How desperate can they get? First I received a very long-winded, 10+ page e-mail from Motley Fool with the following sales pitch :That's why I'm offering you the chance to join Motley Fool Stock Advisor for just $79 -- that's 60% OFF our regular membership rate. But a word of warning: This special discount will be available for a limited time only!

Two days later, I received another 10+ page, jargon-filled e-mail blabbering on about the virtues of the newsletter while trying to create a sense of urgency because the clock was ticking and I was going to miss out.

Well yesterday's operative word was "might" as in the congress might pass a bill to support the auto industry and prevent the potential bankruptcy of General Motors (NYSE: GM), Ford (NYSE: F) and privately held Chrysler. Things have changed and for now might has become won't -- as in nothing doing!

Republicans in the Senate clashed with the UAW, Democrats and the White House over a thinly viable plan to provide a $14 billion aid package to forestall industry collapse and give all sides the opportunity to improve a bad situation in the first quarter of 2009 under certain conditions.

The breaking point was the UAW's refusal to agree to immediate wage cuts. While headlines pronounce the deal dead, I say let's wait and see. After all this is Washington, DC, where any reasonable facsimile of the truth has a high probability of being posturing and pretending.

I have been following this saga all week and three days ago I posted Auto industry bailout: A bloated government to lead a bloated industry, when I did not see an easy solution for such institutionalized problems - on all sides. This was followed by Auto industry bailout: Oil companies should take over!, a very provocative suggestion that brought a multitude of comments from our readers, taking the bait. In a more congenial mood I continued with Auto industry bailout: Can't we all just get along? yesterday hopeful some good might come out of intense negotiations in the Capital. Intense yes, successful no, or at least not yet.

AOL Money & Finance launched real-time quotes this week. The site's quote pages still headline with exchange-provided delayed stock prices. But right below that now, you can see a real-time quote that is provided by BATS Trading, an electronic communication network, or ECN (more information here). It shows the prices that broker dealers use to trade big lots of stock among themselves. It is usually the same as the price the exchanges quote and is especially reliable for stocks with major trading volume.

This real-time information can be quite useful if you are checking a stock that is making a big move during the day. For example, General Electric (NYSE: GE) is reporting earnings tomorrow and is in the news today as investors anticipate it may soon announce some spin-offs. As I look at the quote now (1:40 PM), I see the main quote is $27.45. But the real-time quote is at $27.60. That tells me that GE is higher heading into its earnings announcement. (Here's an earnings preview from Peter Cohan). Maybe this would be a good time to buy?

Since BloggingStocks is part of the AOL Money & Finance family of sites and links to AOL quotes in posts, all you have to do is click on a link on this site and you can see real-time quotes for yourself.

More recent improvements to AOL quotes pages include information by ticker on:
Option chains (see Time Warner's)
SEC filings (see Microsoft's)
Conference Calls (see Yahoo's)
Earnings releases (see Apple's)
Dividends & Splits (see Dupont's)


Disclosure: Amey Stone, an editor of BloggingStocks, doesn't own GE shares. She is an employee of AOL, a division of Time Warner (NYSE: TWX).

For the first time ever, the number of millionaires in the world broke through the 10 million mark last year. All said and done, the total number of people who can claim to have $1 million in the bank grew to around 10.1 million people, and on average, these lucky few boast around $4 million in net worth.

While the number of people in the "millionaires club" is definitely impressive, they still do not have to worry about the clout of their $1 million claims being diluted just yet. Ten million people may sound like a lot, but when you consider the world's total population is currently running at around 6.7 billion, you find that the percentage of all people on the planet who can claim to have $1 million is less than 0.2%. So don't feel too bad if you are not part of the club just yet.

As in the past, the majority of millionaires have an American address, with one out of every three millionaires being American. But there are a few other areas of the world where growth is out-pacing the United States. Developing economies in India, China and Brazil resulted in huge growth in those countries, especially in India, where the number of millionaires rose by about 23% last year alone.

In this month' Money Magazine story, Calming words for troubled times the final words were by Deena Katz, Chairman, Evensky & Katz Wealth Management, who shared this "My mom always said, if you're going to do it, don't worry; if you're going to worry, don't do it."

Are you a worrier? Do you fret over everything? Can you undo those things you have already done that you are worried about? Sometimes it's tough. But maybe you should consider it. How does that apply to the stock market or investing in general. From that perspective it is very simple. Do not invest in anything that will keep you up at night.

While this may be good advice for most aspects of investing there is one time that it might cost you. When stocks are rising few people are worried. When stocks are falling everyone's worry factor rises. As their worry factor rises they tend to become sellers. This may relieve one of their worries but it also may relieve them of their money because it contradicts two other old bits of wisdom.

"Buy low and sell high" is a common refrain said tongue in cheek because a bell does not ring announcing the highs and lows. However, even 'my pal Warren' would advise that "investors should buy on fear and sell on greed". So then the modified version of mom's advice melding it with market realities is that you should be worried when others are not and remain calm when everyone else is panicking.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money.

