James L. Paris's Blog, page 58

Did You Miss This? 8-Year-Old Football Players Take Knee During National Anthem

The ���kneel for the anthem��� madness is everywhere, and has now, sadly, enveloped America���s youngest athletes.

Recently, a kids team, part of a youth football league in Illinois, decided to go to their knees during the playing of the national anthem before the start of their game. The act was a clear emulation of the national anthem protests begun last year by NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, and that have gained serious traction throughout the NFL and elsewhere in the time since.

As reported by CBS Sports, the youngsters are all of eight years old, and play for the Cahokia Quarterback Club football team.

The team���s coach, Orlando Gooden, described how the act of protest came about. Speaking to a local Fox affiliate, Gooden said, ���One of the kids asked me if I saw [people] protesting and rioting in St. Louis. I said yes. I said, ���Do you know why they are doing it?������

Continuing, the coach said that one of the young players replied to his question this way: ���Because black people are getting killed and nobody���s going to jail.���

Citing the instance as a ���good teaching moment,��� Coach Gooden let the kids protest the anthem in the way that has quickly become fashionable.

���What I teach my kids is love, integrity, honesty, fairness, respect and boundaries,��� the coach said.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Three Debts You Should Eliminate Before Retiring

Lately, more Americans have grown comfortable with the idea of maintaining debt as they enter their later years. It���s a marked change in perspective from that which people held for so many generations, a perspective that said literally everything was to be paid off, including the mortgage, before you put away your work clothes for good.

Now, however, with debt having become so thoroughly entrenched in the American culture over the course of more recent generations, it seems that even retired folks have found a way to make peace with the idea of carrying debt as they move through the latter stages of life.

As a matter of fact, according to a USA Today article, over 60 percent of households ���headed by an adult aged 60 or older��� are lugging around debt in some form, and of those ���senior households��� beset with ongoing debt obligations, the median total of what���s owed is close to $41,000.

Despite the cultural shift toward a greater acceptance of debt, however, seniors are always best served by having as little debt as possible on their backs, with, of course, zero debt remaining the ideal.

Moreover, there are three categories of debt that should be positively eliminated before one stops working. These are obligations that can be especially challenging even during prime earning years, and so have the potential to become particularly burdensome during retirement.

You can probably guess the first one: the mortgage. Recent data details that about a third of homeowners aged 65 to 74 are still carrying a mortgage balance. Get rid of it before you retire. As housing typically represents the biggest expense for seniors, you are best served by eliminating your mortgage before you enter your Golden Years.

Another problem debt is education debt. That���s right���education debt. Surprised that seniors are now plagued with student loans? According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, seniors account for over six percent of all student loan obligations, with the average amount rising from $12,000 back in 2005 to $23,500 in 2015.

So, what gives? Is this attributable to more of our elder citizens getting bit by the education bug?

Not really. They���re taking out the loans to help children and grandchildren pay for school. They shouldn���t be doing it in the first place (there are plenty of other ways for those expenses to be handled by the folks actually going to school), but if they ARE, the obligations should be knocked out before they stop working. Student debt is not easy to walk away from if you run into trouble, and if you default on it, you can lose a portion of your Social Security income.

Lastly, there���s the old favorite: credit card debt. As of 2016, seniors 70 and older were carrying an average of nearly $4,000 in credit card debt. While not an enormous sum, the real problem with credit card obligations is the interest rate. 18 percent is not unusual, which means that what you owe the credit card company will likely be the most expensive debt you ���own.��� Again, put it in your rearview window���permanently���before your last day on the job.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Why You Should (and Shouldn't) Refinance Student Loan Debt

Are you slowly chipping away at your student loans and wondering if you���ll ever manage to pay them off entirely? Or maybe you���re struggling trying to make your monthly payments and wish your payments were lower? Repaying student debt is a long journey ��� but there are ways to become debt-free more quickly and easily. One of those ways is by refinancing your student loans.

