FixThePig
Fixing Broke America - Financial Opinion, Tips, & Review

Today I heard an interesting blurb on the radio talking about famous people who have filed for bankruptcy.  I was only able to catch the tail end of the segment, but the names I did hear caught me by surprise.  Many of these people have gone on to be very successful either in business, entertainment, or politics.  After hearing this short list of people, I decided to do a little research on the web and find other famous people who have filed for bankruptcy.  Below is a short list of well know names that filed for financial relief.

1. Thomas Jefferson - 3rd President of the United States
2. Walt Disney - Creator of Mickey Mouse
3. Larry King - famous talk show host
4. Donald Trump - business mogul
5. Elton John - singer and song writer Read More
   
   TAGS: bankruptcy, finance, Financial Tips, money

Starting today, and each Saturday going forward, I’m going to feature a new blog post called “The Weekend Fix”.  The Weekend Fix will spotlight 5 of the top articles I’ve read over the previous week and feel are worth sharing with all of my readers.  Hopefully you find these articles insightful and fun.

• Gift Cards: The cop out gift or the perfect gift - by Wise Money Matters
  This is a great article and really hits home for me.  I’m the king of the cop out gifts.  I tend to default with giving gift cards.  How couldn’t they be perfect, you’re giving the person the opportunity to get exactly what they want.  Hey, it takes a lot of thought to pick out the style of gift card your going to give!
• Do You Think Saving Money Is Always Worth It - by Money Ning
  As you well know I’m always one for saving money, however this article asks the question on whether saving money is always the best approach.  How many times have you sacrificed quality for price?  Check the article and you’ll see some good examples on when to save and when not to save.
  
  
• Broke vs. Poor: Which One Are You - by The Money Hawk
  Is there really a difference between being broke and being poor.  Well according to The Money Hawk there is and I’d have to say I agree with him.  Go find out which you are, I’m sure you’ll have an opinion on the choice.
• Will You Feel Sorry For This GM Retiree - by Tough Money Love
  This article asks some tough questions about retirees over at the big automakers, specifically GM.  Tough Money Love wants to know if we as Americans should have any sympathy for the workers and retirees over at the Big 3.  After reading this article you’ll want to voice your opinion either for or against the answer.
• Daily Links: Homemade Cars and Urban Farming - by Get Rich Slowly
  You have to go and check out this article written by J.D.  In the article he features a homemade car that gets over 100 mpg.  It’s actually pretty funny to take a look at this thing.  I love the concept and I’m all about having cars get better gas mileage, but I’d have a hard time getting the family in this one.

These are just a few of the many articles I’ve read over the past week.  I’d like to highlight more, however the list would more then likely end up a mile long.  Hopefully you’ve enjoyed reading these articles; look for more to come next Saturday.  Have a great weekend!

Recently I had a good friend call me for some financial advise about credit card debt.  I’m not going to try and claim that I’m a certified financial planner, but I’m not afraid to offer my financial opinion.  My friend has run into a situation that has become very common place among many Americans, mounting credit card bills.  He was specifically wondering if there was an easy way to lower his interest rate and begin paying down the balance after his bank didn’t have any solutions.  I suggested taking a friendly approach to financing and brought up peer-to-peer lending.

With the credit markets tightening and banks implementing strict lending standards there has been a surge in alternative forms of borrowing money.  Quickly on the rise among unconventional lending networks is peer-to-peer lending.  These lending networks are made of multiple investors, many times everyday Read More

What would you do if your neighbor came rolling up to your house, driving a brand new Ferrari, and asked to borrower 100 bucks because he is broke.  I’m willing to bet you’d tell him to go fly a kite.  The analogy could be drawn to the big 3 auto manufacturers that were pleading their case for a bailout in congress this past week.

Today officials out in Washington D.C. decided to send the the CEO’s of Ford, GM, and Chrysler back to Detroit empty handed.  For good reason many members of congress were a little upset with the presentation that was delivered in proposing a massive auto industry bailout.  Leaders of the Big 3 insisted that each of their companies are in desperate need of taxpayer money to keep the daily operations running and prevent a Read More

With all of the heat being brought down on CEO’s of late, it appears that some of them are taking a hint.  The American public outrage over top executive pay at many of the countries largest firms has been fierce.  Frustration levels couldn’t get higher after watching corporate leaders take millions of dollars in bonus pay as they watched their companies stock and balance sheets fall like a rock. Many times at the expense of American retirement plans. Perhaps the time has finally come that many of the CEO’s are going be compensated based on performance versus outlandish guarantees.

Yesterday, Llyod Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs and 6 other company heads decided to forgo their 2008 bonuses and only collect salary.  It’s fitting since the company’s stock has performed very poorly this year off nearly 70 percent.  In case you were about to feel sorry for the choice that the company executives had to make and miss out on their holiday bonus, it should be noted that Blankfein does get paid $600k in Read More

All the buzz in the media lately has been focused on alternative fuel and renewable energy sources. Wind farms have become a household phrase and Nuclear is no longer a dirty word.  The race is on to see who can devise the next major source of energy for our country and everyone from politicians to environmentalists are hopping on board.  I think that most of them are missing the “electric” boat.  It’s time that we take a closer look at going Retro.

Instead of dedicating massive amounts of money to start-up ventures that are looking to turn cooking oil into a viable source of fuel, why not look at making more of our country energy efficient.  Don’t get me wrong, I think there’s a place for research and development of renewable energy.  In fact I think that using Read More

Tomorrow starts a fresh day on capitol hill and it’s widely expected to bring a fresh set of bailout talk.  Congress is about to begin debating a bailout for the big 3 automakers, Ford, GM, and Chrysler. Clearly there’s a need for funds to keep the cash strapped companies from closing their doors, but should this be our countries top priority?  I have to ask why congress wouldn’t give top priority to a bailout bill that keeps cash strapped homeowners from closing their doors vs big business.

The head of the FDIC came out on Friday with a new plan that would allocate taxpayers funds to aid homeowners and stop the rise of foreclosures.  The plan is estimated to save 1.5 million homeowners from losing their house.  The cost to the American taxpayer is projected to be $24.4 billion dollars aprox. the Read More

It’s been one week since the election and it doesn’t look like there’s been any magic fix to the faltering economy;  once we had a new president wasn’t everything suppose to be better?  If you believed that, welcome back to reality. From the gym to the office, there isn’t a single person who doesn’t have an opinion or idea on how to fix our economic downward spiral.  Some of the ideas I hear have real merit and others are simply ridiculous, but one thing is for sure, everyone has a lot of passion.

As I brought up in a previous article, Is Our Country Made of Funny Money, perhaps the last 5 - 10 years of financial growth we’ve experienced as a country has been manifested based on credit.  There’s clearly been a shift in our society from the “Save Money” mentality to a “Spend Money” addiction.  It really doesn’t matter if the money that’s being spent is actually in a bank Read More

Today it was announced that the $700 billion dollar bailout plan is going to take a new direction.  Forget about the pitch Treasury department head Paulson gave to Congress and the American Public about buying mortgage assets from banks, the game has changed.  Originally the plan was called T.A.R.P which stands for Troubled Asset Relief Program, but not anymore….so I’ve compiled a short list of Acronyms that I think are fitting to our current state of economy and bailout.  Please feel free to add some of your own in the comment section below!

1. S.L.I.D.E - Stock-market Losing Infinite Dollars Everyday
2. W.O.R.M - Where’s Our Retirement Money Read More
   
   TAGS: bailout, economy, government, money, politics