eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) investors have a lot to digest today after the online auction and marketplaces giant reported earnings. eBay's earnings in the third quarter came to $718 million, or $0.55 per share outside of items, and revenue rose to $3.4 billion from $3 billion a year ago. Thomson Reuters was calling for earnings of $0.54 per share and $3.41 billion in sales.
For its fourth quarter, eBay's guidance came to $0.66 to $0.69 EPS on revenue of $3.85 billion to $4 billion. Thomson Reuters has estimates of $0.68 EPS and $3.94 billion in revenue. Today's results and its guidance are in-line with estimates enough that this offers investors very little expectation for a huge surprise one way or the other.
eBay shares closed down 4-cents at $48.20 on the day. Unfortunately, that is 20.5-times the $2.34 per share earnings consensus from Thomson Reuters. That seems like too high of an earnings multiple on the surface, but that is for 15% growth to earnings and 20% growth in revenue.
eBay shares are down 0.4% at $48.00 in the after-hours session and the 52-week trading range is $28.15 to $50.65.
On today's show, we dive deep into the world of offshore companies and bank accounts.We set up our own company in an offshore tax haven, and we find out where the easiest place to hide your money is.
Arguably, the costs that often affect retirees the most are the ones associated with health care. With advancements in technology and medical treatments, the price of health care has gone up. Certain groups, such as retirees, feel this more than anyone. This is because their health care costs are typically higher than the average person.
Many retirees turn to the federally funded Medicare program to help them with rising prices. Medicare has helped millions in the past, but as the government lowers its funding at a time when costs are still increasing, the program's future is unclear.
Medicare's Benefits
Many retirees and disabled persons would be lost without Medicare. Even one big medical procedure can lead to a loss of a person's savings in the event that he or she doesn't have health care coverage. While some retirees would be able to afford health care coverage on their own, many find themselves denied due to a pre-existing condition or other such reason.
Luckily for those who can't afford private health care coverage, or are unable to qualify, Medicare is a great option. It doesn't pay all medical costs, but it will cover 80%, which is a respectable amount. Although this can still result in high costs from time to time, Medicare makes those costs much more manageable.
As previously stated, Medicare's future is unclear. Although many are hopeful that the program will continue, there is definite concern that this may not be the case at some point. With so many retirees relying on Medicare, the real question is, what would happen if the program no longer existed?
Skyrocketing Costs
If Medicare was to stop, many retirees would be facing higher health care costs than ever before. Just imagine having to pay 100% of all medical costs, especially on a limited budget. Even if a retiree was able to secure some kind of private health care insurance, he or she would likely be looking at a much higher cost for everything from prescriptions to doctor visits.
Pre-existing Conditions
Another problem that many retirees would face if Medicare wasn't around is the fact that coverage might be difficult to get. Many health care insurance companies have a clause that disqualifies someone if they have a pre-existing condition. This would mean that a lot of people might go without insurance, which could quickly turn into a catastrophic situation.
The Bright Side
If there's any good news to be found here, it's the fact that Medicare isn't going to go away tomorrow. In fact, if you're relatively close to retirement, you have a good chance that it will be around for you throughout your retirement years. The people most likely affected are the ones who are still many years away from retirement. The key for those who fit into this category is to prepare now, before it's too late.
What you'll want to do is begin planning for such an event. Unless the government announces that the Medicare program is going to be around for the next 50 years, assume that it won't be available once you've retired. Make this fact part of your retirement planning. Your goal should always be to ensure that when you retire, you are able to sustain yourself throughout your retirement. To counteract the loss of Medicare, make sure you're maxing out all of your retirement account contributions. This includes your 401k or pension plans, as well as any others. Basically, you want to save as much money as you can, and it's never too early to start.
It appears that the left hand at Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is finally figuring out what the right hand is doing. For the past year or so, Apple has taken every opportunity it could to drag Samsung Electronics into court somewhere in the world charging the Korean company with infringing Apple's intellectual property rights. At the same time, the Cupertino company depended on its partnership with Samsung's semiconductor manufacturing division to produce the chips for its iPhone and iPad devices.
No more, according to the Korean Times. Apple reportedly did not use Samsung to help develop the A6 processor for the iPhone 5, instead using Samsung strictly as a foundry to manufacture the chips. A Samsung executive said:
Samsung's agreement with Apple is limited to manufacturing the A6 processors. Apple did all the design and we are just producing the chips on a foundry basis.
One of Samsung's to chip designers went to work for Apple last week, indicating that Apple likely plans to minimize even further its relationship with Samsung's foundry.
Apple recently signed a deal with Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC to produce the next generation of A-series chips. Samsung is likely to continue to manufacture flash memory for Apple, but that business, too, could begin to dry up as Apple broadens its supply chain.
Neither Apple nor Samsung had any official comment on the report.
Apple's shares are essentially flat at $629.99 shortly after noon today, in a 52-week range of $363.32 to $705.07.
