Welcome to the November 2009 edition of Best of the Financial and Investing World.

SpendOnLife.com presents Credit Report for Richest and Poorest Neighborhoods in America posted at SpendOnLife.

Matthew Overstreet presents Can Swing Trading Stocks Online Be Effective? posted at My Road to Financial Freedom.

MoneyNing presents Lifestyle Inflation Is About More Than You posted at Money Ning, saying, “Lifestyle inflation is real and scary. Be careful or it is more than you who will pay the price.”

R.J. Weiss presents Coinsurance- Definition and Formula posted at Gen Y Wealth.

Jim presents Debt Management: …

Many people might wonder why I make so many political statements on this blog.  The unfortunate reality is that your money, the markets, and business are completely intertwined with our government these days, and sadly, also with politics.  If we had a true free market, there would be zero political commentary on this blog because government wouldn’t be involved in personal finance, with business, with the economy or with investing.
It sucks that government is most likely the biggest factor in your finances these days.  I’m frustrated that I can’t invest …

The traders that are on CNBC’s Fast Money each night are becoming more annoying from my point of view. In the below video, you’ll see the traders smirking and laughing as David Rosenberg analyzes today’s GDP numbers (in a bearish light). Since his view doesn’t coincide with these arrogant Wall St. traders who think we should print money to make the markets go higher, they snicker while David’s talking. I’d love someone to smack the smiles off these guys faces. As I mentioned in an article …

Very interesting stuff here.  I just read the article over at Smart Money about the story behind Ally bank.  The reason that I even mention this bank is because their ads are all over blogs and Yahoo! Finance so I imagine lots of my readers have seen them.  Furthermore, many internet surfers who are interested in finance tend to try and find the best interest rates at online savings accounts such as ING Direct.  It’s a safe bet that many of these people have given Ally a shot with their …

Interesting article from Yahoo! Finance this morning regarding the move from brick and mortar retail stores to online retail.  This definitely plays along with the theme that I talk about a lot regarding retail and commercial real estate.  Basically, we have way too much retail in this country and the consumer is not going back to previous levels.  The result is closing of many retail stores and a disaster for commercial real estate management companies due to lack of leasing revenues.
Check out the following quote from the article:
First and foremost, …

Many people on TV are debating whether or not high oil prices are a good thing or not.  I’m pretty flabbergasted by this discussion as a whole.  High oils prices are not good for the economy at all.  Especially with a wounded consumer, what on earth would be good about high gas prices?  As far as I’m concerned, the lower the gas prices and the price of oil, the better.  Sure, oil companies might not make as much money, but is that what we’re really concerned with?
Perhaps, a better question …

The action this week in the stock markets may indicate that the powerful rally is over.  The S&P closed below its 50 day moving average today.  Many stocks across the board are doing the same.  Also worth noting, the stocks that are doing well seem to be the defensive stocks such as McDonalds (MCD), Wal-Mart (WMT) and Philip Morris Int’l (PM); i.e. the stocks that do well during a recession.  The market action is definitely different.  We will see if this is truly the start of a major correction or …

The following video is a must watch video from one of my favorite economists, Peter Schiff.  He explains whether or not a home should be considered an investment in a manner very simple and easy to understand.  Every investor or home owner should understand this message.

I especially love his analysis at the end on what the American Dream is supposed to be. It’s about hard work and saving money, not owning a home. Time to get back to that!