6-11 month CD: .65%

12-17 month CD: .95%

36-47 month CD: 1.76%

60 month CD: 2.27%

If rates were this low at my beloved credit union, I started wondering what the rates were like at a popular “for profit” bank.  I checked out Chase’s rates for a CD less than $10,000 and here’s what I found:

9 month CD: .25%

12 month CD: .25%

36 month CD: 1.01%

If you have more than $10,000 to lock up in a CD, you can actually get a pretty competitive rate for a 60 month CD (see below).  Chase’s rate is only .02% less than my credit union.  Anything less than $10K and you’d be much better off at the credit union or simply stashing your cash in an online savings account like ING which is currently paying 1.1%.

60 month CD: 2.25%

Bottom line is that it’s just not a very good time to try to earn much from your savings.  The big question is where should you put your emergency funds to maximize your yield……..

Just last week I was driving by a house that had a garage sale in progress.  These people were obviously selling all they could before vacating their house.  The laundry machines (front loaders) were for sale, the couches and pretty much everything else from inside the house were all up for grabs with “make offer” on a number of the items.  I drove by a couple days later to see a large pile of “junk” sitting in the driveway and it appeared that the house was just about empty.

On top of the standard garage sales, I’m seeing something that I’ve never seen before.  In the last month I’ve seen three different groups of people that have pulled up to rural street corners with their trailers loaded full of tools, wood stoves, tables, hutches and lots of other stuff.  It really appeared as though they’d loaded up their belongings that were worth something to try to sell them on the street  corner.  Certainly I may be reading more in to these than I should, but it sure felt like they were selling out of sheer desperation.  (based on what was for sale and what the people looked like.  Most were wearing less than clean clothes and looked down on their luck).

Have you seen anything like this where you live?  Does it appear people are trying to sell their valuables more than they have in the past?

It’s always quite interesting to read about someone’s personal situation and I found myself feeling sorry for Alexandra.  She has clearly exhausted pretty much all of her options, including handouts from friends.

Personal observations/opinions:

It kind of feels like Alexandra bought in to the illusion that simply getting a degree would drastically improve her odds of being employed.  Unfortunately, just having a degree doesn’t necessarily solve any problems for her.  At her age, I think her work experience is probably even more important and that didn’t generate $92K in debt (like her college did).  Don’t get me wrong.  I admire her for being so motivated to get a degree while working and I don’t want to discount the effort she put in to it.  I’m just saying that I think she may have been better off avoiding the college debt and trying to improve her skills through less expensive ways.  Now she is unemployed and has a $92K bill that is pretty much going to follow her for the rest of her life since it normally can’t be forgiven via bankruptcy etc.  As she misses payments on the debt the fees will cause the balance to increase even further.

Like I said earlier, I feel bad for her.  She tried to do the right thing and is now finding herself in a desperate situation.

Anyway, it’s definitely an article worth reading.  Go check it out.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38382773/ns/dateline_nbc-america_now

It’s definitely worth checking out.  I found myself feeling very lucky and a little bit guilty to have so much while others have so little.  It reinforces my decision to donate money monthly to the local food bank.

One of the houses that has been sitting vacant for nearly a year is back on the market for the third time since the bank took it back.  Here are a few tidbits about the house:

In June of 07 this house value was: $439K

First bank sales price: $340K

Second bank sales price: $299K

Third bank sales price: $275K

Today’s sales price: $265K

What is a bit shocking to me is that, while this house isn’t quite like mine and isn’t in quite as desirable of a location as mine (we live in a culdesac), it’s really not all that different.  We purchased our house 7.5 years ago for $280K.  After 7.5 years in our home, someone can drive up today and buy a house somewhat like ours for $15K cheaper than we did so long ago.  Ouch.

At this point, it doesn’t really matter all that much to us.  We aren’t planning on moving so it’s really like holding on to a stock that has fallen in value.  You only lose when you sell it.  Sure, there could be more downside risk, but I just don’t see how it can go too much lower.  The good news is that we haven’t used our house like an ATM machine so no matter what happens, we still have plenty of equity.

In our neighborhood, my daughter’s school now has nearly 50% of the kids getting free or reduced lunch.  Another significant number go to school early each day to get breakfast.  I also read that 1 in 8 families is receiving food stamps.  I’ve definitely noticed more people in the line at the grocery store using food benefit cards.

At the same time, I see people at Costco with carts full of stuff.  It’s almost surreal to see people stuffing all kinds of discretionary items in their carts in one store, only to see people barely getting enough of the essentials with state assistance in another store.  I often think about some of the stories I’ve read about the Great Depression where some people write of total poverty and desperation, while others write of a relatively comfortable time.  We are fortunate to be weathering the current economic crisis with no impact, although we are just one layoff away from feeling it significantly.  How are you doing?

It’s definitely worth taking a look to see where your bank or credit union falls.

I read an article today that talks about a recent Slate commentary from Charlie Munger titled “Basically, It’s Over”.  If you aren’t familiar with Charlie Munger, he’s been the sidekick of Warren Buffet for decades and I consider him to be pretty damn smart.  While you can always find gloom and doom articles out there about the end of America etc etc, I’ve always been impressed with both Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger.  They have always seemed incredibly honest and they have a great way of putting things.  So, when I read the article, I have to admit, it put a bit of fear in me.  I’ve often wondered how long we can sustain the massive debt levels that we’ve seen over the last decade (and beyond).  There is not a limitless supply of money or resources in this world and sooner or later all the excess spending at the government and personal level is going to come back to haunt us.  It appears that it might be sooner than later.  I found the comments about “blind optimism” to be very interesting.  While I haven’t studied history as much as I should have, I do know that we’ve seen many societies rise and fall.  It’s fairly likely that eventually the US will fall from world dominance and now seems like as good a time as any.  With trillion dollar deficit spending, the rise of a global economy and educated global workforce, rising unemployment and consumer debt levels that have never been seen before, it’s not a tough case to make for a rather gloomy future.

On the plus side, I just saved a ton of money on my car insurance……

Anyway, go check out the Yahoo article and the original Charlie Munger article as well.  Definitely worth reading.

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Bob has turned down a number of buyout offers over the years and the business continues to grow steadily.  A company news release shows that they are growing over 20% annually.

In order to qualify for a stake in the ownership, an employee needs to be vested over a three year period.

I’ve been down to their retail store in Oregon and was very impressed with the operation.  I have purchased a number of their gluten free products and have never been disappointed.  It’s a great company!

Anyway, I just love reading stories like this.  It seems to blur out many of the other negative stories out there about “profit at all cost”.  I bet Bob sleeps pretty darned good at night!