Forward Ever Forward » Money

FW: The 10¢ Mistake

Paul — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 13:32:49 +0000

When young F. W. Woolworth was a store clerk, he tried to convince his boss to have a ten-cent sale to reduce inventory.

The boss agreed, and the idea was a resounding success. This inspired Woolworth to open his own store and price items at a nickel and a dime. He needed capital for such a venture, so he asked his boss to supply the capital for part interest in the store.

His boss turned him down flat. “The idea is too risky,” he told Woolworth. “There are not enough items to sell for five and ten cents.” Woolworth went ahead without his boss’s backing and he not only was successful in his first store, but eventually he owned a chain of F. W. Woolworth stores across the nation. Later, his former boss was heard to remark, “As far as I can figure out, every word I used to turn Woolworth down cost me about a million dollars.”

FW: How To Bring Down The Price of Gasoline

Paul — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 17:50:06 +0000

We’ll show you a gas boycott!

THIS IS NOT THE ‘DON’T BUY’ GAS FOR ONE DAY, BUT IT WILL SHOW YOU HOW WE CAN GET GAS BACK DOWN TO $1.30 PER GALLON.

This was sent by a retired Coca Cola executive. It came from one of his engineer buddies who retired from Halliburton. If you are tired of the gas prices going up AND they will continue to rise this summer, take time to read this please.

Phillip Hollsworth offered this good idea.

This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the “don’t buy gas on a certain day” campaign that was going around last April or May! It’s worth your consideration.

I hear we are going to hit close to $ 4.00 a gallon by next summer and it might go higher!! Want gasoline prices to come down? We need to take some intelligent, united action.

The oil companies just laughed at our NO BUY DAY because they knew we wouldn’t continue to “hurt” ourselves by refusing to buy gas .

It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them. BUT, whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can really work.

By now you’re probably thinking gasoline priced at about $2.00 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently $3.76 at Arco and Costco for regular unleaded and climbing every week.

Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a gallon of gas is CHEAP at $1.50 – $1.75, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the market-place..not the sellers.

The only way we are going to see the price of gas come down is if we hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas! And, we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves.

How? We CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act together to force a price war.

Here’s the idea: For the rest of this year, DON’T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies which at this time are EXXON and MOBIL.

If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit.

But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon and Mobil gas buyers. It’s really simple to do! Now, don’t wimp out on me at this point…keep reading and I’ll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!

I am sending this note to 30 people. If each of us send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300)… and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000)… and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth group of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers. If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted!

Acting together we can make a difference. You have only the rights you are willing to fight for!

FW: The $2 Bill—Everyone should start carrying them!

Paul — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 06:00:24 +0000

I am STILL laughing!! I think we need to quit saving our $2 bills and bring them out in public. The younger generation doesn’t know they exist.

On my way home from work, I stopped at Taco Bell for a quick bite to eat. In my billfold are a $50 bill and a $2 bill. I figure that with a $2 bill, I can get something to eat and not have to worry about anyone getting irritated at me for trying to break a $50 bill.

Me: “Hi, I’d like one seven-layer burrito please, to go.”

Server: “That’ll be $1.04. Eat in?”

Me: “No, it’s to go.” At this point, I open my billfold and hand him the $2 bill. He looks at it kind of funny.

Server: “Uh, hang on a sec, I’ll be right back.”

He goes to talk to his manager, who is still within my earshot. The following conversation occurs between the two of them:

Server: “Hey, you ever see a $2 bill?”

Manager: “No. A what?”

Server: “A $2 bill. This guy just gave it to me.”

Manager: “Ask for something else. There’s no such thing as a $2 bill.”

Server: “Yeah, thought so.”

He comes back to me and says, “We don’t take these Do you have anything else?”

Me: “Just this fifty. You don’t take $2 bills? Why?”

Server: “I don’t know.”

Me: “See here where it says legal tender?”

Server: “Yeah.”

Me: “So, why won’t you take it?”

Server: “Well, hang on a sec.”

He goes back to his manager, who has been watching me like I’m a shoplifter, and says to him, “He says I have to take it.”

Manager: “Doesn’t he have anything else?”

Server: “Yeah, a fifty. I’ll get it and you can open the safe and get change ”

Manager: “I’m not opening the safe with him in here.”
Server: “What should I do?”

Manager: “Tell him to come back later when he has real money.”

Server: “I can’t tell him that! You tell him.”

Manager: “Just tell him.”

Server: “No way! This is weird. I’m going in back.”

The manager approaches me and says, “I’m sorry, but we don’t take big bills this time of night.”

Me: “It’s only seven o’clock! Well then, here’s a two dollar bill.”

Manager: “We don’t take those, either.”

Me: “Why not?”

Manager: “I think you know why.”