Refinancing your student loan debt can potentially lower your interest rate and your monthly payments, allowing you to repay your debt faster and save money. But not everyone should refinance their student loan debt.

Here are 4 reasons why you should refinance student loan debt and 2 reasons you shouldn���t:

1. To get a better interest rate
The biggest reason to refinance student loan debt is to get a lower interest rate on your loans. If you have a good job and a good credit rating, you can likely qualify for a lower interest rate. Why pay more if you don���t have to? Not only will it save you money over the life of your loan, but you might be able to pay off your loan faster if you���re making extra payments since more of your payments will go towards the principal rather than the interest.

2. To get shorter or longer repayment terms
When you refinance your student loan debt, you can change the repayment terms. For example, if you took out private student loans over a 10-year term and you have eight years left, you might want to refinance your student loan debt over a longer term. Student loan refinance lenders allow you to refinance your loans over anywhere from 5 years to 25 years depending on the company. By refinancing over a shorter term, you'll pay more on a monthly basis, but you might qualify for a lower interest rate which will help offset these extra costs. If you refinance over a longer-term, you will have smaller monthly payments, but pay more in interest over time.

3. To get a lower monthly payment
If you're currently struggling trying to make your monthly payments, then lowering your monthly payment is a great reason to refinance your student loans. There are a few ways that your monthly payment could be lowered by refinancing your student debt. One way is by changing the repayment terms in order to repay your loan over a longer period of time. Another way is because if you qualify for a lower interest rate your payments will be lower even if you keep the same repayment term length.

3. To remove your co-signer
If you took out private student loans with a co-signer, you might want to refinance your student loan debt in order to remove your co-signer. While many lenders offer the option of co-signer release after a certain number of on time payments, you might want to remove your co-signer before that or your lender might not offer that option.

4. If you're starting a business
If you plan to start freelancing or launch a start-up or a business, then it might make sense to refinance your student loans before you do so. One reason to do this is because your budget could benefit from the lower monthly payments as you get your business off the ground. Another reason to refinance your student loans before starting a business or beginning to freelance is that it might be much more difficult to do so after you quit your day job. It can be complicated to qualify for student loan refinance when you're self-employed because you have to prove your income ��� often with several years��� worth of tax statements showing self-employed income which you might not have.

Reasons you shouldn���t refinance your debt:

1. If you have mostly federal loans and need income-based repayment, student loan forgiveness, or other protections
When it comes to refinancing your student loans, you can choose to refinance your private loans, your federal loans, or both. But refinancing your federal student loans means that you will no longer be able to access a number of protections and benefits that only federal student loans offer such as forgiveness programs and income-driven repayment plans. There are also other benefits that you miss out on if you refinance your federal loans - so be sure to think it through before doing so.

2. If you don���t yet qualify for low rates
Most people who have a good job and good credit find that they save money by refinancing their student debt. But if you cannot save money on your interest rate by refinancing your loans, it might not make sense to do it just to get lower monthly payments by extending your loan terms. You���re likely better off improving your credit and refinancing your loans when you can get a lower rate.

Last Word
Refinancing student loans can be a huge benefit for some people at the right time. It can save thousands of dollars and often makes repayment simpler when multiple loans are consolidated into one. Before signing on the dotted line, though, be sure to know what you are giving up by refinancing.

 Jacob runs his own personal finance blog over at Dollar Diligence. Through meticulously watching his money and extreme frugality, he was able to pay down over $25k in student loan debt in just 15 months. You can learn more about his story and follow him here.

By Jacob Evans @DollarDiligence Follow Him On Twitter!

Are You Living Beyond Your Means? Three Ways to Tell

So, how are you doing these days? Financially, that is.

Although the unemployment rate seems to be falling, there are still a whole bunch of Americans struggling mightily. Are you one of them?

Maybe you���re not sure how you���re doing.

WELL, according to a piece over at CNN Money, there are three good ways to tell if you happen to be someone living beyond their means.

