Consolidate, Simply, Improve Your Finances

I have been helping a family member wrap her arms around her financial situation recently and thought I'd share my observations. Unlike the typical situation these days she has judicially salted away money every month for a very long time and therefore won't be wondering if she can maintain her lifestyle in retirement. But, her husband ran into some health issues two years ago and she had to take the reins of their finances for the first time in 20+ years. In their family, her accountant husband had a mind for numbers and had invested money with 15+ mutual fund companies, opening one or two funds at each. This caused paperwork nightmare for someone who is financially savvy, let alone someone who has problems balancing the checkbook.

The health situation opened her eyes and woke her up to the fact that if something happened again she wasn't sure she would even know where all their money was. Of course, having 20 different mutual funds doesn't mean you are diversified. It's also a huge hassle. I've been enlisted to help them consolidate their accounts, re-balance and simply things. They are also looking into working with a financial planner. I'm admittedly not an expert on equities, bonds, and the like, but as the financial meltdown of 2008-2009 has shown, neither are most of the people on Wall Street. I'll list the steps I have taken below. They want to take a mostly DIY approach to their investments so I've tried to not make things overly complicated while bringing their risk down.

STEP ONE. CONSOLIDATE

As noted above, my relatives had holdings at over 15 institutions. While they had some real quality companies working for them, I question whether each of the offerings at T.Rowe Price, Vanguard, and Schwab have significant enough differences to spread your money around everywhere. This is especially true with the number of non-transaction fee funds and ETF's available at most full service discount brokers.

a) Where to consolidate?

This is essentially a personal preference since many of the brokers have similar offerings these days. My personal favorite is Fidelity, though Schwab is a close second. Both have a solid offering of branded no transaction fee funds, charge no annual fee, have relatively low minimums, and charge lower trading fees than many of their competitors. There are cheaper options for trading and lower minimums elsewhere, but these two have very good customer service in my experience which is worth the extra dollar or two on trades (since they are mostly invested in mutual funds).

There are also some very good mutual fund companies such as Vanguard and T.Rowe which basically have a brokerage account tacked on as an afterthought to their fund offerings. Both are great companies, but have thin offerings outside their branded funds.

After laying out the options they have decided to go with Fidelity.

b) Making the Move

One of the reasons that we settled on Fidelity was that quite a few of their funds were part of Fidelity's NTF network, so they could be rolled and moved into the brokerage account essentially unchanged. A number of the other offerings will be liquidated and moved into a similar offerings from the Fidelity branded funds, NTF funds Fidelity offers, or comparable ETF's. The whole process can be initiated online and finalized by mailing some paperwork to Fidelity. It is a fairly pain free process, but takes a little while.

STEP TWO. SIMPLIFY

Asset allocation is the single most important factor in this process and I haven't been able to find any online tools that I feel confident with. This is especially true given the huge differences in allocations each recommended. My relatives are about 5 years from retirement, so they will need a more conservative allocation than someone like me. I have recommended that my relatives visit a financial planner who charges hourly and schedule an appointment to review their goals and get a plan figured out. A few hundred dollars is a small price to pay for solid advice.

STEP THREE. IMPROVE

While things haven't been finished yet. They are off to a good start. The final pieces will fall into place once they meet with the financial planner. I believe they will benefit a great deal from having the vast majority of their investments under one umbrella and just a few funds at another broker. Now, if something happens at least all their money will be in one place and accessible if necessary.

I'm interested to hear if you have had an experience good, bad or otherwise moving things under one roof. Do you have any other advice for them? If so, email me.

Image Credit: Ben30 @ Flickr

Asset Allocation Made Easy

As a DIY investor without a broker, I have been looking around (for a while now) trying to find a tool that will help me allocate my investments in different asset classes and help me rebalance them occasionally. As I will probably elaborate on in an upcoming post, I haven't really been happy with any of the tools that I've tried so far. The tools have either been too simplistic, way too complicated, or the numbers just don't seem to add up. I should note that I have been trying out free tools, when I probably just should have broke down and pay for some advice.

