Zoom Wedding
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Re: Zoom Wedding
There is some truth to that observation. If you are wealthy enough you don't have to be smart. Some intelligence might help in order to stay wealthy, however. I know of only one incident personally where the parents paid to educate a dumb kid. I met the kid when he was in high school, and although it was a public school his family "donated" a lot of things to the school; mostly in the form of cash. Well the kid graduated but probably shouldn't have. Another year might have brought him up to par, but his mom was anxious for her little sonny boy to get a college education. I honestly don't know how well he did on his SAT scores, but I can't imagine it was well enough to get into the university. Anyway, his parents decided to "support" the college in some big way that I don't recall. That was enough to get him admitted as a student. He dropped out after the first year because the professors were not impressed with his family's donations. The school thanked them profusely for their support, but a box or rocks is a box of rocks. Last I heard he was selling used cars in Texas. LOL
Re: Zoom Wedding
Many eons ago when I was working for Sverdrup & Parcel, we often went to eat at the Paul Brown Building, which was also filled with offices like our building was. We sometimes shared some aspects of our work with a company over in that building. One of the higher level engineers with that firm had a problem arise due to paperwork and degrees he was supposed to have but they could not be verified properly. Although a record did appear in the files of the schools showing he earned those degrees, there were none of the associated records that should have been there. He did not appear in their yearbook was the first clue, nor could they find where he was involved in anything to do with the school. So they went back to his high school and even to his grade school, and although they would find records, they didn't seem to fit properly. Then one day he just disappeared, and only a couple of the companies executives knew he would be absent, but were not sure why, they were just told so themselves.
Turns out the guy was in Witness Protection, and the government gave him a new life. He did have all the degrees, just not from those schools and not under his alias, they were all under his real name. He only returned to work for like two weeks after the trials were over, but then he was sent somewhere else, probably still in witness protection and under yet another name.
My brother knew a guy who saw the murder of an oil executive. After some death threats he just disappeared from the face of the earth. About six months later he got a plain postcard from the guy it only said I'm OK, they have me incognito, Willie. Wasn't hard to figure out the government had him as a witness.
Turns out the guy was in Witness Protection, and the government gave him a new life. He did have all the degrees, just not from those schools and not under his alias, they were all under his real name. He only returned to work for like two weeks after the trials were over, but then he was sent somewhere else, probably still in witness protection and under yet another name.
My brother knew a guy who saw the murder of an oil executive. After some death threats he just disappeared from the face of the earth. About six months later he got a plain postcard from the guy it only said I'm OK, they have me incognito, Willie. Wasn't hard to figure out the government had him as a witness.
Re: Zoom Wedding
Witness protection. Talk about leading a double life. WOW
I only recall one person who disappeared unexpectedly, but we kind of figured out why after a few days. When I worked at the instrument calibration lab of Motorola it was a fairly quiet and uneventful corner of the company. The manager had an engineering degree, but us grunt workers were only technicians with various degrees of education. There were about six of us all assigned to different products, and we more or less worked alone even while sitting in a group environment. Computers were not yet readily available but we all had our own outside line on the phone. Occasionally we had to talk to customers, or wives and lovers, depending on what we could get away with. This one guy seemed to be on the phone more than the rest of us. The manager probably had a listing of who he called, when, and for how long, as he did for the rest of us. But, as far as we knew there were no questions. One day he got called aside by the boss and was told to cut down on the phone calls which apparently were not Motorola business calls. He grumbled a lot but needed to keep his job, for a little while linger. It turns out he was a day trader and did some of his transactions from work. He told us one day at lunch that he is on to something and if it comes in he is leaving and never coming back. We all rolled our eyes, of course. It was probably a week or so after that lunch conversation when he got what seemed like a routine call. Well, he left the building and left all his belongings and work tools on his bench. We figured it was his girl friend, or something like that, but he never came back. Just like he said might happen at the lunch table.
I only recall one person who disappeared unexpectedly, but we kind of figured out why after a few days. When I worked at the instrument calibration lab of Motorola it was a fairly quiet and uneventful corner of the company. The manager had an engineering degree, but us grunt workers were only technicians with various degrees of education. There were about six of us all assigned to different products, and we more or less worked alone even while sitting in a group environment. Computers were not yet readily available but we all had our own outside line on the phone. Occasionally we had to talk to customers, or wives and lovers, depending on what we could get away with. This one guy seemed to be on the phone more than the rest of us. The manager probably had a listing of who he called, when, and for how long, as he did for the rest of us. But, as far as we knew there were no questions. One day he got called aside by the boss and was told to cut down on the phone calls which apparently were not Motorola business calls. He grumbled a lot but needed to keep his job, for a little while linger. It turns out he was a day trader and did some of his transactions from work. He told us one day at lunch that he is on to something and if it comes in he is leaving and never coming back. We all rolled our eyes, of course. It was probably a week or so after that lunch conversation when he got what seemed like a routine call. Well, he left the building and left all his belongings and work tools on his bench. We figured it was his girl friend, or something like that, but he never came back. Just like he said might happen at the lunch table.
