Ed Icionsub

On the Yahoo front page this morning is a link to the headline stories about which cities are expected to be be trouble spots over the next 12 months.

Local Market Monitor, a Cary, N.C.-based real estate research firm, surveyed 315 U. S. cities and has forecast the Atlantic City metro to experience the largest drop in home value this year – and possibly well into next year.

The top five cities they predict will see the worst decline in property values include:

5. Bellingham, WA

4. Glen Falls, NY

3. Portland/Beaverton/Vancouver OR/WA

2. Provo, UT

1. Atlantic City, NJ

Call me crazy, but it sure seems to be getting very hard to work with real money these days. The financial institutions want the money and they want the rest of us to carry around plastic cards so they can limit how much real money we really have. Thank goodness there are still some places like the payday advance businesses that make real cash available when you need it.

My step daughter just got a new job and had her first payday on Friday. It was only for 2 days of work, but it was a big first step for her. They gave her a check drawn on a bank that is out of state, as the company’s headquarters is in Atlanta.Well, folks, I challenge you to find a way to get that check cashed into real money if you do not have a checking account at a bank or credit union.

What I found is that a cash advance store will cash paychecks for a small fee. Every place else that we tried, such as the big discount department store chain, the local grocer, and even my bank will not cash her check or they want an outrageous fee for processing it. I don’t see why it should cost someone up to 20 percent of the check amount as a fee to convert a paycheck into cash money. I thought we had usery laws against this kind of price gouging!

I used to think that a cash advance business was only to help people borrow money against their next paycheck. But they do a lot more than that. They will cash pay checks, tax refund checks and even take a debit card to give you cash money.

To a lot of people, the word “extensions” means the foot long strands of fake hair that celebrities pay stylists huge amounts of money to stick onto their heads for instant glamour.

To the rest of use, an extension is a Federal form that you fill out and mail into the IRS to beg for more time to get your paperwork in order and file your taxes. The only catch is that if you owe them money, the extension does not give you extra time to pay the money. It is just for the filing so you don’t get in trouble for missing the filing deadline of midnight tonight.

The term underwater homes does not refer to the city of Atlantis. It means that the amount of the unpaid mortgage is higher than the current market value of the house and property. Falling real estate prices have resulted in some homes being underwater. When the owner tries to sell their house, they end up having to pay additional money to the mortgage company to be able to satisfy the loan and transfer title.

The Top 5 worst cities in the U. S. for underwater homes, according to a recent article by U.S. News, are:

1. Las Vegas, NV (81%)
2. Merced, CA (64%)
3. Phoenix, AZ (62%)
4. Orlando, FL (58%)
5. Greely, CO (45%)

Did you know that there are hidden symbols on a U. S., one dollar bill? There was an interesting article on the front page of Yahoo that explains some of the currency mysteries.

For the record, according to this article, each one dollar bill costs the federal government 6.4 cents to print.

Last year when the government was doing their “Cash for Clunkers” program I was really tempted to trade in my old Tahoe because it is 12 years old and a real gas guzzler. But I LIKE that car and it has been running just fine. So I didn’t do it.

Now, I am regretting that decision, because it is seriously broken down and I don’t have the money to fix it. So I’m going to end up buying a new car and not getting the extra tax credit.  I have to have reliable transportation, so at this point I have no choice.

To get much better gas mileage, I’ve been looking at the hyundai genesis. This is a small but nice car, and the Hyundai is a popular car in this area.

To get a slightly larger car and still get decent gas mileage, I have been looking at the chevrolet impala specs and am thinking about taking one on a test drive.

If money is no object an dI want my dram vehicle, I would have to buy the new gmc yukon, which is a great truck with a lot of luxury options, such as leather seats and an upgraded stereo system.

My daughter loves her ford taurus and if they would offer another “Cash for Clunkers” rebate this year, I would [probably help her trade in her old taurus and get a new one just like it.

The news is covered with stories about the tragedy in Haiti. And there are dozens of organizations pleading for donations to help. I am really suspicious of some of these messages I am getting, about texting to different numbers to donate cash via cell phone, sending Paypal donations to people who claim to be missionaries. It bothers me that there are always this lower element of humans ready to take advantage of a natural disaster or catastrophic event for their own personal gain and cheating others out of what was intended to be rightfully theirs.

If you feel compelled to donate to the Haiti victims, check out the organization and make sure they are legitimate. There are lists of these on the white house web site.

My step daughter has a terrible time managing her money. I have tried working with her on this for over 5 years and she still cannot stick to a budget or responsibly manage a checking account. She is always out of money several days before her next payday and is always borrowing gas money to get her through the week.

We have tried to help her manage three different checking accounts at three different banks and she always end up overdrawn and owing a lot of money in overdraft fees. This drives me crazy. Overdraft fees are an expensive punitive measure taken by banks that should be avoided at all costs. But she always has a lame excuse about why she owes the bank money or someone “made a mistake.”

This time we are going to try a new kind of banking. I am going to give her a prepaid debit card.  There is no way to rack up overdraft charges on this account. You cannot spend more than what is on the card, but you can reload it easily from a variety of convenient retail locations, including WalMarts, Walgreens, KMarts, Krogers, and 7-Elevens.

One attractive feature is that you can arrange to have your entire paycheck automatically added to your debit card for immediate access to your money. The card can be used anywhere that merchants accept MasterCard, and you can also use it for online bill pay. So this has all the features of her bank’s debit card program, but none of the banks account fees and overdraft fees that have always eaten away at her account balance.

As far back as I can remember, my parents and teachers have always talked about gold and the value of this precious metal.

My father always bought gold jewelry for my mother as special gifts, such as anniversaries and Christmas. She had a jewelry box on her bedroom dresser filled with beautiful gold necklaces, earrings and rings.

Mt father also bought gold coins as an investment and as a collector. He kept his collection in a safe in his home office until he became elderly, then he moved them to a safety deposit box for safe keeping.

I inherited his gold collection and have added to it from time to time, over the years. I don’t really think of it as an investment strategy, but then again, if the world came to a crisis I suspect that real gold will become worth much more than the paper money and silver coins that we use today.

I would like to teach my children about gold and how to find valuable pieces to add to a collection. But to be honest, I don’t think either of them are in a good place in their lives to appreciate that yet. So i will wait until things settle down for them and then share some of what I’ve learned about this alternate investment and interesting hobby.

It seems that everyone in my office is using Online Trading for their stocks and bonds purchases except me. I am the first to admit that I do not know much about the stock market, so the little bit of investing that I’ve done has been the old fashioned way. It has been good to me so far – even with this awful year for the Dow Jones.

My boss has finally convinced me to learn more about the market and to get an Online Broker. It turns out that it is much easier to do my Stock Trading than it was using a telephone and trying to reach other brokers. It is faster and since I know what I want to do before I get online, it saves a lot of time over talking with someone in a big telemarketing room in New York.