Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Poll Results-Tax the Rich

According to a new Associated Press poll, Americans see just one way to go: Tax the rich. The poll was conducted by Stanford University, and with the supposedly nonpartisan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The poll found that participants were against other ways of paying for the health overhaul that is being considered in Congress such as including taxing insurers on "Cadillac plans."

The survey will be good news for House Democrats, who proposed doing just that in their giant all encompassing bill which hardly no one has read and has many tacked on items that would take away many of our civil liberties. The Democrats House bill would impose a 5.4 percent income tax surcharge on individuals making more than $500,000 a year and households making more than $1 million.

Makes a lot of sense to take away money from the same people who provide jobs for the poor and middle class, many of these jobs already provide good health benefits. (sarcasm.)

At least not everyone agreed. Overall, the poll results were split on Congress' health care plans. Participants said the current system needed to be changed, but at the same time they were concerned about the potential impact on their own pocketbooks, preferring to push any new costs onto wealthier Americans. If it was a random sample wouldn't some wealthier people be included.
77 % said the cost of health care in the United States was higher than it should be. 74 % favored reducing the amount of money paid by patients and their insurers.
49 % said any changes made by the government probably would cause them to pay more for health care (smart people).
32 % thought that it probably wouldn't change what they pay.
12 % thought they could end up paying less for health coverage.

I wonder if they even asked the participant about Tort Reform?
Read the whole article:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091117/ap_on_bi_ge/us_ap_poll_health_taxes

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Robert Kiyosaki Seminar

Last night I went to a Rich Dad Poor Dad seminar in my area. It was interesting but since I had read a lot of the books already, not much was stated that I did not already know. The main reason for the seminar is to sell their 3 day intensive workshop on everything you ever wanted to know about making money, getting rich, investing, entrepreneurship, etc. The cost is $500.00, and I bought in as a training investment since I already have an LLC. They also will allow you for that price take a spouse or business partner. My wife would not care to attend and I have no business partner, or do I. Anyone wanting to become a partner in this business training please leave me a comment or email. I think it is worth it. If you have ever read any of his books, he is a very knowledgeable man. As they said in the seminar how much would you be willing to invest to become rich? Contact me and we can work something out.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

An Update

Well, it has only been about 2 weeks since I posted last. I must be getting better at this. I do have a full time job that takes up most of my time. I am an Environmental Consultant with aspirations of starting my own company. "I thought you wanted to retire" you might say. Well I mean retire from the rat race. I want to be free to work when I want to. I actually have created my own LLC so that when I go on "marketing trips" and "buying trips" to Asia or S. America I can use it as a business deduction. I am in the process of getting all my streams of income blanketed under the LLC. If anyone would like to be an affiliate for Best Medication Station please contact me at snakeflake@bestmedicationstation.com. I am looking for a few affiliates that will send me clients of the best sorts.

As an investment, I bought some foreclosed timeshares in Sebring, FL on Lake Jackson. I am vacationing there week after next. I plan to rent them when I am not there. They are at Harder Hall Resort Villa. If anyone is interested in a week in South Central FL close to Orlando, contact me. I am also interested in purchasing some wooded acreage in south LA, MS, or AL. If anyone has or knows of 80-100 acres of land for sale at a decent price, again contact me. Well, that's the update. Please check out the sponsors. Thanks!

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Multiple Streams of Income

In this blog many of my posts have been off-topic. Well from now on I am going to make a concerted effort to stay with the program. The program is how to obtain enough wealth to retire early. When I say retire, I don't mean move into an assisted living facility and knit all day. I don't even now how to knit. I mean I would be free to work or not work, if I wanted to and when I wanted to. Besides saving money from my full-time job and investing it, there are many other ways that I attempt to make money. It is called making multiple streams of income, and the best type of income stream to have is passive income. With passive income you do not physically have to be on the job 8 hours a day. Most bloggers know that if they have AdSense or other ads on their blog, then they could be making money any hour of the day. We have all seen the ad that says "I made x amount of dollars in my sleep".

So, I have been using this multiple stream of passive income model to obtain my goal of retiring early. I also invest in the stock market, buy municipal bonds when the deal is right, and have several websites. You should enhance your financial education by reading, listening to financial recordings, and attending seminars. This is important, not only for the financial education but the motivation as well. It is too easy to just stay in the rat race and say its too hard to start my own business or businesses. One person, who's books I have enjoyed reading is Robert Kiyosaki. I have learned a lot from his writings and tomorrow I am actually going to a free Launch your Business workshop, taught by his company. I am very excited about this opportunity. So from now on I am going to try to stay on topic here, without being boring. I am sure I will add news other than financial or business from time to time but the main goal of this blog is to discuss how to get out of the rat race.