Re: Zoom Wedding
Sounds like someone who used to work at MRTC with me.
He was always buying whole railroad cars of things and reselling them for a profit without ever seeing the product or ever having anything tangible to do with it.
He also bought futures or something like that, and somehow landed a deal for like twenty or more shiploads of corn I think it was. We all laughed because at the time corn was well under a buck a bushel, and he bought thousands of tons which wasn't even harvested yet. He claimed he got it for less than half price, and already has it sold for double the going rate.
We didn't believe him until about four months later he comes in flashing his bank statement around, and turned in his 2-week notice to the boss. I'm sure about half of that 16 million dollars would go to expenses and taxes. But he went from being a poor draftsman to being a multi-millionaire. He also didn't do much at work that last two weeks except brag about the stuff he was buying. Unless he could keep up with those deals, he probably blew it all as fast as he made it, hi hi.
There was one other guy who was a temp they hired when we were swamped. He had some architectural background, and little to no engineering skills which made our job harder for him. Every day he filled out another application to some big architectural firm, hoping one would hire him for post-structural drawings which is what he loved to do. Then one day out of the blue he comes in with a smile on his face, said he landed a job outside of New York City with blah de blah, one of the largest architectural firms, and specifically for post-structural design. He was elated! The pay would be more than quadruple of what we all were paid too. Well it had to be to live in New York hi hi.
I often wonder what ever happened to those guys.
He was always buying whole railroad cars of things and reselling them for a profit without ever seeing the product or ever having anything tangible to do with it.
He also bought futures or something like that, and somehow landed a deal for like twenty or more shiploads of corn I think it was. We all laughed because at the time corn was well under a buck a bushel, and he bought thousands of tons which wasn't even harvested yet. He claimed he got it for less than half price, and already has it sold for double the going rate.
We didn't believe him until about four months later he comes in flashing his bank statement around, and turned in his 2-week notice to the boss. I'm sure about half of that 16 million dollars would go to expenses and taxes. But he went from being a poor draftsman to being a multi-millionaire. He also didn't do much at work that last two weeks except brag about the stuff he was buying. Unless he could keep up with those deals, he probably blew it all as fast as he made it, hi hi.
There was one other guy who was a temp they hired when we were swamped. He had some architectural background, and little to no engineering skills which made our job harder for him. Every day he filled out another application to some big architectural firm, hoping one would hire him for post-structural drawings which is what he loved to do. Then one day out of the blue he comes in with a smile on his face, said he landed a job outside of New York City with blah de blah, one of the largest architectural firms, and specifically for post-structural design. He was elated! The pay would be more than quadruple of what we all were paid too. Well it had to be to live in New York hi hi.
I often wonder what ever happened to those guys.
Re: Zoom Wedding
There is a lot of street talk about people who win the lottery. It seems that many, if not most, lose it all as quickly as they win it. The tendency to spend big is irresistible when you lived your former life as a pauper. Additionally, word gets around that you are a newly created millionaire and all the financial maggots of the world are attracted to you. It might be easy to fend off unsolicited offers from third parties, but then there are the relatives who need a million or two to remodel their bathroom. LOL The bottom line is that unless you have some experience managing large sums of money, you are not likely to keep it very long. I fall into that category, but I have a plan. I'd love to test it out to see if it works. Unfortunately, I don't have a winning lottery ticket.
Chicago was the financial center for futures' contracts. The Mercantile Exchange was created just for these people. I knew a lady who worked for the Merc before they closed down. She had many interesting stories to tell. I recall one in particular, I believe it had to do with a co-worker, which dealt in egg futures. Well, he dealt in many other things too, but he bought a futures contract for a carload of eggs that would in fact be delivered to Chicago. The trick was to sell that contract before the delivery actually took place. For one reason or another he forgot about it and didn't wake up to the fact that he would own a carload of eggs until about half an hour before delivery. Well, he could not sell the contract in that short period of time and had to take deliver. He spent quite a bit of time calling restaurants and bakeries all over Chicago, but he had to give away about half of what he bought or they were going to start charging him for storage. Egg futures? Yes, there is such a thing.
Chicago was the financial center for futures' contracts. The Mercantile Exchange was created just for these people. I knew a lady who worked for the Merc before they closed down. She had many interesting stories to tell. I recall one in particular, I believe it had to do with a co-worker, which dealt in egg futures. Well, he dealt in many other things too, but he bought a futures contract for a carload of eggs that would in fact be delivered to Chicago. The trick was to sell that contract before the delivery actually took place. For one reason or another he forgot about it and didn't wake up to the fact that he would own a carload of eggs until about half an hour before delivery. Well, he could not sell the contract in that short period of time and had to take deliver. He spent quite a bit of time calling restaurants and bakeries all over Chicago, but he had to give away about half of what he bought or they were going to start charging him for storage. Egg futures? Yes, there is such a thing.
Re: Zoom Wedding
Yeppers, easy come, easy blow, and then the vultures descend, hi hi.
