Clark Howard Show Notes – July 20, 2010 –

Today’s Show: How to Profit From Foreclosure, Senate to Extend Jobless Benefits, Profits on Wall Street But Not on Main Street

We started today’s show talking about the latest Ilyce Glink/RealWorld Seminars event, “How to Profit From Foreclosure 2010.” See the links below for ticket information.

The unemployment numbers seem to show that fewer people are being included in the polling because they’ve “given up.” The unemployment rate has fallen to 9.5 percent nationally, but that’s because hundreds of thousands of people have left the job market. Virtually no new jobs are being created. According to some economists, if you included all of these folks who have fallen off the rolls in the unemployment numbers, the national unemployment rate would be at about 21 to 22 percent. We’ll talk more about this tomorrow.

Goldman Sachs said its profit dropped 82 percent, thanks to defending the SEC lawsuit and the extra tax on earnings from Great Britain. Strip that out and their profits fell 44 percent. Still, they’re paying their employees an average of $235,000 per year. For EACH employee. How do I get one of those jobs?

Clearly, folks on Main Street aren’t seeing those sorts of profits. We talked about my conversation with my friend and **SurePayroll president Michael Alter, where he said that small business owners are much more pessimistic than normal.

How To Profit From Foreclosures and Other Real Estate Investments

The ticket window is open for our latest event: How To Profit From Foreclosures and Other Real Estate Investments which will be held on October 2, 2010 at the
Renaissance Waverly.

The EARLY BIRD ticket price is now available – but it won’t be here for long. Right now, you can buy a ticket at the early bird price of $35. There are no other discounts. This is the lowest price you’ll pay for a ticket to this event. After the early bird window closes, the price for these tickets will go up.

Wondering if it’s worthwhile to attend the event? Wondering if you’ll get your money’s worth. Here’s what past attendees say about ThinkGlink/RealWorldSeminars events.

Looking for a travel deal?

George says the weekend is coming and he’s looking for a travel deal. He might want to try TravelZoo.com or Kayak.com/explore

Free Books and Ebooks from THINKGLINK

Get your FREE copy of my books: 50 Simple Steps You Can Take To Disaster-Proof Your Finances and The REALLY Useful Guide to Working Smarter Not Harder

You pay the shipping, and we’ll send you as many copies of each book as you want. They’re a great gift! If you want to buy more than 20 copies, contact sam@thinkglink.com for a special deal.

Buy 3 Get 1 Free EBOOK deal. You buy 3 ebooks at the ThinkGlink.com store and receive 1 of those for FREE when you use the code freeebook

How to Find a Financial Planner

If you type fee only financial planner into the ThinkGlink.com search engine, several relevant stories will pop up.

Texas Consumer Complaint Center

I’ve mentioned this helpful center before on the show. Staffed by the University of Houston Law School, the Texas Consumer Complaint Center will assist everyone (not just Texans) on any consumer issue you might have, including loan modifications, short sales, foreclosures, etc.

Tune in on Wednesday and Thursday, as I finish my week filling in for Clark Howard.