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Check Out This Stock

I gennerally do not buy penny stocks but this morning when I was going through the financial news I cam across a biotech stock report that caught my attention.

"Palatin Technologies (PTN) announced that it has received a Notice of Allowance from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for its U.S. Patent Application Number 11/694,260, titled "Cyclic Natriuretic Peptide Constructs." Palatin expects the patent will issue in the second half of 2009; the patent's 20-year term would expire in 2027."

I had no idea the price of this stock having never heard if it, so I looked it up and it was selling at 0.27. So I bought a few thousand shares. At first it shot straight up until it hit around 0.40, where it is hovering now. After I bought it I did a little research and found out that last year it dropped from 2.00 to 0.05. I am not really sure what this means but I put a quote box with PTN in the sidebar. I am not trying to get anyone to jump on the bandwagon, just thought that if anyone was looking for a speculative stock with patent rights to a class of drugs that may become in demand.

Sunday, July 05, 2009

Global Warming Debate

I ran across "A Few Things I'll Consider, a layman's take on the science of Global Warming featuring a guide on How to Talk to a Climate Sceptic" by Coby Beck. It is an interesting read from both the human induced cause of global climate change camp and the humans are not responsible for global climate change camps. I tend to believe for now that yes, human have contributed immensely to global CO2 since the beginning of the industrial age. However, I think it is very egotistical of humans to claim that we have contributed more than natural processes that have been occurring for billions of years. Human contributions are minuscule when compared to natural processes. I also believe that we can not stop global climate change nor should we try. The earth is the best one to solve her own "problems" (really only a problem to us).

Anyway, this blog used to be on Blogger and I tried to comment on a rebuttal made by the author to an anonymous comment. I was not allowed to comment for some reason, so I will comment here.

I cannot believe you did not even acknowledge the Max Plank Institute in a comment made by anonymous on January 02, 2007 3:02 PM. Instead you just referred him to the IPCC, a political organization. The Max Plank Institute is a research facility that consists of many of the greatest scientific minds in the world. I cannot believe you dismissed them so lightly. I have not read the article referred to but I think it deserves some comment on the contents, if such an research article exists. You bet I will be searching for said publication for my own interpretation.

Snakeflake
bestmedicationstation.com

I do not know if Coby will ever see this comment as I did not find a way to contact him. I am going to research the publication from the Max Plank Institute and will report here if or when I find it. I know this post is a little off topic for this blog; however, there are many people getting rich selling Carbon Offsets and other so-called solutions for Global Climate Change. If I believed it, I would jump on the bandwagon and make money for early retirement. So, it really does fit the main topic of this blog.

After I wrote this piece I was doing a little more digging and found that the blog mentioned above has moved. It can be accessed here. I have added my comment to the new blog, but have yet to receive an answer. It has been less than an hour, but I hope Coby will answer. I am eager to know if he has read the publication by the Max Plank Institute and is it available. That would save me a lot of time searching for it. As I stated above, I'll post whatever I find out.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Glenn Beck Recieves a Letter From an Angry Woman

Today I received a forward, really many forwards. I usually delete them, but for some reason I opened this one. It was supposedly a letter from a woman to Glenn Beck.
This is what I received:

June 17, 2009 - 10:36 ET

GLENN: I got a letter from a woman in Arizona. She writes an open letter to our nation's leadership: I'm a home grown American citizen, 53, registered Democrat all my life. Before the last presidential election I registered as a Republican because I no longer felt the Democratic Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. Now I no longer feel the Republican Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. The fact is I no longer feel any political party or representative in Washington represents my views or works to pursue the issues important to me. There must be someone. Please tell me who you are. Please stand up and tell me that you are there and that you're willing to fight for our Constitution as it was written. Please stand up now. You might ask yourself what my views and issues are that I would horribly feel so disenfranchised by both major
political parties. What kind of nut job am I? Will you please tell me? Well, these are briefly my views and issues for which I seek representation:

One, illegal immigration. I want you to stop coddling illegal immigrants and secure our borders. Close the underground tunnels. Stop the violence and the trafficking in drugs and people. No amnesty, not again. Been there, done that, no resolution. P.S., I'm not a racist. This isn't to be confused with legal immigration.

Two, the TARP bill, I want it repealed and I want no further funding supplied to it. We told you no, but you did it anyway. I want the remaining unfunded 95% repealed. freeze, repeal.

