My dad told me that if you have the money, there is no better time to spend it when there is high inflation. Cost of living is high and people spend less, hence, you need to more money to bring it down. If you the money to spend, spend it now. Building a house, getting a new car and those purchases of big ticket items are cheaper since companies offer it lower because people cannot afford to get them yet. Schumacher Homes is a builder of quality homes across the United States. They have made countless families very happy with their quality home construction. That is why an aunt of mine, despite the failing economy of the US, decided to push through with the construction of their new home!

Who would forget the tragedy Hurricane Katrina brought to the US in 2005? It has damaged Florida and Texas but really has brought its wrath on New Orleans, Louisiana. To think that among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall.Three years later, people are still far from recovery. People there still have no homes. I applaud the efforts of humanitarians and celebrities who have used their status to be able to build homes for those people. Schumacher Homes Louisiana is a company that builds quality homes all over the US. I am sure they can make a lot of families’ dream homes come true. They have the best architects, engineers and contractors in the country.

I’m actually torn. Which you would prefer? Gold or Silver?

In terms of jewelry, I’d prefer white gold actually (with stones, if I can help it). I’ve always looked at silver as cheap. And boy, was I so wrong! I read that many analysts feel that silver, and specifically us silver coins, presents an outstanding investment opportunity. The reason behind this recommendation is because most recently, silver demand has exceeded the annual global production so silver rates have gone up big time. Monex Precious Metals have been offering them to their customers for 30 years already.

With the financial crisis we are all experiencing and the shaky value of the US dollar, I think it would be a wise decision to switch investments to precious metals.

I was reading up on the recent environmental updates and was shocked to hear the a big portion of the ice in North Pole had broken off. It was reportedly the size as big as the Manhattan City. As usual, this was blamed on global warming, a phenomenon caused by the thoughtless ways of us people.

However, we really cannot control how industrialized we have become. The changes were good, to make our lives certainly easier. But there had always been some sort of repercussion.

Waste Recovery Systems have been developed in different industries to be able to do their share on acting responsible for the environment. For example, in pharmaceutical industries, doing the Solvent Recovery System will be so useful. During the large scale manufacturing of drugs, a certain amount of drug will migrate into the solvent. By recovering the solvent and reprocessing, this drug can be sold and yields will increase. The advantage of this is higher capacity and less hazardous waste. Solvent Recovery is mandated on most pharmaceutical industries as well, as far as I know.

There is a financial crisis on most parts of the world. I have to admit Im not really troubled as my country has always been on financial crisis. It is just scary to see a big and powerful country like the US is suffering that way. What more third world countries like the Philippines? I heard from relatives abroad that most people are giving up their homes and filing for bankruptcy. Plus all the talk about the stock market plunging - they are so scared about their pension and retirement plans. Banks just dont have money because nobody cannot afford to pay anymore. Debt Consolidation will be the solution for families and bank alike. Banks need to give people options to be able to get rid of their debt!

We still don’t have any long-term investment nor savings to boast of. I know this is quite deadly, and dare I say it, irresponsible(?), especially since we have two kids. But we plan to remedy that soon. As I have said in my other blog, starting next month, I am going to save 10% of my earnings. No ifs nor buts. One of the other things we have on our checklist is signing up for HMO coverage.

Next on the list is finally getting insurance plans for Edil. He is the head and breadwinner of the family so he needs to have one. We have been going through quotes being given to us. Im not really eager to get the term life insurance plans, Id want one that we can get by 20 years as it matures.

I am sure with America’s worsening economy and people losing their jobs and homes bad credit credit cards are on the rise. People simply cannot pay anymore, that is the sad truth. The bright side to this is there are companies who are willing to give these non-payers a chance. They still approve people with bad credit for credit card applications. The web site BadCreditOffers.com features rankings, interest rates, and other key data on bad credit credit cards from major credit card issuers. I’m sure this would be such a big help for people who need another chance but have little choice because of their credit history.The site now offers an in depth comparison of more than a dozen credit card offers available to those with bad credit.

I just heard some bad news about a certain company I used to work for. It seems that one of their major servers was hacked and it was down for about three days. Since they support hundreds of thousands of clients, they had many many irate and disgruntled customers calling in. Three days is too long for service interruption in any business. Large and small businesses were severely affected and had huge losses. There is a need to invest on data protection solutions obviously.Syncsort Incorporated develops, markets, and services high-performance software for data management and data protection. Syncsort’s products are used in more than 50 countries to speed data warehouse processing, improve database loads, improve query performance and back up and protect data in distributed environments.

