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Bye Borders, I Will Miss You!

July 19th, 2011
Borders Book Store

Borders - (Image via Wikipedia)

 

Did the Amazon technological marvel called “Kindle” kill the book store behemoth Borders?  Borders said that is exactly what has happened, I wonder if Barnes and Noble is next?  I’m sad to say that 10,700 Border employees are now out of a job!

In my previous blog entry called “Is Technology A Job Killer?” I basically summarize how we are going to lose more and more jobs as a result of technology.  But perhaps my statement isn’t really that amazing, perhaps we’ve been losing more and more jobs for a long time now and we just didn’t realize it.

Reading my above statement and previous blog post, you might think that I’m anti-technology, but that’s not true!  In fact, technology is what puts food on my table at home.  I’ve seen the Kindle and it’s pretty cool.  As cool as it is, I still prefer hard bound books, but I definitely see the value in a kindle.

 

My History With Borders

Okay, now I’m going to talk about why I’ll miss Borders so much!

Over 5 years ago, I had a small lunch group of three or four members that would go to Borders at lunch.  We would browse the magazine section and I would occasionally check out the latest computer books (see I don’t hate technology).

After about 10 minutes, we would all settle over in the small Cafe and order soup and some times coffee.  We would discuss ideas covering financial investments and plans we had in the future, to ideas that we thought would be cool to have or invent.  It was a great time, and times remembered fondly… at least until the Borders store closed 2 years ago.

Even though we don’t go there anymore (since our employer moved to a larger building far away from that particular Borders store), I still had fond memories of the place whenever I would drive by.  Occasionally I would even stop in just to experience that same old comfy feeling, buying an occasional greeting card or financial (or computer) magazine while I was there.

It was an A+ experience that my kids won’t grow up to know.  Hopefully Barnes and Nobles can hold on, it’s similar although a bit more uppity.  My family could still blend in, although it doesn’t have that same friendly everybody fits in feeling that Borders had.

I’ll admit, I’m kind of worried that some of the quaintness in the world is going to be left behind by the Amazons, eBays, Netflixes and Apple itunes of the day.  Oh year there is still Walmart, but do you really go there for the aesthetics?  Do you get a warm comfy feeling when you get a pop for their vending machine in the vestibule?

So as Borders finally closes it last few remaining store doors, I node Goodbye to the store that held so many lunch memories for me with friends I hardly see anymore.

So tell me, have you bought at a store or establishment that you would like to have around for a while?  I do, that’s why I make sure I make sure I support my local stores and restaurants and my local drive-in, because the world would be a much more generic and bland place without such unique landmarks!

Goodbye Borders, Hats off to you!

MR

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President Obama Hates Me, Financially!

October 1st, 2010

Obama Bodysurfing

Some days (actually most days) it seems like President Obama hates me.  It almost like he is personally looking at all that I’ve been trying to accomplish financially, and then he totally tries to derail my efforts!

Sadly, most of my efforts have taken years to accomplish!

I feel this way because of the following:

  • The President (and current administration) gave up to $8,000 dollars to first time home buyers of my tax money.  This one still has stumped me?  After all, if they don’t have a home to begin with, they won’t lose it to foreclosure…
  • Later, existing homeowners were given a $6,500 tax incentive to become more in debt?  That is exactly what happened to my neighbor (the Joneses).  They went on to buy a house worth double the old value of their previous home.  I hope their jobs are secure!
  • Obama is working to get some of the debt on existing home forgiven?!?  The people that he is targeting aren’t even the people who had their homes foreclosed already or currently.  What kind of bizarro logic is this?
  • Now I heard that he is going to raise the taxes on dividend yielding investments.  I always though that taxing dividends was pretty unfair to begin with, and besides, it hits the boomer generation hardest.  For someone (like me) starting down the road to becoming a dividend investor, this hurts!  There are workarounds (moving all dividend stocks to Roth IRAs), but they require effort and additional tracking.
  • Speaking of boomers, they shouldn’t be very happy either.  Most of their mutual funds in their 401ks and IRAs held financial firms as prime assets.  And most of these have been handcuffed and dividends stripped away.  This will directly put a lot of retired boomers in a bad predicament that they wouldn’t be in otherwise.

I have to admit, the housing policy from this administration is a big slap in the face for me.  To me, it seems that if you went beyond your budget and got a house too big, the government will take my tax money and help you live your too rich lifestyle.  So if you make bad financial decisions, I’ll be paying your bill.

Am I wrong on how I interpret the actions of the government?  What say you?

-MR

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Buy Local, How I Support My Community

August 26th, 2010

Over at Get Rich Slowly‘s site, J.D. has a great article today called “Why I Buy Local“.  And as I started to add a comment, I noticed that all the other comments from other readers were pretty as long as a typical blog entry by themselves.  So I decided to add to his work and put in my two cents over here at www.moneyreasons.com. 

So here is my take:

I live in a small middle class city in the MidWestern region of the Unites States.  We chose to live in such a community because of the charm of the community and the fact that they have an excellent public school system (okay, I confess the school system was a larger element in our choice)!

While within the last few years, a Walmart, Target, Lowes, Starbucks and other big chains have been built, the downtown area of the city still has much of it’s small social and business charms. 

We still have quite few locally (mom and pop) owned restaurants,  farmers, 1 movie theater, 1 drive-in theater, hardware shops, coffee shops, auto shops, antique shops and other charming little places.

