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Did you know the #1 reason for divorce is Money?

I had to walk away, because the car I owned for only 6 months was totaled when I made a left hand turn at a green arrow. the police officers took one look at my out of state plates, and said that I must have been going too slow, so the accident was my fault. If I was going too slow, shouldn't the approaching driver have been able to see me and stop? This is not the last time in my life I will wish I could afford a lawyer . . . Since I had an out of state license, and an instate residence, and Missouri and Indiana do not have linked BMV/DMV branches, we have never settled who I am supposed to pay, what I owe, or if I will ever be able to get a driver's license again. It will haunt me for years to come. The financially savvy out there will realize that, in fact, canceling my credit cards is where I made my first mistake. Canceling my cards was in effect, ruining my credit. As long as I kept using my cards, no matter how badly I handled the magic money, they would be there for me--like a co-dependent lover, holding back an alcoholic's hair while they puke. Canceling my cards was quitting--admitting defeat. Credit is made up of having loans OFFERED to you, and then making sure that the amount you take out is less than what is being offered in total. By quitting, I was announcing to the fiscal world that I was not good with money, I didn't anticipate getting better, and I would give up rather than fight for good credit. My then boyfriend (a man named Brian, like so many of them were), was having his own financial difficulties. His cell phone was being shut off, and he was worried about losing contact with the world. His mother was on his back about needing money, because she needed to make car repairs, or she would be even more dependent on him. I had been seeing Brian for just under a year, but his story touched my heart in a very personal way--I was very insecure about our relationship, and here he was desperate for something it seemed only I had, so I was sure to be able to buy his love on credit. (Hindsight makes me sad.) So inevitably, since this is the story of how I got here today, I gave him my credit card. And yes, worse, I uttered the words I have lived to regret: "I don't ever need to see this card again. Tell your Mom, as long as she makes the $15 minimum payment every month, I don't need to know how long it takes her to pay it back off." On November 11, 2003, Capital One says they received a letter saying I was deceased, and that I would no longer be paying off that bill. They noted the change in my living status, and alerted Equifax, and the other two leading credit reporting services, who kindly spread the word, so as not to have creditors calling and bothering my grieving beloveds. No one told me until 2005, when the apartment I was living in announced that rent would raise from $256 to $435, which I thought was horrible at the time. Oh, how I wish I had just accepted that and moved on . . . Instead, I tried to move, and discovered that no one would touch me with a ten foot pole. It was a woman at Cingular who told me that when she tried to report me to the FBI for identity fraud, she discovered I had already been reported twice that day, and she felt she should give me a friendly heads up. I fought and fought with Capital One to prove I am alive. It turns out to be much more difficult than it sounds. A letter got me 6 feet under, but a lawyer would have to bring me back--and I simply can't afford a lawyer's resurrection fees right now. So I did it by hand, and it took me a long time. I won't harp on this anymore, but it should be made clear--it's never going to go away. You get one credit report for your whole life--they simply add to the bottom. And Mine clearly says "Deceased" at some point. And then, it doesn't for some time. So any time a helpful, productive, over achieving clerk sees that someone accidentally unchecked the "Deceased" button on my credit report, they helpfully put it back in order, and the process starts again. Because of course, why would they notify me, if I was dead? The backlash of all that, is that once the word spread that I was alive, anyone who had stopped billing me because they thought I was untouchable now started tracking me, trying to find where I live, and sending me a bill for what I owed originally, plus years of late payments, and interest. Being Alive was mistake #3. I should have taken this opportunity to go live on the lam, under the radar, maybe join some sort of group that specializes in that sort of thing. I was dead, for all intents and purposes, and no one in banking likes to be told they are wrong. 