This week we spend the first part of the show talking about gas prices.  There is a considerable contingent of experts that are predicting that gas prices will drop dramatically over the next year.  You don’t hear much about it so we wanted to bring you a breath of good news on this rainy summer day in Seattle.

In the second part of the show, Howard talks about the details of the new Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008.  This is the bill that was just passed to help the mortgage and housing market.  There are a lot of details and it is important to know if it will help you or not. 

Please listen to the show and if you have questions about the bill, or mortgages or options, call Howard directly at 425-252-1121 or email him at Howard@TheMoneyThing.com

 

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In Keeping with the gas theme, this week, Turtle Time looks at how some people are surviving gas at $4 plus per gallon.  As you know, turtle time deals likes to point out that those that cut corners usually don’t get ahead.  Instead we employ the  step by step method of moving through whatever is blocking your financial progress.  The way of the turtle is not flashy, it just works.    

In our news segment we talked about the price of gas and that Americans are using less gas now than we have in the past.  I am feeling a little silly today so instead of telling you ways to save gas by doing things like driving slower or keeping your car tuned or your tires properly inflated.  I am going to tell you the five dumbest things people are doing to save on gas.  With gas as expensive as it is, there are plenty of rabbits out there looking to cut corners.     

Here are five dumbest thing people do to save on gas according to punny money.com.  This is a little tongue in cheek but I think you will get the point.   

1. Riding on empty. Apparently if you wait until you’re just about out of gas (or worse—until after you’re out of gas), it makes gas less expensive somehow. A select few rabbits (morons) are even running out of fuel on purpose—just to get that free gallon of gas their automotive club or roadside assistance program provides to get them going again. 

2. Refilling more frequently. While not quite as crazy as running on empty, there are people who preach that constantly running on full makes more sense. Their thinking is that it doesn’t seem so bad when you’re buying $5 or $10 worth of gas every other day instead of buying $50 worth of gas once a week.

3. Stealing it. Some experts are predicting that, once gas hits $5 a gallon, almost 90% of drivers will resort to stealing gas. And I’m not talking about simple gas-’n’-gos either; expect to see lots more high speed chases on TV between police and stolen fuel tankers.  This is insane.  Don’t buy into it and don’t do it.

4. Buying merchandise that comes with “free” gas cards. Several stores have recently offered gas-related incentives for purchasing merchandise. For example, buy $100 worth of jeans, get a $20 gas card. If you didn’t actually need those $100 worth of jeans (or if you overpaid for them), then you just turned $4 a gallon gas into $20 a gallon gas.

5. Replacing a $40,000 gas-guzzling SUV with a $40,000 sedan. Yay, you get 10 more miles per gallon! That $100 you save per month will definitely help with your new $800 a month car payment.

So if you have a friend or family member who’s been doing any or all of the previously mentioned items.  Tell them about turtle time.  Doing dumb things now will only lead to doing dumber things in the future.  What will they do when the toilet paper crunch hits in 2011.  Those antics will be funny and we will be here to report on it too.

This week we have a guest with an unusual combination of skills. Chris Barr author of the recent book, 4 Easy Ways to Ignite Your Love Life and Fatten Your Wallet. Chris is a financial planner and Feng Shui expert. She combines these two talents to show you how to Feng Shui your home and work place to greater personal prosperity.  Her website is http://www.moreloveandmoney.com and her phone number if you would like some advice on a phone consultations is (561) 784-0884.

You can email her at cbarr@palmbeachfengshui.com

In the Turtle Time segment, I will explain the 4 things you need to do in order to make it through these financial times.  I really enjoyed doing this show.  I hope you will enjoy listening to it. 

If you have any comments or suggestions for the show, email me at howard@themoneything.com

 

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This week’s turtle time segment is about dealing with things.  I read a poll the other day that said that 7 out of 10 Americans feel the economy is getting worse.  I don’t know about you, but in what I do, I have to keep up on what is going.  It is important that I know how these events will affect my family, my business, my investments, my clients and my listeners.  It wears me out listening to all of this negative information.  I have to keep up with this stuff but in truth, you probably don’t.  I believe the media has made our economic downturn worse.  The entire media.  Right wing, left wing, none of them are helping with information about what you should do.  In America we have a right to know what is going on.  We have the tools at our disposal to find out just about any piece of information that we need at any given time.  My point is that even though we have the right to the information and access to it.  Do we really need to know every bad thing that is happening.  I don’t think so.We have already talked today about the money that you have in your bank accounts.  If you have less than $100,000 in one account at a bank or credit union account, it is insured by the US Government.  So, you are OK so far. Right.Now let’s talk about what you should do.  I have said this before and I am going to say it again.  You are on your own.  How you get through this will be a direct result of what you think and do.  Not what some big organization or government will do.You will be the one to decide how you fare in this storm.  There are lots of factors out there that will determine where the economy goes and how the financial markets do, but I ask you.  If you and your family are OK, do you really care?  If the people you care about take care of themselves and you take care of yourself do you really care what happens to all of those government agencies and mega corporations with alphabet names.  I don’t.  I am the provider and protector of my family.  I advise my clients and I am ultimately the one who is responsible for my own financial well being.  Here is my take on what is going on.  This whole mess will last another year or so.  We will all get through it.  It won’t make any difference who is elected president.  Neither of them can fix it.  It won’t matter who gets elected to state and national offices.  They can’t fix it either.  It has to run it’s course.  We will hit the bottom at some point then we can rebuild.  That is what we do in America.  When something breaks, we fix it and go on.  But we always go on.So if you are open to a little coaching, here is my advice to you.  1.     If you are OK, your world is OK.  You cannot change the economic direction of the world markets.  What you can do is take care of yourself.  For the next year, focus on you and your families money.  Don’t pay attention to the junk going on out there.  It is going to get uglier.  But it does not have to clutter your mind with extra junk.  Let it go, take care of yourself.   2.     Make sure that you don’t have to borrow money to live.  Either live on less than you bring in or make sure you have enough in savings to get through the next year.  If you have to borrow to survive.  You have to borrow as little as you can.  3.     Focus on what you spend.  I am not saying that you should stop spending.  Especially if you are a spender by nature that won’t work.  Just focus on it so you make sure that the dollars you are spending are supporting your life values.  4.     Share this message with your friends and the other people you care about.  We all need a little encouragement at this time.  We need to know that we are not the only ones who are uncomfortable with what is going on.  This affects us all.   