Me: “No really, tell me why.”

Manager: “Please leave before I call mall security.”

Me: “Excuse me?”

Manager: “Please leave before I call mall security.”

Me: “What on earth for?”

Manager: “Please, sir.”

Me: “Uh, go ahead, call them.”

Manager: “Would you please just leave?”

Me: “No.”

Manager: “Fine — have it your way then.”

Me: “Hey, that’s Burger King, isn’t it?”

At this point, he backs away from me and calls mall security on the phone around the corner. I have two people staring at me from the dining area, and I begin laughing out loud, just for effect. A few minutes later this 45-year-oldish guy
Comes in.

Guard: “Yeah, Mike, what’s up?”

Manager (whispering): “This guy is trying to give me some (pause) funny money.”

Guard: “No kidding! What?”

Manager: “Get this .. A two dollar bill.”

Guard (incredulous): “Why would a guy fake a two dollar bill?”

Manager: “I don’t know. He’s kinda weird. He says the only other thing he has is a fifty.”

Guard: “Oh, so the fifty’s fake!”

Manager: “No, the two dollar bill is.”

Guard: “Why would he fake a two dollar bill?”

Manager: “I don’t know! Can you talk to him, and get him out of here?”

Guard: “Yeah.”

Security Guard walks over to me and……

Guard: “Mike here tells me you have some fake bills you’re trying to use.”

Me: “Uh, no.”

Guard: “Lemme see ‘em.”

Me: “Why?”

Guard: “Do you want me to get the cops in here?”

At this point I am ready to say, “Sure, please!” but I want to eat, so I say “I’m just trying to buy a burrito and pay for it with this two dollar bill.

I put the bill up near his face, and he flinches like I’m taking a swing at him. He takes the bill, turns it over a few times in his hands, and says, “Hey, Mike, what’s wrong with this bill?”

Manager: “It’s fake.”

Guard: “It doesn’t look fake to me.”

Manager: “But it’s a two dollar bill.”

Guard: “Yeah?”

Manager: “Well, there’s no such thing, is there?”

The security guard and I both look at him like he’s an idiot, and it dawns on the guy that he has no clue.

So, it turns out that my burrito was free, and he threw in a small drink and some of those cinnamon thingies, too.

Made me want to get a whole stack of two dollar bills just to see what happens when I try to buy stuff. If I got the right group of people, I could probably end up in jail. You get free food there, too.

FW: 2009s Biggest Real Estate Flops

Paul — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 06:00:23 +0000

Editor’s Note: As usual, this was sent to us via a forwarded email. However, we don’t know the source of this article. We would like to give credit to the site that created this article. If anyone knows the website of this article please let us know and we will add it. Thanks!

The Biggest Real Estate Flops of 2009
by Jason Notte
Tuesday, December 15, 2009

The high-end real estate market hit new lows this year as multimillion-dollar properties failed to attract buyers even after huge discounts.

New-home sales rose 24% and pending home sales jumped 32% in October from a year earlier, but estates with wine cellars, infinity pools and servants’ quarters saw their prices drop 7%. Basketball star Shaquille O’Neal and rapper 50 Cent were among the bigger names to take losses or pull their homes off the market.

Some luxury sellers are still weathering the storm. While the former home of the Detroit Lions took perhaps the biggest beating of the year, the former mailing addresses of Leona Helmsley, Nicolas Cage and Bernie Madoff still have no takers. Here are five property duds whose oversized infamy was matched by their inflated price tags:

1. Dunnellen Hall

Location: Greenwich, Conn.
Price: $60 million

When we first wrote about this property in October, the price had been recently slashed from $75 million. That doesn’t seem bad until you consider that it hit the market at $125 million last year. Nevermind that Leona Helmsley billed her husband’s Manhattan real estate firm for renovations to the estate’s 14 bedrooms, two pools, multiple cottages and million-dollar dance floor with funds and later did time for it. This Jacobean manse is a monument to the sluggish luxury home market in Greenwich, where sales during the first nine months of 2009 were down 46% from the same time last year.

2. Nic Cage’s homes
Locations: New Orleans; Bel Air, Calif.; Rhode Island; New York; the Bahamas; Bath, England
Price: Roughly $56 million combined

When you’re more than $6 million in the red and forced to unload nearly every home you own, suddenly a starring role in The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans doesn’t look so bad. Even if it’s the business manager’s fault, as Cage claims, his homes have been moving like items in a Wal-Mart pre-holiday sale — quickly and cheaply. His two homes in “port of call” New Orleans were appraised at $3.7 million and $3.45 million, but only fetched $4.5 million combined at a foreclosure auction last month. Meanwhile, his Bel Air mansion was on the market for $35 million before its price was dropped to $17.5 million. It sold for an estimated $15 million. His $9 million apartment in New York fetched $7 million, and he still may need to sell his $8 million castle in Bath, his $12 million home in Rhode Island and his $9.49 million home in Las Vegas just to make ends meet.

