Also, [...]]]> I checked my brokerage account this morning and saw that my quarterly dividends from Philip Morris, Heinz and Diageo hit my account in the past week.  To me there’s something great about receiving dividends… I think it’s the fact that I didn’t have to work for any of this money that makes it so special.

Also, Procter & Gamble another one of my holdings, announced that it would be raising its quarterly dividend by 10%.  Who said no one was getting raises in this economy?

Overall it’s a pretty good tool but it does have a few problems. First [...]]]> I stumbled upon this tool on CNN.com that allows you to enter personal finance information about yourself and then proceeds to give you a grade on how you’re doing.  It covers categories like emergency savings, retirement savings, debt and housing payments.  

Overall it’s a pretty good tool but it does have a few problems. First of all, you can’t enter an age lower than 25.  This is somewhat annoying but it didn’t deter me from entering my info.  I figure with me being 24 and 7 months old I could go ahead and round my age to 25.  

Once this was done I proceeded smoothly through the different sections on retirement savings, emergency savings and housing expenses ect.  Everything seemed to be up to par until I reached the life insurance section.  Here I received a failing grade for not having life insurance that amounted to 10 times my annual income.  In my opinion this is another flaw the tool has.  For a young Gen Yer that doesn’t have children or dependents I really see no need for having life insurance.  Perhaps it would have been better if the tool asked if I had reasonable health insurance?

Anyway here’s the link to the CNN finance tool.  If you’re in the mood to kill 5 minutes it’s probably worth a look.

What’s [...]]]> This piece from Forbes is one of the best I’ve read in a while.  It tells the story of Andy Beal, a Texas banker who foresaw the credit bubble and started raising cash in the years prior to the crash.  Now Beal is ramping up operations and is buying up distressed debt.  Isn’t capitalism great?

What’s really scary about this story is that the regulators and credit agencies actually questioned Beal and were puzzled by his actions.  In other words, these clowns gave the one banker who wasn’t making shoddy loans a hard time because they didn’t understand why he wasn’t participating in the stupidity.  It’s pretty unbelievable… here’s an excerpt from the article…

Beal plays his cards patiently. For three long years, from 2004 to 2007, he virtually stopped making or buying loans. While the credit markets were roaring and lenders were raking in billions, Beal shrank his bank’s assets because he thought the loans were going to blow up. He cut his staff in half and killed time playing backgammon or racing cars. He took long lunches with friends, carping to them about “stupid loans.” His odd behavior puzzled regulators, credit agencies and even his own board. They wondered why he was seemingly shutting the bank down, resisting the huge profits the nation’s big banks were making.

Here’s his most recent interview where he gives insight into the economy and what [...]]]> In general, about 90% of the guests appearing on CNBC are relatively worthless.  There are some exceptions though.  PIMCO’s Bill Gross is probably one of the smartest investors on the planet and it pays to listen carefully to what he says.  

Here’s his most recent interview where he gives insight into the economy and what we can expect in the future.  Perhaps the most interesting part of the interview is where he talks about the “new normal” and what the baseline of our economy will look like going forward in a post-leveraged world.

Here’s a look at how the plan impacts two [...]]]> I found a cool article that highlights how President Obama’s tax plan will affect everyone based on their incomes and filing status. It doesn’t cover all the possible income / family situations but you should be able to get a rough estimate by looking at it.

Here’s a look at how the plan impacts two different groups of people…

Income: $35,000
Status: married, two children under age 17
Old taxes: $0 taxes paid; $2,900 received from government
New taxes: $0 taxes paid; $4,100 received from government
Difference: $1,200 more from the government

“The $400 Making Work Pay tax credit would apply even to households that paid no income tax or already received payments from the government. An adjustment to the earned income tax credit for married couples would mean that a family of four earning $35,000 could receive $4,100 in income support.”

 
Income: $1 million
Status: married, two children under 17 
Old taxes: $256,900
New taxes: $310,000
Difference: $53,100 more in taxes

“Only about 1% of married people filing jointly have an income this high, according to the Internal Revenue Service’s Statistics of Income division. Someone earning $1 million a year would see a big tax increase under the Obama plan, paying an additional $25,400 from higher tax rates and an estimated $27,700 from the limitations on itemized deductions and personal exemptions.”

This morning an AIG employee’s resignation letter was published in the [...]]]> I always thought it was a good idea to hear both sides of a story before casting judgment on a situation. However, when it came to the recent AIG bonus news it was hard to step back and see both sides of the story.  

This morning an AIG employee’s resignation letter was published in the NY Times.  I think it shed some light on the situation and may have changed some people’s minds about the scandal.  Here are some good excerpts from the letter…

“I am proud of everything I have done for the commodity and equity divisions of A.I.G.-F.P. I was in no way involved in — or responsible for — the credit default swap transactions that have hamstrung A.I.G. Nor were more than a handful of the 400 current employees of A.I.G.-F.P. Most of those responsible have left the company and have conspicuously escaped the public outrage.”

“I started at this company in 1998 as an equity trader, became the head of equity and commodity trading and, a couple of years before A.I.G.’s meltdown last September, was named the head of business development for commodities. Over this period the equity and commodity units were consistently profitable — in most years generating net profits of well over $100 million. Most recently, during the dismantling of A.I.G.-F.P., I was an integral player in the pending sale of its well-regarded commodity index business to UBS. As you know, business unit sales like this are crucial to A.I.G.’s effort to repay the American taxpayer.”

“The only real motivation that anyone at A.I.G.-F.P. now has is fear. Mr. Cuomo has threatened to “name and shame,” and his counterpart in Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal, has made similar threats — even though attorneys general are supposed to stand for due process, to conduct trials in courts and not the press.”

You can read the rest of the letter here.  Does it change your opinion on the situation at all?

Game developer tiltfactor has created a game where the object is to group similar employees together in order to lay them off and save the company money.

You can play Layoff [...]]]> You know it’s bad out there when video game developers start spending their time creating games about layoffs as opposed to stealing cars and shooting zombies.

Game developer tiltfactor has created a game where the object is to group similar employees together in order to lay them off and save the company money.

You can play Layoff here.

The article covers a plethora of personal finance topics including emergency funds, insurance and home ownership.