Source: androidcommunity.com --- Thursday, December 22, 2011
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Saturday, December 24, 2011
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Friday, December 23, 2011
ipscuba: Cuba prev? la perforaci?n de dos nuevos pozos de petr?leo en tierra en 2012, adem?s del inicio de las perforaciones en el Golfo de M?xico.
Cuba prev? la perforaci?n de dos nuevos pozos de petr?leo en tierra en 2012, adem?s del inicio de las perforaciones en el Golfo de M?xico. Source: http://twitter.com/ipscuba/statuses/149847274107830272
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Spaniard arrested in "Madonnaleaks" case (Reuters)
MADRID (Reuters) ? Spanish police arrested a 31-year-old man Wednesday and charged him with illegally leaking an early recording of a new Madonna song on the internet.
At least one demo recording of "Give Me All Your Love" was posted on the web in November, two months before the planned release of Madonna's first new album since 2008's "Hard Candy."
Police did not give the name of the man arrested in the city of Zaragoza in northern Spain, but said his initials were J.M.R. and that he was a big Madonna fan. He was charged and released, a police statement said.
The "Madonnaleaks" investigation began after lawyers for the singer -- who said in November that she was very upset over the leak -- traced the posting to Spain. Police said they found recordings of the song in a search of the suspect's belongings.
Intellectual property watchdgos have targeted Spain as one of the world's largest copyright violators. The Socialist government, which left office this week, prepared a bill aimed at shutting down file-sharing web sites providing copyrighted material. But the law was never sent to Parliament.
(Reporting By Blanca Rodriguez; Writing by Fiona Ortiz, editing by Paul Casciato)
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Monday, December 19, 2011
Performer hurt in fall during 'Faust' at Met Opera (AP)
NEW YORK ? Mezzo-soprano Wendy White has been hospitalized after falling about eight feet from a platform to the stage during a performance of Charles Gounod's "Faust" at New York's Metropolitan Opera.
The Met Opera says White is in stable condition and undergoing further tests. Her injuries do not appear to be serious.
White was performing the role of Marthe in Saturday's performance.
Met spokesman Peter Clark said in a statement that White fell as she entered backstage during Act III onto a platform that is connected to the scenery. The opera did not say how she fell.
A black curtain was brought down and intermission announced.
White was seen by the house doctor and taken by ambulance to the hospital.
The performance resumed with Theodora Hanslowe substituting in the role of Marthe.
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Sunday, December 18, 2011
Murrieta firefighters donate nearly $9K to cancer support network
Murrieta firefighter paramedic Landon Hill said it has been difficult watching fellow firefighter paramedic Dean Hale fight his stage four non-small cell lung cancer this year.
The Murrieta Fire Department's Ironman Triathlon team, as well as Dean Hale and City Council members Rick Gibbs and Randon Lane. (Courtesy photo, Erica Corelli)
?It?s been rough,? Hill said. ?He?s such a fighter.?
A month after Hale was diagnosed on March 28, Landon and 12 other Murrieta firefighters formed a triathlon team ? in support of Hale?s cancer fight ? to compete in the March 31 California Ironman 70.3 competition in Oceanside.
Since then, the group has been able to raise nearly $9,000 for the Firefighter Cancer Support Network, which also has supported Hale through his cancer battle.
?We wanted to give back to (the cancer support network), especially after hearing all that they did (for Hale),? Hill said. ?This is our fire family. We?re very close.?
The triathlon firefighters presented a check for $8,623.07 ? raised with corporate sponsorships, a car wash, community donations via the ?Fill the Boot? campaign and personal donations, Murrieta Fire Department Fire Chief Matt Shobert said.
Dan Crow, the California coordinator for the network, accepted the check Saturday. City Council members Rick Gibbs and Randon Lane were on hand for the presentation.
?And this is why our community is always so proud of our department,? Lane said.
Hale said he has been blessed in his successful fight against his aggressive cancer. Thanks to a new pill called Crizotanib that he takes twice a day, Hale will be able to live out the rest of his life even with cancer cells present in his body.
He said his family, his fire family and the Firefighter Cancer Support Network have been pivotal in his fight against the disease.
?We talk about a fire family,? Hale said ?There is no comparison to what the family has done for me.?
Hale said the support network delivered a cancer-fighting informational kit and received two separate phone calls from firefighters around the country who were fighting the same type of cancer.
He said the network helped him through the ?what-do-you-do-now stage.?