Futures sounds like a mighty risky game to me!
Futures sounds like a mighty risky game to me!
Re: Zoom Wedding
The futures market is indeed risky, probably more so than penny stocks. Back when I heard that story about the eggs the brokerage company from which I could buy commodity contracts from had a requirement of keeping a minimum of $25,000 cash in your account to cover any bad situations. There were other qualifying requirements too but basically you had to be the kind of individual who could afford to lose $25k in a heartbeat and then come back and buy more contracts to cover your losses. The stock market has short sellers who sell stocks they don't physically own but promise to buy at a given date. The trick there is to sell high and buy low. Likewise huge cash accounts were necessary to conduct any short selling. The risks are high, but so are the profits when you make them. I understand about one in ten transactions come out ahead. The nine others lose, which means you could lose a quarter million bucks before you hit a winner to get it all back.
The Mercantile Exchange closed down but the contract trading continues as always. They simply moved to all electronic trading. There was an effort to get the NYSE to do the same thing. As it happens very few individuals trade stocks these days. It's all large entities and the transactions are executed by computer programs. This was a problem at one time because those stock buying computers did more than just launder money. They actually monitored other companies which were doing the same computer buying and selling. So, when one of the big brokerage houses made a big purchase, a dozen other computers were monitoring and they too put in an order for the same equity. Likewise this monitoring and follow the leader thing happens when selling too. As you might imagine when computers are doing these kind of trades the prices could drop to zero in a matter of seconds, or go sky high in an equally short time. That is not a good thing for market stability. Thus the stock buying programs had to be modified and limits set. There still are some wild moments that you can see if you watch the market indexes. Sometimes there are sharp drops and sharp gains for no apparent reason. Only Hal knows why.
I've also read about another disadvantage of computerized trading. This involves the old security flaw that is known as Man In The Middle. The NYSE is located in New York City, and the hack I read about was noted by a company in Oregon. The Oregon company did their trades via computer and for the most part was unattended. One day they notice that the purchase price in the Oregon office was not the same as the price the computer picked off the NYSE. They knew something was up, but they didn't realize at first what was happening. Somebody, some way, at the Oregon company headquarters noticed that the time stamp for the quote on the NYSE board was off by several milliseconds when compared to the confirmation notice in the Oregon office. I seem to recall the discrepancy was something like 200 milliseconds, but it could have been more or less. In any case it was way less than one full second. The FBI got involved and a bunch of security experts and they discovered a man in the middle was intercepting the buy orders and manipulating the price of the stock during the time the data packets took to traverse the continent. They caught the guy who was doing this and I believe is is now doing time in a prison somewhere. But think about it. In the time it takes for a ping to occur, somebody could intercept the data and change it before it move on without anybody noticing the delay. Well, not noticing right away.
I think I'm rambling here. LOL
The Mercantile Exchange closed down but the contract trading continues as always. They simply moved to all electronic trading. There was an effort to get the NYSE to do the same thing. As it happens very few individuals trade stocks these days. It's all large entities and the transactions are executed by computer programs. This was a problem at one time because those stock buying computers did more than just launder money. They actually monitored other companies which were doing the same computer buying and selling. So, when one of the big brokerage houses made a big purchase, a dozen other computers were monitoring and they too put in an order for the same equity. Likewise this monitoring and follow the leader thing happens when selling too. As you might imagine when computers are doing these kind of trades the prices could drop to zero in a matter of seconds, or go sky high in an equally short time. That is not a good thing for market stability. Thus the stock buying programs had to be modified and limits set. There still are some wild moments that you can see if you watch the market indexes. Sometimes there are sharp drops and sharp gains for no apparent reason. Only Hal knows why.
I've also read about another disadvantage of computerized trading. This involves the old security flaw that is known as Man In The Middle. The NYSE is located in New York City, and the hack I read about was noted by a company in Oregon. The Oregon company did their trades via computer and for the most part was unattended. One day they notice that the purchase price in the Oregon office was not the same as the price the computer picked off the NYSE. They knew something was up, but they didn't realize at first what was happening. Somebody, some way, at the Oregon company headquarters noticed that the time stamp for the quote on the NYSE board was off by several milliseconds when compared to the confirmation notice in the Oregon office. I seem to recall the discrepancy was something like 200 milliseconds, but it could have been more or less. In any case it was way less than one full second. The FBI got involved and a bunch of security experts and they discovered a man in the middle was intercepting the buy orders and manipulating the price of the stock during the time the data packets took to traverse the continent. They caught the guy who was doing this and I believe is is now doing time in a prison somewhere. But think about it. In the time it takes for a ping to occur, somebody could intercept the data and change it before it move on without anybody noticing the delay. Well, not noticing right away.
I think I'm rambling here. LOL
Re: Zoom Wedding
I know my Grandpa D bought stock in numerous film companies, but unfortunately he didn't hit one that became big, like MGM, and all but a couple folded after a few years. Only one did fairly well for a short time, but then they folded too.
