Window Shopper

These times are harsh especially in the financial world. Variable rate loans for homes were the big deal back a couple of years ago. Now they’re causing problems for homeowners who have them. The rates are changing and the owners can no longer pay the payments. Foreclosures come next. There are a lot of unhappy people that are now in that predicament if they have not already lost their homes.

Next on the chopping block are home equity loans. These are the loans that come from people who have been in their homes long enough to have some principle paid off of the home loan thus making equity. Lenders loved this idea because they could get the homeowners to take out an equity loan on the home. Of course, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Who knew??? Now, thousands of homeowners are using their homes as ATM machines by getting more and more small loans for when they need a few extra bucks.

Here comes the problem. With the boon in home loans, the lenders were having a heyday, that is until the bottom dropped out of the housing market. Values of homes has gone down dramatically in the last year. The result? Homes are no longer the same values that they were when the loan was acquired. Lenders like Countrywide Financial say that there is a regulation that states the lender can freeze the loans if “the value of the dwelling that secures the plan declines significantly below the dwelling’s appraised value.” (quote from Countrywide and Federal Reserve board)

What does this mean, exactly? Countrywide and other lenders will stop any action on the loans they previously approved when the value of the home goes down significantly. When that happens, it would be because the loan is higher than the value of the house that secured the loan. If a person has a line of credit because of the value of their house and the value goes down, they are able to stop any action by the homeowner to get more of the money from the line of credit. This can put homeowners in a real bind especially if the lender calls the loan, which apparently, many are doing. And that means foreclosure for those who do not have the ability to pay the total back again right away. And it can ruin a person’s credit.

At the rate these lenders are going, there will likely not be many who will qualify for loans in the future since they and the homeowners are trashing the credit of so many right now. Will that make it easier to get a loan in the future?? Uh, no!!! Actually, it’s likely to mean that the lenders will get really cautious about loans instead of getting easier. Of course, THAT means that anyone with a less-than-stellar credit record can kiss any shot of getting anything on credit goodbye; be it cards, loans for homes, cars or whatever.

The American Dream just went down in flames. God bless America!

Recently, I came across a phrase that I had not heard before, fee harvesting credit cards. What the heck is that? It’s quite simple really. It is a credit card that has all sorts of fees and interest tacked onto the bill for every little reason. For instance, you could have a fee for starting to use the card, activation. Then, there would be a monthly fee for HAVING the card. In addition, you might get late fees if you are even a day late with a payment. And so on and on. The fees will be there whether you like it or not.

I talked with a friend of mine who believes that she should pay everything on the credit card bill because it’s the honorable thing to do. I agree that if you incur bills that you should pay them. I agree that if there is a balance on a card, it should be paid and on time. I agree with all that. HOWEVER, I do not agree that your money should be poured down a rat hole just because some unscrupulous company decides to milk you for all you are worth and then get more. That’s what a fee harvesting company does. The whole thing is in a very technical language that you will not be able to understand, sometimes even the lawyers do not understand it.

Now, this friend has a credit card bill that is so far above what she and her husband could pay that she will drown in the debt of it if something is not done. Before you start to judge this person about paying for things bought, I should like to let you know that the couple in question has no income other than social security. I wonder what type of credit card company would be willing to give a card to somebody who has no more income than that? And you should know that they were needing some type of way to pay their bills. This was not as cut and dried as it may seem. One more tiny thing here. These people scraped and put together $500 a month to pay it off and still did not dent the balance. COME ON!!! That type of credit card, legitimate one, is simply not possible with their income.

The end result here is that they are piling up interest and fees on a very low balance. And after a number of years that they had not been contacted because the company was sold to another and then the credit card bill sold again….all the while, fees and more fees, interest and more interest being put onto an already inflated bill and you have a mess that will likely NEVER go away. EVER! There are only a couple of ways this will be resolved. ONE, they find a lawyer or mediator that will make the company drop all fees and interest and pay only on the principle of the bill. TWO, go file bankruptcy and hope that this company doesn’t sell the debt again. If they do, the nightmare will likely continue until the people either die or change their names.

So the answer to the above question is NO, NO, NO!!! NO WAY will I get wrapped up in that mess of credit cards and the ripoff companies that hand them out. There is a word for these people, GREEDY!!!!