3. Emerald Caye

Location: Turks and Caicos
Price: $48.5 million

As shaky as the luxury housing’s foundation is, it’s firm bedrock compared to the drowning private island market. This 30,000-square-foot property on 2.32 acres of island accessible only by a remote-controlled swing bridge was on the market for $75 million last year, but cut its price 35%. As tough as it must have been to discount a three-story library, 6,000 bottle wine cellar, home theater, fitness room, two swimming pools, tennis and volleyball courts, two boat slips and two guesthouses, that’s just the way things have been for private island sellers this year.

Nick Hexum of reggae-rock band 311 put his 5.5-acre island in the Florida Keys on the market for $10 million in 2006, but cut the price to $3.85 million this year. The still unsold 1,235-acre Nafsika Island in Greece’s Ionian Sea was offered by the Onassis family for more than $21 million before its price was cut in half.

4. Any Bernie Madoff home
Locations: The Hamptons, Manhattan and Palm Beach, Fla.
Prices: $9.4 million, $8.9 million and $7.9 million

Unlike Cage, Madoff is at least assured a home once all his property is sold. From the cozy confines of his federal prison cell in Butner, N.C., Madoff watched as his creditors got $9.41 million from the sale of his Montauk, N.Y., home in October. That was more than the $8.75 million asking price, but it falls short of repaying the $65 million he took (never mind the more than $21 billion in investor losses).

Madoff’s 4,000-square-foot condo in an Upper East Side co-op has been reduced from $9.9 million to $8.9 million, while the 8,700-square-foot Palm Beach house Madoff valued at $11 million was offered for $8.49 million before dropping to $7.9 million.

5. The Pontiac Silverdome
Location: Pontiac, Mich.
Price: $583,000

When Hulk Hogan bodyslammed Andre the Giant here during Wrestlemania III in 1987, it probably didn’t hurt nearly as much as the stadium’s selling price hurt Pontiac. The enclosed stadium, the home of the Detroit Lions and Pistons, cost $55.7 million to build before opening in 1975. Adjusted for inflation, that would be $220 million today.

With all due respect to Michigan’s struggles with the auto industry, a used car salesman would make more selling a 1975 AMC Gremlin than the 0.01% return Pontiac got when a Canadian developer won the Silverdome auction with a $583,000 bid last month. This was the home of Super Bowl XVI.

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FW: Money Angel

Paul — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:01:13 +0000

There are four things that you cannot recover in life:

(1) The Stone……….after it’s thrown,
(2) The Word………….after it’s said,
(3) The Occasion….after it’s missed, and
(4) The Time…………after it’s gone.

MONEY ANGEL

This is a money angel.. Pass it to 6 of your good friends or family and be rich in 4 days. Pass it to 12 of your good friends or family and be rich in 2 days.

Hold Your Breath !!!!

Fw: Check your credit card statements

Paul — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 07:01:16 +0000

Sent in by: Anna

Source: Boston.com

Several Internet complaint boards are filled with comments from credit card customers from coast to coast who have noticed a mysterious charge for about 25 cents on their statements.

Two theories of what is going on have advanced on message boards and among consumer advocates: Someone is trying to find out whether an illegally obtained credit card number will work before making a bigger charge, or they’re trying to rip off tiny amounts from tons of people.

The latter theory has more credibility at the moment. The Better Business Bureau in Louisville reports that, at least so far, those who have been hit with the small charge have yet to get slammed with a bigger charge. The bureau speculates that the number of possible victims could be in the millions.

It’s not clear how the numbers got in the hands of the people making the charge, but consumer advocates say it is most likely through either a data theft or someone using a computer to generate numbers.

Former Massachusetts assistant attorney general Edgar Dworsky, who runs ConsumerWorld.org, said the scam reminded him of an old adage: “It’s easier to steal $1 from a million people than $1 million from one person,” he said.

Most people, Dworsky said, are likely to overlook or ignore the small charge. “Isn’t that the perfect scam, when the victim doesn’t even know something has been taken?” he said.

Take a look at your credit card statements, and if the charge is there, don’t let it slide. It’s what the thieves want you to do. Instead, file a dispute with your credit card company, and lodge complaints with the Federal Trade Commission (www.ftc.gov) and the Internet Crime Complaint Center (www.ic3.gov) – which is run by the FBI, the National White Collar Crime Center, and the Bureau of Justice Assistance. Federal law enforcement officials tend to react when the complaints reach a certain volume.

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Forward Ever Forward » Money

FW: The 10¢ Mistake

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FW: Money Angel

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Fw: Check your credit card statements

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