The American Presidential Campaigns are Wasting Money on a Colossal Scale

My dad has dementia, and he can no longer be at home. He needs to be in a facility that can handle his ups and downs. Dementia facilities are expensive. VERY expensive.  And far away. So I have been doing a lot of driving and thinking recently.


I was absently listening to the radio during a recent expedition, when the announcer started talking about the huge amounts of money being spent on the 2016 presidential campaign. Obscene amounts of money. For Ads. Advertisements that do and say nothing more than how much the 'other guy' stinks.


So while these donors and PACs and candidates toss money at consultants and agencies to come up with slick slogans, my family and others like us are burning through our life savings fighting a horrible mental disease that apparently is not sexy enough to have lots of money tossed at it.


And it made me sick. Sick to think of all the suffering and sickness and pain there is all around us and yet these self-proclaimed leaders spend millions on ads and jingles and buttons. Our political system is flawed and our campaign system is completely broken.


How can we stop this nonsense? If this money wasn't going toward campaign waste, how much good could it be doing ... https://twitter.com/NitpickyConsumr

CD: That's compact disc, right?

My husband and I are very fiscally conservative. Our parents were told about the Great Depression in Great Detail by their parents and have passed this data down to us, as well. So, all of this financial turmoil has prompted some action.

Through a series of mergers, it has ended up that we have most of our money with Bank of America. So, we decided to diversify and put some in a very old, small, conservative Bank with a long, solid history. My own family has banked with Woodsboro Bank for many years (since 1899, to be exact), but that is a little far from my husband and I, currently. So, we looked around for another bank with similar characteristics.

Burke & Herbert has been in Alexandria since 1852. It's the oldest bank in Virginia. Whoo-hoo. Sign us up. We decided to try one of their Promotional CDs.

So, we walked into the bank today. Here is a transcript of our conversation with the first teller. It's so priceless that it has to be shared. And before you ask, the teller was rather young. Just out of college would be my guess.

Teller: How may I help you today?

Me: I'd like to open a Certificate of Deposit, please

Teller: [Pause] I'm sorry, what are you looking to do?

Me: I'd like to open a Certificate of Deposit

Teller: [Looking at me like I've landed from Mars] I'm sorry, but I'm not sure what you mean.

Me: [Looking at teller like he's landed from Mars] A CD ... I want to open a CD.

Teller: [Clearly relieved to discover I was not a Martian, after all] Oh, Ok. To the side, please.

Does anyone else think it odd that a Bank Teller has never heard the term "Certificate of Deposit"? Anyways, we got a good laugh out of it. We'll be at a holiday party at the end of the year with the bank's president. I bet he'll find this story hysterical, too. Maybe.

The Economic Stimulus Check

The Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 is now in full swing. Many American's, depending on their household income, have already received or can expect to receive, a 'rebate' of $300 - $1200.
As comforting as it is that President Bush firmly believes that these checks will solve all of our economic problems here in the USA, I must confess that I am skeptical.

Made-in-USA.org nails it on the head, in bold type at the top of their site this week:

Here is the place to use your Tax Rebate Stimulus Package money.
Patriots will always start their shopping with Made in USA products.
Boost our economy instead of China, as this program was intended.

But let's be real ... how many Americans are going to spend their stimulus checks solely on American-made goods? Heck, how many are going to do anything with it besides help offset the higher price of gas?

As a consumer, I'm certainly not going to refuse the check, but it just doesn't seem like the silver bullet the Administration is looking for.

ETrade: Keep a paper copy!

So, I am trying to do my 2007 taxes, and I just got off the phone with Etrade. Here's the conversation I just had ...

Me: I've been trying for an hour to find my original "buy" transaction for my Pfizer stock, but I can't find it. I am very frustrated.

Etrade Phone Rep: Hmmm. When did you buy the stock?

Me: I'm not sure ... somewhere between 1995 and 2000, but I am not sure.

Etrade Phone Rep: Oh, that's the issue. We only keep transaction history for 7 years.

Me: You .. WHAT?

Etrade Phone Rep: Yes, you would have needed to keep paper records if you were intending on keeping your stock for over 7 years

Me: But, but, BUT ... you're "E"-trade. I should have been keeping paper records to back up a totally electronic trading site? What am I supposed to do about Cost basis for my Taxes?

Etrade Phone Rep: Well, you can ... [babbles about some form that can be used to tell IRS that you were too STUPID to write down your cost basis, but I can't hear her because my newborn -- who is clearly upset by Etrade's unbelievable deletion policy -- is shrieking at the top of his lungs.]

Me: I'LL BE SELLING ALL OF MY STOCK IN THE NEXT 24 HOURS AND CLOSING OUT MY ACCOUNT [I Hang up Phone and toss it unceremoniously across the room while I retrieve the baby]

So ... I'll be doing some selling today. I was tired of playing the stock market, anyways. It's one step away from gambling, sigh. In the meantime, I'll start rooting through some of the printouts I made in the early days and HOPEFULLY, I kept the transaction date and amount. Sigh.

The moral of the story:
If you aren't going to be doing FAST trading, Etrade is NOT for you.

Tax Day! Whee!

So today is Tax Day here in the United States: The last day to file your federal income taxes. I did mine about two weeks ago, and nearly had a nervous breakdown as I did so. This happens to me every year, and it is almost always due to some stock disaster. This year, it was finding out that a bunch of my international stock had been sold due to some merger, and I hadn't gotten any notice about it other than pulling up my tax form and LO AND BEHOLD I have taken a lose. But how do you take a lose without ... UGH, MY STOCK HAS BEEN SOLD!

My horrific experiences in the stock market could fill up a whole novel, so I won't go too far into it. Let's just say I've been a very Dumb Consumer in choosing stocks.

But I will say that this is a good time of year to step back and look at your entire financial situation:

• Look at your income and your expenditures ... do you feel on track for the coming year?
• How's your retirement withholding? Are you doing the Max that the current year will allow? If not, try to increase it
• Check your stocks and funds. Any big upturns or horrific downfalls? Take this time to adjust
  
• Check your credit reports; take advantage of the once-a-year free report
  
• Make sure you are doing all you can to prevent Identify Theft