MoneySmart

The founders of the Google internet search engine - Larry Page and Sergey Brin - are the type of young men most parents would dream of their daughters bringing home. And far from simply because they will both be billionaires following a stock market flotation of Google.

Instead, most mums and dads would also be drawn to the facts that both men are very clean cut in appearance, undeniably hard working and intelligent, and seem, well, just "nice".

They are your text book, well presented, quietly well behaved "boys next door" from a smart middle class American suburb.

Only a lot richer!.

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Motorola and AgileTV have unveiled technology that gives digital set-top boxes the power to respond to voice commands.

The voice-recognition technology enables people to "talk" to their TV sets via a microphone in the remote control, the companies said. Viewers can navigate through digital programming and activate on-demand services by naming shows, movies or actors. more..

Do you have to believe in what you are doing in order to be successful at it?
Find out what Stever Robbins founder and president of LeadershipDecisionworks Inc has to say. more..

Stroll the corridors and the atriums on Apple Computer's corporate campus these days and you will notice that something is missing. Gone are the posters and graphics accenting the company's sleek personal computers. In their place, in the main lobby, is a striking, three-story-high billboard celebrating Steve Jobs's new billion-dollar consumer electronics business--the iPod digital MP3 music player.

In just two and a half years, Jobs, Apple's chief executive, has managed to take a well-designed handheld gadget, add software connecting it to Macintoshes and Windows-based personal computers and convince the recording industry that he has found an elegant solution for ending its nightmare of digital piracy. In doing so, he has shifted the emphasis of Apple from what made it famous--hip, even lovable computers--to what he hopes will keep it relevant and profitable in the future: products for a digital way of life. more..

Boffins have developed a credit card that works only when it hears its owner's voice. A prototype card from Santa Monica, California-based Beepcard comes with a built-in voice recognition chip, miniature battery, microphone and speaker.

To operate the card a user would need to press a button on the card's surface and provide a password. If the in-built voice recognition technology authenticates this voice then it emits an variable audible squawk, which a merchant's server can recognise and thereafter allow a transaction to proceed. The system would allow merchants to establish a customer has a card and is the authorised user for customer not present transactions, a notorious source of credit card fraud. more..

Microsoft has introduced a new subscription service for playing games using its MSN Messenger instant messaging software.

Microsoft said its MSN Instant Games Clubhouse initially will offer four head-to-head games: "Wheel of Fortune," a word game called "Upwords," an online billiards game and a version of chess. Customers in the United States can play all the games for free as part of a 14-day trial.

"The popularity of online gaming is booming, with nearly 50 million people already jumping on the Internet instead of pulling a boxed game from their closet when they want to play games," Blake Irving, Microsoft corporate vice president, said in a statement.

MSN Messenger already offers seven free games including checkers. more..

Four years of falling interest rates have caused many consumers to become complacent about sub-6% home mortgages, 3% home equity lines and no-interest car loans. But if you're a borrower, the trend is no longer your friend. Mortgage rates have been creeping higher since March. If the Federal Reserve (news - web sites) raises short-term interest rates, the cost of consumer loans will increase. In today's Managing Your Money, get tips on how to cope. more..

Workers trying to support a family on low wages face daunting challenges. They usually can't afford decent day care, for example, so any schedule change at work can wreak havoc as single mothers or job-juggling couples race to find some sort of backup. Virtually any unanticipated event that costs more than even $100 or so, such as a broken car, can mean getting to work late or not at all, jeopardizing the job or money for food and rent. Such precarious existences contribute to a host of social ills, from broken homes to kids who lag behind in school to illnesses that get treated only at the emergency room.

Can employers do anything to help? The obvious answer is to boost wages, but most feel they can't afford to pay above-market rates. Still, plenty of other possibilities exist, such as offering small emergency loans or grants to employees who face sudden crises, helping them with child care, or finding creative ways to make their workdays more flexible.
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Greenspan paves way for higher rates. The Fed chief says inflation in check for now but rates will rise given stronger economic growth.

Economy improving, but some slack remains. Looking forward, the prospects for sustaining solid economic growth in the period ahead is good. The Federal Reserve recognizes that sustained prosperity requires the maintenance of price stability and will act, as necessary, to ensure that outcome.
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Teen inventor Austin Meggitt's Glove and Battie Caddie is the latest By Kids for Kids discovery.
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San Jose, Calif.-based eBay, which operates in China through a company called EachNet, plans to build up its presence in the world's most populous nation during the next three to five years, Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman said.

"Over the next 10 to 15 years, China is going to be an explosive area," Whitman told reporters in Hong Kong. "We want to set the table for a very strong business over the long haul."

Whitman said China would be eBay's second-largest investment market, after the United States, but she declined to specify how much the company plans to put into EachNet before the site turns a profit.
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As networks based on Internet Protocol inexorably expand and begin to subsume the local phone and cellular networks, what might the Net swallow next? Bill Gates, among others, is betting the answer is television. Phone calls and TV transmissions, after all, are very similar. Both can be digitized, chopped into packets and sent Internet-style. Standard TV shows fill up more packets--about 30 times as many, minute for minute, as a phone call.
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MIT visionary Tom Malone sees big changes coming to the workplace. Malone sees a parallel between the evolution of human society and the evolution of business.