2006 was the year I bought a car and started fighting to get my driver's license back. Sadly, I had not accomplished that when they pulled me over. So no with no license, I had no insurance, no insurance meant I couldn't register the car, no registration meant I had just left the old plates on the vehicle--any one of which is illegal, and they were totally justified in impounding my car, and throwing the book at me in court. In 2007, things were looking up. I had a real job, and had held it for more than a year--I even accepted the promotions, which were usually my signal to flee. I hate to be promoted at a job. It is a death sentence--it means that I really am going to do this job, indefinitely, comfortably accepting my paycheck every two weeks, and putting the hungry, cold, bus riding past behind me. This comfort zone always signaled the end for me: If I was happy here, I would not need to go back to school, get my degree or follow my calling. I could be happy enough right here, right? Wrong. I always quit when I realized there would be more money, more security and more potential for comfort in my future--but I still wouldn't go back to school. But in 2007, I was an Associate Project Manager, and my Boss was full of praise. I was living in an empty little apartment, with my little dog, and my little life, trying to fight off the scurvy that had set in in 2006 without the consultation of anymore doctors--doctors always meant more bills, and prescriptions, but never any sort of game plan. So I was fighting for my little life as best I could, and actually beginning to qualify for health insurance for the first time in 6 years. I could see a future that wasn't so bad. In September of 2007, a fire started underneath a bureau in my bedroom. I left the house at 7am, to get to work on time, and only my little dog was home. The fire started just after 4pm, and they called me at work to tell me it was out at 6pm. I was home by 6:30pm, but by then everything was black and charred. My little dog was coated in charcoal, and freaking out as you can imagine, but healthy and unharmed. But all of my possessions were ruined. All the art I had dabbled in over the years had finally gone up on my walls--and now up in smoke. My electronics looked fine to me--but the Fire Marshal warned me that I would have to cut the plugs off of them before I threw it all away--if one of these machines was put in another home, and the oily smoke had left residue inside, then the next fire would be my fault. So I hand wiped all of my books, took a lot of dirty laundry to the laundry mat, and slept on a couch for a few months while I figured things out. The Fire Marshal ruled out arson and electrical fire. The apartment complex said if it wasn't arson or electrical fire, than it had to be something I did, and after their insurance (not mine--I didn't have any) paid off, I would owe them just over $10,000. You wold think mistake number 4 was not getting renter's insurance. You may be right--but I will always think mistake number 4 was not getting a lawyer and a camera while the apartment was still dripping from the fire hoses. He began the process of selling his house, when I said I couldn't bear to be trapped in Geist--there are no buses there, and I don't have a license. I was already registered to finally FINALLY go back to school. That was the only financial hardship I can't regret. I have taken out more than $15,000 in school debt, and its worth every penny. I can't wait to geta job in my own field, and start paying it back. Totally worth it, no regrets. But I couldn't have him driving me back and forth from school all the time--it was too expensive, and it made me feel like a prisoner, not able to leave unless he could take me. I would say that trying to sell his house--even in such a nice part of town--was our first big mistake together, as a family. But, the wedding was in January of 2008, so moving in together wasn't a hard leap for us at all. Sadly, his three children all wanted a place to stay in our new apartment too, so we ended up in a beautiful 1800 sq ft apartment, with stained glass and original crown molding . . . for just under $1200 a month, which is ridiculous. And, of course, our second big mistake as a family. Maybe we should have rented a one bedroom apartment and put up sheet to separate our our corners. We might have been able to afford sheets. . . Instead, we had an apartment the size of a house with rooms for each of us. The very second his oldest son moved out and got his own apartment, we took in a renter. That renter took in a renter, and then that renter took in a renter, and now we can't even begin to afford the rent on this place without three renters at all times. Of course, anyone who has ever had to rent a room out of their home knows, no renter is ever permanent, unless you want them to move out, so we have unsuccessfully gone through eight renters in the last year and a half, each with more or less their own financial burden, or wasteland of unpreparedness when they leave us. Brian and I don't see eye-to-eye on his past financial mistakes, so I will biasedly list what I think his are, without going into his story in depth. His financial troubles are so mundane, it's not even a story. In America, you marry, have children, make home repairs, go bankrupt, and get foreclosed on. That's what happens today--that's who we are. When you marriage falls apart, you try to save it, and when you can't, you get divorced, and then you pay child support. He owes almost $4,000 in credit card debt, which they can't garnish from his wages, because his wages are already garnished as much as is legal. That did not stop the government, however, who says he owes back taxes, since the divorce and his ex-wife filed all the kids, so they went ahead and started keeping a few hundred out of every paycheck. Today, he wrote to tell me they had put a hold on his bank accounts, and anything we put in it automatically goes to Taxes. I can't have a bank