finances

Ron Blue and Finances

Have you read any financial books by Ron Blue?

Here are some of them:

  • Surviving Financial Meltdown
  • Your Money After the Big 5-0
  • The New Master Your Money
  • Faith-Based Family Finances
  • Splitting Heirs
  • Wealth to Last
  • Your Kids Can Master Their Money
  • HELP! I’m Drowning in Debt
  • Storm Shelter

If you’ve read any of them, what do you make of Mr. Blue and his teaching?

A few years ago I read Master Your Money and was very favorably impressed by it. (Alas, I no longer remember any specifics!)

Right now I’m working my way through The Debt Squeeze.

Ooma & Clark Howard

Lifetime home phone service for $200?

Want free home phone service for life? Clark has a $200 device to tell you about that promises just that — with no monthly fees ever!

[…]

The Ooma device looks like a house intercom. You plug a cable for your Internet into it; you plug your traditional landline phone into it; and suddenly you have phone service! Ooma also has a built-in processor that supposedly makes the sound quality comparable to monopoly phone service.

Other Clark Howard gleanings:

(Thankfully, KeyCorp is among those Top Thirteen banks said to be healthy at this time.)

Did I Hear That?

I was only half-attentive (no, maybe not even that much) to the news broadcast yammering forth from the radio. So I wasn’t sure that I’d heard clearly.

Well, the New York Times is reporting:

President Obama declared in an interview that the United States was not winning the war in Afghanistan….

In a 35-minute conversation with The New York Times aboard Air Force One on Friday, Mr. Obama reviewed the challenges to his young administration. The president said he could not assure Americans the economy would begin growing again this year. But he pledged that he would “get all the pillars in place for recovery this year” and urged Americans not to “stuff money in their mattresses.”

Is not winning the same as losing? Or does he mean it’s a stalemate?

About the pledged placed pillars — will the recovery be this year or just the placement of the pillars?

And about the mattressed money (or the moneyed mattresses) — I don’t my money in any mattress nor under it. We spend it. But what about those who actually have extra money? What should they do with it? More directly, do you keep your money close to your mattress?

Look, I’m not knocking the President, OK? 🙄

I’m just wondering.

My Ways, My Afflictions

I was going to post this yesterday morning. 🙁

“I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies” (Psalm 119:59).

We all need to periodically evaluate our ways. Daily, I suppose. May the result of such self-analysis cause me to turn back to God’s ways or to reaffirm myself in those ways.

“Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word” (Psalm 119:67).

“It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes” (Psalm 119:71).

“Good for me”? Well, it’s a matter of perspective, no? If affliction brings me into compliance with God’s Word, then it’s a good thing. Right?

“The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver” (Psalm 119:72).

What a great verse to come across when all kinds of things financial and economic are staggering and collapsing all around us! (Now if that girl who is auctioning off her “virtue” would grab ahold of that verse!)

Well, what say you?

DJI in Early Freefall

Original Post Time: 6:52am Pacific; updates below

I stopped by Yahoo! Finance for a quick look-see.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down somewhat over 200 points.

About ten minutes later, I saw this:

Dow Jones early on October 10, 2008

Right now it’s at -898.03 — but it’s been bouncing around. I hope everybody involved is well stocked with Dramamine or Bonine!

Update 7:11 am, Pacific

Dow Jones on October 10, 2008

Update 10:55 am, Pacific

Dow Jones on October 10, 2008

I Don’t Want To Alarm You

I’m no banking expert. Or anything remotely related to one. Period.

I don’t know what to make of the current crisis in the finance system.

I don’t even know if I’m using the right lingo.

But here’s something I just read:

Dominoes: Large Euro, US Banks On The Brink

We are witnessing a failure in government. Our Congress cannot work together to provide an immediate fix to a problem it created in the first place: forcing the American financial sector to extend mortgages to those who were high risk borrowers in order to champion to the American people that more minorities own homes than ever. That worked well under a booming economy. But when the natural cycle of economics turned downward, fear dismissed became reality unavoidable. The house of cards came tumbling down.

And even still, amid all the haggling and fighting going on in Congress over how to shore up the financial cash crisis, not a word is mentioned about changing the counter-intuitive practices forced upon mortgage lenders in the first place. In this respect, it’s not unlike how Congress and the White House chose to address illegal immigration: by trying to deal with those already here first rather than initially addressing the cause: the influx of illegals that continues to flow unabated.

Make no mistake, if we wake to Black Monday this week, the responsibility lies squarely upon Congress and the electorate which has put them there, not our banks. Our banks’ hands were forced by mandates from Washington, not their boardrooms.

And here we are. With a Congress so polarized that they are incapable of working together.

[…]

America does not seem nearly as polarized as its elected representation. But perhaps in less than one full week, it really won’t matter but for hindsight and lessons going forward. Hard, painful, demanding lessons.

I don’t have time to say more, though there’s plenty I could say.

For now, I remind you about Roger Hertzler’s article I posted here.

Above all, love God!