Kenneth Feinberg was appointed by the Obama administration as a “Special Master for Compensation”, also known as the pay czar, to make sure that companies receiving federal bailout funds will follow the rules and regulations of the executive-pay guidelines. Kenneth Feinberg has been directed by the Obama administration to deliver a report that states how much Wall Street executives are being paid during the apex of the financial crisis. Despite the crumbing financial system, 17 of the banks that were given bailout money have also been providing most of their administrators with very affluent compensation. The pay czar intends to slam all of these banks. The Treasury department announced that Feinberg will also be examining and publishing the pay of 419 companies that took taxpayer funds under the TARP Program between October 2008 and February 2009.

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Investing in the stock market can be risky when the economy is flipping upside down.  In recent months the stock market has been in the recovery stage, but there are still days when the stocks tend to lose their momentum and money is lost.  If you are an investor you might consider strengthening your portfolio with something a bit more stable like silver and other overlooked precious metals.  Investing in the stock market with your extra cash can mean saving you from a payday advance loan.  A payday advance loan would be more risky and certainly more expensive than taking on a few investments to set up a savings account for the next time the economy or your personal life experiences a little trouble.

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If you’ve never checked out how the other half lives, you’d be surprised to find that many products made for men are cheaper than similar products made for women. Marketers and retailers will sometimes price things higher for the fairer sex, not so much because it costs more to manufacture (although it sometimes does), but because they hope to get a bigger profit. If you want to avoid this type of subtle sexist marketing, cross the aisle and buy the man’s product instead.

Shaving Cream

This is a perfect example of a product that essentially has one function: to help you safely and smoothly shave your legs or facial hair. For men, who use it on their face, they use it in front of a mirror. For women, they often shave their legs in the shower, so the can is manufactured to be waterproof, increasing the final cost of the product. When you compare how often you use it and how long the product lasts, is this difference in cost worth it to a woman? If not, try the man’s shaving cream. You can save up to 50% when you simply choose to go gender neutral.

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The short answer to this question is yes, cash loans today can be achieved.  The bigger question is, should you agree to this short term loan or look for other ways to pay for an emergency?  If budgeting to the best of your ability has still left you without enough cash for an unplanned expense you may have no other way to remain free of overdraft fees or insufficient funds fees in your checking account.  This cash loan is to be used for the time you need it until you get paid again.  If you need money for a longer time period this loan won’t work for you.

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When money is tight and you need to take care of past due bills or you need to buy something important such as textbooks or new tires, you often must dip into your savings account to make sure those things get taken care of in a timely manner. Often, when funds are low, we must turn to friends and family for a helping hand. Maybe they have a credit card or cash we can use and pay them back when it is possible. Other times, we must turn to banks and financial institutions for our monetary needs.  Many banks only want to loan to customers who have great credit and possibly collateral to mitigate their risk, but often customers have credit issues. These customers are often turned away and have very few options when they are in desperate need of cash. Unfortunately, this situation happens to thousands of people every year. They turn to cash advances and payday loans as a last resort. These loans and advances cost quite a bit but can help someone in a bad situation get out of it quickly. You often pay them back with your next paycheck and fees are included. Many people are opposed to the high interest rates of these options and have lobbied to put caps on the money charged by these supposed predatory lenders. The fees and interest are to counterbalance the losses that these companies realize every day. They must charge extra to make some sort of profit on the loans they give out.

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Working people aren’t expecting a significant 2010 cost of living raise any time soon, but they are expecting higher food prices. While trying to pinch every penny in their food budget, many are turning to home gardening. Home and garden centers are trying to turn a nice dime too, by offering plants that people can just put in their garden and cultivate for a vegetable garden. Most of these are annuals, which means you may get a good crop of cucumbers, but if you buy plants you’ll have to buy them again next year. There are several strategies you can use to help you still get the vegetable and fruit garden you want, without wasting too much money on purchasing plants yearly.

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Recession gardens are all the rage this year, and why not? Growing a vegetable garden is one of the best ways to hedge against higher food prices or a lower income, just as when our elders had to grow victory gardens to learn how to survive a depression. One thing to keep in mind when first starting out is that you want to start small and keep track of your gardening budget and expenses. By tracking them each year, you can see where you made more money or lost money, and eventually refine your garden methods to help you preserve wealth, not spend it. You want to make the most of every dollar so that the tomatoes that you grow don’t end up costing way more than if you had simply stopped off at the grocery store.

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People who have started their New Year’s resolutions are either dieting, trying to quit smoking, or going on the wagon. Either way, a new healthier you can also mean a wealthier you. Some positives about the economic situation are that many people are realizing that their unhealthy habits can cost them big bucks. Drinking, overeating, and smoking aren’t just bad for you personally, they’re bad for your wallet. In terms of value, just dropping a few bad habits can put $30 to $50 in your pocket a week.

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Federal and financial regulators have taken to issuing warnings each month about pay day lenders.  In February a new warning was issued by the top government regulators about the payday loans.  The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp were also part of this warning.  In fact, they held a symposium about the dangers of payday loans and the alternative products available for individuals who are suffering from a lack of money.

Those at the conference stated the website of the Federal Trade Commission provides a number of different alternatives, while warning against the small, short-term, and high rate loans.  The Better Business Bureau also released a warning against pay day lenders.  They called these types of loans a “debt spiral” that could trap consumers into a worse situation than they are already in.

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Gold prices are dropping, and that’s a good sign for the overall economy. However, if you’re a precious metal investor, it might not be such happy news for you. You may have missed your “golden” opportunity to open a Swiss bank account backed by this metal and expect a significant return on your investment. Gold prices generally rise on fears of a depression event in the economy, as a hedge against a devalued national currency. Since the panic of 2008, in the financial markets, gold was rising quickly, indicating a loss of confidence in the overall U.S. Economy. While that might have made gold bugs happy, it’s a serious signal that something is wrong with the fiat economy. The price of gold dropping in the market means only one thing: More confidence in investors that the U.S. economy is recovering. (more…)