Coupons, More Coupons

In the November 30th Red Eye there is a Golden Nugget coupon. Golden Nugget if a family restaurant with 7 Chicago locations.

Breakfast Specials are available Monday - Friday at all locations $4.99.

There are also Complete Dinner Specials

and a

10% Off Entire Bill or Free Select Dessert coupon.

Red Eye is a free Chicago Publication. Most of its readers are in their 20's and 30's. There are similar publications all over the country.

Also in Red Eye, Grossinger's at 151 N. Fremont, is advertising

2012 Cadillacs for $31,997, 2012 Chevrolet Cruze LS's for $14,495 and Toyota 2011 Corolla's for $14,999. Be sure to comparison shop.

They also have: Build Your Own Coupon

$100 to $199 $15 off service

$200 to $299 $20 off service

etc.

all the way to

$900 or more $100 off

Expires 12/31/11

Black Friday is Pretty Terriffic

My hometown newspaper this week had a large Black Friday supplement. LazZBoy is having a National Thanksgiving Sale 25% off storewide for 4 days Friday, November 25^th to Monday, November 28^th.Carson’s offers a 15% coupon with certain restrictions. There is also a shop online discount code. 50% off all regular price mattresses Sealy Posturpedic, Simmons, Beautyrest and others. Coupon will NOT be in the store. The stores open at 12 am Friday.

Carson’s Door Busters is available until 1 pm Friday. $19.97 reversible down alternative comforter The web item number is listed. Sheets, pillows, towels, luggage, mixers, crock pots, popcorn poppers, slow cookers, toaster ovens, wafflemakers, rechargeable razors, vacuum cleaners, carpet cleaners, play tents, play houses, Wii and Nintendo games, digital camerascookware, kitchen knives, storage sets, glassware, flatware, holiday ornaments, wrapping paper, pre lighted Christmas trees, photo frames, jewelry, boots, socks, gloves, sleepwear, robes, fleece jackets, handbags, jackets, ladies’ outerwear, collegiate fleece, men’s dress shirts, neckwear. You have to read the newspaper supplement because some items are available until Friday at pm and other items are available until Saturday.

Hhgregg offers 24 month special financing. HOWEVER, often with special financing if you are one day late you pay a fee of 23% or more so it is not necessarily worth the risk. The contract is usually difficult to read. They say to Line up Early! Limited Quantities. Doorbusters Midnight to 11 am Friday or while supplies last. Flat screen TV’s, refrigerators, washing machines, dryers, digital cameras, blu ray players, tablets. Inside Hhgegg’s supplement are 2 day offerings including laptops, printers, tablets.

I am watching The Godfather and there is a RadioShack commercial for Shack Friday.

Walgreens offers toys, potted trees, laundry detergent, wine, kitchenware, duffel bags, paper towels, Coca Cola products, beer, grape juice, household cleaners, photo development, socks, holiday cards, Ferrero Rocher, holiday items, digital cameras, computer storage devices, assorted DVD’s, reclining chairs, 3 wheel mobility scooters, fans, makeup, toothbrushes, heating pads, vaporizers, humidifiers, walkers,

Macy’soffers similar items to Carson’s. including bedroom sets, dining sets, recliner chairs, sofas, rugs, and mattresses.

If You Use Peapod You Can Still Save

If you are a first time Peapod user you can receive $15 percent off.

Look for unfamiliar brands for napkins and toilet paper.

When your first order is delivered you will receive a coupon for the next order. For the first 60 days, your delivery charge is free. By then, you have gotten into the habit of using this service. If you order $100 of goods, your delivery charge goes down. Note: you can buy postage stamps if your order hasn’t gone to $100.

You can research the web to look for coupons. Present the coupons to your Peapod delivery person and s/he will deduct the amount from your total fee.

Peapod, I must say, is a luxury. If you are healthy, you may want to go to stores yourself.

Pros and Cons of Renting Your HOme

In response to tough times, you may be thinking about renting out your home. There are plenty of positives.

However, if the renter does something illegal in your home, you are held responsible.

Most people who rent out their homes only think about the payments coming in. Suppose your renter pays $600 per month but causes damage that cost you $2,000 to repair.

Before renting, contact at least 3 real estate agents who find renters for homeowners. Find out what their fees are. How do they look into the renters to determine if they are even responsible enough to consider.

Job Campaign Tips from Turner

Now that the U.S. Mid-term elections are over we can all go back to our everyday lives. In order to be able to save and invest we need a job.

Our main media outlets do not talk nearly enough about China or India. There are a lot of simple things you can do to learn more. Chances are you will report to an Indian or Chinese person at work one of these days. You will have an easier time getting a job if you know a lot about Chinese and Indian current events and culture.

