Man has been able to pee standing up as soon as he learn to stand up by himself. However, women were denied this right. It’s always been squatting or sitting on a toilet for the ladies. Well, here is the answer for females that want to pee standing up. If I were a female I might have one of these for those last resort situations.
Just a quick deal post. Buy.com has it on sale for $796 with free shipping.
This looks like a fun project. Save money from buying a similar item and also reuse a bottle so that there is less garbage in a landfill.
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/07/make_projects_-_outlet-mount_device.html
If you haven’t heard about the new credit card reform then here it is. Congress passed this bill to protect consumer from unfair credit card practices. The list below is from creditcardreform.org.
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The credit card legislation will create the following consumer protections:
- Moves up the Fed’s effective date
- Restricts all interest rate increases during the first year
- Restricts interest rate increases on existing balances
- Increases notice for rate increase on future purchases
- Preserves the ability to pay off on the old terms
- Places limits on fees and penalty interest
- Requires fair application of payments
- Provides sensible due dates and time to pay
- Protects young consumers
- Restricts issuance fees on fee harvester cards
- Requires enhanced disclosures
- Establishes gift card protections
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Hopefully, this credit card reform will end those nasty practices that banks impose on some of us. Ever since this bill passed Congress our most famous financial adviser Suze Orman has been touting her new credit card strategy. Orman’s old credit card strategy was to pay down the creidt cards with the highest interest first and then build up your savings account. Orman reasoning was why would you sock away money and get somewhere around 2% on a savings account (taxable btw) while paying interest on a credit card as high as 22% (non-taxable). So the idea back then was when you finished paying down the debt at 22% then you would start saving for that rainy day.
Her views currently on this matter has change a complete 180 degrees. Now she wants people to just pay the minimum on the credit card bill and sock away money for a rainy day. Orman’s believes that with the new credit card reform banks and credit card companies will start reducing credit card limits and sometimes completely close out the account once it is paid off. This is partly true. How do I know? I’ve experienced this myself. I’ve have an almost a perfect credit card history. I might have missed maybe 1 or 2 payments in my 10+ years of credit history.
Recently, my bank has reduce my limit by as much as 50%. I think that’s great. Let just say I have never come close to spending even close to the half mark so I didn’t know why they gave me such a high limit in the first place. Another bank of mine actually close my line of credit, that’s also great news to me. I had it open a long time ago and never used it. It was for overdraft protection but the limit was ridiculously high. So for me at least this seems like credit card companies are reducing people’s limit to something that is more manageable and possibly better for the individual.
Orman’s new view is that once you payoff your credit card with the astronomical 22% interest rate the credit card company is going to close your account and then you will have no credit. Then when you are in a bind such as losing your job or some unexpected medical bill you will be stuck without any borrowing capabilities. I just don’t agree with this view at all.
Let’s assume you owe $10,000 and the interest rate on the credit card is 18%. If you make a payment of $200 a month you would payoff the balance in 93 months that’s over 7 years of payments. Remember, this does not include any additional charges/purchase. Paying off your high interest rate credit card will save you money in long run and will help you accomplish your savings goal.
Banks know that if you are a paying customer, especially those that pay on time, you will be profitable for them (with little risk) to keep around. So the idea of a bank will shutter you out once you pay off the debt is simply idiotic.
To reach that financial freedom we all strive to accomplish paying off high interest debt is the probably the best thing you can do for yourself.
Please remember this blog is for general information and is not intended to be legal advice. You should consult with your own financial advisor before making any major financial decisions, including investments or changes to your portfolio, and a qualified legal professional before executing any legal documents or taking any legal action.
The first finance tip is simple - have a savings account. If you don’t have a savings account already then go to your bank and open one. This tip seems so trivial but you would be surprise at how many people out there that does not have a savings account. A savings account is the first of many financial steps to greater financial security. However, before you open your account make sure there is no monthly fee associated with the account and shop around for the best interest rate.
I know a few that have went through financial hardship. One person told me that he waits until payday to afford lunch or dinner. Another person told me the had to sell a valuable collectible item that they cherish just to make ends meet.
Would a savings account prevent any of this? Possibly, possibly not. It just depends on how you use your savings account. The rule of thumb from most financial advisers is to have 6-12 months of income saved up for a rainy day. I would extend that to 12-18 months as you can see how this recession is lasting longer than most have predicted. How in the world would someone be able to come up with 12-18 months of income to put aside in a savings account? Well, in the real world the simple answer is no one.
However, there is a simple way to get your savings account growing automatically. It’s called direct deposit. You can start direct deposit with a simple form from your Human Resource (HR) department. With direct deposit you can have your paycheck divided up and directly deposited into multiple accounts every time you get a paycheck. If you could afford it, I would recommend depositing 90% of your paycheck into your checking account and 10% into your savings account. This automatic splitting your paycheck will also help you budget. Since the money is already taken out before your paycheck gets deposited into your checking account your mind gets trick into thinking that this is all the money you can spend. If you don’t use direct deposit I can bet with you that you will eventually fail to save the amount you intended to.
Today the national personal savings rate is above 4%, meaning that the US poplation in general saved roughly 4% of their disposable income. What is your savings rate?
Vista Safe Mode
So, I’ve got this software that I’ve downloaded and it won’t work without a “patch”. The executuable file will ask me to register and provide a serial number. I don’t want to do either. So I downloaded a “patch” to fix that. When I ran the “patch” my anti virus McaFee would quarantine the patch. According to McaFee this patch is some kind Trojan/spy ware. Go figure. I tried restoring the file from the quarantine and it would show up in the folder. As soon as I clicked on the patch the file would be be quarantine again and the patch wasn’t able to do it’s magic.
You can’t disable MacFee antivirus because that would defeat the whole purpose of an antivirus program. To resolve this I can either uninstall Macfee and then re-install it after I ran the patch but that is too much work and too many reboots. So the solution to this is I rebooted in Safe Mode. Windows Vista safe mode somehow disabled MacFee real-time antivirus agent. I ran the patch and it worked. Now my software is working smothly without any “request”. Haven’t tried on other system or antivirus software. Let me know if this help you patch things up.
SPAM
First time ever the FTC shuts down an ISP. Usually the FTC will just shut down the spammer but this time they took it a step further and shut down the ISP. “A rogue Internet Service Provider that recruits, knowingly hosts, and actively participates in the distribution of spam, child pornography, and other harmful electronic content has been shut down by a district court judge at the request of the Federal Trade Commission.” This is awesome, they should be doing this more. Action like this will not wipe out spam but at least it will slow them down (a little bit). This is just the start and I can see the FTC will get more forcefull to companies that are in this pratice.
This financial crisis is causing a stir in the Dow 30. The Dow 30 this year is dropping a few well known company and replacing them with other.
GM is replaced by Cisco (CSCO)
Citigroup (C) is replaced by Travelers Group (TRV)
AIG was replaced by Krafts Food Inc (KFT) back in September ‘08
Usually, companies that are removed from an index the stock declines a bit and of course companies that are added to an index the stock gets a nice bounce.
If our health care system is not broken then why are they the cause of so many family bankrupcies? “More than 75 percent of these bankrupt families had health insurance…” So even when you think you are protected with health insurance your still so close to being bankrupt because of a hospital visit. Like I said before, we need to keep people healthy with low-cost insurance to insure they don’t end up in the ER because they lack basic care.
Guess who pays for the uninsured? You. That’s right, the uninsured cost hospitals millions of dollars every year and they pass those cost onto to you. You pay a hidden tax over $1000 to help pay for those cost. This is excatly why we need some kind of universal health care.
