Our First Marriage Counseling Session (pfblogs.org)

Last week we attended our first session of marriage counseling, it was primarily to discuss issues that we are having regarding our finances, children , etc. During the session we were given a book and CD set called Marriage on the Rock by Jimmy Evans. He and his wife, Karen, are the hosts of MarriageToday with Jimmy & Karen, a marriage ministry and a national award-winning broadcast television program.When I glanced over the title of the book and read the highlights on the back cover, the first thought that came to my mind was, "what does this have to do with finances?". Being over 43 years old and married for many years I thought I understood everything I needed to know about my wife and how to please her and finances in marriage but, after reading this book and listening to the CD I had to admit that I really didn't have a clue.While reading the book about his previous attitude towards his wife and how he was raised made me realize that we had a lot in common. Just like him, I was raised watching my mother, grandmother and other women "serve" their husbands. So, I came into my ...

(IT) Java/J2EE Developer, Banking, E-commerce, London

Rate: £50k - £60k per annum + (c20% bonus) + benefits   Location: City Of London   

My client is a highly professional and fast growing international company, with industry leading standards in product development, infrastructure and social responsibility. The largest E-commerce site in Europe and the biggest transactional hub globally. Also, one of the most technically advanced and innovative users of technology in the world being a BETA test site for Oracle. They are looking for a dedicated, self-motivated, driven technical professional with experience working with n-tier architectures to work in a team of developers feature-enhancing a highly transactional, high availability, highly scaleable product using J2EE and other Internet technologies. The successful candidate will have exceptional technical and problem solving skills, with a positive, results driven attitude. Experience of Jboss, Spring and Jakarta Struts are desirable but not essential. A good knowledge of Linux, Windows and Oracle 9i systems are required along with Java, JSP, Servlets, JavaScript, JDBC, JMS, Tag libraries, JAAS, XML, Web Services, SQL, UML, Ant/Maven, OOS, Tomcat, Apache and IIS. Source Code Control such as CVS, Perforce or SourceSafe is essential. Fantastic opportunity to work with cutting edge technologies within a dynamic and technically advanced company.

Rate:£50k - £60k per annum + (c20% bonus) + benefitsType:PermanentLocation:City Of LondonCountry:UKContact:Gavin CrossleyAdvertiser:Huntress IT - Perm1Email:Gavin.Crossley.AA923.7B1B1@mail.jobserve.comStart Date:ASAPReference:JSGC/JDEVGA77

Rent-Stabilzation War: Tenants Strike Back (pfblogs.org)

Even though the first of three Rent Guidelines Board hearings into rent increases for stabilized apartments was a little restrained, the annual battle is still getting a little chippy. Landlords are demanding their customary double-digit increases because of escalating operating costs, and while they won't get that, the range of increases proposed by the RGB is fairly high given previous years' rates. Tenants need a momentum shift, and today, they've got one. The Times' Gretchen Morgensen files a story on the recent trend of private investment firms buying up rent-stabilized buildings, which becomes an exposé on how tenants are being harassed until they leave their apartments. The developers and their investment firm partners claim they are just enforcing the rules, and that's the case in many of these situations. But of course, that's not the truth everywhere, and the Times does a bit of hammering on the "predatory equity" topic. It ain't pretty for Vantage Properties, which has been in the news about harassment before and gets the dreaded Times chart treatment (right). They've purchased 9,200 rent-regulated units in Queens and Upper Manhattan with co-investor Apollo Management in just the past two years, and in one Queens complex with 2,124 ...

What If We'd Been on the Gold Standard? (pfblogs.org)

James Hamilton submits: If the U.S. had decided to go back on the gold standard in 2006, where would we be today? That's a question my friend Randy Parker recently asked me. Here's how we both would answer. Many things might have been different had the U.S. decided to promise to exchange dollars for gold at the 2006 price of $600 per ounce of gold. But let's start with some of the things that wouldn't have changed. I contend that we'd be no less worried today about geopolitical events in places like Nigeria, Iraq and Iran. The phenomenal growth of the Asian economies would presumably have continued. The bad mortgage loans made prior to that time would still be on the books and still be problematic, with attendant worries about the financial soundness of many institutions. All of this would have meant an increase in the demand for gold. Equilibrium would then require an increase in the relative price of gold compared to what it had been in 2006. That is, the number of umbrellas, or cars, or chairs that people would be willing to surrender in order to obtain an ounce of gold would have gone up relative to what it had been in 2006.Complete Story » ...

Under The Radar News - Friday (pfblogs.org)

Too little too late. A survey of economists says forthcoming tax rebate checks will not stimulate the U.S. economy. "Consumers have gone into the bunkers," one says. "A $600 check isn't enough to turn things around. It took so much to wilt consumer confidence, that it's not going to be rebuilt real fast." They apparently aren't listening to White House top economist Ed Lazear who recently said stimulus checks will boost growth as soon as this quarter. The pessimistic bunch also reduced its second-half GDP growth estimate from a month ago. (But see below.) Retail shoppers snub recession talk. Consumer companies, led by giants like Wal-Mart Stores (WMT), Ford Motor (F) and Hasbro (HAS), are by-and-large exceeding Wall Street estimates. "Why, if it's a recession, are all the economically sensitive stocks leading the market?" Wells strategist James Paulsen asks. S&P 500 consumer constituents have topped consensus estimates by a robust 11.5%, the most of the index's 10 industry groups. Financials have trailed the index by 6.3%. Newsday doesn't discount Dolan. Newsday (the publication) says Newsday (the company) is seriously considering Cablevision's (CVC) $650M offer, despite insistence from News Corp.'s (NWS) Rupert Murdoch that he will prevail ...

