Minneapolis Floor Sanding

Zero Percent Return is Great! Minneapolis Hardwood Floor Refinishing

Get this. For the first time in United States history U.S. Treasury Bonds are paying 0%. This means that investors are willing to take their money out of the stock market, commodity markets, commercial paper markets, and real estate markets, because they are too scared. Instead, they are willing to invest in Treasury bonds and get nothing back in return. [click to continue...]

Tough Times and Minneapolis Floor Sanding

It is getting tougher everyday it seems. Iceland’s currency is worthless. Ecuador defaulted on 50% of its national debt and Pakistan and India could be on the verge of war when the United States is fighting the Taliban and Al-Qaida on Pakistan northern border. [click to continue...]

Low Money Down First Time Home Buyer Minneapolis

Do you make less than $42,000? Do you want to own your first house and pay less than your current rent? If you answered yes, then you should consider contacting the Minnesota Finance Housing Agency. [click to continue...]

It is official. We are in a recession. We have been in a recession since December 2007. It has been a year. Only two of the last ten recessions has been a year or longer. This economic downturn will be officially the longest since the Great Depression. What does this mean? It means Americans are broke. People are maxed out on credit cards, late on mortgage payments and they don’t have enough money to pay their heating bill. As a result, the Federal Government is trying to spend its way out of this, but somebody should tell them that spending your way to wealth is very difficult. The Federal Reserve has lowered interest rates, sent out rebate stimulus checks, pumped billions of dollars into failed businesses, and has begun to guarantee almost every loan that will be loaned in the United States. Has any of this helped? I don’t think so. Almost all of this spending has been generated by selling debt or printing money, both decrease the value of your dollar and makes goods and services more expensive. In addition, this debt does have to be paid back so you will probably see more tax increases. You will have even less money. How do you fix this? We need to raise revenues, cut inefficiency, and decrease wasteful spending. You have to create assets to build wealth. The good thing about all this is a lot of businesses are going to fail, the strong ones will survive and the weak ones will fail. I believe this will make the strong one even more powerful, efficient, and innovative, which will lead to better products that create more demand. See, we need to produce goods and sell them. The United States used to do this, but over the last thirty years we have been importing more then we have been producing. You can’t keep that up. What to do right now? I think everybody should tighten their belt, work their butt off, and look for opportunities. More Americans became millionaires during the Great Depression than any other time in U.S. history. Prices are decreasing dramatically in stocks, real estate and commodities. A lot of this is because of the psychological groupthink effect of people following the heard, some of it is because of the supply and demand imbalance. Either way, keep your head on a swivel and be ready to act on good deals. If you need a deal on your hardwood floors in Minneapolis give me a call. I’ll give you an official free estimate.

I was helping a friend out the other day. We were looking at her company’s financial statements and we were trying to figure out why her company was losing money. After running some numbers it became clear that her costs of goods has increased by 5% over the last year, compared to her company’s 13 year average. Also, her operating expenses have increase by 5% and she has cut prices by 5% to preferred customers. As a result, this 15% has eaten into her bottom line. There are a number of other factors that are hurting her profits, but this situation reminds me of what is going on right now with the global financial crisis.  She needs to cut costs because prices have increased. Well, lately they have gone down, but besides the last couple of months everything has gotten more expensive. Why is that? Think of it like this: The U.S. Dollar is the global currency. We use it for trade, Middle Eastern states use it for trading their oil, and a large number of other foreign countries use it for trade also. Everybody believes in it, they trust it because they trust that the United States of America will have a strong economy and stable government. Not only do they use it to trade, they also use it to put their cash in the bank. Countries like Russia, China, and Saudi Arabia have trillions of dollar bills that they put in their bank savings account to have for a raining day. They don’t use their own currency, they use U.S. Dollars. Why? Like I said they trust it. It has value. But here is the catch. The dollar is losing value because there are so many of them floating around the world. The more there are the less each one is worth. Right now, we are printing more of these dollars and selling them to other countries so we can pay for GM, Citibank, AIG, Fannie Mae, FDIC, the list goes on and on. So if the dollar is losing value, it will take more dollars to buy stuff then before. Therefore, prices increase. We need to stop doing this. This is going to hurt the poor and middle class the most. If you live in Minneapolis and are looking for a hardwood floor sanding estimate give me a call. I’ll help you out.

Another bailout.  Today we just spend more taxpayer money on another big bank.  Most of the money is just being printed by the Federal Reserve or we are borrowing the money from China and Saudi Arabia.  I don’t know, I don’t think this is the right way to go.  It just doesn’t make sense to me.  Why should these companies be bailed out?  I mean, they made bad decisions.  When that happens, usually you got to take a hit and learn from your mistakes.  You and I don’t get bailout when we make bad decisions.  I’ve heard it though, people will lose their jobs, companies will go out of business and it will make things worst.  I say at them burn.  Call me today for a free hardwood floor sanding estimate.  

It is happening. We are in a recession. But here is the funny thing. Gas prices are $1.67 per gallon, I just sold a very nice house in Northeast Minneapolis for under $100,000, and you can buy a brand new Chevy full size truck for under $11,000. So this is good, right? It depends on who you are. I like it. [click to continue...]

So you just bought a rental in Minneapolis. Hopefully you got a good deal. There are a lot out there right now, so you probably did. The next step is to fix it up. If you bought a foreclosure it probably needs work. My floor sanding company is in these types of houses almost every day. We see a lot of distressed homes, but most just need some basic work done, a little sweat equity and the place will be ready to rent out and make you some passive income. As you can see from the before and after pictures in this article, having the floors refinished makes a big difference in your final appearance. From my experience, the best improvements you can make that will have the greatest impact on the look and feel of your home will be painting and flooring. This is logical because paint and the floors make up the greatest square feet in the house. The only thing left after the walls and floors is the ceiling, but that is usually painted too. Also, flooring and paint is usually the least expensive improvement relative to plumbing, electrical, frames, etc. The great thing about Minneapolis homes is that almost all of them have some type of hardwood flooring, and usually it we can make it look a lot better. The nicer the house, the more you can charge for rent, and the better your investment will be. If you just bought a rental in Minneapolis give me a call and I will give you a free floor sanding estimate. Good luck with your rental!

Say you borrow somebody money. They borrow it for 5 years and pay an 8% interest rate per year. You hope you get paid back otherwise you are going to be out the money and it is going to be a pain in the butt to get it back. However, what if a third party guaranteed the loan will be paid back to you. For example, say you’re Uncle Sam, who is a very wealthy individual said, “If they don’t pay you back, I will pay you back on the same terms.” Most people who say, “Ok, that sounds like a good deal for me. I loan them money, and if they don’t pay me back my Uncle Sam will. Heck, I might as well try to find another person to loan the money to. Why not, Uncle Sam will pay it back if they don’t. I can get 8% interest on my money virtually risk free. What a deal!” This is what the major European governments are doing right now, they are guaranteeing loans. But doesn’t this sound familiar? Isn’t this how we got into this mess in the first place? Lending institutions loaned money to people with bad credit, and then sold those loans to other people. The lending institutions made money on the loan and sold their risk to somebody else. Not much risk there, so why not just lend it to anybody? This is just creating a bigger problem then we already have. It is funny how people don’t learn from their mistakes. I think the Euro and the Dollar are going to be worthless someday because of this. I would invest in non-dollar assets such as real estate, gold, silver, copper, sugar. Just don’t borrow money to do it. For a free floor sanding estimate in Roseville give me a call.