account. I tried, but it triggered a law suit from Capital One, for just under $4,000 in late fees and interest on that $500 card from all those years ago, and I can't risk anyone else coming out of the woodwork to take money from me I don't have. When I get my student loan checks, I have made it priority one to pay off any nasty outstanding debt, and then pay off the rent for as far as we can see. In this case, we are moving out in May, to move to Bloomington. I will be graduating with my undergraduate in Sociology from IUPUI in May, and if I get accepted to IU, start my grad program in August. So the plan is to pay off rent through May, minus whatever it takes to file bankruptcy myself. I'm worried all the time that we aren't going to be able to pull ourselves one fire after another. I should believe--Brian does, with all his heart. He believes the Universe takes care of us. And when I look back at all the terrible, outlandish, bizarre things that have happened in the last decade, I can't help but think, well, yeah, so far, there is no reason I should be so well dressed, well fed, in a beautiful home, with a loving husband, and a pack of tiny dogs. The universe has stepped up over and over again to help me out of crazy binds. We don't have hobbies anymore. We don't eat out, or see movies, or even visit friends. Gas is too expensive to travel, and our clothes is going to last us a while longer. Our big expenses are rent--which will change in May, and Child Support--which will change in January. Then we have to cut back on debt, not spending I guess. But the only way to cut back on debt is to cut back on spending, so if we think we are bare bones now, it's going to look pretty lush and fertile compared to what we are going to get down to, if I have anything to say about it. In the past, things could get really dire. It was always so horrible, when I would realize I had exactly $20 short from rent, no groceries, and no bus pass. I have begged, bartered, mooched and pawned most of my friends to death by now, and I don't see most of them anymore. I gave up hobbies, outings, social exchanges, and home cooked food. But when it got bad, it was just that--bad. Just me, and then me and my little dog. No one else to suffer from my mistakes. That's why Finances are such a big part of divorce: being very poor doesn't end a marriage. But thinking things couldn't get any worse, and he spends even $1 on a lottery ticket can blow up to astronomical proportions. Secret credit cards, and hidden spending can drive a wedge so far between loved ones that no amount of apologizing can help. We can look past an affair. It was her, it was him, it as just this once, it was just sex, or true love, and those circumstances will never happen again. But being bad with money--can we really see that changing? Won't we be forced to live paycheck to paycheck for the rest of our lives, without hope of gaining security, if we always have to watch over each others checkbooks, and monitor one another like misbehaving children? I intend to get our finances back on track, because I don't mind being poor, but I want to stay that way or get better, not worse. I don't like feeling safe and happy one day, desperate and insecure the next. I intend to make sure that we never end up in this place again. Because I intend my marriage to last. I intend to stay married to this man as long as we are supposed to love one another, and not just as long as we can afford to live together. 1) Tomorrow is very last minute notice. So All of the people you were going to see tomorrow will be very disappointed you have to cancel on them to come and see us. Solution? Invite them. You'll get credit for entertaining them, and you won't have to feed them on your own dime. I don't imagine I will get four people to come on my own this way, so your friends will make the apartment look full and terrifying to our Piglet-like-B!-friend, and prove our love for him. 2) I will provide what I think of as snacks. However, B! has never come to my house and enjoyed any snacks I have brought. Solution: I will still provide snacks. Anyone who wants to eat before they get to my house is fine by me, and anyone who feels a need to stop at Wendy's or KFC (since they are just a few blocks from my house) ahead of time will not be shunned by the rest of us. 3) I have games. Not tons of them, and maybe not the one you have in mind. Solution? Bring games you like. Do not bring games you do not like, unless you are going to pretend they are a gift to me, in spite of the fact that you do not like it, and will never want to play with me. You never know what I might do with it--wear it to a costume party or decorate my inflatable Christmas tree with it--whatever. Parking Rules: Parking after some arbitrary dark hour gets people without tags towed away. The good news is, it's a Wednesday and the asshole who complains until the tow truck comes will probably get parking and not complain. The bad news is, if this is a great party and everyone has a good time, you will stay past whatever that time turns out to be anyway, and the tow truck man will come. So if you want to come, and like each other, you might opt to park on the street. If you are coming out of spite, or to cause a scene, or just to make an appearance, and then shun us, you can probably still park inside the gate no problem.

