Secured online loans

Many different situations could give you a reason to get a secured loan. A secured loan is a loan in which you need to put up collateral or an asset in order to receive money back from the lender that is allowing you to borrow money from them. The coloratura or asset is something like a car or boat. It could also mean putting up your house for collateral if you need a large enough loan or need to get a second mortgage to pay those bills. You may think that you do not need a secured loan, but a secured loan has a lower interest rate than that of an unsecured loan. Plus, with a secured loan, you have up to twelve months to pay it back. Just remember that the first two payments you make on your loan is usually interest on the loan. So if the loan amount is borrowed at a longer time, it is really ten months plus two months of interest that the cash advance company will charge you with for letting you borrow money.

It cannot happen to you?

Everyone thinks that nothing bad will ever happen to them, until something happens. That is when a secured loan comes in handy for everyone involved.

The title company makes money and you get the extra money you need for whatever reasons that may come along. It’s not like anything will happen, but being prepared and knowing where to go in case something does happen and taking care of your what if’s in life will be a big relief off your shoulder. Taking care of your problems and making an easy solution for them is what a title company loan place is there to do. It is there to make the problem disappear for a little while so you do not have to worry about it.

Start your loan application HERE!

Restaurants Facing Same Recession Issues

The recession has spared no American business or individual, and restaurants are no different in this matter, as they face the same problems many other businesses do. Faced with less people walking in, or making reservations, restaurants are left with two options: come up with new ideas or borrow money to meet existing costs. Some restaurants in the Bay area have taken both options and succeeded where others have failed. After borrowing money, they have been able to capitalize on an idea that seems to be working.

Drop in Morning Clientele

Any restaurant worth its salt will say that the most profitable part of its business comes from the breakfasts they serve. With a drop in customers, restaurants are faced with a daunting task to keep the profitability of the restaurants in check, and offering discounts or dropping prices is not a preferred option. At the same time, restaurateurs realized that their bills did not stop even if customers stopped coming in. Their bills continued coming in and still need to be paid, along with the wages of their employees. They could either borrow money or come up with new plans to counter the threats faced. Under the circumstances, they were left with little choice as they opted to offer brunch as an alternate to breakfast.

Breakfast and Brunch Outlets Increase

There has been an increase seen over the past two years of many brunch outlets in Bay area. Offering a meal between breakfast and lunch did mean that fewer clients would walk in for lunch, but these restaurants were offering something more to the customer who was happy to pay for it. While some restaurants have just included brunch in their ongoing system, others have invested in new facilities that cater mainly just to serving brunch only. Investing in a new infrastructure would have meant borrowing money for the investment, and looking at the number of outlets popping up everywhere, one can confidently say that the investment was well deserved.

Drop in Breakfast Business

While breakfast is considered the most important meal of the day, drops in business were seen in many areas in this segment, which led to restaurateurs coming up with the idea of a brunch. Overall, the business in restaurants has dropped by 4% compared to the same period last year, but the corresponding figure for breakfast sales is in the region of 3%. With the introduction of brunch as an option for customers, restaurants are reporting better figures in their daily turnovers, while some have reportedly doubled their business with the introduction of brunch.

A Good Investment?

It is quite obvious that many restaurateurs may have borrowed money to invest in a new concept, while others have even set up new outlets just to serve brunch. All of them are reporting similar results with the exception of a few, which can be expected. They have certainly hit upon a theory that has proved profitable, even if they must borrow money to get started. Is this the wave of the future? One may never know until the wave has disappeared.

Need to Borrow Money? Apply Here!

Payday loans can be invested in a home business – but you have to work hard to make it worthwhile. (Photo: flickr.com)

When it comes to a payday loan, most people always take one to meet some kind of expense that has mounted and cannot be avoided. One cannot dispute that such requirements are valid. However, there are a set of people who may have borrowed the money for purposes other than just an urgent requirement and also repaid the loan back in time. These are people who can look to make a payday loan work for them.