When I was much younger, I played with Penny Stocks and a few OTC stocks. Most of the Penny Stocks were start up companies that were doing OK, but wanted to expand their product lines. I lost on most of them, did OK on a few others, but never could say I made much of a profit at the end of it all.
Before I would invest in OTC stocks, I would follow several companies and when one had a dip for some reason that I usually could not figure out why, I would buy a block of shares. Sometimes the dip lasted a long time, sometimes it still went down further, but I held on to the stocks until they came back up again. At best they only came back up to their normal price. Only a few ever climbed enough to say I made a profit, and then I found it was hard to sell when an average company was on a temporary upswing. I watched one company go up and up while I had a sell order in and nobody bought my block of shares until it dropped back down to the norm again. So I quit buying OTC and went back to Penny Stocks for a while, then began only investing in folks I knew who needed funds to get going and were offering a few shares of their company to get it off the ground. I did much better doing that than messing with public stocks.
My fiancee that died, her late husband only bought blue chip stocks which gave her dividends each month. I have no idea how much he had invested in them, but she got checks from three different stocks to the tune of about 600 to 800 bucks a month. Some of those only paid quarterly, but she still got a monthly check from the bank who handled her deposits.
I still don't understand what the stock market has to do with the economy though.
Once a company sells stock, it is technically out of their hands, and all the ups and downs in the stock market is only between those buying and selling the stocks they own, back and forth between each other, so the company itself is basically out of the picture, unless they are paying dividends, which is more or less like Interest on a Loan, until they can buy back the stocks.
When I was much younger, I played with Penny Stocks and a few OTC stocks. Most of the Penny Stocks were start up companies that were doing OK, but wanted to expand their product lines. I lost on most of them, did OK on a few others, but never could say I made much of a profit at the end of it all.
Before I would invest in OTC stocks, I would follow several companies and when one had a dip for some reason that I usually could not figure out why, I would buy a block of shares. Sometimes the dip lasted a long time, sometimes it still went down further, but I held on to the stocks until they came back up again. At best they only came back up to their normal price. Only a few ever climbed enough to say I made a profit, and then I found it was hard to sell when an average company was on a temporary upswing. I watched one company go up and up while I had a sell order in and nobody bought my block of shares until it dropped back down to the norm again. So I quit buying OTC and went back to Penny Stocks for a while, then began only investing in folks I knew who needed funds to get going and were offering a few shares of their company to get it off the ground. I did much better doing that than messing with public stocks.
My fiancee that died, her late husband only bought blue chip stocks which gave her dividends each month. I have no idea how much he had invested in them, but she got checks from three different stocks to the tune of about 600 to 800 bucks a month. Some of those only paid quarterly, but she still got a monthly check from the bank who handled her deposits.
I still don't understand what the stock market has to do with the economy though.
Once a company sells stock, it is technically out of their hands, and all the ups and downs in the stock market is only between those buying and selling the stocks they own, back and forth between each other, so the company itself is basically out of the picture, unless they are paying dividends, which is more or less like Interest on a Loan, until they can buy back the stocks.
Re: Zoom Wedding
The stock market, prior to 2016, was considered to be a leading economic indicator. That is to say the economy would follow the trend of the stock market several months later. That's why people would watch the Dow Jones Industrial Average so closely. It supposedly is a mix of stocks that represents all the major industries that have a high degree of influence on our domestic economy. Thus, when you see the stock market rise, and the economy follows suit shortly thereafter, it's not a cause and effect phenomena. The rise in stocks was due to investor anticipating great things from the equities they purchased. The same goes for declines but in reverse. It's all about what investors think is going to happen with the stocks.
There is a more direct effect, yet still subtle, of stock prices on economic performance. Many top executives are compensated with stock options. The option fixes the price of the stock for a certain period of time. So, for example, an executive may be given 10,000 shares of the company stock that can be bought for $100 a share anytime during the next 24 months; that's a million dollars worth of stock. So, maybe, when they hired this guy the company's stock price was $90 a share, or a $10 per share loss if he took the option immediately. But, this executive is in a position to make the company more profitable just because he is the head honcho. If he is good at his job and the price of the company stock goes to, say, $125 a share, he still gets to buy it for that $100 option price. Thus, these stock options are given to create an incentive for the management to make the company successful. That is one reason there is so much emphasis on the company's stock price over anything else. Then, too, a successful company stimulates the economy.
A company will issue stock to raise money. Once the stocks are sold, they take that money and reinvest it into the business, usually. Again, the effect on the economy is indirect. If that additional money makes the company more efficient they can hire more people and sell more goods or services. That adds to economic activity. You are right in a way to say that once the stocks are sold, and the cash spent, there is no direct way for the company to influence the price of the stock. The investors who buy the stock determine the price, and those investors are looking at the company's performance. In some cases the additional cash does more than expected and there is excessive profits to be had. Those excess profits are given to the investor as dividends. Perhaps, if the dividend is so attractive, that could be the only reason a person would buy the stock - some people actually live off their dividends earned. This puts a lot of pressure on the company to remain profitable so that they can pay the dividends their investors depend on.