Many cities have Citizens Diplomacy opportunities. A business or a city organization is hosting someone from another country and these people would like to meet Americans over dinner. In Chicago we have World Chicago and the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

Google “Citizens Diplomacy and the Name of Your City”. If you do not obtain useful results contact the Chicago Council on Global Affairs http://www.thechicagocouncil.org/ or the http://www.careers.state.gov/contact.html.

Read The Economist Magazine on a regular basis http://www.economist.com/world/asia/. Check whether your local library (Yes I am sending you to the library) has The Economist in print.

The US State Department has excellent Country information
http://www.state.gov/misc/list/

Here’s something completely different - If you are frustrated over banging your head against the wall consider volunteering overseas for a while. There are numerous organizations that will gladly invite you to work. You will be able to feel useful and gain valuable skills. The cost of living is much lower than here.

PEACE Mexico north of Puerto Vallarta http://www.peacemexico.org/

Entreamigos North of Puerto Vallarta http://entreamigos.org.mx/

The International Friendship Club of Puerto Vallarta does an enormous amount for a large number of local charities http://www.ifcpv.com/

Place Eggs in Different Baskets

In season 4 of Brothers and Sisters, fictional character Holly Harper, who was a shrewd businesswoman, fell for a Ponzi scheme and lost her entire investment. Ponzi Scheme is named for Charles Ponzi a real life person, who in the 1920’s promised investors huge investment returns. He took money from one investor to pay huge returns to an earlier investor. Many investors lost enormous amounts of money. Eventually he was caught.

When I teach Investment classes I talk about Diversification. Many people advise diversification among types of investments. Example – Susie Sincerety invested $25,000 to buy shares of Apple 2 years ago. Her investment doubled and then she sold her shares. 3 months later she invested $50,000 into Apple again not thinking that in a month she needed the money to give her daughter for a deposit on the home she purchased. The home purchase date approached, Apple went down and Susie sold at a loss.*

Diversification – even investments that have once done very well, extremely well can go down when you need the money. Invest in different companies or in different mutual funds. You might have some investments in

Advertising
Food and Beverage
Construction
Consumer Products.
Financial Companies
Pharmaceuticals
Precious Metals
Shipping
Technology
There are MANY other investing categories.

Not everything goes up or down at the same time.

In addition to investing in different types of industries I recommend people divide up the money have invest through different advisors. It takes some time to do this. The first time you invest you will invest through one advisor. Make some money and then invest some of the gains with a different investment company. I talk about diversification and how to choose a financial advisor in much more detail in my upcoming book.

*Please note since 2004 Apple has been one of the most successful stocks in history.

"Wall Street Money Never Sleeps"

I saw “Wall Street Money Never Sleeps” with Michael Douglas, Carey Mulligan, Shia LaBeouf, Susan Sarandon, Frank Langella and Josh Brolin. Depressing. If you do go see it pay special attention to 2 scenes-

1 Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas’ character) speaks before a group of college students. He warns about investing getting out of control. This is one of the few scenes in which financial matters are spoken about in plain English. I talk a lot about investing with moderation in my classes and my upcoming book.

2 Gordon Gekko tells his daughter’s fiancé, Jake (Shia LaBeouf’s character) of the Dutch Tulip bubble in the 1600’s. Investors, or better speculators wildly bet on the price of the tulips going up only to find the price came crashing down. Many people sold their land and other major assets to purchase the tulips and lost everything. I show how to avoid such situations in my classes and my upcoming book.

For showing times go to http://www.fandango.com/ and type in your zip code.

“Wall Street Money Never Sleeps” also shows people in the financial know getting caught up in the transactions and manipulating others. Their eye pupils get wide and you can almost see the Adrenaline rush to their hearts, just thinking about all the money they will make. In my experience precious few of those people teach others how to make money. I started this website to share what I have taught myself and been taught. No, I am not a Wall Street Market Maker but I have already helped a lot of people get into the swing of things.

Entrepreneurship/Early Stage Companies
I have known some people who teach entrepreneurs how to make their businesses more profitable. In the 1990’s I organized financial seminars for entrepreneurs and investors in downtown Chicago. Tim Krauskopf, Art Roldan, Jeff Coney, Scott Woodard, Tom Parkinson, Marc Achler, Pat McGivney, Wally Cornett, Jerry Mitchell, Ellen Carnahan, Dan Howell, J.B. Pritzker, the late, Don Frey immediately come to mind.

J.B. founded the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center www.chicagolandec.org.

The MIT Enterprise Forum
http://www.mitefchicago.org/
The MIT Enterprise Forum is also in South Florida, Pittsburgh, D.C., San Diego and others.

The Illinois Technology Association. For similar organizations in your area just Google “City or State Name Technology Association”I served on its predecessor’s (Chicago Software Association) Entrepreneur’s Business Plan Advisory Board.