Investing a Payday Loan in a Home Job

Let us take an example of a newly married couple depending on the wages of the husband or wife to take care of monthly expenses. IF one of the partners does not have a regular job but is capable of taking a loan at high interest and paying it back, they can look to make a small investment in a job that can provide an added source of income. I see no reason why they cannot. There are plenty of jobs available these days where people can work from the comfort of their homes. The world may be facing a recession, but the same is not true of the World Wide Web. There are jobs available, which do not require top-level expertise and can be handled by the layman. People can look out for such jobs even with an investment that costs a lot.

Borrowing Money at High Interest

We are all aware that payday loans come at relatively high interest. Assuming that you have planned about getting a job working from home and are prepared for the same, you can use a loan that you take and make it work for you from day one. If you start making money by the time your next payday arrives, the loan would have been justified, along with the costs.

I’m Not Alone in My Thinking

I am sure that there are people out there who have thought along the same lines. Those enterprising few may also have tried with the idea and may be facing success. They would be thankful to the lender for making the loan available to them without any hassles. The lender too would be happy to have a client who not only borrows the money but also repays in time. You have two happy people out here, both having achieved their ends.

Let’s Be Serious About This

Taking a payday loan to finance a home job is no joke. The person working from home will have to define what he/she wants to do and how much time they are going to devote for the same. The fact that you are making the money work for you does not in any way mean that you can do it slowly. Working from home requires all the time you can spare with the distractions that keep coming your way. However, you will be happy the day you receive your first paycheck from the work you have carried out. Payday loans can be put to many uses. If I ever had to take one for reasons other than an emergency, I would look to make the money work for me.

Apply for Payday Loans HERE!

New York Stock Exchange (photo: flickr.com)

It has often been said that if you want to get good at something find someone who’s already doing it, and do what they do. If you can learn to think like they do, that’s even better. If your area of interest is investing and wealth building, there’s no better person to model after than Warren Buffet.

Warren Buffet is by far the most successful individual investor in the history of investing. So, how do you gain access to the man, his mind, and his method? You can find a number of good books online, but here are some highlights.

Think of investing as your job

Many people approach investing in stocks as a hobby or a scheme. But the key, according to Buffet, is to investing as seriously as if it were your main job. You wouldn’t take dangerous risks with your main source of income, so don’t do it when you invest, either.

Too many investors want to get in, get rich, and get out quickly.  This leads to mistakes and unnecessary gambles. Act as though you are the owner of a business or as though your investing decisions are your main source of income.  This will lead to longer-term and more profitable investments.

Concentrate on the best

With businesses falling off big board left and right, it’s tempting to spread your investments out against the perceived risk, using mutual funds to diversify and protect yourself from the losses of any one company.  According to Buffet, this can be a big mistake. His approach is to focus on the interaction between you and the companies you invest in.

If you have done your homework, you will have a gut feeling for the companies you are comfortable with and those you aren’t. Stick with the companies that are best for you rather than investing your dollars into companies that are your 10th, 20th, or 100th choices. You’ll be better off in the long run.  And by the way, Warren Buffet never invests in mutual funds.

Keep your eye on the prize

This bit of advice might seem contrary to doing your homework, but Buffet suggests never listening to market forecasts. What he’s talking about are generalized forecasts that make sweeping predictions about the overall stock-market.  These generic forecasts tend to be useless. Choose the particular targets that are right for you. When the time and price are right for you, strike no matter what the forecasters are saying.

The bottom line is drawn by you

The pattern for success is easy to follow. Find someone who is doing what you want to do and then learn to act and think like they do. You need to have confidence in yourself to take your investment activities seriously. You have to concentrate on what you think are the right targets for you. Finally, trusting your own hard work and research, you have to strike when you think the time is right. Only you can establish the bottom line for your success. But when in doubt, it’s still okay to ask yourself this question: “What would Warren Buffet do?”

