You might want to move to Canada. They have jobs there, thousands of jobs waiting to be filled.

Michigan has problems. Ford, GM and Chrysler are looking at bankruptcy. The Unemployment trust fund is insolvent or soon will be. Your elected officials seem to believe that higher taxes are the answer. If the big three declare bankruptcy then you are looking at 20+% unemployment and whole cities if not the state going bankrupt. Charities that receive money from the big three and their suppliers will run out of funds quickly.

6:56 AM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

October 28

Update to Newsletter

Regarding Natural Gas Pricing in Georgia; there are several things you should know.

Special plans are available for Seniors

You can often get matching rates from your current provider by just mentioning that you are looking at the competition and into moving your account.

There may be a termination fee associated with your current plan. Ask your current provider before moving your service.

Some companies will pay the termination fee if you move your service.

I locked in the $0.99 therm rate for 6 months. We will see if I made a good decision in six months.

1:24 PM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

October 24

Black Cloud Friday 2008 Edition

Wow!

Every day it seems like we are experiencing something new. Today I awoke and turned on the TV to see that we had already hit the down limit on futures trading. The DOW futures were down 550 points! International markets were experiencing big losses in some cases over 10%. Oil down over $4 a barrel and approaching $60.00 a barrel.

Alternative Energy will suffer greatly if prices stay this low.

What is causing this? There is no simple explanation but I will say that a major component is the Hedge Fund Implosion. They are leveraged up and as they face redemptions they are shorting the market to hopefully profit as things go down and they unwind their positions. Even Gold is not a safe haven for its price is plunging.

For those of you who read the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip you may remember that they frequently played a game that they called Calvin Ball. Calvin Ball had one permanent rule and that was that you may not play the Calvin ball the same way twice. That appears to be the way the financial markets are working these days. The markets do not seem to operate by the same rules every day. Governments seem to be changing the rules almost daily.

The good news is that the DOW is still not at its 52 week low. (yet?)

And now we find out that the House Democrats are contemplating abolishing 401(k) Tax Breaks see: http://www.workforce.com/section/00/article/25/83/58.php:

More good news the DOW seems to be rising from the day's low in early morning trading. That could change rapidly of course.

As always save more than you spend.

 

6:51 AM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

October 15

We might have a few more years to go

Courtesy of everyone's favorite business newspaper the Wall Street Journal

Update, well, I have tried to embed the chart, upload as jpg which worked but cannot get it in the blog post.  I will work on it.

thanks for your patience

12:31 PM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

An early winter

Three headlines from the Drudge Report

Parts of California see coldest temps since 1893...

Cold temps in Oregon break 118-year-old record...

Alaska glaciers grew this year, thanks to colder weather...

Expect more headlines like this as we head towards winter.

11:46 AM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

October 07

Liberating

Every fall in my house we begin a process of cleaning out the clutter that accumulates here there and everywhere. Many of the clothes that have been outgrown go to charity, other items are realized for the junk they are and thrown away or recycled.

The entire process is liberating both mentally and physically. Visually, clutter is distracting and taxing on the brain. Physically throwing the junk away also provides relief in that you no longer have to keep track of it, move it, hide it when guests come over, or figure out what to do with it.

It also helps if everything has a home and it gets put back in its home when it is not in use.

I find taking an hour or two to really clean up an area of my life whether it is my car, my office, or my home allows me to put aside my worries about the markets, my clients, and any other problems I might have. A really thorough clean up accomplishes a lot. You get rid of trash, you have a clean area, your brain is no longer distracted by that area, you have physically been moving around and getting the blood flowing which is healthy and you know where everything is in that area and don't have to hunt for something when you need it.

I encourage you if you are feeling stressed or worried to find an area whether it is your office, car or room in your house that might be cluttered or just needs a good thorough cleaning and get to cleaning. Take a couple of hours to really do it right from top to bottom. When you are done take a moment to reflect on how you are mentally and how that newly cleaned area makes you feel. I can almost guarantee you will feel better.