CNBC star Maria Bartiromo and I share a birthday, and I love a good scandal, so I follow her religiously. Maria is fun because she's both gorgeous and cute, smart and sexy. And then there's the strange case of Todd Thomson (the Citigroup exec who fell so in love with Maria that he flagrantly violated ethics, and common sense, just to spend time with her). She's also fun because her nickname is "Money Honey," and what's more: she's applied for a trademark for the phrase! Delicious.

Well, she might have to move fast to use the phrase before she loses the IP to a new generation of money honeys (money honeyettes?). News Corp. (NYSE: NWS)'s Fox Business News has a bevy of beauties dishing up the news on the stock market and the economy: Liz Claman, Dagen McDowell, Jenna Lee, Alexis Glick. Ben Stein wants to know, where did they all come from? His analysis, that finance is both boring and inscrutable, and that men would rather get this boring, inscrutable and (largely) completely irrelevant news from beautiful women, is certainly sensible.



But there's an undercurrent in his story that has me troubled, and though I think that he's right in many aspects of his analysis (it's certainly true that more men watch financial news than women), I'm peeved that he never wonders whether the financial world has just been extremely sexist and is only just now starting to let loose. I also find it odd that he doesn't wonder if there were financially savvy women being excluded from business journalism until now. (His "where did they all come from" question makes it seem as if they sprung from the head of Lou Dobbs like Athena.)

Whither Money Honeys? Here's my thought:

In case you hadn't noticed yet, we are definitely in the midst of a modern day gold rush. Gold prices have been rising strongly again today, with February gold futures moving up as high as $871.20.

There are two main reasons why people are quickly moving into the precious metal. One is the fear a possible recession on the horizon. Any time you enter into a period of economic uncertainty gold becomes a favorable avenue for people's money. The more obvious and in your face explanation for the recent gold rush is the weak U.S. dollar. The weaker the dollar gets, the more favorable gold will be to investors.

Will gold continue to move higher? I think so. Right now America is facing a pretty discouraging mortgage situation. How bad things are going to get is anyone's guess, but you can be sure of one thing: the Fed will do anything it can to keep the economy in "good shape".

Let's see a show of hands, who has their 501(c)(3) corporations all picked out for tax time?

It's not that I advocate using the act of charity to manipulate your tax burden, but you must admit that when it comes to paying taxes, if a donation of a couple hundred dollars will drop you into a lower tax bracket at filing time, a check to Habitat for Humanity suddenly becomes much more palatable.

The designation of 501(c)(3) is the code which identifies IRS registered, non-profit organizations. That's the first thing you want to look for when considering a charitable donation. There are (and should be) a host of other questions that you need to ask when donating, but where are the answers?

While investigating the Kiplinger.com web site, I discovered an absolutely excellent source of charitable organization analysis tucked in with Kiplinger's 25 Best Web Sites review. Charity Navigator.org is a website dedicated to the nuts-and-bolts financial disclosure of non-profit corporations large and small. Charity Navigator reveals how charities are handling the donations they receive and gives a broad view about how a charity is performing on the books. With a free and easy registration to the site, you can also have access to deeper analysis on specific organizations, such as a retrospective analysis of an organization's historical performance.

The experts say that when considering non-profit organizations to make donations to, you should always be careful and do your homework. Try to make sure that the organizations you choose to support serve your principles and ideals. You might find value by spending a little time at Charity Navigator to compare how charities stack up in their performance and while you're there, be sure to read their Top 10 Practices of Savvy Donors.

Are you meticulous about closing out old bank accounts? Diligent about reclaiming utility deposits? Always cash your refund checks promptly? Sorry, this post probably isn't for you -- for once, the hopelessly complacent among us are more likely to come out on top (finally!).

On Tuesday's Good Morning America, contributor Mellody Hobson of Ariel Capital Management discussed options to track down your share of the nation's $32.8 billion in unclaimed assets, chiefly citing www.unclaimed.org.

Unclaimed.org, run by the non-profit National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators, explains how to search for left-behind assets, and offers links to individual state databases of outstanding cash and property.

Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) volatility Elevated into EPS, Risk Exposure & Outlook. GS is expected to report EPS on 9/20. Wachovia Corp.(NYSE:WB) say's "Lack of mortgage and Chinese exposure distinguish GS." GS September option implied volatility is at 50; October is at 45; above its 26-week average of 35 according to Track Data, suggesting larger risk.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) MS is expected to report EPS on 9/19. MS September option implied volatility is at 48; October is at 41; above its 26-week average of 33 according to Track Data, suggesting larger risk.

Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC) is expected to report EPS on 9/20. Aquarian Investments holds a 6.97% stake in BSC for investment purposes. BSC Chairman & CEO James Cayne is 72. BSC Chairman of Executive committee Alan Greenberg is 79. WB say's BSC "shares are currently 1.2x book value compared to its historical average of 1.6x." BSC September option implied volatility is at 71; October is at 63; is above its 26-week average of 43 according to Track Data, suggesting large price movement.

Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH) is expected to report 3rd quarter EPS on 9/18. WCHV say's LEH's "Q3 started strong but ended real weak." LEH September option implied volatility is at 76; October is at 62; above its 26-week average of 40 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price risk.

Money has a list of 47 quick and easy steps to get yourself on the path to a better financial future. Some of the tips include switching your savings to a high-yielding online bank, haggling down your interest rates on credit cards, putting together a "forever portfolio", and checking how your salary compares to the industry average.

What's interesting about the list is how easy most of these things are to do -- and how few people will do them. It's indicative of the serious financial literacy deficit that exists in our country, and people are literally throwing money away because of their ignorance.

Print out Money's list and give it your adult children. If you have college-age kids, I'd be surprised if they've done more than 5 of the 47 smart things.

In today's world, people rarely carry large amounts of cash on them. People have credit cards for large purchases or even debit cards to access their checking accounts. ATM machines are on every urban street corner in America. But what happens when you're not at home in that urban setting? What do you do if you're on vacation?

I recently went to the Caribbean with my wife. We knew that most places would accept our cards but we questioned the exchange rate. Eastern Caribbean money isn't that strong in comparison to the U.S. dollar ($2.60 EC to $1 U.S.) and we knew that our credit cards would charge a service fee for purchases made in EC dollars. My wife, whom I consider a "world traveler," has always gone with the traveler's checks and prepaid card route. She would cash the checks in at the hotel and use prepaid cards so she wouldn't put her personal accounts at risk. I always used my credit card on vacation. Before our trip, I was sent to the bank to pick up a pair of prepaid cards and some traveler's checks.

The July issue of Money magazine has a great article regarding the best way to keep exchange costs to a minimum with today's weak dollar.

I found out she was completely wrong - a month too late.

I'm not writing this piece for my associate bloggers here on BloggingStocks. The fact of the matter is that most, if not all of them are far better, more well versed and more professional than myself. I don't even consider myself a professional writer. Basically I'm a hack commentator with some creative potential. But be that as it may, I do know a thing or two about presentation, and if there's one thing I've learned about blogging is that the presentation is what garners the healthy numbers. So, for the aspiring and struggling bloggers out there who want to expand their potential, this one's for you.

I get quite a lot of my material from three major news services. United Press International, Associated Press International, and The Financial News Wire. The angle is that I tend to quickly skip past the stories that I know everyone else is reporting. I know what's being reported because I research that fairly well. So when I get down to sifting through the news to determine what I'll present to you, I already have a pretty well formed picture of what stories are not requiring another go around. Sometimes I do present a piece regarding a story that has been hashed over pretty well, but in those cases you'll notice that I don't just put out a carbon copy of the press release. In the cases when I grab onto a hot headline to present content to the readers, it is my purpose to give them more of a scoop of my opinionated brain matter than just another carbon copied dateline.

While there are plenty of fast-talking late-night gurus out there who want to give you the information you need to get rich (all for the three easy payments of $29.95, but wait there's more...), the New York Times's Damon Darlin has some of the best personal finance advice that graduates don't want to hear:

• Save 10% of your income right off the top.
• Buy stuff used.
• Enroll in a 401(k).
• Don't borrow money to buy depreciating assets.
• Make your own coffee.

He offers two compelling reasons to start saving early. First, there's the most obvious one. Starting the cycle of compound interest early means your money will grow more. But then there's another one that I hadn't really thought about. Living below your means conditions you to be comfortable with a less expensive standard of living, which will also save you money in your retirement years.

There's another important thing to remember, and it's probably the best reason of all for being wise in your money management. I first realized this paradox when I was talking to my friend "Jim," who, after years of poor spending habits, has run up a huge amount of credit card debt, and lies awake at night worrying about money. He used to make fun of me for my Scrooge-like spending habits and obsession with saving as much money as possible. The other day, we sat down to discuss his problem.

A recent piece in the New York Times discussed the number 1 cause of stress in America: money woes. It also offered a bit of advice on how to deal with it that might run counter to what is traditionally considered good manners: "Talking about it might be taboo, voyeuristic or impolite, but money is our No. 1 stress factor, according to the American Psychological Association, and guess what the research shows can help us enormously? Being open and honest about it. Not just with ourselves (that's a first step), but with other people."

Just as some religions advertise the cleansing power of confession, talking about your financial woes can help you feel better, and even get you on the path to a better place. Here's one reason why: People who are dealing with debt or other financial woes might feel alone and ashamed but the reality is that most people's lives are a financial mess. 70% live from paycheck to paycheck, and people are wracking up debt at record rates.

As Dave Ramsey told the reporter, "When you see Ken and Barbie sitting there, looking like the perfect couple, and then you hear they've had a big fight about money, and they're broke, too, it gives you encouragement."

One of the problems with money woes is that, in this era of consumer credit, it can often be hidden. You might not know that your neighbor leases his car and has a huge HELOC on his home. It's not like obesity, where people wear the signs of their struggle around their waists.

So take a chance. Next time you're feeling stressed about money, tell your friends. You might find that they have similar problems, and you can share war stories and learn from each other. At the very least, it should make you feel better.