Category: Money

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Military Programs at Luther Sales

Although we almost never see anyone on the street wearing a military uniform, there is an Army base just 40 minutes north of the city. Ft. Campbell is an Army base, just over the state line in Kentucky. The base is so big it stretches down into Tennessee and neighbors Clarksville. But Nashville is the closest “big city” for the base.

Sometimes they send guys down to Nashville to catch a commercial flight from our airport. I saw a couple of officers today eating lunch at Shoney’s before heading out, so I said “Hey” when they got in line at the buffet next to me.

I have friends in the military, so I know a little about how tough it is to be an enlisted man and try to start a family. Just when you get things going you end up with orders that send you overseas for months at a time. So the new wife and the kids stay behind and make do.

That’s why I can appreciate a business like Luther Sales who make a big effort with their special Military Programs to help the enlisted men and women by approving them for LutherCharge. This is an Easy Credit Program so the military families can buy some of the furniture, computers and other nice things instead of having to rent them. This store lets military families buy Computers on Credit so the family can stay in touch with their loved one overseas with emails, VOIP calls, and blogs.

They make Purchasing Furniture on Credit easy, as all Federal Government & Military are approved. Its as simple as arranging for allotments, payroll deductions & direct deposit – they are all accepted at Luther Sales.

I browsed their New Look Website today and found special offers for buying a Plasma TV on Credit. For new families with small children and a loved one overseas, sometimes Easy Credit is hard to find and they have to do without the nice things. Luther Sales tries to help with that, and they even offer Free Nationwide Delivery for everything they sell online.

One last thing that really blows me away. For a limited time, Luther Sales will donate a free ipod to soldiers serving in the Middle East with the purchase of $2,500 from their store. This ipod offer for Soliders is just one more good reason to shop at Luther Sales.

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Happy Chinese New Year

Today begins the year of the ox for the Chinese New Year. There was a link on the front page of Yahoo that gives a forecast for the coming year based on the sign of your birth year. Since I was born in the year of the snake, my forecast for the coming year is really good for my career, especially in the latter half of the year. That’s exciting and I’m looking forward to the good things promised to come my way. Of course, if this comes true I won’t know if it is a result of a horoscope prediction that comes true or if Obama will be taking the credit for an economic turn around. Or both?

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Finding Free Scholarships

With so many companies having layoffs and going bankrupt, I’m sure people who are working in troubled industries are getting paranoid and worried about their job security and future career path. Some people who are holding onto their jobs by a thread are very likely spiffing up their resumes and discretely starting a job hunt. Others may be looking harder at their resumes and credentials and considering going back to school to finish that degree, enhance or even change fields of expertise.

People considering going back to school  might be interested in applying for scholarships and grants to help with the additional expense. I recently read about a free college scholarships program that involves some participation in a fun and interesting way. Your activities in their program earns points toward free scholarships. If free scholarships are something that interest you, check out their web site at www.scholarshippoints.com.

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Only The Best for My Eyes

Today’s newspaper has a bright blue post it note on on the front page promising to save me $500 off the cost of Lasik surgery on my eyes.

I’m sure a lot of people would like to save $500, but that promise isn’t going to be the primary reason why I decide to have Lasik surgery or not, and it’s not going to be the deciding factor of who I choose to perform the surgery. In fact, my motivation is the opposite. I want only the best for my health and especially for my eyes.

If I was to decide to get Lasik surgery, I would be searching out the qualifications of the doctor who will be performing the surgery. I want the best in that field, with thousands of procedures under his belt before he steps close to my eyes.

As a matter of act, this prompted me to get on the internet this morning and start researching the whole Lasik topic. I found several good things about a doctor in the Houston area, Dr. Jack Holladay. This doctor has had over 50 peer reviewed articles published in national and regional publications. That is remarkable in itself. He has an informative web site and has been certified by a non-profit patient advocacy group, USAeyes for refractive surgery techniques including Lasik, All-Laser Lasik, PRK, LASEK, Epi-Lasik, CK, RLE, and P-IOL. That pretty much covers all the techniques in use at this time.

Evidently, Dr. Jack Holladay even teaches other doctors how to perform the different Lasik surgeries. This is the caliber of care that I want for my own eyes.

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Business Bumps

The big story last month when the talking heads were trying so earnestly to convince Americans that the big money bailout was necessary was that the bailout money would increase the credit available to businesses. After all, businesses need credit to survive and to grow. The common example given of why businesses need credit was to make payroll, but it can also be to buy new equipment.

That logic of needing to borrow to make payroll really bothered me. If a business routinely needs to borrow money to make payroll, then in my opinion it is not a viable business.

However, having been in business for a long time, I recognize that all businesses have ups and downs throughout their life cycle, and it can be really tough to make ends meet when you have even a small series of setbacks. That is why I think most businesses need to have at least one good source for raising emergency cash, such as www.onlinecheck.com, and that second only to paying taxes, a business needs to make sure that it’s employees get paid. That is why arranging for a Merchant Cash Advance makes a lot of sense. You go online to make the arrangements – it is fast and easy.