Here are the four things you need to do today in this economic time.1.     Take care of yourself2.     Don’t borrow money just to live3.     Focus on what you spend4.     Share this message 

If you do this, I belive your world will be a little calmer and the problems of the world will pass you by.

Two weeks ago we had Marcola Nixon from Solid Ground on the show.  Solid Ground is an advocate organization based in Seattle that does some really great things to help people in the Puget Sound.  The lack of money causes huge problems for people and Solid Ground is there to help.  Their mission is being taxed by this economy, creating more and more need for someone to step up and offer assistance.  I went to Solid Ground last week for a tour and to learn more of what they do and how I might be able to help.  What I found there was a dedicated group of people who are doing incredible things to make a difference in our community.  I was there for a couple of hours and still did not really understand everything they do.  But here is some of what I learned.Most of the crises that people face are a direct result of a lack of money.  We talked about people who don’t have enough to eat.  Lack of money.  They have a program to teach people how to make better purchases at the grocery store and prepare nutritious meals.  This is a combinatation of lack of training, lack of money and lack of time.  I’m sure some of you are wondering, like I was, if they are short on money why are they also short on time.  The conventional thinking is that if people don’t have money it is because they are not working.  Zanne Garland, the Giving Manager at Solid Ground told me that if people are making minimum wage, they are probably working more than one job just to make ends meet.  This creates a real lack of time.  Here is what the math looks like.  If you work 70 hours a week at $8.07 an hour, your take home pay is about $450.00 per week.  At 40 hours a week it’s about $250.00.  Could you live on that?  With the number of single adult homes in our society, this is the reality for many.  As a side note on this.  There are some really bright, street smart people who are making minimum wage.  Most of the business owners I know and remember, I know over 100 millionaires most of whom are also employers.  We are looking for people with street smarts.  These people are the ones who can figure out how to solve a problem and make huge differences in business.  One of my contributions to Solid Ground is to teach people how to take their inherint skills and market them to businesses so they can get a higher paying job.  This empowers people to take control and achieve whatever they are willing to achieve.Marcola specializes in working with people who are having trouble with mortgages.  Marcola tells me that the biggest problem she sees is caused when people have a job loss.  My reseach has shown me that very few Americans have any kind of money to fall back on.  If you are living paycheck to paycheck like most people are, and you lose your job, you know that you are in for a rough road.  If this is just another defeat on your road through survival.  It may be more than you can deal with.  You see, we have to get through the survival mode before prosperity is even a vision we can hold on to. Not everyone who needs help are in that situation due to no fault of their own.  I believe we all want to help people who got caught up in a string of bad luck.  What we don’t like is bailing people out who make bad decisions and go on to make the same ones again.  For example, I saw a story on the news the other night about a family that is losing their home.  They started the news story by showing the Dad driving up to his very nice house in a brand new car with a couple of thousand dollars worth of wheels on it.  I believe that there are consequences for our actions.  Some people need to get their priorities straight and that is probably the thing that struck me most about Solid Ground.   Marcola and Solid Ground are not afraid to tell people that they have made some bad choices that have contributed to their financial situation.  Of course the discussion doesn’t stop there.  They look to help people get through whatever they are dealing with and also to relearn the behaviors that got them there in the first place.  Hate the sin, love the sinner.  It speaks to me.The top floor of their building on 45^th Street houses their advocate department.  In order to make real change in our society, we have to change some of the ways we do things.  Solid Ground understands this and   works closely with elected officials, the business community and other out reach groups to make sure that they understand the problems that people are facing.  I believe that people are inherintly smart and want to do the right thing.  If we know the problem and enough of us get together to solve it.  We can fix all of it.   Solid Ground also provides some housing for people in need.  They told me about the severe shortage of available housing and they are doing what they can.  They own an apartment and lease properties from the city.  By the way, while I was there, I ran into one of my biker friends, Rose Bradshaw, a wonderful sprit who has worked at Solid Ground for many years.  It was nice seeing her in normal clothes, not biker clothes.There are many ways you can help this terrific organization, if you want more information you can visit their website at www.Solid-Ground.org or you can call Zanne Garland.  As I mentioned, Zanne is the giving manager and can be reached at  206-694-6700.

On this weeks show we spend the first part of the show discussing the legislation that congress is working on to penalize the mortgage industry for the credit crisis. I put it that way because I believe in their efforts to get re-elected by showing they are tough on the lenders, banks and wall street they will impose legislation that will eliminate home ownership for millions of Americans. Listen to the discussion and learn more.

The Turtle Time segment this week is my report on my visit to Solid Ground in Seattle last week. They are a great organization doing good work.

The final segment is an abbreviated version of my discussion at the East West Bookshop about the spiritual side of money. More to come on this topic but this will give you a taste for what most wealthy people understand about God, money and giving.

 

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