Halloween coupons – something I like to look for every year because hey, who am I to deny the oh say, 7 kids in my entire neighborhood a little bit of candy. Here is a coupon I found
KMart Halloween Coupons:

Amazon.com Halloween Coupons:

If you purchase: Bit-O-Honey, Laffy Taffy, Wonka Nerds Rope, Nips, Nestle Crunch, and others you can save $15 on purchase of $39 or more.

Walgreens Halloween Candy Couponss:
According a few informants Walgreens may have a limited number of buy one get one free coupons available in-store so check that out.

Shinndigz Halloween Coupons – offering free shipping on Halloween costume orders $30+ with coupon code: CSCJF8 (Exp 9/30).

SpiritHalloween.com Halloween coupons use the following coupon codes:
Free shipping on orders $75+ (Exp 10/5) stacks with… 10% off your order with coupon code: SPAF10P (Exp 10/28)
20% off any one item with coupon code: SPAF20P (Exp 10/31)

BuyCostumes.com Halloween coupons – use the following coupon codes:
Take 10% off orders $50+ with coupon code: ZOMBIE50 (Exp 10/31)
10% off Animal Planet coupons with coupon code: AP10 (Exp 10/17)
Free shipping on orders $65+

If anyone finds anything else good, let me know or just post em below

It really hasn’t been that long since I closed on my first home loan so you might think I would draw on that experience to help with the new closing yet somehow the memory of it and how it all works went the way of the dodo…completely and totally extinct. Of course there were a bunch of years of college and beer to block out anything useful. Regardless I learned a few new things along the way.

1) The lender is not your friend. He/she is going to do whatever they can to maximize the money they make. They do not have your best interests at heart. Just ask all the people with ARMs that are resetting now.

2) Most mortgage companies are the same. Rates and costs tend to even out, they are all fairly equally sharkish in their practices.

3) Your loan is probably going to be sold. If mortgages were a pile of dirt (and with all junk going on lately in the mortgage market, some of them really are) the big banks would be giant vacuums sucking up most of them.

4) Its easy to forget the costs of buying a house are not just the purchase price. Closing costs are huge. We had thousands in closing costs including: appraisal, inspections, broker fee, rate lock, underwriting, title search and examination, survey fee, and a bunch of other crap.

5) The rates you see assume great credit. Most people do not have good enough credit to qualify for the absolute top rates…especially as lenders are cracking down on it.

Bonus: Be careful when you “lock in” your rate. With the market turmoil last week the rates went all the way from 6.25% down to 5.75% and back up to 6.7%. We locked in at 6% and were not too thrilled when the lender would not let us relock when the next day rates went down a quarter point. On the upside, we actually got away pretty cleanly since rates went up considerably since then.

I have written in the past that Jim Cramer is scum and yesterday was no deviation.  He said on the air yesterday for people to sell their investments and stash any cash you need for the next five years. There is no question the financial market is essentially in ruins right now but there are a bunch of reasons not to pull out.

1) Its dangerous – for you, for me, for the entire country.  A run on the stock market is just like a run on anything else: it disrupts the economy and is bad for everyone.  If I take all of my money out, it will drop and further push Joe to take all his money out which creates a bigger drop and so the cycle continues.  There are some things in place to make sure there is not the kind of massive crash that happened on black Tuesday but essentially our biggest enemy right now is fear.

2) Regardless of what happens right now, the market will go back up.  This is not the case for each individual company, but assuming you have diversified investments and are invested in index funds, you will see brighter days in the future, I promise.

3) As of this writing, the dow is under 10k and you and I have both already lost a massive amount.  Unless there is a total and complete collapse of the markets I think the probable bottom of the market is not too far off.

Let me reiterate: Despite what you might hear, we are NOT on the brink of financial apocalypse.  History will not repeat itself.

When the risky lending of the 1920s happened, there was a striking difference between what they were borrowing against and what the risky lenders of today have borrowed against.  I was fairly shocked to learn that in the 20s the risky loans were borrowed against STOCK.  Thats right, something that has the ability to go to absolutely zero worth.