Today I came across the marketriders.com website. The site offers advice on asset allocations in a few flavors. In its most basic form you can pay a $9.99/mo fee for automated advice by answering questions about your time horizons, appetite for risk and age. If you prefer, for $399 you can talk to an advisor who will walk you through things. Or, if you need more help yet you can move your portfolio over the Market Riders and pay them a .50% commission. The company has based its philosophy on the idea that if you get your money in a low cost investment (preferably an ETF that tracks an index) and have the right allocation there's really no need for an expensive broker. They seem genuine when they say they really prefer if people do the investing themselves and don't hire them as their planners. They even impose a requirement that you fire them each year and decide if you want to rehire them.

I think its a good concept. I haven't tried their service out yet, but since they offer a free 30 day trial I will be soon and will post a full review at that time. Market Riders apparently has a database that has over 700 ETF's and provides users with a sample portfolio of ETF's to meet their respective allocation. Why ETF's? Because as counter-intuitive as it may sound, they generally beat the experts. The company also monitors the performance of the investments and will send you an email when it is cost effective to rebalance things. In this sort of market that could prove to be some valuable advice.

Does anyone have experience with Market Riders? I like the concept a lot, we'll see how the model plays out in the service itself. I will report back once I have a chance to kick the tires. I wish them the best, it's about time there was some solid unbiased advice at a fair price.

Link: MarketRiders.com

Image Credit: The New Fine Art's Lab @ Flickr

Are There Any Safe Investments Left In This Economy?

Maybe this is a sign of the new normal, but I have been searching in vain to find some safe investments to park money that earn a respectable amount of interest. Now I realize that with return comes risk and that nothing in this world is guaranteed, but aside from parking money in a CD that is yielding in the 2-3% range or a money market fund with an equally dismal rate of return, there are not a lot of options. I think the best places to park short term cash right now are FDIC insured online banking institutions. They offer much better rates of return than traditional brick and mortar outfits and more liquidity than treasuries or CD's. A quick Google search can return the usual suspects. As of the posting of this article the banks below were offering rates higher than the national average for 1 year CD's of 2.28%.

E*Trade Bank: 3.01% (no minimum deposit)
ING Direct: 2.5% (no minimum deposit)
FNBO: 2.6% (no minimum deposit)
Capital One: 2.64% (no minimum deposit)
HSBC Direct: 2.45% (no minimum deposit)

If you see any FDIC insured banks beating these rates or offering sign up specials please drop me an email at goldenparachuteblog@gmail.com or leave a comment on this post.

Obama, McCain and Your Money, The Cheat Sheet

After reading a Wall Street Journal article today about the money related positions of Barack Obama and John McCain, I figured it might be helpful to make a cheat sheet about where each candidate stands on the issues. I won't attempt to give an in depth analysis on any of the topics, this is just a very, very, brief overview.

Income Taxes:

Obama: Wants tax cuts for middle class, increases for families making $250k+ and inviduals pulling down $200k+. Wants to extend Bush tax cuts, but raise the top rates to 36% and 39.6%. Get rid of taxes on the elderly making less than $50k/yr and give people earning less than $75k/yr a credit equal to about $500 each year. The top 1% would see an approximate $19k/yr increase in taxes.

McCain: Wants to permanently extend Bush tax cuts, raise personal exemptions for each dependent from $3,500 to $7,000 over a few years. Wants to keep top tax rate at 35%. The top 1% would see a cut of $125k+/yr.

Short-Term Economic Relief:

Obama: To jump start the economy he wants to give a $1,000 rebate to each family or $500 per individual. He also would like people be able to withdraw 15% of their 401k or IRA up to $10k penalty free.

McCain: Wants to cut the capital gains tax rate for stock held more than one year to 7.5% and would increase the amount of loss that is deductible on stock sales from $3k to $15k. Would cap withdrawals by seniors from IRAs and 401(k)'s no more than 10%

Estate Taxes / AMT:

Obama: Keep 2009 estate tax rates in effect, taxing only estates worth more than $3.5 million per person at 45% per person. A $5 million dollar estate would pay approximately $675k in taxes.

McCain: Wants flat 15% estate tax (currently at 45%) on estates valued at over $5 million. A $5 million dollar estate would pay NO taxes.

Health Care:

Obama: Require employers not offering coverage to kick in a percentage of payroll towards a national plan (note small businesses are exempt). Would try to set up a national exchange for health insurance.

McCain: Would replace the income-tax exemptions for insurance paid by employers with a refundable tax credit of $5k per family or $2,500 per individual.
Investments:
Obama: Would eliminate all capital gain taxes on start-ups and small businesses, but raise top rates on securities and dividends to 20% for families making more than $250,000 per year.

