Building Wealth - Cutting Costs

I talk a lot about mortgages, the US real estate market and investing in property in the US because it is something I know quite a bit about. I have really not said much about foreign real estate markets for the exact opposite reason, I just don’t have any real estate experience outside of the United States. So when I was asked to have a look at a UK based site that provides free financing advice and quotes on UK Mortgages I was happy to do it.

The site is called Money Magic and I found that it provides excellent advice for both investors and consumers alike. They even have information for international mortgages that was something that I haven’t seen on may mortgage sites.

Today the Down Jones Closed down a significant 370 points (almost 3%).  The question is why?  The answer, The Institute for Supply Management’s January report on the service sector, which accounts for about two-thirds of the economy, said the service side of the U.S. economy dropped sharply . The index dropped to 44.6 last month from a revised reading of 54.4 in December.  This the lowest number since 2001.

So what the heck is the real meaning of this?  The simple way of putting this is the U.S. economy is in a definite decline on the “service” side of the economy.   This is bad because so much of our economy (66%) is service based.

So what’s next?  It’s possible the services side of the economy could rebound some in February, like the manufacturing side did in January after its’ own slide in December.   The benefit of the Federal Reserve’s two big interest rate cuts in the latter part of January could also help spur the service sector back into growth mode later this year.

The key to understand here is this is another shot across the bow of the coming war that is a imminent recession that sooner of late will happen.  My advice yet again is to make sure you are not fully exposed in stocks right now.  We had a few good years but a slide is coming have a heart to heart with your advisers and put some of your investments into something safer for the next few years.

Look I am not for driving like a maniac or speeding in school zones but I also really feel that most traffic tickets are nothing but another revenue source for our bloated government. As my blog is about keeping money in your pockets rather then putting it into bad investments (is their a worse investment right now then our Government?) when I was asked to look at a new website called, Ticket Bust , that shows you how to fight a speeding ticket I was happy to do it.

Unfortunately these guys seem to only be available in California but if you live there I would have a look at their website.  They are so confident that they can help you they offer a money back guarantee and that is one of the reasons they make my list of recommend sites.   The reality is traffic tickets are one of the legal issues most of us have to deal with sooner or later (I have had to), so I am glad their are companies out there like this to help consumers.

So please comment below, have you ever used a service like this to handle a ticket?  How did it work?  Have you ever beaten or gotten a ticket reduced on your own?  If so how?

I am not a big golfer but being active in the business world I know just how many people are totally addicted to the sport. One of my partners is a positive fanatic and would rather golf then even say enjoy a very cold martini (some folks?). So when I was asked to have a look at a web site that provides very cost effective golf tournament software it seemed like something that some of my readers might enjoy.

This site is called, NetHandiCap.com and they offer  really cool software product that keeps track of players statistics and handicaps etc.  It is designed to be used by anyone from say people that own a Golf Course and run tournaments to amateur golfers that small run individual clubs competitions and play where and as they choose.   The platform is browser based meaning it does not hog up your PCs memory or resources and can be access from any PC with an internet connection.  Add to this the fact that it is fully customizable and very affordable and at least for the golfers out there NetHandiCap.com makes my list of recommended sites.

I have blogged a lot on gold, silver and other metals thus far because I firmly believe that they represent a great hedge against inflation, a good long term investment and because I feel they offer a lot of protection from the coming recession. So when this article from Forbes hit my RSS Reader this morning I was quick to have a look at it. The article is title, Gold’s Allure Growing, and I recommend you give it at least a quick read.

While I found the article interesting and quite accurate I do feel they sort of glossed over a key reason for gold going up recently and a reason that gold will continue to go up for quite a while. Here was the only mention of this factor in the article,

“Demand for the metal is also strong in Asia, for jewelery and as a store of value.”

That was the only mention of this factor in the entire article and I find this very much missing the boat. Why? Well, because with China and India what we have is more then 2 Billion (with a big B) people who are rapidly growing their middle class and both societies have a tremendous appetite for gold jewelry. I recently read a report on of the foremost expert on gold and mining operations who stated that we currently have “at least a 10% shortfall on the production vs. demand for gold most of which is attributed to the rising demand in India and China for gold jewelry.”

In other words those 2 billion people are buying gold faster then it can be extracted from the ground. The big issue with that is it has never happened before. The demand for gold has always been based on how rare it is and that has always created a demand yet until now anyone could always buy as much as they could afford. Today we have unmeetable demand and the demand is growing faster then the production and again this is the first time in modern history that such a condition has existed in the gold market.

I highly advise any investor (small or large) to have a serious heart to heart conversation with your financial advisers about putting at least 10-20% of your holdings into gold, gold funds, etc. The increased demand and declining dollar together make gold a real winning opportunity at least in my opinion right now.

If you own a retail outlet a great way to get a truly honest assessment of your service is to use a mystery shopping company to evaluate you with no bias or confusion.  I recently was asked to check out a web site that provides this type of service called BestMark and I must say I was impressed.   Rather then just sending some mystery shoppers to your store they provide professional consultants that have in-depth experience guiding programs from inception to ongoing execution to analysis to solution implementation.  That all adds up to put BestMark on my list of recommended sites for owners of retail outlets.

What I really like about using a service like this is the completely honest feed back that it provides and how that data can be used to improve your service.  While you are your location you view it via “rose colored glasses” and you have no real idea how the service is when you aren’t there (when the cats away…) and these services put you directly in touch with the reality on the ground.