Financial Fellow

Written by J.P. Wicklein
     Whether you’re looking to create wealth, or just add a few bucks to your bottom line, I’d suggest exploring sources of residual income. 
What is residual income?
     Residual income is money you earn over and over again without performing any work.  A common example of residual income is the interest paid [...]

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Written by J.P. Wicklein
     Bank of America is offering up to $100 to new checking account customers and $25 to existing checking account customers. 
$75 promo for new customers
     New Bank of America checking account customers are eligible for a $75 bonus.  Here’s how to qualify:
·         Be a new Bank of America customer - defined [...]

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Written by J.P. Wicklein

The University of Iowa has launched a federally-funded study of America’s drivers. What could this mean for you? They’re looking for drivers and are offering $895 to entice participants.

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Written by J.P. Wicklein

I’ve been thinking about buying some land recently. I’d like to construct a small home on the land and grow food. My ideal slice of land is at least 10 acres, farmable, wooded, and has a pond or stream on it. I don’t plan on moving there. Rather, I’d like to have a place within a 3 hour drive that I can escape to periodically.

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   Written by J.P. Wicklein

     I came across a pretty good piece from the CBS evening news that explains the financial relationship between the U.S. and China - and how they’re kicking our butt.

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Written by J.P. Wicklein

     Periodically I think about ways to make more money.  One idea I consider every now and again is getting a second job. Currently, I work 40 hours a week, Monday through Friday at my primary job. If I took a second job I could reasonably work another 20 hours a week. My new, 60-hour work week would look something like this:

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Written by J.P. Wicklein

     Here’s another batch of five interesting and useful articles I’ve come across lately:

1. PT at Prime Time Money provides you with 52 Ways to Make Extra Money. Some of the more interesting ways he lists include selling yourself online, putting stuff on consignment, and renting out a room.

2. Staying on the theme of making extra money, Erik at MoneyCrashers talks about ways to Make Extra Money While You Are Looking For a Job. My favorite suggestion is working for a temp agency. I worked temp jobs during college summers and parlayed a temp job into a full time gig with the client.

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…………………….Photo by zieak……………..…………………….Written by J.P. Wicklein

…..Recently I came across an article on The LRC Blog that provided a list of U.S. Banks that are near collapse. The article lists over 8,000 U.S. Banks along with their Texas Ratio (a measure of a bank’s credit problems). In short, the higher a bank’s Texas Ratio the worse their credit troubles. One could infer that banks with more severe credit problems are more vulnerable to collapse.

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Written by J.P. Wicklein

     We are becoming an increasingly cashless society.  Several years ago if you paid for your lunch at Subway with a credit card you’d get strange looks. Now, when I go to lunch at Subway it seems like half the people in line opt to pay with plastic instead of cash. It appears to have become just as acceptable to pay for $5 - $10 purchases with a credit or debit card as it is to use cash. Further, it’s becoming increasingly rare for me to see anyone paying cash for more expensive purchases. Why is this?

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   Written by J.P. Wicklein

     How much money do you need to have to consider yourself rich? It’s very debatable. Most people would agree, however, that rich people have the freedom to do whatever they would like with their time. Being rich doesn’t necessarily mean you can buy anything you want, but it does mean having the ability to live very comfortably without being dependent upon any job to sustain your lifestyle.

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