With the ever increasing gas prices, it’s much harder to move goods and products across the county cheaply. In fact, the big ticket items will most surely go up dramatically and soon. You can probably already see the difference in the grocery stores and department stores. The biggest problem is the price of fuel. Gas prices are at an all time high but what gets missed in all of this, the price of diesel fuel is also extremely high, much higher than gas prices ever were.

This hits the truckers even more than it does the general public. Truckers move almost all of the goods and products in this country. When they raise the rates on moving products, it would be because of the higher gas and diesel prices. Trucking companies cannot keep their fees low anymore. They cannot exist on no or little profit so the bills for taking a load of goods and food across the country goes up dramatically. Where does it end? In the pocket of the consumer. And since we are all consumers, even the truckers, we all pay for the fuel prices that are causing all the problems in the first place.

And still, the US is dependent on foreign oil. Crude prices are at an all time high themselves. Yes, the price of a barrel goes up and down. You can sit there in your home, watching the news and hoping the prices will drop but is that realistic? Is it? Is it realistic when the middle east sheiks and oil profiteers are the ones controlling the prices and the amounts? There is no way they are going to be nice, is there. You know there isn’t. They LOVE it that we are hurting this much. We are a world power that is about to go to its knees because of middle easterners who control the oil. Is it possible for us to have missed it more??? Doubtful.

I suggest strongly that you brace yourselves for some very hard times. When the oil gets to pricey and we have nothing to put in its place, it is going to be a rocky ride. The middle east and the EU will start to write us off as a second rate power. Only if we can deal with our own oil can we stay in the world power status. That is not going to happen. Our shortsighted leaders have sold us out. This goes all the way back to before the 70s shortages. But we had a clue how it was going to be then. Why did we do nothing? We could have built more refineries, found more oil. Where is it???? And we are going to pay and pay and pay now.

Truckers who are feeling the crunch more than you are have decided to go on strike. I support this. They are protesting the high price of fuel. Frankly, I doubt that too many will do this but if it is possible, many truckers will shut down their rigs and not move for at least 24 hours. Some would like to park for a week. It would surely get the attention of the government.

Many truckers have the problem that if they start their truck, they are losing money. How can this be? Because everything they have to do to maintain the truck costs more and more, like insurance. Most truckers are paying out $600 to $800 per truck per month. The insurance is based on credit. If the trucker is losing credit status, he also pays more insurance which actually makes it a circle. Pretty soon, he cannot pay to run his truck so he parks it. That’s one more load that will not be delivered on time. If that continues to happen, the prices of goods and food will go up again.

It’s no better with the companies that have to maintain their trucks as well. In the case of the companies, there are the additional costs of individual pay, maintaining the fleet, insurance for each truck and trucker, the whole overhead. It is an awesome thing. I do not know how the trucking companies are making it. I suspect many have already fallen and there will be more to follow. When that happens, goodbye good prices for anything. It will cost yet more to move the freight and so it goes. More prices at the store. There is no end to it unless there are some stops put on those oil freaks over there in the middle east. Only then can we get a better deal at the store…..maybe.

I have no idea what most theaters that show movies look like inside now because I do not attend movies at the theater anymore. For one thing, I really do not like the seats. Most of them are too small. If that isn’t the case, they have gum on them, popcorn from the previous showing or whatever else the cleanup crew did not bother with. When people around you watch these things, they want to talk through the movie. If it isn’t that, they move their heads around so you cannot see at all. So I no longer go. I buy DVDs.

But, in my hometown, there was this awesome theater. They showed movies there but they also had live shows with celebrities coming in and entertaining people. I had the honor of being an usher in those days. We had a lot of good entertainers come to our town. For instance; Bill Cosby, The Smothers Brothers, Bobby Vinton and many more entertained us.

Now the thing I loved the most about this theater that I actually have not seen since, was the chandeliers they had. Those were awesome. They were hanging in the lobby of the theater and in the theater itself. Beautiful crystal that must have weighed hundreds of pounds each were hanging from the ceiling of the lobby. Smaller but equally beautiful chandeliers were hanging inside the theater. The only time you saw those was when there was a live act on stage. They would glisten in the spotlights. Sometimes, I wish that those days were back…if only for a little while.

