"Fortis expects a complete collapse of the US financial markets within a few days to weeks. That explains, according to Fortis, the series of interventions of last Thursday to retrieve € 8 billion. “We have been saved just in time. The situation in the US is much worse than we thought”, says Fortis chairman Maurice Lippens. Fortis expects bankruptcies amongst 6000 American banks which have a small coverage currently. But also Citigroup, General Motors, there is starting a complete meltdown in the US”

Original Article

We often overlook opportunities.  Most people see opportunities when it is most obvious and often too late.  For example, many people got on the real estate band wagon around 2004 and 2005, which was really the tail end of the ride and most lost their lunch and their savings.  I have been waiting for the current market conditions to emerge.  Foreclosures are growing and most Lender are slow to make decisions and offer good deals.  This is about to change.  We are currently at the point where the news is overwhelming, the facts are clear and now the Lenders need to do some damage control.

This is the beginning of the buying opportunity for long term investments. I have noticed that properties in California are at prices that will debt service themselves. "Debt service" means that the property has the ability to pay for the mortgage payment and expense and even show some profits. This is not necessarily the time to look for flipping opportunities though they are out there. This is the time to look for long term investment opportunities the type that will provide you a nice retirement. Other parts of the nation have already entered this phase, but California is just moving into it. Imagine picking up two or three single family homes that pay for themselves and maybe even generate a small profit. The small profit is not really the objective. I would probably recommend that you put the profit into a savings account for vacancies or deferred maintenance. What you are looking for is the positive cash flow that will be generated when the rents go up in the future, the gain on equity and the monster cash flow 15-20 years from now. Imagine a 3 bedroom home that currently rents for $1600 which in 10-15 years could rent for $3000 and generate you over $1400 dollars positive cashflow. You could easily replace your social security check with one of these deals. Now imagine this with 3,4,5, or 6 properties.

The deals are out there.  Financing is more difficult but not impossible.  Get your feet wet and start doing your home work for the first one.  Be conservative and know your area well.  Contact me if you have any questions or need to locate a Realtor.

somoney2k@yahoo.com

Good Luck.

Ignore the sales pitches and take advantage of these free or low-cost tools to safeguard your identity and credit.

You have the right to three free credit reports a year – one each from the major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. The reports list payment histories of loans and outstanding debts or bills. If you’ve been late or negligent in paying a bill, it might show up. Taking care of those might boost your credit status. It’s a good idea to get all three reports because there can be differences among them. Carefully check for mistakes – sometimes bills that were paid long ago are still listed as un-resolved. Also, you could find evidence of identity theft, such as charges for items you never bought. Furthermore, it’s important to check the personal information such as addresses where you’ve never lived. If you spot problems, each of the credit bureaus has appeals processes you can use to challenge items listed. And although these bureaus probably won’t win a lot of popularity contests, they do resolve some proper challenges in a matter of days. By law, the credit bureaus had to set up a site where you can apply for all three of your free reports – it’s www.annualcreditreport.com. A note of caution: While you are at the official site, the credit bureaus might try to offer you additional services that are not free. Feel free to ignore them. Credit scores are not included in the free reports. If you want them – and each of the credit bureaus figures them differently – you’ll probably have to pay.

Fraud Alert

If you’ve been a victim of identity theft or fear that you could be (due to credit cards being stolen or perhaps a notification that your personal financial information might have been pilfered), you can put an alert on all three of your credit bureau records. Then, if someone tries to apply for a credit card in your name, the card company or lender checking credit records is supposed to be alerted that there might be a problem. To place a fraud alert, call toll-free numbers for the credit bureaus listed on their Web pages (and in the information box accompanying this article).

This is a more effective but somewhat more bothersome way to help prevent identity theft. And it’s not free in all cases. Also, it’s not available everywhere – California was a pioneer in giving residents freezing rights. A freeze puts a lock on you credit records, and they can be opened for inspection only with your permission. This ensures that no one can apply for a credit card or loan without your knowledge. But every time there is a legitimate reason for someone to checkthe reports – such as your applying for a credit card or even a new job – you have to temporarily lift the freeze. To place freezes on your reports, you have to send request letters to each of the credit bureaus. A freeze costs $10 ($30 to do all three), but the fees are waived if you’ve been an identity theft victim.

Credit card and insurance offers that come in the mail because you’ve been “pre-approved” or “pre-qualified” can be stopped or at least curbed. Under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, you can get removed from so-called firm-offer lists that companies use to make these solicitations. It’s not a cure-all. You’ll still get offers from companies that don’t use those lists.