How did Big Finance grow so powerful that its hijinks nearly brought down the global economy – and what hope is there for real reform with Washington politicians on Wall Street's payroll? Bill Moyers talks with authors Simon Johnson and James Kwak, two of the nation's most respected economic experts and authors of the new book 13 BANKERS: THE WALL STREET TAKEOVER AND THE NEXT FINANCIAL MELTDOWN. Also, a Bill Moyers essay on the true costs of war.
Steve Benen, MSNBC What a difference 12 days makes.I never bought into the notion that President Obama needed to crush Mitt Romney in their second debate, effectively forcing the Republican to flee from the stage in tears. What the president needed to do was show some genuine fight -- for his supporters, for his agenda, for his record, for reality, and ultimately, for his job.Obama did all of that and then some last night, delivering the best debate performance of his career in national politics. Take his final response of the night, for example.
Greg Sargent, Washington Post A very different President Obama showed up to tonight's debate than the one who got trounced by Mitt Romney two weeks ago. Obama absolutely had to turn in a performance that would make his base happy "” and he did that, by demonstrating a willingness to get in Mitt Romney's face and in his space, and by not flinching from calling out Romney's lies. Will Obama's performance appeal to independents, swing, and undecided voters?Yes, it will. The race will not be transformed in a fundamental way "” it will still be a dead heat...
LifeLock Inc. (NYSE: LOCK) has continued to be a poor and disappointing initial public offering. Last week it looked as though investors were willing to try to make a stand by buying shares but the gains were short-lived.
The identity theft solutions company is still spending aggressively on advertising and marketing to the point that the breakeven time of about eighteen months of revenues is just too long for most investors to accept.
LifeLock has a promising business model, at least on the surface. It serves an important role as there are millions upon millions of consumers who are worried about identity theft. The problem is that even though it identity theft can ruin lives and in many cases it is the theft that can keep on stealing, its expense structure is still too high.
After a $9.00 IPO pricing, shares have closed lower and lower almost daily and the days where shares rose was on light trading volume. We have only seen two real up days and the stock hit a new low of $6.93 today versus a prior low of $7.12.
Investors tried to step up to the plate last week. After some point, even bottom-fishers looking to pick off oversold IPOs start to give up. LifeLock now looks like it is in the running for the worst performing IPO of recent weeks and months now that shares are down about 22% from the IPO price.
In recent months, I've repeatedly made the point that the financial crisis was a symptom, not a cause. Innovation was weaker than expected, private sector job growth outside of healthcare was virtually nonexistent, while real wages and real stock values showed little gains from the late 1990s to the end of 2007, when the recession supposedly started. Most distressingly, stock prices for the nation's innovative sectors, biotech/pharma and information technology, showed a sharp plunge in real terms from 1998 to 2007.
Now there's a new report out today from Deloitte's Center for the Edge which provides additional confirmation that the underlying problems extended well beyond the financial sector, and started well before the housing bubble.
Back in June, the Center--led by John Hagel III, John Seely Brown, and Lang Davison--released a report showing that U.S. corporate return on assets has fallen by 75% since 1965. They suggested this decline in corporate performance was driven by the "Big Shift"--a tremendous increase in competitive pressure, combined with the increasingly pervasive digital infrastructure.
At the time, I told Hagel that I didn't want to write about his "Big Shift" until I saw industry data, so I could understand which industries were driving the corporate performance decline. Well, the new report from the Center takes a closer look at nine industries, out of which seven show the same pattern of deteriorating corporate performance.
For example, here's the ROA chart for the tech sector.
As the report says:
And what about innovation? At least as conventionally defined and practiced, innovation may not help the trend. The Technology industry, known for innovation, experienced one of the steepest ROA declines of all the industries we studied. This suggests that while product and technology innovation may be necessary, they also are not sufficient.
There are two industries where corporate performance is still strong, according to Hagel & Co: Aerospace & Defense and Health Care. The report notes:
We do not believe it is an accident that two of the most highly regulated industries in the U.S.—Aerospace & Defense and Health Care—are outliers in a broader trend of performance erosion. The ever-more-powerful digital infrastructure increases the potential for competitive intensity and performance pressures, but public policy shapes the degree to which specific industries feel that pressure
I still have to chew through the report some more. But it's pretty interesting.
The Government's pursuit of austerity is "fundamentally mad" and could cast a shadow over the British economy for up to 15 years, Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman has warned.
Are America's elections now up for sale? The JOURNAL explores what the Supreme Court's decision means for campaign finance reform and the future of our democracy with progressive legal experts Monica Youn and Zephyr Teachout. Monica Youn directs the campaign finance reform/money in politics project at NYU's Brennan Center for Law and Justice and Zephyr Teachout teaches law and politics at Fordham University's School of Law.
Injury rates reported at America's poultry plants have dropped dramatically in recent years, and so have workplace safety inspections. Are regulators rewarding companies for inaccurate reporting of injuries? Bill Moyers Journal and Expose: America's Investigative Reports go inside America's poultry industry, which employs almost a quarter million workers nationwide, to show the reality of working conditions and to investigate how official statistics showing a drop in workplace injuries may have been the result of deceptive reporting.