Source: Sex Sandwich And A Nap, Please

The U.S. finished as the world economic super power now that’s just downright ridicules!

O be exact; the Debt now stands at $11,033,157,578,669.78. Divide it by the U.S. population that comes up to over $36,000 in debt for every man, woman and child in the U.S. Between a couple of wars and hundred of billions of dollars of stimulus money well lets just say that would tend to leave your wallet a little emptier. Heck even the Chinese who holds about a trillion dollars invested in U.S. Treasury notes, said they wanted some guarantee. They were even calling for a new global currency. But China rest assured there is no need to worry and here is why you see I take the opposite route not because of sentimental value but of cold hard facts. I became a student of history specifically financial history. I am still bullish on U.S. debt and here is why all the data I collected dating back over a century was telling me otherwise. The U.S. has always had some hick- up along the way of prosperity but it always comes back. So now let go back to that reminder that I wrote last year I titled it. As I study more and more about banking the US in particular I am amazed at where it started to where it is today. From a colony of rag tag framers and merchants to the most competitive, creative and complicated financial and banking system in the world. I also want to note that it was not just the farmers and merchants that built early America. Slave labour had a lot to do with America’s fight to stand on its own independent of Britain. Slave Labour or human capital is what we call it today cannot be discounted. Congress has finally apologized for slavery I guess better late then never. So let’s move on although there have been some bank failures in the past and some recently. The alternative would be 3 or 4 banks to choose from to do all your banking. Can you imagine America without choices? Lets face it we want choices like 31 flavours it is in our blood. America’s central bank (ie, government-controlled money & banking system) was instituted purportedly to protect the public from the “anarchy” of free banking. Money & banking were the most free from 1936 (when President Andrew Jackson ended Federal involvement in banking) to 1862 (when Congress mandated that fiat greenbacks be accepted as legal tender to finance the Civil War — but without prohibiting the use of gold or silver). The National Bank Act of 1863 required all banks to collateralize their bank notes with government securities. Private coinage was outlawed in 1864. Otherwise, from 1836 to 1913 banking remained under state jurisdiction, with over half of states allowing free banking. Prices remained stable during this period — in sharp contrast to the steep inflation produced under central banking in the period after 1913. Representatives for the American central bank say that there were bank failures in the United States prior to the Federal Reserve System. This is true where business is freely practiced, poorly run or poorly located businesses will fail. Free markets mean rapid progress through trial-and-error, rather than the stiflingly slow progress (or regress) of a controlled economy. But bank failures were far fewer under free (or semi-free) banking than under central banking. The ratio of capital to loans in American banks went from 40.5% in 1836 to 55.1% in 1842, falling to 41.3% in 1862, to 17% in 1913 and to 5.6% in 1989. In New York State, which had the largest, most free banking system, bank failures from 1838 to 1863 were less than one-third of 1% per year, on average (with customers receiving an average 75 cents on the dollar in the failures). By contrast, under central banking the rate of bank failures in the 1920s was in excess of 2% per year. And in the 1930-1933 period about of all US banks failed. Depositors lost more money in the first 20 years of central banking than had been lost in the 75 years before central banking. Bank failure rate declined after 1934 when the institution of Federal deposit insurance effectively created a welfare system for bankers, allowing federal money to bail-out poorly managed banks thereby underwriting inefficiency and encouraging risk-taking. particularly in Germany, where a postage stamp for local delivery cost 100 billion marks in 1923. The inflationary crisis in Germany undoubtedly made people desperate for a New Deal from a “high-minded” leader like Hitler, who had no trouble rising above the petty interests of peoples who would be free. As has been mentioned, Roosevelt’s New Deal made the possession of gold punishable by imprisonment for American citizens. The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 forced all banks in the United States to become part of the Federal Reserve System. This meant that their reserves (for fractional reserve banking) had to be demand deposits at the