McCain: Keep the max capital gain rate at 15%

Retirement / Social Security:

Obama: Wants to institute a 2 - 4% payroll tax for earners of more than $250k to be paid by employees and employers together. Would be phased in over 10 years or more. Impliment a savers credit to match 50% of the first $1,000 of savings for families earning less than $75,000.
McCain: Privitize social security and allow younger workers to place a portion of their account in the market.

Image: jvumn @ Flickr

Keys to Financial Success as Told By Mark Cuban

I personally don't have a problem with Mark Cuban, but I know he rubs many people the wrong way. For those of you who don't know, Cuban founded Broadcast.com and sold out to Yahoo at the peak of the tech bubble for about $5 billion dollars, he then went on to buy the Dallas Mavericks and dabble in some other ventures like HDNet and potentially buying the Chicago Cubs. For certain, the guy is emotional, opinionated, and undoubtedly rich by any standards... oh yeah, he likes the enjoy his money.

This week Cuban posted an article on his "blog maverick" site titled "How to Get Rich." The article raises some interesting points that run counter to conventional wisdom. In a nutshell Cuban says, 1) keep money in cash, 2) don't take shortcuts, 3) stop using credit cards, and 4) find a job you love.

I have to admit I was really skeptical when I received the link from a friend yesterday, but Cuban gives some solid advice. I whole-heartedly agree that there are no shortcuts to building wealth. It's a slow process that for most people requires sacrifices and SAVING MONEY. Bottom line, you have to put more money in the bank or securities than you blow on entertainment, luxuries or other disposable expenses. I also strongly believe that for many reasons loving your job is important. People spend more time at work than just about anywhere else. If you hate your job, chances are you are either a) not good at it, b) overqualified, or c) would be a lot better at something else. There's an untold number of people out there who made fortunes in weird niche industries and businesses. The person who created the temporary tatoo, hackey sack, or spork probably all flew under the radar -- and didn't live way beyond their means. They probably all also ended up with more money in their estate than you or I will. Even if it doesn't necessarily contribute to your bottom line right away, doing what you love will make you a lot happier.

I would disagree with Cuban on his keep your money on cash and don't use credit cards opinions. Historically the stock market is not as risky an investment as he makes it out to be. Yes, it is driven by emotion and not closely correlated to actual market conditions, but earning 3-4% in a CD won't cover inflation most of the time. You can no longer buy a stock and hold it for 30 years (if you ever could) and need to actively monitor things by diversifying your asset and portfolio allocation but averaging a conservative 6% is almost double what short term CD's pay. Having a sizable position in cash or bonds makes sense, but keeping all your money in cash is foolish. Also, although most people use credit cards irresponsibly, there are plenty of people who don't carry a balance and get some cash back rewards in the process.

Does anyone have other ideas to add to the list? I'd like to compile my own list and post it sometime in the future if anyone

National Debt Clock Maxes Out

Last month the national debt clock maintained by the Durst Organization in NY ran out of digits. The United States debt exceeded $10 trillion dollars and the clock's dollar sign had to be removed and replaced with another digit. The clock will soon add two more digits... here's to hoping that's something we never have to use.

Link: WSJ Blogs - Debt Clock

Worst Wall Street Months in History

Floyd Norris had an article two days ago that listed the worst months for the market in U.S. history. I'm not a believer that the stock market is a barometer for the overall health of the economy (I think the stock market operates on momentum and emotion, where the economy tends to slog forward or backward with fewer rapid ups and downs), however it is interesting to see how this crazy month has stacked up historically. It should be noted that the

1. October 1987, -21.8%
2. August 1998, -14.6%
3. September 2008, -13.8%
4. September 1974, -11.9%
5. November 1973. -11.4%
6. September 2002, -11.0%
7. November 1948, -10.6%
8. March 1980, -10.2%
9. September 1946 -10.2%
10. August 1990, -9.4%

Article @ NYTIMES

Image: ralphunden

New Video Game Simulates Starting a Business

Doctors and lawyers make good money, but it's the small business owners in this country who make serious money. In the US, even people who don't set out to become independently wealthy are drawn to entrepreneurship. It seems that being your own boss and having the ability to set your own hours is a national obsession - but if it were only that easy. The risks involved often drive many people away from hanging their own shingle. Entrepreneurship is one of those facets of life where sometimes ignorance is bliss. Today I was tinkering around with a game called "Johnny Money Online." The game is an online game that was released by the Wharton School of Business.