(photo courtesy of flickr.com)

There are many companies looking for money to increase and modify their production capacities. One way they do this is by sharing the ownership of the company with individual investors.

The ownership of the company is divided into many parts – there could be millions of these parts. A price is given to each part – called share or stocks — so that the person who wants to become a partial owner of the company buys a number of those shares. He or she is free to sell them to other people after some time. There are certain things that people who want to earn money from stocks should know and do.

How to earn money from stocks

If you want to earn money from stocks, you should understand the ways in which stocks make money. There are two main ways that stockholders earn money.

Dividends

The first way of making money from stocks is the dividends that accrue every year on the stocks you buy. As an owner of the company you are entitled to your share of the profit. The profit is calculated and given to you at the end of every year. But, if you depend on dividends, you will not make enough money from stocks.

Price appreciations

The second route is the price appreciation of the particular stock. This is the best way of making money from stocks. If a company is doing well, people want to be part of it. That means that these individuals will want to buy stocks of that company from those who originally bought them. They are usually willing to pay more than the price of the first person paid. The more people looking to buy a particular stock, the higher the price they will be willing to pay. Smart investors buy stock when prices are low and sell it when prices are high. The difference is the profit.

Earning more from stocks

Tip #1: Spread out your investments

When you buy stock in several different companies you diversified your investments and thereby minimize your risks. The stock market is a volatile thing. Things change very fast. If you have a lot of money to invest, it is wise to buy stocks in different kinds of companies so that if the price of one is falling, others may be appreciating. You should be aware of the saying “don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” If you put all your money in one company and things go bad there, you will lose.

Tip #2: Sell at the right time

There are times when you should hold onto stocks and times when you should sell. If you keep stocks when the price is appreciating, you are likely not to make any money. You need to sell your stocks when the prices are increasing because the appreciation will not last forever. Prices might fall sooner than you think. Watch prices carefully, so that after they have appreciated for some time, you are prepared to sell.

You can avoid the risks

You may have heard people say that stocks too are risky, yet if you understand the above principles you can and will make money from stocks. These are the principles that keep investors in the market for the long haul. People have made fortunes in the stock market and you can, too, if you play it right.

What goes on behind the glossy facade? (photo: geograph.org)

When you think of an investment bank, the image that probably comes to mind first is a well-dressed banker sitting in a plush office on the top floor of a skyscraper. He or she leisurely sorts through a stack of papers on the desk, or takes an important phone call, and then resumes discussing your company’s capital-raising plans, or answers your questions about investing in certain stocks or government funds.

This image may help explain the continued appeal to new college graduates of working in the investment- banking industry, but there is much more to the story than the well-dressed executives who conduct meetings with clients and take important phone calls. The bankers who meet with clients represent the most visible side of investment banking, but behind them stands a huge investment-banking operations staff responsible for maintaining the bank infrastructure – the framework within which all bank operations take place.

A closer look behind the scenes

Although investment-banking operations personnel may be less visible to the clientele, this does not diminish their important in ensuring that a multitude of transactions proceed smoothly and that client service is maintained at the high level that banks seek to attain. The basic function of the investment banking operations division is to provide administrative support for banking transactions and ensure that money transfers are carried out with the speed, accuracy, and trust bank customers expect.

Human resources management and public relations are also included within the broad category of investment banking operations.  Together, a bank’s operations, human resources and public relations employees keep the investment wheels turning.

Investment banks need computer experts as well as bankers

With the rise of computerized banking since the 1980s, implementing and ensuring the smooth operation of an investment bank’s computer systems has become a major part of every bank’s backstage activities.  Millions of transactions are recorded, monitored, and processed through the bank’s computers every day.

Given the huge sums of money banks routinely handle each day, and the serious risks that human error and employee fraud entail, a tremendous effort  must be invested in operations  side of investment banking. In terms of computer data security alone, a tremendous effort is required to satisfy the many duties owed to clients as well as countless  government regulations.