?It?s been amazing what they?ve done,? he said.
The California Ironman competition includes a back-to-back 1.2-mile ocean swim, a 56-mile bike ride through Camp Pendleton and a 13.1-mile run by the pier.
Over 25 percent of the Murrieta Fire Department suppression personnel registered to compete.
Members of the Ironman Team MFD 2012 include Richard Curran, Forest Hansen, David Perez, Shad Chanley, Dan Grassmeier, Andy Schmader, Sean DeGrave, Ryan Roufs, Jeff Asbury, Landon Hill, Travis Anderson, Jake Wright and Matt Shobert.
Email Rachael.recker@swrnn.com or follow her on Twitter
Source: http://www.swrnn.com/2011/12/17/murrieta-firefighters-donate-nearly-9k-to-cancer-support-network/
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BP settles with maker of failed blowout preventer (AP)
NEW ORLEANS ? Cameron International, maker of the Deepwater Horizon blowout preventer that failed to stop last year's massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, has agreed to pay $250 million to BP under a legal settlement, BP said Friday.
BP said it was "in their mutual best interests, and the agreement is not an admission of liability by either party." The companies are dropping all claims against one another, they said.
The settlement comes in advance of a federal trial over the catastrophic Gulf oil spill. The non-jury trial is slated to begin in February and determine fault in the April 20, 2010, explosion and subsequent oil spill off the Louisiana coast of more than 200 million gallons of oil.
Oil and gas analysts said they saw Friday's settlement as setting the stage for more out-of-court agreements. At this point, Halliburton Corp., which supplied the cement to seal the blown-out well, and Transocean Ltd., the drilling company, have not settled with BP. The federal government, individual Gulf states and many other plaintiffs also have not settled.
For the companies involved, and government entities, "it's better to make peace than make war," said Fadel Gheit, managing director of Oppenheimer & Co., a Wall Street investment bank. He studies the oil and gas markets and follows BP closely.
He said he would expect all the parties ? including the federal government ? to seek to settle the Deepwater Horizon case before it goes to trial. He called court "the last resort."
"The strategy right now is settle, settle, settle," he said. "I would say that once the companies settle, the government will be under increasing pressure to settle."
Phil Weiss, a senior oil and gas analyst with the Argus Research Co. in New York, agreed and said he expected more settlement announcements. "I think it's in the interest of all these parties to settle."
For now, the settlement with Cameron does not end the legal fighting over the blowout of the Macondo well, which was owned by London-based BP and two partners, MOEX and Anadarko. BP has already settled claims with those two companies and a third company, Weatherford, the maker of a part used in the well.
"Today's settlement allows BP and Cameron to put our legal issues behind us and move forward to improve safety in the drilling industry," said Bob Dudley, BP group chief executive. "Unfortunately, other companies persist in refusing to accept responsibility for their roles in the accident and for contributing to restoration efforts," Dudley said in a swipe at Halliburton and Transocean.
The blowout preventer is the last line of defense in an oil well and is supposed to shear the well and cap it. But the device placed over the Macondo well failed to work properly and choke off the out-of-control spill. Government investigators have charged that the device had a design flaw and was not maintained properly. A bent pipe also prevented it from working, investigators found.
After the spill, the large contraption was lifted from the sea floor of the Gulf and transported to a NASA facility in New Orleans where engineers pored over it and conducted tests to determine what went wrong with it.
Probes of the Deepwater Horizon explosion by the federal government and independent scientists and engineers have found all three companies were at fault for a series of decisions and actions that led to the Macondo well blowout, the nation's largest offshore oil spill.
BP is engaged in an intense legal fight with Halliburton and Transocean. Earlier this month, BP went so far as to accuse Halliburton employees of covering up damaging evidence about a cement mixture Halliburton used in drilling the well.
BP said it would use the $250 million from Cameron to pay for the cost of cleaning up from the spill and paying individual damage claims by people, businesses and government entities hurt by the spill. BP said it has spent about $7.5 billion so far of those claims. But the British company faces billions of dollars in additional damages and fines.
Under the agreement, BP said Houston-based Cameron is no longer responsible for any additional cleanup costs related to the spill. But BP said the agreement does not cover civil, criminal and administrative fines and other penalties that might arise out of the court proceedings.
Jack Moore, chairman and CEO Cameron, said the agreement with BP "removes uncertainty facing Cameron" as litigation intensifies over the Deepwater Horizon explosion.
