5 Ways To Cash In on Your Spare Change

5 Ways To Cash In on Your Spare Change

Jennifer Taylor   Tue, May 16, 2023

You’ve been collecting spare change for quite some time now, and your piggy bank is about to bust. The time has come to empty it, but first, you want to decide how to put your savings to good use.

After spending months — or even years — collecting these coins, you want to do something meaningful with the money. Here are five ideas to consider as the best use for your spare change.

Save for Holiday Gifts

While the holidays might be the farthest thing from your mind right now, Holly Andrews, loans manager and managing director at KIS Finance, a financial brokerage firm based in the United Kingdom, suggested using your spare change to start saving for this expensive season.

“Putting away your spare change right from the start of the year means you have the maximum amount of time to save for the holidays, and you’ll probably be surprised at just how much this will add up to over 10 or 11 months,” she said. “It may not cover everything, but it will certainly give you a very big head start, and you won’t have to worry about how you’ll afford everything as the holidays get closer.”

Imagine not having to scramble to cover all those holiday expenses this year, because you’ve already planned ahead. Enjoy the feeling!

Add It to Your Debt Repayments

If you’re trying to pay off credit card balances, Andrews said anything you can contribute to the cause will be a great help.

“Keep adding your spare change to a jar and every time you reach $10 or $20 dollars, put it in your bank account and add it to your next credit card payment,” she said. “It might not seem like much at the time, but every dollar that you can add towards debt repayment will benefit you in the long-run.”

In no time at all, you might make a serious dent in your debt repayments.

Start an Emergency Fund

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/5-smartest-things-spare-change-130019244.html

America Is Becoming Too Broke To Fight

America Is Becoming Too Broke To Fight

May 2, 2023   Simon Black  Sovereign Man.com

George Washington was already on his heels in late 1777.

The British army had recently taken New York and Philadelphia, plus Washington had suffered recent defeats at the Battles of Brandywine and Germantown.   Washington knew that unless he could regroup, rearm, and retrain his beleaguered forces, the fledgling American Revolution could soon be lost. So on December 19, 1777, his army of 12,000 marched to their winter encampment site in southeastern Pennsylvania-- an area known as Valley Forge.

According to George Washington himself, his men lacked clothing, shoes, food, blankets, etc. giving rise to an almost mythological level of suffering that winter.

And it’s true-- conditions were incredibly harsh. There were very few supplies available, and nearly 1 out of every 5 soldiers died from disease, cold, or starvation at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777-1778.

Washington was exasperated; the situation was so bad that his army barely had any ammunition to fight… and he pleaded with the Continental Congress to provide more funds for war.

But Congress had no more money.

The brand new United States of America, which at that point hadn’t even existed for 18-months, was completely bankrupt. Tax revenue was almost nonexistent. Credit was difficult to obtain. And the national currency-- the Continental Dollar-- was so weak it was practically in hyperinflation.

Washington’s army was simply too broke to fight. And if the situation had remained that way, the British could have probably won the war in 1778.

(Fortunately for the United States, though, France stepped in the following spring with major military and financial support, giving George Washington the resources he needed to win.)

Nearly two and a half centuries later, the US is rapidly heading towards a similar situation: too broke to fight.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced yesterday that the federal government could become unable to pay its bills as early as June 1st-- just 30 days from now-- if Congress and the President don’t reach a compromise on the debt ceiling.

It’s so shameful that the United States of America-- supposedly the wealthiest and most advanced democratic nation in the world-- finds itself in this position every few years.

On one hand this fiasco demonstrates an appalling level of political dysfunction-- the complete inability of politicians to honestly discuss complex problems, make good faith compromises, and execute sensible solutions.

But more importantly, it lays bare the US government’s perennial lack of fiscal discipline. And this is not a single party issue: the federal government has not run a budget surplus in 25 years, during which time both parties have been in control of Congress and the Presidency.

There’s always some reason, some excuse, to go deeper into debt every year. And that’s why there have been SIX debt ceiling crises or government shutdowns just since 2011. That’s basically one major fiscal emergency every two years.

And every time it gets worse. The US national debt is now $31.5 trillion, which is actually THE statutory debt limit as allowed by law. As soon as they raise the debt ceiling, the national debt will likely soar beyond $32 trillion.

Bear in mind that the size of the entire US economy is only $26.5 trillion. So the “debt-to-GDP” ratio is 120%.