Fed. US Dollars became Federal Reserve Notes, backed (fractionally) by gold. The fractional reserves of gold held by the Fed were “backing” for the fractional reserves of Federal Reserve notes (amount dictated by the Fed) for the member banks. The system was so “successful” that in the period from 1921 to 1933 more than half of the 30,000 US banks went of business. In 1938 the Fed doubled the reserve requirements for member banks from 10% to 20%, an economic shock treatment that led to disastrous credit liquidation. Outlawing gold for American citizens was only half the battle for a truly fiat currency, however. As long as dollars went abroad, foreign governments could demand gold for the dollars. But central bankers in foreign countries were all engaged in the same struggle for independence from the discipline of the gold standard that the Fed was attempting. Once freed from the gold standard in the 1970s, the Fed could back-up its reserves by printing as much money as it liked. The Fed controls money supply not so much by the amount of money it prints, but by the amount of reserves created in the banking system and the fractional reserve requirement dictated by the Fed. After 1980 the fractional reserve requirement was gradually lowered from 14% to 10%, which increased the money supply considerably. Reserve requirements for nonpersonal time deposits and CDs were eliminated entirely in 1990. . (Just over 20 Primary Dealers are authorized to buy & sell with the Fed, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.) The buying or selling can be either permanent or temporarily through repurchase agreements or reverse repurchase agreements. For example, the Fed could increase money supply by buying $1 billion of US government bonds. The Fed writes a check to a bond dealer for $1 billion from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and then the bond dealer deposits the check from the Fed with a commercial bank. But a check from the Fed does not “clear” the way other checks do. The check creates a deposit at the Federal Reserve Bank, increasing the commercial bank’s reserves by $1 billion. The Fed has spent no money it has simply written a check creating $1 billion in new money. But with a fractional reserve policy of 10%, the commercial bank is now able to make $9 billion in new loans. Thus, the $1 billion purchase by the Fed has increased money supply in the economy while helping supporting the market price of the government’s bonds. Unlike the obvious inflation of printing money — which only enriches the Treasury Department inflation through credit-expansion (lowering interest rates) enriches the Treasury from the $1 billion from the bond sale, enriches the Fed by the interest collected on the bonds, and enriches the commercial bank by the interest collected on the additional loanable funds. The purchase also ensures that the government benefits disproportionately from the new money, while others (such as pensioner’s living on fixed income) are harmed disproportionately by being the last to experience the inflationary effects. On any given day a bank may have more or less reserves than its required amount. Banks with excess reserves can loan to banks having a deficiency (fed funds are exempt from reserve requirements). The lending bank instructs the Federal Reserve Bank to charge its own account and credit the account of the borrowing bank a transaction to be reversed the next day. No physical delivery occurs, the exchange is made through the Fed’s electronic network, the “ The fed funds rate is the shortest of short-term interest rates and is the US short-term benchmark. The most common fed funds instrument is an overnight, unsecured load between two financial institutions (commercial banks, savings banks, savings & loan associations or credit unions) on the basis of an oral agreement. When banks borrow heavily on the fed funds market, the fed funds rate will rise unless the Fed adds new reserves. The Fed tries to keep the fed funds rate within a narrow band (50 basis-points or less) through buying & selling of government securities. The Fed will continue buying or selling in a trial-and-error fashion until its desired fed funds rate is achieved. (ie, 0.5%) higher.] The Fed discourages banks from direct borrowing by imposing costly and time-consuming procedures, including scrutinization of the bank’s creditworthiness offsetting the cost advantage of direct borrowing and making the Fed the “lender of last resort”. Unlike fed funds, reserves borrowed through the discount window require collateral, and the borrowing can only be done for “approved” reasons. Attempts to use the discount window frequently will cause the Fed discount officer to refuse the loans. ), which includes all 7 members of the Board of Governors plus five of the twelve Presidents of the district Feds who serve one-year terms on a rotating basis. The