"This eliminates all significant exposure to historical and future claims related to this incident," Moore said.
Moore said Cameron does not expect to have to pay much for possible court fines and penalties. "We do not consider these items to represent a significant risk to Cameron," he said.
Cameron said its insurers were expected to fund at least $170 million of the $250 million payment the company agreed to make to BP.
BP and Cameron also pledged to "improve safety in the drilling industry" and do more to improve blowout preventers.
So far, BP has spent about $25 billion on the Deepwater Horizon disaster and has said it expects the final bill to be about $40 billion, Gheit said. BP has received about $5 billion from the companies it has settled with, he said.
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Saturday, December 17, 2011
Aiming To Be The ?Groupon Of Groceries?, SavingStar Passes 1 Million Users In Under A Year
It's been a pretty good ride so far for digital couponing startup SavingStar. The company launched its beta last August behind $2.3 million in financing from Flybridge Capital Partners, First Round Capital, and Founder Collective, with participation from angel investors like Ron Conway.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Mt5vlIrG9-0/
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Friday, December 16, 2011
BP settles with maker of failed blowout preventer
NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? BP PLC says it will be paid $250 million by the maker of the blowout preventer that failed to halt oil spewing from BP's busted well in the Gulf of Mexico.
Under the agreement announced Friday, BP and Cameron International Corp. will drop all claims against one another. BP says the money will be deposited into the $20 billion fund set up to compensate victims of the April 2010 spill.
BP said the agreement was not an admission of liability by either party.
The settlement comes in advance of a federal trial over the spill.
The non-jury trial is set to begin in February and determine fault in the explosion of the BP-leased rig Deepwater Horizon off the Louisiana coast. The oil spill was the nation's worst offshore oil disaster.
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Domenick Scudera: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer 2.0
Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer
Had a very shiny nose,
And if you ever saw it,
You would even say it glowed.
All of the other reindeer
Used to laugh and call him names:
"Queer," "dickhead," "fruit," "fairy," "faggot," "ho-ho-homo,"
"Retard," "douche," "gay," "tranny," "pussy," "sissy boy."
They hit him and shoved him,
And spit their reindeer spit on him.
They never let poor Rudolph
Play in any reindeer games.
Rudolph was ashamed and grew very sad.
Rudolph went to the Head Elf for help.
The Head Elf was sympathetic,
But there was nothing to be done.
He told Rudolph that the other reindeer
Were just expressing their religious beliefs.
Rudolph was confused.
His religion taught how to love,
Not how to hate and hurt little reindeer.
Now Christmastown was flaunting a new kind of religion.
Rudolph wanted to pray,
But everyone told him that God hated him.
He felt alone and scared.
On TV, he saw a pretty politician lady.
As she smiled her warm smile,
She said she hated those with red-noses,
And she wanted others to hate those red-noses, as well.
This made people like her,
And that is how she got elected.
In the newspaper, he read about a mean, powerful man,
A man who hated those with red-noses so much
That he wanted to change the laws
To force everyone to think the way that he did.
He made Rudolph feel very small, very small indeed.
And even though he lived in the happiest, most joyful place on Earth,
Rudolph felt very low,
And very, very dark.
His nose stopped glowing red.
He did not know what to do.
He did not know where to turn.
He had no one to talk to.
One dark night, late, late at night,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse,
Rudolph quietly turned on his computer.
He learned:
He was not alone!
It gets better!
And, somehow, deep inside,
He knew:
He was not the problem.
It was the others who had problems.
And he believed:
He was special.
His nose started to glow again
Flamboyant, fabulous, flaming red!
And he danced and he pranced about.
That is when Santa noticed him
And said, "Rudolph with your nose so bright,
Won't you guide my sleigh tonight?"
It did not matter if the reindeer loved him,
Because he loved himself.
Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer shouted out in glee,
Because he knew that he was on the right side of history.
?
Follow Domenick Scudera on Twitter: www.twitter.com/domscud
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/domenick-scudera/rudolph-the-red-nosed-reindeer_b_1147275.html
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Thursday, December 15, 2011
Lawmakers freeze $700 million to Pakistan, ties strained (Reuters)
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) ? A Congressional panel has frozen $700 million in aid to Pakistan until it gives assurances it is helping fight the spread of homemade bombs in the region, a move one Pakistani senator called unwise and likely to strain ties further.
