Getting the little things done with TaskRabbit

TaskRabbit is a new online service that calls itself “service networking”. TaskRabbit matches up individuals with extra time with individuals who need help. TaskRabbit combines the ease-of-use of other services with reviews and reliability ratings. Post resource – TaskRabbit – Getting things done and making money by Personal Money Store.

The basics of TaskRabbit

The basic idea of TaskRabbit is simple: you will find things that individuals need help with. Tasks could be just about anything – picking up groceries, running dry cleaning around, or walking a dog. For any person who can’t afford a full-time personal assistant, TaskRabbit helps find them task-by-task. If you have a task, you post the details and the price you’re willing to pay. It ends up being a win-win.

Making money with TaskRabbit

TaskRabbit is attractive not only because people can get things done, but because you can make additional cash. You can even bid for or make counteroffers on a task. The “service networking” system helps any person with a couple of extra minutes turn it into money. You should consider a few things when you are deciding if you should accept a task. You need to first think about if the task will cost you any cash. Second, map out exactly how much time the task is going to take. Decide if the offered price of the task is what you are really worth. Keep in mind that if you will make more than $ 600 in one year, you will have to pay fifteen percent in self employment tax.

TaskRabbit in new cities

Currently, TaskRabbit is only accessible in Boston and San Francisco. TaskRabbit plans on expanding, but it will take at least a couple of months to add cities. You are able to still make extra cash with the TaskRabbit concept, even if it’s not in your city. Try hiring yourself out for the things on the Craigslist gigs section.

Putting together the small business lending bill and partisan politics

Community banks that don’t lend very often are supposed to get cheap capital with the Small business Jobs and Credit Act. Unemployment creates a kind of pressure on the Obama administration to make more jobs available. The Small business Jobs and Credit Act was conceived for that purpose. However, partisan bickering prevented Congress from doing anything about the bill before it went on its August trip. Business credit and tax relief has to wait until September now to be looked at by any politicians. September is when the Small business Association Arc Loan Program will be expiring.

Bill promotes small business lending and tax relief

The bill is called the Small business Jobs Act also, and will allow $ 30 billion to be put into a lending fund. Banks with less than $ 10 billion in assets tend to be the ones lending to small business, reports CNNMoney.com. Businesses should be able to get some more money with capital going into community banks. The bill would also provide $ 12 billion in small businesses tax relief between 2010 and 2020. It increases SBA loan limits and extends loan incentives through the end of the year. More companies are encouraged with the tax cuts. $ 1.5 billion in grants could be given to numerous of the state governments with no money left to be seen.

Politicians make small business credit a game

The House recessed July 30 after fighting about procedures of the Small business Jobs Act. Bizjournals.com reports that action on the bill was delayed within the Senate because of partisan maneuvering by Republicans over amendments unrelated to boosting small company credit. Republicans used their “another bank bailout” talking point to oppose the $ 30 billion small company lending fund. When considered a separate amendment, 60 votes were given for filibuster-proof with two republicans helping. But Republicans were united in blocking the Senate from moving forward on the entire bill. Evidently Democrats were stopping them from adding more amendments to the bill.

Program for Interest-free SBA Arc loans expires

Help is accessible to small businesses for just a little while longer. While waiting for a decision from Congress, check out SBA Arc loans. As outlined by Helium, 100 percent guaranteed, interest-free loans up to $ 35,000 are accessible to companies that are already up and running. SBA Arc Loans are only accessible to businesses that can prove at least one year of profitability has happened within the last two years of business. Five years are allowed to pay back the loan. In six months, the whole loan can be given out. The SBA Arc loan program ends at the end of September.

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CNN Money

money.cnn.com/2010/08/06/smallbusiness/small_business_bill_stalemate/index.htm

Bizjournals

denver.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2010/08/02/daily78.html

Helium

helium.com/items/1915352-sab-arc-loan-program

You would not believe who needs guaranteed loans

The functions of personal finance and high corporate finance are different, but believe it or not, the two are not completely dissimilar. The businesses which need some guaranteed loans at some time, or at least a line of credit in case they need a short term personal loan are some of the biggest names out there. Even the Ford Motor Company got guaranteed loans at some point. Ford is getting out of debt in double quick time. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae need more guaranteed loans just to scrape by.

Guaranteed loans for Ford

The government lent the Ford Motor Company $ 23.5 billion before they needed bailout cash and to file bankruptcy. Ford only asked for emergency lines of credit if necessary, and didn’t need a bailout. Ford not asking for bailout funds was maybe the best business decision they’ve made in a while. According to the Wall Street Journal, Ford’s sales shot up 22 percent as GM and Chrysler floundered. Sometimes just knowing you can borrow can give a boost of confidence; some people like knowing they can get a payday advances if they really need it.

