Finance in the News w/e 1/9/16

Finance in the News for the week ending 1/9/16.

This is my first financial post of the new year!

1)
Just when you think the country has gotten passed the ridiculousness of the subprime mortgage crisis and learned its lesson having to bail out under capitalized financial institutions, Fannie Mae has devised a way to entice those desperate to own a home with another high risk mortgage product:

Fannie Mae Rolls Out Easy Mortgage, Catering To High-Risk Immigrants Read More At Investor's Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/010716-788747-government-wants-to-lend-more-to-high-risk-immigrants

https://www.fanniemae.com/singlefamily/homeready

2)
Powerball soars to a new record high $800M with a drawing tonight at 8PM. Image having an extra $400M laying around after taxes. Wow. And remember, you can't win if you don't play.

http://www.powerball.com/

http://abcnews.go.com/US/powerball-drawing-clues-previous-lottery-winners/story?id=36143401

3)
Millennials are debt averse. I should know. My twenty-something son, who still lives at home, is one.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-11/these-millennials-are-socking-away-15-of-their-salary

Happy Christmas 2015

As a result of my son working black Friday, he received a 25% off voucher so I decided to take advantage of that discount and bought an xbox with Kinect, a year games with gold subscription for xbox, ooma, new cable modem so I don't have to rent one from TimeWarner Cable anymore, and a mattress topper. Merry Christmas to me.

I also switched out the cable box with dvr because it had an issue with turning on we were struggling with for awhile. Now, maybe it was just us moving the remote too soon to the coffee table before it was switched on fully or maybe it was the level of crap on the coffee table preventing the signal from getting to the cable box in the first place, but anyway, the new box is smaller and sleeker and comes with a better menu. Last weekend, I was able to turn in the two cable modems and turn off the phone with TimeWarner since my number porting operation was completed with ooma earlier that week.

Wednesday, we had a pot luck at work. I brought in a 4-flavor variety cake from the Walmart bakery and picked up a dozen tamales from a local mexican bakery (Yelp Review #1026 & First Review #147) because someone who was let go from another team had noted those on the pot luck sign-up sheet. I also brought in a bag of mandarin oranges for my team for an extra shot of vitamin C to stave off the colds and flu we have been passing around the office. Way too many people have been sneezing and sniffling this season. I need to get a jumbo bottle of hand sanitizer going again on my team since we handle the files after at least five other groups handle them (set-up, processing, funding, closer, underwriter) and it's a proven fact that paper harbors germies, especially paper money.

I was let off work at 3PM yesterday, forgot the gifts I received on my desk (santa bear, itunes gift card, Starbucks gift card, snack container, tea cup and saucer and a bunch of candy canes) and the leftover cake when security was doing their sweep of the building, and made my way to the local Albertson's before heading home where there were a ton of shoppers gathering foodstuffs for the holiday. I don't remember the parking lot being so full since... probably Thanksgiving. My own shopping basket held a Foster Farms turkey breast, chicken strips, corned beef, crescent rolls, biscuits, pie crusts and sage sausage.

Breaking tradition, I actually prepared Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. Roasted Turkey breast, roasted rosemary carrots, mashed potatoes and gravy. Banana Bread for dessert.

When I got home, I checked the freezer while putting away the groceries for the mixed vegetables and found none. It appears my son is the human vegetable vacuum. So it seems I need turkey gravy, said mixed vegetables and mayo (it's expired 11 days ago) to get through the weekend.

A side note: I love the fact that I earn enough to not worry about paying my bills, but especially not having to worry about what I spend at the grocery store. I basically get what I want when I want it. I guess that helps to satisfy, on some level in my life, my need for spontaneity.  

So my Christmas morning started with me turning on BBC America to watch the Dr Who marathon and working on some crochet.

I'm thinking about making monkey bread this morning while the Disney xmas parade is on.

