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2012/02/04 ? 01:04:47

*Note: This was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Do you have a personal finance story that you?d like to share? Sign up with the Yahoo! Contributor Network to start publishing your own finance articles.

I was financially clueless when I was young. I never balanced my checkbook. I used my ATM card to run balance checks. I spent unwisely. I also had health issues without having health insurance. That gave me buckets of debt when I had no idea how to deal with it. I sought help through a credit counseling service and learned a great deal.

Not all credit counseling services are the same. Some are genuinely there to help you. Others want to sell debt consolidation loans. I ran into several of the loan-sales kind before finding an objective one.

I brought a lot of paperwork with me to the first meeting with my counselor. It was a similar stack to the one I give my accountant at tax time. There were copies of every bill, bank statement and financial document I could find. It takes a bunch of paperwork to help someone else get a clear picture of your financial life.

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It was all necessary, allowing the counselor to analyze where every cent flowed in and out of my life. When you look deeply at your finances the amount of waste can be shocking. It stunned me to learn how much I spent on non-essential things.

That was critical information to have since step two was creating a very specific budget. The budget took the information from the first step and detailed how I would use what money I had. It showed me how to cut wasteful spending. The counselor was very thorough, accounting for things that I?d have missed ? even the annual cost of haircuts. When he finished I had a workable plan that would get me out of debt.

My counselor was also realistic. He urged me not to agree to a spartan budget if I did not think I could stick to it. He included reasonable leisure money in the budget. Avoid any counselor who insists you should live like a monk. You may find it impossible to follow such a plan ? I know I would have.

We discussed several options. One was a consolidation loan, an idea he discouraged but which he had several referrals for if I chose it. He made me feel I was not being herded into a loan that would make him money. He also discussed bankruptcy and suggested that if I wanted to entertain that route to speak with a qualified attorney.

When going through credit counseling you should seek out that kind of open-minded approach. Beware counselors who only discuss one option. Even if secondary options are less useful your counselor should discuss them reasonably and show mathematically why some make more sense than others.

In the end I went with the proposed budget. It took some time to pay off my debt but I finished the process with a sense of pride in having made good on my commitments. I learned that I can live more frugally and that having a structured plan is a key element in successful debt management.

If you ever feel the weight of high debt and seek credit counseling you may find it to be a helpful process that provides you the roadmap you need to navigate clear. It certainly did for me. It takes time but it?s worth it ? personally and financially.

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Source: http://private-student-loans.biz/consolidation-loans/consolidation-loans-first-person-making-the-most-of-my-credit-counseling-experience/

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[unable to retrieve full-text content]Outsourcing is the delegation of tasks or jobs from internal production to an external and separate business partner, very much like a subcontractor. By present.

Source: http://bryanrotary.org/2012/02/03/relationship-in-outsourcing/

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Kim Kardashian I’m So Popular in Miami … I Need More Real Estate

Kim Kardashian is in desperate need of an upgrade — hitting the streets in Miami yesterday to find an even bigger home for her beachfront clothing boutique … to accommodate its exploding popularity.

Sources tell TMZ, the Miami D-A-S-H store (below) has become so successful, it can no longer cater to the massive flux of customers coming and going on a daily basis … so Kim wants something a little roomier, scoping out possible new locations herself.

Kim’s not messing around either — we’re told she’s in the market for retail space that’s around DOUBLE the size of the current D-A-S-H store … not bad.

So far, no word on anything that isn’t making Kim tons of money.

Source: http://www.tmz.com/2012/02/03/kim-kardashian-miami-dash-store/

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FILE – In this Nov. 22, 2010 photo, a movie selected from among Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” titles begins to download on a home computer screen in New York. Netflix Inc., reports quarterly financial results Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, after the market close.(AP Photo/James H. Collins, file)

FILE – In this Nov. 22, 2010 photo, a movie selected from among Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” titles begins to download on a home computer screen in New York. Netflix Inc., reports quarterly financial results Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, after the market close.(AP Photo/James H. Collins, file)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Netflix regained 600,000 U.S. customers in the fourth quarter as the video subscription service began to recover from a revolt against a big price increase.

Figures released Wednesday show Netflix Inc. ended December with 24.4 million subscribers in the U.S. That was up from 23.8 million at the end of September.

The subscriber uptick is a positive sign for Netflix after several months of upheaval that battered its stock. Netflix lost 800,000 subscribers last summer after raising its U.S. prices by as much as 60 percent.

The fallout contributed to a 14 percent decrease in Netflix’s fourth-quarter earnings.

Netflix made $40.7 million, or 73 cents per share, in the final three months of last year. That compares with income of $47.1 million, or 87 cents per share, a year earlier.