Today’s debt-to-GDP ratio, in fact, is MORE than it was back in the 1940s when the United States borrowed heavily to fight World War II.

At least back then they were fighting the Nazis and had a good reason to rack up mountains of debt. But what does the nation have to show for all of its debt today? Spending trillions to pay people to stay home and NOT work. Abandoning $100 billion worth of military equipment to the Taliban. Spending billions of dollars to make highways less racist.

The level of waste is astonishing. And there’s no end in sight.

The Congressional Budget Office projects that the US will rack up an additional $20 trillion in debt over the next decade, essentially averaging a $2 trillion budget deficit every year for the next 10 years.

But America doesn’t have ten years to get its fiscal house in order.

I’ve written extensively in the past that the US government’s days of reckless spending are numbered… and running short.

Think about it-- what would happen in India if the President was fiddling (or shaking hands with thin air) while their government was 30 days away from defaulting on their national debt? Most likely their bond market could collapse and the currency would plummet.

But in the Land of the Free, there are no consequences… simply because the US dollar is still the world’s reserve currency.

Every other country, government, central bank, and large corporation in the world uses US dollars for international trade-- mostly because of tradition, the perception of American supremacy, and the fact that Saudi Arabia sells oil in US dollars.

But these conditions are rapidly changing. Saudi officials are mulling a deal to accept Chinese yuan for oil. And, with so many humiliating episodes of US government failure, perception of American supremacy around the world is falling.

Several countries, including Brazil, Russia, and China, have already agreed to distance themselves from the dollar, and the anti-dollar momentum continues to build.

As this trend continues and foreign countries reduce their dollar holdings, the US government will simply be unable to go into debt and spend as much money as it wants.

America will then be just like every other country-- forced to live within its means. And that means steep budget cuts… including to military spending.

Bear in mind that critical national defense assets are already becoming worn out or obsolete.

The average US Air Force fighter aircraft is more than 32 years old. And due to budget constraints, pilots are unable to fly a sufficient number of training missions to ensure that they are combat ready.

The US Navy, meanwhile, is a total train wreck. The fleet is shrinking, the ships are old, and the maintenance infrastructure is even older. In short, the Navy doesn’t have the resources to keep its fleet ready for battle.

One notable example is the USS Rushmore, an amphibious warfare ship that was recently scheduled to conduct a training exercise with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit.

Now, the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit is a rapid-response force that’s supposed to be able to deploy on a moment’s notice. And the training exercise was specifically planned to take place in the north Pacific as a sort of flex against China.

But unfortunately the USS Rushmore was so badly in need of repairs that the training exercise had to be canceled at the last minute. The rapid-response force was grounded. China noticed.

These obviously aren’t Valley Forge conditions. But as these trends continue to play out, America may soon find itself too broke to fight.

To your freedom,   Simon Black, Founder   Sovereign Man

https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/america-is-becoming-too-broke-to-fight-147225/

If a Family Member Dies, Which Debts Will You Be Responsible For?

If a Family Member Dies, Which Debts Will You Be Responsible For?

Vance Cariaga    May 15, 2023

One thing to know about debt is that it doesn’t go away — even after the death of the person holding it. When someone dies, their debts and assets typically pass to their estate, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The estate is responsible for paying any unpaid debts.

If there is no money or property left, then under most circumstances the debt will not be paid. As a general rule, no one else — including family members — is required to pay the debts of someone who died, according to the CFPB. That’s not always the case, however.

In some cases, surviving family members might be responsible for paying certain debts of the deceased. This largely depends on the type of debt and where you live. For example, shared debts might fall on the shoulders of survivors in the following scenarios:

You were joint account owners.

You borrowed the money as a co-signer.

You are a surviving spouse and live in a community property state where spouses share responsibility for certain marital debts.

Your state has “necessaries statutes” that make parents and spouses responsible for certain necessary costs such as healthcare.

In community property states, spouses are “considered joint owners of nearly all assets and debts acquired in marriage,” according to a 2022 blog on the Experian website. The vast majority of states use a different “common law” model that allows spouses to own property individually. The type of law your state follows dictates how property is divided upon divorce or death.

Experian lists only nine community property states: Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin. Three states — California, Nevada and Washington — also have community property law for domestic partnerships that might not involve marriage.