Now lets contrast that with the ridiculous lending thats happening today.  The risky loans were put up with REAL ESTATE as collateral.

Lets put two and two together: we cannot replicate conditions leading to the great crash of 1930 unless real estate value goes to absolute zero.  This has never in history happened….quite the contrary land is the one thing throughout history that has held some sort of value.  Though the real estate is overvalued and correcting, it will not go to absolute zero.

Another huge difference is that back then there were absolutely no insured deposits.  There was no FDIC.  People that had any money in banks and were unable to withdraw it lost everything.  Thats simply not possible today.

There have been tough times before (Tech crash anyone?) but do not panic.  Stay the course and stick to personal finance fundamentals: reduce debts, save, invest, and keep your head above water.

When I say fix I don’t mean immediate gratification.  There is no magical mortgage fairy to come down with her magic mortgage wand and make all the bad debt go away.  Barney Frank and Henry Paulson seem to think they are magical mortgage fairies, but if I ever saw either one of them flying around in spandex with a wand, I would probably run the other way as fast as I could. This is more like Neosporin and a band aid on the wound sort of fix.

Before I do anything, I want you to see the sub prime primer which describes what sub prime mortgages are and the trouble they caused.  One word of caution, it is PG-13 rated for swearing.

Now back to our present situation: what exactly is going on with the bailout bill?

The banks do not have enough liquidity (essentially cash on hand or cash easily obtainable) to cover their expenses.  The government claims that the market will grind to a halt unless we, the taxpayers take over the bad mortgage debts of these banks so that they can keep doing “good” loans.  There is a major problem with this, as pointed out by one of my friends.  This is something worse than socialism, this is blatant corporatism.

What is corporatism?  It is merger of state and private enterprise.  Thats exactly what Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac are, and they are what put us in this situation.  We as a country hold freedom as our #1 assett.  The problem is that people from time to time forget that freedom not only means freedom to succeed, it also means freedom to fail.  Our government has, apparently, forgotten this.  If a company can make terrible and risky investments, but is then bailed out by the government, where is the freedom to fail there?

Here is the Penny Saved’s plan instead of forcing the taxpayers to pay for irresponsible “bailouts”:  

1) No taxpayer funded bailout in the sense of letting lenders off the hook. A chunk of money to buy only what is necessary to restore liquidity but it must be at market rates: not full price or anywhere near full price.  I was stunned to hear of some banks supposedly on the brink of collapse saying (allegedly) that they wouldn’t settle for “less than 70 cents on the dollar from the government” for this debt.  You’ve got to be kidding me! Lenders too seriously in trouble do the old thing: file bankruptcy and sell off their bad debt for whatever the market will pay for it.

2) Increase FDIC insurance to encourage people to deposit their money in banks and not “cut and run.”  The currently proposed 250k cap is a good start but it should be closer to 500k.  This would also increase liquidity for banks that are strong earners but are currently struggling with liquidity.

3) Restore pre-Acorn lending practices.  No government backed private enterprises.  Total market accountability.

4) Provide limited financial assistance to middle class mortgage holders in the form of additional tax breaks for home ownership and temporary stay of payment until they can acquire a new mortgage and refinance.  If they cannot, they will have to face foreclosure for borrowing that which they could not pay back.

5) Penalties for those executives at the top that mismanaged.  This should be covered as an extension under fraud laws particularly with Fannie and Freddy being taxpayer backed.  Absolutely no golden parachutes.

It seems the number one thing we have forgotten in all of this is personal responsibility.  Everyone blames everyone else.  I was appalled to see Barney Frank pointing fingers when he was in charge of overseeing Fannie and Freddy! It sickens me to see the country paying a price for the greed of very small minority.  As Lauren said to me about Fannie and Freddy: “Hmm how come insider trading gets Martha Stewart in jail, but it is legal for politicians and their appointees to get away with what they do?”  Good question indeed…