http://www.millionaireorbust.com teaching you how to think about your finances Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:07:31 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 2006-2009 david@millionaireorbust.com (Flying Squirrel Media) david@millionaireorbust.com (Flying Squirrel Media) personal finance 1440 http://www.millionaireorbust.com/images/podcastlogosmall.jpg http://www.millionaireorbust.com 144 144 teaching you how to think about your finances teaching you how to think about your finances personal finance, business news Flying Squirrel Media Flying Squirrel Media david@millionaireorbust.com no no http://www.millionaireorbust.com/archives/mob0095/ http://www.millionaireorbust.com/archives/mob0095/#comments Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:59:11 +0000 David van Sunder http://www.millionaireorbust.com/?p=126 http://www.millionaireorbust.com/archives/mob0095/feed/ 3 0:15:48 In this week’s episode of Millionaire or Bust, I talked about saving money by lowering your medical fees. But first I covered the news for the week: The coin toss was right again, the Dow was down this week 260 points. It’s been right 8[...] In this week’s episode of Millionaire or Bust, I talked about saving money by lowering your medical fees. But first I covered the news for the week: The coin toss was right again, the Dow was down this week 260 points. It’s been right 8 out of 10 times. Oil dropped to 69.15 as of Sunday Night. Gas was at $2.693. It was up 3 cents from a week ago according to AAA’s fuelgaugereport. Bank Watch: U.S. regulators closed 3 banks, bringing the total to 40 for the year. Jobless benefit rolls posted their first dip since January. ‘Cash for clunkers’ coming soon, allowing consumers to get as much as $4,500 to trade in old cars for more fuel efficient vehicles. Then I closed with the main topic. I discussed how you can lower your doctors’ fees, hospital charges, etc. This is one area where you can save yourself a ton of money, especially if you’re uninsured or self insured. During this, I referenced an article from money.cnn.com. If you enjoy Millionaire or Bust, please head on over to iTunes and give it a nice review. If you have some feedback on how to make the show better, shoot me an email and help me improve the show. I appreciate all your comments. Thanks for listening everyone! podcasts Flying Squirrel Media no no http://www.millionaireorbust.com/archives/mob0087/ http://www.millionaireorbust.com/archives/mob0087/#comments Mon, 27 Apr 2009 11:25:07 +0000 David van Sunder http://www.millionaireorbust.com/?p=115 http://www.millionaireorbust.com/archives/mob0087/feed/ 2 0:20:03 In this week’s episode of Millionaire or Bust, the main topic was, “What’s a value investor to do?” But, first I covered the news for the week: Police investigating death of Freddie Mac CFO Murder-suicide inquiry turns to fa[...] In this week’s episode of Millionaire or Bust, the main topic was, “What’s a value investor to do?” But, first I covered the news for the week: Police investigating death of Freddie Mac CFO Murder-suicide inquiry turns to father’s financial dealings New US jobless claims rise to 640,000 Oil & Gas Price Updates DOW down, but Nasdaq up for 7th week U.S. regulators close 4 banks and a credit union GM plans major summer shutdown Recession, health concerns get Americans gardening February home prices up House Introduces 401(k) Fee Disclosure Bill (sent in by Christian who has a post discussing it at his site Vilkri.com) And finally we get to the main topic, which is: What’s a value investor to do? At a time when almost every stock is on sale, it’s harder to sort out the real deals from the junk, so I give some tips from a Money Magazine article. If you enjoy Millionaire or Bust, please head on over to iTunes and give it a nice review. If you have some feedback on how to make the show better, shoot me an email and help me improve the show. I appreciate all your comments. Thanks for listening everyone! podcasts Flying Squirrel Media no no http://www.millionaireorbust.com/archives/mob0086/ http://www.millionaireorbust.com/archives/mob0086/#comments Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:00:15 +0000 David van Sunder http://www.millionaireorbust.com/?p=114 http://www.millionaireorbust.com/archives/mob0086/feed/ 5 0:21:25 In this week’s episode of Millionaire or Bust, the main topic was, “What should you do with your refund?” But, first I covered the news for the week: DOW had it’s sixth straight week of gains Two more U.S. banks close to bri[...] In this week’s episode of Millionaire or Bust, the main topic was, “What should you do with your