Governors are appointed by the US President for a 14-year term (subject to US Senate confirmation). Because open market operations are administered through the Federal Reserve Board of New York, the President of that district bank is a permanent FOMC member, with the title of Vice-Chairman. The FOMC meets 8 times per year under the Chairman to decide on interest rates. Banks will invariably increase or decrease their (ie, interest rates charged by commercial banks to their most credit-worthy customers) in lockstep with increases or decreases in fed funds rate & discount rate. Mortgage rates, bond interest and other forms of interest charge follow — although long-term interest rates tend to be more independent and subject to market forces. The control of interest rates & money supply are powerful tools of economic regulation in a purportedly free economy. In a free economy interest rates are the “price of money” — and that price is determined by market forces (supply & demand). Price-fixing of interest rates by autocrats invariably results dislocation from the market price — and shocks the economy every time the change is made or anticipated. The autocrats on the FOMC undoubtedly enjoy the fawning attention of the media hanging on their every word in an attempt to second-guess the next action — but price-fixing always misallocates market resources. The FOMC meets in secret and only issues vague summaries of its meetings six weeks after they occur. When Alan Greenspan was Chairman his disdain for market forces has been immortalized in his description of stock market activity as “irrational exuberance”. However, Mr. Greenspan may well be the least autocratic (and most pro-market) member of the Fed at the time. The tentacles of the US financial system are found all over the world including debtor nations through the IMF. No the US is not done being an economic super power not buy a long shot. XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <pre> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong> Our mission is to help individuals & business owners develop financial objectives, and achieve those objectives through various financial, investment and consulting services that are designed to meet their present and future needs. Our goal is to help you make informed decisions about issues that affect your financial well being so you can achieve financial freedom. The complete picture Portfolio management is only one aspect of the single family office. Significant wealth creates tremendous challenges. A plan of action is vital to ensuring wealth is preserved and maximized for current and future generations. We build this integrated wealth management plan by providing you with sound, objective financial advice and guidance; proactive investment management; meticulous tax planning and preparation; comprehensive financial analysis and insurance assessment; and visionary trust, estate and philanthropy planning.

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As the principal of a wealthy family, you know first-hand how overwhelming a challenge it is to watch over your family and your financial affairs providing guidance to accomplish your family’s goals allowing your children to pursue their dreams caring for your parents ensuring that your money lasts for generations managing a complex financial world of diverse advisors funding and managing your philanthropies.What you need is more than traditional wealth management it’s life management.

You need someone who can bring professional organization to the complexity of your financial and personal worlds. We make this a reality for you with The Howard Group. You’ll see that, as a Howard Group Family Office client, you get much more than just traditional wealth management. You get life management, with tasks carried out on your behalf based on your instructions, with complete and timely communications to keep you apprised of your situation at all times, and with 24/7 access to vital information.

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For high-wealth individuals and families, taking advantage of the complete package of Family Office services often makes the most sense because the breadth of the relationship. The Howard Group performs on your behalf, all services are fully coordinated, you always know who to turn to, whatever the need, and the arrangement is more cost efficient. The typical client that utilizes The Howard Group Full Family Office Services Suite:

Has a total family net worth of at least $10 million is willing to use The Howard Group Family Office and Wealth Management advisors to manage planning and allocation of all investment assets, whether held by The Howard Group or not. Desires a comprehensive Investment Performance Report to monitor all their investment activities with one report.

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