“Kidding Around”, a specialty toy store in NYC, is doing everything it can to prepare for new lead restrictions on toys and increased costs. But even though the owner is raising prices on the consumer, this small business faces dire times.

Shares of General Motors plunge after a report that the U.S. Treasury is directing the automaker to lay the groundwork for a bankruptcy filing by June 1.

Much has been written the past few months debating the merits of buy and hold investing.    The buy and hold philosophy is just that:  invest consistently over time.  It is a strategy based on the theory that investments will produce high returns over time regardless of short term volatility.   What you need to do is consistently buy and hold investments to reap those returns.  Sometimes you will buy at a high cost, and sometimes you will buy low, and this will work out, again, over time, to the investor’s benefit.

Here are the four strategies to follow in order to reap the benefits of Buy and Hold investing.

1.    Know your time horizon.
Most criticisms of Buy and Holding stem from the mis-management of time horizons.  Before investing in anything, the most important decision to make is “when will you need this money” – or when do you cash out.  The more specific you can be with this time frame, the more successful an investment strategy can be.  Without identifying an end to an investment timeline, you put yourself at risk of panic selling during a down turn.

2.    Maintain proper diversification
The buy and hold investor must know when to stop investing in riskier vehicles and start investing in more conservative vehicles.  Proper diversification generally consists of investing primarily in stocks (or stock mutual funds) at the beginning of the time frame, and slowly converting over to bonds (or bond mutual funds) which are considered less risky, near the end of the time frame.  This theory must be followed with buy and hold investing as well.  If an investor maintains a stock-only portfolio over the entire investment horizon, there is a risk that when time comes to cash out the overall investments can be lower than necessary to reach financial goals.

3.    Invest consistently
This represents the most basic but important aspect of buy and hold.   The successful buy and hold investor must take advantage when the market is low.  It is psychologically difficult to invest when markets are down.  This has been evident in the last six months, however, it is buying when prices are low that will help create profits in the overall portfolio and balance out purchases when investments are priced high.

4.    Set return percentages for individual investments.
Each investment in a portfolio should have a specified goal rate of return.  Once that rate has been reached, it is time to cash out gains and reinvest in new holdings.  For example, if you are investing in individual stocks, assign an appropriate return (based on growth potential and other fundamentals – check with your advisor for specifics) and when that has been reached, cash out either all of the investment or, at a minimum the gains, and use the funds for new investments.

Maintain the disciplines outlined above and buy and hold can be a successful strategy to optimize investment returns.

– Michele Steinberg, Geezeo.com

Some stories begin with “Once upon a time…” Few fairy tales or other stories begin with “Once, there was a freeze in available capital, and all people the nation over suffered from a lack of available credit and cash…”

It’s about time one of your stories paid off — literally.

Tell your story and win an interest-free loan, courtesy of Uncrunch America. Uncrunch America is running a campaign to help solve the credit crunch supported by Lending Club, Virgin Money, OnDeck Capital, Credit Karma, ChangeWave, and yours truly: Geezeo.

Uncrunch America’s goal is to provide resources to help individuals overcome the credit crunch. Uncrunch America wants to contribute to rebuilding the economy by showcasing alternative financing sources and useful tools to help you manage your finances and your credit.

Share your story and telling others how you are coping with the credit crunch. You can share tips and resources or outline a new project that will help create jobs and stimulate the economy. The story voted most popular by May 15, 2009 wins a $5,000 interest-free Uncrunch loan to help make it happen.

The story submission and voting just started, and ends on May 15, 2009 at 5pm Pacific. Share your story, inspire others, and get a chance to win an interest-free loan!

Curt Schilling may have retired from baseball, but the former MLB pitcher is already busy at work with his new team at 38 Studios, a new entertainment and game development venture.

You may have heard of Elkhart, Indiana. It’s nearby neighbor is South Bend, known as the last stop on the Chicago commuter train and home of the University of Notre Dame. But seemingly sister cities South Bend and Elkhart couldn’t be more different. President Obama visited Elkhart in February and is due to visit again soon.

Why? Right now Elkhart is the “poster child” for our country’s economic woes. As of this writing the town is suffering from crushing 18% unemployment due mostly to the collapse of it’s main manufacturing sector. It is suffering from the dire effects of reliance on a single-industry economy.

In my opinion Elkhart suffers from the worst economic sin to befall a city or even an individual citizen: the unwillingness to rethink, re-imagine, and rebuild.

I know: as a teenager I lived in Elkhart.

