Argentina? Holy smokes...we complain about inflation at 7% here in the states. I remember in late 80's when it was double what we have now in states, but Hyperinflation upwards of 2200% in Argentina and Brazil...
I worked with a good friend from Buenos Aries back then and he told me of weekly raises, taking his paycheck and NOT depositing in bank, but buying cars, apartments, anything to hold some semblance of value, regardless of need....going to grocery store and not having price tags, but colored tags with revised pricing announced over the intercom every couple hours...yikes...
I work for a Venezuelan company now and same thing...
Those with assets can economically survive, but those who do not...how do they recover from economic situations like that? They just start over with nothing, again and again?
Like Japanese say "what doesn´t kill you makes you stronger"
We are all used to it by now, and have grown STRONG antibodies.
People who can, buy US Dollars, and keep them "under the mattress", or buy stock, not for "profit" but to "keep value"; Real Estate sales are made in U$D, cash only.
Personally don´t buy either (either low profit, risky or both) but being a Manufacturer keep no cash except for daily life/needs, any surplus goes to materials, components, machinery, etc.
Even if selling 10-20amps a Month I buy closed boxes of anything, say 300 wall plugs even if it´ll take me 1 or to years to empty it, 500 meter lots of wire, have my specially custom made aluminum sheet, go figure, in a very efficient (for me) size (so practically no scrap metal), stamp speaker frames by the 100s, buy magnets and cones also by the 100s, full 100 Ft Tolex rolls, etc.
Transistors and ICs by the closed box, paint/glue by the 5gallon can and so on.
Only "mistake" was buying 55 gallon drums of contact cement: not reaching half a drum (which takes over a year) it starts self vulcanizing/polymerizing and it´s lost, adding more toluene/xylene does not redissolve it after some point.
But in general it works very well: supplies keep their value, by definition they track inflation, I pay much less because I bypass 1 or 2 commercial stages buying straight from Importer/Factory/Distributor, what´s not to like?
This week Economy Minister renounced (by a Twitter message no less), the new one designation, a hardcore leftist militant instantly made "the Markets" explode, our Peso instantly devalued 20% in one day ... no big deal.
I mean if you are ready for it and board the Titanic with your life vest already on that is 😉
No need to.
That would be potentially very dangerous forGovernments, big Money, etc. , you can´t stop people who have nothing to lose, so:
As of the "have nots" who are 60-80% of population, they are under the protective wing of a Welfare State, so nobody dies of hunger (on demand anybody receives basic need boxes: pasta - beans - sugar - cooking oil - soap - diapers, etc. )
and/or get debit cards which are refilled monthly.
"Alimentar" means "to feed".
Like in Norway and other Countries, Government help gets diverted into "other" uses.
Why am I not surprised?
Here it must be used to purchase food and home supplies, period, no cash involved at all which can be misused, but somehow Government credit turns into paper and ink money, there must be some kind of "magic" involved 😱
This is a screen capture from a Police News channel:
Ay, Caramba!
Wow, I thought all that was mostly over and done with...I shall never complain again, ever.I don't know what the right answer is, but wish it could be....just....easier for everyone...
Having the government lop off the last digit on your life's worth every few years is sickening to those that don't live it.
Well, at least you had the best Soccer player that ever walked the face of the earth (Diego Maradona)
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Well, the situation is .... "dynamic"
Fresh news: the current vice President and former President Cristina Kirchner wants to introduce "Universal Salary", which would cover almost 14 Million Argentines out of 45 Million total.
Where will they get the funds from? ... who knows?
All they know is Congress will NOT pass that Law, so she is pressing current President (whom she appointed) to write it as a Presidential Decree, since it does not meet minimum requirements to become Law.
Kafkian/incredible?
Yes ... but today it´s in all newspaper covers.
Mr Fahey,
Being someone who was involved in private lending, I am hoping to add something here.
High risk is not a good option. Once bitten, twice shy. Just too risky unless you want to involve muscle, which was not our first choice.
If you are looking for a solid client, such as a car rental business for example, you are not able to rake in the kind of dough you are suggesting. When we were doing it, the bank rate for that company was 3.35%. We had to offer it at 3% to secure their business. While 3% is nothing to sneeze at, the other options we explored were far more fruitful albeit riskier.
Being someone who was involved in private lending, I am hoping to add something here.
High risk is not a good option. Once bitten, twice shy. Just too risky unless you want to involve muscle, which was not our first choice.
If you are looking for a solid client, such as a car rental business for example, you are not able to rake in the kind of dough you are suggesting. When we were doing it, the bank rate for that company was 3.35%. We had to offer it at 3% to secure their business. While 3% is nothing to sneeze at, the other options we explored were far more fruitful albeit riskier.
