Ed's Internet Marketing Corner:
Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley
What is it with some big corporations in America today? Too many of them lull you to sleep and then rip you off while acting like this is business as usual and acceptable. The latest example comes from the three big credit reporting bureaus—TransUnion, Experian and Equifax.
These three credit reporting bureaus are involved in a fight to wrest the credit scoring business away from FICO (Fair Isaac), which for years has been the leader in the marketplace.
The industry changed dramatically in 2003 when the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act required the three major credit reporting bureaus to supply each consumer with one free credit report annually.
For decades the major bureaus had denied consumers access to their credit histories, selling the data exclusively to lenders. Since then the bureaus have moved aggressively to tap the consumer market.
The result has been very profitable as domestic sales of credit data to consumers created $220 million in revenue in 2003, more than doubled to $448 million in 2006 and is projected to top $860 million by 2010, according to market researchers.
Basically, the credit reporting bureaus have generated this income by appearing to give away a free credit report when in fact they are doing no such thing. They are luring consumers to several web sites claiming to give away a free credit report but only do so if you agree to buy one of their lame services, such as credit monitoring.
Worse yet, the scores you get from two of the top three bureaus are not FICO scores at all, but rather scores concocted by two of the bureaus in question: TransUnion and Experian. These scores are generally higher than the actual FICO score, giving consumers a false idea of their true score when lenders use the actual FICO score to make lending decisions.
This amounts to not just deception on the part of the bureaus in question, but dishonesty as well, in other words, they lie, cheat and steal and get away with it under the guise of "creative marketing", which is better described as "creatively screwing the consumer out of his or her money by misrepresenting what they are actually getting for free".
In this process, the bureaus are not serving consumers honestly. There is not a shred of integrity in this process and the credit reporting bureaus know it; they do it because they can legally do it even though it does not represent how business should be conducted.
Rather than actually helping and serving consumers in a straightforward transaction, they choose to line their pockets at the consumer's expense.
America became the most prosperous nation on the face of the earth by major corporations actually serving consumers, being fair and honest in their dealings by giving consumers more value for their purchase, and actually building a reputation of being trustworthy.
Those days are long over. Too many major corporations today are raising lying, cheating and stealing to an art form and then launching their "creative marketing" plans in a fit of righteousness. They deserve my absolute contempt, and should deserve the absolute contempt of consumers in every corner of this country.
Consumers who are taken in by their corporate greed are being misused, and frankly too many of them do not realize what a lower life form they are doing business with.
Here are some facts that you should know:
1) The one and only place you can get your free credit report annually is at:
AnnualCreditReport.com
Even at AnnualCreditReport.com you will not get your FICO scores from all of the major credit reporting bureaus. You will typically get your credit reports from the three bureaus and only one of your credit scores. You will have to buy your credit scores from the other two, and even then you may not be getting your actual FICO score which virtually all lenders use in decision-making.
Dozens of these "dummy" sites affiliated with the bureaus falsely imply that they can also distribute the government-mandated free reports. This is an absolute lie and why they are lying to consumers.
The plain truth is that the word "free" in business advertising in America is used so freely that it really has no meaning in the context of these kind of disingenuous offers by credit bureaus.
2) Any other URL that says they offer a free credit report is really a scam to relieve you of your hard-earned money. Both TransUnion and Experian are lousy with these dummy web sites and are taking advantage of the opportunity to line their pockets at the consumers expense.
3) The truth is that the only place you can get your actual FICO score is at Fair Isaac's consumer web site (myFICO.com), or at Equifax (Exquifax.com), which is the only credit reporting bureau that sells (not gives away free) FICO scores to consumers.
It is a sad commentary that in our day and time too many major corporations in America are terrible role models for anything and will do nothing to stop lining their pockets at the consumer's expense.
I am ashamed of the greedy, dishonest, disingenuous leaders of these companies. They should have to face their mother and family and explain how they failed to learn and practice some basic human traits, including honesty, integrity, trustworthiness and kindness.
This, of course, will not happen because in many cases their parents have left this place for a better one. That does not excuse their behavior or greed. What else are these so-called leaders doing in the dark of the night that we cannot see?
Editor's Note: Read my articles on Borrowing and Credit Card Companies, including "Financial Predators: Vermin, Rodents and Other Insect Pests", and my 3-part series on "Your Credit Score – How It Can Cost You Thousands More on Your Mortgage – Part 1; Six Actions You Can Take to Improve Your Contract Terms – Part 2; and FICO Plans to Eliminate Authorized Credit Card User Accounts – Part 3".
Editor's Note: Explore my main blog at:
http://www.edbagleyblog.com
Discover 136 Movie Reviews, 68 Sports Articles, 88 Articles on Lessons in Life, 18 Articles on Jobs and Careers, 30 Articles on Internet Marketing and 591 Famous Quotes.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Sunday, October 7, 2007
The Only Way to Become Financially Free in America Today: Start Your Own Business
Ed's Internet Marketing Corner:
Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley
I have become so sick and tired of online gurus offering scam products and opportunities that I must reveal the truth about what I have discovered. It is simply this:
In virtually every ad I have read and responded to online a sinister tactic has left me disappointed and dismayed. All of the solutions I had been promised left me unable to achieve any real success whatsoever.