Some states also require medical debt to be paid for by the surviving spouse, according to the Trust & Will website. In addition, you might be responsible for paying taxes owed by the decedent if you are the surviving spouse and you file jointly for the year your spouse died. As Trust & Will noted, surviving spouses can take over tax duties if they don’t want them to be handled by the estate administrator or other representative. But taxes will need to be filed and paid.

When it comes to other debt, such as credit cards, you might not be responsible for paying it even if you were an authorized user.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/family-member-dies-debts-responsible-121502138.html

7 Levels of Financial Freedom

7 Levels of Financial Freedom: How To Work Your Way Up, According to Experts

GOBankingRates  Andrew Lisa 

Whether you’re living to work, drowning in debt, struggling to save, overspending, or existing from paycheck to paycheck, you’re all too familiar with the invisible chains of financial stress. The answer, of course, is financial freedom, but with so many bills and so little money left over at the end of the month, how could anyone get from here to there?

Grant Sabatier — a self-made millionaire and golden child of the FIRE movement — has created a roadmap that he says can bridge the gap between financial servitude and financial independence. There are seven levels, and if Sabatier is right that most Americans are already at the second level, you only have six more rungs to climb.

Level 1: Clarity

Step one is to assess and clarify. It’s time to take inventory of where you are financially and develop a clear picture of where you’d like to be. That means checking your credit and revisiting your bank and credit card accounts. You’ll also have to do the unpleasant job of gathering your bills and tabulating your monthly expenses.

You do have to do it, but if you keep up with it after that, you’ll only have to do it once.

“In order to take control of your finances during these changing times, as well as get a hold of your spending and investments, it’s important to create a financial plan,” said Radu Tyrsina, CEO and founder of Windows Report and Reflector Media. “To successfully manage your financial progress you need to be able to track your net worth, spending, and investments in order to get a larger view of where you stand.”

Level 2: Self-Sufficiency

When you clear this level, you’re standing on your own two feet. You’ve moved out of your parents’ house and you’re off any public assistance you’d been relying on to get by.

It’s important to note that self-sufficiency and financial independence are two different things. At level 2, you’ll probably be living paycheck to paycheck, struggling with debt, or both, but you’re no longer dependent. Although it might not feel like it, you’re finally in control of your own destiny.

Level 3: Breathing Room

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://news.yahoo.com/7-levels-financial-freedom-way-130121143.html

Top 10 Financial Moves To Reduce Stress And Anxiety

Top 10 Financial Moves To Reduce Stress And Anxiety

Published: 05/15/2023 by Financial Samurai

I realized something important after writing about the best reason to retire early. Money doesn't buy everlasting happiness. However, having more money can reduce stress and anxiety.  The goal of achieving perpetual happiness is not realistic. Happiness ebbs and flows. It's more exciting to be an 8 out of 10 on the happiness scale because there's still upside. You're already happy enough. But the thought of experiencing even greater happiness gives you more reason for being.

Life gets complicated as we get older. The responsibility of taking care of a family, experiencing declining health, and worrying about the future can suppress the mood of even the happiest person.

Therefore, I thought it wise to highlight the top financial moves you can make to reduce stress and anxiety. With less stress and anxiety, not only will you feel happier, but you'll also be less envious, less angry, more patient, and more empathetic.

Top 10 Financial Moves To Reduce Stress And Anxiety

Here are the top 10 financial moves I've made that have brought me the greatest stress relief. I've ranked the financial moves in order of least to most impactful. I use just two variables to determine the order of the rankings:

How easy the financial move is to do

How much stress and anxiety relief each financial move provides

10) Saving up at least six months of living expenses

At the minimum, every household should have at least six months of living expenses in cash or risk-free investments like Treasury bonds. With interest rates so high, investing in 3-month-to-1-year Treasury bills makes a lot of sense today.

After you have about six months of living expenses saved up, the stress relief you feel may start to wane. Depending on economic conditions, investing FOMO might take over as you feel your cash could be making a greater return.

Once you've got a 6-month financial defensive shield up, you will feel more confident to tackle the world. A perpetual cash buffer should quickly be automatic.

9) Tracking your net worth in one place

Tracking your net worth in one place is like jotting down your to-do list or writing a grocery list before going shopping. Once it's written down, you feel less stress and anxiety about forgetting to do something.

I've been tracking my net worth with Personal Capital, now called Empower, since 2012. It feels great to link up and manually input all my accounts so that they are never lost. I have actually forgotten about financial accounts before.