First, you have a low credit score. If you do, that���s a good indicator that you���re just not doing a good job managing your inflow and outflow. Perhaps the two biggest influences on credit score are payment history and debt utilization, which is the percentage of available credit you���re actually using. If your score is low, it���s likely that you���re racking up a lot of debt to pay for everyday kinds of expenses that you can���t cover directly from your regular income. It stands to reason that you���re not always able to make the payments on that debt in a timely fashion, either.

Something else that can be a dead giveaway: More than 30 percent of your paycheck is devoted to meeting your housing costs. Housing costs, in this case, refer to mortgage payment, homeowners insurance, and property taxes. Ideally, those expenses will be as small as possible, but they really should never be over 30 percent of what you���re bringing home each month. The CNN Money article notes that between 2011 and 2014, over half of all Americans had to ���make at least one major sacrifice��� in order to meet housing costs. These sacrifices included dropping healthcare coverage and forgoing retirement savings.

The third way to tell if you���re in over your head is that you���re simply not saving any money. One guideline says that you should be socking away 10 percent of every paycheck, which is hardly a significant sum. If you can���t do that, you���re not getting by as you should.

If you���re in this boat, it���s no secret what the solution is. You need to either start making a lot more money right away, or cut your expenses/change your lifestyle such that each of these ���signals��� disappears. Once they���re all gone, you can be confident that you are living well within your means, and making forward, functional progress.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Journalist Says Arresting Looters Is an Example of White Supremacy

Is it that seemingly-normal people have really always been nuts? Or is it that social media is, in fact, helping to make them nuts?

Likely, it���s some of both. Chances are probably good that a lot of people with very odd ideas have always been walking in our midst, but with the advent of social media, their lunacy has been given a big, ol��� steroid shot.

Here���s one for you.

After the recent Hurricane Irma devastation that smacked Florida, the Miami Police Department shared a pic on Twitter of some unfortunate-looking souls locked inside of a jail cell, with the message, ���Thinking about looting? Ask these guys how that turned out. #stayindoors.���

Well, as reported by Fox News, one journalist, Sarah L. Jaffe, was most displeased with that tweet, suggesting in her own Twitter response that restraining the criminal behavior was an act of ���white supremacy.��� Here we go:

���the carceral state exists to protect private property and is inseparable from white supremacy.���

Not only is Jaffe saying here that merely having a prison system is tantamount to white supremacy, but that, apparently, having and protecting private property is a white supremacist thing, too.

Or something.

Jaffe is no slouch as a scribe, having been published in a variety of high-profile publications, including The Washington Post and The Atlantic. On this, however, she found herself roundly butchered on social media for her bizarre expression. As one respondent noted, ���They have prisons, crime, and private property in Nigeria too. And Egypt. And India. Nothing to do with white supremacy.���

Obviously. To most of us, anyway.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Hidden And Cryptic Messages In Movies

Author, Robert W. Sullivan, discusses the mystery of messages and symbols hidden in movies. Among the movies discussed on this episode - Harry Potter, The Exorcist, Black Swan, National Treasure, The Shining, and Crimson Peak. Also discussed was Freemasonry in movies and why the fraternal organization has been featured in movies so many times.

 

Trump Calls For NFL Boycott

On this episode Jim discusses the exploding controversy of NFL players kneeling during the National Anthem. President Trump is now calling for an NFL boycott. Dallas Cowboy's owner says any player that does not stand for the National Anthem will be fired. An usher in a Tennessee church stops a mass shooting. The tragedy in Puerto Rico worsens - after being hit with two hurricanes, even more significant flooding is possible with the risk of a major dam failing. The world did not end on September 23rd, but some now have a new spin on the story, and the latest on Bitcoin wild price swings in recent weeks.

 

In Wake of Trump Comments, NFL Teams Go Wild Boycotting National Anthem

Well, you had to think this was coming.

After President Donald Trump���s comments highly critical of national anthem protests by professional athletes, NFL players and staff used the first Sunday following those comments to engage in what was clearly the biggest, most widespread anthem protest to date.

