Reading reaction journal 5

Reading reaction journal 5

Reference:

Lsidore, C. (2010, April 21). No fob for years and still looking. CNN.com. Retrieved May 04, 2010 from
http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/21/news/economy/long_term_unemployment/index.htm

Summary:

In this article I read, a person has not been working for about two years. In an investigation report, 44% unemployed have not worked for over six months. This figure has never reached 24%. A woman has never imagined that she would be unemployed for over one year. She expected it to just be six to eight months. According to the article, they think that older workers over the age of 55 years old would have a longer time of being unemployed compared to workers between the age of 24 to 54 years old because older workers have stronger economic support to sustain their live longer than younger workers. A lot of companies also do not want to use older workers.
The long-term unemployment is still increasing as of now. This result is not surprising because the matter of unemployment has not got a solution yet. A lot of unemployed people who are looking for a job, had never thought that they would be unemployed for long time.

Reaction:

The matter of unemployment has existed for a long time and a lot of people still cannot find a job. They do not feel surprise because they are already accustomed to it. I think that unemployed people cannot find a job partly because of their age. Many unemployed people were unemployed in their middle age. This causes the average age of unemployed people to be high. Many companies also do not want to employ people who are middle age or older age, even if they have a lot of work experience. I think that companies do not want to employ older people because they will not work for a long time at the same company. They are likely to employ younger workers than older workers because young people are able to work for a longer time. Young workers also have more energy than older workers and I think this is normal. The government should create benefits for employment of older workers. If companies employ older workers, they are able to get some money to pay off some of the older workers’ salary. In the U.S the unemployed people would take up any job that come their way, but in Taiwan, the unemployed people are choosy when looking for a job. This is because they are particular about the terms and conditions of the job as well as the effect of the job on their health and well being. For example, factory jobs and jobs whereby workers have to rotate or work different shifts. However, there are people in Taiwan who would actually who take up any job no matter how low the pay is or how dangerous it is because, they are poor and need money badly.The government has to solve this matter because if this matter of unemployment is solved, it will solve other matters of society, for example, housing and mortgage. If we want to solve the current financial problems , we have to bring in a source of income for the people.

Reading reaction journal 4

Reading reaction journal 4

Reference:

Updegrave, W. (2010, April 15). In tough rimes, don’t give up on stocks. CNN.com. Retrieved April 26, 2010 from

http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/15/pf/expert/stock_bonds_funds.moneymag/index.htm

Summary:

In the article I read, since two years ago many people look for excuses to hide their financial crisis. Their thought is to not touch stocks or fund of stock because a lot of banks were bankrupt in that year. The economy was on the verge of a meltdown. At that time, many people lost their money in stocks. In fact, stock had a run up of 70%. This leads people to believe that another trouble is going to start. Someone asked an expert a question regarding this matter. The expert answered the question and commented that it is not recommended to give up on stock funds. A lot of people almost change their invest form stock funds to bond funds because of money loss, making people feel uneasy. An important thing to note is how you should handle your investment in times of turbulence within the financial market.


Reaction:

A lot of people lost their money in the stock market two years ago because they believed that the stock would increase even more. Hence, they invested a lot of money on the stock market, but the result is uncontrollable, and they lost a lot of money, including myself. The financial crisis came in soon after stock run up to top. Therefore, this experience tend to make a lot of people feel uneasy because stock run up above 70% in March 2009. People worry that the stock market will go down again. The situation is like two years ago. Many people want to change their stock funds to bond funds because bond funds are much more safe than stock funds. Although bond funds are able to help you to save your money during financial crisis, but the interest is low. If you have some plans to save your money for your retirement, I would not recommend saving money in bond funds. You have to decide on an investment plan or look for someone to help you to decide.
I personally tend to invest in high risk investments when the stock market is in a bad shape because I believe that it would bring in higher return. However, professionals in this field would not approve of such a strategy because the risk is far too high. I would dabble in high risk investment in my country, Taiwan, but I would not do so in the U.S. This is possibly because I am more familiar with the Taiwan stock market than I am with the U.S stock market.
According to the article I read, we have to handle the financial market in times of turbulence, and to not guess oil crisis or financial crisis because a lot of companies still made money during the financial crisis and oil crisis but, a lot of companies were still in a state of bankruptcy when the economy was stable.