His new book, 'The Future of Work' posits that the central transformative development of our time is the radically decreased cost of communications caused by the Internet, wireless voice and data, and cheap long distance, among other new technologies. It is all fundamentally changing the nature of work, "This change may be as important for business as the change to democracy has been for government."
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Inflation. Rising rates. Historically, that's been a lethal combination for stocks. But this time around, investors are seeing the bright side.

At first blush, the negative reaction would seem to be dead on. Higher inflation could be bad news for economic growth if it keeps consumers from spending. If the Federal Reserve raises rates to cool off the economy, that could be bad news for stocks, making financial conditions too tight for comfort. The last time the Fed went on a rate-hiking spree, in 1994, the S&P 500 had a down year.

On the other hand, a jump in inflation could mean that, after years of scary talk about disinflation and deflation, companies are finally getting a taste of pricing power, which could be good news for earnings. If inflation and higher rates are just the smoke that comes from a hot economy, then bring 'em on, some analysts said.
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Next time you board a plane there could be more to look forward to than a movie and an in-flight meal as high speed net access takes to the air.

Connectivity in the air could alter the way we fly, allowing passengers to be in touch with the ground in a way they never have before.
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How can I find the time to deal with my finances?

The Armchair Millionaire's guide to managing your time
Lewis Schiff founded the Armchair Millionaire Web site in 1997. His first book, "The Armchair Millionaire," was published in 2001. Today, www.ArmchairMillionaire.com is a fast-growing community of common sense savers and investors.

For great information and good tips find out more..

Yahoo, the internet search and media company, has more than doubled net profits in the first quarter to $101m.
A recovery in traditional online and web-search advertising is driving up revenues at the web firm.

It is one of the world's most visited sites and has services such as personal advertisements, for which users pay a fee.

Yahoo and other internet stocks have restored market faith, confirmed by rises in the Nasdaq technology index.

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Microsoft has disclosed that it is aiming to release Longhorn in the first half of 2006--a move that will require the company to scale back some of its more ambitious plans for the next version of Windows.

The company said Longhorn will still include three major advances: a new file system known as WinFS, a new graphics engine dubbed Avalon and a Web Services architecture known as Indigo.

"There may be specific features within those subsystems that will be scaled back," lead product manager Greg Sullivan said. Sullivan would not identify which features have been trimmed but said such efforts are typical of all new releases of the Windows operating system.

"It's a matter of scaling back by degrees," Sullivan said. "In some cases, the scenarios won't be as all-encompassing."
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When mobile phones meld with instant photography, new ways of viewing everyday life emerge. As cameras become standard features on mobile phones, millions of users are rediscovering photography in unexpected places: in the kitchen, down the block and on the bus -- from the backyards of Middle America all the way to Korea and down to Cuba.

While the Instamatic Age was once obsessed with capturing images of smiling faces, vast landscapes, and the 3x5-inch photo print as a family artifact, mobile phone photography is looking in a new direction.

Picture what you ate for breakfast or capture the startled look in your cat's eyes. Catch the reflection in a puddle on the sidewalk as you walk to work or the texture of a cloud against a flat blue sky.
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Lighting designer Sean Dolan and fundraiser Shelly Hawk manage their money the old fashioned way

At first glance, Sean Dolan, 40, and Shelly Hawk, 38, don't seem like the kind of people who would worry about their net worth

He's an artist; she's an idealist. But when it comes to finances, the Princeton, N.J., couple couldn't be more practical.

"My job is like painting in three dimensions," said Sean, a freelance lighting designer who helps corporate production companies turn sales meetings and product launches into major theatrical events.

Shelly, meanwhile, works 25 hours a week as a fundraiser for a nonprofit environmental group.

"People are a little surprised that I'm as organized as I am," said Sean, who downloads the couple's accounts to his Quicken software every day. Last year, his accountant even offered to lower his annual fee because he was embarrassed by how much of the work Sean was doing himself.

Though she teases Sean about his obsession with Quicken, Shelly and her husband share a common philosophy when it comes to money. They don't buy anything unless there's money in the bank to pay for it. They prefer to spend more for quality even if it means waiting to buy. They shop locally whenever possible, and they discuss buying anything that costs more than $100.

When the opportunity comes up, they try to instill these values in their six-year-old son, Elliott. "I'll give him $5 to spend at Target," said Shelly. "It takes him an hour and a half to find something in his budget."

By keeping close tabs on their spending, saving 20 percent of their income and making gradual improvements to their house, the couple has built a net worth of about $550,000 without having to give up much in the way of lifestyle.

Moreover, they've done this with an income that is modest for their area. Depending on business in a given year, Sean earns between $75,000 and $100,000. Shelly's nonprofit job pays just $15,000, though it provides the family with health insurance.