Then there are times when the company buys back it's own stock. This is what happened when the last tax cut was established. Since they did not have to pay all those taxes anymore, companies had a lot of cash laying around doing nothing. The thought was that they would pass it on to their employees, but in the vast majority of cases that is not what happened. The companies bought back their stocks instead. When a company buys back their stock that reduces the number of shares outstanding. The value of the company remains the same, but now there are fewer shares. This boosts the price of the stocks. Part of the super big rise in stock market value over the past couple years is due to this artificially inflated price of the stocks. So, now consider the case where you are that executive who got that stock option I mentioned above. He has $10,000 shares of company stock to buy under the option contract. If that executive buys back his own company's stocks, the price rises and he becomes even more wealthy.
Neat trick, eh?
There is a more direct effect, yet still subtle, of stock prices on economic performance. Many top executives are compensated with stock options. The option fixes the price of the stock for a certain period of time. So, for example, an executive may be given 10,000 shares of the company stock that can be bought for $100 a share anytime during the next 24 months; that's a million dollars worth of stock. So, maybe, when they hired this guy the company's stock price was $90 a share, or a $10 per share loss if he took the option immediately. But, this executive is in a position to make the company more profitable just because he is the head honcho. If he is good at his job and the price of the company stock goes to, say, $125 a share, he still gets to buy it for that $100 option price. Thus, these stock options are given to create an incentive for the management to make the company successful. That is one reason there is so much emphasis on the company's stock price over anything else. Then, too, a successful company stimulates the economy.
A company will issue stock to raise money. Once the stocks are sold, they take that money and reinvest it into the business, usually. Again, the effect on the economy is indirect. If that additional money makes the company more efficient they can hire more people and sell more goods or services. That adds to economic activity. You are right in a way to say that once the stocks are sold, and the cash spent, there is no direct way for the company to influence the price of the stock. The investors who buy the stock determine the price, and those investors are looking at the company's performance. In some cases the additional cash does more than expected and there is excessive profits to be had. Those excess profits are given to the investor as dividends. Perhaps, if the dividend is so attractive, that could be the only reason a person would buy the stock - some people actually live off their dividends earned. This puts a lot of pressure on the company to remain profitable so that they can pay the dividends their investors depend on.
Then there are times when the company buys back it's own stock. This is what happened when the last tax cut was established. Since they did not have to pay all those taxes anymore, companies had a lot of cash laying around doing nothing. The thought was that they would pass it on to their employees, but in the vast majority of cases that is not what happened. The companies bought back their stocks instead. When a company buys back their stock that reduces the number of shares outstanding. The value of the company remains the same, but now there are fewer shares. This boosts the price of the stocks. Part of the super big rise in stock market value over the past couple years is due to this artificially inflated price of the stocks. So, now consider the case where you are that executive who got that stock option I mentioned above. He has $10,000 shares of company stock to buy under the option contract. If that executive buys back his own company's stocks, the price rises and he becomes even more wealthy.
Neat trick, eh?
Re: Zoom Wedding
Way back before the Savings and Loan fiasco.
I had an older uncle who started a Savings and Loan company.
He did it the right way so never was into any trouble for the shenanigans going on by the big outfits.
He sold stocks to local investors, most of that money went to pay for the licenses and insurance he needed to get started.
Then the savings end of it is where he got the money to loan out.
He had to turn down a lot of people for loans because he would never loan out more than half of what they had on hand as a safety margin, and as Christmas neared, more than 75% of his money on hand was withdrawn by those with saving accounts.
Over the span of about 5 to 7 years he managed to buy back the stocks he sold to get started, but he did this as himself, not as the company from what I understand. His intent was to take his company public, but then the Savings and Loan fiasco and new laws meant he either had to become a Bank or close up shop. He chose to sell all the outstanding loans to a Bank and retire. So he got to cash out his stocks from the proceeds plus what cash they held on hand, after he paid out to all those who had savings accounts there. Many of those he just transferred to the Bank also along with the cash, but I think it was a different Bank he gave the savings accounts to.
He never became filthy rich, but was definitely considered wealthy at the end of it all.
Even so, when he finally died, there was only about 3/4 million dollars to pass on to his kids.
I never checked into how all the local Loan companies operate.
About the only thing I know about a couple of them (excluding the payday loan places) is that they have a wealthy backer who supplies the money as an investment, but don't want to deal with running the business.
But how all the rest operate alludes me. Where are they getting the money they loan out? Drug dealers?
On a similar note, we had a used car dealer here who's lot used to be filled with cars. Today it is fairly sparse, almost like they are getting close to closing down. In this case, we know how he got going, started with four cars, then six, etc. up until he had over 500 cars in stock. I think his son took over about 5 years ago and is probably not managing the business very well. They were never a buy here pay here type of place though. But they can get you a loan through a bank to buy a car with a substantial down payment.
I had an older uncle who started a Savings and Loan company.
He did it the right way so never was into any trouble for the shenanigans going on by the big outfits.