Investors had been bracing for a bigger drop-off. The company’s performance easily exceeded the average earnings estimate of 54 cents per share among analysts surveyed by FactSet.

Fourth-quarter revenue climbed 47 percent from the previous year to $876 million ? $19 million above analyst projections.

Netflix’s stock soared $11.63, or more than 12 percent, to $106.67 in extended trading. During the regular session, it increased $2.37, up 2.6 percent.

The stock still has a long way to go to return to its peak of nearly $305, which was reached in July, around the same time that Netflix announced the price increase that outraged customers.

But the fourth-quarter results should help bolster confidence in Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, who had been lambasted for miscalculating how subscribers would react to the higher prices.

Hastings had promised Netflix would work to lure back customers, and the fourth-quarter gains were even better than he had forecast.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-01-25-US-Earns-Netflix/id-6dfbe39d4d4c477197eaf511ee2d462b

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?A brief morning rally pushed the Dow Jones industrial average above its highest closing price since the financial crisis, the Dow closed down 22 points at 12734.?

A brief morning rally pushed the Dow Jones industrial average above its highest closing price since the financial crisis Thursday, but stocks closed lower after mixed economic data tempered traders’ optimism.

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Solid news on factory orders and strong earnings from U.S. manufacturers highlighted one of the economy’s bright spots before the market opened. The Dow and broader indexes turned negative after weaker reports on home sales and future economic growth were released in the late morning.

The Dow and other indexes are still up sharply for the year, and the Dow is near its highest level since May 2008. Traders appear less afraid of spillover damage from the European debt crisis, and data on jobs and manufacturing have been consistently strong.

“With global risk off center stage and attention going back to the fundamentals, this market was ready to explode, which is exactly what it is doing,” said Doug Cote, chief market strategist with ING Investment Management.

The government reported early Thursday orders to factories for long-lasting manufactured goods increased in December for the second straight month, and a key measure of business investment rose solidly.

That strong demand was apparent in quarterly earnings reports from U.S. manufacturers. 3M stock closed 1.3 percent higher after its fourth-quarter profit beat Wall Street’s estimates.

Caterpillar, the world’s biggest heavy equipment maker, rose 2.1 percent, the most of the 30 companies in the Dow, after beating analysts’ estimates last quarter. The company expects to do the same this year as global demand remains high.

Stocks traded broadly higher until mid-morning, when the government reported an unexpected drop in new home sales in December, capping the worst year for home sales on records dating to 1963. The decline underscored the housing market’s continued drag on the economy.

A private gauge of future economic activity also grew more slowly than expected.

The Dow closed down 22.33 points, or 0.2 percent, at 12,734.63. It had traded up as much as 84.99 points early Thursday. 3M and Caterpillar led the gains.

AT&T dragged the Dow lower, falling 2.5 percent after its earnings missed Wall Street’s forecasts. The company remains heavily dependent on Apple’s iPhone, which it pays to subsidize, but recently lost its exclusive rights to sell the phone in the U.S.

The Dow is within reach of its post-financial crisis high of 12,810.54, reached in April 2011. The last time it closed higher than that was on May 20, 2008, when it settled at 12,828.68. The Dow’s post-crisis high during the trading day was 12,928.45, reached on May 2, 2011.

The Dow is up 4.2 percent so far this year. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index and Nasdaq composite average have gained even more.

The Dow would need to rise another 11 percent to get to its record high close of 14,164.53, reached on Oct. 9, 2007.

The S&P 500 closed down 7.63 points, or 0.6 percent, at 1,318.43. It was dragged lower by volatile financial companies and telecommunications firms including AT&T. The Nasdaq shed 13.03 points, or 0.5 percent, to close at 2,805.28.

Stocks had their highest close in eight months Wednesday after the Federal Reserve said it plans to keep interest rates extremely low until late 2014 to encourage lending and investment and support the economic recovery.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.93 percent from 1.99 percent late Wednesday. The prospect of more bond-buying by the Fed helped make Treasurys more attractive. A bond’s yield falls as demand for it increases.

Among the other U.S. companies making big moves after reporting quarterly earnings:

? Time Warner Cable Inc. rose 7.8 percent after the company reported earnings that were far above analysts’ estimates. The national cable TV provider also raised its dividend 17 percent to 56 cents per share and announced plans to buy back more of its own stock.

? United Continental Holdings, the parent company of United and Continental airlines, surged 6.3 percent. The company’s fourth-quarter loss narrowed, its adjusted earnings were more than double what analysts had expected and the cost of integrating the two companies fell.

? Netflix soared 22.1 percent, the most of any stock in the S&P 500, after the video streaming and DVD-by-mail company reported a huge gain in customers and a bigger fourth-quarter profit than analysts had expected.