Reading reaction journal 3

Reading reaction journal 3

Reference:

Braverman, B. (2010, April 7). 3 great deals to grab now. CNN.com.
Retrieved April 20, 2010 from
http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/07/pf/deals_travel_golf.moneymag/index.htm

Summary:

In the article I read, there are three methods that you can use to get good deals. There are three analogies given to explain how to get discounts. One is airline. They can use the internet to purchase airline tickets instead of getting them at the airline conter. They are able to source for their desired route themselves. They can also get tickets at a half price from dozen cities to Mexico. The other one is appliance. They can use their broken appliances to get a discount when making a purchase. The recycle price is from 50 to 1000 dollars. They can use this discount to replace their appliances, that consumes too much power or is too old. The other is golf. A lot of golf companies try to attract new members by waiving extra charges to use their extra facilities. They can use some discounts that the company does not show on their advertisements, if people want to join as a member.

Reaction:

We are able to use a lot of discounts when we want to buy something we want, but we need to spend time to find discounts or promotions on internet. Sometimes, we can find something online. According the article, we can use our old furniture or appliances to get discounts. Most government advocates use old appliances to change new appliances because some old appliances consume power too much. Therefore, the government encourages people to change new appliances because the new appliances are more power saving than old appliances. Hence, if you want to buy something you find interesting, you have to find some discount or ask your friends. Your friends might be able to give you some good advice and you will be able to spend less money to get the best product you desire.

Reading reaction journal 2

Reading reaction journal 2

Reference:

Ellis, B. (2010, April 1) 6 smart ways to spend your tax refund. CNN.com Retrieved April 6, 2010 from
http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/01/pf/taxes/spend_your_refund/index.htm

Summary:

A lot of Americans have already received their tax refunds, but they should not be too happy too early when they get their tax refunds. They have to think twice before they spend their refunds. There are six ways discussed on how you should spend your tax refunds wisely.
Pay down debt: they have to pay their credit cards bills. They should choose the credit cards bills with the highest interest to pay first. If they have paid off their debt, they will have some extra money to spend on other areas.
Save for a rainy day: they have to put away some money for approximately three month in case they lose their job. If they save their tax refunds to stand by when they are unemployed or something crops up, they will have enough to pay for it.
Invest in yourself: they can learn something good for themselves, if they have spare money on hand not in use, they should use it for investment. This will be another source of income.
Buy something you need: they may have a lot of things that they need, but they should only get what is important and what they really need. If they want to buy everything that they want, then their tax refund will be insufficient.
Have a little fun: they should not always just save their money. They should spend some money for their family and on themselves. Sometimes, they can look for some restaurants with discounts or some shopping malls that are having sales. It is their own money, so they should do something fun for themselves.

Reaction:

There are some ways you can follow to save your tax refund. It is important to use your tax refund wisely. You can just spend your whole tax refund, but you are unable to pay for any impromptu fee. I like all of the points in this article because we will experience a similar situation in our lives. You can plan your tax refund by yourself or get someone to help you. For example, you can approach banks for advice. Although your tax refund is not a lot, the money will help you when you are in need of money. Therefore, we should have a plan on how we should use our extra money and even our tax refund. The extra money saved will come in handy when we are old and unable to work.

Reading reaction journal 1

Reference:
Isidore, C. (2010, March 25) Toyota’s $ 1 billion sales incentive. CNN.com Retrieved Murch 30, 2010 from
http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/25/news/companies/toyota_sales/index.htm
Summary:
According to the article I read, Toyota intends to spend $1 billion to boost their sales as their cars had some problems the previous year; therefore the company has gained a bad reputation. This program would benefit consumers; for example, with zero interest financing, subsidized leases and free maintenance for previous Toyota owners. However, it is hard to improve their reputation. Toyota plans to use some incentive programs to cover the model year and wishes that the incentive program would be able to improve their sales and make up for whatever they lost in the previous year. The cars’ problems have already been solved. Toyota needs to improve their sales, but some people think that 1 billion is not enough to boost sales as the amount is inadequate to meet their target. Some people have estimated that Toyota’s sales will be higher than the previous year. However, the recall is still a problem. This problem benefits customers because they are able to get more discount than before. This plan to boost their sales with one billion would not pose a problem to their financial status. They have always used such incentives to boost their sales.
Reaction:
Toyota is a smart company because they know when it is the correct time to use incentives to boost sales. I like their ideas of incentive because it usually boosts their sales. For this recall problem, they recalled a hundred million cars from all over the world. This recall problem causes Toyota to lose hundreds of millions of dollars because their sales will be affected. Currently, Toyota wants to boost their sales, so, they spent one billion dollars to improve sales. I think that one billion dollars is inadequate to boost their sales because a lot of customers have already lost confidence in Toyota. They need to spend more than one billion to improve their quality and sales. I think that spending ten billion to boost their sales would be ideal because their trademark value is worth over ten billion. It would be hard for Toyota to boost their sales because their trademark image is already very bad. They should spend more time to boost their trademark image instead of planning to use money to boost sales.