The US presidential elections is what everybody has been talking about. It is hot, hot, hot. Are you a Republican or a Democrat? Still undecided? Well, I have some news to share. A maritime attorney from Mark & Associates, P.C., a leading personal injury law firm, applauds Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama for pledging his support for a longstanding federal law which provides financial compensation to seamen who are injured on the job as a result of their employers’ negligence. In a letter sent to the president of the Seafarers International Union, which has endorsed him for president, Obama pledged his support for the Jones Act, a 1920 law which pays workers’ compensation benefits for seamen who are hurt while working on ships, oil rigs, and other ocean vessels.

Before I fell in love with the Nursing program, I was very attached to the laboratory – I am Medical Technologist by profession. I love being in the lab, analyzing specimens, drawing blood and keeping quality control. I feel that we really help diagnose patients (which is actually true.) However, laboratories are stressful because you need to keep a close watch on quality control.

First Trimester Screening for pregnant women for example, needs to be very precise. This often diagnoses malformations with the baby or if there is a problem with its location (tubal pregnancy, etc).- NTD Labs has been doing this since 1976. They have set the standard in prenatal care by doing research and developing prenatal screening procedures to detect various birth defects, including Down syndrome.

It is all over the news - financial institutions are going belly up (and are in the danger of going down) and people are panicking. They say this is worse than the Great Depression in the 1930s. This makes me so sad. However, life must go on. Times maybe hard right now that is why we really need to save. If ever there will be a need for big spending, it must come from your own money. Personal Loans are there to help you out if ever you really dont have any (which is in my case!). At PersonalLoanMarket.com, even Personal Loan with Bad Credit is available. They are known for providing fast online approvals for customers that are in need of financing up to $10,000. You can really use that for emergency purposes.

We are trying to save enough money to open up a small business to augment our income. We are currently living on one income as I have decided to stay at home to take care of the kids for now. If we were given a small business opportunity, I think I would go in getting a food cart - sell hotdogs, fishball, french fries or even fruitshakes. I have a friend who has a shawarma food stall and an officemate who recently franchised a Fruitas stall. Both are doing good but they also say getting a prime location is the most important thing to consider. In our area, I dont think food carts will sell as there are already stores here who sell those for cheaper prices (We live in the suburbs). A spot in the mall would be nice but Im sure the rent will be a killer. *sigh* It’s so hard to think of something that is relatively risk-free. I guess we need to think some more.

A friend and I talked yesterday over YM and we were just discussing how hard life is today and if there are things we would have done differently when we were single. We both had the same regret: We spent too much on useless purchases using our credit cards and now we are stuck paying its high interest rates. Whenever I think about how huge my credit card debt was and how much of it could have gone to savings, stuff for the kids, investments, I cringe. It certainly was a wake-up call for me. Credit Repair was an option I can take back then but thankfully I was able to pay and close my cards. Im now just riding purchases on my Dad’s card or Edil’s (but I have to pay for it within its billing cycle).

What I am stuck with forever is getting blacklisted I think with financial credit unions. Bad Credit Repair is still unheard of in our country, and Id really like to find out Credit Repair Services that can help people get back on their feet.

I was saddened by a post of a mom in our mommy group about her home loan being declined because of negative credit standing due to her credit card debt (which she has settled already) five years ago. Why pay for wrongdoings for such a long time when you have paid already? I understand financial institutions need to be cautious of their approval on loan applications but they still have to take into consideration the changes in standing of a person’s lifestyle.

We badly need an institution here that can repair credit like the ones in the US. It will do all of us a lot of good.

Everybody is feeling the pinch these days. From high (soaring actually) fuel prices to shocking rice prices to massive employment lay-offs and freeze hiring. It is scary especially for people like me who are just barely starting to get their family life stabilized, and who, recently just resigned from a five-year fruitful (high-paying) career to stay at home with the kids and study. It is a good thing that money miraculously comes the day we most need (in the form of PayPal money as I do small business online). The husband has been working extra hard for him to get the incentive bonus at work each month (and he hasnt failed yet, hooray for him!). He has been offered though by most cash advance companies for a cash or salary loan but as he said, we arent desperate enough to need it yet. We get by, my kids dont feel deprived of food, we can afford to take them out to the mall every weekend - life is still good. We are blessed.

When I was working, I used to drown three cups of coffee a day. These days, unfortunately, going above two makes my heart palpitate so I try hard NOT to drink coffee.

I still stick to one cup a day - decaf of course.

What’s yours?