Pakistan is one of the largest recipients of U.S. foreign aid and the cutback announced is only a small proportion of the billions in civil and military assistance it gets each year.
But it could presage even greater cuts.
Calls are growing in the United States to penalize Islamabad for failing to act against militant groups and, at worst, helping them, after the secret U.S. raid on a Pakistan garrison town in which al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed in May.
Salim Saifullah, chairman of Pakistan's Senate foreign relations committee, warned that relations, which are already at a low point, could worsen further following the decision by the U.S. House-Senate panel.
"I don't think this is a wise move. It could hurt ties. There should instead be efforts to increase cooperation. I don't see any good coming out of this," Saifullah told Reuters.
Homemade bombs, or improvised explosive devices (IEDs), are among militants' most effective weapons against U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan as they struggle to fight a resurgent Taliban insurgency.
Many are made using ammonium nitrate, a common fertilizer smuggled across the border from Pakistan. The freeze on U.S. aid was agreed as part of a defense bill that is expected to be passed this week.
The United States wants "assurances that Pakistan is countering improvised explosive devices in their country that are targeting our coalition forces", Representative Howard McKeon, a House Republican, told reporters.
The United States has allocated some $20 billion in security and economic aid to Pakistan since 2001, much of it in the form of reimbursements for assistance in fighting militants.
But U.S. lawmakers have expressed increasing frustration with Pakistan's efforts in the war.
There have been many proposals to make U.S. aid to Pakistan conditional on more cooperation in fighting militants such as the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network, which Washington believes operates out of Pakistan and battles U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
But Pakistan's civilian leaders have in the past warned against aid cuts, saying it would only harden public opinion against the United States.
Pakistan says it is doing all it can to fight al Qaeda and the Taliban and has lost thousands of soldiers since it joined the U.S.-led war in 2001, some of them at the hands of coalition troops.
Islamabad has accused NATO of deliberately killing 24 Pakistani soldiers in an air strike near the Afghan border last month and shut down supplies for foreign troops in Afghanistan in anger.
The decision to freeze aid could prompt Pakistan to harden its stance towards Washington.
"I think the Pakistan side will understand the type of signal that is coming, which shows it's not only a question of aid," said former general and security analyst Talat Masood.
"The whole attitude of the U.S. and the relationship will be affected by these measures because they know Pakistan will not be in a position to control the smuggling."
RAMPANT SMUGGLING
Pakistan's foreign ministry spokesman, Abdul Basit, also suggested pressure from the United States would hurt ties, saying Islamabad believes "in cooperative approaches".
U.S. lawmakers said many Afghan bombs are made with fertilizer smuggled by militants across the border from Pakistan into Afghanistan.
"The vast majority of the material used to make improvised explosive devices used against U.S. forces in Afghanistan originates from two fertilizer factories inside Pakistan," Republican Senator John McCain said in the Senate last week.
A Congressional Research Service report in October said the Pakistani factories, owned by one of the country's biggest companies, Pakarab, have been producing over 300,000 metric tonnes of ammonium nitrate per year since 2004.
The United States has urged Pakistan to regulate the distribution of ammonium nitrate to Afghanistan strictly. So far, Pakistan has only produced draft legislation on the issue.
Analysts say U.S. demands will be tough to meet because of rampant corruption on both sides of the porous border that makes smuggling easy.
One businessman explained how easy it is to get through security.
"We pay a 1,200-rupee ($13) bribe to the Pakistani Frontiers Corps on the border for every car carrying fertilizer," said Kamal Khan in the border town of Chaman.
"Fertilizer is smuggled on trucks, pickup trucks, motorcycles, bicycles and donkey carts."
Pakistan's fragile economy is heavily dependent on agriculture, so cutting down on fertilizer output would hurt the sector.
The provision freezing $700 million in aid was agreed upon by leaders of the armed services committees from both parties in the House and Senate, including McCain. It is part of compromise legislation authorizing U.S. defense programs expected to be approved this week, McKeon said.
The bill would also require the Pentagon to deliver a strategy for improving the effectiveness of U.S. aid to Pakistan, he said.
(Additional reporting by Saeed Ali Achakzai in CHAMAN and Susan Cornwell in WASHINGTON; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Paul Tait)
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Sunday, December 4, 2011
Slovenia to turn centre right for economic lift (Reuters)
LJUBLJANA (Reuters) ? Slovenia votes for a new government Sunday with the center-right opposition set to return to power on a pledge of painful reforms to halt the European Union member's slide back into recession.