I’ve written a lot about the Founding Fathers. Now I’d like to praise my own father. My father worked hard and was successful … but he never forgot his roots, and he treated everyone – from the elevator operator … Continue reading →
When you are in debt, it can be difficult to know how to manage the situation. With so many accounts, and payments, and interest rates, it is easy to become discouraged. One way you can deal with this issue is to consolidate your debts.
Debt Consolidation
The process of debt consolidation is one that has been tried over time, and can be very successful. Basically, all of your debts are lumped together. Instead of making multiple payments each month, you make one payment each month. There are two main methods of debt consolidation:
1. Loan: A debt consolidation loan basically consists of taking one big loan, and then using it to pay off your smaller loans. You take out one loan, with a single interest rate, and pay off all your other debts. Now you only have one loan, and your interest charges are often lower than what you were paying with multiple loans, so more of your payment goes toward paying down the principal.
2. Third party help: With this method, you make arrangements with a trusted third party to help you consolidate your debt. This isn’t a loan. You work out a payment plan with the third party, and make a single payment to that company. The company then disburses payment to your creditors. Everything, from administrative fees to the third party to interest (often reduced) to the principal, is included in this single monthly payment.
Debt consolidation puts all of your debts together so that your debt is easier to manage, and you can more easily tackle it.
How Debt Consolidation Helps You
Now that all of your debt is in one place, you can begin to make real progress on paying down your debt. In many cases, more of your payment goes to your principal each month, so you are able to pay off what you owe faster. Your monthly payment is also often a little lower, so it can ease your cash flow problems.
Additionally, instead of trying to keep track of multiple debt payments, you only have to worry about one. This simplifies things greatly, and reduces your stress. Another stress reliever is the fact that you can see progress, and a debt consolidation payment plan lets you see an end to the debt.
You Have to Make Changes
A debt consolidation is only the first step, though. You have to make changes to your spending habits, and look for ways to reduce your expenses and/or earn more money if you want lasting financial success.
The biggest pitfall with debt consolidation is that once everything is wrapped up in the consolidation, it feels as though you have “more money” available to you. This is especially true with a debt consolidation loan that often “frees up” your credit cards. Don’t fall into this trap. A debt consolidation only makes things worse if you immediately use your new freedom to spend back into debt, racking up even more obligations.
Remember that debt consolidation works best when you are committed to changing your financial habits so that you don’t get into debt again. Debt consolidation can help you manage your debt, and pay it down. But only you can ensure that you stay out of debt permanently.
Readers: What are your thoughts on debt consolidation loans? Have you ever considered using a debt consolidation loan to manage your debt repayment process?
Frontier Pro Services of Banning, California conducted an informal survey of approximately 75 wind farm operators in the United States. Designed to assess the specific operation and maintenance service needs of wind energy operators, the survey reveals potentially serious threats to wind farms owing largely to the industry-wide shortage of qualified turbine technicians. Many wind [...]
Matt Continetti, Free Beacon Hold it, I'm confused. I watched all of the vice presidential debate last night, and someone did not show up. Vice President Joe Biden was there""how could one miss him, with all the grinning, grunting, interrupting, and sneering. But where was the Ayn Rand-worshiping, rape-redefining, fanatically exercising zealot who wants to throw grandmothers off of cliffs and whose budget plan is, according to the president, "thinly veiled Social Darwinism" that is "antithetical to our entire history as a land of opportunity and upward mobility"? That Paul Ryan was...
WALL STREET JOURNAL correspondent and author of THE WRECKING CREW: HOW CONSERVATIVES RUINED GOVERNMENT, ENRICHED THEMSELVES, AND BEGGARED THE NATION takes a look back at the decade that was.
Got to school this morning to hear the news that one of my students' father is passing away, as I write this. He is/was a single dad caring for his two kids and had had a heart attack a couple weeks ago. My girl had been taking care of him during the evenings. She has no idea where she will live or what she will do, but she came to school anyways. She's new and doesn't know me or the school well. Has a lot of trust issues and is not an easy student.
I came in the room and she came up to me and said 'did you...". yup, I say. I gave her a big hug and told her to let me know what I could do to help her. I said "you sure you are up to being here today?" She said "yup...you're kinda strict and you make me work too hard, but I know if I am here, I have someone who cares about me'.
(this is an 30 min period of prep time for me while my students are in gym, lest anyone thing I am hanging out online while I should be teaching :-) back to work I go. yeah essay m arking :-)
As President Obama prepares to announce how many more troops he will send to Afghanistan, Bill Moyers remembers the presidency of Lyndon Johnson and the agonizing decisions that escalated America's involvement in Vietnam. Through Johnson's secret tapes of phone calls and conversations, and his own reminiscences, Moyers recalls the events that plunged us ever deeper into war.