Johnny Money Online is free and geared at teens interested in starting their own business, but applicable to adults as well. The game gives you a crash course in all the decisions business owners make and how much uncertainty is involved. You play a retail business owner and must make purchasing, advertising, and marketing decisions. I failed miserably at this game and if there are any small business owners who have tried it out, I'd love to hear your opinions. What is representative, good, bad, otherwise?

Image: Kimberly* @ Flickr

Shocker of the Day: Bling is a Terrible Investment

File this under the "obvious" category. The WSJ Wealth Report has a post reporting that even super high end jewelry doesn't hold its value. Given the fact that the value of jewelry is a subjective thing, that's not too surprising. Additionally, buying jewlery is typically an emotional decision and doesn't involve the rational investing approach that other investments might go through. I think very few people say "at least this engagement ring will be worth twice this much if I ever get divorced and sell off assets." The only reason the story is noteworthy is that it backs up its points with figures from famous jewlery pieces that have been sold by some of the big auction houses. So, if you were planning to drop some money on a rapper chain you might want to find a better place to park all that cash.

Image: Swanksalot @ Flickr

The Student Loan Abyss

We've heard the stories about how bad the topsy-turvey student loan market has gotten for consumers, but I recently was able to witness things first hand. In an attempt to consolidate a couple private student loans to make things more convenient, I was only able to find two lenders still offering private consolidation loans (Citi and Key). To make matters worse, the lenders wanted approximately 8% and near 9% respectively for an applicant with excellent credit. The game plan now has moved to not consolidating and paying private loans off as quickly as possible.

Does anyone else have private student loans who recently graduated? What have you done with your loans?

Image: kjarrett @ Flickr

World's Highest Concentration of Millionaires

Boston Consulting has released its most recent Global Wealth Report and it has some information that is probably pretty surprising to most Americans. The report has statistics on where the highest concentrations of millionaires are located in the world. The surprising part for me was which country was on top... Singapore. In Singapore apparently 1 in 10 households have assets in excess of $1 million dollars. The list below has stats on what percentage of the population is worth more than $1 million in each of the top five countries:

1 — Singapore — 10.6%
2 — Qatar — 7.9%
3 — Switzerland — 7.3%
4 — United Arab Emirates — 6.6%
5 — Kuwait — 5.3%

If you are wondering, the U.S.A. ranks sixth at 4.3%...

Link: WSJ Wealth Report Blog
Image: DogFrog @ Flickr

Being Rich Now Apparently Is Harder Than Ever

The Wall Street Journal Wealth Report Blog is reporting that the new thing to do if you're mega wealthy is to have a "family office" to manage your investments, real estate, charitable giving, and travel.  I can't speak from experience, because I'm unfortunately no where near the $100 million dollar mark the article states is the sweet spot for this type of arrangement.  

But, aside from the cachet that having an "office" full of people who report to your every whim and desire -- does having a family office really offer much?  Sounds like this arrangement just brings all the people that average folks already use and brings them in house.  Normal people have accountants, attorneys, bankers, financial planners... and sometimes trust officers or assistants/secretaries.  Anyways, I thought the article was interesting and wanted to pass it on, you can read the entire story over at the WSJ Wealth Blog.

Photo Credit: risastla @ flickr

Link:  WSJ Wealth Blog

Oil Falls Sharply... For Once

Today a couple interesting things happened in the markets that have been rare occurrences in the markets.  For starters the NYSE rallied up more than 200 points (of course it later gave the gains back and then some which is not all that unusual of late).  Also, oil fell to $105 per barrel before settling back just under $110 per barrel.  Third, the dollar ended slightly stronger rising .8% to 1.4501 dollars per euro.  Don't get too excited about a bottom or that we're out of the woods yet.  Come next week it will probably again be "Oil rose on fears of _______ (insert war in a little known country, natural disaster somewhere without running water or any other reason you'd like).  

While the relief in oil prices is great, consumers probably won't see relief at the pump here until refiners ramp up capacity or the vertically integrated oil companies start taking a smaller cut over every step of the supply chain (unlikely to say the least).