Sometimes a customer goes bankrupt or has a big problem where they cannot pay the bill owed to your company. If you were planning to use that money to pay your own bills, it can be the domino effect of your business not paying its own bills, and then your suppliers or vendors cannot pay their own bills, and so on. But a responsible business owner will at least make sure that the employees are paid.

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Sharing the Knowledge

I’m a big fan of blogs. Any web site that has one when I’m there for other reasons catches my attention and I will usually click over to the blog and read what they have to say. The advantage of most blogs is that they are written in people’s real words and the blogs often reflect more emotion and opinion than the sterile ad content on the rest of the site.

One blog that keeps me coming back is written by Mark Cuban. He is a very interesting man and what impresses me the most is that he is so willing to share his thoughts and opinions in a very constructive way. He writes about a variety of business topics. The latest posts on Mark’s blog have been about the economy and the stock market, and he proposes concrete changes to existing laws and policies.

His writing style is plain English and it’s a quick, interesting read. I feel fortunate to have come across his blog – he’s already taught me several things and I look forward to reading more.

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Gas A-Plenty

Great day for us – gasoline is everywhere, plentiful, no lines and it is dropping in price.

Would you believe I actually paid only $3.29 per gallon today? Holy cow, Batman! It’s been almost a year since gas prices were that low.

That station is not in a part of town that I normally drive, but it is not really out of the way to go there. I have them high on my radar for the next fill up unless the stations closer to my house come down from today’s price of $3.43.

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Still No Gas

Still having trouble buying gas around here. The Mapco and BP stores are having the most trouble getting gas tanker deliveries. Most of the Mapcos only have gas for about 3-4 hours every 2-3 days.

The Shell stations are getting gas sometimes twice a day now, so the really long lines are starting to disappear. The Thorntons are getting enough gas to stay open 24 hours now. Thankfully, there are two Thorntons near my house, so I can get gas when I need it, but there are areas that still have trouble getting gas on demand.

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Gas Rationing

Some of the individual gas stations are adopting rationing plans. The most common policy is to limit the number of gallons of gas that you can buy at one time, the most common limit that I’ve heard is 10 gallons. The Thornton’s gas station near my house has a dollar limit of $75 per visit.

The most bizarre example was down in a little town that has only 2 gas stations in the area. The BP is out of gas except every 3rd day when they get a limited delivery. The BPs and independents are the hardest hit on the shortages. The Shell stations seem to be getting one delivery of a partial tanker truck every day, but they have no idea what time the truck will come and it is scattered throughout the 24 hour period with no regard to location or volume.

So this little town has a BP that is out of gas and Shell station that just got a delivery about 30 minutes before I arrived. The word got out fast and all the locals mobbed the station with entrance and exit chaos. So the local police were called to restore order and they came up with this plan:

All cars have to get in line from the one entrance behind the store adjacent to the shopping center parking lot. All cars must form a line that snakes through the shopping center parking lot around the entire perimeter and then down the side street. There were 72 cars in that line when I arrived, pilling over into the side street. Anyone accused of cutting in line was ejected by the police and denied gas.

The police parked their cruisers on one side of the pump island and only allowed 2 cars at a time to approach the open side of the island. Upon reaching the pump, the police inspected your fueld gauge. If you had half a tank of gas or more you were ejected and denied gas. To help speed up the line progress, a store clerk stood outside by the pumps and upon the OK by the police that the vehicle’s gas tank was less than half full, the clerk (with a pocket full of dimes to make change) would accept cash payments of $39.90 and you were allowed to pump 10 gallons of gas. No gas cans, boats or recreational vehicles were allowed gas. No one was allowed a second trip the same day.

I’m not sure what legal right these cops had to look at your fuel gauge and deny youthe right to purchase gas, but there were two of the Bubbas there in no mood to argue. So everyone did as they were told and spent 2 hours in line to get their 10 gallons of gas for the week.

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Still Out of Gas

Most people who normally just buy $10 or $20 worth of gas aren’t able to do that this week because of the gas shortage in this area. Finding a station that is open and actually has any gas to sell is becoming a sicko treasure hunt. When you finally find a station that is open you drive up behind the last car in a very very very long line and wait for up to 2 hours to get your turn at the pump. You aren’t going to go through all that for just $10 worth of gas – you are going to want to fill it up to postpone the pain as long as possible.

Most stations are out of everything – all grades and diesel. The station that are getting gas deliveries are not getting a full truck load and they are only getting that every 2 – 3 days. The typical truck brings 3,000 gallons of regular and then leaves. The average station pumps that out within 3-4 hours.

Tempers are starting to flare with line cutters and luxury items like fishing boats and recreational vehicles being harrassed for wasting gas. It’s getting ugly out there, folks.