Outsourcing creates investment-industry jobs in the Third World

The relentless and intense pressure to reduce the cost of banking operations has encouraged many banks to outsource some of their most basic programming work.  China and the Indian subcontinen are two of the most frequent Third World countries on the receiving end of the outsourcing. Although outsourcing basic programming operations creates the potential for major savings, the challenges of remote supervision are far from insignificant.Additionally, the loss of employment opportunities in the country where the investment bank is based is always highly controversial.  The flip-side of the controversy, however, is that outsourcing relieves bank employees from the most mundane tasks and makes their work more satisfying.

AIG

Previously, I wrote about the Fortune 500 companies whose stocks performed well last year. If you want to see returns on your stock investments, look into dollar stores, food wholesalers and other types of discount retail. However, this article is about which companies lost the most money last year.

Fortune 500 compiled a list of companies that lost the most money in 2008. Here are the top five.

1. American International Group

AIG has been all over the news, and for good reason. Besides taking multiple government bailouts and then handing out bonuses to company executives, AIG lost more money than any other Fortune 500 company. The gargantuan insurance company lost nearly $100 billion in 2008. Fortune Magazine says:

The New York-based insurance company that spawned an out-of-control London derivatives dealership is now a $170 billion (and counting) headache for the American taxpayer.

Most of AIG’s losses were due to contracts created to pay off holders of mortgage-backed securities if the personal loans that backed them defaulted. Lesson learned? I hope. This company is going to need some serious credit repair.

2. Fannie Mae

This partially government-owned entity bought or guaranteed approximately 20 million personal loan mortgages with money it borrowed at very low rates. According to Fortune:

As the delinquency rate on the single-family home loans it guarantees more than doubled last year, the company was taken over by Treasury, which is now using it to absorb an endless stream of housing market losses. Last year Fannie lost a staggering $30 billion on its mortgage guarantees alone.

Long story short, Fannie Mae lost $58.7 billion in 2008. Not surprisingly, its brother company is next on the list.

3. Freddie Mac

Though Freddie Mac is considerably smaller than Fannie Mae, it came close to losing the same amount of money, with more than $50 billion. Freddie jumped on the bad-loan-backed security band wagon and suffered $16 billion in realized and unrealized losses.

Freddie borrowed $14 billion from the government, and it has asked for another $31 billion.

4. General Motors

It should come as no surprise that GM is fourth on this list of big-time money losers in 2008. Rumors have been flying that this automaker will soon file bankruptcy. GM lost about $31 billion in 2008. It has gotten government bailouts as well, to the tune of $13.4 billion.

GM is struggling to fight an 11 percent drop in sales. It has released several new fuel-efficient and hybrid cars to try to increase profits.

5. Citigroup

Rounding out the top five Fortune 500 companies that  lost the most money in 2008 is Citigroup, parent company to Citibank. The huge financial conglomerate lost $27.7 billion. Citigroup lost money in every quarter in 2008. Subprime mortgages cost the group $14 billion.

The government now holds a 36 percent stake in the company, and Citigroup surprised everyone when it turned things around in the first quarter of 2009. It pulled in a profit for the first time in more than a year, mostly because of its investment banking division.

Don't invest in a safe; invest in making more money.

IBonds are U.S. Treasury bonds with interest rates that are adjusted for inflation. They are engineered to make sure you always make a real profit, so they never lose value. The interest rate on IBonds right now is 5.64 percent, much higher than a traditional savings account.

So where can you get your hands on some?

Buy IBonds online

Well, it just so happens you can get some at TreasuryDirect, the U.S. Treasury’s web site that lets you do all-online financial transactions. The same way you can get a no-fax payday loan or apply for credit cards without leaving your computer, you can purchase Treasury bonds that will start earning money for you right away.