? Colgate-Palmolive rose 1.9 percent after saying it will raise prices in the U.S. for the first time in years to cover higher costs for materials. The company’s profit declined last quarter, but core sales in emerging markets were much stronger.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/s5rCQ3MbkWI/Stocks-lowered-by-mixed-economic-data

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LONDON ? Teenagers of 16 and 17 would be eligible to cast ballots in a Scottish independence referendum that could see the breakup of Britain within four years, under proposals announced Wednesday by Scotland’s leader.

First Minister Alex Salmond announced the Scottish government’s preferred options for the vote on whether to sever ties from Britain, which it plans to hold in the fall of 2014. A “yes” vote would lead to independence taking effect with a May 2016 election for the Scottish Parliament.

Salmond told Scottish lawmakers in the Edinburgh assembly the ballot would ask “Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?” but could also include a third option, for increased autonomy short of full independence.

And he said the voting age should be lowered from the current 18.

“If a 16-year-old in Scotland can register to join the army, get married and pay taxes, surely he or she should be able to have a say in this country’s constitutional future?” Salmond said.

The details are subject to consultation with Scottish voters ? and negotiations with the British government in London, which insists it has the final authority to authorize a binding referendum.

It has offered the Scottish administration the powers to hold such a vote, but wants a say in the timing and could insist that the Electoral Commission, which will run the referendum, be allowed to set the question. Salmond’s proposed wording is likely to be seen by his opponents as slanted in favor of independence.

Opponents of independence want to hold the vote as soon as possible, because polls suggest only about a third of Scots favor independence.

Prime Minister David Cameron has said the ballot should pose a straight yes-no question, and not include a third option, which has been dubbed maximum devolution or “devo max.”

But Salmond said that “if there is an alternative of maximum devolution which would command wide support in Scotland, then it is only fair and democratic that option should be among the choices open to the people of Scotland.”

Cameron stressed Wednesday that everyone in Britain, not just Scots, should have a say in any changes to Scotland’s status.

He said, “The point that everyone needs to understand is that options for further devolution, options for changes across the United Kingdom, are matters all of the United Kingdom should rightly discuss.”

Michael Moore, the minister in Cameron’s government responsible for Scotland, was due to hold talks with Salmond on Friday. But his office said the meeting had been postponed because Moore has chicken pox.

Scotland and England united in 1707 to form Great Britain. Scotland gained significant autonomy after voting in 1997 to set up the Edinburgh-based Scottish Parliament. But some Scots want to go further and make the nation of 5 million people an independent country within the European Union.

Salmond, who leads the separatist Scottish National Party, said that independence would bring “a new, more modern relationship between the nations of these islands ? a partnership of equals.”

He said an independent Scotland would keep Queen Elizabeth II as head of state, but would not send troops to “illegal wars like Iraq, and we won’t have nuclear weapons based on Scottish soil.” Scotland is currently home to Britain’s fleet of nuclear-armed submarines.

Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont, whose party opposes independence, accused Salmon of belittling Scots who wished to remain in Britain.

“Why does he assert as fact that we all wish to be independent of each other when we all know, as families and communities, we want to come together in partnership and cooperation?” she said.

____

Online: Scottish Government referendum consultation paper: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Consultations/Current

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_scotland

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Republican presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich, defends his conservative credentials, saying, the recent attacks against him are once again painting a falsehood, that Romney’s campaign is trying to smear him and distort his entire history.

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/46156328/

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Here’s another of those arty watches from Tokyoflash Japan.? The Kisai Optical Illusion Watch has a touchscreen for accessing the four main functions.? Like those optical illusion posters from years ago, the time display is buried in a pattern of high-resolution digital lines.? Once you’ve trained your eyes, you’ll be able to see the time.? [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2012/01/25/kisai-optical-illusion-touchscreen-watch-from-tokyoflash-japan/

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RALEIGH, N.C. ? Jonathan “Jack” Idema, a former Green Beret from North Carolina convicted of running a private jail in Afghanistan where he tortured terrorism suspects, has died. He was 55.

The director-general of police in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, Arturo Olivares Mendiola, said Idema died of AIDS on Saturday. No one has shown up to claim his body from the medical examiner’s office, Mendiola said.

Idema had moved to Mexico at some point after being released from prison in Afghanistan in 2007, when he was pardoned by President Hamid Karzai as part of a general amnesty.

A native of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Idema joined the Army in 1975 and was an active duty Special Forces soldier until 1978. He eventually settled in Fayetteville and began a long series of bizarre and sometimes criminal misadventures while pursuing the national spotlight.

Idema was, among other things, a plaintiff in numerous unsuccessful lawsuits, including one against filmmaker Stephen Spielberg, who Idema claimed stole his life story for a movie. He also spent three years in jail in the 1980s after being convicted of a fraud charge.