Other than a $140,000 loan for their "Brady Bunch" style home and a zero-interest $5,600 loan on their Ford Focus station wagon, the couple has no debt.

"Neither of us has wealthy parents who are going to leave us a nest egg," said Sean, who jokes that "self preservation" is their primary motivation for saving.

No doubt you want a number. Fair enough. But it's not the only answer.

When asked what defines "rich," a lot of people say it means never having to worry about money again and working only if the mood strikes.

It's not a bad definition. But it's not an entirely truthful one either, for reasons I'll get to in a minute.

Since there are those who insist that a single number can define "rich," let's appease them first. Here are rough estimates using the typical "not-a-care-in-the-world" standard.

Blanche Lark Christerson, director of the Wealth Planning Strategies Group at Deutsche Bank, figures that for married couples with two young kids and a pricey lifestyle costing about $375,000 a year, you'd be set for life, job or no job, emergencies and all, with at least $15 million. If you're single and dependent-free, $10 million should do it.

She assumes that with potentially another 45 years ahead of them, the middle-aged rich would want to preserve capital, leave their heirs or charities something to remember them by and invest conservatively for a 3.5 percent annual return. Remember, the rich can afford to be more conservative.

If Lark Christerson's thresholds stop you in your tracks, maybe you'll like certified financial planner Jon Duncan's estimates better.

He figures that if you're married with kids in your early 40s, will live until age 90, and won't spend more than $200,000 a year, a nice little cushion would be $7.5 million. If you spend only $150,000 a year, $5 million should suffice. Or, if you can ratchet back to $100,000 a year, you'll do okay on $2.5 million.

Duncan, however, assumes a much higher rate of return (about 9.87 percent a year) and assumes you won't be upset if you can't leave your heirs much of an inheritance if any at all.

The number is beside the point
There. Satisfied? I'm not.

That's because I don't think pinning a number on "rich" is a very useful way to address the question, not to mention the annoying fact that those numbers trump nearly everybody's bottom line.


Only about 0.45 percent of households have a net worth of $5 million or more, excluding primary residences, according to the Spectrem Group, a consulting firm specializing in affluent and retirement markets. And only 0.2 percent of U.S. households have a net worth of $15 million or more, including their homes, according to the Federal Reserve.

Now you and I both know there are plenty of folks with less than $5 million (or even $1 million) who are thought to be rich. It just depends who's doing the thinking.


Robert H. Frank, a professor of economics at Cornell and author of "Luxury Fever," has noted in his work how wealth is perceived and defined in relative terms. He cites H.L. Mencken, who "defined a wealthy man as one who earns $100 a year more than his wife's sister's husband."

"Rich," in other words, is the guy in your circle who has more than you.

Money is just a part of being rich
If everything's relative, that may help explain in part why some people making six figures or more often don't consider themselves "rich" because they don't have a walk-away fund of $20 million and can tell you in great detail why $1 million isn't what it used to be.

Granted, it isn't – and it is hard to believe that you can't do more with a million bucks. But, c'mon, it's hardly chump change, even if you have to put your kids through college. Most of the world, including most of the people in this country, get by on far, far less.

There's another reason I'd argue you can't pin a number on "rich." Rich isn't just a quantitative experience. It's a qualitative one. Money is great, but only if it contributes to your sense of well-being rather than detracts from it.

How you choose to spend your money has something to do with how wealthy (or poor) you feel. If you're constantly confusing need with desire (desire to keep up, desire to have the latest and greatest, desire to show off), chances are you'll never feel rich enough.

What's more, when you have finally "made it" by most objective standards you may not be able to fully appreciate it.

Even though rationally those with wealth realize they're better off than most, there's an irrational piece to the puzzle for some folks who've experienced deprivation in the past or witnessed someone close to them lose a lot of money, noted Joan DiFuria of Money, Meaning and Choices, an organization that works with people who've made or acquired sudden wealth.

"They don't feel wealthy. They don't live wealthy. Their greatest fear is that they could lose it all," she said.

Lark Christerson echoed that sentiment, noting that there are some folks with $50 million who fear they'll run out of money, and others with $4 million who never worry about a thing.

At the end of the day, she said, "Rich is in the eye of the beholder. It's so purely psychological."

For a teacher and his family, financial lessons pay off. Carl Smith never really thought about his money. The modest paycheck he earned as a school teacher somehow got frittered away. When the next paycheck came, he'd spend it and continue the cycle.
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A Swede has overtaken Bill Gates to become the world's richest man. Ingvar Kamprad, the Swede who founded furniture retail chain IKEA, has overtaken Microsoft's Bill Gates as the world's richest man, according to latest Swedish TV news
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Mobile phones can soon be used to control a video recorder for people away from home when their favorite programs are on, according to Norwegian browser maker Opera Software.

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A "mini bubble" has emerged among Internet companies, says Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates ..

Google's latest announcement

Robert Kiyosaki - Financial Enrichment Collection