Due to investing in multiple private funds, it's also hard to keep track of all the various contributions. It also feels good to delete financial accounts that are no longer applicable. For example, every time I pay off a mortgage, it feels wonderful to remove the debt account from my net worth.

8) Putting together a death file

 To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.financialsamurai.com/top-financial-moves-to-reduce-stress-and-anxiety/

The Dollar’s International Decline Is Becoming Really Obvious

The Dollar’s International Decline Is Becoming Really Obvious

May 15, 2023  By Simon Black  Sovereign Man.com

On the morning of February 23, 1944, US President Franklin Roosevelt sent an important telegram to two of his key allies overseas-- British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union.   World War II was still raging. And while the allies had seized the upper hand, peace was more than a year away.

Surprisingly, though, Roosevelt didn’t write to his allies to discuss the war. He was already thinking about what the world would look like AFTER the war was over… and in the telegram, Roosevelt invited them to participate in a conference on “postwar economic collaboration”.

The United States was already the largest and most powerful economy in the world. America was the only major power that hadn’t been devastated by war. And, most importantly, the US was so RICH that they were the world’s primary creditor.

Britain, in fact, was heavily in debt to the United States… and at the time was actually negotiating to borrow even more money. So Churchill couldn’t exactly refuse Roosevelt’s invitation.

44 allied nations ultimately attended what would become known as the Bretton Woods Conference that took place in July 1944. This event famously established a new, post-war monetary system in which the United States and US dollar became the epicenter of global commerce and finance.

What a lot of people don’t know is that a sort of ‘pre-conference’ took place the month before, in June 1944, in Atlantic City.

That site was chosen specifically for its cooler weather. British economist John Maynard Keynes suffered from a terrible infection in his heart valves, and hot weather made him feel much worse.

Keynes even pleaded to senior Treasury official Harry Dexter White, “For God’s sake do not take us to Washington. . .” where the weather was sweltering in the summer.

In the end they settled on Atlantic City, specifically for Keynes’s health. And the first meeting to shape the new global financial system even took place on the beach!

Despite the balmy setting, however, Keynes was a thorn in the side of the American delegation; he was adamantly opposed to a post-war economic system in which the US dollar had total dominance.

As an alternative solution, Keynes advocated for competing reserve currencies… as well as a special central bank reserve currency that he wanted to call the ‘bancor’.

In the end, though, Keynes was overruled. The United States was the only country capable of calling the shots, and the rest of the world accepted America’s new dominance.

It’s been this way for the past 80 years. Even today, the US dollar continues to be used for the the majority of cross border trade, foreign reserves, and international financial transactions.

But as I have written many times before, this status is not written in stone. And it’s beginning to change very rapidly.

One very recent development is that, in China, the yuan just overtook the US dollar as the most widely used currency for international trade.

China has essentially been the manufacturer to the world for decades and does business with nearly every country on the planet.

Yet, up until last month, most of China’s trade was conducted in US dollars. If a Chinese manufacturer sold machinery to a Brazilian company, for example, or if a Chinese producer bought cobalt from Indonesia, those transactions traditionally took place in US dollars.

Over time, however, China has been gradually using its own currency for trade. And other countries have been happy to go along.

So now, for example, China might buy cobalt from Indonesia using yuan instead of US dollars.

This means that other countries will start holding more and more yuan to trade with China… and hence fewer and fewer US dollars.

This is not an accident. Back in 1944, the US was very aggressive in whipping the rest of the world into accepting the US dollar. China is following the same playbook-- aggressively rallying other countries against the US dollar and towards the yuan.

And it’s really becoming obvious.

After a recent visit to China, French President Macron urged Europe to move towards independence from US foreign policy, and to rely less on the US dollar.

France... which is literally America’s oldest ally, one of the largest economies in Europe, and a key leader of the European Union, is pushing against the dollar.

In addition, China and France recently completed their first yuan-settled LNG (liquified natural gas) trade. Again, this shows a shift from France solely using the US dollar for foreign trade, to also using the yuan.

Just before that, China and the United Arab Emirates made history with the first ever LNG trade settled in yuan. Then Brazil and China reached a deal to ditch the US dollar and trade in their own currencies.

Malaysia’s Prime Minister has proposed an “Asian Monetary Fund” to reduce dependence on the US dollar. Malaysia also struck a deal with India to trade in the Indian rupee.

India and Russia are settling oil deals without US dollars.