Loyalty programs are everywhere, it seems like every company has one these days. Our wallets and purses are bursting at the seams with plastic cards and mini-cards attached to our key chains. 94% of Canadians are a member of at least one program. If we’re all members of loyalty programs, that must mean they’re good [...]
So a fellow financial blogger called me out on one of my posts, and said that the contents of it was “… insultingly rudimentary advice …“ or at least the message being put across in the post. Now I feel a little vindicated in that I didn’t write the post, it was one of my rare Guest [...]
Officials at the Environmental Protection Agency are considering whether to bar BP from receiving government contracts, a move that would ultimately cost the company billions in revenue and could end its drilling in federally controlled oil fields.
Over the past 10 years, BP has paid tens of millions of dollars in fines and been implicated in four separate instances of criminal misconduct that could have prompted this far more serious action. Until now, the company's executives and their lawyers have fended off such a penalty by promising that BP would change its ways.
That strategy may no longer work.
Days ago, in an unannounced move, the EPA suspended negotiations with the petroleum giant over whether it would be barred from federal contracts because of the environmental crimes it committed before the spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Officials said they are putting the talks on hold until they learn more about the British company's responsibility for the plume of oil that is spreading across the Gulf.
The EPA said in a statement that, according to its regulations, it can consider banning BP from future contracts after weighing "the frequency and pattern of the incidents, corporate attitude both before and after the incidents, changes in policies, procedures, and practices."
Several former senior EPA debarment attorneys and people close to the BP investigation told ProPublica that means the agency will re-evaluate BP and examine whether the latest incident in the Gulf is evidence of an institutional problem inside BP, a precursor to the action called debarment.
Federal law allows agencies to suspend or bar from government contracts companies that engage in fraudulent, reckless or criminal conduct. The sanctions can be applied to a single facility or an entire corporation. Government agencies have the power to forbid a company to collect any benefit from the federal government in the forms of contracts, land leases, drilling rights, or loans.
The most serious, sweeping kind of suspension is called "discretionary debarment" and it is applied to an entire company. If this were imposed on BP, it would cancel not only the company's contracts to sell fuel to the military but prohibit BP from leasing or renewing drilling leases on federal land. In the worst cast, it could also lead to the cancellation of BP's existing federal leases, worth billions of dollars.
Present and former officials said the crucial question in deciding whether to impose such a sanction is assessing the offending company's culture and approach: Do its executives display an attitude of non-compliance? The law is not intended to punish actions by rogue employees and is focused on making contractor relationships work to the benefit of the government. In its negotiations with EPA officials before the Gulf spill, BP had been insisting that it had made far-reaching changes in its approach to safety and maintenance, and that environmental officials could trust its promises that it would commit no further violations of the law.
EPA officials declined to speculate on the likelihood that BP will ultimately be suspended or barred from government contracts. Such a step will be weighed against the effect on BP's thousands of employees and on the government's costs of replacing it as a contractor.
Even a temporary expulsion from the U.S. could be devastating for BP's business. BP is the largest oil and gas producer in the Gulf of Mexico and operates some 22,000 oil and gas wells across United States, many of them on federal lands or waters. According to the company, those wells produce 39 percent of the company's global revenue from oil and gas production each year -- $16 billion.
Discretionary debarment is a step that government investigators have long sought to avoid, and which many experts had considered highly unlikely because BP is a major supplier of fuel to the U.S. military. The company could petition U.S. courts for an exception, arguing that ending that contract is a national security risk. That segment of BP's business alone was worth roughly $4.6 billion over the last decade, according to the government contracts website USAspending.
Because debarment is supposed to protect American interests, the government also must weigh such an action's effect on the economy against punishing BP for its transgressions. The government would, for instance, be wary of interrupting oil and gas production that could affect energy prices, or taking action that could threaten the jobs of thousands of BP employees.
A BP spokesman said the company would not comment on pending legal matters.
The EPA did not make its debarment officials available for comment or explain its intentions, but in an e-mailed response to questions submitted by ProPublica the agency confirmed that its Suspension and Debarment Office has "temporarily suspended" any further discussion with BP regarding its unresolved debarment cases in Alaska and Texas until an investigation into the unfolding Gulf disaster can be included.
The fact that the government is looking at BP's pattern of incidents gets at one of the key factors in deciding a discretionary debarment, said Robert Meunier, the EPA's debarment official under President Bush and an author of the EPA's debarment regulations. It means officials will try to determine whether BP has had a string of isolated or perhaps unlucky mistakes, or whether it has consistently displayed contempt for the regulatory process and carelessness in its operations.
In the past decade environmental accidents at BP facilities have killed at least 26 workers, led to the largest oil spill on Alaska's North Slope and now sullied some of the country's best coastal habitat, along with fishing and tourism economies along the Gulf.
Meunier said that when a business with a record of problems like BP's has to justify its actions and corporate management decisions to the EPA "it's going to get very dicey for the company."
