Category Archives: News
Social Security Statements Move Online
As of 2011, your annual Social Security statements are no longer being mailed to your home. Did you get that memo? I didn’t and neither did you since the Social Security Administration didn’t send one. What they have done instead was introduce online access to your statements beginning the week of May 29, a move that could save the government more than $70 million each year. According to a Reuters article, more than 130,000 individuals have signed up as of May 10.
GE Adds Manufacturing Jobs In The U.S.
GE is investing $800 million in its appliance arm. That means there are new jobs opening right here in the United States. When they recently announced 250 job openings in their Kentucky plant, over 10,000 applications were received in only six hours. Learn how GE is adding manufacturing jobs back to the United States.
Is Stealing Food For Your Family Okay?
No fluffy introduction here, I’m getting right to the point, because I really want your opinion this time. If you had children, was out of work on disability but not receiving enough money to pay for all the necessities of life, would you steal food for your children?
I ran into a story of a women who was arrested for stealing food. Instead of having the book thrown at her, there has been an “outpouring of love and food” – at least temporarily – from the community. I’d like you to read the story and then put yourself in her shoes.
15% of Americans Are Officially Poor
I’ve been talking quite a bit about poverty this week, and this is why. The latest Census Bureau figures show that 15% of Americans are poor, a term used for families earning up to $21,765 for a family of four. That’s up from 14% in 2009. That figure is even more pronounced in population centers across the country, like New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and Chicago. One in five New Yorkers (20.1%) now live in poverty in one of what is arguably one of the most expensive cities in the country. The major cause? The consequences of the Great Recession, of course.
Top Corporations That Pay No Taxes
Taxes.
I hate them and you hate them but we somehow manage to pay them. As a single person with no kids, no dependents, no house with a mortgage, and making a decent salary, I probably pay more than my fair share. But, that doesn’t compare to what corporations pay…or does it? We’d like to think that large corporations making millions and millions of dollars every year have no problem dropping a little summin’ summin’ into the hat of Uncle Sam every now and then, but you and I are being fooled. While the Federal tax rate for corporations is always quoted at being 35%, unless you’re a small business without a gang of accountants behind you, many corporations are not paying anywhere near that amount. If you think that Bernie Madoff had a good scam going, wait until you see the top companies paying no taxes.
How Obesity Can Affect Your Finances
We all know that obesity can affect your health, but obesity can also affect your wealth. Please view the enlightening video below on how your weight can affect your finances.
Will the U.S. Postal Service and Post Offices Shut Down?
I don’t know why they didn’t see this one coming, but the internet is affecting the U.S. Postal Service so adversely that the Postmaster General is threatening to shut down services by the fall if they don’t receive a Federal bailout and debt restructuring agreement. According to the Postmaster General, costs associated with employees and funding their retirement is pushing them into serious debt, but I’d like to dispute that.
Employers are always quick to blame pensions on their financial woes, but their sales have been declining for years! I don’t which planning manager at the U.S.P.S. did not see e-mail as a possible threat to its regular mail business? While that part of their business model might have declines, their package service has increased due to the rise in internet sales. Amazon and eBay package shipments alone should have pushed quite a bit of customers through their doors to use the package service.
Warren Buffett Says You’re Being Soft on Him
When one of the world’s most wealthy individuals and arguably one of the world’s most successful investors tells you that you’re being soft on him when it comes to taxes, I think that we should all take the time to listen to what he has to say. Buffett’s much quoted op ed piece in the New York Times said in no uncertain terms, “stop coddling the super rich.” He went on to say, “My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.” As an investor Buffett pays only a 15% Federal tax on his gains, while the rest of us, you and me included, pay up to 25%. If you don’t believe me go look at your last paycheck.
Listen to Buffet in his won words in the video below.
Recession Creates Record Wealth Gap Between Whites and Minorities
The Great Recession didn’t just bring us the Tea Party, foreclosures and a return to frugality. According to the Pew Research Center the Great Recession decimated the net worth of blacks and Hispanics, further widening the wealth divide between whites and minorities. Up until the housing meltdown, blacks had 10 cents of wealth for every dollar of wealth held by whites. The median wealth of white households is now 20 times that of black households, and 18 times that of Hispanic households. This gap is the widest that it has been since the government began tracking and publishing its Survey of Income and Program Participation 25 years ago.
