Time & Money: How Money Works - A Seminar for Anyone Struggling in this Economy

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Comment by David Gardner on July 23, 2010 at 11:30am

Part II of the essay below (got cut off by the application):

Could this happen in Tracy? Possibly.

Here's the deal. I had two seminars (one in June and one last week) that talked about "Time and Money: How Money Works" at the Altamont Cowork Facility here in Tracy. I tried to advertise it in the Tracy Press... but now that they print their paper only ONCE A WEEK.... they printed the damn ad one day AFTER I had already presented the seminar (last Friday). And, to make matters worse, they changed the date of the event to TONIGHT! July 23.

So... even though I hadn't planned on putting on the seminar tonight. I will. An encore performance.

I called my colleagues down in San Jose... and told them that the newspaper made a mistake and announced the seminar for tonight. So they are driving over the hill (Sunol Grade and Altamont Pass) to be here tonight for the seminar.

Here are the specifics:

"Time and Money: How Money Works"
Doors open at 6:30pm, seminar starts PROMPTLY at 7:00pm

Altamont Cowork Facility
95 W 11th Street (across 11th street from Tracy Inn -- park in the Sergio's Parking Lot behind the building.... doors on east or west side of building will have signs with directions to get upstairs).
More info:
http://altamontcowork.com/blog/altwork-u/

I'm hoping that you might take this opportunity to see me present a seminar on the "Rule of 72" and how you might be able to use it to YOUR advantage! Bring a notepad and pen/pencil.... you will find the info useful.

Best regards,
Dave Gardner
http://www.squidoo.com/home_economics

Comment by David Gardner on July 23, 2010 at 11:27am

On the news the other night, we saw that in a town called "Bell" in southern California (near L.A.), the city officials (police chief) are making $400,000/year and the city *manager* was making almost $800,000 per year!

How did this happen? Especially since when they got their *jobs* they were signed on for about $72,000 per year?

Somehow, those savvy officials understood the "Rule of 72" and got a darn-good lawyer to fill out their *contract* with that understanding that seemingly everyone in the town (or the city council) approved WITHOUT really understanding. What was really nasty.... was that their contracts specified that they would get an ANNUAL 12% raise!

What is this "Rule of 72"?

Yes, maybe understanding the "Rule of 72" is perhaps a bit more complicated than "How to use soap" or "How to drink coffee" or "How to use makeup" or "How to drink juice".

But let's face it. ALL of us managed to get out of school and get into the workplace. If you are reading this current essay I'm writing, you obviously know how to use a computer. You already have a mortgage or at least pay rent. You already probably have a car. You already go to the grocery store and probably compare prices to make sure you are getting a good deal. You took some time learning how to do what you do for a living. You went to school for a while (was there any guarantee that you'd make money when you got out?). Some of you went for the long-haul and spent another bunch of years in college learning more complicated stuff (are you using it in your current job?).

So, I *DO* think that folks out there (at least those reading this essay) are *SMART* enough to understand the "Rule of 72" and the implications it has for many of the things that hit them in life--in particular, their insurance (car/home/life), their credit-cards (have you seen the new rules put into place by congress and what the stinking credit card companies are scrambling to do to protect their money-making machine?), and their mortgages. Oh... and did you hear this one (on the news last night)? General Motors (you know, the FAILING car company that got BAILED OUT by OUR TAX MONEY) has now BOUGHT a FINANCIAL LENDING COMPANY ... that they will use to make loans ON THEIR CARS. They have just bought a MONEY MACHINE!

How so?

The "Rule of 72"? It is this: Take ANY interest rate... and divide 72 by it. (72/interest%) This equals THE NUMBER OF YEARS it will take for the money involved to DOUBLE. So, in the case of the city officials mentioned above, if you take their 12% annual raise... and divide it into 72... the money they started at will DOUBLE EVERY *SIX* years! So... that fellow making $72,000 would be making $144,000 six years later. Six years after that, his income would be DOUBLE AGAIN... at $288,000. Six years later, it would be $576,000... and six more years... it would be $1,152,000 per YEAR.

And... what's worse, is that included in the contract for these "city officials" was a clause that stated that if they were forced to resign or retired, they would get $600,000 per year from THEN ON!

Good GRIEF! Didn't the City Council have enough brains to read the CONTRACTS? According to the lawyers down there in L.A., the contracts are LEGAL and BINDING. So, the moneys have to be PAID. By the taxpayers! Whether the folks continue to be employed or if they get CANNED... they still get the gravy train!

If ONLY all the rest of us could have deals like that! Many of us have had jobs (when we HAD THEM), where we went many, many years without raises. Or, maybe we've had to change jobs frequently to keep increasing our incomes to go along with inflation (there's another nasty thing that uses the "Rule of 72").

What the TV news posted last night was in this same city ("Bell"), there's 16-18% unemployment. Many foreclosures. And, there's a "Food-bank" set up across the street from City Hall that has a line going around the block on food-distribution day.