Then there is “BRICS”— Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa which account for about 40% of the global population and a quarter of the global economy.

At a Bretton Woods-esque summit planned for this summer, BRICS will discuss creating a new currency, potentially pegged to gold, which they can use to trade.

Most importantly, Saudi Arabia is open to breaking the petrodollar and to start selling oil in yuan; on top of this, Saudi’s crown prince recently stated that he was “no longer interested in pleasing the US”.

The pace at which countries are turning away from the US dollar reminds me of the Hemingway line I mentioned recently about going broke: “gradually, then suddenly.”

I’ve been warning readers about the decline of the dollar’s reserve status for over a decade. And it may have seemed controversial back then that the dollar could be dethroned.

Now it is blatantly obvious. This is no longer a prediction, it’s happening in front of our very eyes.

To your freedom,  Simon Black, Founder   Sovereign Man

https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/the-dollars-international-decline-is-becoming-really-obvious-147404/

10 Things Most Americans Don’t Know About Credit Cards

10 Things Most Americans Don’t Know About Credit Cards

John Csiszar    Fri, May 12, 2023

Credit cards are so convenient that they are part of daily life for many Americans. Given that fact, it's perhaps surprising that there are so many common misconceptions about credit cards floating around.

Seeing as your credit score and how you manage your credit can affect so many areas of your life, from applying for a car loan or a home mortgage to qualifying for an apartment, it's important to know the facts about credit cards. Here's a look at 10 common misconceptions about credit cards and the truths behind each myth.

Your Credit Report Shows as Debt-Free If You Pay Your Balance in Full Every Month

Paying your entire credit card statement in full every month is a sound financial strategy. However, if you want to appear debt-free to lenders, you'll have to alter the timing of your payments.

Every month when you get a credit card statement, your creditor reports that balance to the credit reporting agencies. Even if you pay the balance in full after getting your statement, according to your credit report, you're still carrying that balance. To appear debt-free to your creditors, you'll need to pay off that balance in full before your statement closing date.

Applying For a Store-Branded Credit Card Won't Hurt Your Score

There's a common misconception that opening store-branded credit cards is not the same as opening a general credit card from an issuer like Chase Bank. Since these types of cards can typically only be used at the store where they're issued, many consumers mistakenly believe that they are "private issue" credit cards or somehow don't end up in the traditional credit reporting universe. The truth is that store credit cards are issued by banks as well, and they are reported to the credit agencies just like any other type of credit card.

Closing Unused Accounts Raises My Credit Score

From a financial planning standpoint, it's true that you shouldn't have more credit cards than you need. However, if you go about canceling your unused credit cards, you might end up paying a price when it comes to your credit score, in two ways. First, a big part of your credit score comes from your credit utilization or the percentage that you're using of your entire amount of available credit.

If you carry a balance on some cards and cancel your other ones, your credit utilization percentage will jump, thereby lowering your credit score. Second, the average age of your credit accounts is another factor affecting your credit score, although not as significantly as your credit utilization. If you close long-standing accounts and lower the average age of your credit lines, your credit score will take another hit.

You Must Carry a Balance To Improve Your Credit Score

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/common-misconceptions-credit-cards-230738822.html

9 Easy Banking Tips You Haven't Heard of Before

9 Easy Banking Tips You Haven't Heard of Before

Nina Derwin   Fri, May 12, 2023

Whether you are brand new to banking or you’ve had the same bank account for several decades, it’s never too early or too late to change up your banking strategy. Earning money is hard enough, and banking shouldn’t make it harder still to hold on to your dollars. Taking small steps and implementing these key tips can help you save money and avoid surprise surcharges and banking fees.

Make sure your accounts stay active.

It is not uncommon for banks to close your account if it goes untouched for a prolonged period of time. Banks may instead opt to charge you a fee for your dormant account.

Stay informed about banks besides your own.

Just because your bank offered great benefits when you opened your account doesn’t mean they are still the best in the game. Compare what other banks are offering to ensure you get the lowest fees and best APY for your savings.

Be proactive about closing accounts.

If you no longer wish to have a particular account, don’t just abandon it. Let your bank know so they can close the account and you can avoid paying low balance or dormant account fees.

Read the fine print before closing an account.

Some banks charge fees for closing an account too soon after opening it. Before closing your account, make sure to read the terms and conditions to ensure you aren’t hit with an additional charge.

