Money Management & More

How Big is Our National Debt?

2009-12-05T15:25:00.000-08:00

How much is a trillion dollars? Thnk 1 plus twelve zeros: $1,000,000,000,000 !

Yeah --- but what would that look like if I had a trillion in one-hundred dollar bills?

Let's see -- um -- a dollar bill is about 6 inches long and so is a $100 bill.

So, I lay all the bills end to end and tape them together to make a ribbon of 100-dollar bills....

Two Benji bills would equal one foot. Ten bills would equal five feet ($1,000)

- times 100 would be ...

500 feet ($100,000) or 1 and 2/3 times the length of a football field.

And if I multiply $1,000 by 1,000,000,000 we get one thousand billion... or ONE TRILLION Dollars!

So, one trillion dollars end-to-end would make 5' x 1,000,000,000 = 5 billion feet

5,000,000,000 / 5280 = 946,969.697 miles long ribbon of 100-dollar bills.

And ...

The earth at the equator is 24,901 miles.

Therefor, if 946,969.697 mi./ 24,901 mi = 38.0293842 OR,

... A trillion dollars in 100-dollar bills taped end to end

would circle the earth, at the equator over 38 times!

Hmm - pretty simple. Sounds like we're talking real money here!

Hey, thats 3.94570707 one way trips to the moon which is about
240,000 miles from earth....

makes you think .... How many trillion is our national debt now ... ?

what if we were using one-dollar bills instead of 100-dollar bills?

MMMan

Where Did My Dollars Go? (cont)

2009-12-03T11:43:00.000-08:00

We are all losing money every minute of every day... Some people do not know that!

When I was a kid the price for a gallon of regular gas was about 25 cents!

That was when "a dollar was really worth something", or so we say. Back then you could take your paper dollar to the bank and they would give you a silver dollar for it. We were "on the silver standard". We had a "strong dollar". Many years ago my dad gave me a silver dollar minted in 1890 and told me that his dad had given it to him.

When we were on the silver standard our dollars were worth more than the currencies of countries which were not as strong. So it took more of another country's money to buy something priced in American dollars. This fact made it less desireable for those countries to do business with the USA. So one day the President of the USA decided to take us off the silver standard. Now our paper dollars say "FEDERAL RESERVE NOTE" on them.
What does that mean? It means that what you have in your hand is a piece of paper which can not be traded for its face value for an equal amount of silver coin. In fact, today a silver dollar will cost you at least $25 in Federal Reserve Notes to purchase one silver coin.

Nowdays, when the US government wants to pay off its debts it allows the Federal Reserve to print more paper dollars to enable the payment to be made.

Since 1968 the value of the dollar has decreased to about 67 cents.

I found a statement at http://www.plim.org/01%20usa_dollar_devalua.htm which is as follows:

Formerly economic adviser to President Clinton Robert Reich said in Canada recently that the US dollar will collapse, which was not reported in the news. The devaluation of the U.S. dollar means a decline in the purchasing power of the dollar, which leads to a decline in living standards. For example, if the US dollar declines 40% and you had a million US dollars, the million dollars will only buy $600,000.00 worth of goods and services. You would have lost $400,000.00 in purchasing power.

Any type of investment in dollars, such as saving accounts, saving bonds, annuities, pensions, etc., will suffer from this decline. In the coming decline of the dollar it will impoverish almost 50% of the white middle class and the other 40% will barely survive. Now between 5 -10% of Americans will prosper from this decline of the dollar because they have the knowledge of how to protect their assets.

Seems pretty scary to me!

I have decided to accumulate some silver dollars so go here to see how I am doing that.

MMMan

Is it Possible to Live Without Money?

2009-11-30T07:26:00.000-08:00

Did you see the AP story about the 48 year old guy in Utah who lives in a 5'x15' cave and has no money, no income, no bills, no expenses of any kind. When people give him money he gives it away immediately! He lives off the land and the local trash dump of the nearby town of Moab. He rides his trash-bin-built bike around town and has lots of friends. Relying on his income would be like slavery!

Makes you think about all the stuff you have collected. Notice how many people in your neighborhood do not park their cars in the garage. Why? There's no room! The garage is full of "stuff"!
If your house burned to the ground today, what would you need to replace within the next week?

One step you can take to get control of your finances is to have a few good-old garage sales. Maybe one sale a month would bring in some extra cash and clean out the stuff that is clogging up your life. You would start to think two or three times before buying anything more that you "can't live without".

We are the world's largest consuming nation. Maybe we can do with fewer choices.

Recently we started to spend less on groceries - oh, NO! - by selecting less expensive store brand names for our normal purchases. I have found I really do not need a full cup of coffee every time I want a cup of coffee. By making a half cup I use 1/3 less sugar and cream and it tastes just as good if not better!

One of my favorites sayings is: "If you want to change what you've always got, you'll have to change what you've always done!"

Are you keeping track of ALL your expenses on a spreadsheet to find out where your money REALLY goes?
Oh - almost forgot - check out the Utah guy's website (!): http://sites.google.com/site/livingwithoutmoney/

When You Fail to Plan, You Plan to Fail!

2009-11-29T13:25:00.000-08:00

Welcome and join me in this blog about money...everything about money.

I have been around the block a few times and now am retired and
still interested in generating an income which will support me in "the
way to which I have become accustomed."

Item #1 :

Do you know what you do with your money? No, really...
What percentage of your income is spent on food, clothing, or shelter?
Chances are you know more about what you do to acquire money than
you do about what you do with the money you get to take home and spend.

Of course, we know that we all have to "render to Cesar all that belongs to Cesar" (like taxes)but after that, what do we do with all that money we have been taking in?

The best overall plan I have seen so far in my seven plus decades of life is one I first heard proposed by Rev. Robert Schuller the founder of the longest running television minstry in history.

He said: Learn to live on 70% of what you make.

First, plan to give away 10% to people or causes who need the money.
Second, save 10% as an emergency fund, never to be touched if you never have an emergency.

Third, set aside 10% in a separate account so that you can take advantage of the great privileges provided by the free enterprise system we enjoy here in the United Sates of America.

With the remaining 70% you can pay your bills, buy a home, your food, clothing and toys.

Boy-oh-boy, I wish I had learned and practiced that simple advice when I was 18 years old and had my first paying job!

With each blog post I hope to be able to add significant information to help you and and a lot other people going through tough times.

So, start with Schuller's advice and for one month write down or place on a spreadsheet a record of everything you spend... and I do mean every-thing. And compare the total to your income for that month. It will be the beginning of your financial education.

Stay tuned!
Moneymogulman