How to set up an account

Before you set up your TreasuryDirect account, make sure you have these things handy:

• Social Security Number (Taxpayer Identification Number)
• Driver’s License Number or State ID and Expiration Date
• Bank Routing Number and Account Number
• E-mail Address
• A browser that supports 128-bit encryption

When you get to the TreasuryDirect site, click on “TreasuryDirect” under the “Open An Account” menu at the right.

For your eyes only

Only you can open an account for yourself. The site specifically says:

We do not currently permit a legal representative, legal guardian, or trustee to establish an account on behalf of an estate, decedent, trust or incompetent person.

However, there is a different section on purchasing Treasury bonds as gifts.

You don’t need to be rich

You can buy an IBond for as little as $50. While that one $50 bond won’t make you a lot of money, you will make two to three times as much in interest as you would if you put that money into a bank savings account. If you buy one for $50 every month, or even every quarter, that will really add up over time.

The drawback, of course, is that you won’t be able to get to that money for a year after the bond is purchased. And there is a penalty for cashing it out in fewer than five years. But, if you are serious about long-term savings, and you want to make some profit, IBonds are a good way to go.

Steer away from risks with IBonds.

IBonds, iBonds or I bonds, whatever you call them, they are becoming more popular nowadays. It’s pretty obvious why: they are practically a no-risk investment.

IBonds are savings bonds issued by the U.S. Treasury and the interest rate is frequently adjusted for inflation. It is adjusted every six months, to be more precise.

Adjusting for inflation

Adjusting the interest rate on IBonds for inflation guarantees that the holder will get a real return on his or her investment. For example, say you keep your money in a savings account that gets 3 percent interest for a year, inflation goes up 3 percent that year. The savings account is technically worth the same amount it was a year ago. You haven’t made any profit.

The interest rate on IBonds is adjusted in such a way that you are always making a profit on your investment.

What’s the catch?

IBonds are meant to be a long-term investment. There is a penalty for pulling out funds before five years. If you cash out your IBonds because you need some debt relief or a quick cash advance, you will lose your last three month’s worth of interest. You can’t cash it out at all during the first year after it’s purchased.

Also, you can’t open one for your baby and then expect them to be able to retire on it at 65. IBonds only collect interest for 30 years.

More on IBonds

Right now, brand-new IBonds are earning a 5.64 percent interest rate plus a rate that is adjusted every six months. As you probably know, that is a lot higher than a traditional savings account at a bank.

Learn about how to purchase IBonds in Part 2.

Dicitonary.com says cheeky is “Impertinently bold; impudent and saucy.” Make a cheeky investment with your payday loan and you will be glad that you did it. But how are you going to do it?

Never enough money

There is never enough money. When we get $1, we will need $2 and if we get $100, we will have $200 in needs. We never save enough to make that much needed and ever forgotten investment. This month we say we will start with it the next month. And when next month comes, it’s yet another next month. It just goes on and on. We always find it hard to find that extra money to make investments.

Do you need security?

Having your own investment is undoubtedly a necessary security for every human being to feel financially comfortable. The established fact about money is, never getting enough to spend and never having enough to save but spend we do and save we don’t. Why is it so?

Well, you will never find an answer for that. It is simply how nature works, at least for some people. But if we want to invest, we should somehow find a way to break this cycle. For this we have to be sensible and act intelligently enough. How exactly we can use our intelligence to find money is what you are going to learn here. Yes, you guessed it right, if you think your resource is your payday loan.

We will never notice

Those of us who do not invest or make an effort to invest, do live mostly in the present and are not overly bothered about the future. So, it will not bother us if do not have enough money to spend in the future if we have enough for the present. If we use this human psychology to our benefit, the money scarcity we find hard-pressed to invest can be solved.

To put it simply, make a commitment on your future income to enjoy your present income. That is to say, take a cash advance from your future income and use it for an investment which you never could get to do otherwise, then everything else will fall in place. You will be short of that extra bit from your income as you pay back the loan, but you probably would not actually notice it, as you will never have access to it, to feel the loss.