Don't close an unused credit card.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/9-easy-banking-tips-havent-175900766.html

These People Are Incapable Of Playing The Long Game

These People Are Incapable Of Playing The Long Game

Simon Black   May 10, 2023

On the afternoon of Sunday, June 7, 2020, a 36-year-old Chinese national named Wang Xin was at Los Angeles International Airport waiting to board Air China flight 988 back to his native Tianjin.  Things were tense in the US; Covid-19 was still raging, George Floyd protests were erupting all around the country, and Wang couldn’t wait to get home.

But he never made it. Before boarding his flight, Wang was approached by several men who flashed their badges and identified themselves as US federal agents. Wang was then taken into custody and questioned… and he eventually told the agents the truth.

Wang had already been in the US for 18 months at that point working within the University of California system to conduct cutting-edge genomics research. One of the published papers that he co-authored in late 2019, for example, focused on “TMEM131 family proteins in intracellular collagen assembly”.

Some of his work had even been funded by the National Institutes of Health.

But Wang confessed to federal agents that day that he was actually a People’s Liberation Army officer with the rank of Major, and that he had been ordered by his PLA superiors to “bring back information” about the University of California’s research, laboratory, personnel, and more.

This is all tantamount to industrial espionage. And Wang is far from alone.

At an event I attended this past weekend, I had the chance to spend a lot of time with a former CIA officer who spent more than 20 years working at the agency. As a former intelligence officer myself, he and I had a lot to talk about.

He reminisced about how one of his early assignments at the CIA was to track some Chinese intelligence operatives who were posing as university students in the United States… which is something he said is incredibly common.

Quite often Chinese intelligence operatives spend 6-8 years in school, completing PhDs in difficult “STEM” subjects like electrical engineering of advanced genomics.

But China doesn’t stop at just sending its operatives to American universities. They make sure their people subsequently get hired at prominent US companies, especially in industries like technology, energy, pharmaceuticals, etc.

Yet even then, as my CIA colleague explained, the spy’s value is minimal to the Chinese government. It takes another 15 to 20 years for them to work up the corporate ladder and have access to critical technological secrets.

Only then can the spy provide the Chinese Communist Party with highly prized secrets.

China is essentially willing to patiently invest DECADES of painstaking effort to achieve its intelligence objectives. And that’s pretty normal for the Chinese; their leadership tends to establish clear goals and long-term strategic visions that often look 30+ years into the future. A single decade is nothing for them.

Now, China’s authoritarian government obviously has a mountain of reprehensible flaws, and they have no intention of changing for the better. But one thing’s for sure: they know how to play the long game… and use it to their advantage.

Contrast this with the US government, which at present cannot even plan beyond the next few weeks.

Remember that the legal limit for the national debt was breached on January 19, 2023. And ever since then, the Treasury Department has had to resort to “extraordinary measures” in order to keep the government funded.

Now, it’s utterly pathetic that the federal government of the largest and supposedly ‘most prosperous’ economy in the world has to borrow trillions of dollars each year to make ends meet.

Consider that the Treasury Department collected a record $5 TRILLION in tax revenue last year; as recently as 2019, $5 trillion would have been more than enough to fund the entire government AND STILL run a budget surplus.

And yet, today, even $5 trillion is not enough money. So, the US government still needs to go deeper into debt in order to keep the lights on. Like I said, utterly pathetic.

But what’s worse is their inability to resolve this problem.

The guy who shakes hands with thin air insists that he will not negotiate a single penny of spending cuts in order to reach a compromise with Congress on raising the debt ceiling.

Obviously, it’s silly to think that the federal government shouldn’t cut spending. And it’s downright impossible to argue that there isn’t plenty of fat to trim.

Yet POTUS simply refuses to make a single cut, even though it’s precisely what the country needs.

And we can’t just chalk it up to the guy being senile and demented, either-- this is a criminal level of incompetence, because it is deliberate and reckless.

Maybe he’ll change his tune before it’s too late. But it’s not just the debt ceiling issue. Nor is this short-sightedness a problem that is unique to Joe Biden.

Both Congress and the White House, for example, understand that Social Security’s trust funds are set to run out of money in less than ten years. And yet both sides and both political parties have agreed to take Social Security ‘off the table’. No changes to the program. No discussions. No solutions.

There’s a looming deadline to fix Social Security… and yet they’re happy to just kick the can down the road… just as previous Congresses and administrations have done.

