I counted 100 cars in one of our neighborhood thrift store's fog shrouded parking lot when the doors opened 7 a.m. Monday for a half price Labor Day sale. One day later, the Federal Reserve reports the biggest drop ever in consumer borrowing in July. I don't think it's a coincidence.
Consumers are tapped out, writes Seekingalpha.com commentator Jason Kelly. And there's more anecdotal evidence that frugality is becoming more than a passing fancy, reporters Jeff Harrington in St. Petersburg, Fla. and Ashley Heher in Chicago found in their one-year retrospectives of the nation's financial near meltdown.
We don't yet know how main line retailers fared over the holiday. Many were sweating it though, reports TheStreet.com's Janine Poggi. Labor Day is one of the last big holidays before Christmas shopping starts and August's back to school sales weren't booming.
But business is getting brisker around the nation's 25,000 thrift shops, according to the National Association of Retail and Thrift Shops. About one in six shoppers, something between 16 percent and 18 percent - surveyed by the group has either visited a thrift shop or plans to this year. That's more than factory outlet malls are expected to draw and almost as many as the 23 percent headed to big name department stores.
Thrift store buying also is a potential second income source, eBay coach Suzanne Wells writes on www.examiner.com. She offers advice on reselling your thrift store treasures online. Just be aware that shopping thrift stores is labor intensive whether you plan to resell or not. Here are some tips Parade magazine recently offered to help get you started.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Keep your hands on the wheel if your retirement plan goes on autopilot
President Obama made a big change in how workers save for retirement over the Labor Day weekend.
Here are some of the details. Briefly, more employers will be offering automatic enrollments in 401(k) and other retirement plans, taxpayers get new opportunities to use tax refunds for retirement savings or to buy Savings Bonds, and some workers with unused vacation or paid sick leave can throw that money into the retirement pot too.
Automatic enrollments have been around - and generally applauded - for several years, but making them nearer to universal makes it more important for savers to watch for potential problems too. One of the advantages that employers may like, for example, is that the new rules make it potentially easier to offer smaller matching contributions and to cut back on traditional pension funding that they also might be on the hook for.
Meantime, back at the payroll window, the changes also may hurt some lower income workers that are supposed to be helped, writes USNews.com's Emily Brandon. It's tough to save for retirement if you need payday loans to buy groceries. You can unenroll from the plans if needed, but that just makes it tougher to save.
Also, while more of us might be saving money by being automatically enrolled, there is no guarantee any of us will be saving enough. We probably won't, Vanguard, the mutual fund company, found in a 2007 study. Many of us will need to increase our contributions to more than the automatic enrollment offers.
The 401(k) Help Center offers links to lots of specialized Web sites that may be helpful when the new rules kick in.
Here are some of the details. Briefly, more employers will be offering automatic enrollments in 401(k) and other retirement plans, taxpayers get new opportunities to use tax refunds for retirement savings or to buy Savings Bonds, and some workers with unused vacation or paid sick leave can throw that money into the retirement pot too.
Automatic enrollments have been around - and generally applauded - for several years, but making them nearer to universal makes it more important for savers to watch for potential problems too. One of the advantages that employers may like, for example, is that the new rules make it potentially easier to offer smaller matching contributions and to cut back on traditional pension funding that they also might be on the hook for.
Meantime, back at the payroll window, the changes also may hurt some lower income workers that are supposed to be helped, writes USNews.com's Emily Brandon. It's tough to save for retirement if you need payday loans to buy groceries. You can unenroll from the plans if needed, but that just makes it tougher to save.
Also, while more of us might be saving money by being automatically enrolled, there is no guarantee any of us will be saving enough. We probably won't, Vanguard, the mutual fund company, found in a 2007 study. Many of us will need to increase our contributions to more than the automatic enrollment offers.
The 401(k) Help Center offers links to lots of specialized Web sites that may be helpful when the new rules kick in.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
IRS cops taking a closer look at home mortgages
IRS will be watching those deductions we take for interest on our home mortgage payments more closely, the Treasury Department's Inspector General said recently.
The service's aim is to catch tax cheats who either don't file or who report low incomes but are making McMansion-sized mortgage payments with money they may be hiding. There already is a Form 1098 that will help track these discrepancies, but IRS hasn't been using it much, Treasury investigators found.
This could get complicated for all the estimated 51 million home owners making mortgage payments though. That's because no one appears to know how to accurately calculate how much we should be deducting, the Government Accountability Office reports. An estimated 12 percent to 14 percent of the taxpaying public writes off either too much or too little, GAO found. But IRS, the tax industry and individual taxpayers often don't have enough information to catch those errors when they happen.