After the loan is paid off, take the same payments you were making and put them into your investments. Make this a habit and you will have good money set aside for investing. If you are not sure how to get the cash advance loan that I’m talking about, then simply read on and learn how simple it is.

You can get this done simply by making an online application to a good lender like Personal Money Store or reaching them over the phone. If your application is approved, you will usually have the money transferred to your bank account within 24 hours.

With Personal Money Store, there are typically no complications like credit checks or faxing. You would not be charged for any exorbitant fees or interest, just the normal fees like any loan which can easily be paid with sensible investing. You simply have to direct your bank to invest that money wherever you want it to be.

How does this sound for a cheeky investment with your payday loan?

Will we ever learn from our mistakes? Probably not. The stock exchanges went from a high-point in June 2007 to a low in March 2009, dropping about 50 percent in under 20 months.

2006 and 2007 Celebrations

We should have seen it coming, but most of us didn’t. In fact, most investors were too busy rejoicing, celebrating their Market wins in 2006 and 2007 to look around and see if they were about to careen off the cliff. We were taking and repaying Cash Advance Loans at a high rate of knots. All was well with the world.

It’s called overconfidence – the belief that you’re more skilled than you really are. That’s the reason we get ourselves into investment hot water. Overconfidence makes you unwilling to recognize bad news.

Overconfidence comes from early success

It happens to all of us who play on the market at some time. We buy some stocks. They go up. We sell and we’ve made money, all at the cost of a couple of phone calls and some broker’s fees. You then attribute all this to your own skill instead of the dumb luck it’s likely to be.

This spectacular operation of yours, on which you get good mileage at dinner, at lunch and in the locker room at the golf club, turns you into an instant stock genius.

The Accidental Investor

That tendency toward overconfidence gets magnified when it’s combined with our tendency to use past situations to evaluate risks in the here and now. Experiments have shown that when people risk their own money on an investment and succeed, they’re likely to take on even more risk the next time around. Why? They don’t think of that money as theirs. It feels like they’re playing with house money.

House money

Let’s say you put $1,000 into a share that triples; now that it is priced at $3,000, you’ve got $2,000 of “house money.” So long as any of that $2,000 gain is left, you may shrug off any losses as a reduction of the house money, rather than a depletion of your own.

Somehow, losing the house money hurts less than losing your “own”, even though, strictly speaking, all the dollars are the same. This highly dangerous “house-money effect” can egg you on into taking an ever-escalating series of risks until you get wiped out.

It Won’t Happen Overnight

If you want to beat the market, you have to battle your tendencies toward over-confidence and judge risks in relation to recent failures and successes. You can also compare your investment performance to market averages to help keep it contextualized. Finally you must develop an investing strategy to help you assess each risk on its own terms.

It takes years to become good at investing, to learn what information is important versus what is just noise, and to get over risk aversion and away from the idea of house money. Just like master carpenters are not made in a day, neither are master investors. But with patience and a little self-awareness, you can do it.

I bought today

I just couldn’t stand looking at all these bargains any more. I broke down and bought today. Let’s see what happens…

Your house should not have been bought an as an investment. It should have been bought strictly to live in, to enjoy and to grow your family in. Of course everyone tells you these stories of the huge financial killings they made out of buying and selling their house, but that’s not the way it should be.

When do you sell?

The main topic of conversation among property investors is ‘when do you sell?’ Investors carefully plan and calculate what to buy and when to buy it. That gets them about halfway into the property investment business. The other half is much more difficult: When to sell? Many people get it wrong, and to make it even more challenging, we are living in the worst ever period for investment decisions.