He sold stocks to local investors, most of that money went to pay for the licenses and insurance he needed to get started.
Then the savings end of it is where he got the money to loan out.
He had to turn down a lot of people for loans because he would never loan out more than half of what they had on hand as a safety margin, and as Christmas neared, more than 75% of his money on hand was withdrawn by those with saving accounts.
Over the span of about 5 to 7 years he managed to buy back the stocks he sold to get started, but he did this as himself, not as the company from what I understand. His intent was to take his company public, but then the Savings and Loan fiasco and new laws meant he either had to become a Bank or close up shop. He chose to sell all the outstanding loans to a Bank and retire. So he got to cash out his stocks from the proceeds plus what cash they held on hand, after he paid out to all those who had savings accounts there. Many of those he just transferred to the Bank also along with the cash, but I think it was a different Bank he gave the savings accounts to.
He never became filthy rich, but was definitely considered wealthy at the end of it all.
Even so, when he finally died, there was only about 3/4 million dollars to pass on to his kids.
I never checked into how all the local Loan companies operate.
About the only thing I know about a couple of them (excluding the payday loan places) is that they have a wealthy backer who supplies the money as an investment, but don't want to deal with running the business.
But how all the rest operate alludes me. Where are they getting the money they loan out? Drug dealers?
On a similar note, we had a used car dealer here who's lot used to be filled with cars. Today it is fairly sparse, almost like they are getting close to closing down. In this case, we know how he got going, started with four cars, then six, etc. up until he had over 500 cars in stock. I think his son took over about 5 years ago and is probably not managing the business very well. They were never a buy here pay here type of place though. But they can get you a loan through a bank to buy a car with a substantial down payment.
Re: Zoom Wedding
My first savings experience was with a S&L that I passed by every day on my way to grammar school. I thought nothing of the place until about the 7th grade when I learned in school that you can get free money from them. All you had to do is keep your cash in a savings account and they would give you interest on it. That was an incredible concept at that age and I thought I'd take advantage of it one day. I stopped in the S&L after school and asked if I could open an account. The lady smiled and asked how much I wanted to save. I don't recall the exact amount, but it was less than $1, which was quite a bit for a kid that age. She was very understanding and explained to me that they require a lot more than that to open an account ($50, I think it was) and that I would have to get my parents to open the account for me. Sad and dejected I went home and never gave the idea any further thought. LOL
The thing about banks, and any savings institution, is that they are investing the money they receive and earning interest on that investment. They take some of that interest to operate the business and give the rest to regular account holders. I always wanted to know what the banks were investing in to get that higher return so that I could do the same thing. I don't know about S&L's but banks earn a lot of their profits from selling mortgages. Most conventional mortgages are a huge money making machine. They charge the interest for the full amount of the loan each month. That means for the first several years almost the entire monthly payment is for interest on the loan. After five years or so, that bank will sell the mortgage to some other bank in order to replenish their supply of money available to sell even more mortgages.
My bank today is paying less than .5% interest on a savings account and selling mortgages for 3.7% That's one hell of a markdown.
The thing about banks, and any savings institution, is that they are investing the money they receive and earning interest on that investment. They take some of that interest to operate the business and give the rest to regular account holders. I always wanted to know what the banks were investing in to get that higher return so that I could do the same thing. I don't know about S&L's but banks earn a lot of their profits from selling mortgages. Most conventional mortgages are a huge money making machine. They charge the interest for the full amount of the loan each month. That means for the first several years almost the entire monthly payment is for interest on the loan. After five years or so, that bank will sell the mortgage to some other bank in order to replenish their supply of money available to sell even more mortgages.
My bank today is paying less than .5% interest on a savings account and selling mortgages for 3.7% That's one hell of a markdown.
Re: Zoom Wedding
Although I do have ONE savings account, I only have it to get my earned credit card refunds direct deposited.
It only pays me about 1 cent per month in interest, hi hi.
Back when I had money, I used to buy fixed term CDs.
Whenever I got like five of them, I would up them to a larger single one.
Technically you are cashing in the old to get the new, however the bank handled it in such a way there was no penalty for withdrawal. Which is as it should be, you weren't taking any money out, just moving 5 CDs into 1 larger CD, at a slightly higher interest rate too. It also restarts the 5 years before I could cash it in.
Had to cash them all in to pay Ruth's medical bills, pshaw!
I did make one mistake because I didn't really think it out first.
I made a small investment with a private lender, this is done by creating a trust fund first.
You can name it as single, shared, or shared only.
Naturally the return on investment goes down at each level, with shared only paying the least interest.
So I took single, since it paid the highest. Back then they were like 4, 2, and .75% or maybe it was 6, 3, 1%.
But you were not locked in and could withdraw your money at any time without a penalty, at least up until you had over 5 or 10 thousand bucks in it. But up to 1000 bucks there were no penalties.
I thought since it was a trust fund it was fairly safe.
However, in a single option trust, it means all the money in that trust is used to secure one mortgage to a borrower.
