Saving on Telephone

Save Money or Throw It Away

Are you saving money on your telephone or are you throwing it away.

The average phone bill for a landline is something over $50 a month.

Here are some things you might consider if you want to save some money on telephone service.

• Replace your current carrier with Vonage
• Replace your current service with Ooma
• Cancel your landline and rely on your mobile phone. 
  

Vonage

With Vonage, their service costs less than $17.00 per month. I have had their service for three years and am very happy with the quality of service. I do have an upgraded plan that costs me about $25.00 a month. When I had Verizon service, I was paying about $60.00 per month and now I pay less than half that and have better service with more features, all for less that 50% .

Ooma

I am considering replacing Vonage with Ooma. With Ooma, one purchases the Ooma unit which lists for $249, plugs it into broadband service and there is not monthly charge. The only cost is the onetime cost to buy the Ooma unit. I have seen it for sale for about $200 so check on the internet. The reports about Ooma that I have read are encouraging.

Mobile Only

Another option may be to cancel your landline and simply use your mobile phone. Do you have both a landline and mobile phones? If so, do you actually need both.

What Do You Think?

Government Healthcare and Costs

Government Savings?

That seems like an oxymoron to me.

Certainly there are some elements of the American healthcare system that need to be fixed.

One of the claims by the proponents of government healthcare is that it will save money and be more efficient that the healthcare we now have. The government track record is not encouraging.

What enterprise has the government ever run that has been more efficient than private enterprise?

Government auditors claim that $60 billion is spent on Medicare fraud - the Whitehouse says it is $90 billion. If the government can bring efficiencies and bring costs down, why not start with the $60 or $90 billion in fraud? What are we waiting for - government run healthcare? Why not save those billions now?

For those of you who think the government will save money in healthcare, please read 
Fifty Examples of Government Waste. 

Social Security and Medicare are going broke.

Consider these examples of government corporations that were supposed to make a profit or at least break even:

• The Post Office
• Amtrak
• Freddie Mac
• Fannie Mae
  

Freddie and Fannie were recently recipients of $100 billion each and the government has promised another $300 billion to them.

Amtrak gets $1.5 billion a year

What Do You Think?

Looking for a Bargain

Bargains

Here are some sites that are worth looking at when shopping for bargains. Several of these sites are Deal of the Day sites. The last site tracks Deal of the Day sites.

I suggest you check them out.

Woot
Daily Deals
Daily Steals
Cowboom deal-of-the-day
Slick Deals
Deal of the Day Tracker

What Do You Think?

How Much Do You Need for Retirement

Retirement

http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/retirementneed/retirementneed_plain.html

http://allfinancialmatters.com/2008/06/20/how-much-do-you-need-for-retirement-dumb-question/

http://www.bloomberg.com/invest/calculators/retire.html

http://moneycentral.msn.com/retire/planner.aspx

http://finance.yahoo.com/calculator/retirement/ret-02

http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/retirementneed/retirementneed_plain.html

http://www.dinkytown.net/java/RetirementPlan.html

Retire on Less Than You Think
According to Fred Brock, you can Retire on Less Than You Think. Mr. Brock was a business editor at the New York Times for over 10 years. This book explains how people can if they are inclined to do so, retire on less than you think and still have a quality lifestyle.

Home Equity Loans

Sometimes people take out a home equity loan to pay credit card bills and turn their credit card debt into a secured loan on their home, putting it at risk.

Term Life Insurance

Term life

Bailout Suggestions

Bailout or Boondoggle?

It is estimated by most experts that the minimum total cost of the bailout will be between 5 and 9 trillion dollars. That is trillion not billion. How much money is that?

Let's look at this in terms of people in an effort to understand the enormous amount of money we are talking about. According to the IRS there are 140 million people who file tax returns counting those who file joint returns. According to the Census Bureau, there are 300 million people in the United States and 112 million households.

So, taking the low minimum of 5 trillion dollars, if that money were divided up among those who file tax returns or each resident of the United States or each household in the United States, what would it amount to?

• $35,000 for each tax filer or
• $16,000 for each resident or
• $44,000 for each household

If we take the higher minimum of 9 trillion dollars, if that money were divided up among those who file tax returns or each resident of the United States or each household in the United States, what would it amount to?

• $57,000 for each tax filer or
• $26,000 for each resident or
• $71,000 for each household

Or even if we take the amount already spent, 1 trillion dollars, if that money were divided up among those who file tax returns or each resident of the United States or each household in the United States, what would it amount to? 