Photo Credit: freewine @ flickr

Stats:  Oil Price Plunge @ NYTIMES

What Are You Doing To Beat Inflation?

Energy prices are skyrocketing, food prices are through the roof, seems like everything is costing more these days -- and the thing is -- you're right. Most of us have been effected in one way or another by the rising energy costs, but what about your nest egg. What approaches are you taking to make sure that inflation isn't eating away at your savings and still mitigating some of the risk in your portfolio?

Since most people underestimate the real rate of inflation (and the U.S. Government claims inflation is now at approximately 2%), this doesn't garner much attention - but it's a real concern. I typically steer clear of any type of investment advice here on this site, but want to open it up for discussion since it's something I've been thinking about lately.

Among the many options - Treasury Inflation Protected Bond Funds have become trendy of late [see ETF's: TIP, IPE ; MUTFunds: VIPSX, DIPSX, FINPX), and so have dividend weighted ETF's [see ETF's: PEY, DLS]

What do you think? Are inflation protected bonds the way to go? Dividend paying stocks? Cash?

Number of Millionares in World Increases 600k

Recent reports now say that the world now is home to over 10 million millionaires. (note: this millionaire club doesn't include real estate worth in its calculation). The year over year total grew 600k (about 6%) from 2006 to 2007. You might say, who cares? There are oh, 6.6 billion people on the planet -- so in the grand scheme of things its still tiny (somewhere around 1/5th of 1% of the population). The interesting thing about these new statistics is what has driven the increase in millionaires.

According to the report a steady combination of inflation and booming emerging economies has fueled the boom. The millionaire club has, unsurprisingly grown fastest in India and China. Those of us in America be warned. The United States is still home to 1 out of 3 millionaires, but it remains to be seen if the emerging markets around the world will be able to spread their new found wealth around enough to change those figures when the 2008 stats come out.

Image: Justin Vining

Consolidate and Close Accounts to Keep Better Tabs on You Financial Situation

One of the great things that a steady stream of new entrants into the online brokerage arena had the effect of doing is to make companies compete harder for your business. There are now plenty of good places to hold your investments and with that said I'm a big believer of consolidating your investments and holding them at a handful on institutions rather than have assets all over the place. Below are the reasons that I think this outweighs the minimal benefits you may find from using a number of providers.

1) Reduce Fees: Many providers reduce or even eliminate fees and commissions once you hit a certain threshold of assets. Some investment houses will throw in free trades, free research, or advisory services if you increase your holdings to a higher tier.

2) Increase Your Sensitivity to Fees: With life being busy and time short, I find that I'm more likely to carefully inspect my monthly or quarterly statement if I have two or three to look at rather than 5. I also am more sensitive to being nickeled and dimmed with fees when I see multiple fees on the same statement rather than one from each investment company.

3) One statement: Many investment companies will provide you with one consolidated statement which makes record keeping a breeze and reduces hassles associated with tracking down important information.
4) Availability of Options: Nearly all the well known brokerage companies have been beefing up their no transaction fee mutual fund offerings which makes it easier for you hold a Janus fund in a Fidelity account or an Ariel fund in a Schwab account. This makes for one stop shopping and as stated earlier one statement. The rise of exchange traded funds (and more and more niche EFT's that act more like mutual funds) allows small and large individuals to level the playing field and diversify without the strings some mutual funds attach.

5) Get a Clear Picture of Your Financial Health: Pooling your investments with one provider is a quick way to see your net worth and if you are meeting your financial goals, whatever they may be.

6) Organize Your Affairs in the Event Something Should Happen to You: No one wants to think about death or serious injury, but if you were hospitalized would a family member or friend be able to track down your money to pay bills? Are your investments spread over 10 fund families held in 10 separate accounts plus your 401(k), Roth IRA, and traditional IRA? If you have a financial power of attorney in place you representative will have an easier time tapping funds that may be needed to settle your affairs or care for you.

Things to note. It should be noted that you want to consider FDIC and SIPC insurance limits that may be applicable to the funds you hold at a single institution. There are plenty of good discount brokers like Fidelity (the king of investment houses), OptionsXpress (a newer discount broker that has grown quickly and has no minimums, T.Rowe (one of the biggest discount fund shops), and Charles Schwab (the big time discount broker).