If that borrower defaults on their mortgage, you could end up losing all you put into it just like that.
And by Murphy's Law, the person they loaned my money to did default.
But I was lucky, they foreclosed on the guy and were able to sell the house for a profit.
So there was only a short 3 month time span where I could not withdraw my funds.
But when I saw my account was restored, I went ahead and took out my investment, but lost the little bit of interest I earned due to the default. So basically at the end of like 4 years, I was only break even. At least it wasn't a loss.
It only pays me about 1 cent per month in interest, hi hi.
Back when I had money, I used to buy fixed term CDs.
Whenever I got like five of them, I would up them to a larger single one.
Technically you are cashing in the old to get the new, however the bank handled it in such a way there was no penalty for withdrawal. Which is as it should be, you weren't taking any money out, just moving 5 CDs into 1 larger CD, at a slightly higher interest rate too. It also restarts the 5 years before I could cash it in.
Had to cash them all in to pay Ruth's medical bills, pshaw!
I did make one mistake because I didn't really think it out first.
I made a small investment with a private lender, this is done by creating a trust fund first.
You can name it as single, shared, or shared only.
Naturally the return on investment goes down at each level, with shared only paying the least interest.
So I took single, since it paid the highest. Back then they were like 4, 2, and .75% or maybe it was 6, 3, 1%.
But you were not locked in and could withdraw your money at any time without a penalty, at least up until you had over 5 or 10 thousand bucks in it. But up to 1000 bucks there were no penalties.
I thought since it was a trust fund it was fairly safe.
However, in a single option trust, it means all the money in that trust is used to secure one mortgage to a borrower.
If that borrower defaults on their mortgage, you could end up losing all you put into it just like that.
And by Murphy's Law, the person they loaned my money to did default.
But I was lucky, they foreclosed on the guy and were able to sell the house for a profit.
So there was only a short 3 month time span where I could not withdraw my funds.
But when I saw my account was restored, I went ahead and took out my investment, but lost the little bit of interest I earned due to the default. So basically at the end of like 4 years, I was only break even. At least it wasn't a loss.
Re: Zoom Wedding
Given the current economic policies (there must be some, somewhere) I decided not to keep all my eggs in one basket. I now have a portion of my retirement funds in cash, better known as a CD. At the time I bought the CD it was paying 2.25% interest over 18 months. By the time it came up for renewal, the interest dropped to .75% over 11 months. The bank is VERY uncertain about financial markets apparently because they are not offering any long term CD's at this time. I don't like it but the strategy I'm following only demands that a certain portion of the total be in cash. Even if there is no interest paid, the percentage remains close to the plan.
Last month, about two weeks ago, marked 4 years since we have been living in Missouri. I was a bit surprised to get a notice to that effect from our real estate broker, but then time passes quickly when you're having fun. Right? While finances were part of the decision to move, basically high real estate taxes, the cost of living wasn't a factor until I researched it a bit after we already moved in. Bottom line is it is approximately 20% less costly to live in O'Fallon than it is to live in Cook County, Chicago. Some things seems more reasonably priced but it's always been difficult to put my finger on a specific savings. Only the gas prices, due to less taxation, are obviously lower down here. Anyway, our bank up north has a branch in O'Fallon. I can't imagine why, but they do. Thus I was able to keep all my accounts. In fact my one account is no longer offered but they allow me to keep it due to some grandfather clause, or something. The interesting account is the checking account. That's the one I use to pay all my current bills. Big one time expenses come from somewhere else. Well, since we've been down here the balance in that checking account has been increasing. It's not increasing at the 20% differential in cost of living, but it is increasing substantially. It's my only hard evidence that the cost of living actually is less here and not just an economists wet dream. The problem is that it's blowing away my formula for where I keep my investments. I may have to look at equities again.
Last month, about two weeks ago, marked 4 years since we have been living in Missouri. I was a bit surprised to get a notice to that effect from our real estate broker, but then time passes quickly when you're having fun. Right? While finances were part of the decision to move, basically high real estate taxes, the cost of living wasn't a factor until I researched it a bit after we already moved in. Bottom line is it is approximately 20% less costly to live in O'Fallon than it is to live in Cook County, Chicago. Some things seems more reasonably priced but it's always been difficult to put my finger on a specific savings. Only the gas prices, due to less taxation, are obviously lower down here. Anyway, our bank up north has a branch in O'Fallon. I can't imagine why, but they do. Thus I was able to keep all my accounts. In fact my one account is no longer offered but they allow me to keep it due to some grandfather clause, or something. The interesting account is the checking account. That's the one I use to pay all my current bills. Big one time expenses come from somewhere else. Well, since we've been down here the balance in that checking account has been increasing. It's not increasing at the 20% differential in cost of living, but it is increasing substantially. It's my only hard evidence that the cost of living actually is less here and not just an economists wet dream. The problem is that it's blowing away my formula for where I keep my investments. I may have to look at equities again.
Re: Zoom Wedding
When I was younger, I used to buy government savings bonds, mostly the long term high yield ones.