"How many times can a debarring official grant a resolution to an agreement if it looks like no matter how many times they agree to fix something it keeps manifesting itself as a problem?" he said.
Documents obtained by ProPublica show that the EPA's debarment negotiations with BP were strained even before the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig. The fact that Doug Suttles, the BP executive responsible for offshore drilling in the Gulf, used to head BP Alaska and was the point person for negotiations with debarment officials there, only complicates matters. Now, the ongoing accident in the Gulf may push those relations to a break.
Discretionary debarment for BP has been considered at several points over the years, said Jeanne Pascal, a former EPA debarment attorney who headed the agency's BP negotiations for six years until she retired last year.
"In 10 years we've got four convictions," Pascal said, referring to BP's three environmental crimes and a 2009 deferred prosecution for manipulating the gas market, which counts as a conviction under debarment law. "At some point if a contractor's behavior is so egregious and so bad, debarment would have to be an option."
In the three instances where BP has had a felony or misdemeanor conviction under the Clean Air or Clean Water Acts, the facilities where the accidents happened automatically faced a statutory debarment, a lesser form of debarment that affects only the specific facility where the accident happened.
One of those cases has been settled. In October 2000, after a felony conviction for illegally dumping hazardous waste down a well hole to cut costs, BP's Alaska subsidiary, BP Exploration Alaska, agreed to a five-year probation period and settlement. That agreement expired at the end of 2005.
The other two debarment actions are still open, and those are the cases that EPA officials and the company have been negotiating for several years.
In the first incident, on March 23, 2005, an explosion at BP's Texas City refinery killed 15 workers. An investigation found the company had restarted a fuel tower without warning systems in place, and BP was eventually fined more than $62 million and convicted of a felony violation of the Clean Air Act. BP Products North America, the responsible subsidiary, was listed as debarred and the Texas City refinery was deemed ineligible for any federally funded contracts. But the company as a whole proceeded unhindered.
A year later, in March 2006, a hole in a pipeline in Prudhoe Bay led to the largest ever oil spill on Alaska's North Slope – 200,000 gallons -- and the temporary disruption of oil supplies to the continental U.S. An investigation found that BP had ignored warnings about corrosion in its pipelines and had cut back on precautionary measures to save money. The company's Alaska subsidiary was convicted of a misdemeanor violation of the Clean Water Act and, again, debarred and listed as ineligible for government income at its Prudhoe Bay pipeline facilities. That debarment is still in effect.
That accident alone -- which led to congressional investigations and revelations that BP executives harassed employees who warned of safety problems and ignored corrosion problems for years -- was thought by some inside the EPA to be grounds for the more serious discretionary debarment.
"EPA routinely discretionarily debars companies that have Clean Air Act or Clean Water Act convictions," said Pascal, the former EPA debarment attorney who ran the BP case. "The reason this case is different is because of the Defense Department's extreme need for BP."
Instead of a discretionary debarment, the EPA worked to negotiate a compromise that would bring BP into compliance but keep its services available. The goal was to reach an agreement that would guarantee that BP improve its safety operations, inspections, and treatment of employees not only at the Prudhoe Bay pipeline facility, but at its other facilities across the country.
According to e-mails obtained by ProPublica and several people close to the government's investigation, the company rejected some of the basic settlement conditions proposed by the EPA -- including who would police the progress -- and took a confrontational approach with debarment officials.
One person close to the negotiations said he was confounded by what he characterized as the company's stubborn approach to the debarment discussions. Given the history of BP's problems, he said, any settlement would have been a second chance, a gift. Still, the e-mails show, BP resisted.
As more evidence is gathered about what went wrong in the Gulf, BP may soon wish it hadn't.
It's doubtful that the EPA will make any decisions about BP's future in the United States until the Gulf investigation is completed, a process that could last a year. But as more information emerges about the causes of the accident there -- about faulty blowout preventers and hasty orders to skip key steps and tests that could have prevented a blowout -- the more the emerging story begins to echo the narrative of BP's other disasters. That, Meunier said, could leave the EPA with little choice as it considers how "a corporate attitude of non-compliance" should affect the prospect of the company's debarment going forward.
ProPublica reporters Mosi Secret and Ryan Knutson and director of research Lisa Schwartz contributed to this report.
Once adversaries in 2000's Bush v. Gore Supreme Court case, now two of the nation's premier lawyers -- one conservative and one liberal -- have teamed up to make the constitutional case for same-sex marriage.
As discussed in a previous article posted in March, obtaining the perfect portfolio is the holy grail of financial strategies. However, it is also an enigma that can be difficult to obtain. As we previously illustrated, each person's particular situation brings with it different goals and suggestions.
We have a compiled a few scenarios, just as we did last month. But this time, we're focusing on older investors, ones either approaching retirement or already past it.