And the sinister tactic being used? Let me simply call it the sin of omission in the solution being offered for my hard-earned money and time.
As strange as it might seem to a man, think about baking a cake that has 5 ingredients. What I have been getting from online gurus is generally 4 of the 5 ingredients, or 80% of the knowledge and application it takes to make the big bucks like the gurus.
Without the 5th and final ingredient the cake making process and the cake are a flop. Worse yet, the gurus know this and purposefully withhold the final ingredient, knowing that if you knew it, you would then join them in the success circle.
They nonetheless advertise and sell their information as if they are giving you all of the ingredients and the full story. In the process, I was being really cheated out of my investment in their products and opportunities.
They were literally lining their pockets at my expense while acting like successful online entrepreneurs willing to share their success information for a price.
The online business of selling information to unsuspecting prospects without giving the prospects all of the information and help they need to succeed has become a multi-million dollar industry.
These online gurus are worse than spin doctors in politics. They will literally steal you blind and act like they are doing you a real service; there is apparently no end to their righteousness and profits, not to mention their disingenuousness.
Enough is enough. I am sick and tired of all their lies and ad copy that drones on for 50-plus pages, spewing out their "exclusive" knowledge, how "easy" it is to succeed like they do, all the "evidence" of their newfound wealth, all the "testimonials" of the common folk and superstars who worship at their feet, all the "crap" you are going to get (minus the real information you need to succeed), how their information is "worth" thousands, how "you can buy it" for hundreds, and how you must "act immediately" to take advantage of their time-sensitive offer.
All of it crap. I have never had a single one of these gurus help me with sincerity at my point of need. They are only interested in selling me more of their personal and company products, books, tapes, seminar tickets, etc., all of which they make money at my expense.
Here is what I believe you need to know before you begin a journey toward becoming financially free:
1) Unless you are a famous rock star, professional athlete or chief executive officer of a major corporation, you have no chance of becoming financially free. You cannot be hired help as an average worker and become financially free in America.
You should have figured out by now that you are not going to get generous raises each year, get more time off, and get better medical, dental and associated benefits. You are an employee, not the owner of the company.
2) As long as you are hired help, you are going to pay too much of your earnings in taxes. Workers are taxed to death. You should know by now that even if your government taxed the rich three times as much, the combined middle class taxpayers still pay far more taxes.
Take the middle class out of paying taxes and the United States would collapse. There would not be enough money to pay all of bureaucrats who regulate our lives and our incomes.
3) Your government does not reward you for being financially responsible, your government punishes you. Your government taxes you on your savings. Your government restricts the amount of tax-free money you can contribute to your retirement accounts. Your government encourages you to go farther into debt by giving you a bigger mortgage interest deduction for a bigger house with a bigger mortgage payment.
4) Very few Americans can save enough for retirement because their incomes are too low, their taxes are too high, and by the time they pay their bills, too many live month-to-month, unable to save enough for retirement.
So what is the answer? Let me share with you not what I think, but what I know.
5) First, you need to go into business for yourself. Do not quit your job, simply start a part-time business on the side so you can begin to generate some income, and accumulate more legal tax deductions. The tax deductions will enable you to lower your taxable income. Then you can take the tax savings and invest in your retirement and/or expand your business.
6) Second, this is not rocket science. You do not need a college degree or special advice from your banker or financial expert, 95% of whom will lie, cheat and steal to take your money while trying to convince you that they are your best friend and helping you. If you doubt this, just start reading the real life articles I write in the Lessons in Life section of my Blog.
7) Understand that as hired help you have so few legal deductions you can count them on one hand. As a business owner, you have a minimum of 200 deductions and hundreds more if you are a major corporation. You simply cannot continue to pay the taxes you are paying as hired help and get ahead.
8) Do you know that as a business you can legally arrange your affairs so that virtually all of your business travel expenses are 100% deductible? This lowers your net taxable income, and reduces the net taxable income your business generates.
9) Do you know that if you have children ages 8 to 18 you can hire each of them to work in your business, and pay them approximately $5,000 a year? Do you know that this income for each of your children is tax free to them, and you can take the combined employment expense as a 100% business deduction?
10) Do you know you can start a legal business for a one-time investment of as little as $200, and maintain your business for as little as $20 a month? Yes you can. I do it, and I can show you how to do it.
Click on the link below to read the article I wrote about my personal experience. You can actually do something to help yourself and your situation. I know. I did. You can too. Go here for more information:
http://www.edbagleyblog.com/BusinessOpportunities.html
Editor's Note: Get a Free Analysis of PIP, Empowerism and SFI for Affiliate Marketers. Email me at: edbagley@comcast.net and put "Subscribe List 2" in the Subject Line.
Editor's Note: Explore my main blog at:
http://www.edbagleyblog.com/
Discover 136 Movie Reviews, 68 Sports Articles, 88 Articles on Lessons in Life, 18 Articles on Jobs and Careers, 30 Articles on Internet Marketing and 591 Famous Quotes.
Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley
I have become so sick and tired of online gurus offering scam products and opportunities that I must reveal the truth about what I have discovered. It is simply this:
In virtually every ad I have read and responded to online a sinister tactic has left me disappointed and dismayed. All of the solutions I had been promised left me unable to achieve any real success whatsoever.