This has no force of law, but the Direct Marketing Assn. will request its thousands of members to take you off their mailing lists if you request it. There is a cost, but it’s only $1, payable by credit card or check. The association said it’s for verification purposes.

Source: LA Times and Porter Ranch

 Owning your own business is challenging and running the day to day operations should be enough, but after you make your money there are the taxes to worry about.  Should you be fortunate to have a profitable business the next step is to maximize the profit that you keep.

DBA – Doing Business As - gives you some taxes savings and some structure but it is very limited. The main taxes saving is that you can write off more expenses than as an individual.

Corporations – LLC, S Corp and C Corp - These give you more advantage but they can also work against you. Do you home work on which model best meets your needs. For example a doctor who runs a small practice would benefit from an S corporation. An S corporation would allow a small practice to write off any losses by passing it on to the individual.  S corporations are great for start up businesses that expect to show a loss or little profit in the beginning years.  While a C corporation would become much more advantageous once the practice becomes more profitable because the corporate tax rate is around 15% much less than an individual rate. The key is to avoid the dreaded “double taxation” which occurs when paying dividends and profits from the C corporation. The corporation will pay taxes on any profits and then the owners of the corporation will pay taxes on any dividends disbursed at the end of the year, thus profits are taxes twice. To avoid this you should avoid things such as dividends and just increase the income you pay to the principals. 

It is a good marker to incorporate your business once your profits exceed $230,000 for the years 2008 and after. There are curtain benefits which include avoiding the 2.9% Medicare tax on money withdrawn from you practice. 

Note that you will incur more accounting fees and in some states corporation are required to pay a minimum of $800 annual fees for the right to run a corporation even if you show a loss.

Most people do not think about business structures based on future income because everyone expects to make money but the reality is that each business owner should be realistic about what their company will be doing and how to maximize their tax benefits. Everyone should talk to a tax consultant or tax lawyer and plan how to structure a company before starting a business.

Click this link for more information:             Mycorporation.com

You can get a wealth of information and save some money on setting up a corporation or LLC.

This information is not intended to provide legal advice. We advise everyone to seek professional help when considering their business structure. This information is provided for entertain purposes and may not be applicable to your individual situation.

 This was an article on Market Watch.  I wanted to share with all my reader in its entirety.

No Matter who’s elected president, the debt party’s over

Reason No. 1: "Most Americans have yet to feel any of the costs of the Iraq war," write Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes in an excerpt of their new book, "The Three Trillion Dollar War," in Vanity Fair. "The price in blood has been paid by members of the volunteer military. The price in treasure has been financed entirely by borrowing. Taxes have not been raised to pay for the war."

Well, folks, the party’s over. Campaign rhetoric won’t hide America’s excesses, denial, incompetence and arrogance much longer. No matter who’s elected, taxes will increase to cover massive debts. Greed has driven America’s great economic engine into a "debt contagion" ditch with a recession, bear market, price inflation, and weak job and housing markets … you bet your taxes will increase.

Yes, our five-year war was totally financed by borrowing. But unfortunately, "deficit spending gives the illusion that the laws of economics can be repealed. They cannot. Americans will have to pay for the war at some point — and when they do, they will be paying not the Bush markdown but the full price," the authors say.

We’ve been mislead by Washington’s Enron-style accounting that hides many costs:

• Supplemental financing bills, outside the budget
• No veterans health-care estimates included
• No equipment replacement costs to restore our military
• Nothing about increases in state and homeland security

The real cost isn’t $800 billion, it’s already $3 trillion. And still, it doesn’t include …

• Interest on the ever-increasing $9.3 trillion federal debt
• Damage to our credibility from a weak dollar
• Out-of-control inflation in energy
• And the brutal damage to Iraq and other Gulf states

Washington’s hiding all that from us. We were sold a war-on-the-cheap, to cost a mere $50 billion to $60 billion, to be self-financed out of oil revenues. Today we’re spending $50 billion every month! This war is already an economic disaster for America and the bill’s still coming due.

Still, we know there’s strong opposition to taxes. But can a new president change much? Certainly not with two-thirds of the budget in untouchable entitlements and interest costs. Besides, Washington’s not run by our 537 elected officials but by 35,000 lobbyists. And after the elections, all 35,537 will still be part of a conspiracy that hates change and loves to spend the $3 trillion Federal budget.

Mark my words: Taxes will (must!) be increased to recover from years of excessive spending, accumulating deficits and future earmarks. A new president may expose the problems but without Congressional restraint the taxpayers will get stuck paying "the full price."