Scenario #1: 55-year-old single parent with no children currently in college
With retirement only ten years away, it is important that you create a financial portfolio that will last at least thirty years, if not longer. According to many financial experts, it is a good idea to focus on creating saefty for what you have accumulated as well as creating opportunity for growth. One fact to keep in mind, however, is that the government is planning to increase interest rates in 2014.
Scenario #2: 65-year-old single person in great health
If this describes you, consider yourself blessed. As we grow older, our bodies begin to show quite a bit of wear and tear, and being healthy can seem like an enigma even more so than having the perfect portfolio. In this scenario, there's a good chance that you can put off your retirement. In addition to the added health benefits that continuing to work can afford you, a delay in applying for Social Security benefits will mean larger monthly payments. Each year that you don't retire past your full retirement age, your payments will increase by 8%. This increase will continue until you're 70, so if you're in good health and can delay your retirement, it's a great strategy to employ.
Scenario #3: 57-year-old couple with no children currently in college
If you have no children in college, this affords you the luxury of concentrating on your own finances. No need to keep a sizable amount of cash around. Instead, put that money to work in growth-oriented strategies. Doing so can provide you with a strong, long-term strategy. Above all, just make sure you're maintaining a sense of balance.
Scenario #4: 75-year-old widow or widower
Part of the strategy to be utilized in this scenario depends on whether you or your late spouse had a company pension. If so, in all likelihood, you should have a solid financial structure, especially once Social Security checks are included in the calculations. If this is the case, you'll have some extra funds that you can use to invest in a variety of financial products. If there is no company pension, you may want to consider consulting with a financial expert who can help guide you. Regardless, you should plan for the next 10 or 20 years. Pay attention to the current trends.
Watch this video for a great story of the beginning of retirement. How many of you have thought about that day when you’ll suddenly stop working and begin retirement? Do you have a long bucket list that you’ll start tackling … Continue reading →
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York announced on Thursday that it had been paid back for loans used to support the government bailouts of Bear Stearns and the American International Group.
The federal judge overseeing the securities fraud case said it was "being settled for, relatively speaking, chump change," but that he was inclined to sign off on the settlement.
My wife and I were out treating ourselves to a lavish Costco Lunch (best lunch for less than $5 around) a few days ago, and afterwards we wandered around their showroom, and noticed that in the Jewelry section they were advertising a new ring that you could get from them. It looked quite nice, but that is [...]
So first the good news - the mortgage is now down under $30 000. It's a long while coming. 40 months in the $30 000 decade, to be precise. It was nice to see it finally move down. I hope the $20 000 decade doesnt' take nearly so long.
Further good news - I was able to make some progress on the LOC and put more than the nomial $50 down on it. It moved down almost $400.
The Christmas 2012 goal is now met, with barely enough time before it will be time to spend it.
My next 'mental' goal will be to get that total debt under $30 000. Not sure if it is doable before the end of 2012 but we shall see.
MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. (NYSE: WFR) has had no real good news heading its way in some time. Now we have news of a customer loss, or termination, as its subsidiary MEMC Singapore Pte. Ltd. has reached an agreement to terminate a long-term solar wafer supply pact with Conergy AG.
MEMC did not issue a warning with the news. Instead it stated, "MEMC is assessing the financial impact of the termination of the supply agreement and will provide further clarification on its third quarter financial results conference call in early November." MEMC called this a mutually beneficial outcome for both parties and it leaves the door open to working with Conergy again, but it is hard to not imagine that this will take one more bite out of forward guidance.
The original deal was signed in October 2007 for a preset pricing over a 10-year period, which was made on a take or pay basis. Conergy had advanced funds as a refundable capacity reservation deposit under the terms. MEMC said that starting back as far as early 2009 when market woes surfaced that obligations under the supply agreement created challenges to finding a mutually beneficial arrangement between the parties. This led to a lower supply agreement in January 2010.
In order to resolve these ongoing challenges, the companies have now agreed to terminate the supply agreement. MEMC will now receive payment of $21.2 million through the irrevocable letter of credit established by Conergy and MEMC will refund the refundable capacity reservation deposit currently held by MEMC in an approximately equal amount. Conergy will also make payments on outstanding payables in the amount of $5.5 million and it has agreed to transfer Conergy's portfolio of operations and maintenance contracts to MEMC covering solar power plants in Germany, Italy and Spain.
Where this may hurt is that it represents up to about 175 megawatts and is subject to MEMC's due diligence over the next 60-90 days. This termination agreement does states that there can be no assurance that the parties will conclude this transfer successfully.
We would definitely expect that this will result in a revenue dip for MEMC, but this is still subject to contractual due diligence. There may at least be some good news in that perhaps this will help margins.
MEMC shares closed down 5% at $2.82 on the day and shares are indicated up about 2% at $2.88 in the after-hours session after the news.
JON C. OGG
Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Alternative Energy, Infrastructure, Utilities Tagged: WFR
You can decide to use renewable solar energy without the barriers such as cost installation challenges, or permitting hassles. Upgrade to solar generated electricity in your home by renting the solar energy system. Upgrading Your Home to Solar Generated Electricity A few decades ago, Thomas Edison had a conversation with Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone. Edison [...]