And the sinister tactic being used? Let me simply call it the sin of omission in the solution being offered for my hard-earned money and time.
As strange as it might seem to a man, think about baking a cake that has 5 ingredients. What I have been getting from online gurus is generally 4 of the 5 ingredients, or 80% of the knowledge and application it takes to make the big bucks like the gurus.
Without the 5th and final ingredient the cake making process and the cake are a flop. Worse yet, the gurus know this and purposefully withhold the final ingredient, knowing that if you knew it, you would then join them in the success circle.
They nonetheless advertise and sell their information as if they are giving you all of the ingredients and the full story. In the process, I was being really cheated out of my investment in their products and opportunities.
They were literally lining their pockets at my expense while acting like successful online entrepreneurs willing to share their success information for a price.
The online business of selling information to unsuspecting prospects without giving the prospects all of the information and help they need to succeed has become a multi-million dollar industry.
These online gurus are worse than spin doctors in politics. They will literally steal you blind and act like they are doing you a real service; there is apparently no end to their righteousness and profits, not to mention their disingenuousness.
Enough is enough. I am sick and tired of all their lies and ad copy that drones on for 50-plus pages, spewing out their "exclusive" knowledge, how "easy" it is to succeed like they do, all the "evidence" of their newfound wealth, all the "testimonials" of the common folk and superstars who worship at their feet, all the "crap" you are going to get (minus the real information you need to succeed), how their information is "worth" thousands, how "you can buy it" for hundreds, and how you must "act immediately" to take advantage of their time-sensitive offer.
All of it crap. I have never had a single one of these gurus help me with sincerity at my point of need. They are only interested in selling me more of their personal and company products, books, tapes, seminar tickets, etc., all of which they make money at my expense.
Here is what I believe you need to know before you begin a journey toward becoming financially free:
1) Unless you are a famous rock star, professional athlete or chief executive officer of a major corporation, you have no chance of becoming financially free. You cannot be hired help as an average worker and become financially free in America.
You should have figured out by now that you are not going to get generous raises each year, get more time off, and get better medical, dental and associated benefits. You are an employee, not the owner of the company.
2) As long as you are hired help, you are going to pay too much of your earnings in taxes. Workers are taxed to death. You should know by now that even if your government taxed the rich three times as much, the combined middle class taxpayers still pay far more taxes.
Take the middle class out of paying taxes and the United States would collapse. There would not be enough money to pay all of bureaucrats who regulate our lives and our incomes.
3) Your government does not reward you for being financially responsible, your government punishes you. Your government taxes you on your savings. Your government restricts the amount of tax-free money you can contribute to your retirement accounts. Your government encourages you to go farther into debt by giving you a bigger mortgage interest deduction for a bigger house with a bigger mortgage payment.
4) Very few Americans can save enough for retirement because their incomes are too low, their taxes are too high, and by the time they pay their bills, too many live month-to-month, unable to save enough for retirement.
So what is the answer? Let me share with you not what I think, but what I know.
5) First, you need to go into business for yourself. Do not quit your job, simply start a part-time business on the side so you can begin to generate some income, and accumulate more legal tax deductions. The tax deductions will enable you to lower your taxable income. Then you can take the tax savings and invest in your retirement and/or expand your business.
6) Second, this is not rocket science. You do not need a college degree or special advice from your banker or financial expert, 95% of whom will lie, cheat and steal to take your money while trying to convince you that they are your best friend and helping you. If you doubt this, just start reading the real life articles I write in the Lessons in Life section of my Blog.
7) Understand that as hired help you have so few legal deductions you can count them on one hand. As a business owner, you have a minimum of 200 deductions and hundreds more if you are a major corporation. You simply cannot continue to pay the taxes you are paying as hired help and get ahead.
8) Do you know that as a business you can legally arrange your affairs so that virtually all of your business travel expenses are 100% deductible? This lowers your net taxable income, and reduces the net taxable income your business generates.
9) Do you know that if you have children ages 8 to 18 you can hire each of them to work in your business, and pay them approximately $5,000 a year? Do you know that this income for each of your children is tax free to them, and you can take the combined employment expense as a 100% business deduction?
10) Do you know you can start a legal business for a one-time investment of as little as $200, and maintain your business for as little as $20 a month? Yes you can. I do it, and I can show you how to do it.
Click on the link below to read the article I wrote about my personal experience. You can actually do something to help yourself and your situation. I know. I did. You can too. Go here for more information:
http://www.edbagleyblog.com/BusinessOpportunities.html
Editor's Note: Get a Free Analysis of PIP, Empowerism and SFI for Affiliate Marketers. Email me at: edbagley@comcast.net and put "Subscribe List 2" in the Subject Line.
Editor's Note: Explore my main blog at:
http://www.edbagleyblog.com/
Discover 136 Movie Reviews, 68 Sports Articles, 88 Articles on Lessons in Life, 18 Articles on Jobs and Careers, 30 Articles on Internet Marketing and 591 Famous Quotes.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Mortgage Lenders Act Like Your Friend in Need, But Seek to Line Their Pockets at Your Expense
Ed's Internet Marketing Corner:
Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley
A client of mine received a "Smart Watch Report" from her mortgage lender the other day, and asked me to evaluate it for her.