If you haven’t already heard, Starbucks has been ordered to pay out over $100 million in tips to the baristas. You know what they are, right? These are the people who do the work making the fine, great tasting coffee that you buy at Starbucks each day. The problem is that instead of paying the shift supervisors the wages they deserve, they required the baristas to share their tips. How cheap can they actually get???? Are they serious???

I know that Starbucks is a well loved name in coffee places but this is ridiculous. The judge in California awarded the baristas their tips back plus interest and that was as it should be. And when I got to the news story on this, I was appalled that many of the comments were against the lawsuit. Come on!!! The company was stealing the tips from the guys and gals that actually did the work and giving it to the shift supervisors who should have been on salary anyway. Why on earth are people against the baristas who make the coffee that they drink in the first place? They were the ones stolen from, after all.

The question I continue to ask is…how cheap can a company actually get??? Well, now let’s see, the company took in $9.4 billion dollars last year, profits of $672 million. HELLO!! I think they could afford to PAY their shift supervisors, don’t you? Frankly, I do not see wanting to go into a Starbucks after that. SHAME ON YOU, Starbucks!!! Shame!

When I was still a kid, my grandmother lived in a house with a rather high terrace. She was strict about getting on it so I was not allowed to be on it unless it was an emergency. The whole thing was a real pain to mow, I want to tell you. I spent some pretty long summers there with her trying not to fall on my…..posterior while mowing the yard.

Thing is, there were some great adventures there. For instance, the day I found an orphaned bunny. I took it home and raised it to adulthood, then let him go. He brought his family to see us from time to time. Yes, it was him! Then there was the bat. I found him on a light pole out back of her house. I put him in a jar for a couple of hours. When I noticed that he wasn’t doing too well, I let him go. A friend of mine had an alligator for a pet. He was a little guy, about a foot long, but I wanted nothing to do with him! A friend across the street used to live in Hawaii! He loved to walk in the snow barefoot. I hated that. It looked really cold though he said it wasn’t. I think he lied to me.

My grandmother’s yard was fantastic for lots of things but the worst part of it was the concrete steps up to her house. They were long and sort of steep. If I were going to travel up them now, I would be using a stair lift! Too many steps, too high up for me. But she and I went up and down the things every time we went out shopping. We went to the local Rexall drug store, about two blocks away, which had amazing things in it. I got all my comic books there! If only I still had those books. They are so rare now. Still, I had a great time with my grandmother during all those summers and during the school years before I was a teen.

This blog is about shopping. Lately, not everything has been about shopping in the normal sense. But it really has been if you look closely. Today, the post is going to be about trends in this country. That, too, is ultimately about shopping or the lack of it if you have no money. These days, many people have no “extra” money to spend on anything less than essentials.

I am very concerned which way this country is going. The housing market is bleeding out because of bad advice to homeowners on what types of loans to acquire. I realize that many of those people would not have homes were it not for the creative mortgages they got when they bought the house. The problem is that now that same creative mortgage is costing boatloads of money and most people are having the problem of not having the money to pay for it. Those lovely lending institutions that thought those creative mortgages were such a great deal for the people are now facing bankruptcy themselves.

Today is a good example of that. Bear Stearns was sold because they were getting so shaky that they would have gone under. The government helped to bail them out. The question here is: how often can the government do this before that hugemongus debt being carried by the government gets so big that even the government can’t handle it? How many more lending institutions and banks are on the chopping block in the near future because of bad judgment on the parts of the loan officers and the public who just have to have homes of their own?

Everyone who owns a car or truck is feeling the pinch of the prices of gas and diesel fuels. If you are not yet feeling it, wait for the prices in the stores to go up, up, up. They will if they have not already. Here in the backwaters of the state, we are definitely feeling the effects of that. Our local superstore (ha ha) has hiked many of the tags on goods and food just recently.

The local price of gas, while it may seem quite low compared to other areas, is quite high for those of us who are on fixed incomes, for those who have those low paying jobs that are the only thing available around here. For comparison, our lowest price of gas is $3.07 as of today. Yes, I know. Not as bad as yours. Please read the above problems here before you tell me how we have it so good. Most of the people who can even find a job around here get paid minimum wage and are part time. Live with that.