Mortgage giants need more guaranteed loans

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae need more, nevertheless, in guaranteed loans. Freddie, as outlined by ABC, lost $ 6 billion this last quarter already. They are asking for an additional $ 1.8 billion. The twin mortgage giants are struggling, and both have less than two years to get their affairs in order. At that point, Treasury Secretary Geithner won’t write any more checks.

Fortune 500 companies have credit scores too

Ford can be able to get better loans, as they pay back debt and improve the company’s credit score. The biggest corporations benefit from paying off debt, just as a regular person gets a better credit history when they settle their credit card.

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online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748703589404575417491742322262.html

abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=11356950

Raging fires add to Russian misery of heat wave and drought

In a great portion of Russian territory, fires triggered by a record heat wave and drought are burning out of control. Entire villages have burned to the ground and also the death toll was 48 as of Aug. 6. A thick blanket of smoke suffocated Moscow residents and 4,000 individuals are burnt out of their homes. In certain areas, nuclear contamination from the Chernobyl disaster locked up within the trees could possibly be re-released by the fires. The Russian government has come under rare public criticism for being slow and ill-equipped to fight the fires.

Add fires to the heat wave and drought ravaging Russia

More than 1.6 million acres in Russia have burned since the fires began, the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said. More than 155,000 personnel have been mobilized to fight the fires. The Wall Street Journal reported that even as 293 fires were put out, more than 400 new fires ignited. Across Russia as of Aug. 6, at least 520 fires were burning. The record Russian heat wave that started the fires-as well as the Russia’s worst drought in at least 3 decades-shows no sign of letting up. Searing heat will continue, with some parts of the country reaching up to 107 degrees, until at least Aug. 12.

Public feels burned by Russian government

Public anger reached the boiling point as the Russian government struggled to get the fires under control. The latest disaster has underscored the inability of the government to protect Russians from such calamities, according to the Financial Times. Besides a trillion-dollar plus economy driven by energy resources, Russians still chafe under incompetent public officials, poor safety preparation and a deteriorating infrastructure. Nikolay Petrov of the Carnegie Moscow Centre told the Times that the death toll is much higher in Russia than in other nations where such fires occur as the system is “absolutely dysfunctional”. Petrov said communication was far too slow in the “super-centralized” political system put in place under Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin.

Radioactive smoke could drift across Europe

Concerns about nuclear contamination are being raised as Russia burns. AFP reports that in certain areas of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, radioactive cesium 137 left over from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster remains within the forests. Philippe Renaud, head of the environmental radiation laboratory at France’s IRSN nuclear safety institute, said If trees in those areas burn, the Russian nuclear contamination would be released into the air where it could possibly be breathed in by people as far away as France.

Additional reading

wsj.com

ft.com

google.com/hostednews/afp/article

Massive solar flare will ignite big northern lights show Aug. 4

A solar tsunami is what numerous individuals are calling a solar flare that will hit Earth late Tuesday night. Earth saw some particles of sun start flying towards it after an explosion occurred on the sun. Across the surface of the sun, there is a huge solar flare rippling which is what makes a solar tsunami. NASA is preparing for the possibility of solar flare satellite damage. But the extreme space weather will trigger a spectacular display of northern lights.

Solar tsunami happens because of solar flare

The solar flare erupted Sunday morning. The explosion caused a massive solar tsunami across the sun’s surface and blasted a giant wave of ionized atoms on a collision course with Earth’s magnetic field. Fox News reports the solar flare should hit the planet tonight, creating a geomagnetic storm and a northern lights display of rare intensity that might be seen as far south as the U.K.. The space weather could cause solar flare satellite damage, though scientists think that possibility is remote.

STEREO solar tsunami

NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) has said the solar flames do exist. STEREO, reports Wired, has two spacecrafts that observe the sun. They both center on Earth’s orbit. They are placed in a manner that makes the sun look three dimensional at all times. At 560,000 mph, a 60,000 mile high wave of hot plasma and magnetism went across the sun’s surface in February of 2009 and was shown by STEREO within the video below.

Sunday’s solar flare a rare event

The second video below shows an extremely rare solar flare from the sun. Two solar flares, reports Telegraph, were shot at Earth seemingly simultaneously. The first eruption was a very large one that ended up screwing up the Sun’s magnetic atmosphere making conditions for the second eruption very good, Dr Lucie Green told the Telegraph. The only thing Earth will see from this is a geomagnetic storm along with some fairly awesome northern lights.