The report was really an invitation to refinance her current mortgage loan and use her equity interest to either get cash now or sell her home and use the equity to buy a new home.
She made her original 30-year fixed rate loan for $142,000 at 5.5% interest a little more than two years ago. Her principal and interest monthly payment is $806. She has her property taxes and home insurance rolled into the loan, making her actual monthly payment $1,014, or $208 more.
Her appraisal at the time of the loan was $200,000 and her mortgage lender set the estimated current value at $253,000, giving her an estimated equity of $114,000+. Her principal owing at the time was $139,000+.
This is what I quickly observed:
1) She needed to buy a new home like she needed another hole in her head, and I told her so. Since she has a fixed income, buying a newer, better home would simply increase her debt and make it more difficult to service the increased debt.
2) While she could refinance her 30-year fixed rate to a 15-year fixed rate loan and save $55,000 over the life of the loan, it would increase her monthly payment for principal and interest to $1,193, an increase of $387 over her current $806 monthly payment.
Rolling her property taxes and home insurance into the 15-year loan would bring her new actual payment to $1,401, again an increase of $387 over her current monthly payment of $1,014.
3) The first offer her mortgage lender made was to do a "cash out " refinance wherein she could get her hands on $89,000+ in cash to fritter away on a new car, vacations and whatever else she did not need. This would be an incredibly dumb move for her to make, and I said so.
To do this her mortgage lender suggested she enter into a new 30-year fixed rate loan at 6.750%, a full 1.25% greater than her current loan. Her APR (annual percentage rate) would be 6.980%, or almost 7%.
Her new payment for principal and interest would be $1,477, or an increase of $671 over her current $806 monthly payment for principal and interest.
Rolling her property taxes and home insurance into the new 30-year loan would bring her new payment to $1,685, again an increase of $671 over her current monthly payment of $1,014.
Should my client take the lure of getting her hot hands on an extra $89,000+ in cash she would pay dearly for a really stupid financial decision.
The mortgage lender that suggested this option in their "Smart Watch Report" could really care less whether my client went into more debt and may not be able to meet the new obligations should she take the "cash out" refinance.
The mortgage lender could not care less if my client dropped dead. The lender still holds the paper on the property (they own it until the current loan is paid off in full) and could easily sell the property to recover its original $142,000 investment while still making a huge profit in the process.
Is what the mortgage lender is offering my client a responsible thing to do? You decide. I fail to see how loaning my client more money at a higher interest rate and increasing her debt is helping her. It would in fact hurt her.
Borrowers do not understand that when they take out a 30-year fixed rate mortgage loan they become an employee of the company lending the money. Teasing the lender with a "cash out" offer that could easily drive them into bankruptcy is hardly a responsible act by any lender, much less a leader in the marketplace.
This is the point and purpose of writing this article and posting it on the Internet: Since when is helping a financially desperate person—or any borrower for that matter—made better by driving them deeper into debt, leaving them as ignorant as you found them, and lining your pockets at their expense?
Note: Read my Article on "Financial Predators: Vermin, Rodents and Other Insect Pests", my 2-Part Series on "Why Lenders Are Not Your Friends", "Shopping Online – Caveat Emptor (Latin for Let the Buyer Beware)" and "How Online Surveys Prey On New and Unaware Marketers". Find these articles and more in my Blog Archive.
Editor's Note: Explore my main blog at:
http://www.edbagleyblog.com
Discover 136 Movie Reviews, 68 Sports Articles, 88 Articles on Lessons in Life, 18 Articles on Jobs and Careers, 30 Articles on Internet Marketing and 591 Famous Quotes.
Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley
A client of mine received a "Smart Watch Report" from her mortgage lender the other day, and asked me to evaluate it for her.
The report was really an invitation to refinance her current mortgage loan and use her equity interest to either get cash now or sell her home and use the equity to buy a new home.
She made her original 30-year fixed rate loan for $142,000 at 5.5% interest a little more than two years ago. Her principal and interest monthly payment is $806. She has her property taxes and home insurance rolled into the loan, making her actual monthly payment $1,014, or $208 more.
Her appraisal at the time of the loan was $200,000 and her mortgage lender set the estimated current value at $253,000, giving her an estimated equity of $114,000+. Her principal owing at the time was $139,000+.
This is what I quickly observed:
1) She needed to buy a new home like she needed another hole in her head, and I told her so. Since she has a fixed income, buying a newer, better home would simply increase her debt and make it more difficult to service the increased debt.
2) While she could refinance her 30-year fixed rate to a 15-year fixed rate loan and save $55,000 over the life of the loan, it would increase her monthly payment for principal and interest to $1,193, an increase of $387 over her current $806 monthly payment.
Rolling her property taxes and home insurance into the 15-year loan would bring her new actual payment to $1,401, again an increase of $387 over her current monthly payment of $1,014.
3) The first offer her mortgage lender made was to do a "cash out " refinance wherein she could get her hands on $89,000+ in cash to fritter away on a new car, vacations and whatever else she did not need. This would be an incredibly dumb move for her to make, and I said so.
To do this her mortgage lender suggested she enter into a new 30-year fixed rate loan at 6.750%, a full 1.25% greater than her current loan. Her APR (annual percentage rate) would be 6.980%, or almost 7%.
Her new payment for principal and interest would be $1,477, or an increase of $671 over her current $806 monthly payment for principal and interest.