refund?” But, first I covered the news for the week: DOW had it’s sixth straight week of gains Two more U.S. banks close to bring the total equal with the count for all of 2008 JPMorgan Chase earns $2.1 billion Oil prices stage slight rebound New US weekly jobless claims slide 3% United Airlines is to charge obese people double Consumer prices in 1st annual drop since ’55 And finally we get to the main topic, which is: What to do if you get a refund? I got into what I think you should do with your refund, what I am going to do with my refund and talk about an AP Poll that talks about how taxpayers are being more frugal with refunds If you enjoy Millionaire or Bust, please head on over to iTunes and give it a nice review. If you have some feedback on how to make the show better, shoot me an email and help me improve the show. I appreciate all your comments. Thanks for listening everyone! podcasts Flying Squirrel Media no no http://www.millionaireorbust.com/archives/mob0082/ http://www.millionaireorbust.com/archives/mob0082/#comments Mon, 23 Mar 2009 12:00:47 +0000 David van Sunder http://www.millionaireorbust.com/?p=105 http://www.millionaireorbust.com/archives/mob0082/feed/ 4 0:14:12 In this week’s episode of Millionaire or Bust, we started off with mixed news: The DOW closed up for the second straight week even though it was down Friday at 7,278. May crude edged up 3 cents to settle at $52.07 a barrel. The price of U.S.[...] In this week’s episode of Millionaire or Bust, we started off with mixed news: The DOW closed up for the second straight week even though it was down Friday at 7,278. May crude edged up 3 cents to settle at $52.07 a barrel. The price of U.S. gasoline was down for the first time in 3 weeks. Bank of America’s CEO said that B of A could repay TARP funds in 2009. This week in bank failures brought us 3 banks failures, bringing us to 20 so far this year. Plus there were two big credit union failures. The number of new housing projects that builders broke ground on in February rose 22.2% from January. US Postal Rates are to go up to $0.44 on May 11. The Obama administration on Thursday launched a new Website to provide information to home owners about its mortgage modification and refinancing programs. The Website is makinghomeaffordable.gov. JoS. A. Bank Clothiers on Tuesday announced a program that offers a full rebate on the price of a suit if the purchaser loses his job. And, the consumer can keep the suit. Then, with the news out of the way, I go over five scams that are on the rise as a result of the recession. If you enjoy Millionaire or Bust, please head on over to iTunes and give us a nice review. If you have some feedback on how to make the show better, shoot us an email and help us improve the show. We appreciate all your comments. Thanks for listening everyone! podcasts Flying Squirrel Media no no http://www.millionaireorbust.com/archives/mob0080/ http://www.millionaireorbust.com/archives/mob0080/#comments Mon, 09 Mar 2009 11:00:42 +0000 David van Sunder http://www.millionaireorbust.com/?p=103 http://www.millionaireorbust.com/archives/mob0080/feed/ 4 0:20:07 The main topic of this week’s episode of Millionaire or Bust is carving some savings out of your budget. But, before I talked about that, I had to give you this week’s news: First off, we had the 17th bank failure of the year, making eig[...] The main topic of this week’s episode of Millionaire or Bust is carving some savings out of your budget. But, before I talked about that, I had to give you this week’s news: First off, we had the 17th bank failure of the year, making eight consecutive weeks with at least one bank failure. Then on Sunday, Circuit City closed it’s doors for the last time. And while oil and gas prices were going up, the DOW, S&P 500 and NASDAQ were all dropping. To combat that and the horrendous unemployment numbers that were released, the top ranking House Republican called for a spending freeze. Of course since people knew they were on their own to help themselves in this economy, workers started spending less on eating out according to a survey. For those of you looking to save a bit more money, I discussed a few ways to carve a little extra money savings out of your budget that I was thinking about as I poured through my bills while doing my taxes. If you enjoy Millionaire or Bust, please head on over to iTunes and give us a nice review. If you have some feedback on how to make the show better, shoot us an email and help us improve the show. We appreciate all your comments. Thanks for listening everyone! podcasts Flying Squirrel Media no no http://www.millionaireorbust.com/archives/mob0067/ http://www.millionaireorbust.com/archives/mob0067/#comments Mon, 08 Dec 2008 13:00:30 +0000 David van Sunder http://www.millionaireorbust.com/?p=90 http://www.millionaireorbust.com/archives/mob0067/feed/ 0 0:34:57 On this episode of Millionaire or Bust, we dive right in with an update on the state of the recession. And yes we’ve been in a recession for a year now according to the announcement by the NBER. Of course, that was obvious to everyone who saw [...] On this episode of Millionaire or Bust, we dive right in with an update on the state of the recession. And yes we’ve been in a recession for a year now according to the announcement by the NBER. Of course, that was obvious to everyone who saw that Georgia Community Bank became the 23rd bank to fail this year and that employers cut 533K jobs in November, which is the most since 1974. Of course, the fact that November auto sales sank to the worst level since 1982 might have been a clue as well. So, we discuss that as well as the UAW’s agreement to make concessions to help automakers, which must have been helpful because it preceded President Bush and the Democrats reaching a deal to extend enough aid to tide the automakers over until the next President takes office. Then we discussed Obama revealing his five part job-creation plan. Since the show was feeling a bit too heavy, we discussed PNC Financial Services Group’s Index of ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’. Unfortunately the song items’ cost rose 10.9% in 2008 and yes we did sing…badly. So if you need a laugh, this might be the part of the show designed for you. Maybe next time we need to practice first. Then we discuss an article that details how you can use this down economy to your advantage, to get the home remodeling that you’ve put off for cheaper. Then we quickly check in on the dropping prices of oil and gas. Before we end the show, we listen to some feedback from Bill from Ohio about the idled GM workers. If you enjoy Millionaire or Bust, please head on over to iTunes and give us a nice review. If you have some feedback on how to make the show better, shoot us an email and help us improve the show. We appreciate all your comments. Thanks for listening everyone! podcasts Flying Squirrel Media no no http://www.millionaireorbust.com/archives/mob0066/ http://www.millionaireorbust.com/archives/mob0066/#comments Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:45:48 +0000 David van Sunder http://www.millionaireorbust.com/?p=89 http://www.millionaireorbust.com/archives/mob0066/feed/ 0 0:25:23 On this episode of Millionaire or Bust, we have plenty to talk about, as always. The majority of it revolves around shopping and Black Friday. So, we jump right into discussing how the holiday sales are for the small retailers. Then we get into bu[...] On this episode of Millionaire or Bust, we have plenty to talk about, as always. The majority of it revolves around shopping and Black Friday. So, we jump right into discussing how the holiday sales are for the small retailers. Then we get into buyer behavior on Black Friday including how consumers are spending. Unfortunately, it seems that the holiday buying season is off to a slow start, but we do touch on a couple bright spots in online sales. Then we discuss what seems an unlikely group that might be helping Black Friday sales, foreign shoppers. We take a look at how US retailers are slashing prices to drive sales, but we’re uncertain whether that will be enough to drive sufficient sales. We also dispense some advice regarding which gift cards to avoid. While this episode is mainly about shopping, we couldn’t leave without discussing the large drop in mortgage rates and OPEC’s thoughts on raising oil prices and how that might affect you. If you enjoy Millionaire or Bust, please head on over to iTunes and give us a nice review. If you have some feedback on how to make the show better, shoot us an email and help us improve the show. We appreciate all your comments. Thanks for listening everyone! podcasts Flying Squirrel Media no no http://www.millionaireorbust.com/archives/mob0064/ http://www.millionaireorbust.com/archives/mob0064/#comments Mon, 17 Nov 2008 12:25:28 +0000 David van Sunder http://www.millionaireorbust.com/?p=87 http://www.millionaireorbust.com/archives/mob0064/feed/ 4 0:26:11 On this episode of Millionaire or Bust, we cover the week after the US election (which also happened to be a one week trip up to the Yosemite area for us). The financial markets were pretty volatile again this week. So, we had to discuss that volati[...] On this episode of Millionaire or Bust, we cover the week after the