Northern lights

Solar flares will hit Earth’s atmosphere causing the oxygen and nitrogen to hit charged particles from the sun which causes the northern lights show to happen. GMTV reports the charged particles excite the gas atoms into emitting small bursts of energy in the form of light. The kind of gas is what determines the color. There could be colors like greenish-yellow, red, or blue depending on whether Oxygen or nitrogen is getting excited. Also seen often is purple, white and pink within these other colors.

More on this topic

Fox News

foxnews.com/scitech/2010/08/03/spectacular-northern-lights-signals-sun-waking/

Wired

wired.com/wiredscience/2009/11/solar-tsunami/

The Telegraph

telegraph.co.uk/science/space/7923069/Nasa-scientists-braced-for-solar-tsunami-to-hit-earth.html

YouTube

youtube.com/watch?v=bMgBt-UuUak and amp;feature=related

YouTube

youtube.com/watch?v=rnqubAGgx2k and amp;feature=related

Being one with low credit scores makes you one hurting the economic recovery

The U.S. has made credit a really significant part of the economy. The whole economy is apparently sinking along with all of the credit scores. It seems like individuals have given up on their debt as it is no longer being paid by most. This is circumstantial for numerous, such similar to a job loss. Numerous would rather have stopped paying than lose money into a home. Either way, these people face the challenge of living with bad credit. After the urgent relief of defaulting on debt, a long-term financial obstacle course lies ahead for them. Considering help won’t come from any of these people with poor credit, the recovery will take a lot longer. Source of article – Low credit scores may exclude millions from economic recovery by Personal Money Store.

Credit scores tend to be low

Hardly any person can get a mortgage, car loan, or credit card now and days. Typically, there is only 15 percent of individuals that fall under 600 with their FICO scores, reports the Christian Science Monitor. Now there are 25.5 percent of individuals with FICO scores below 600, as outlined by a recent FICO report. There is a fairly good chance based on one more dip in housing prices and continuing foreclosures along with unemployment that there will be more individuals going below 600 before there is any improvement.

Poor credit score means never getting to borrow

Only a quarter of all Americans could be able to get loans for things considering one in four has a credit score below 600. Loans could be received through Federal Housing Administration programs if your score is at least a 580. But none will qualify for loans guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, which account for the lion’s share of the market and typically require credit scores of at least 650. Nobody could be getting auto loan application or credit cards either.

A bad credit score makes for a bad employee

For individuals who reneged on their debts because they lost their jobs, finding a new job can be tougher with a low credit score. CNN shows us that there are a lot more hiring managers checking credit before hiring a new employee. Missing any of your payments might just mean you won’t get a new job. According to a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management, 60 percent of employers are using job credit checks when filling at least some of their openings. Only 35 percent reported checking credit in a 2003 survey, and only about 13 percent did so 1996.

Years spent fixing credit

One thing people have done often lately is defaulted on loans; they would rather have the money than be putting it into something they do not need. But people thinking about following suit should know that the short term gain could have long-term consequences. A damaged credit score can take between 3 to 7 years to bring back to where it was. The recession credit is going to be especially hard to get out of for many Americans.

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Christian Science Monitors

csmonitor.com/Money/new-economy/2010/0727/Credit-scores-slide-downward

Wall Street Journal

blogs.wsj.com/economics/2010/07/31/number-of-the-week-default-repercussions/

CNN Money

money.cnn.com/2010/07/22/news/economy/credit_checks_for_job_applicants/

Medical credit cards raising eyebrows and legal questions

In New York state, the attorney general has launched an investigation into medical credit cards. credit cards with a very high rate are marketed to patients that are in the office and need money now. These medical credit cards offer an instant money advance to patients who need help.

The operational workings of medical credit cards

A few financing businesses specialize in medical credit cards. The financing is intended for medical bills, but it also charges a very high interest rate. The doctor or dentist will get their money easily, and the credit card business gives them additional cash based on how much is charged on the card.

Medical credit cards being investigated

Patients in a financial bind are likely to see medical credit cards as a good answer. The New York Attorney General is investigating the alleged deceptive practices of these credit cards. Often patients aren’t informed of the high interest rates or payments on these cards. According to the attorney general, the investigation may also contain the kickbacks. By wearing the hat of both a finance adviser and a medical adviser, doctors may well be violating both their ethical and legal responsibilities.

The high cost of medical care

The provisions of the new health care do address the cost of health care, but numerous changes have yet to happen. Health care debt is the leading cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States. These credit cards are marketed as no credit loans to help patients pay down their bills. The debt problem, in the end, though, is compounded with the high interest rates. Medical credit cards grew out of the truth that medical bills are a huge concern – and until medical costs are addressed, products like this will exist.