Gannett Co (pfblogs.org)

Gannett Co., Inc. operates as a news and information company in the United States and the United Kingdom. It operates in two segments, Newspaper Publishing and Broadcasting.Gannett Co is a dividend aristocrat as well as a component in S&P 500 index. It has been increasing its dividends for the past 39 consecutive years. Over the past 10 years the company has delivered a negative average total return of 2.70 % annually to its shareholders.At the same time the company has managed to deliver a meager 2.00 % average annual increase in its EPS.The ROE has been in a steep downtrend from its 1998 highs at 25% to less than 11% in 2007. The decline in the newspaper business is the main driver behind the deterioration in fundamentals.Annual dividend payments have increased over the past 10 years by an average of 6.70% annually, which is above the growth in EPS. A 6.70% growth in dividends translates into the dividend payment doubling every eleven years. If we look at historical data, going as far back as 1985, GCI has indeed managed to double its dividend payments every eleven years. If the company does not increase its EPS over time, any ...

Rolling Over My 401K to Vanguard (pfblogs.org)

I recently left my old job for a brand new and exciting one, and as I have previously written, I am a big believer in rolling-over my 401K as soon as feasible after I leave a job. There are many reasons to roll-over a 401K into an IRA, but some of the biggest are the high-costs and limited transparency of typical 401K plans and the relatively limited investment options.Being the devoted index investor that I am, I rolled my 401K money into my traditional Vanguard IRA. The process itself was smooth and painless. First, I logged into my 401K account online. There I chose to terminate my account and to take my money in the form of a direct roll-over. Note that if you choose to withdraw your cash instead of rolling it over, you may be subject to a 10% tax penalty, and to an immediate 20% withholding. ADP - my now former 401K plan provider - asked me to enter the name of the institution into which I will be rolling over my account, and presto - a week later a check arrived in the mail made out to Vanguard, for the benefit of your humble blogger.This morning ...

Review: Kaboost Portable Chair Booster (pfblogs.org)

The folks over at Kaboost were kind enough to send me one of their chair boosters to review. The concept is simple: Put a chair's legs into a four-pronged booster so a little kid can sit at the table at the right height.As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, we took the opportunity to move Alex out of his booster seat and into a regular dining chair outfitted with the Kaboost. Set up was amazingly easy and took only a minute or two.We've been loving our Kaboost ever since we got it. Especially Alex. The slogan, "Little kids sit like big kids," really applies to him. He especially likes being able to slide out of the chair since there's nothing tying him down. This is good and bad, of course. Tyler seems to be jealous of this aspect, but there's no way I'm letting him loose just yet.If I have one complaint about the Kaboost, it's that it's difficult to slide in and out from under the table. But of course, this is also a good thing in that it's an important safety feature. Alex can't push his chair around by pushing on the dining table, nor will he ...

April Net Worth (+33.5%) and Trip Spending Roundup (pfblogs.org)

Better late than never, I suppose. This would have come out earlier had work not sent me on a SUPERSPECIAL assignment...that turned out to be completely pointless. For an additional commute of 2 hours, I did testing that required 1 hour. Oh well, at least they covered my cab fare.Anyway...Net WorthCash and Cash EquivalentMy savings accounts continue to increase despite ever-lower interest payments. Steady saving means a lot.The slightly higher checking balance was due to one fewer calendar day more than anything else. Of course, much of my spending went to...the trip.For the record:$104 on toiletries and accessories. Yes, I already had a dress, but the bra I wanted to wear didn't go with the neckline and the shoes I had have always been cut too low in the vamp. If I was going to be standing on a ship, even in port, I wanted comfy shoes. Add in some shopping for TSA-approved health and beauty products and there you are.$12 on food. The rehearsal dinner and wedding were covered for all guests, and my aunts and uncles picked up the tab for some of the other meals. I really ...

Dark Pools Looking More Like the Kiddie Pool: Shallow and Smelly (pfblogs.org)

2 interesting articles this week from WSJ and Reuters on the untamed and unaccountable dark pools in the market.What are dark pools?The WSJ defines them as "the secretive electronic trading networks that match buyers and sellers anonymously." These trades are done outside of the traditional stock markets like the NYSE and NASDAQ.The WSJ journal points to the dark pools at failing on their promise of making it easy to move large shares without affecting price. In fact with more dark pool firms competing for volume and their share of the business, the consulting firm TowerGroup reports that the average trade was just 260 shares at the beginning of 2008. A decade ago it averaged over 1,400 shares. Ugly shrinkage.The Reuters article observes that as a result of the competition for liquidity and volume, many dark pool firms are falsely boosting their trade volume numbers. With no standards among these market players, many are knowingly double counting attempts to fill blocks as new and reportable volume.I mention the articles because this has been a recurring theme when I speak with our Director of Trader Education, Jamie Hodge. He shared his observations in his recent interview ...

It's a WOOT OFF!!! (pfblogs.org)

Do you know what that means? It means you get a butt-load of super duper GREAT deals!!! Every time one offer sells out, they throw up a spankin' new one, and the "woot off" usually last for a good 24 hours (sometimes more).Check it out: Woot.com - Anything from coffee machines, computers, flat screens, watches, vacuums, you name it. AND, they are always incredibly cheap - hence my reason for bringing it up here ;)Think of it as a warehouse of all "extras" that need to get out the door. They sell buckets full at pretty much the cheapest cost they can do, and then only slap on a $5.00 shipping fee no matter WHAT you buy. (this can be key, esp if you pick up a flat screen, or something pretty heavy).And SOON, they'll probably start throwing out "random bags of woot"! They usually cost 1$ each, but have sexy surprises in them! I've never been fortunate enough to grab one (they sell out in seconds sometimes - literally) so if you ever get a chance, I recommend picking up 3 at a time, and then mailing me one ;)ps: if you want more WOOT info, check out my ...