On Friday, during a campaign appearance on behalf of Alabama Sen. Luther Strange, Trump addressed the anthem protests, saying, in part, ���Wouldn���t you love to see one of the NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say ���Get that son of a b---- off the field right now?������

The response by teams on Sunday? Probably what you expected, sad to say.
As noted by The Sporting News, several players on the Miami Dolphins were seen during warmups wearing #IMWITHKAP t-shirts, the message a reference to quarterback Colin Kaepernick, whose own anthem protests last season are seen as the catalyst for all those taking place currently.

Before their game with the Houston Texans, several New England Patriots players took a knee during the anthem.

Prior to their game at London���s Wembley Stadium, members of both the Jacksonville Jaguars and Baltimore Ravens knelt during the playing of the anthem.

Similar expressions took place all across the league on Sunday.

Perhaps the most controversial protest of all was that engaged in by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Playing the Bears at Chicago���s Soldier Field, nearly every member of the team opted to remain in the locker room during the national anthem. The only exception was lineman Alejandro Villlanueva, a U.S. Army veteran, who stood, hand over his heart, at the edge of the tunnel while the anthem played.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Poll: Judge Roy Moore Holds 10-Point Lead over Luther Strange in Alabama Senate Race

As reported by the Washington Examiner, Judge Roy Moore, the former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court who first came to national prominence when he commissioned a monument of the Ten Commandments to sit in the Alabama Judicial Building, presently holds a 10-point lead over incumbent Sen. Luther Strange in the final days before the winner of the Republican Senate primary is decided.

The election is a runoff as part of the process to determine who will fill Jeff Sessions��� seat, which became vacant when Sessions agreed to serve as U.S. Attorney General in the Trump administration. The Republican primary winner will face Democrat Doug Jones in the general election later in the year.

While the margin of Moore���s lead over Strange is smaller than it was at the beginning of September, when Moore was up by 14 percentage points, it is thought to be wide enough to ensure his victory on Tuesday.

President Donald Trump appeared at a rally on behalf of Strange last Friday, and it is likely that the incumbent senator is going to enjoy a bit of a push from Trump���s effort as the hours to voting day wind down. However, not only is it unlikely Trump���s campaigning will help Strange fully close the gap with very little time remaining before ballots are cast, but Trump���s appearance on the candidate���s behalf was itself more than a little awkward; at one point on Friday, Trump said from the podium that ���he might have made a mistake��� by inserting himself in the race and supporting Strange.

Ouch.

In truth, Trump has been hearing it from conservatives since he began supporting Luther Strange, with many wondering why he would back a guy who they say is representative of the very establishment Trump has rallied against since his earliest days as a presidential candidate. While disappointing many of those who think Trump should have thrown his support behind Moore, the president has said Strange is his guy because he stands a better chance of defeating Jones in December.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

French University Suspends All Classes Because of Migrant Squatters on Campus

And on it goes.

The migrant crisis in Europe is, of course, well-known. Now, as reported by RT.com, a university in France has suspended all classes out of deference to security concerns related to the outright occupation of the campus by migrant squatters.

Guillaume Gell��, president of the Univerity of Reims Champagne-Ardenne, sent a letter to the student body that said, in part, ���Access to the university premises located on the Red Cross campus is forbidden until security conditions are restored.���

Gell�� said, as well, that he is just as concerned for the safety of the migrants as he is for that of the students under his charge, citing the children living among the school���s current migrant population.

There are currently 40 migrants who���ve made the campus their new home. They reportedly moved there after having been removed from a previous ���residence��� in France, Saint-John Perse park, also in Reims.

Probably even less surprising than the fact that migrants have overtaken the campus is that the French student union is now calling on authorities to properly shelter the migrants. This from a press release of theirs:

���We call on the local authorities, the town hall of Reims, the prefecture to urgently shelter these families.���

Of course you do.

Anyone remember a country called France?

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large