How low have we gone? Are we running so badly at this moment in time as a global economy that any news that isn’t bad news automatically gets translated as good news? There is an expectation among investors that the financial indicators of this week are weak, even bland, but better than expected. Perhaps such a sentiment could spur investors into loosening those purse strings and that won’t be such a bad thing at all, even if the results themselves weren’t something to thump your chest over and go to town singing songs of glee. It’s quite clearly a case of once bitten, twice shy. Investors that have already been burnt once really don’t want to see any of their money evaporate into a lot of nothingness a second time around. The brunt of this has been borne by stocks globally as [...]

I wouldn’t want to name the professor and the institute, but if our universities have such law professors I would rather prefer not to educate my kids. A law professor in Arizona teaches his students to walk away from the house and refuse repaying mortgage even if it loan amount exceeds one dollar than the current house value. Wow! What an insightful thought. And he wants the kids to be proud about it rather than guilty. Is he trying to be witty? Or may be he is simply foolish? I don’t know about his wittiness or foolishness but he is definitely trying to be famous around the globe. At least that’s what you can conclude from the new educational paper he has released that urges more than 15 million American citizens to stop paying mortgage amount because it is not worth than the [...]

Fall is the time when some really good books come your way, but coming to know the best of them takes time and effort from your end and a busy person like you might not have the time for that.  Smart Money writers have done the research for you and have come up with 7 best books that are a must read this year! Check them out: ADLAND - James P. Othmer Othmer’s ADLAND is an entertaining memoir about his experiences in the advertising world. As you and I might think, the advertising world is far from being glamorous. The job is a highly stress filled one. Othmer talks about the benefits of branding. He gives an entertaining account of how advertising cleverly manipulates us to get its profits. According to Kirkus Reviews - “Othmer uses his often hilarious experiences to discuss the [...]

Hey Mint users, you had requested Mint to come up with a good iPhone Application updates that you could use for your iPhones and they have really done a good job at that. They have come up with the most widely demanded features from its members, though they have rightly not incorporated each and every feature that was requested by you which would only overload their application. Just check these features when you visit their website. The new features include security enhancements, transactions editing and real time notification as the broad categories. Just check these features for yourself! Security Enhancement You wanted to have that special Mint.com four digit password to protect your device right? Now you can do that with the new application updates. Also you could also use your [...]

Hey guys, wash away all those apprehensions you had about Intuit taking over Mint! In the past few days, Mint users were very concerned about their databases that contained vital information about their finances being shared with a third party. But now it looks as though, they can breathe easy. An assuring note from Scott Cook, Founder, Intuit, has just come in on Mint Blog. Cook is all impressed with Mint. If you can see, the reason for this merger was the better features, management and services of Mint over the Intuit product Quicken that bowled over Intuit and they thought of acquiring Mint. The latter, on the other hand, is more than pleased to get a wider platform for canvassing. So the symbiosis is going to be a huge success, as I can see! Cook felt that his Quicken was sort of outdated [...]

“Hello…Please may I help you?” is an attractive voice that I get to hear from the AT & T customer care wing when I call up with queries regarding my bills and usage statistics. Quite contented with the very impressive services provided by the company, I hardly bother to know what other guys in the industry are doing. But you might not be as lucky as I am, even with AT&T. This is when you might want to look for other providers and see what they have to offer. Leading financial website Billshrink has conducted a survey on the usage and cost statistics of mobile phone wireless service providers and came up a comparison which is quite useful in understanding the general trends of mobile phone usage behavior. Billshrink has conducted study on five areas of wireless mobile phone [...]

Owners have always been looked upon as monsters that are always after tenants for their payments. Being a landlord, I know what it feels like when you are labeled a cruel brute that’s insensitive to the hardships of tenants. True, many landlords are like that, but not all. These days, there are quite a few owners who are very considerate to their tenants. Fortunately I believe in being one of them. Let me tell you that it’s not the owner who’s always to blame in the case of a dispute. These days there have been many cases of properties being illegally retained by tenants and some of them with dubious credentials are managing to get a property on rent and are then creating troubles for the landlord in terms of payment of rents, house maintenance etc. So, why shouldn’t we landlords [...]