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Here, the risky borrowers pay up to 3% per month, with full security like property mortgage.
People like real estate developers, who are at the limit of their bank funding, in a dull market, and need to survive.
Credit cards are 3.5% monthly, compounded monthly, those are considered high risk.
So if you mean 3% per year, that is low by our standards.
Savings accounts pay 3% or so annually, and normal business accounts pay 9% and above.
Home loans are a little below 7% annually, student loans would be around that as well.
People like real estate developers, who are at the limit of their bank funding, in a dull market, and need to survive.
Credit cards are 3.5% monthly, compounded monthly, those are considered high risk.
So if you mean 3% per year, that is low by our standards.
Savings accounts pay 3% or so annually, and normal business accounts pay 9% and above.
Home loans are a little below 7% annually, student loans would be around that as well.
3% per annum, compounded annually, 3 year term, monthly remittance, lease style loan.
Like I said, this was a stable operation and we had to undercut the banks.
The smaller personal loans were higher but risky.
I recommend mutual funds to the uninitiated, although it’s a tough market now. When you’re ready, consider direct investing and maybe try your hand at day trading.
Like I said, this was a stable operation and we had to undercut the banks.
The smaller personal loans were higher but risky.
I recommend mutual funds to the uninitiated, although it’s a tough market now. When you’re ready, consider direct investing and maybe try your hand at day trading.
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A coworker's brother ran a small scale car rental business local to South Florida nearly 20 years ago. He was doing fine and making money for about 5 years until the "accident." It seems that someone who had rented a car from this company had become extremely intoxicated and attempted to drive back to his hotel. He managed to cause a multi car accident injuring several people and causing one or two deaths including his own. Of course, there were several wrongful death and injury lawsuits which resulted in the bankruptcy of the car rental agency, which was dissolved, never to reopen. I don't remember all the details but several people including my friends brother lost a lot of money. He could not get financing to start a new car rental place anywhere in Florida. I think he tried to restart in the Orlando area with some partners, but that failed. Last I heard, he was in Las Vegas.
That makes for a sad story. I wonder how he could be held accountable? Sounds like his indemnity insurance was not so boilerplate.
The operation we were involved with had been around for many years by the time we joined the team. Our role was to finance the purchase of cars to allow them to expand quicker. This too was a family operation and the cars we bought were the two year old cast offs from the big national rental companies. Instead of having to ship the old cars back to the manufacturers as lease returns, we bought them. They were quite reasonably priced considering the savings the manufacturers realized.
The operation we were involved with had been around for many years by the time we joined the team. Our role was to finance the purchase of cars to allow them to expand quicker. This too was a family operation and the cars we bought were the two year old cast offs from the big national rental companies. Instead of having to ship the old cars back to the manufacturers as lease returns, we bought them. They were quite reasonably priced considering the savings the manufacturers realized.
Saving accounts pay almost nothing. Term deposits a little more.
Business accounts pay nothing as they are most often chequing accounts.
Mortgages are less than that here.
You are oversimplifying a very complex thing and by the look of it have very little knowledge of share trading and the stock market.
Share trading / investing is a wonderful thing but knowledge is the key to being successful. A great way to gain some knowledge is to form a share trading group with a few friends, say 3 to 6.
Get an accountant to set it up properly, each put in an agreed very moderate amount per month that you can all afford and have regular meetings deciding areas of research and investment.
You will find that by allocating research tasks and pooling knowledge you will learn much faster than doing it yourself. If you have say 5 in the group, chances are at least 2 will already have
some knowledge of the stock market. You will also find that everyone due to their differing skills, education, area of employment, personality etc etc will lean toward differing investment
sectors and strategies whether it be small caps, tech stocks, blue chip, commodities, ETF's etc etc. After doing this for a year or two you should have gained a significant amount of general share trading knowledge and have a
better idea whether you are likely to be a successful investor on your own or whether you even enjoy doing it.
OK, let's say after 2 years of being in the group, you decide to get serious about starting your own portfolio. There are additional benefits that can flow from the group research to your own
personal investments that you might normally overlook or just miss due to finite time.
Just a few things to think about before you go blowing your or someone else's money on the share market with very little knowledge.
TCD
I am sorry, I should have said business accounts pay the banks about 9% per year as interest.
There are different rates for term loans (plant and machinery), land and building, and working capital.
Overdrafts, bill discounting, Letters of Credit...so many facilities are provided, but the average is about that for cash credit, overdraft or similar accounts, where you owe the bank any money.
And sometimes bill discounting and excess overdraft can cost up to 20% annually here.
Normal current (business) accounts pay no interest, but now the banks are charging for issuing cheques and so on, varies from bank to bank.