• $7,000 for each tax filer or
• $3,000 for each resident or
• $9,000 for each household

Since spending that 1 trillion dollars, there has not been much of a real difference in the economy. If that kind of money were put into the pockets of everyday Americans, don't you think the economy would takeoff?

Auto Loans

Auto loans have dried up. An inexpensive way to prime this pump would be to allow a tax deduction for the interest on an auto loan. It is simple and yet not very costly, certainly less expensive than the current solutions being discussed. 

Foreclosed Properties

Foreclosed properties are not being purchased even with today's depressed prices. A simple and inexpensive way to solve this problem might be to eliminate the capital gains tax on the foreclosed properties purchased for the person who originally purchases the foreclosed property. 

It seems that the politicians in Washington just want to spend money. Here are a couple of suggestions that may be effective without costing a lot of money.

What Do You Think?

Political Wisdom on Taxes

Political Wisdom, is that an oxymoron?

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. (Ronald Reagan, 1986)

We want to take money and put it back in the pocket of middle class people, anyone making over $250,000 is going to pay more. It’s time to be patriotic. (Senator Joseph Biden, September 2008)

When asked what to tell friends whose taxes would be increased, “It’s time to be patriotic, that’s what you say to them.” (Senator Joseph Biden, September 2008)

Taxes, after all, are dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society.  (Franklin D. Roosevelt)

The taxpayer - that's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination.  (Ronald Reagan)

My attitude is that if the economy's good for folks from the bottom up, it's gonna be good for everybody. I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody. (Senator Barak Obama, 2008)

The nation should have a tax system that looks like someone designed it on purpose.  (William Simon)

Did you ever notice that when you put the words "The" and "IRS" together, it spells "THEIRS?"  (Author Unknown)

What at first was plunder assumed the softer name of revenue.  (Thomas Paine)

The point to remember is that what the government gives it must first take away.  (John S. Coleman) 

From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs. (Louis Blanc, popularized by Karl Marx in The Communist Manifesto)

Death and taxes may be inevitable, but they shouldn't be related.  (Congressman J.C. Watts, Jr.)

The income tax created more criminals than any other single act of government. (Senator Barry Goldwater)

Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.  (Calvin Coolidge)

People try to live within their income so they can afford to pay taxes to a government that can't live within its income.  (Robert Half)

We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. (Winston Churchill)

I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents... (James Madison)

To lay with one hand the power of government on the property of the citizen, and with the other to bestow it on favored individuals .... is none the less robbery because it is .... called taxation. (US Supreme Court in Loan Association v. Topeka, 1874)

This [preparing my tax return] is too difficult for a mathematician. It takes a philosopher. (Albert Einstien)

There is no such thing as a good tax. (Winston Churchill)

The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax. (Albert Einstein)

It would be a hard government that should tax its people one-tenth part of their income. (Benjamin Franklin)

We don't have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven't taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much.  (Ronald Reagan)

The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the dispensation of the public moneys. (Thomas Jefferson)

If you would not confront your neighbor and demand his money at the point of a gun to solve every new problem that may appear in your life, you should not allow the government to do it for you. (William E. Simon)

People who relieve others of their money with guns are called robbers. It does not alter the immorality of the act when the income transfer is carried out by government. (Cal Thomas)

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country. (John F. Kennedy)

I think of lotteries as a tax on the mathematically challenged. (Roger Jones)

Nothing in life is certain except death and taxes. (Benjamin Franklin)

A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it adds up to real money. (Senator Everett Dirksen)

How many zeros in a billion? This is too true to be funny.

The next time you hear a politician use the word 'billion' in a casual manner, think about whether you want the 'politicians' spending YOUR tax money.

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of its releases.

1.  A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
2.  A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.
3.  A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.
   
4.  A billion days ago no one walked on the earth on two feet.
5. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.
   

While this thought is still fresh in our brain... let's take a look at New Orleans. It's amazing what you can learn with some simple division. Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu (D) is presently asking Congress for 250 BILLION DOLLARS to rebuild New Orleans.  Interesting number... what does it mean?

1. Well... if you are one of the 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman, and child) you each get $516,528.
   
2. Or... if you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans, your home gets  $1,329,787.
   
3. Or... if you are a family of four... your family gets  $2,066,012.
   

Washington, D. C <> Are all your calculators broken??" (Pastor Paul)

What Have I Missed?