Once a model of successful post-communist transition, euro zone member Slovenia is facing renewed economic contraction, rising unemployment and a potential credit rating downgrade.
The opposition Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) led by former prime minister Janez Jansa is eying a return to office, promising to cut the budget deficit, create jobs and hike the retirement age.
The outgoing government led by center-left Prime Minister Borut Pahor's Social Democrats lost its majority in May amid internal policy squabbles and was ousted by parliament in September.
Polls suggest Jansa, who was prime minister of the former Yugoslav republic from 2004 to 2008, will return to the post but
will need the support of smaller parties to secure a majority.
"If ever Slovenia needed a government with a strong majority ... it is in the period coming up," Jansa said on Pop TV.
RECESSION
An Alpine state of 2 million people, Slovenia was the fastest growing euro zone member four years ago, but its export-driven economy was badly hit by the global crisis and contracted by 8 percent in 2009.
After a modest recovery, data released this week suggests another recession is on the way after the economy shrank 0.5 percent in the third quarter of 2011. [ID:nL5E7MU2PX]
Jansa's SDS has pledged to cut Slovenia's deficit by trimming public administration and accelerating privatization. He proposes to ease a credit crunch by establishing a "bad bank" that would take over state-owned banks' non-performing loans.
The party would raise the retirement age, currently among the lowest in the EU at 57 for women and 58 for men.
Center-left Ljubljana mayor Zoran Jankovic is seen as Jansa's closest challenger for the premiership.
Polls open at 7 a.m. (01:00 a.m. EST) and close at 7 p.m. (1:00 p.m. EST). Preliminary results are expected by 4:00 p.m. EST.
(Editing by Matt Robinson and David Cowell)
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Saturday, December 3, 2011
FBI, IRS search home of DC Councilmember Thomas (Providence Journal)
Cancer Bats: Hardcore Band Takes Inspiration From Indie Rockers ...
Distort
"In a lot of ways we get really inspired by non-metal bands," Cormier, whose band has covered the likes of Tegan and Sara and the Faint, tells Spinner. "For me, I find I really like looking at other things because I just don't want to make a traditional hardcore record lyrically. So for me, I listen to a lot of indie rock and I've been getting super psyched on a lot of that, like the new 'Helplessness Blues' by Fleet Foxes..."
The band, which includes Cormier, guitarist Scott Middleton, bassist Jaye R. Schwarzer and drummer Mike Peters, may be taking inspiration from other areas of the rock world, but rest assured, they've got no interest in changing up the thrash-stoner-punk-hardcore formula they've mastered over their last three albums, 2006's 'Birthing the Giant,' 2008's 'Hail Destroyer' and 2010's 'Bears, Mayors, Scraps & Bones.' Cancer Bats fans should expect the same on album four.
"I love what we do," he says. "I don't want to make this record be us trying to be Muse, or us trying to extend ourselves into other things, like me trying to do clean singing parts so we can get played on the radio. When you hear bands that you love try s--- like that it's just such a bum-out.
"The new stuff definitely doesn't sound like 'Bears' or 'Hail' or 'Birthing,' but it sounds like where we should be at, trying to really f---in' go for it.
"We really looked at it like, 'Let's make this album the ultimate party in every way that I know Cancer Bats fans want to get down.' Because I'm not sick of what we do, I f---ing love playing these songs every night. That's the kind of vibe I still want to have going."
Another factor for the band? Age. This isn't the same pack of loud kids who burst onto the scene back in 2004, and those years under the band's belt have helped them discover a different, sophisticated kind of heavy music.
"I think the big thing, too, we've all turned 30. I'm going to be 32," says Cormier. "Now that we're all older, we all really understand Clutch. I think there's like an age factor in understanding that band. If you're too young, you just don't get it.
"If you listen to Clutch, all their records sound like Clutch, and they're the best at doing that, but they still take really rad chances and do different things that are fun. Like, a lot of vocal stuff that's goofy, but it doesn't ruin the song, it just makes it really fun. I'm looking at someone who's been able to do that and still nobody's going to call those dudes a bunch of p---ies, you know what I mean?
"So looking at that and not being too hung up on things we could over-think at this point, like, 'Ah, it needs to be super heavy and negative and brutal -- metal can only be like this.' It's like, 'Naw, we can do whatever the f--- we want.' Because we're not 100 percent a metal band; we're like punk-weird-hardcore-whatever band."
