If you haven’t checked out the My Two Dollars Free Magazines page lately, you might be missing out on free subscriptions to your favorites. Why pay for a magazine you want when you might be able to get it for free? But remember – don’t just get one because it’s free, get it because you actually want it. Unwanted free stuff just makes more clutter and waste!
Have a great weekend everyone.
Um, uh oh…
WASHINGTON – The federal agency that insures bank deposits, which is asking for emergency powers to borrow up to $500 billion to take over failed banks, is facing a potential major shortfall in part because it collected no insurance premiums from most banks from 1996 to 2006.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which insures deposits up to $250,000, tried for years to get congressional authority to collect the premiums in case of a looming crisis. But Congress believed that the fund was so well-capitalized – and that bank failures were so infrequent – that there was no need to collect the premiums for a decade, according to banking officials and analysts.
If there is one thing I have never understood, it is the allure of overpriced designer clothing. The reason I don’t understand it is because most people buy fancy brand names because of the name and the fact that it is displayed in a large font on the item itself, all in an effort to impress other people. Is a Gucci handbag made in a factory in China any better than any other decently-built handbag made in a factory in China? Nope. But I guess having the big “G’ on the side makes it 10X more expensive and worth it, right? I mean, who doesn’t like paying a fortune for a big “G” on the side of their handbag?
Last year, the 3 year / 36,000 mile warranty on my brother’s Honda Civic expired. As with most Hondas, he never had a single problem with any part of the car; at least until right after his warranty ended. My old 1994 Civic went for 128,000 miles without having any major issues, so it was pretty surprising to him that something would go wrong so short into his ownership of the car. About a month after his warranty expired, a pretty expensive part broke on the car and he took it into the dealership to get fixed, thinking it was covered under the drivetrain warranty which is a little bit longer than the standard one. Unfortunately, the dealership’s service department said it wasn’t and that he was going to have to pay upwards of $300 to get it repaired. Needless to say, my brother was pretty outraged at this, as this was practically a brand-new car still and his warranty had just expired! So he left the dealership without getting the repair done and started the process of contacting Honda of North America about his problem.