My parents still live there. My mother works for the public school system. My father volunteers with a local group providing assistance to the unemployed. The city’s downturn affects everyone and everything: property values, education, civic pride. Economics drive social ills and unrest. Elkhart and its people suffer.

What happened? Elkhart, and towns like it across America got lazy the last forty years. They operated on a fixed set of economic assumptions which assumed American dominance. When things changed Elkhart refused to change with the times. Now, times are so tough the good citizens are finally desperate enough to reexamine their local economy and seriously talk about rebuilding anew.

Elkhart has a lot to teach the rest of America. Elkhart is a typical town in a country slowly waking up to new economic realities. Some people, cities, and nations avoid change at all costs. However, change is what is necessary to compete globally and strengthen economies locally.

So what does it mean to “rethink, re-imagine, and rebuild” when it comes to your personal finances?

Rethink: A life without change or challenge is brutally boring. The parts of your economic life that have worked in the past may simply not work right now. What can you control? Your future. It takes assessment of what matters and what you want out of life. Maybe you need a change of career. Maybe you need a change of skills. You need to rethink everything.

Reimagine: The first step towards change is imagining what it will be like when things have changed for the better. Then, get busy. It will take a lot of small steps to change your economic reality.

Rebuild: Everyone has a starting point. First and foremost you need to be honest about yours. You’ll need to address your weaknesses as well as your strengths (in life, and in every economy, everyone has both!). Determine a direction and start taking necessary steps today to make real change a reality.

Remember: only you can control your economic future. But only by working with your neighbors can you change a city’s, or a country’s, economic future.

By Kathryn Hawkins | Razoo.com

Imagine earning a trillion dollars for a week’s worth of work. Even the greediest CEOs of the now-disgraced Wall Street firms never saw those kinds of paychecks—but you can. If you live in Zimbabwe, that is.

As the 12 million residents of that war-torn African nation are discovering, being a trillionaire isn’t quite what it’s cracked up to be. These days, the Zimbabwean currency is worth so little that locals cannot even use it to buy a loaf of bread. In fact, local merchants will no longer accept the Zimbabwean dollar—they must be paid in foreign currency.

“If you don’t get your salary paid in foreign currency you are in serious trouble,” Esther, a woman from Harare, Zimbabwe, wrote in a diary for BBC News. “Now everything – water, electricity – have to be paid for in US dollars.”

Unfortunately, very few Zimbabweans even have any income at all. According to the United Nations, more than 94 percent of the population has no formal employment, and over half of the population relies on food aid.

The switchover to foreign currency has helped the country considerably, allowing stores to reopen and restock their shelves. However, the country, long ruled by brutal dictator Robert Mugabe, and recently weakened even more by a widespread cholera outbreak, will need a lot of support to recover from its current crisis.

How you can help: You can help relief efforts by making a contribution to an international humanitarian aid group, such as ADRA International, which provides emergency food supplies, medical care, education, and microfinance business opportunities to people in Zimbabwe and many other developing countries.

By Kathryn Hawkins

The social networking system says it’s finally ready to sell an upgraded version of Twitter to businesses.

Here are six surprising ways Twitter can make you rich, too.

If you’ve been dreaming of a trip to Europe, now might be the perfect time to book that trip.   Here’s why:

1.    The Dollar Versus the Euro
The US dollar has been strong in recent months versus the Euro.  As of the writing of this article 1 Euro was equal to 1.33 US dollars.  If you are converting Euros to Dollars, you multiply by the exchange rate.  If you are converting Dollars to Euros, you divide by the exchange rate.   To put it another way, 1 US dollar is equal to 0.75 Euros [1/1.33 = .75]  The key  to understanding exchange rates is to think about how much of the “other” currency one US dollar will buy.  You always want to be in a situation where you can buy more of the other currency.   Once you understand the exchange rate you can start to see what it will ‘cost’ you in US dollars to travel.  For the most part, prices in Europe echo prices in the US, so, if a pint of Guinness in Ireland costs 2 Euro that means it will cost you $2.65 [2*1.33 = 2.65].

2.    Flights are cheap
One small silver lining to the current economic crisis has been low oil prices.  When oil prices are low, the costs to fly decreases.  Couple this with people tightening their travel budgets (staycation anyone?) and the result is airlines creating sales to fill their seats.   The web abounds with deals on flights to Europe – one quick search at the time of writing this article resulted in a round trip flight from Chicago to Paris for $534 (!) on Air France.