US election (which also happened to be a one week trip up to the Yosemite area for us). The financial markets were pretty volatile again this week. So, we had to discuss that volatility a little bit. We also touched on the current mortgage rates. Of course, we had to mention that GM closed under $3 for the first time since 1946 and had their lowest close since WWII. We talked a little about what they were trying to do about it, what the government is thinking about doing to help them and the stance of the UAW on concessions. Unlike General Motors, not all companies are suffering. Both Walmart and McDonalds reported increases in sales. We discussed why that was and who it was at the expense of. We also discussed how U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Friday that recapitalizing banks would be the most effective use of a $700 billion financial bailout war chest rather than the purchase of “toxic” assets held by the banks. Speaking of the financial bailout, the Fed OK’d American Express being reclassified as a bank holding company in order to make them eligible to receive bailout funds. Then, despite signals from OPEC that it may slash production again, the price of oil continued to decline. That of course has been accompanied by the continued fall of gas prices, which has been welcome to consumers. Finally, we discussed the Commerce Department’s Friday report that we had the largest ever October plunge for retail sales and a sharp drop in business inventories. If you enjoy Millionaire or Bust, please head on over to iTunes and give us a nice review. If you have some feedback on how to make the show better, shoot us an email and help us improve the show. We appreciate all your comments. Thanks for listening everyone! podcasts Flying Squirrel Media no no http://www.millionaireorbust.com/archives/mob0047/ http://www.millionaireorbust.com/archives/mob0047/#comments Mon, 15 Sep 2008 11:55:23 +0000 David van Sunder http://www.millionaireorbust.com/?p=70 http://www.millionaireorbust.com/archives/mob0047/feed/ 0 0:31:15 On this week’s Millionaire or Bust, we start off telling you about the new release schedule of Millionaire or Bust. The show will be coming out at 8:00 am EST, so that you will have more timely coverage of any news stories. We also discuss t[...] On this week’s Millionaire or Bust, we start off telling you about the new release schedule of Millionaire or Bust. The show will be coming out at 8:00 am EST, so that you will have more timely coverage of any news stories. We also discuss the possibility of releasing a mid-week show either Wednesday night or Thursday morning. That show would be 3-5 minutes long to cover any exceptionally important story from early in the week or a couple tips or money saving tools if no high impact stories need to be covered. Then we talk about oil prices, OPEC and Hurricane Ike. For more information on oil prices, read this article from news.yahoo.com. We also touch on how the major indexes in the Unites States were up for the week, but way down for the year and how the dollar is doing against the Euro and the UK Pound. As a callback to our prior discussion on Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, we give the 30 year fixed mortgage price quoted from bankrate.com. We also touch on what some experts believe the mortgage rates might drop to. Then we give this year’s forecast for corn and soybean harvests and their possible impact on future prices, touch on other factors in the U.S. Economy and some interesting issues in Russia’s. Of course, we can’t neglect the troubling mortgage issues that are rocking the US and world markets and how they’re impacting Lehman Brothers, AIG & Washington Mutual. If you want to see some ways to save money while buying food, check out Episode 11 of Being Healthy for Busy People which comes out this Thursday. In strange news, we touch on how an old story about UAL going into bankruptcy in 2002 touched off the loss of 76% of United Air Lines’ stock value in a few hours this week. This event is a concern to investors and is being investigated by the SEC. To wrap up the show, David gives a review of “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki. The book was requested to be reviewed by a listener over a month ago. If anyone else has any books that they’d like to have reviewed, let us know. If not, we’ll be looking for a few on our own. If you like the show, please head on over to iTunes and give us a nice review. It’s a great way to thank us because it gives us some nice exposure and can help us to get more listeners. Thanks for listening everyone. podcasts Flying Squirrel Media no no