Three: Czars, I want the circumvention of our checks and balances stopped immediately. Fire the czars. No more czars. Government officials answer to the process, not to the president. Stop trampling on our Constitution and honor it.

Four, cap and trade. The debate on global warming is not over. There is more to say.

Five, universal health care. I will not be rushed into another expensive decision. Don't you dare try to pass this in the middle of the night and then go on break. Slow down!

Six, growing government control. I want states rights and sovereignty fully restored. I want less government in my life, not more. Shrink it down. Mind your own business. You have enough to take care of with your real obligations. Why don't you start there.

Seven, ACORN. I do not want ACORN and its affiliates in charge of our 2010 census. I want them investigated. I also do not want mandatory escrow fees contributed to them every time on every real estate deal that closes. Stop the funding to ACORN and its
affiliates pending impartial audits and investigations. I do not trust them with taking the census over with our taxpayer money. I don't trust them with our taxpayer money. Face up to the allegations against them and get it resolved before taxpayers get any more involved with them. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck,
hello. Stop protecting your political buddies. You work for us, the people. Investigate.

Eight, redistribution of wealth. No, no, no. I work for my money. It is mine. I have always worked for people with more money than I have because they gave me jobs. That is the only redistribution of wealth that I will support. I never got a job from a poor person. Why do you want me to hate my employers? Why -- what do you have against shareholders making a profit?

Nine, charitable contributions. Although I never got a job from a poor person, I have helped many in need. Charity belongs in our local communities, where we know our needs best and can use our local talent and our local resources. Butt out, please. We want to do it ourselves.

Ten, corporate bailouts. Knock it off. Sink or swim like the rest of us. If there are hard times ahead, we'll be better off just getting into it and letting the strong survive. Quick and painful. Have you ever ripped off a Band-Aid? We will pull together. Great things happen in America under great hardship. Give us the chance to
innovate. We cannot disappoint you more than you have disappointed us.

Eleven, transparency and accountability. How about it? No, really, how about it? Let's have it. Let's say we give the buzzwords a rest and have some straight honest talk. Please try -- please stop manipulating and trying to appease me with clever wording. I am not the idiot you obviously take me for. Stop sneaking around and
meeting in back rooms making deals with your friends. It will only be a prelude to your criminal investigation. Stop hiding things from me.

Twelve, unprecedented quick spending. Stop it now. Take a breath. Listen to the people. Let's just slow down and get some input from some nonpoliticians on the subject. Stop making everything an emergency. Stop speed reading our bills into law. I am not an activist. I am not a community organizer. Nor am I a terrorist, a militant or a violent person. I am a parent and a grandparent. I work. I'm busy. I'm busy. I am busy, and I am tired. I thought we elected competent people to take care of the business of government so that we could work, raise our families, pay our
bills, have a little recreation, complain about taxes, endure our hardships, pursue our personal goals, cut our lawn, wash our cars on the weekends and be responsible contributing members of society and teach our children to be the same all while living in the home of the free and land of the brave.

I entrusted you with upholding the Constitution. I believed in the checks and balances to keep from getting far off course. What happened? You are very far off course. Do you really think I find humor in the hiring of a speed reader to intelligently ramble all through a bill that you signed into law without knowing what it contained? I do not. It is a mockery of the responsibility I have entrusted to you. It is a slap in the face. I am not laughing at your arrogance. Why is it that I feel as if you would not trust me to make a single decision about my own life and how I would live it but you should expect that I should trust you with the debt that you have laid on all of us and our children. We did not want the TARP bill. We said no. We would repeal it if we could. I am sure that we still cannot. There is such urgency and recklessness in all of the recent spending.

From my perspective, it seems that all of you have gone insane. I also know that I am far from alone in these feelings. Do you honestly feel that your current pursuits have merit to patriotic Americans? We want it to stop. We want to put the brakes on
everything that is being rushed by us and forced upon us. We want our voice back. You have forced us to put our lives on hold to straighten out the mess that you are making. We will have to give up our vacations, our time spent with our children, any relaxation time we may have had and money we cannot afford to spend on you to bring
our concerns to Washington. Our president often knows all the right buzzword is unsustainable. Well, no kidding. How many tens of thousands of dollars did the focus group cost to come up with that word? We don't want your overpriced words. Stop treating us like we're morons.