Many of these providers like Schwab and Fidelity have added high yielding checking account and other banking options to their typical securities offerings (read more here). While the new accounts have big benefits over the brick and mortar checking accounts, most people need somewhere to deposit money in person from time to time. I would suggest that if you are interested in consolidating financial holdings that you keep a completely free checking account at a bank close to your house so you can quickly deposit the occasional check (ask, because your bank will probably try to lead you to an account with minimums and/or fees). Once the money is deposited in your local bank account you can easily move the funds through the ACH system to your other account. This method is much faster than mailing a check to the financial institution.

The Economy May Be in a Funk, but Banks Keep Offering Deals

With the economy tanking it makes sense to take free money from anywhere you can get it (provided there are limited strings attached). Below are some of the offers that I saw this week while surfing around. While most require some minimal hassle, if you are in the market for a new account anyways they might be worth your while.

E*Trade Savings $25 Bonus
Details: $1 minimum to open an account. Bonus will be deposited within 30 days of opening the account. Another plus, the 3.15% APY is one of the best out there.
Direct Link

INGDirect Savings $25 Bonus
Details: $1 minimum to open account, but if you want the $25 bonus you must fund the account with at least $250. ING was paying 3% APY as of 5/28/2008. (Full Disclosure: If you sign up for an account with one of the links below I receive $10). If one of the links doesn't work try the next. In none of them work for you, send me an email and I'll get you a fresh one.
Direct Link 1; Direct Link 2; Direct Link 3; Direct Link 4; Direct Link 5

American Express Nest Credit Card $50 Bonus
Details: You receive 5,000 bonus points after your first purchase (redeemable for $50). The card also gives you 1% back in points that are redeemable for cash and an additional 10,000 points (equal to $100) for any year you charge over $15,000 on the card. You also receive a financial planning kit that is supposed to help newlyweds budget. Plus, everyone will think that you're a newlywed as you throw down the AMEX (even if you're not).
Direct Link

What Are The Best Personal Finance Books?

As I was walking around the local Barnes & Noble over the weekend, I found myself in kind of a rut. Nothing seemed particularly interesting, but I haven't read a good book about money for quite awhile so that's what I was browsing for. Instead of searching through the Amazon reviews for a good book, I though it might be better to open it up to everyone out there.

So, what is your favorite book about money? The last money book I read was one of Jim Cramer's (the high strung Goldman trader turned hedgie-turned CNBC talking head), and can't say that it was something I'd recommend.

Image: Lin Pernille @ Flickr

High Yield Checking Account Interest Rates Hold Up Better Than Savings

High yield savings account interest rates took a hit again this week (Feb 16) with a majority of the major players again reducing returns. However, high yield checking account returns have held up better. Bankdeals.blogspot.com reports this week that there are still plenty of good returns to be found with high yield checking accounts. Below is a list of places that you can still get a good deal from Bankdeals. The site also has a ton of information about the highest CD, savings, credit union yields, and bank account bonuses for the rate chasers out there.

• 6.01% Reward Checking at Air Academy FCU
• 6.01% Reward Checking Account at Charter Bank
• 5.51% Reward Checking Account at Provident Credit Union
• 5.09% Reward Checking Account at Consumers Credit Union
• 5.01% Reward Checking Account at State Bank of Toledo
• 5.01% Reward Checking Account at Connexus Credit Union
• 4.44% Reward Checking at First Arkansas Bank & Trust
• 4.00% Reward Checking Account at First National Bank

PS: Before you jump to a new account for what could be a teaser rate it's a good idea to crunch the numbers with a rate chaser calculator to see how long it will take for that new rate to pay off.

What Will You Do With Your Stimulus Check?

Now that it is looking more and more likely that Pres. Bush's economic stimulus package will in fact be made a reality as early as next month -- raining down checks of $300 to $1,200 per household.. What do you plan on doing with your check? I plan on investing the money (I suppose that shouldn't come as a surprise since I blog about being cheap). Sorry to those of you expecting me to do my part to get this economy back on track - hopefully other people carry my weight for me.

I'm curious to hear from other people what they plan to do with their refund. Of course, if this plan is going ot work people need to spend the money and the sooner the better. It has been reported that it takes at least six months for the spending to stimulate the economy.

Economists are notoriously poor at predicting and modeling what will happen with the economy, so what is your guess? After all, you have a better chance of being right than the weather man.


Read more about the plan @ NYT

Image: dcjohn @ Flickr