These people are incapable of thinking long-term and solving challenges that are 10+ years out. At the moment they can’t even compromise on the next month’s debt ceiling crisis.

Quite simply they’re unwilling and/or unable to play the long game. And the country is worse off for it. The whole world is worse off for it.

This is why it makes so much sense to have a Plan B-- something which requires long-term thinking.

We just talked about Social Security and how they refuse to do anything about it. But we can easily think long-term and set up the right kind of structure, like a solo 401(k), which provides more flexibility to save money for retirement.

We can also acknowledge the risks of America’s obvious financial and social decline and think about long-term solutions.

One option is to establish legal residency in a foreign country you enjoy visiting, which, over a few years, can lead to a second passport for your entire family. This will give you more freedom and opportunity, and act like a sort of insurance policy if you ever need it.

It takes time to set up, of course. But this isn’t a problem for people who play the long game… and recognize that there’s no downside in being prepared for obvious risks.

To your freedom,  Simon Black, Founder   Sovereign Man

https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/these-people-are-incapable-of-playing-the-long-game-147382/

10 Small Changes To Stay On Track With Your Savings Goals

10 Small Changes To Stay On Track With Your Savings Goals

Cynthia Measom   Thu, May 11, 2023

According to Fidelity Investments' annual Financial Resolutions Study, the top financial resolution of respondents for 2022 was to save more money. But not every resolution makes it far past January. Less than halfway into the year, you can still take charge of your finances.

How much you save is a personal decision -- one only you can make. But if you're interested in getting -- or staying -- on track with your savings goals, the time to start is now.

The good news is that these are small financial shifts you can make, designed not to overwhelm. After all, baby steps still equal progress.

Set Some Purchasing Rules

When it comes to shopping, if you don't have a plan, you can quickly find yourself spending more than you should. And all that unplanned spending can quickly add up and cause you to lose track of your financial goals. As an alternative, set some purchasing rules that apply every single time you want to make a purchase. Here are some ideas from Scott Nelson, financial services expert and CEO of MoneyNerd Ltd:

Wait a week and see if you still want it.

Every time you buy something, you have to sell something.

Check charity shops first.

Make your own if you can.

Borrow from someone else.

Wait until it goes on sale.

Start With Small Savings Goals

While you might not think that putting a little money aside in your savings each month will make a difference, it can.

Remove the Emotion From Saving

Nothing makes saving less appealing for some people than thinking about having to save.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/10-small-changes-stay-track-200029740.html

Does Paying in Cash Help You Save Money?

Does Paying in Cash Help You Save Money?

Sam DiSalvo   Wed, May 10, 2023

In a primarily cashless society, you probably rarely have cash on you. Now even cash-run events of the past like flea markets and Girl Scout cookie sales have Square readers to take credit cards. Paying with cards is certainly convenient, but is it costing us more?

 “Ten years ago, I would have said absolutely. Today, as more spending becomes digital, there are fewer and fewer ways to save money with cash. Having said that, there still is a place and time for cash,” said Derek Sall, founder of Life and My Finances. Here are the pros and cons of paying with cash, and the areas where you can still save when you do.

Pro: You Can Sometimes Get a Discount for Paying in Cash

In some business models, workers will cut you a deal if you pay them in cash. “Need a photographer? A carpet installer? Need a new roof? There’s often a steep discount — like 10%-25% — if you offer to pay them in cash,” Sall said. Many businesses do this to avoid the fees they have to pay on processing credit card transactions. This fee can be anywhere from 1.95% to 2.5% of every transaction, so business owners prefer to avoid that if possible. If you carry cash, you’ll save a lot when you encounter these types of situations, and the vendor will appreciate it, too.

Pro: Psychologically, Using Cash Might Help You Save

There might not be an exact dollar amount you’re guaranteed to save, but studies have shown that paying with credit cards is considered a less “painful” transaction, according to Megan Kelly, financial advisor and communications director at GoodCheddar.

“According to some experts, the psychology behind paying with options other than cash is connected to the idea that dematerialized money can be linked to reward and regret emotions which influences spending behavior. As such, the sensory stimuli associated with paying with cash are diminished when using apps, credit cards and other payment alternatives,” Kelly said. This means that paying with cash often means more to people because they can feel it disappear, whereas that’s not felt as profoundly when you swipe with a card.

Pro: No Interest Charges or Annual Fees

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/does-paying-cash-help-save-130043495.html