James C. Molet's Blog, page 55
January 16, 2016
Three Tickets to Paradise?
Unless you recently had an experience like Mark Watney, and have been off-planet a while, you have heard that the $1.5 billion Powerball jackpot – the largest lottery prize in history – was won on Wednesday and will be split three ways. The ‘lucky’ winning tickets were sold in Munford, Tennessee; Chino Hills, California; and Melbourne Beach, Florida, according to state lottery officials. The odds of winning the record jackpot were a staggering 1 in 292 million. How much did the winners receive? The Tennessee family has elected to take Read the Full Story
January 13, 2016
Pew Analysis Shows Access to Workplace Retirement Plans Varies Widely Across States
Ken Willis, 202-540-6933, kwillis@pewtrusts.org WASHINGTON—Wide differences in access to and participation in employer-based retirement plans exist across states, with variations by employer size and industry type as well as by workers’ income, age, education, race and ethnicity, according to a report released today by The Pew Charitable Trusts. The report, Who’s In, Who’s Out: A Look at Access to Employer-Based Retirement Plans and Participation in the States, examines the rates of access to and participation in plans in all 50 states and assesses the challenges facing workers and employers in Read the Full Story
January 11, 2016
NYC Lets Luxury Building Owners Stiff Workers and Still Get a Tax Break
By Cezary Podkul and Marcelo Rochabrun, ProPublica. This originally appeared on ProPublica. When Isaac Bowman got a concierge job at a luxury Queens apartment building last year, he hoped it would be his ticket out of a homeless shelter and into New York City’s middle class. The pay was low at only $10 an hour. But at least it was a start toward getting his partner and three stepchildren into an apartment of their own, Bowman reasoned. Bowman took the job 2014 and became a victim of wage theft. Under Read the Full Story
January 9, 2016
Should Your Mom Get a (Platonic) Roommate?
The following is a guest post from Janet Stanton Burt of Goal Investor. Housing can be more expensive for singletons than couples, but increasingly, single adults aged 50+ are stretching their retirement dollars by living as platonic roommates. Living with housemates not only saves money, it has social benefits, too. Would a roomie be the right option for your mom or dad? Positive Impact It might sound surprising that people well beyond college years are doubling up with roommates, until you consider the advantages: Roommates help curb costs. Taking in Read the Full Story
January 8, 2016
New Year’s Resolution … Become a Homesitter
The following is a guest post from Homesitters Ltd. Homesitters was established in 1980 and is now one of the UK’s leading nationwide live-in home and pet sitting companies, available throughout the year. It has looked after 70,000 bookings and has around 1,000 employees throughout England, Scotland and Wales. All Homesitters are meticulously vetted and are conscientious, sensible and responsible homeowners. Many have been pet owners and have experience looking after all different types of animals. It’s tantamount to the outstanding reputation and professionalism of the company that 70% of Read the Full Story
January 7, 2016
Stay the Course
A good friend of mine, someone who has achieved great success – financial and otherwise – whose opinion I value and whom I have the good fortune to regularly engage in all manner of conversation, sent me a text message earlier today. In fact, here it is: Good time to remind your blog readers how important it is to focus long-term and not short-term on the market and that our economy although not robust, is pretty solid … look for buyers to come in soon. Indeed. Last August, the 25th Read the Full Story
Prince of Darkness – A SavvyReview
In Prince of Darkness, The Untold Story of Jeremiah G. Hamilton, Wall Street’s First Black Millionaire, Shane White, the Challis Professor of History and an Australian Professorial Fellow in the History Department at the University of Sydney specializing in African-American history, provides a vivid account and reveals the larger than life story of Jeremiah G. Hamilton, a black man – or perhaps more accurately, a mulatto – who defied every convention of his time. White presents a stunning portrayal of this black broker and life in 1800s New York. Through cunning and Read the Full Story
January 5, 2016
Are You Engaged in the Sharing Economy?
There has been a tremendous amount of chatter and no doubt you are at least somewhat familiar with the term, and the practice of the sharing, or peer-to-peer, economy. For those that are not or just to verify what we are talking about, The People Who Share website has a pretty good description: The Sharing Economy is a socio-economic ecosystem built around the sharing of human and physical resources. It includes the shared creation, production, distribution, trade and consumption of goods and services by different people and organizations. To that Read the Full Story
January 1, 2016
Why Small Debts Matter So Much to Black Lives
By Paul Kiel ProPublica, Dec. 31, 2015, 8 a.m. This story was co-published with The New York Times’ Sunday Review. If you are black, you’re far more likely to see your electricity cut, more likely to be sued over a debt, and more likely to land in jail because of a parking ticket. It is not unreasonable to attribute these perils to discrimination. But there’s no question that the main reason small financial problems can have such a disproportionate effect on black families is that, for largely historical reasons rooted Read the Full Story
December 31, 2015
Mired in Poverty
Expository Series: A Region Left Behind: Lost Opportunity in the Deep South (2015). In this series, courtesy of The Washington Post, the question is asked, “What went wrong with the deep south?” The writers, videographers and photographers tell detailed stories about why many residents of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina and Georgia continue to struggle financially. The five states in the South are much worse off on economic and social measures than the majority of the country. How the region compares in measures such as Male Life Expectancy, Children Living With One Parent, Read the Full Story
