life, is struggling to live off minimal Social Security Checks, less than stellar Medicare Insurance, rising prescription drug costs, etc. That same 90-year-old man is parked in the last row at Wal-Mart because the Handicap spot was taken by a 35-year-old woman who weighs 450 lbs. The 90-year-old man walks through Wal-Mart using the grocery cart as a walker because the motorized carts are being used by obese people.
Sorry about the long rant, but it has steamed my clams for years watching people steal my hard earned money by abusing and taking advantaging of the welfare systems.
The best part of this messed up system is that a good bit of these system suckers won't go get jobs because somehow they get more money through unemployment. You try and figure that one out. Our government is supposedly crippled by debt, but they pay a better wage to someone for sitting at home than the local grocery store can. That's an outstanding situation.
ReplyDeleteThere is actually a guy at my office who said that if he ever got let go in this current system, his best bet would be to just start eating. That way after a year or so he could go on disability. Why the hell not? Maybe Blago can get back into government with the slogan "No Fatass Left Behind."
The vitriol is flying today.
ReplyDeleteWhy not advise people to save? One of the biggest problems about the financial crisis was our propensity to consume (and consume with other people's money). If the US consumers had been less reliant on credit, the recession would be less severe. Part of the reason the Asian countries are rebounding so well is the fact that they had a whole lot less debt than we did/do. Pay down the debt people.
The problem with saving right now is that you are getting no return on your money. Savings accounts offer literally no return, while the stock market declines and so do real estate ventures. People have become too comfortable in declaring bankruptcy or just plain ignorance with debt. They try to chalk it up to being young or not realizing that if they don't pay off that free financing they're going to get a much bigger bill. Maybe the government can create an informational seminar to eighteen year olds to take after school that requires a passing grade to be allowed to utilize credit. We as consumers and a nation absolutely need to pay down the debt. Why put $2000 into a savings account earning 0.002% when you can pay off the credit card charging 10.99%?
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