So we’re going into a recession. There are few out there who have not yet accepted this, and the only thing left to debate is whether we’re already in a recession, and how deep the pain will be.

There are several periods in time when, as investors, we’ve been backed into a similar corner. Perhaps like many of you, I’ve never personally been through a recession with a highly vested interest in the outcome, but there are a vast majority that have.

Recession, the ’90s Version

If you were around in the recession during 1990 and into 1991, you might be …

President Bush is dreaming up ways to “stimulate the economy” as you read this. He will present his grand ideas on January 28th at the annual State of the Union speech.

This desire to stimulate the economy goes beyond the Oval Office, however. On Friday, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid wrote a letter to the President seeking cooperation in developing an economic stimulus plan.

As many of you know, I’m a big fan of letting a free market and free economy work. The last thing we want to do is watch the government try to stimulate the economy. Let the …

Spurred by my recent plumbing problems, MJ wrote an excellent post on his blog concerning dealing with contractors, getting quotes, and following up on progress.

Anyone who’s never worked with contractors before will learn a thing or two based on MJ’s experience as a manufacturing engineer.

…any actual contractor should be able to cover all the costs of the work until it is complete, if it is a big project expect to pay 75% of the project costs when the work is 75% of the way done. In other words, the project should be close to finish at that point, and hold the last 25% for …

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Emigrant Direct has preempted any fed rate cut Bernanke could throw at us. Within the last couple of days, Emigrant bank has cut their online savings rate to 4.55%. Still better than I can get at Bank of America, but it’s making online savings accounts look less appetizing when compared to Canadian Royalty Trusts.

Sure, the money is guaranteed at Emigrant, so it’s still a great place to stash emergency funds, but the dropping rate could offset some of the risk in investing in stocks.

Question for the day: At what percentage rate do you quit stashing free cash in the savings account and contribute it to a online …

So I made the handyman trip to my rental unit last evening after the tenant called and told me that the washer was spewing water all over the place.

A few things crossed my mind when she described what was happening:

The outflow tubing came out of the drain fitting and when the spin cycle started the water ended up on the floor instead of in the drain.
The outflow tubing disconnected itself from the pump.
The drain backed up and when the washer tried to pump all that water down the drain, it back flowed out the pipe.
The water pump case cracked and is leaking from inside the washer.

Any one of …

Ever heard of an ASUS Eee PC? Yeah, me either.

And the only reason I recognize the ASUS (short for ASUSTek, a Taiwanese company) name is because I looked into building my own desktop PC a while back. ASUS is one of the largest manufacturers of motherboards, found in Sony Playstations, Apple MacBooks, Dells, and even a few HP computers.

And by the way, they also make computers. Small ones. Real small ones.
The ASUS Eee PC has a 7″ screen, so it’s truly a portable computer, and sells for under $500. Its got about …

I just received a call from one of the tenants at my first rental property. The clothes washer is leaking all over the basement floor.

Just last night I was thinking about how I hadn’t been called to fix anything lately…

Go figure.

So tomorrow I play appliance repair man.

It’s interesting to note that of all the appliances I have bought brand new, I have not had to fix, repair or replace anything. However, initially I bought both the washer and dryer used. I replaced the dryer with a new $200 version from Home Depot less than 60 days after the used dryer was purchased (the warranty was only 30 …

After my visit to the termite palace yesterday, the real estate agent told me she’d keep an eye open for more property in the area. The question then became: What is your criteria?

My first rental property ended up setting the bar very high. I bought it from a bank, put less than $10,000 into it for rehab and renovation, and rent it to students. Overall, my net cash flow is $345 per month. So I guess those traits could start the list.

1. The property must be within 3 blocks North of the local University.

Talk about narrowing the field! This is probably …

This afternoon I went over an looked at the property I’ve been watching for a few months. From the outside looking in, it appeared to be a rehab project that simply ran out of money. It’s typically opportunities like this that widen the margin on a deal, as most of the expensive stuff has already been taken care of by someone else.

Walking in through the front door, it was evident that the place had been lived in since the renovations took place. The carpet was dirty and stained, and there were remnants of belongings (crayons, broken pencils, etc) left in the kitchen drawers.

The walls in the …

Today an employment report revealed that seasonally adjusted nonfarm payrolls rose by 18,000 in December, the weakest job growth since August 2003. On top of that, private-sector payrolls fell by 13,000, the first decline in more than four years.

Most economists, as well as the market, were expecting payrolls to increase about 58,000 in December.

I view this as a sign that the economy is starting to falter. Housing is in toilets, unemployment is rising, consumer spending is in limbo, gas prices are high and going higher, and to cap it all off, our credit cards are maxed out (and by “we” I mean Americans in general).

It doesn’t help that …