Rolling her property taxes and home insurance into the new 30-year loan would bring her new payment to $1,685, again an increase of $671 over her current monthly payment of $1,014.
Should my client take the lure of getting her hot hands on an extra $89,000+ in cash she would pay dearly for a really stupid financial decision.
The mortgage lender that suggested this option in their "Smart Watch Report" could really care less whether my client went into more debt and may not be able to meet the new obligations should she take the "cash out" refinance.
The mortgage lender could not care less if my client dropped dead. The lender still holds the paper on the property (they own it until the current loan is paid off in full) and could easily sell the property to recover its original $142,000 investment while still making a huge profit in the process.
Is what the mortgage lender is offering my client a responsible thing to do? You decide. I fail to see how loaning my client more money at a higher interest rate and increasing her debt is helping her. It would in fact hurt her.
Borrowers do not understand that when they take out a 30-year fixed rate mortgage loan they become an employee of the company lending the money. Teasing the lender with a "cash out" offer that could easily drive them into bankruptcy is hardly a responsible act by any lender, much less a leader in the marketplace.
This is the point and purpose of writing this article and posting it on the Internet: Since when is helping a financially desperate person—or any borrower for that matter—made better by driving them deeper into debt, leaving them as ignorant as you found them, and lining your pockets at their expense?
Note: Read my Article on "Financial Predators: Vermin, Rodents and Other Insect Pests", my 2-Part Series on "Why Lenders Are Not Your Friends", "Shopping Online – Caveat Emptor (Latin for Let the Buyer Beware)" and "How Online Surveys Prey On New and Unaware Marketers". Find these articles and more in my Blog Archive.
Editor's Note: Explore my main blog at:
http://www.edbagleyblog.com
Discover 136 Movie Reviews, 68 Sports Articles, 88 Articles on Lessons in Life, 18 Articles on Jobs and Careers, 30 Articles on Internet Marketing and 591 Famous Quotes.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Wade Cook: So What Are We to Learn From the Wade Cook Mess? - Part 2
Ed's Internet Marketing Corner:
Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley
So what are we to learn from the Wade Cook mess?
At least three things for sure:
1) If it sounds too good to be true and is as easy as falling off a log, then it is too good to be true.
2) People who actually make money using a new market theory would never, and I mean NEVER, tell anyone unless they are brain dead or born stupid. They understand that the pie is only so big and the more pieces that are eaten, the less there is to go around.
You do not, repeat DO NOT, see Warren Buffett writing books about what stocks to invest in, how much, when to buy and when to sell. Buffett does not even tell his investors what he is doing for the obvious reason that they could not keep a secret.
Buffett, the financial mind behind Berkshire Hathaway, was the first billionaire to make his fortune investing in the stock market, hardly the place for the faint of heart or novice to try and make money.
Buffett is only the second richest person in the world, worth $52 billion at last count.
Bill Gates of Microsoft is the richest person at $56 billion, and he does not write books on investing either.
Warren Buffett is so respected and admired as an investment advisor that a California investor paid more than $620,000 on an online charity auction to have lunch with Buffett. The proceeds went to a San Francisco foundation that provides free meals and social services.
Yongping Duan, founder of a consumer electronics company in China, paid the $620,000+ under the condition that during the lunch he could query Buffett about anything EXCEPT what he is buying and selling.
Warren Buffett is not beyond gifting his time for a good purpose. He has pledged 85% of his Berkshire stock (valued then at $37 billion) to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Buffet's holding company is worth $168 billion.
3) Because Wade Cook did not make squat on his investment theories, he wrote and sold books and tapes, and gave seminars. Any significant money Cook made was by selling his stupid, unprofitable products to unsuspecting consumers who were taken in by his hype.
Live and learn. Do not buy books and tapes and go to seminars put on by financial gurus if you want to make money.
I will give you some great financial advice for free: Buy and read Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist by Roger Lowenstein, and then invest in Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Incorporated.
All you really need to know is that if you had invested only $10,000 with Buffett when he started in 1956 and left it with him, you would be worth more than $80 million today.
(Editor's Note: This is Part 2 of a 2-Part Series.)
Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley
So what are we to learn from the Wade Cook mess?
At least three things for sure:
1) If it sounds too good to be true and is as easy as falling off a log, then it is too good to be true.
2) People who actually make money using a new market theory would never, and I mean NEVER, tell anyone unless they are brain dead or born stupid. They understand that the pie is only so big and the more pieces that are eaten, the less there is to go around.
You do not, repeat DO NOT, see Warren Buffett writing books about what stocks to invest in, how much, when to buy and when to sell. Buffett does not even tell his investors what he is doing for the obvious reason that they could not keep a secret.
Buffett, the financial mind behind Berkshire Hathaway, was the first billionaire to make his fortune investing in the stock market, hardly the place for the faint of heart or novice to try and make money.
Buffett is only the second richest person in the world, worth $52 billion at last count.
Bill Gates of Microsoft is the richest person at $56 billion, and he does not write books on investing either.
Warren Buffett is so respected and admired as an investment advisor that a California investor paid more than $620,000 on an online charity auction to have lunch with Buffett. The proceeds went to a San Francisco foundation that provides free meals and social services.