Frankly, since both parties are mired in narrow ideologies, it’s questionable whether either can manage a $15 trillion GDP economy. Read "Mismanagement 101," Dan Gross’s Newsweek column: "As oil hovered near $100 a barrel, President Bush complained to OPEC about high oil prices. OPEC president Chakib Khelil responded acidly that crude’s remarkable run had nothing to do with the reluctance of Persian Gulf nations to pump oil, and everything to do with the ‘mismanagement of the U.S. economy.’" And our heavy reliance on borrowing keeps making it even more difficult for the next president.

But unfortunately, even though the party’s over, that $3 trillion war debt is just a fraction of America’s out-of-control debt which is bigger than the official $9.3 trillion federal debt. It’s reason No. 1 taxes are going up.

Here are another eight problems increasing our government’s debt and adding pressures for new tax hikes. I’m sure you can think of many others:

2. America’s New Wall Street Welfare Program

This one’s scary. For the first time in almost a century, the Fed’s bailing out the investment bankers, those wild speculators who got us in this mess — bailed out while two million homeowners face foreclosures and increasing interest rates.

The real sinners are free to sin again! Like J.P. Morgan Chase’s $2 — now $10 — freebie of Bear Stern’s equity, while the Fed stuck the taxpayers with billions of Bear’s junk debt. Now Wall Street’s greedy traders are free to start speculating again, playing in the same old $516 trillion high-risk derivatives casino. Bad move: The Fed’s setting America up for an even bigger crash around 2012.

Bear Sterns is a symptom of a systemic disease. As BusinessWeek put it: "Financiers preached the free-market gospel and pocketed unheard-of sums of money, yet when times got tough they called for a government bailout."

The Fed’s dealing with America like a third-world banana republic, effectively nationalizing our financial industry! Wall Street’s speculators have over $200 billion in junk write-offs. But like the government accounting tricks hiding war costs, Wall Street has also been inflating junk asset values and ginning up profits. And now the Fed’s even helping them mask losses to prevent panic. Eventually this PR stunt will cut Wall Street’s future earnings and increase taxes.

Lobbyists like AARP will fight all cutbacks in Medicare and Social Security entitlements, even though those unfunded benefits will balloon to $50 trillion to $65 trillion within a generation. Economists say solving this problem will take Draconian cuts of 40% in benefits or tax increases of 40%. If we don’t, entitlements will consume the entire budget in a generation. Untouchable near-term: Ergo, minimal cuts, higher taxes.

5. America’s Pork Barrel Lobbying Machine

The Washington Post says lobbying is "Washington’s biggest business." All those 35,000 lobbyists will be around for the entire 2009-2012 first term of the next president, and all screaming for government handouts. The Democrats need them. And while McCain promises to veto earmarks, his campaign’s inner circle is made up of special interest lobbyists, ostensibly working for "free."

Expect little change. Lobbyists earn big bucks squeezing megabucks out of the federal budget, and your taxes pay the bills.

"We’re on top of it," said the President in his St. Patrick’s Day speech at the New York Economics Club, as if the credit meltdown had little effect on the economy. The Treasury secretary even got a Katrina-style "great job, Hank" for working one whole weekend to magically fix the crisis.

Unfortunately, the Treasury and the Fed are following the same playbook that pushed the 1970s economy into a long, deep recession. Pimco’s Bill Gross says we need an aggressive Rooseveltian fiscal package. No chance. This administration only knows a free market (for business) and tax cuts (for the top).

Imagine taking that $50 billion monthly cost of fighting and rebuilding Iraq and shifting it to upgrading our own highways, hospitals, power, sewer and water plants. Dream on. Yet our deterioration continues and deferred maintenance only works so long. Expect higher gas taxes, plus sizeable cutbacks in state and local services, or general tax increases.

In one generation our savings rate declined below zero. Policymakers favored a consumer-driven economy, capital formation fell and debt piled up. Meanwhile, consumers took a cue from an out-of-control "spend and borrow" government piling up huge deficits.

The past five years the Wall Street Bubble Machine relied on an artificially low 1% Fed rate to create the housing boom and then the subprime-credit meltdown. Meanwhile our optimism and faith in capitalism sank with all the phony asset values and stock prices concocted by Wall Street … and it’ll happen again … because Wall Street’s relentless, all-consuming greed is setting up the economy to crash and burn again, all too soon … and the taxpayer will pick up the tab … again.

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