Back to the house

It seems that the real victims of the house price boom were not the property investors who have been losing money since the tide started to turn, but people just wanting to have a nice place to live. For various reasons they were always unable to buy a house; not enough money, family problems, work problems, whatever. And then suddenly things turned around for them, they took various Cash Advances and Payday Loans and they managed to buy something. They took a mortgage and are now living in a house worth less than they paid.

What is relevant?

But all is not lost until the house is sold. The fact that it’s less than what was paid for it is not really relevant in, my opinion. The buyer lives in it, hopefully enjoys it, spends time and money maintaining and improving it; so what if it’s worth less than he paid for it?

What counts as a loss?

It may be that our house-owner will decide to live in the house for a longer period than he had planned, hoping to make a profit. But if he lives there for 17 years instead of 15, is it serious? Only if he is forced to sell at a sizeable loss in the case of a divorce, a job in another city, etc., will the whole house thing become serious.

My neighbor’s house

My neighbor is 86 years old. His much younger wife of about 75 has developed Alzheimer’s. I spoke to him as gently as I could about him selling his house and moving into a retirement home. I was stunned at his reaction. “But I’ll lose money on my house!” he cried.

My initial reaction was to say “So what?” Instead I said, “I still think you should think about this. Perhaps you could rent the house until the market revives. Perhaps you should try and sell; you may be lucky and find someone who is dying to live here. Perhaps someone has been transferred to this area. On the other hand, in a retirement center you will have proper meals every day, your wife will get all the assistance and care that she needs and you will be able to relax and not worry about her wandering off into the sunset.”

Meddling neighbor?

Not wanting to become the interfering neighbor, I stopped there and have never raised the subject again. I see them stumbling around the neighborhood, he walking unsteadily and she shuffling along behind him.

My conclusion is that his marriage to his house is stronger than his marriage to his wife – a ridiculous situation.

All he ever wanted to be was a banker... (image byflickr)

Many Americans have found that during a financial emergency, payday loans can help bridge the distance between paychecks. Some have even used the product for educational materials that help them retrain for better jobs. However, in New York (where pay day loans aren’t legal, to the state’s detriment), the state gives $45 million in state funds away for worker training. But you have to be a former Wall Street employee to enjoy a piece of that pie.

Wait a minute. New York City is spending $45 million to retrain former Wall Street employees for the workforce? Aren’t these employees already well-educated and skilled in a number of disciplines? In general, don’t they have to be before they’re even hired by a high-powered investment firm? Why do they merit $45 million in government funds for retraining, while other workers who couldn’t afford Wall Street educations continue to subsist from paycheck to paycheck?

Give them more rope

And so it goes. Patrick McGeehan of the New York Times reports that New York City Mayor Bloomberg has announced this training investment plan. In addition to the $45 million, the program will also “provide seed capital and office space for new businesses those laid-off bankers might create.”

Not only that, but Bloomberg’s plan includes the hope that foreign banks will come to New York and open up shop. Seems to me that would entail work being done in America by non-Americans, with significant portions of the profit being funneled out of America. Is that what the country needs right now? Keep profits here, keep Americans working and then perhaps consumers could afford to take fewer payday loans.

Small business? I agree in principle

Yes... a BANKER!

Bloomberg’s ideas about funding for small startups (the “new businesses”) could work well. A complex in SoHo will serve as a nest for new startups, which might employ some of these laid-off Wall Street professionals. However, what many would like to see is training that would enable non-Wall Street workers with a head for numbers to join exciting new companies like the ones Bloomberg envisions. Not counting private investment, New York City plans to spend $15 million on such programs for small business development. Federal money would also be involved. Over 10 years, the estimate given is the creation of 25,000 jobs and $750 million injected back into the local economy.