rrj5

Reference:
Liberto, J. (2010, February 22). Under 21? Getting a credit card just hot tougher. Cnn.com. Retrieved Mar 2, 2010 from

http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/19/news/economy/student_credit_cards/index.htm

Summary:
Credit card companies need to boost stander about collage student credit. Congress decides a new law to credit card. The law let some students, under 21 more difficult to have credit card than before because they have no stationary income in their live. They are unable to have credit card easy, if they have not their parents to be their guarantor.
Also, credit card companies are unable to give students credit card application form in campus because they give students some gifts when they fill out credit card application form. Therefore, the law also forbids this “inducement” in campus. If students, under age 21 want apply credit card, they have to give some documents about their income. Some students have had loan by credit card. And then they have to pay high interest rate to their credit card. So, their parents have to help to repay their debt. The money usually is from other loan. If the law is pass, a lot of people will not easy to have credit card. Some countries already have the law, forbid fill out credit card application form in campus because students do not need too high cost for their credit. Credit car companies also need to teach student that how correct use credit card.

Reaction:

People usually use credit card to create their credit before they want to borrow money from bank. If you have not any credit in banks, they will not loan money to you. Therefore, correct use credit card will help you a lot when you want to borrow money by banks. Thus, the law is able to help students because the credit cost is lower than before and difficult pass to gad credit card.
A lot of students use credit card often because they pay their food, tuition, book, and clothes. Credit card already become require thing in live. It even replaces real money. We use credit card to pay more than money. But, a lot of students are unable to control when they use credit card shopping. Therefore, produce many problems from credit card because they cannot pay their credit card dill. If they have no enough money to pay bill, the credit card interest rate will let your bill cost to be more.
Many Taiwanese people used to have this problem. Many people are unable to pay their credit card because their credit cost is high. And then they cannot control use credit card. It leads to people to have more and more debt by credit card. At result, a lot of credit card companies have boosted examine of person financial when people apply credit card. And then this problem has already decrease.

RRJ4

Reading reaction journal 4
Reference:
Ellis, D. (2010, February 22) Credit card relief is here, but watch out for new traps. CNN.com Retrieved Feb 17, 2010 from
http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/17/news/companies/credit_card_rules/index.htm
Summary:
in the article, a lot of credit cards companies have some “traps”. Companies will charge some fee from your bills for example, double cycle billing and fee of formalities. Therefore, consumers need to pay attention to the law of credit cards. Now, credit card companies have boost then standard to examine those people who apply for credit cards. It usually focuses on college students, if college students want to apply for a credit card. They have to take their documents about income and saving.
The consumers also do not have something about reward points; if you delay paying your bills. So, one needs to read your credit card rues. It will help you be able to protect your reward point and interest. In terms of interest, one can negotiate with your credit card company about your interest.
Reaction:
A lot of people think that credit cards will become the next financial crisis. Why? Because of bad debt. In research, the U.S. has $200 billion in bad debt from credit cards. A lot of banks worry that a lot of people are unable to pay their credit card bills because they lost then job. And then many college students also too, they have no income to pay their credit card bills. Their credit card bills are usually paid by their parents. Therefore, they will not lose control to use their credit card because they never worry about it. I think that credit card companies have to boost college students credit. Even their parents are their guarantors. This way they are able to reduce risk by bad debt.
Credit card companies also can give their customers a preferential interest rate, if their customers have good credit. I think most customers will like it because they usually use credit cards to buy many things. They deserve to have their preferential interest rank. And then cancel the formalities charge. I think that this fee is not reasonable, because credit card companies already have more income by credit card interest. If they charge this fee, these will be a lot of dispute. Therefore, we have to pay attention to credit card companies. You have to scrutinize to your bills. Perhaps you will discover a lot of fees are not reasonable.