“Dave Ramsey: Personal Finance - State Journal-Register” plus 1 more |
| Dave Ramsey: Personal Finance - State Journal-Register Posted: 02 Sep 2010 09:18 PM PDT Dear Dave: When is it OK to buy toys for the lake — things like boats and Jet Skis — when following your plan? — Anonymous Dear Anonymous: I'm a lake guy, too. So you've hit a soft spot with me on this question. Still, you have to be an adult about these things, and here are a few rules: First, you should be completely debt free except for your house. Second, you need to have your fully funded emergency fund — that's three to six months of living expenses — in place. In other words, I want you to have completed the first three Baby Steps. And remember, no matter how shiny and cool it may look, buying a Sea-Doo is not an emergency. Save up and pay cash for your toys. You should never have more than half of your annual income tied up in the total of all your vehicles. It would be pretty stupid to make $60,000 a year and have $40,000 tied up in cars, boats and other toys. That's way too much money tied up in things that go down in value the wrong way. Always make sure your family is well taken care of before you go out buying toys. Dear Dave: My wife and I are both active duty Marines. She's planning to get out in a few months, but I'm staying in for the long haul. You recommend saving 15 percent for retirement, but how does that apply in my case when I'll be getting a good pension after 20 years? — James Dear James: I'd like to see you do both. Just imagine the money you guys would have for retirement with your military pension and a big pile of cash from having saved 15 percent of your income over the years. Having options is a great thing. Think about all the things you could do down the road if you save for retirement and have your pension in place. You could pay cash for a home, or even open a business when you retire from the military. And these are things you probably wouldn't be able to do working with just your service pension. You've got a great future if you'll just keep plugging along and saving, James. Let the military do its thing, and you guys keep pumping 15 percent of your income into Roth IRAs and pre-tax retirement plans. It's going to be pretty cool. Dear Dave: What's the best way to finance a business I want to buy? — Anonymous Dear Anonymous: When you borrow money to start a business, you're introducing a huge risk factor into the equation. I don't borrow money, so I really can't recommend that you go into debt. Saving up and paying cash is the best way to go. The only other thing I would consider doing that would lower your risk would be an owner-financed deal. The current owner finances the transaction, and your pay to them is based on the profitability of the business. That way, if there's no profitability, you're not bankrupt. Some people will go out and borrow $500,000 or more to start a business. Then if the business doesn't do well and you can't make the payments, you're bankrupt. There's really no in-between, and that's a bad deal. It's just a dumb idea to do these "all-or-nothing" business deals. Even if owning a business is your wildest dream, there's no point in taking risks like that. It's just not necessary. For more financial help, please visit daveramsey.com. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Posted: 01 Sep 2010 09:01 AM PDT Home > The Ticker > Archives > 2010 > September > 01 > Entry The state comptroller's office will hold a second appliance rebate program to divvy out $10 million in funds that remain unclaimed, despite overwhelming interest earlier this year when thousands of Texans flooded a website and phone bank. Meanwhile, the Minnesota company hired to run the $23 million program for energy-efficient appliances will be paid only a fraction of its original contract, after state officials said it bungled the chaotic Apr. 7 rollout. Helgeson Enterprises Inc., a rebate fulfillment company, will receive $250,000 of the $876,000 contract, said Allen Spelce, a comptroller's office spokesman. "It was pretty obvious that they dropped the ball on April 7," he said. When the rebate program launched, thousands could not get through to phone banks or a website set up to handle requests. Nearly 78 percent of calls were dropped. Prior to Texas, Helgeson had similar problems running appliance rebate programs in Minnesota and Iowa, where high demand crashed websites and jammed phones. A Helgeson spokesman did not return phone calls for comment Wednesday. Comptroller's officials have said they tried to take steps in an effort to head off a repeat in Texas. Before the launch, Helgeson assured state officials that the website could handle 25,000 people at one time — and sent load test results to prove it, Spelce said. Excess users would be redirected to an additional website, which would tell them to try again in a few minutes. But when the program launched, Helgeson's servers were quickly overwhelmed. Many of those Internet users then tried to call a phone bank, which in turn was also swamped. The website was taken down and brought back online later in the day, but it was still only able to handle about 15,000 people, Spelce said. After the problems, the comptrollers office went to Helgeson and negotiated the lower payout. "They were agreeable to our demands," Spelce said. The long wait times and dropped calls led to frustrated Texans and angry lawmakers, some of whom derided the program's launch as "pathetic" and a "screw-up." In the end, about 28,500 people got reservations for energy-efficient appliances and another 27,500 were on a waiting list. Of that total, about 70 percent of people on the reservation list actually sent in applications along with 30 percent of the wait list, Spelce said. After those rebates were paid, there was about $10 million left over, he said. The second rebate program — which will be a mail-in program — will take place in December or possibly January, he said. A vendor has not yet been selected. More information on the new program will be available in the future at http://texaspowerfulsmart.org. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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