We want all of you to stop focusing on your reelection and do the job we want done, not the job you want done or the job your party wants done. You work for us and at this rate I guarantee you not for long because we are coming. We will be heard and we will be represented. You think we're so busy with our lives that we will
never come for you? We are the formerly silent majority, all of us who quietly work , pay taxes, obey the law, vote, save money, keep our noses to the grindstone and we are now looking up at you. You have awakened us, the patriotic spirit so strong and so powerful that it had been sleeping too long. You have pushed us too far. Our numbers are great. They may surprise you. For every one of us who
will be there, there will be hundreds more that could not come. Unlike you, we have their trust. We will represent them honestly, rest assured. They will be at the polls on voting day to usher you out of office. We have cancelled vacations. We will use our last few dollars saved. We will find the representation among us and a
grassroots campaign will flourish. We didn't ask for this fight. But the gloves are coming off. We do not come in violence, but we are angry. You will represent us or you will be replaced with someone who will. There are candidates among us when he will rise like a Phoenix from the ashes that you have made of our constitution.

Democrat, Republican, independent, libertarian. Understand this. We don't care. Political parties are meaningless to us. Patriotic Americans are willing to do right by us and our Constitution and that is all that matters to us now. We are going to fire all of you who abuse power and seek more. It is not your power. It is ours and
we want it back. We entrusted you with it and you abused it. You are dishonorable. You are dishonest. As Americans we are ashamed of you. You have brought shame to us. If you are not representing the wants and needs of your constituency loudly and consistently, in spite of the objections of your party, you will be fired. Did you hear? We no longer care about your political parties. You need to be loyal to us, not to them. Because we will get you fired and they will not save you. If you do or can represent me, my issues, my views, please stand up. Make your identity known. You need to make some noise about it. Speak up. I need to know who you are. If you do not speak up, you will be herded out with the rest of the sheep and we will
replace the whole damn congress if need be one by one. We are coming. Are we coming for you? Who do you represent? What do you represent? Listen. Because we are coming. We the people are coming.
THAT IS THE END OF THE FORWARD I RECEIVED!

It's a letter but it's a start. Who is this woman and why is the letter not signed? Glenn Beck probably wrote it but It does not matter. It needs to be done. There should be a non-violent revolution before it becomes a violent revolution. Every time a Senator or Representative comes up for election or re-election the people who desire a change from the way things are run in DC should nominate one or more candidates for that position. I doubt very seriously that even if this was a working class, middle class, smaller government grassroots effort that everyone would agree on one candidate, but the fewer the better. All of the people who feel this way should vote for them. No need for fundraising or campaign contributions for advertisements. People should tell others, convert them, vote for a change. If one or two would actually get elected it might scare the hell out of some of the other anyway. But, to avoid a total breakdown of the government as it is we have to elect people who will actually represent us. Not vote for a party face who is the closest thing to what we want. I wish that would happen, but to many people want different things. I want smaller government, but the only thing I think about abortion is that that is not the governments job. The earth may be warming but I don't thing humans contributed nearly enough to cause it, and if it is happening, It will not be stopped by throwing money at it. I do not care who comes into this country to work as long as they are legal, pay the same taxes I do and do not get special treatment or program money. I also think that there should be a flat tax , around 15% that applied to everyone. No deductions for anything. If the government can't get by on that then shrink the government. I have a lot more ideas but I save them for now.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

This is a Crazy Stock Market

At this time, the stock market is plain crazy. 2 days ago I read that MTXX the company that makes Zycam nasal spray was in trouble. The nasal spray with Zinc in it was causing people to lose their sense of smell and was being recalled. You would think this bit of news would hurt a corporation. So I decided to short that Companies stock. Well, the stock just kept going up. It went up a dollar a share in just 2 days. Well, I played the waiting game to cover and finally today at lunchtime it started going down. So, I went back to work (a 10 min. drive) and by the time I got back to work it was halfway back up. I guess I will play the waiting game. Just goes to show you, nothing is a sure thing in this crazy market.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Making Money

Today I was checking my email and I opened a report from my sitecounter. It says I have had several visitors this month even though I have not posted anything new in a while. Now I realize that my site is pretty eclectic, I generally write about what is on my mind. But usually there is a central theme. I want to make more money so that I can retire early. I post about Thailand because my wife is a Thai citizen even though we have Been married for 15 years (I will explain why another day), but I have a contingency plan is to retire in Thailand. I post about politics and the economy because they both effect my goals.