When I spoke with Vanguard’s managing director Atul Tiwari back in June, he said the company would be announcing a new suite of ETFs in the coming months. That announcement arrived late yesterday afternoon: Vanguard will launch five new ETFs before the year is out. Right now, all we know is the names of the [...]
In the wake of a controversial Supreme Court decision giving corporations and unions more freedom to spend on elections, many federal and state lawmakers are hoping to curb Citizens United V. FEC's effect on elections. Find out how some legislators are fighting to curb Big Money spending even as the Court invalidates laws in 24 states aimed at keeping elections clean.
While politicians and the media war over "the public option" and "bending the cost curve," acclaimed actress-playwright Anna Deavere Smith and her one-woman play "LET ME DOWN EASY" give voice to questions of life and death, sickness and healthcare.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Buy an iPhone 5 or replace the leaky rain gutters? Splurge or save? Ah, the tough choices that befall Alaskans every year, when they get their dividend checks from the state's oil savings account just for living here.
State officials said Tuesday that eligible Alaskans will receive $878 this year. That's significantly less than last year's dividend of $1,174, which was the smallest since 2006. The payout will be distributed Oct. 4.
Like others surveyed in rural parts of the state, Sina Takafua, from the northernmost town of Barrow, plans to use her first-ever Alaska Permanent Fund dividend to pay bills. That way, she said, she can free up paychecks from her job at the local fur shop and get her Christmas shopping done early.
Some of her customers, on the other hand, are going for some warmth - and style. They're already pre-ordering parkas made of caribou, wolverine and other furs.
"They're waiting for their PFD to pay for them," said Takafua, who moved to Alaska from Maui, Hawaii, with her two sons in 2010. Her husband joined the family later, so he's not yet eligible for a dividend like they are.
New residents must live in Alaska for one calendar year to benefit from the permanent fund, which was established in 1976 after North Slope oil was discovered.
The Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. said last month that residents could be looking at a smaller dividend that last year's.
The amount of investment earnings allocated to dividends is based on a five-year rolling average of Permanent Fund performance. Dropping from the average this year is 2007, a recent high-water mark in which the fund earned $3.4 billion in statutory net income, the realized gains used in calculating the dividend. Staying in is 2009, during the recession, when the fund recorded its first net loss in the statutory net income.
There's no state income tax in Alaska, but residents must pay federal taxes on the bounty. Still, it's free money for every eligible man, woman and child. Don't expect anyone to balk at it.
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In the western town of Nome, many residents are using it to pay for outrageously expensive groceries and gasoline, which sells for almost $6 a gallon. Gone are the days when people spent their dividend checks on snowmobiles from Morgan's Sales and Service shop, said fourth generation owner Pat Johanson.
As for Johanson, his plans depend on how winter fares compared to last year, when temperatures were more brutal than usual. Johanson, his wife and four children could have a vacation in the near future.
"If January gets to 30 and 40 below again," he said, "I want to go to Hawaii."
So does Sean Irvin of Anchorage. He went there on last year's dividend and wants to go to Maui with this year's money.
Still, there he was at an Anchorage Best Buy, eyeing another PFD treat - no, not the new iPhone coming out Friday, but a humble phone for a landline.
Meg Whitman's tenure at Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) is coming under more fire, whether it is too soon or deserved or not… At the analyst meeting today, H-P is lowering some expectations ahead. The IT and PC giant is now signaling that H-P will earn $2.10 to $2.30 in earnings per share in 2013. While the results sound dismal, the adjusted earnings per share are being put at $3.40 to $3.60 in earnings per share.
H-P has a consensus earnings estimate from Thomson Reuters of $4.06 EPS for 2012 and $4.18 EPS for 2013. Still, that $3.40 to $3.60 target is being viewed as a huge disappointment.
Here is the real issue and this shows why you cannot blast a large corporate turnaround that does not occur overnight. The company says that it "is on track to deliver on its savings targets and complete the restructuring by the end of fiscal 2014."
Meg Whitman's outlook further stated, "By 2016, she expects the company's revenues to be growing in line with gross domestic product, with operating profit growing faster than revenues, industry-leading margins and disciplined capital allocation."
H-P has already been in turnaround mode for a year. What that means is that it will take another two years. or three years start to finish.
To turn a company around to look for revenue growth similar to that of GDP and even then not until 2016… What is the incentive for investors here?
H-P shares are down 7.5% at $15.85 on the day to yet another multi-year low.
Former Democratic Senator Ernest F. "Fritz" Hollings gives his views on the stranglehold of money on Washington. "You've got to untie the money knot," he tells Moyers. "Then...the government will begin to work."
Many people are finally taking a long hard look at their financial status and are looking for ways to improve it. They are making a commitment to stop buying things that they can't afford and to live within their means. They also want to start saving more money for their future. Take a look at how an Internet savings account can help you save more money.
