Friday Night Rates...

Most (especially my wife) will find tonight edition on the low end of boring but oh well...

Interesting week, albeit seemingly uneventful, in the financial worlds.  The stock market continues to make new ALL-TIME highs and continues with its 5 year bull market without much logic (in my humble not expert opinion).  Interest rates continue to be low since the government continues to print money.  The real estate market is slowing down, at least in the Phoenix market, which tends to lead the national market in both directions.  I'm not saying it's going south just slowing to maybe a more normal level.  Unemployment still troubles me and gives me pause with respect to the economy as a whole...

Back the rate issue and the government printing money - a while ago I read an article that was an eye-opener for me.  I always thought that China was the biggest lender to the United States, or at least that's what the media led me and the rest of the US to believe.  In actuality, the biggest lender is the United States itself.  The Federal Reserve (The Fed) controls roughly 40% of the US Debt and growing like crazy through various agencies, a staggering amount in my opinion.  So how much does China hold???  Roughly 8%, foreign governments all put together to hold greater than 50% but the whole story was certainly an eye-opener.

World of Low Rates..
Low rates over the last four years have certainly helped the "borrowers" out there at the expense of the "Savers."  I'm definitely in the "borrower" category at this stage in my life with a mortgage and car loans and and as such have benefited, however working in the banking business I see our elderly customers who have saved all there life only now being forced to live on rates at all time historic lows.  In one respect they may have a decent amount of change in the bank that they could dip into to meet their needs but on the other hand most just try and live on what they receive.  It doesn't quite seem fair when the whole problem was started by the borrowers borrowing more than they should have and lenders (not me nor my employer) exacerbating the issue.  Ultimately, I hope the rate environment normalizes so the savers get a little more in their pockets and the economy gets on more stable footing for the long-term.

Tutu Power - March 2014

Tutu Power - March 2014

About Time....

Well, well, well - I reserved this blog a few years ago with the FULL intention of using it as a place to provide opinions on a variety of money related topics (whether or not anyone wants it), personal thoughts, my family adventures, reviews of things I think are worthwhile and maybe a little venting here and there about this crazy world we live in.  But of course life with two little girls, a wonderful wife, full time job and many "honey dos" has gotten in the way of its progress.

Today, I sit with the rain falling, which has been a rarity this winter in the Phoenix area (71 days since the last rain) and feeling inspired so here we go...

I should note, that anything I post here and in the future is my humble personal opinion and is not the opinion of my employer nor anyone else for that matter. 

About me....

Just kind of a normal guy who's in his mid 30's, rocking the suburbs (yes subtle tribute to Ben Folds) married with a couple of kiddos who can totally relate to this video Dad's Life Video.

I'm definitely a finance guy who's spent his entire career thus far in various jobs in the finance industry (Managing to actually use my college degree...which seems like a rarity these days), the last 9 years for a moderately sized community bank which has really locked me into a career.  I love my job and company, I'm essentially an old fashioned banker looking to develop business in both lending and banking areas but have responsible for a physical bank location and a number of personnel.  Previously, which seems like an eternity ago, I worked in tax accounting for a commercial bank and before that I worked in the investing world for a very large investment company that rhymes with Sheryl Pinch, which was really my first "Grown Up" job, which if nothing else gave me early incite into the investing world at the ripe age of 20.

Personally, I'm a money miser and paying full price for anything is just not in my vocabulary.  But I also like high quality so I will spend (to my wife's dismay) far too much time researching each and EVERY purchase. One of my favorite places to check out is FatWallet.com which I highly recommend everyone check out.
  
                             
Quick tip is to set an alert for anything you need to buy.  Recently I needed a new desktop computer and in my miser ways decided that to get the quality and cost that I wanted I would need to build it myself, bear in mind I'm a banker not really a techie, but I'll leave that whole conversation for another day... anyhow I set alerts for Motherboard (MB), RAM, Hard Drive, Video Card, etc. and Fatwallet will send you and email anytime someone posts a deal mentioning those words.  Now be forewarned you may get a lot of emails (I had the alert "HDTV" set for a couple years until my wife finally let me get a new TV and as you might expect got probably 10 emails a day, which did absolutely no good for for my desire to get that new TV...again a conversation for another day) many of which won't apply but some will be gems and was able to build this PC for 30% less than the parts would have normally cost.  More on deal finding on future posts.

As I mentioned I'm a banker and 80% of my job is lending, all kinds of lending but primarily real estate lending; everything from a personal mortgage to a commercial building I do it all, I have a lot of experience within underwriting (Reviewing the specifics of a loan: credit, income, debt etc.) (I'm always happy to give advice in this regard so feel free to comment or message me if you have questions regarding lending or credit)

I grew up in the Denver area, as such I'm a big fan of Denver sports (all of them), but please keep your Bronco bashing to a minimum 30 other NFL would have loved to get crushed by the Seahawks (or at least that's what I'll continue to tell myself).

I moved to the Valley of the Sun roughly 5.5 years ago as part of my banks expansion to area and live in the southeastern suburb of Chandler.  Having grown up in Denver it was quite the change but one I've thoroughly enjoyed.  My uncle tells me I've ruined my retirement to which I politely respond there's always Hawaii.  And given the CRAZY cold across the entire county this winter I'll take my 71 rain-less days in a row.  As they say here "you don't have to shovel the sunshine."

With that I'll click "post" and so the blog begins...

(Two of the 3 loves of my life - Daddy Daughter Date (DDD) February 2014)