Yongping Duan, founder of a consumer electronics company in China, paid the $620,000+ under the condition that during the lunch he could query Buffett about anything EXCEPT what he is buying and selling.
Warren Buffett is not beyond gifting his time for a good purpose. He has pledged 85% of his Berkshire stock (valued then at $37 billion) to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Buffet's holding company is worth $168 billion.
3) Because Wade Cook did not make squat on his investment theories, he wrote and sold books and tapes, and gave seminars. Any significant money Cook made was by selling his stupid, unprofitable products to unsuspecting consumers who were taken in by his hype.
Live and learn. Do not buy books and tapes and go to seminars put on by financial gurus if you want to make money.
I will give you some great financial advice for free: Buy and read Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist by Roger Lowenstein, and then invest in Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Incorporated.
All you really need to know is that if you had invested only $10,000 with Buffett when he started in 1956 and left it with him, you would be worth more than $80 million today.
(Editor's Note: This is Part 2 of a 2-Part Series.)
Note: Read my 2-Part Series on "Why Lenders Are Not Your Friends" and also "Financial Predators: Vermin, Rodents and Other Insect Pests", "Shopping Online – Caveat Emptor (Latin for Let the Buyer Beware)" and "How Online Surveys Prey On New and Unaware Marketers". Find these articles and more in my Blog Archive.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Wade Cook: Feds Finally Nail Financial Guru and His Wife on IRS Tax Evasion Charges - Part 1
Ed's Internet Marketing Corner:
Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley
It came as absolutely no surprise to me that so-called financial guru Wade Cook and his wife Laura were recently convicted of income tax evasion and sentenced to jail, according to an Associated Press report.
Wade Cook became really annoying some years ago by seeking to peddle his financial advice on his theory and accompanying books, tapes, seminars and associated crap to me and a lot of other unsuspecting potential investors.
Crap is the right choice of word as his financial advice has proven worthless. I never bought his stuff but thousands of other investors did.
Cook was nothing more or less than a cab driver who decided to get rich by preying on people looking for an easy solution to becoming rich.
He wrote three get-rich-quick books on his "meter-drop" theory of investing: Wall Street Money Machine, Wealth 101 and Business by the Bible. Is it not amazing how hucksters always want God to endorse their business, products and shenanigans?
Cook conducted hundreds of seminars in the 1990s on asset protection, stock market investing, real estate acquisition and avoidance of income tax.
He was so good at the avoidance of income tax issue that he will now spend more than 7 years in prison for income tax evasion by defrauding the Internal Revenue Service.
U. S. District Judge Thomas Zilly of the federal court in Seattle ordered Cook to pay $3.75 million in back taxes on roughly $9.5 million of underreported income generated by sales of Cook's financial advice books, tapes and seminars.
It is one thing to render a financial judgment and another to collect it. It was not reported whether Cook ponied up the $3.75 million.
I do not know if Cook is penniless today, filed for personal bankruptcy, buried what money he had, placed his stash in a Swiss bank account or has millions in a petty cash account to pay his $3.75 million judgment for tax evasion.
I do know that he and his wife are dishonest, not to be trusted, will knowingly lie, cheat and steal to get ahead in this world, and know little about any kind of investing worth talking about. I knew all of that in the early 1990s when they started.
They apparently made millions selling their story to unsuspecting buyers and then not paying taxes on some of their revenue. Some pundits estimated Cook's net worth at more than $200 million when he was flying high.
He was convicted in February 2007 for tax evasion, filing false returns and obstructing justice. The jury was deadlocked on all counts against his wife Laura who kept his books.
In May 2007 she pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice rather than face a new trial. She was sentenced to 1.5 years in prison. Laura Cook admitted that she created documents to evade taxes on income she and her husband received between 1998 and 2000.
The Associated Press reported that the Cooks said that they had loaned themselves money from a trust that was supposed to become a gift to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Government lawyers said that the couple never intended to repay the money, thus it was taxable income rather than loans.
Cook's lawyers argued that they were unable to repay the loans mostly because of the stock market collapse in 2001. Cook was apparently such a brilliant financial guru that he lost his fortune in a stock market collapse.
So much for Wade Cook's theories on investing for profit and becoming rich in the process.
Cook shut down his operations in February 2003, a month after his publicly traded company—Wade Cook Financial Corporation of Tukwila (WA)—sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Wade Cook and his wife Laura are only one of hundreds of hucksters who have traveled the country selling their crap (get-rich books, tapes and seminars) to unsuspecting investors.
(Editor's Note: This is Part 1 of a 2-Part Series.)
Note: Read my 2-Part Series on "Why Lenders Are Not Your Friends" and also "Financial Predators: Vermin, Rodents and Other Insect Pests", "Shopping Online – Caveat Emptor (Latin for Let the Buyer Beware)" and "How Online Surveys Prey On New and Unaware Marketers". Find these articles and more in my Blog Archive.
Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley
It came as absolutely no surprise to me that so-called financial guru Wade Cook and his wife Laura were recently convicted of income tax evasion and sentenced to jail, according to an Associated Press report.
Wade Cook became really annoying some years ago by seeking to peddle his financial advice on his theory and accompanying books, tapes, seminars and associated crap to me and a lot of other unsuspecting potential investors.
