Many occupations come with a COLA (cost of living adjustment) raise each year to assist employees with inflation. This year many employers have found it necessary to reduce or eliminate such adjustments as a means of cutting costs. The Social Security program even announced last week that they do not intend to make any COLA this year or next.
With experts generally agreeing that inflation is taking place at an alarming rate, many Americans are finding it harder to make ends meet with their current paychecks. Prices on basic goods and other necessities are going up but many salaries are not.
This is certainly not the first time in history that the decline of the dollar has hurt consumers. Click on the image to view the decline in the dollar’s purchasing power over the past century.
31.Aug.09 
Upside Down 
Comments (0)
As economies turn south, counterfeiting tends to increase. Unfortunately, very few consumers are familiar with the various changes made to US bills in past years. Possesion of a counterfeit bill can lead to its seizure as well as a report to the Secret Service. The alleged counterfeit is not returned until an investigation determines the bill to be genuine.
The best way to identify a legitimate bill is by its security thread. Each bill carries a different color and can be identified as follows:
$100 = Red
$50 = Yellow
$20 = Green
$10 = Orange
$5 = Blue
The yellow thread on $50 bills is one of the easiest to identify visually, and for this reason it is one of the least counterfeited bills. Choosing to accept cash in $50s instead of $100s can reduce your risk of receiving a counterfeit bill.
Merely checking a bill for a security thread is not enough, as clever counterfeiters have taken to bleaching $5 bills and printing $100 notes over them. This method fools most counterfeit-detecting pens as the bills are genuine lower denomination bills. A small UV penlight can be purchased for less than $10 and is a good investment if you handle large amounts of cash. Use of a UV light combined with a knowledge of the security thread’s colors can greatly reduce the chance of being fooled by a counterfeit bill.
photo credit: {Guerrilla Futures | Jason Tester}
31.Aug.09 Financial Planning Comments (0)
It’s no secret that unemployment has been climbing steadily. A job’s report issued this last friday indicated that this trend may be slowing.
Those looking to invest, purchase a home, or just trying to gauge their saving habits can benefit greatly from such news. This said, just how much unemployment has actually slowed is currently the subject of much debate.
According to Forbes,
The Labor Department reported Friday that the jobless rate in July was 9.4%, one-tenth of percentage point lower than in June. The U-6 rate, which includes frustrated part-timers as well as those who have stopped looking, also fell slightly, to 16.3%. Williams figures that broader rate hit 20.6%, 25% higher than the government figure
This seems to indicate that the figures being reported have been manipulated to indicate a ’slowing’ in unemployment. Given the discrepencies in data, whether unemployment has actually declined is difficult to determine.
An excellent resource for comparing Government statistics to real numbers can be found at ShadowStats. Taking a look at the numbers there can help one make a better decision for future investments.
photo credit: austrini
10.Aug.09 Financial Planning Comments (0)
