Steadfast Finances

 Business Trends, Consumer Education, Market Themes, Strategic Planning         8 comments

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Now that the Greater Fool Decade is over, I thought I would dust off my prognosticator hat and do a little strategic planning since we just experienced the stock market’s second worst performing decade ever.
Here are a few of my top, and relatively simple, investing themes for 2010 that will …

 Banking, Lessons Learned, Peer to Peer Lending         3 comments

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Banking is supposed to be boring. There, I said it.
I’m not a banker, nor will I likely ever be one in the future (unless my P2P lending plan works out supremely well), but as I’ve mentioned several times, banking is all about the boring ol’ 3-6-3 rule.
Bring in deposits …

 Administration, Financial Crisis, Mortgages, Peer to Peer Lending         2 comments

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I’m concerned about the growing number of prime borrowers who are delinquent on their mortgages. According to Wall Street traders and pundits, we still have a decent chance seeing a double bottom on the S&P 500.  If the short term economic outlook involves anything resembling the phrase “prime mortgage …

 Banking, Business Trends, Peer to Peer Lending         7 comments

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Now this is how you run a solid, old fashioned type of bank. CNBC interviewed a small, community bank CEO (Frank Sorrentino) from North Jersey Community Bank today, and if I was ever fortunate enough to run a bank, this is how I would hope to get it done.
The old …

 Mortgages, Real Estate         2 comments

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According to Deutsche Bank’s research, nearly 50 percent of American homeowners with a mortgage will be underwater by 2011. Pretty scary stuff considering 66% of American’s (or 51.6 million people) have a mortgage on their home.
And you would think we would have this problem solved considering the stock market is …

 Financial Crisis, Mortgages         1 comment

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For anyone that doesn’t understand how the stock market crash and the credit crisis are related to the foreclosures in your neighborhood, this video might be for you.
It clearly shows how one simple family based (sub prime?) mortgage was converted into a “ticking time bomb” after some creative financial processing.  …

 Mortgages         No comments

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Yahoo Personal Finance ran a story late tonight on the impending adjustable rate mortgage foreclosure crisis that sent me into immediate blogging mode.  Something that rarely happens because I generally spend a day or two researching and/or writing the posts here at SF.
But this post doesn’t take a ton of …

 Banking, Mortgages, Real Estate         2 comments

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Seems Mr. Bernanke and The Federal Reserve are hellbent on lowering mortgage lending rates after lowering short term rates to zero this week.
Problem is, 1 in 6 homeowners are underwater (owing more than the home is worth) on their mortgage, and will not have a chance to refinance to a …

 Bargain Hunting, Consumer Education, Real Estate         2 comments

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Every now and again, you stumble across one of those rare comic strips that compresses years of utter stupidity into ingenious simplicity.  At the same time, you hope it grabs your funny bone and gives it a good shake.
I found one of those this week with good ol’ Dilbert.

Now that …