Crap is the right choice of word as his financial advice has proven worthless. I never bought his stuff but thousands of other investors did.
Cook was nothing more or less than a cab driver who decided to get rich by preying on people looking for an easy solution to becoming rich.
He wrote three get-rich-quick books on his "meter-drop" theory of investing: Wall Street Money Machine, Wealth 101 and Business by the Bible. Is it not amazing how hucksters always want God to endorse their business, products and shenanigans?
Cook conducted hundreds of seminars in the 1990s on asset protection, stock market investing, real estate acquisition and avoidance of income tax.
He was so good at the avoidance of income tax issue that he will now spend more than 7 years in prison for income tax evasion by defrauding the Internal Revenue Service.
U. S. District Judge Thomas Zilly of the federal court in Seattle ordered Cook to pay $3.75 million in back taxes on roughly $9.5 million of underreported income generated by sales of Cook's financial advice books, tapes and seminars.
It is one thing to render a financial judgment and another to collect it. It was not reported whether Cook ponied up the $3.75 million.
I do not know if Cook is penniless today, filed for personal bankruptcy, buried what money he had, placed his stash in a Swiss bank account or has millions in a petty cash account to pay his $3.75 million judgment for tax evasion.
I do know that he and his wife are dishonest, not to be trusted, will knowingly lie, cheat and steal to get ahead in this world, and know little about any kind of investing worth talking about. I knew all of that in the early 1990s when they started.
They apparently made millions selling their story to unsuspecting buyers and then not paying taxes on some of their revenue. Some pundits estimated Cook's net worth at more than $200 million when he was flying high.
He was convicted in February 2007 for tax evasion, filing false returns and obstructing justice. The jury was deadlocked on all counts against his wife Laura who kept his books.
In May 2007 she pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice rather than face a new trial. She was sentenced to 1.5 years in prison. Laura Cook admitted that she created documents to evade taxes on income she and her husband received between 1998 and 2000.
The Associated Press reported that the Cooks said that they had loaned themselves money from a trust that was supposed to become a gift to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Government lawyers said that the couple never intended to repay the money, thus it was taxable income rather than loans.
Cook's lawyers argued that they were unable to repay the loans mostly because of the stock market collapse in 2001. Cook was apparently such a brilliant financial guru that he lost his fortune in a stock market collapse.
So much for Wade Cook's theories on investing for profit and becoming rich in the process.
Cook shut down his operations in February 2003, a month after his publicly traded company—Wade Cook Financial Corporation of Tukwila (WA)—sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Wade Cook and his wife Laura are only one of hundreds of hucksters who have traveled the country selling their crap (get-rich books, tapes and seminars) to unsuspecting investors.
(Editor's Note: This is Part 1 of a 2-Part Series.)
Note: Read my 2-Part Series on "Why Lenders Are Not Your Friends" and also "Financial Predators: Vermin, Rodents and Other Insect Pests", "Shopping Online – Caveat Emptor (Latin for Let the Buyer Beware)" and "How Online Surveys Prey On New and Unaware Marketers". Find these articles and more in my Blog Archive.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Discover the 5 Steps to Financial Freedom
Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley
Editor's Note: The following post will provide an opportunity. I am looking for some business partners in the United States.
The opportunity meetings mentioned below are aimed at readers in the Western Washington area. When you attend any of these meetings, you will be my guest. Simply say to the representatives at the registration desk that "I am coming tonight as a guest of Ed Bagley" and you will get in free as my special guest. I would be happy to greet you personally. Just ask for Ed Bagley and someone will identify me.
While this post is aimed at readers in the Western Washington area, this company has representatives in every state nationally, so if you live in Michigan or any other state, simply call me toll free at (800) 965-6484 and I will direct you to a meeting in your area at a future date. I can also put you in direct phone contact with the CEO of the company. When you invest enough time to check out this opportunity, you will acquire some valuable information about your finances and future.
Discover the 5 Steps to Financial Freedom.
It’s Free, Fast, Concise and Compelling.
Learn What Your Employer Does Not Want You to Know.
When You Know, You May Suddenly Look at Your Job Differently, Get on the Road to Financial Freedom, and Start Living Life on Your Terms.
No Time, No Money, No Knowledge? No Problem.
Listen to what a very wise man said: “This time, like all times, is a very good one, when we know what to do with it.
”Believe that “everything that belongs to me will come to me when I am ready to receive it.”
Your Presenter will be Alvin Curry, the Chief Executive Officer of myEcon, the Personal Financial Success Company.
Mr. Curry’s 5-Step Program is Outstanding! Do Not Miss This Rare Opportunity.
Here are 5 Chances to Discover the 5 Secrets of Success (with handy directions):
Tuesday, June 12, 2007 at 7 p.m. at the Super 8 Motel in Lacey, WA
(112 College St. SE - (360) 459-8888 – Traveling South, take I-5 to Exit 109, take a right turn off exit ramp onto Martin Way, go to the first stoplight, turn left onto College Street and the Super 8 will be near the corner on your left. Traveling North, take I-5 to Exit 109, take a left turn off exit ramp, continue to College Street and turn left.)