The Cancer Bats are hoping to release their forth album sometime early in the New Year. In the meantime, the band will be taking a creative detour of sorts throughout December, playing across Eastern Canada as Bat Sabbath, a Black Sabbath cover band.
Source: http://www.spinner.com/2011/11/30/cancer-bats/
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Friday, December 2, 2011
A Financial Planner's Disaster (Free Money Finance)
MSNBC has a piece about a "financial planner" (he was actually a Certified Financial Planner, but doesn't really deserve the title IMO) who made a ton of financial mistakes and ended up losing everything. Here are snippets of his story:
I felt we could afford around $350,000 [for a house]. We ended up buying the house and paid the asking price of $575,000.
We borrowed 100 percent of the purchase price.
I shouldn?t have relied on someone else to make that calculation, let alone the guy who was making money putting me in the loan.
I was a financial adviser, and I never sat down to figure out what it would take to make this work.
Ok, let's stop here for a minute and review the mistakes he's already made. And let me remind you, this guy is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER. He's supposed to know how to handle money. The list:
- He bought a house he couldn't afford. This violates point #2 in my formula for buying a house.
- Then he made it worse by borrowing 100% of the home's price. I'm not sure what financial planning school this guy went to, but it wasn't up to snuff.
- He relied on the bank to tell him how much he could borrow. Really? Isn't this a "financial mistake 101" offense?
- He was an advisor and yet he never even figured out whether or not borrowing almost $600k would work out or not. Wow.
But wait -- it gets worse:
The market?s continued strength meant we could borrow even more. It was easy. In late 2004, a year after buying the house, we refinanced our mortgage with World Savings Bank. We picked the lowest possible payment, the one that added to our balance each month instead of subtracting from it. And we added a line of credit with Wells Fargo.
The extra borrowing power was important, because while my income was growing rapidly it wasn?t enough to support all our expenses. We were borrowing against the house to finance our lifestyle. In hindsight it is clear that we were spending more than we should have on things like recreational gear and family trips for ourselves and our four children.
It was extravagant, but it seemed modest compared to what some of our neighbors were doing.
So he started out bad, then made things worse by spending at an ever high rate (trying to keep up with the Joneses) as well as refinancing with a loan that made the amount he owed go UP. Ugh. And people relied on this guy to give them financial advice? It just makes me sick to think so.
But it turns out all was not lost -- he had an opportunity to get out from under it all:
As late as February 2006, a comparable home in our neighborhood sold for $998,000. We made the classic mistake of projecting recent trends ? even extreme ones ? into the future.
I can see how this reasoning went. If the house doubled in price in a few years, then in a few more it would be worth twice that -- then a few more twice that. And so on and so on and so on. In about 10 years they would be millionaires.
But that's not what happened. Instead of growing at its frantic pace, everything collapsed. The market toppled -- both the housing and investment markets -- and his income dropped as a result (because he managed fewer assets). The bank cut off their HELOC, which was a problem since they were using it to fund their lifestyle. Then this:
By that fall [2009], I was convinced we had to move back (they had moved to Utah to live with parents) permanently to save the business. But that meant we faced the question of what to do about the house. By then, we owed over $200,000 more than our original loan balance.
You can read the rest of the piece if you like, but basically they lose the house and life gets really rough. It's actually surprising to me that they lasted as long as they did. They took so many wrong steps that disaster could have hit them years earlier.
And what messes with me so much is not that this happened, but that it happened to a guy who supposedly knew better (or at least should have known better). A guy that was advising others on how to manage their money. And yet he didn't even follow the basics of personal finance himself. I would never turn my money over to such a person (in the same way I wouldn't go to a fat doctor.) If he can't apply his own advice, then he's not fit to give me advice.
This then brings up the question "how do I know if someone is actually a good financial manager of his own money before I hire him?" The answer: you don't. That's why I'm an advocate for learning how to manage your money yourself, then bringing in experts only when you need advanced advice (like with complicated tax matters, in drawing up a will, etc.) All the other (fairly simple) principles that lead to a good net worth are ones that almost anyone can learn and apply. That's why I recommend knowing and applying the basics yourself and not trusting someone else to do it. Because no one else cares about your money as much as you do.
Source: http://www.freemoneyfinance.com/2011/11/a-financial-planners-disaster.html
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