US Finance World

A fee-only financial planner once said to me that the one strategy the financial industry rarely supports is paying down debt. No one makes money off of it.  In a semi-related observation, investing based on how economists, especially those who are employed by political masters, wants us to invest sometimes does not end well.

Before the credit crisis some economists told us to spend given that we had entered a golden age devoid of recessions. Now economists are urging economic policies that encourage spending when many households are trying to de-leverage; this strategy may give a short-term spike to the economy (and save some political jobs) but its like asking a poker player to go all in one more time with $100 left. Odds are this player will end up with nothing.

If we were all rational investors we would behave like well-run corporations- unemotional decision making based on the bottom line. While some economists are telling us to spend again, what are these same profit-making institutions doing?

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Hall Hitzig, who has branded himself “The Crazy Baker,” offers his sweet delicacies — blondies and brownies, sticky toffee pudding, tortes and other baked goods — through his Web site. They are the kinds of goodies you find in upscale bakeries in major metropolitan areas. That’s a good thing, but it also presents a problem: Mr. Hitzig is about as far from a major metropolitan area as you can get.

He lives high atop a mountain in West Virginia, and his bakery sits in the valley below. Many of the people who live in the area are reluctant to pay premium prices for his premium products. That, of course, is why he decided to take his business online. “We live in a rural area and having a business that would reach our demographics is tough,” he said. “Our products are upscale and high quality so we thought that we could expand our customer base with a Web site.”

Mr. Hitzig is savvy w

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Let’s assume that bottled water costs $1 per bottle. Maybe less if you buy it in bulk. That’s not that much, right? And water is good for you, an essential component of life itself, so it’s totally justified, right?

Once you see the math (and some other interesting facts), you might find it a bit harder to justify.

Unless you live or are traveling in a country that does not yet have potable drinking water (and there are surprisingly still plenty of them out there), you really have no reason to drink bottled water. Most of us know that the cost of drinking bottled water vs. tap water will never work out in your favor. However, the exact extent of the price disparity isn’t so clear. When you see the math, it will likely shock you.

I recently got curious as to how much tap water I was actually consuming, which led me to doing this cost comparison. I disco

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An online degree gives students skills and knowledge they need along with the possibility to study at their convenience. Obtaining a degree is the first stage in higher education and it provides students an option to focus on a particular field. An online degree program would provide students with appropriate study material they can study with a suitable schedule. A student should choose a degree in a specific field of study, such as business marketing. The specialized field allows students to define more clearly their chosen path of employment and career opportunities.

While degrees are usually earned in traditional schools worldwide, much attention has been paid in recent years to online education. Now, many best online degree programs offer students the ability to obtain degrees from bachelors to doctorate level with many Internet tools. Read more…

Stocks declined at the end of a lackluster week as investors already on edge about global growth became concerned that China could take steps to brake its economy’s expansion.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 90.52 points, or 0.80%, to 11192.58, its lowest level since Nov. 2, the day of the U.S. Congressional elections. The Dow fell 2.2% for the week.

Stocks have surrendered all of their gains since Republicans seized control of the House of Representatives and the Federal Reserve announced its much-anticipated bond-buying program.

The Nasdaq Composite fell 37.31, or 1.46% to 2518.21. The Nasdaq shed 2.4% for the week, ending a string of five consecutive weekly gains. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fell 14.33, or 1.18% to 1199.21 on Friday, also breaking a five-week winning streak.

Asian markets fell on Friday as concerns resurfaced that the Chinese government would further tighten monetary policy to counter inflation.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 5.2%, erasing nearly a quarter of its three-month upswing. Read more…