Wednesday, June 13, 2007 at 7 p.m. at the La Quinta Inn in Tacoma, WA
(1425 East 27th St. - (253) 383-0146 - Traveling North, take I-5 to Exit 134 toward Portland Ave., stay straight to go onto East 28th St., turn left onto East Portland Ave., turn left on East 27th St. Traveling South, take Exit 135 toward Portland Avenue—also called WA-167 North, Puyallup—and the ramp becomes East 27th Street.)
Thursday, June 14, 2007 at 7 p.m. at the Coast Hotel in Bellevue, WA
(625 - 116th Ave. NE - (425) 455-9444 - Traveling North, take 1-5 and merge onto I-405 North via Exit 154toward Renton/Bellevue, take the NE 8th St./NE 4th St. Exit 13B, take NE 4th St. Exit 13A on the left, keep right at the fork to go onto NE 4 St., turn left on 116th Ave. NE. Traveling South, merge onto I-405 follow same route.)
Friday, June 15, 2007 at 7 p.m. in the Double Tree Hotel Near Sea-Tac Airport in Seatac
(18740 International Blvd.—also called Pacific Ave. and Old 99 - (206) 246-8600 - Traveling North, take 1-5 to Exit 151—Military Road Exit—toward S 200th St., turn left onto Military Rd. S, turn left onto South 200th Street, turn right onto International Blvd. Traveling South, take 1-5 and merge onto WA-518 West via Exit 154B toward Burien/Sea-Tac, take the WA-99 Exit toward Sea-Tac Airport, merge onto International Blvd.)
Saturday, June 16, 2007 Marketing Seminar from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the same Double Tree
(18740 International Blvd. - (206) 246-8600. Traveling North or South on 1-5 follow above instructions.)
Editor's Note: The following post will provide an opportunity. I am looking for some business partners in the United States.
The opportunity meetings mentioned below are aimed at readers in the Western Washington area. When you attend any of these meetings, you will be my guest. Simply say to the representatives at the registration desk that "I am coming tonight as a guest of Ed Bagley" and you will get in free as my special guest. I would be happy to greet you personally. Just ask for Ed Bagley and someone will identify me.
While this post is aimed at readers in the Western Washington area, this company has representatives in every state nationally, so if you live in Michigan or any other state, simply call me toll free at (800) 965-6484 and I will direct you to a meeting in your area at a future date. I can also put you in direct phone contact with the CEO of the company. When you invest enough time to check out this opportunity, you will acquire some valuable information about your finances and future.
Discover the 5 Steps to Financial Freedom.
It’s Free, Fast, Concise and Compelling.
Learn What Your Employer Does Not Want You to Know.
When You Know, You May Suddenly Look at Your Job Differently, Get on the Road to Financial Freedom, and Start Living Life on Your Terms.
No Time, No Money, No Knowledge? No Problem.
Listen to what a very wise man said: “This time, like all times, is a very good one, when we know what to do with it.
”Believe that “everything that belongs to me will come to me when I am ready to receive it.”
Your Presenter will be Alvin Curry, the Chief Executive Officer of myEcon, the Personal Financial Success Company.
Mr. Curry’s 5-Step Program is Outstanding! Do Not Miss This Rare Opportunity.
Here are 5 Chances to Discover the 5 Secrets of Success (with handy directions):
Tuesday, June 12, 2007 at 7 p.m. at the Super 8 Motel in Lacey, WA
(112 College St. SE - (360) 459-8888 – Traveling South, take I-5 to Exit 109, take a right turn off exit ramp onto Martin Way, go to the first stoplight, turn left onto College Street and the Super 8 will be near the corner on your left. Traveling North, take I-5 to Exit 109, take a left turn off exit ramp, continue to College Street and turn left.)
Wednesday, June 13, 2007 at 7 p.m. at the La Quinta Inn in Tacoma, WA
(1425 East 27th St. - (253) 383-0146 - Traveling North, take I-5 to Exit 134 toward Portland Ave., stay straight to go onto East 28th St., turn left onto East Portland Ave., turn left on East 27th St. Traveling South, take Exit 135 toward Portland Avenue—also called WA-167 North, Puyallup—and the ramp becomes East 27th Street.)
Thursday, June 14, 2007 at 7 p.m. at the Coast Hotel in Bellevue, WA
(625 - 116th Ave. NE - (425) 455-9444 - Traveling North, take 1-5 and merge onto I-405 North via Exit 154toward Renton/Bellevue, take the NE 8th St./NE 4th St. Exit 13B, take NE 4th St. Exit 13A on the left, keep right at the fork to go onto NE 4 St., turn left on 116th Ave. NE. Traveling South, merge onto I-405 follow same route.)
Friday, June 15, 2007 at 7 p.m. in the Double Tree Hotel Near Sea-Tac Airport in Seatac
(18740 International Blvd.—also called Pacific Ave. and Old 99 - (206) 246-8600 - Traveling North, take 1-5 to Exit 151—Military Road Exit—toward S 200th St., turn left onto Military Rd. S, turn left onto South 200th Street, turn right onto International Blvd. Traveling South, take 1-5 and merge onto WA-518 West via Exit 154B toward Burien/Sea-Tac, take the WA-99 Exit toward Sea-Tac Airport, merge onto International Blvd.)
Saturday, June 16, 2007 Marketing Seminar from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the same Double Tree
(18740 International Blvd. - (206) 246-8600. Traveling North or South on 1-5 follow above instructions.)
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