@bscar2
Get more advice.
As a banker told me, "It is NOT the interest rate where we make our money."
and as it turned out it also why they [banks] lost so much money.
@Rod Knox, Mar 2.
I am of the opinion that a significant proportion of the population of this country have a difficult time managing their income, personal finances and both work and personal responsibilities.
Perhaps, some former Bankers? and Politicians? that allow them to bet their bank and USA.???
@Longprime,till people start getting a little genuine love for other folks I dont see much improvement.The Lord said loving your relatives isnt really the same as brotherly love(but is a beginning)-Kevin
Longprime, you made me laugh. I missed the comment by Rod that you quoted, but I remember a few years back (when the banks were in trouble) getting a letter from a credit card holder that because the card wasn’t being used they were lowering the account’s limit. What they were doing, of course, is lowering their exposure…not because I couldn’t manage my money, but because THEY couldn;t manage THEIR money!!!
but because THEY couldn;t manage THEIR money
Sorry, you got it wrong. Banks get their money from you and me. It is NOT their money. Only the profits from our money is truly theirs. Many of the politicians fail to understand this-Letting Banks fail means that the depositors also lose.
Allow me to correct myself; they were lowering their liabilities because they couldn’t manage MY money.
you GOT money?
jk.
Not anymore.
me too
Been off line for about 6 days now,the snow and wind put the power and internet out, but lets face it people we are getting the shaft,pure and simple-Kevin
Help me; who can afford to put money in a bank anymore…for real ? . For us, it’s just a temporary holding place for money on it’s way somewhere else. Money in the bank is money lost. Put it into an acount at 1 % while they make many times that. Everyone on the receiving end is still making a killing except you and me…the average guy.
I thought we were done with this? I regularly deal with a local bank, a nation-wide bank that used to be based in Minneapolis, and a credit union. I really don’t have any issues with any of them. I don’t keep a lot of money there and they certainly don’t hide the fact that they pay only 1%. But if you want immediate access to cash, want to transfer, pay bills an so on, and/or need absolute safety-the bank is the only way to go. On the other hand, loan rates are around 3% now so there isn’t a large spread. Now some of the banks I wouldn’t even waste my spit on, though.
“I thought we were done with this”
"A great man never repeats himself, or has to."
Unfortunately, there are too few of us here, self included.
Bottom line…until a common savings account can pay enough interest to keep up with the cost of living, the economy is skewed. No one has the incentive to save (where) except in vehicles that are unsecured like the stock market and real-estate. These are places the haves can get their hands on the money of the middle class, and increase the wealth disparage. So saving is the only way the middle class can increase there standard of living over time in a secured fashion…since the early 2000’s with the lowering of interest rates, that has been taken away from us.
Replublicans ( and some Democrats) want to privatize Medicare and social security, pay for it with vouchers from tax payer funds, while the wealthy reduce their own tax burden using capital gains low or NO tax rates, and funnel more money into the hands of the wealthy…and WE have many of us support it !!! How dumb can we collectively be ?
I heard on the radio yesterday one of Obama’s flunkies stating that credit card use is up and that’s a sign that the economy is recovering. I laughed so hard I almost crashed. Truth is, credit card use is up because people are broke!
Exactly @same… It should be, savings account usage is up, not credit cards ! …buying on time is a negative , paying cash from savings is a positive…both Parties are at the wealthys trough.
For most of my life television has marketed the notion that the audience deserved much more than they could pay cash for and the happiness that viewers deserved was just a signature away from being theirs. Far too many people fell for the smooth talking pitch men. And they kept on falling for the sales pitch until, as a whole, this country was $trillions in debt. Now the country as a whole lives upside down in their houses wearing clothes and enjoying wide screens and ‘notebooks’ that will cost 3X their sale price when paid off in “minimum amount due” installments to Visa and Master Card. The inability to postpone gratification until affordable has dug a sizable chasm of debt and that chasm must be filled or bridged before we can move ahead.
Banks were never and will never be a place to make a lot of money on savings. They are just a safe place to park it for a while. I’m sorry that some people know nothing about earning higher rates of return on other devices but that’s not the banks fault.
Thinking that we are so weak that TV ads will cause us to go broke is exactly what some people want so that they can exercise more control over peoples lives. In the great cola court case, it was interesting that one person said marketing was so powerful that only regulation could overcome it. Without regulation NY residents would just drink themselves fat and to death. That’s a really pathetic view of mankind and we should be fearful of that kind of thinking gaining control.
@Bing
"They are just a safe place to park your money for a while. "
I agree 100 %. But, I do remember a time when parking your money there did not mean you were loosing value. I agree, the higher the return you want, the greater the risk you take in the vehicle you decide to use to that end. But, when CD, Money Markets, interest bearing checking accounts, savings acounts all show returns at less then the cost of living…how can you save without risk. The next step is the bond market, then the stock market. Dear old dad always told me that buying a house( in a good location) was a good place to put your money. So now in just the last ten years, saving looses and buying a house is risky, previously worthwhile and safe investments…
I know your reference to fat NY ers, but it is VERY relavant. Fast food is habit forming with aspartame and high fructose corn syrup as primary ingredients. It’s hard to find food without these habit forming additives when you work two jobs to make ends meet and It’s also impossible to save ! Both through NO FAULT of the average consumer. They are being skewed at both ends…
http://healthmad.com/nutrition/dangers-of-high-fructose-corn-syrup/
If car dealers had ZERO recourse on a defaulted note beyond repossession would the cost of the average price of new cars sold be drastically lower, Bing? Look around. How much of the current daily retail market is cash or debit? If the credit spigot were turned off what would retail corporations do? All the “no interest until 2015” ads mean that the furniture and appliance stores would go broke if they were selling to people who could afford their goods. Look at the proliferation of rent-to-own. It may be pathetic but it is the current state of affairs.
@Dagosa,not us folks for sure,slowly but surely our cushion(if we had one) is leaving,departing to parts unknown,the ride was good I hope it didnt lull too many into a sense of complacency and made us dig into a hole we cant get out of-Kevin