“He had charisma,” Penny Alesi, a former girlfriend, told The Fayetteville Observer. “He was funny. He was smart ? oh, my God, smart and well-read, but toxic. Truthfully, he was a sociopath.”

Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Idema traveled to Afghanistan, claiming he was close to catching Osama bin Laden. His claims led to his being featured in several books and television programs.

In 2004, he returned to the country along with another former Fayetteville soldier and a freelance videographer. They ran a private jail in which terrorism suspects were tortured for information. Although convicted of the offenses, Idema denied them in a 2004 interview with The Associated Press.

“Nobody was hung upside down. Nobody was burned with cigarette butts … nobody was beaten, nobody was tortured, nobody had boiling water poured on them,” he said. “Did we interrogate people? Absolutely. Did we keep them up with sleep deprivation? Absolutely.”

The two other Americans were released from prison before Idema. He claimed that his operation was conceived with the knowledge and support of American and Afghan military authorities, which they denied, saying any connection was entirely in his imagination.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/terrorism/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_re_us/us_obit_idema

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday the central bank was ready to offer the economy additional stimulus after it announced interest rates would likely remain near zero until at least late 2014.

The Fed also took the historic step of adopting an explicit inflation target, though Bernanke took pains to stress that officials would be flexible about reining in price growth when unemployment was too high.

The late 2014 timeframe for the first rate hike was considerably later than investors had expected and some 18 months later than the Fed had suggested last year, and the announcement prompted a rally in U.S. government bonds.

Speaking at a news conference after a two-day policy meeting, Bernanke was cautious about recent improvements in the U.S. economy and he left the door open to further Fed bond purchases.

“I don’t think we’re ready to declare that we’ve entered a new, stronger phase at this point,” Bernanke said. “If the situation continues with inflation below target and unemployment declining at a rate which is very, very slow, then … the logic of our framework says we should be looking for ways to do more.”

In response to the deepest recession in generations, the Fed slashed the overnight federal funds rate to near zero in December 2008. It has also more than tripled the size of its balance sheet to around $2.9 trillion through two separate bond purchase programs.

The policy is credited with preventing an even more devastating downturn, but it has been insufficient to bring unemployment down to levels considered normal during good economic times. Many Fed watchers expected a further round of bond buying, likely focusing on mortgage debt.

RANGE OF VIEWS

Fed officials agreed that a goal of 2 percent inflation would be in keeping with their congressional mandate of price stability. By their favorite measure, core inflation is running at about 1.7 percent.

They declined to announce a target for unemployment, saying the job market was often influenced by forces beyond their control.

In another key shift touted as part of an effort toward greater transparency, the Fed for the first time published policymakers’ projections for the appropriate path of the benchmark overnight federal funds rate.

These showed a wide range of views, from the three of 17 policymakers who said they thought rates should rise this year to two who want to hold off on any increase until 2016.

Still, the biggest concentration of estimates – five of 17 – was around 2014. The new, later expiration date for the Fed’s zero rate policy pushed stock and gold prices higher, and dragged the dollar lower.

In its announcement, the Fed repeated its view that the economy faced “significant downside risks” – an expression that has become code for the threat Europe’s debt crisis poses to the United States.

In economic forecasts accompanying the rate projections, the Fed pointed to somewhat weaker economic growth this year and next, compared with estimates published in November. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate, which hit 8.5 percent in December, was seen only coming down slowly.

Economic conditions “are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate at least through late 2014,” the central bank said. After every previous policy meeting dating to August, the Fed had said rates were not likely to rise until mid-2013.

Richmond Federal Reserve Bank President Jeffrey Lacker, an inflation hawk who rotated into a voting seat this year, dissented against the policy decision, preferring to omit the late-2014 date from the Fed’s post-meeting statement.

INFLATION NOT A WORRY

The central bank appeared more sanguine on inflation, saying prices were likely to run close to or just below their target. The statement dropped a reference that said the Fed was monitoring inflation and inflation expectations.

Aside from the 2014 rate pledge, the Fed’s statement hewed closely to its last policy pronouncement in mid-December.

It described the unemployment rate as still elevated and, in a slight shift, acknowledged a slowing in business investment.

“I think what they are seeing is that the rate of growth is not sufficient to bring down the unemployment rate,” said Brian Dolan, chief strategist at FOREX.com in Bedminster, New Jersey.

In December, the U.S. jobless rate stood at 8.5 percent, and some 13 million Americans were still actively looking for work but could not find it.

While forecasters expect the U.S. economy grew at a 3 percent annual rate in the last three months of 2011, they look for growth of just around 2 percent this year.

(Editing by Tim Ahmann and Andrea Ricci)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120125/bs_nm/us_usa_fed

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