Generally my goals are to make money. I have several sources of income besides my full time job. I wrote recently about getting into the stock market and I must say it is the best thing I have ever done. On a good day I make more than I do at work. On a bad day I may lose a little bit but the profits outweigh the losses probably 10:1. For every $1000 i make I may lose $100. I posted about buying Ford stock, best move I ever made. I bought in at around 1.00 per share and it is around 6.00 a share. I have not sold yet b ut that is the exception to the rule. In this market (and I don't know how much longer it will last). Fundamentals are out the window. I usually buy small caps less than 10 dollars and keep them until they gain 20-30%. If they are losers I will sell when I lose around 10%. There is a lot more to it than that but I am saving my secrets to wealth in case I want to write a book. I have been doing a lot a reading on making money especially from one incredible author. I am not going to reveal his name now because I may want to have an affiliate link on this page in the near future. So at that time you can all go out and read his books. The put making lots of money in the simplest of terms but in ways you never thought of before. I have not yet put all of his methods to work for me but if I keep making money in the stock market I will be using his other techniques very soon. One piece of advice I will give you (not from a book) is check out all the biotech stocks that are working on the H1N1 virus, since the WHO has labeled it a pandemic every one and his brother will be racing to get that first vaccine approved by the FDA. Then they will get gobbled up by the big drug companies.

Speaking of drug companies, Bestmedicationstation (the only online prescription company I use) is doing better than ever. As a matter of fact I ordered medicine for my lower back pain yesterday and received it by FedEx today. I love overnight shipping. The prices are reasonable because you do not have to leave work to go see a doctor and the consultation is FREE. You just fill out a medical questionnaire (and be honest) and a certified MD approves it, a licensed pharmacist fills it and you get it the next day. Just click here and you are on your way. It is simple, it is legal and they send you reminders when you a due for a refill (but they don't harass you). I have been using them for about 3 years and I have never been disappointed. They deliver to you your door, your place of business, and even the FedEx store and they will sign for you. Check it out they have hundreds of medications. You cant go wrong. Till next time. Make money and Get Rich! Next time I will tell you how to get the get the best get rich books.

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

AL FRANKEN TRYING TO STEAL SENATE SEAT

As a comedian and writer on Saturday Night Live I thought Al Franken was a brilliant comedian and loved his skits. However, in the last few years he has flaunted his ultra-liberal positions in our faces. Now I will tell you, I do not consider myself a Republican or Democrat. I vote on the issues. There is no black or white only shades of grey. I believe most of Americans either slightly conservative or slightly liberal, not extremist like Franken and Limbaugh. I am slightly conservative but am liberal on some issues. Anyway, I do not like the way Franken is trying to get into the Senate; therefore, I just wanted the populus to know what is going on in Minnesota.

ST. PAUL – In a brazen attempt to stop validly cast ballots from being counted, the Al Franken for Senate campaign today (January 26) filed a brief asking that the three judge panel to not allow for previously rejected absentee ballots to be reviewed, opened and counted. The Franken campaign had previously sought the review of these ballots, but now oppose counting validly cast ballots while. The Coleman campaign strongly opposes this motion as it will disenfranchise the thousands of Minnesotans whose absentee ballots were rejected.

“Minnesotans should be outraged by the effort to disenfranchise thousands of Minnesotans who wanted their voices heard on Election Day,” said Cullen Sheehan, campaign manager. “It was our hope that the Franken campaign would join us in enfranchising Minnesota voters, and join with us to see that these ballots are reviewed. Unfortunately, they are aggressively making every effort to keep the people of Minnesota – regardless of their political affiliation or who they voted for – from having their votes reviewed and possibly counted.”

On January 23, 2009, the Coleman campaign filed a reverse class action suit on behalf of the nearly 12,000 voters who had their absentee ballots rejected. The suit means that in addition to the 64 individuals supporting Mr. Franken who already filed a suit, every one of the nearly 12,000 voters would receive the same equal protection under the law to have their votes reviewed and potentially counted.

This weekend Senator Coleman wrote to Mr. Franken asking him to join the Coleman campaign effort to see that all legally cast ballots are counted during the election contest while the campaign released a webvideo calling on Franken to renew his pledge to see that every validly cast Minnesota ballot is counted. The video can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/colemanforsenate. From the Fargo Forum.

ST. PAUL – Feburary 24-Al Franken’s campaign now wants to remove a pile of northwestern Minnesota ballots from the U.S. Senate election tally as Norm Coleman’s team nears the end of its court case. The Democrat’s campaign said 61 Becker County ballots should be removed from the election tally because local officials did not follow state law about ballot documentation and storage. New evidence was found in recent weeks indicating the votes, which favored Coleman, should not have been counted, Franken’s campaign said Monday. That is among arguments Franken attorneys will make in their case before the three-judge panel presiding over the election trial, which is in its fifth week. From the Fargo Forum