I am very concerned with the path our country is on. If we do not change that path, our very sovereignty may be at risk. At the moment, we are still a world power. Some day soon, we will not be. Why not? Because we are being attacked. Yes, attacked. From within and outside of our country. Attacked as in…the oil producers are not sending out as much oil as they could. There is a country that sends us poisoned items, things that are dangerous to us and our children, recalled items galore. What bothers me is that this is so blatant and the government will not shut them down!!! They should. We need to regather ourselves. We need to get a clue and fast or our country will be one of those that no one ever hears about anymore. Do you want that? I do not.

Yes, I did say beaches twice. That’s what those are worth in January, February and March!! I do remember when we went to the beach in January in Palm Beach. It was great. The surf was up and there were less people about that day. We took the dog. He was a big black lab-looking dog with a huge opinion of others, both dog and human. I’ll get to that later. But Palm Beach in the winter is awesome. Not only is the beach a bit less crowded but the beach itself is awesome. Very pretty and when the surf is up, it’s breathtaking.

The first thing we always did was to head straight for the water. At the beach, why not? As I went in, I noticed some guy fishing up north of us. That wasn’t really registering at the time though. One of the first things that did register, after I was neck deep in water, was that my watch was still on my wrist. And, of course, it got drowned. Never worked again. BAH! I knew I should have had a Technomarine watch. Ever seen one of those things? Diver’s watch. I love it.

Then, I noticed that our dog went in with us. As I said, he looked like a black lab but was actually a combo of German shepherd and cocker spaniel. Do not ask me how that happened! He loved to swim with us and went in all the time. But sometimes, he decided to get out before we did. That’s when he would place his opinion on someone else. It was just a leg lift away. ACK! He targeted a German Shepherd who looked at him like he was nuts. Nothing else happened, thank goodness.

About that time, it finally registered about the fishing guy….when his hook got into my foot. OUCH! I got out of the surf, got my sis to get it out. I am certain that the guy thought he had a big fish on the line. Must have been a huge disappointment when all he got back was a line. We took the hook. That was the last time I recall that we actually went to the beach. I miss the beach!!!

That’s what I would like to say was happening to me. However, I haven’t slept for a full night in so long I have forgotten what it’s like to do that. This started somewhere in about the second year of our marriage. No, now do not go there!!! I started to have a bunch of wake up problems but I have no idea why. We thought it might be the standard mattress we have. Could be. I really do not know.

What bothers me is that it’s like I never really ever get a good night’s sleep anymore. Whether it’s the mattress or the house, the cat, the outside problems…we did have a huge thunderstorm the other night. Lightning and thunder, a lot of it. Normally, that does not bother me at all. I sleep through all that but wake up when it’s quiet. Go figure.

I was wondering the other day what would happen if we got a different mattress, you know? Now, I have already owned a water bed before. It had some good points and some bad points. Don’t think I want to go there again…ever. We have had this standard sized mattress for years. The thing is good but not great. I think we need great. And I thought that we should try out a foam mattress and see what happens with that. How about one of those memory foam mattresses? That would be a great bed to sleep in. Now, when I get the money, that’s what I want. I just figured it out. Maybe then I could get an actual night’s sleep again. WOW!

Today, I decided to try out the Pizza Hut Online website. We received coupons in the mail that stated they had online capability. While it may be normal and even easy for you with a larger version computer, my computer had problems. It was extremely slow loading. It was extremely slow with virtually everything. And it kept wanting things that it did not specify. For instance, it wanted all numbers or all letters…..in what, we have no idea. It wasn’t the password. It wasn’t my name or address. We have no idea what it’s problem was.

I simply was not happy with the way the website operated. In fact, it was so bad that I completely nuked my signup and order. You have to understand that we live in a rural area where this particular store does not deliver at all. But we could have a carryout. They have only quite recently offered internet ordering for this area. Yes, I do know. Archaic, right? But that’s the way it is out here in rural America.

The problem that we see is that the page is loaded with flash which does not do well on my computer. Because of that, the site was too slow for literally anything. It took the better part of 5 minutes to load from the front page to the order page. It went downhill from there. That is not good for anyone wanting to order anytime this century. We have wasted most of an hour trying to get this to work. The next step is to bypass the website altogether and call them like we usually do. And that’s the way it is today.

EDIT NOTE: I should tell you that we have DSL so it should not have taken so long.