It is quite small, a stationery charge really, an irritant more than anything.
Term deposits are yielding a little below 6% per year, annual compounding, for 5 year tenure here, drops to about 2.5% annually for 46 day tenure.
I hope this makes matters a bit more clear.
There are different rates for term loans (plant and machinery), land and building, and working capital.
Overdrafts, bill discounting, Letters of Credit...so many facilities are provided, but the average is about that for cash credit, overdraft or similar accounts, where you owe the bank any money.
And sometimes bill discounting and excess overdraft can cost up to 20% annually here.
Normal current (business) accounts pay no interest, but now the banks are charging for issuing cheques and so on, varies from bank to bank.
It is quite small, a stationery charge really, an irritant more than anything.
Term deposits are yielding a little below 6% per year, annual compounding, for 5 year tenure here, drops to about 2.5% annually for 46 day tenure.
I hope this makes matters a bit more clear.
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Not here.
You often have a small monthly set fee and a charge for cheques but if you carry a minimum balance and/or your banker likes you, there is often the option of all items including drafts, cheques, deposits, withdrawals, transfers etc. for free. They often refer to those as 'All Inclusive' accounts.
I believe that all of their cars were leased as they were the current model year. When things like this turn ugly and high powered lawyers get involved everyone gets sued and whoever has the deepest pockets winds up taking the hit. The issue can get tied up in court for a year or two during which time assets may be frozen so that a business failure often happens. Often, it's someone or some entity that's not even part of the original complaint. I can think of several more incidents like this, all involving traffic where justice was totally perverted.
In my personal case, I was riding a bicycle across a 6 lane road in the crosswalk when the "walk" sign was illuminated (proper legal crossing). The elderly driver of a car was sitting at the red light when he suddenly lurched forward hitting me. My head put a $2000 dent in his Nissan Maxima. The entire incident was witnessed by a Broward County Sheriff's deputy (extremely credible witness), who waited for local law enforcement to arrive, explained to the city cop exactly what happened, handed both of us his business card and left. The local cop chatted on the radio forever, filled out some papers, told the driver to leave, then walked over to me and handed me a ticket for "causing an accident." As I proceeded to argue, he told me to shut up, hopped on his motorcycle and left. I walked about two miles home with what was left of my bike.
The court date for my ticket was almost a year out, so that all parties involved would have forgotten the details. Before the case even came to court, I get a call from the auto driver's insurance company wanting reimbursement for the $2000 dent from my unnamed insurance company, as it was not stated on the accident report, which I had not seen. Upon buying a copy of the report from the city PD, I found a bunch of lies. The police officer had written the ticket and the report so poorly that it was barely legible, making it look like I was in a car and I had violated the right of way which would have required me to be going the wrong direction on a busy 6 lane road. Huffy looked a lot like Honda for vehicle make, and the model of the vehicle was "green." The bike's (incorrect) S/N was scribbled in where the VIN should be and did not have enough digits to be a valid VIN. While discussing this with another local cop who was a bit older and not involved, he said that he recognized the driver's name. He was an ex city council member who had been involved in a couple other accidents in the past year or two. I got him to call the Sheriff's deputy who explained that I should be suing the auto driver, not his insurance suing me. That, and the fact that the elderly driver had passed away before the court date, so the case was dismissed. That did not stop the insurance company from wanting $2000. I had to get a lawyer friend to send a letter to the insurance company threatening to sue them, the local PD, and possibly the traffic cop. That silenced their hounds. The whole process took over a year. Fortunately, I was not seriously hurt, but the (cheap) bicycle was trashed.
I did say:
'Normal current (business) accounts pay no interest, but now the banks are charging for issuing cheques and so on, varies from bank to bank.'
Banks charge about 9% annually from business accounts held by borrowers, in the sense they owe the bank for money taken as loans for business purposes.
The more you keep as minimum balance, the more facilities are provided, as you mentioned above.
Citibank had a INR100,000 minimum balance account, with all those facilities, including home pickup and delivery of cash.
They would charge more than 100 per day if your account went below minimum balance...
Citibank has closed shop in India, it was up for sale, for whatever reason.
'Normal current (business) accounts pay no interest, but now the banks are charging for issuing cheques and so on, varies from bank to bank.'
Banks charge about 9% annually from business accounts held by borrowers, in the sense they owe the bank for money taken as loans for business purposes.
The more you keep as minimum balance, the more facilities are provided, as you mentioned above.
Citibank had a INR100,000 minimum balance account, with all those facilities, including home pickup and delivery of cash.
They would charge more than 100 per day if your account went below minimum balance...
Citibank has closed shop in India, it was up for sale, for whatever reason.
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