Wall Street is headed into the sunset

McGeehan relates that New York City officials expect to see a significant drop in the number of jobs in capital markets. Thus, Bloomberg feels that the New York economy must shift toward other areas to soften the blow and change the city’s disastrous financial course. What we’ll see is more talented people remaining in New York instead of flocking to other areas or other countries. Nothing wrong with that, but let’s go further. Let’s increase that talent base by making the necessary education affordable. More people deserve the chance to live lives free of financial worry. Payday loans help, but they are not a long-term financial plan. Learning and improving one’s standing in life is a time-tested recipe. School systems fail too many young people… money needs to be funneled into the kind of education they need to be successful.

Related articles

• Banks: Beyond the Citi Carnage (businessweek.com)

To find an expert’s opinion on the matter, Jennifer Schonberger of The Motley Fool recently interviewed Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist with Charles Schwab. According to Sonders, we’re more than halfway there.

And the worst part is now

Sonders’ best guess is that

Sometime in the third quarter of 2009, we’ll get the official word that it’s over — now keep in mind, given that it took the NBER [National Bureau of Economic Research] a year to tell us we were in one. The normal span of time between when recessions have ended historically, and when they’re declared in the end, has been 15 months. So if I’m right about the third quarter of 2009, we’ll probably get the word on that some time in 2010.

But right now America is at the bottom of the pit. Corporate inventories are going up because nobody is buying. Consumers are saving for a perpetual rainy day, but even then they’ll look to cash advance loans for added help. Unpurchased inventory stockpiles has caused an artificial inflation of the gross domestic product, making appear better than was expected.

What must still happen?

Fallout from that, Sonders feels, will cause first quarter 2009 readings to be dismal. Then the news will “become progressively less sad.” Since there has been relative calm following a volatile fourth quarter 2008 – largely because President Obama’s economic stimulus is about to go into effect – credit markets are beginning to become more fluid again.

Despite continued volatility in 2009, Sonders sees the stock market rising. But if that rise is to be meaningful, the $9.2 trillion in cash “sitting in nothing but short-term, safe investments like Treasuries, bank and savings accounts and money market funds” must move. It must flow. Since depressed asset prices are low, Sonders says that for some, it is time to buy.

However, she advises that all should assess how much risk their willing to tolerate. “If you’re now way under an asset band of, let’s say equities, and your circumstances haven’t changed, and your time horizon hasn’t changed, then absolutely you should be thinking of putting some money back in.” However, if a consumer already has significant money in stocks, an explosion of increased investment is discouraged.

Payday loans: your bridge to recession’s end?

While they are not a long-term solution to larger financial issues, payday loans can certainly be the right tool at the right time for your budget. Just the boost you need? Perhaps. During this recession and beyond, it always pays to shop around. If you need emergency cash fast and crave convenience and discretion, payday loans may be what you seek.

Related articles

• Rally Attempt Ends, NBER Makes It Official (chrisco.wordpress.com)
• The Deepest Downturns (usnews.com)
• R-word sends markets into dive (thestar.com)

Rich Duprey reports for The Motley Fool that non-traditional financial companies that provide short-term consumer credit are a great investment during the current recession. When banks and credit unions stop offering credit, pawnshops and payday loans are the saviors of choice.

Storefronts that cash checks (which most faxless payday loan stores do) are quite desirable. In fact, they are the preferred one-stop financial-service station for “the unbanked and underbanked,” according to Duprey.

The numbers don’t lie; people like these businesses

Recent earnings statements show that companies like EZCORP (EZPW) and First Cash Financial (FCFS) have benefitted from the current financial climate. The former’s pawn-service profits went up 15 percent in the quarter, while merchandise sales rose 10 percent. Both of these were responsible for an overall 18 percent bump above last year’s profits at this time of year. First Cash Financial had similar results: 27 percent up in merchandise sales.

Payday advance loans are also a significant part of  the operations of multifaceted consumer credit stores. Despite Obama’s speculated interest in capping the loans, Duprey believes this will not have a tremendous effect upon operations, as the companies will continue to diversify. Companies like Cash America and Advance America are seeking to do just that as states make the unfortunate leap out the window to ban payday loans.

Payday loan businesses endure