Jeff Lynne's ELO

Jeff Lynne's ELO


11/18/2015: The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon - When I was a Boy
http://www.nbc.com/the-tonight-show/video/jeff-lynnes-elo-when-i-was-a-boy/2939815

11/18/2015: The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon - Mr. Blue Sky
http://www.nbc.com/the-tonight-show/video/jeff-lynnes-elo-mr-blue-sky/2939808

11/20/2015: Irving Plaza, NYC
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/livin-thing-jeff-lynnes-elo-triumph-at-first-u-s-show-in-30-years-20151121

11/21/2015: CBS This Morning - Saturday Sessions
http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/saturday-sessions-jeff-lynne-of-jeff-lynnes-elo-joins-cbs-this-morning-saturday/

http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/saturday-sessions-jeff-lynne-of-jeff-lynnes-elo-plays-when-i-was-a-boy/

http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/saturday-sessions-jeff-lynne-of-jeff-lynnes-elo-plays-turn-to-stone/

11/24/2015: The Fonda Theater, Los Angeles

12/14/2015: Jimmy Kimmel Live, KABC;viewable on 12/21st with no login.
http://abc.go.com/shows/jimmy-kimmel-live/episode-guide/2015-12/14-oscar-isaac-misty-copeland-music-from-jeff-lynnes-elo

The randomness of life or is it?

I woke up early this morning, turned on the tv to KCET and Rick Steve's was taking me through a tour of Holland. And I looked down at the laptop at the latest profile I was working with on wikitree.com and the surname was Hotaling - it's a Dutch name. I'm part Dutch.

The Dutch settled in New York..

The Look of Love

So I went to Costco after dropping my son off at work on Saturday afternoon and fueling up at Costco gas. My goal was to buy more of their Kirkland brand lean ham luncheon meat. After retrieving a cart, I entered the store and made my way to the aisle when it's sold in the refrigerator case aisle. I don't know if it was on sale or not, but they were giving out samples which was welcomed.

After retrieving the ham from the refrigerator, I turned my cart around and attempted to travel back past the corner I came from to get back to the main hall and when I did, briefly, (the next sequence of events happened in seconds, mere moments) I couldn't move my cart forward because some kids were in the way blocking me with a cart of their own. I then looked up and off to the left I saw a man - a tall man with light skin, long brown wavy hair with his back to me looking off to the right - could have been a doppelganger for thinner Bradley Cooper. I may have sighed seeing this attractive male specimen, but again barely could move forward. And then another man, a Persian man, off to my right must have seen the look of love in my eyes and introduced himself to me as Joe after saying to me, "You've got beautiful eyes." I didn't feel beautiful, rather a hot sweaty mess. It was almost 100 degrees outside, and I had my hair up in a ponytail, was dressed in a tie-died tank top and 3/4 black pants and black Skechers, no socks. I could only assume he thought I was Persian, too, his mistake. And then, the most unwelcomed event happened after I gave him a cursory look to acknowledge where the conversation came from... an unattractive man in his 50-60's, overweight with severe acne scars all over his face, he asked me to dinner. I couldn't barely hear him over the noise of the group of people I was standing next to listening to a blender demonstration and told him, "I don't understand what you're saying". His reply: I'm not a killer, I'm just a human being. A major creepy feeling swept over me like I was unsafe even in the mass of humanity shopping around me inside Costco on a saturday afternoon. I scurried away into the crowd and didn't look back.

1st Day

Today, August 10, 2015, I have started a new chapter in my career working back in Orange County again and closer to home. Today is my first day at American Advisors Group, the largest reverse mortgage originator in the U.S. and I'm the new Inventory Control Supervisor.

CU Investigation Article 7/24/15

http://www.cutimes.com/2015/07/24/bankers-press-for-ncua-investigation?ref=rss

Lest We Forget

A great New York Times Article about Germany's own financial crisis after WWII:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/08/business/economy/germanys-debt-history-echoed-in-greece.html?mabReward=A3&moduleDetail=recommendations-2&action=click&contentCollection=U.S.&region=Footer&module=WhatsNext&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&configSection=article&isLoggedIn=false&src=recg&pgtype=article

Greece is not the word

Did you see the news about Greece this morning? The banks were closed and they've placed limits on the money it's customers can take out per day.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33322754

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/greece-defaults-imf-payment-despite-013243561.html

According to Jim

So I got a call from a former client to discuss some future business as he was told to call this week because of impending June vacations for the people he needed to speak to, including me.

As the conversation went, he asked me how was my vacation and I told him about how this year I worked on my floor instead of taking a trip. And he said that he, too, was in the middle of a flooring project. I am my father's daughter. We were comparing experiences with our fathers, tools, father's job... they were both machinists. 

Anyway, with all of the disparaging feelings I was having about things that are basically out of my control, that one conversation was the bright light I needed today. So according to Jim, I'm OK and knowing that was reassuring.