7:39 AM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

September 30

Add this blog to your RSS reader

For some reason the hosting company is not allowing me to or I haven't figured out how to get the blog posting on the www.beallfp.com website to provide an RSS feed for your feed readers so click here

http://beallfplog.spaces.live.com/default.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0

Then click on the RSS Icon (it is the orange one) that appears at the end in your address bar if you use Firefox or in your Toolbar if you use Internet Explorer

Sorry about the hassle

1:26 PM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

The Crisis of Faith

I believe we are in a time of crisis. It is manifesting itself in the financial markets and is playing out before our eyes in the halls of Congress and on the trading floors of Wall Street. The American People otherwise known as Main Street have lost their faith in their leaders. Congress has record low approval ratings in the single digits. The President's approval ratings have stayed in the 30's. The Main Stream Media (MSM) has marketed to us a daily barrage of one crisis after another. As a result they (MSM) have become the boy who cried wolf one too many times. The constant partisan attacks between liberals and conservatives and Republicans and Democrats have frayed our nerves to no end. The complete lack of courage and leadership displayed among the members of Congress to address the financial problems that we as a Republic face has gone on for decades. To provide you with an analogy: The Financial situation of America is the Obese American who knows what they need to do to get fit but is unwilling to do so because it will require both discipline and work. There is no quick fix. So instead they do nothing or tinker around the edges like a quick diet where you lose weight for three weeks and then immediately put back on the weight and then some.

The situation before Congress is similar to a team of Doctors (President Bush, Secretary Paulson, and Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke) coming to you the day before you and your spouse (Congress) are going on vacation (Congress rushing home to try to get re-elected) telling you that you are very sick and that the medicine they had prescribed for you before (Bear Stearns, Lehman, Fannie and Freddie, AIG, numerous liquidity infusions to the market) had in fact not cured you but made you worse (run on banks, money markets, and corporate paper) They are proposing radical surgery ($700 Billion in asset purchases) to fix your obesity or it might kill you (near complete melt down in the world credit markets). Your natural reaction is Fear, Misunderstanding, and Rejection. You don't want to have the Surgery because they cannot and will not guarantee it will be successful. Not only do they not guarantee success for having the Surgery but they promise to reward the people that encouraged you and enabled you to get Obese in the first place (Wall Street, Congressional Members).

The American People when presented with their prognosis and their recommended medicine said with a resounding voice… NO!

The People have lost their faith. They no longer trust their leaders; they no longer have faith in them. They feel betrayed and that neither Congress nor Wall Street will come to them and simply say we are sorry we were wrong. We are willing to take the medicine along with you. We will give you something for your pain. A simple acknowledgement that this situation is not all about them and the programs they implemented (Community Reinvestment Act, Sub-Prime Mortgages) or that they failed to do their jobs (lax oversight of the institutions they are supposed to regulate).

There are many steps that Congress and the Executive Branch can do to begin to restore our faith in our institutions. Many of these also have the benefit of bringing capital back into the USA and increasing the willingness of banks and others to lend and alleviate the credit crunch. Some are simply things the government should do to improve the prospects for economic growth which would go a long way towards helping all Americans.