At the time I was buying them, I figured it would keep me from wasting my money on dumb stuff.
Ironically, after going through a divorce, dating for a couple of years before getting married again.
With two moves and a lot of my stuff stolen, I actually forgot about the bonds I didn't cash in already to buy a car.
Out of the blue I get a letter that my bond has expired and I needed to send in a request for payment.
I didn't even know where the heck they were, but thankfully did have the serial numbers written down and in my firebox.
Took a while to find them, but I did and sent in the form for both of my remaining bonds.
It was only four grand, tax free income, that only cost me like 1800 bucks each.
I actually thought the ex-wife had them and cashed them in early, but nope she didn't, hi hi.
At the time I was buying them, I figured it would keep me from wasting my money on dumb stuff.
Ironically, after going through a divorce, dating for a couple of years before getting married again.
With two moves and a lot of my stuff stolen, I actually forgot about the bonds I didn't cash in already to buy a car.
Out of the blue I get a letter that my bond has expired and I needed to send in a request for payment.
I didn't even know where the heck they were, but thankfully did have the serial numbers written down and in my firebox.
Took a while to find them, but I did and sent in the form for both of my remaining bonds.
It was only four grand, tax free income, that only cost me like 1800 bucks each.
I actually thought the ex-wife had them and cashed them in early, but nope she didn't, hi hi.
Re: Zoom Wedding
Series E Savings Bonds were big when I first started to work. I could have bought them in as low as $25 (face value) denominations and have Motorola take the cash out of my paycheck. I chose not to do that because I did not like the idea of my money being tied up for so many years and not easily accessible. I put savings in the company Credit Union instead, basically because the S&L crash closed down most of those places.
My dad's father bought some of those Series E bonds and they were part of the estate distribution after he passed. It was at that time I learned that the interest keeps paying for some time (I forgot how long) after the bond matures. I believe the bond took ten years to fully mature but the interest was paid for twenty-five years. He had bunch of $100 bonds that ended up being worth more than twice their face value at the time he died. There was no problem converting them to cash because one of the aunts/uncles knew where the original bonds were physically located. Probably under grandpa's mattress because he didn't believe in banks. LOL
My mom did something similar when each of the three great granddaughters were born. She purchased a $10,000 E bond at their birth and held onto the certificates with the intention of handing them over when the girls turn eighteen. These bonds matured in less than ten years and paid interest for something less than the older issued bonds - thinking it was only twenty years or something. Anyway, mom passed before any of her great granddaughters reached the right age, but their parents were the custodians. So, I passed the paper onto the custodians which happened to coincide closely to the time the girls were entering college. The youngest of the three was also the beneficiary of her grandpa's (from her dad's side) estate. Her college education is almost entirely paid for by her grand parents.
Anyway, Series E Bbonds (war bonds) are now EE bonds and only exist in cyber space. No longer can you buy them in paper form. They are a great secure way to invest your excess funds.
My dad's father bought some of those Series E bonds and they were part of the estate distribution after he passed. It was at that time I learned that the interest keeps paying for some time (I forgot how long) after the bond matures. I believe the bond took ten years to fully mature but the interest was paid for twenty-five years. He had bunch of $100 bonds that ended up being worth more than twice their face value at the time he died. There was no problem converting them to cash because one of the aunts/uncles knew where the original bonds were physically located. Probably under grandpa's mattress because he didn't believe in banks. LOL
My mom did something similar when each of the three great granddaughters were born. She purchased a $10,000 E bond at their birth and held onto the certificates with the intention of handing them over when the girls turn eighteen. These bonds matured in less than ten years and paid interest for something less than the older issued bonds - thinking it was only twenty years or something. Anyway, mom passed before any of her great granddaughters reached the right age, but their parents were the custodians. So, I passed the paper onto the custodians which happened to coincide closely to the time the girls were entering college. The youngest of the three was also the beneficiary of her grandpa's (from her dad's side) estate. Her college education is almost entirely paid for by her grand parents.
Anyway, Series E Bbonds (war bonds) are now EE bonds and only exist in cyber space. No longer can you buy them in paper form. They are a great secure way to invest your excess funds.
Re: Zoom Wedding
I had both EE and HH series bonds.
The HH series bonds paid dividends or interest whatever they called it directly to my savings account.
Then each time it hit 80 bucks, I got a 100 dollar EE bond.
I think that is how it was, that was 30 years ago now, hi hi.
We cashed in the EE bonds to pay medical bills for the frau, and the HH bonds matured about 1994 I think, so no more money, just the face amount paid back. Which also went to medical bills.
All of the bonds were obtain through my employer at the time.
The HH series bonds paid dividends or interest whatever they called it directly to my savings account.
Then each time it hit 80 bucks, I got a 100 dollar EE bond.
I think that is how it was, that was 30 years ago now, hi hi.
We cashed in the EE bonds to pay medical bills for the frau, and the HH bonds matured about 1994 I think, so no more money, just the face amount paid back. Which also went to medical bills.
All of the bonds were obtain through my employer at the time.