Archive for the ‘Finance’ Category

$1 billion one dollar coins & Fed wasting Tax payer’s dollars

July 1st, 2011 Vijaianand

Below is the picture published by NPR(National Public Radio) this week on the millions of $1 dollar coins being sitting idle in Federal reserves all over nation and doing nothing. I was really shocked and frustrated.

When the nation is in the crisis mode, congress and President is fighting over increasing the debt ceiling, these $1 dollar coins are laying in the federal reserve and numbers continues to grow every quarter as they continue to make these $1 dollar coins nobody really wants to use, thanks to government program authorized by Congress in 2005.  

According to the NPR story, around 2.4 billion coins have been minted since 2007 costing $720 million of tax payers dollars. Only 1.4 billion coins are sold to public so far and government made $680 million profit out of it. The pile of idle coins, which so far cost $300 million to manufacture, could double by the time the program ends in 2016.

As per the program, coins were made with former presidents face changing every quarter followed by the success and famous of 50 states quarter coin series which attracted many Americans. So government expected similar response to these $1 dollar coins compare to the bills. Also government was planning to make profit by making the coins for less of 30 cents and sell it to public for $1 but it didn’t work out. It turned out goverment has to spend $1.5 dollar to put $1 in circulation.

At the same time, many of us don’t like to keep coins in our wallet and bills are much more easier and convenient. With advances happening everyday in the electronic world which is moving towards plastic cards, smartphone shopping and so forth. I don’t think coins would be good choice to many Americans in coming future.

Like me, I am sure many of you are really not happy to hear this story from NPR While many Americans are just making few dollars a day in this bad economy to make their living, these $1 billion one dollars are sitting in the vault doing nothing for the economy.

To read the full story, click here to go to NPR.

 

Posted in Economy, Financial Literacy Tags: No Comments »
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Economic Indicators & Your Investment

June 22nd, 2011 Vijaianand

Many of you might have heard about reports like Customer Price Index, Unemployment claim report, Personal Income and Spending report which come out every month. These reports are called economic indicators, bringing lots of data to shedslight on conditions which has impact over current economic condition and financial market.  There are two types of this kind, leading indicators and trailing ones. Depending on type of indicator, it either gives assurance or prediction of the economic growth path.

Lately even an ordinary person is closely watching these reports to get idea on how we are doing as a country in different fronts, more importantly employment and customer sentiment towards the economy. Overall, we all waiting to hear some good news to flow in the markets both main street and wall street to pedal the country in the postive growth path.  It is crucial for investors to keep track of these reports to make investment moves accordingly by considering different data points to predict the direction of the market.

This month magazine from TRoweprice has a good article which showed how certain reports gives indication on condition that impacts stock and bond market.  Let me give some for example,

1. Employment Situation Summary – Published by Bureau of Labor Statistics which gives idea about the employment numbers around nation. Lower unemployment means higher stock prices and rising unemployment reduces market sentiment bringing stocks down. It’s other way around for bond as bond prices goes up on rising unemployment because lower interest rates by Fed to keep the economy going.

2. Consumer Price Index –  Bureau of Labor Stasticis measures the cost of basket of consumer goods and services. It gives indication about the economy whether it’s in the inflation or deflation trend depending on the price index. This can help the Fed to tailor the future moves to drive the economy and Investors to make decision on their future investments.

In general these economic indicators are just a snapshot and shouldn’t be used soley to make any decision to alter your financial goals or portfolio. It should be one of many criterias which helps to make decision on your asset allocation to your portfolio.

Wanna read the article in details, check it out and try to be financial saavy investor.

Posted in Economy, Financial Literacy, Investing, Investment Planning, Stock Market Tags: , , , No Comments »
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Get $100 by Opening a Chase Savings account

June 8th, 2011 Vijaianand


This deal is a email invitational offer. I don’t think you can avail by printing a coupon because each email has different coupon code associated with it. But you can try calling them and possibly get the coupon for it.

Some conditions apply like, the account has to be opened with $5000 initial deposit but you don’t have to keep that $5000 all year. You just need to maintain $300 to avoid fees. If you calculate $100 for $5000 for year, it comes out to 2% interest which is a good deal and you don’t even have to keep the money in the account all year. Also deposit doesn’t have to happen while opening the account. You can also do ACH but deposit has to be within 7 days after opening account and $100 will be deposited after 10 days of the initial deposit.

Posted in Banks, Deals & Special Offers Tags: , No Comments »
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