1. Reward those who save and pay off their debts and invest in the markets by eliminating the taxes on Capital Gains and dividends.
2. Recognize that our corporate tax code is one of the most punishing in the world. Also recognize that the only way that a corporation gets the money to pay their taxes is by collecting it from consumers. Suspend the current corporate tax code for two years to allow members of Congress to properly debate a internationally competitive Corporate tax code. The benefits will immediately be seen on Wall Street with higher share prices. The balance sheet at all companies will show an increase in capital. It will be deflationary for many products as the price of will no longer reflect the corporate tax (corporations will no longer be taxing the consumer). The lower price of products will benefit all Americans from the poorest to the most wealthy.
3. The suspension of the tax code will also allow for the repatriation of capital that is overseas into the domestic market without it being taxed. An increased capital inflow into America from American companies is beneficial any way you look at it. The corporate tax code suspension would not cost any more than the current bill. The increase in domestic economic activity from it would actually increase revenues into the treasury at a time when it looks like we are heading for a recession.
4. For 1 year with a possible 1 year extension allow mortgage interest to be a tax credit instead of a tax deduction. Putting money into the hands of Americans who are paying off their mortgage already and those who need help paying off their current mortgage will go to one of the roots of the problem; the decline in house prices and foreclosures.
5. Employ policies that promote economic growth and transparency in the way our government functions.
6. Full disclosure of potential conflicts of interest between members of Congress and the bills they are voting on. The appearance of Corruption from family members of congress receiving large paychecks from lobbying firms or the opaqueness of earmarks in who requested and why they were requested abuses the faith and trust we put in members of Congress when we elect them.
7. Actually spending less than you receive in revenue for a few years to learn some fiscal discipline and operate the way the American household operates and show that we all play by the same rules would go a long way to restoring our faith in our institutions.
8. Begin to eliminate or fix those programs that clearly do not work or have not worked.
9. Eliminate those taxes that were implemented decades ago to pay for wars or emergencies that were won or resolved decades ago.
10. And finally Members of Congress should present "Clean" bills for the President to sign. NO earmarks, no unrelated legislation should be in bills.

In many ways the current Crisis of Faith in our institutions is more harmful and will do more damage to our great republic than the current credit crisis. We survived the Great Depression. We could do so again. We cannot long survive a lack of faith in Congress and The Executive Branch.

The American People have some responsibilities they must fulfill also.

1. Be informed about the issues.
2. Let your congressional representatives know your opinion and do not rely on professional lobbyists to represent you.
3. Hold your elected representative accountable for their actions and their votes.
4. Vote!
5. If you do not approve of your Representative or Senators actions then you need to let them know.
6. If you are not willing to run for office then you need to find someone you can support and help them get elected.
7. The American People like the Members of Congress must be willing to listen, hear other opinions and be willing to compromise in order to continue to move forward
8. The American People must be willing to forgive and understand that neither they nor their elected representative are perfect and will make mistakes. That is not to say that we should not hold those people who choose to be leaders to a higher standard.
9. Just like we approve of the Men and Women of America who serve and have served in the Military; we also need to thank our public officials for their efforts on our behalf.

I will end this with a simple request. Please pray for our elected officials that they will do what is best for our Country as a whole not just the little slice of it that they may represent.

Thank you for your time,

Jim Beall

8:22 AM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

Ask yourself

Do you trust Congress as a whole?

Whom do you trust in the Main Stream Media to simply report the facts of a story without putting their spin on it?

Are there any elected people whom you believe put the needs of their community if local or the nation if a national office holder before their own personal desires for wealth and power?

Do the government institutions you deal with work efficiently? Do they do the job they are supposed to do? Do they serve you professionally and courteously? They after all are there to work for you.

Then ask yourself what are your responsibilities and what can you do to make government to work properly.

We can no longer abandon our role and duty as citizens. We must be involved in the process and the solution.

8:15 AM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

September 29

It’s your money

About every 6 months we go to the Georgia Department of Revenue's Unclaimed Property website

And look for the names of our clients whose estate has settled, yet there may have been an account that was not fully closed or that anyone was aware existed. This has resulted in several thousand dollars being found and collected over the years.

We have also found money for friends and clients who are still living and they have been most appreciative to receive unexpected money.

There are a few key tricks to searching the website. Put in as little information as possible to get the most results. Sometimes information was keyed into the database incorrectly. You can search the whole state by leaving the city field blank. Don't forget to look under Maiden names. You can also check out the following sites for other states unclaimed property funds.

www.missingmoney.com

or

www.unclaimed.org

Now if you want to know where some of your taxpayer money is sitting here is a fun exercise.

Put in City of in the name field

Or just enter your city (Macon for instance) in the name field and see how many government accounts pop up.

Or enter you County (Bibb for instance) in the name field and see how many more government accounts pop up.

It will make you wonder who really is in charge of keeping an eye on your taxpayer money.

7:54 AM GMT  |  Read comments(0)