3.    It’s not yet high season
Most people plan to travel in June and July, when the weather is nice all around.   But if you do travel these months, you’ll not only be in a city full of tourists, you’ll be subject to significantly higher prices for everything from flights to food.  Airlines, hotels and retailers all know when the tourists will hit en masse and take advantage with their pricing.  If you can plan your trip for April or even early May, you’ll avoid the crowds, reap the reward of lower prices, and still experience decent weather – keeping in mind Europe is not generally a “beach” destination.

4.    Goodwill abounds
Barack Obama has just completed his first overseas visit, and goodwill for Americans is high.  While Europeans generally welcome us with open arms, it never hurts to have an ambassador precede your visit to increase the warm fuzzies.

5.    This won’t last forever
This near perfect storm of a strong dollar, low oil prices, and goodwill is practically a limited-time-offer.  If you have the time and resources, what are you waiting for?

– Michele Steinberg, Geezeo.com

By Lisa Chamoff | MainStreet.com

Just before the start of the Great Depression, Mary Feigenbaum’s father, a builder in Brooklyn, N.Y., lost everything. During that time Feigenbaum, now 95, remembers how she sacrificed. She had to work for the family business and couldn’t finish college, and she and her seven brothers and sisters subsisted on pounds of potatoes.

Feigenbaum ran her family’s lumber business, had three children and, after her husband died, moved to Westchester County, N.Y., where she eventually became the administrator of a mental health clinic. She retired at 75 and now lives in Cambridge, Mass.

MainStreet: How did the Depression affect you and your family?
Feigenbaum: My father never invested in the stock market. He was in the lumber business and he built one-family homes.

There was a great rush to build because they were beginning to build up Long Island. My father owned quite a bit of real estate all over, [in] Brooklyn and places out toward the Island.

When the market crashed, people at that time were able to buy stock for only 10% down and they owed the rest. They borrowed the money from the brokers. When the prices started to go down on the stocks the brokers called for money because there was only 10% on it. People ran to their banks to raise money and the banks raised their interest rates to about 10%. So they used up the money to lend people money at 10%, but they didn’t follow their obligations to give the builders their money.

And my father, the worst thing he said that could happen when you’re building a tract of houses is to stop the job. And so he would borrow money and give up a piece of his property as collateral. And the last project that he had was a six-story apartment building. He finished it up to 90% without one penny from the bank. If the bank had told him that they’re not going to pay him, he wouldn’t have done what he did. They kept telling him, “Come back Monday.” When he came on Monday, they said, “Come Thursday.” The building was about 90% completed, but he had no further property to borrow money on. So, he lost the building and he lost all of his property. All of it. He went absolutely from a millionaire to a pauper.

How did your family make ends meet?
One of his wholesale lumber dealers had taken over a piece of land because he loaned him money on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn. He told my father, “Go ahead, use it. Open up a lumber yard, and I’ll send you a couple of truckloads of lumber.” And he started it, and that business remained in the family until my oldest brother took it over after the war, and then he died young and I took it over and I ran it for seven years. It stayed in the family until I dismembered it.

I remember that my father, we had no money, he borrowed $10 from my uncle and he bought 100 pounds of potatoes and we ate potatoes, and I don’t think anybody knew more recipes for potatoes than my mother. And no one dared to complain.

Were there any other ways that your family got by after your father lost his money?
As soon as he was sort of given this piece of property in Brooklyn to start a lumber business, it was almost like instantaneously he had no problems. We did lose our home that my father had built. He lost not only all of his other property, but the home that we lived in. We moved into two apartments above a store because there were no apartments big enough for 10 people that we could afford.

How do you think living during that time impacted your life?
I went to college at night, and then actually didn’t finish. So, it had a big effect. I worked in the lumberyard for my father [and] I couldn’t go to school. I had to work. I might add that my brothers and sisters had kind of high IQs, but they weren’t allowed to go to college.

How do you think the Depression is different from the recession today?
I don’t know anybody who was not touched. Today they constantly talk about the Depression, and they try to say that there are comparisons. It’s not true. There was 25% unemployment at the time.

My best friend’s father killed himself, and my neighbor’s father did the same. The newspapers, they managed to catch pictures of people jumping out of their apartments. It was a terrible time. You couldn’t meet anybody that wasn’t affected. People were begging and some were selling pencils or apples.

Related articles:

• The Rich Are Getting Un-Richer (geezeo.com)
• Is Your Pension Safe? (geezeo.com)
• Got Extra Cash? 3 Better Places to Stash it Than Your Mattress (geezeo.com)
• Cramer: How Much to Save for Retirement Now (geezeo.com)