Tax audits are rising again, Syracuse University reports, so keep good tax records and file accurately. And if you are among the small contractors, free lancers and other non W-2 workers whose returns may be watched most closely, remember your Sept. 15 estimated quarterly tax payments need to hit the Post Office in just less than two weeks.
The service's aim is to catch tax cheats who either don't file or who report low incomes but are making McMansion-sized mortgage payments with money they may be hiding. There already is a Form 1098 that will help track these discrepancies, but IRS hasn't been using it much, Treasury investigators found.
This could get complicated for all the estimated 51 million home owners making mortgage payments though. That's because no one appears to know how to accurately calculate how much we should be deducting, the Government Accountability Office reports. An estimated 12 percent to 14 percent of the taxpaying public writes off either too much or too little, GAO found. But IRS, the tax industry and individual taxpayers often don't have enough information to catch those errors when they happen.
Tax audits are rising again, Syracuse University reports, so keep good tax records and file accurately. And if you are among the small contractors, free lancers and other non W-2 workers whose returns may be watched most closely, remember your Sept. 15 estimated quarterly tax payments need to hit the Post Office in just less than two weeks.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Now, maybe Money for Manors?
It's tough to come up with a catchy phrase for potential government stimulated home-buying. Cash for Cabins sounds like vacation property development. Scratch for Shelter, which I used the last time I thought about who might be next in line for help, just sounds nasty.
No matter. Really smart people are having even more trouble coming up with real solutions to the underlying problem too. When economists Edward Leamer of UCLA and Brad DeLong of Berkely duked it out on The Los Angeles Times op-ed pages recently, the choices they offered ranged from praying that this year's $8,000 home buyers tax credit will work to drafting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to convert every mortgage in America to a 30-year fixed.
Few of us realize how big and self feeding the problem is, reports Economist.com. Even Hugh Hefner lands on a list of senior citizens unable to pull all the equity he hoped from his house, the online magazine discovered. Meantime, even good borrowers may run into unexpected trouble buying home we want to sell, The New York Times found recently
And recovery may take awhile. Real estate prices in much of Texas still haven't recovered from tanking in the early 1980s, when J.R. Ewing was wheeling and dealing at Southfork. Southfork ironically wasn't hit as hard as other properties. A lot of fans so far are still willing and able to pony up extra dollars to live the dream everytime a tour bus stops.
No matter. Really smart people are having even more trouble coming up with real solutions to the underlying problem too. When economists Edward Leamer of UCLA and Brad DeLong of Berkely duked it out on The Los Angeles Times op-ed pages recently, the choices they offered ranged from praying that this year's $8,000 home buyers tax credit will work to drafting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to convert every mortgage in America to a 30-year fixed.
Few of us realize how big and self feeding the problem is, reports Economist.com. Even Hugh Hefner lands on a list of senior citizens unable to pull all the equity he hoped from his house, the online magazine discovered. Meantime, even good borrowers may run into unexpected trouble buying home we want to sell, The New York Times found recently
And recovery may take awhile. Real estate prices in much of Texas still haven't recovered from tanking in the early 1980s, when J.R. Ewing was wheeling and dealing at Southfork. Southfork ironically wasn't hit as hard as other properties. A lot of fans so far are still willing and able to pony up extra dollars to live the dream everytime a tour bus stops.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Saving money in theory vs. real life
Quicken has come up with nine ways to really waste money. I think it's a hoot. I'm only guilty of one of them. I'm not telling which, though it's obvious from my picture that overspending on hair care or plastic surgery isn't the culprit.
But it points out something else I've noticed since I was downsized last year - the kind of money saving advice you look for changes when you've had a setback. I used to ride with some basic stuff financial planners recommend, which are still good rules to follow. But when you've been on both sides of the unemployment statistics, you can pretty much tell who has first hand experience squeezing a dollar and who doesn't.
I look for really practical tips and things I haven't tried already. Kiplinger.com is always a reliable source.
A contributor to savingadvice.com recently echoed one principle I've been following almost without thinking. Pick reusable choices over disposable ones. I refill water bottles from the tap many times before finally putting them out with the recycling. And I just gave away which of Quicken's money wasters I've committed.
But it points out something else I've noticed since I was downsized last year - the kind of money saving advice you look for changes when you've had a setback. I used to ride with some basic stuff financial planners recommend, which are still good rules to follow. But when you've been on both sides of the unemployment statistics, you can pretty much tell who has first hand experience squeezing a dollar and who doesn't.