First of all, why use an Internet savings account versus your regular bank account? The usual answer is that people think Internet savings accounts offer higher interest rates. You will need to do some comparison shopping to see if this is true.
Interest rates change all the time. When you look online for a savings account you may see that some banks offer an introductory interest rate that is higher than the normal rate. What you want to find out is if this high rate will expire, and if so, when will it expire.
Items to consider when choosing the right Internet savings account:
Interest Rates
How do they compare with your brick-and-mortar banks? How often will they change?
Opening a New Account
Do you need to keep a minimum balance in the account at all times?
Access to your money
Can you withdraw money from your online savings account through an ATM?
Loans
When using an online-only bank to manage your money it is important to find out if you can apply for a loan from them if you ever need one. This includes a line of credit as well.
Bank Service Charges
Are there any fees associated with using their online savings account? If so, is there any way to avoid those fees?
Withdrawal Fees
Are you limited to a specific number of free withdrawals per month or are they unlimited?
Transferring Your Money
To withdraw money from an Internet savings account, you typically need to transfer it to a traditional bank account first and then withdraw from there. When you do your comparison shopping, double check if that is how withdrawals work, and if so, how many days do the transfers take.
Customer Service
How do they offer customer service? Through email or by phone? Phoning a customer service center is far more appealing than waiting for a response to an email, so take that into consideration when making your decision.
You can begin saving money right away by finding the right Internet savings account, especially if you find one that offers better interest rates than your traditional financial institution. Take the time to look online and do some comparison shopping before you setup any new accounts.
How was everyone’s Labour Day weekend? Ours was great, a nice 8.5 k hike (my wife held our baby for most of the hike) and took in some sights from mid Vancouver Island. Todd Tresidder @ Financial Mentor writes 80 New Financial Calculators – Wow! – These new calculators simplify every aspect of financial planning [...]
Over the last couple years, the folks at Panera have slowly been expanding their pay-what-you-can Panera Cares eateries beyond the initial experiment in Missouri. But the latest Panera Cares, located in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood, is drawing some jeers from local residents who say the restaurant is attracting an undesirable element.
“It’s just kind of scary,” one longtime resident in the … [More]
Bill Moyers introduces "Deepening the American Dream," a Web-only project at www.pbs.org/moyers that features essays and videos of some of Moyers' notable guests laying out their vision for the future of the American dream.
On today's show, we dive deep into the world of offshore companies and bank accounts.We set up our own company in an offshore tax haven, and we find out where the easiest place to hide your money is.
Although a pork industry group based in the UK warned consumers of a looming worldwide shortage,we’ve got plenty of bacon to go around here in the United States. Which is either a cause for celebration for you pork aficionados or will elicit a shrug from those not worshiping at the bacon altar.
At the close of Lincoln's bicentennial year, Bill Moyers Journal takes a unique look at the 16th President. Moyers speaks with critically acclaimed choreographer Bill T. Jones about his creative process, his insights into Lincoln, and how dance can give us fresh perspective on America's most-studied president.
Glenn Reynolds, DC Examiner Last month, I wrote that though Woody Allen once said that 80 percent of life is showing up, in politics it's more like 100 percent. With the election now just weeks away, that statement is looking truer and truer.The polls show the presidential race neck and neck. But that's among people who respond to polls. The actual election will hinge on who actually shows up to vote.Pollsters try to account for this with "likely voter" models, which adjust the raw data based on who's likely to go to the trouble to vote not just spout off to a pollster. But those models are more...
Even a temporary expulsion from the U.S. could be devastating for BP's business. BP is the largest oil and gas producer in the Gulf of Mexico and operates some 22,000 oil and gas wells across United States, many of them on federal lands or waters. According to the company, those wells produce 39 percent of the company's global revenue from oil and gas production each year -- $16 billion.
A year later, in March 2006, a hole in a pipeline in Prudhoe Bay led to the largest ever oil spill on Alaska's North Slope – 200,000 gallons -- and the temporary disruption of oil supplies to the continental U.S. An investigation found that BP had ignored warnings about corrosion in its pipelines and had cut back on precautionary measures to save money. The company's Alaska subsidiary was convicted of a misdemeanor violation of the Clean Water Act and, again, debarred and listed as ineligible for government income at its Prudhoe Bay pipeline facilities. That debarment is still in effect.
MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. (NYSE: WFR) has had no real good news heading its way in some time. Now we have news of a customer loss, or termination, as its subsidiary MEMC Singapore Pte. Ltd. has reached an agreement to terminate a long-term solar wafer supply pact with Conergy AG.
By RACHEL D'ORO
Meg Whitman's tenure at Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) is coming under more fire, whether it is too soon or deserved or not… At the analyst meeting today, H-P is lowering some expectations ahead. The IT and PC giant is now signaling that H-P will earn $2.10 to $2.30 in earnings per share in 2013. While the results sound dismal, the adjusted earnings per share are being put at $3.40 to $3.60 in earnings per share.