Now for how we support our local businesses:

  • For movies, we’ll wait a bit longer and go to the Drive-in Theater which is only a few miles away!  It’s a flat rate per car to get into the Drive-In, so not only are we supporting this great local business, it’s also cheaper than the farther big city theaters. Just for an additional kick, we also invit my wife’s friend and her two kids to go with us.  We usually pay for the car entirely, but even then, it’s cheaper than the other theaters in the bigger cities.  The sound system isn’t the best but the other great aspects make up for this :)
  • In the summer, we go to the local farmer’s market and buy our sweet corn from them!  It’s almost as cheap as the store bought versions, and taste soooo much better!
  • I buy small hardware needs (including sharpening my lawn mower blades) from the local hardware store.  It’s not as big or fancy as Lowes, but it has that Normal Rockwell feel that’s just plain cool!
  • For breakfast, almost every Saturday, we go to this great little mom and pop restaurant!  Everything taste great (eggs, pancakeS, etc), and is cheaper than both Bob Evans and The Cracker Barrel.  Oh sure, it’s not as pretty inside as Bob Evans and The Cracker Barrel, but it’s still has a decent enough decor… and the owner is incredible friendly!  In fact, its my favorite local business, the fool is almost always perfectly prepared (even the cheap coffee)!
  • I confess, I still go to the Starbucks when I am at work (which is out of my city)… but if I’m in town, I go to one of the two cafes that are downtown.  The local cafe shops are just as good, and has a personal feeling that’s hard to beat!  Plus, the one shop (the one I go to the most) has small local bands that play on Thursday nights (only for a few hours)!
  • My wife’s minivan is running oddly, so we took it to our local “around the corner” auto shop.  I’ve had great experiences with the owner in the past, and I’m sure he’ll do right by us again!
  • We also frequent many other local shops, instead of big chains.  We’ve bought stuff at clothing stores, thrift stores, ice cream shops, a root beer stand,  antique stores, a tidbit store, local pizza place (Papa Johns is still our stable though) and other such local shops…

Now I hate to say it, but we also shop at Walmart, Giant Eagle and Target, especially for food products.  Target is just fun… sorry…

So while we are mostly frugal, we do try to keep the local community in business!!!

So my question is…  Do you have any special local business that you support and are incredible proud of? 

We love our Drive-In, and would hate to see it go!!!

-MR

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Forty Billionaires To Give Half Of Their Fortunes Away

August 5th, 2010

I read at the abcnews site that Warren Buffett and Bill Gates have been on a crusade to convince some of the billionaire families to give half of their vast fortunes away to charities.  Apparently they were successful.

Some of the money being given away is even old money that has been in families for generations.

You might think that this is great, but I don’t.  It’s not that I think those extremely rich families and individuals should hoard that money.  No, it’s more that I hate do see people become more and more dependent upon others.  Our country is already creeping toward socialism (unless some big changes happen in the next elections), and I’m afraid that the people of the U.S. and the world for that matter are become more and more dependent upon handouts.

I can see us losing a decade or longer, when people become lazy by being too dependent on other.  What if those charity dollars actually prevent some great things that would have happened but won’t now?  How can a small fledgling company compete with the dollars that a big charity with pocket stuffed full of dollars?

You can think of a charity as a business that already has made its money and now is trying to create the product.  There is no sense of urgency and no risk.  But with a small company without the dollars… well, they would be hungry and desperate to make things happen.

The problems with charities is that you never see that effect they have on such small businesses.  I think in small business cases (and farmers), charities are the dream killers.

Now I could be wrong, maybe I’m being too heartless…  I just think that we really don’ t know the true casualties of the various charity organizations.

An example of the potential damage is that continuous charity giving to Haiti (not the earthquake charity work!), has kept the Haiti people dependent on handouts.  Some Haitians claim this has actually hurts the Haiti farmers and other local economic development!

I know this is a controversial viewpoint, and I don’t expect many people to agree with me, or that even I agree 100% with this viewpoint.  My goal with this post is to make you just wonder if it’s a possibility.

Do you have any stories where charities have done more harm than good?  Do you think my theory is way off base?

UPDATE:  After some more focused thinking about what bothers me.  I think it’s the spending the money then it’s gone.  Currently, I’m trying to build up dividend funds to provide a small stream of income, and the giving away of this money sounds like a spending spree.  The frugal side of me thinks that the money should be invested, then a portion of the dividends push towards charity.

Along with most of the commenters below, if the charity does something constructive with the money, I’m okay with the spending.  But of 70 to 90% of the money goes to the running of the charity or wasteful spending, that’s what bothers me.

I really like Sandy L.’s  and BFS’s idea about the money going towards the creation of infrastructure and something constructive… where the charity teach people to fish, instead of giving them a handout.

-MR

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Posted in Economy

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Big Crash, Time To Invest?

July 19th, 2010

Last week’s big gains was washed away by the stock market’s harsh dip this past Friday (DOW was slipped -261 points).

The market seems so choppy, is it time to packup the wagon and head to the hills?

I’d say no… Why?  Because Warren says so!

Warren Buffett exclaimed that he doesn’t believe a double dip scenario is in the work, nor is a great depression.  He then goes on to say that all of the 80+ businesses that his company Bershire Hathaway owns are doing better than in 2008, plus he said that some of the companies are even hiring new people on board (albeit at a slow rate).

So why should I believe what Warren Buffett says?  Afterall, he continuously states that he can’t predict the future movement of the markets!

Well, based on the biography “The Snowball” written about him, he doesn’t make predictions lightly.  Plus, he has empirical evidence (the pretty diversified businesses that his company owns), that gives him first hand information on the state of the economy!

So if Warren said it’ll be okay and we are coming out of the recession, and we are not going into the double dip scenario, I tend to listen with perked up ears!  Time will tell, but if I were a betting man, I’d definitely bet on Mr. Buffett above all others! 

Afterall, his stock Bershire Hathaway cost over $115,000 for just one share!  When Warren took over Bershire Hathaway, it was valued around $19 for one share.  So Warren must know a thing or two!

-MR

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