I look for really practical tips and things I haven't tried already. Kiplinger.com is always a reliable source.
A contributor to savingadvice.com recently echoed one principle I've been following almost without thinking. Pick reusable choices over disposable ones. I refill water bottles from the tap many times before finally putting them out with the recycling. And I just gave away which of Quicken's money wasters I've committed.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Debit card holders outspend credit card holders...and have more at risk
Thieves prefer stealing debit cards -or debit card identities- over stealing credit cards, reports NACSonline, an electronic newsletter published by the National Association of Convenience Stores.
The reason why, apparently, is approximately the same reason bandits Clyde Barrow and John Dillinger allegedly preferred V-8 Fords. They outran virtually every cop car on the road in the 1930s.
Debit card fraud is harder to detect because debit card companies by and large don't track suspicious transactions as closely as credit card companies do, writer Odysseas Papadimitriou reports on Examiner.com. And with debit cards outnumbering credit cards 176 million to 173 million by one federal count, more than half the nation's users of plastic are taking greater risks.
If someone swipes your credit card or your credit card identity, current federal law currently limits your loss to essentially $50. If the same thing happens to your debit card and you don't report it fast enough, you could be on the hook for whatever the thieves spend, the Federal Trade Commission says.
FTC and other authorities outline a bunch of ways to protect yourself against debit card theft. But many of them miss what I think is an obvious solution. Forget about debit, use credit and pay off the balance each month. You get the same results as with a debit card and you're only risking $50.
The reason why, apparently, is approximately the same reason bandits Clyde Barrow and John Dillinger allegedly preferred V-8 Fords. They outran virtually every cop car on the road in the 1930s.
Debit card fraud is harder to detect because debit card companies by and large don't track suspicious transactions as closely as credit card companies do, writer Odysseas Papadimitriou reports on Examiner.com. And with debit cards outnumbering credit cards 176 million to 173 million by one federal count, more than half the nation's users of plastic are taking greater risks.
If someone swipes your credit card or your credit card identity, current federal law currently limits your loss to essentially $50. If the same thing happens to your debit card and you don't report it fast enough, you could be on the hook for whatever the thieves spend, the Federal Trade Commission says.
FTC and other authorities outline a bunch of ways to protect yourself against debit card theft. But many of them miss what I think is an obvious solution. Forget about debit, use credit and pay off the balance each month. You get the same results as with a debit card and you're only risking $50.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
From cash for clunkers to greenbacks for green machines
Okay, the cash for clunkers car deals are history. Next up, forecasters believe, the next consumer cash incentive program coming out of Washington will be cash for appliances.
The prevailing predictions currently are that the plan will provide rebates of $50 to $200 to consumers who buy Energy Star rated fridges, freezers, washers or other appliances, Business Week and other sources report.
Details are still being worked out, but you don't have to trade in your old appliance to qualify for the cash, just buy a new one. Some Maytag owners of some potentially dangerous refrigerators might want to anyway. A national recall was expanded Tuesday.
You probably won't have to scramble for the shiny green replacements either. More than half the appliances on the market now are Energy Star rated.
Appliance rebates are a mixed blessing for retailers , reports an organization called the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. They boost sales and encourage conservation in the short run, but can also cause manufacturers to wildly misread what consumers want in the long run.
Sellers like rebates for two reasons. They make it easier to raise prices when sales improve - you just end the rebate. Plus many consumers haven't been claiming rebates much, before now at least, because they don't like the paperwork involved, US News and World Report found recently.
The prevailing predictions currently are that the plan will provide rebates of $50 to $200 to consumers who buy Energy Star rated fridges, freezers, washers or other appliances, Business Week and other sources report.
Details are still being worked out, but you don't have to trade in your old appliance to qualify for the cash, just buy a new one. Some Maytag owners of some potentially dangerous refrigerators might want to anyway. A national recall was expanded Tuesday.
You probably won't have to scramble for the shiny green replacements either. More than half the appliances on the market now are Energy Star rated.
Appliance rebates are a mixed blessing for retailers , reports an organization called the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy. They boost sales and encourage conservation in the short run, but can also cause manufacturers to wildly misread what consumers want in the long run.
Sellers like rebates for two reasons. They make it easier to raise prices when sales improve - you just end the rebate. Plus many consumers haven't been claiming rebates much, before now at least, because they don't like the paperwork involved, US News and World Report found recently.
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