Your Financial Guide

Consumer purchase intent for new cars is down, though interest has increased incrementally in used cars, according the Consumer Reports Retail Index.

Each month, the Consumer Reports measures the amount of financial difficulties consumers face, trending their stress, recent purchases, and planned purchases in major categories. The June report found confidence fadinga sign that Americans continue to have economic uncertainty amid talks of the recovery stumbling.

Among retail categories covered, the latest index shows May automotive sales among the respondents were up slightly versus the prior month for both new cars (3.3% vs. 1.8%) and used cars (4.8% vs. 3.9%). Looking ahead, survey respondents reveal new car sales for June are expected to dip slightly, though planned used-car purchases are up for the next 30 days compared to the prior month (4.6% vs.

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Interesting opinion piece in today’s WSJ about food stamp fraud. The last paragraph pretty much sums it up:

H.L. Mencken quipped that the New Deal divided America into “those who work for a living and those who vote for a living.” The explosion in the number of food-stamp recipients tilts the political playing field in favor of big government. The m

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Turning over your financial future to ANYONE can be a bit unnerving. After all, you have a lot at stake when you work with a financial or investment advisor. You want a financial advisor who is courteous, knowledgeable, understandable, understanding, responsible, and competent. The problem is that these traits aren’t awarded when the Certified Financial Planner designation is given.

Nope, those awards aren’t handed out. Unless you use a service such as WiserAdvisor, you’re instead left with the recommendations of friends or family, or you have to simply trust in the designations hanging on the office walls, or it just becomes a total shot in the dark. Here you are, handing over something as significant as your investments and personal financial affairs to someone you really don’t even know, much less know how to evaluate on your own. How do

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The so-called shadow inventory fell to 1.7 million units in April, according to a report released today by CoreLogic.

It’s down from 1.9 million units a year ago, thanks to increased distressed sales and fewer new mortgage delinquencies.

Unfortunately, the supply hasn’t changed because of a slower sales rate – it stands at five months, the same level seen a year earlier.

But it has dropped roughly 20 percent from the two-million unit peak seen in January 2010, when the supply was on pace to take a staggering 8.5 months to clear.

The shadow inventory refers to homes that aren’t currently on the market, but are expected to be, thanks to borrowers missing mortgage payments and eventually losing their homes to foreclosure.

Shadow Inventory Represents Nearly a Third of Market

It now accounts for 29 percent of the combined shadow and visible housing inventories.

The total shadow and visible inventory stood at 5.7 million units as of April, down from 6.2 million units a year ago.

On top of the shadow inventory are two million current, but negative equity mortgages, which are more than 50 percent upside down (150% loan-to-value ratio).

In other words, home prices are going to remain under some serious pressure, even if these homeowners ride it out.

The town of Empire, Nev., has been wiped off the map. Even the town’s zip code has been deleted. The company owned-town was the last of its kind, and was a victim of the recession. Located about 100 miles north of Reno, the town was owned by the U.S. Gypsum company, which mined the mineral and turned it into drywall Sheetrock for the construction industry. The company is the nation’s largest supplier of Sheetrock. But the factory shut down on Jan. 31, 2010. The 99 employees were reduced to four who stayed to clean things up. After that, residents were given five months free rent to finish out the school year.

As of last Monday, the town ceased to exist. All 300 former residents have moved on and even the town’s zipcode, 89405, no longer exists. All t

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Are you optimistic about the U.S. economy?

Reports showing nagging weakness in the labor market and fewer home sales helped send the Dow tumbling more than 200 points early Thursday, plunging it back below the 12,000 mark.

A steep slide in oil prices – sparked after oil producers said they planned to boost supplies – also weighed on Wall Street’s mood, dragging down energy-related shares.

The losses came a day after Federal Reserve officials cut their forecast for economic growth, but also gave no indication they would take further steps to jumpstart the increasingly sluggish economic recovery.

“The stock market has come to a realization that the slowdown is worse than expected, that we are not just in a soft patch, but a long-term slowdown,” James Dailey, portfolio manager of TEAM Asset Strategy Funds told Reuters.

The Dow was down 1.6% at 11,919, virtually erasing a string of gains it etched out beginning in the middle of last week.

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Opening a checking account requires a great deal of financial responsibility. This is because if you make the mistake of not properly using and managing your high yield account, you can easily use up all of your funds or end up getting charged with all kinds of fees such as insufficient fund fees. If this is your first time to have a checking account or if you have had some experience of being charged with insufficient fund fees in the past, read on for so tips on how to avoid such charges.

The first thing you need to do would be to carefully monitor all of the expenses that you are making on the account. Overdraft and insufficient fund fees are usually charged when you write checks for amounts that are more than what you actually have in your account. Read more…