Filed under: Internet, Social Software, web 2.0

If you’re obsessed with a Television show, musician, web site, or programming language, odds are you already know it. But wouldn’t it be great if someone could follow you around all day and record every single word you speak and then plot the whole thing out in a tag cloud so you can see just how much you’re annoying everyone who couldn’t care less about your favorite subject?

That’s not exactly what Tweet Clouds does. But the site does examine all of the messages you send over Twitter to create a tag cloud. So it’s almost as good, right? It will show you a list of your most frequently used words. And the more often you use a term, the larger the font will be. If you’ve set up an automated system to send out a tweet each time you write a new blog post, there’s a good chance you already know the words that’ll pop up most often.

The site is pretty slow, especially if you’ve sent a lot of tweets in your time. You can suppress @reply messages if you want to filter your tag a bit.

[via WebWare]

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Filed under: Internet, Social Software, web 2.0

If you’re obsessed with a TV show, musician, web site, or programming language, odds are you already know it. But wouldn’t it be great if someone could follow you around all day and record each single word you speak and then plot the whole thing out in a tag cloud so you can see just how much you’re annoying everyone who couldn’t care less about your favorite subject?

That’s not exactly what Tweet Clouds does. But the site does examine all of the messages you send over Twitter to create a tag cloud. So it’s almost as good, right? It will show you a list of your most frequently used words. And the more often you use a term, the more massive the font will be. If you’ve set up an automated system to send out a tweet each time you write a new blog post, there’s a good chance you already know the words that’ll pop up most often.

The site is pretty slow, especially if you’ve sent a lot of tweets in your time. You can suppress @reply messages if you want to filter your tag a bit.

[via WebWare]

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Filed under: World wide web, Windows Mobile, Freeware, Open Source, Browser Tips, Social Software, Mobile Minute

One of the nice things about modern desktop browsers is that there are tons of third party add-ons. These plugins let you do everything from change the way web pages look to making it easy to save web pages to social bookmarking services like del.icio.us.

Mobile web browsers haven’t gotten nearly as much love from third party developers. That’s why we’re excited to see that Dale Lane has written a Post to del.icio.us plugin for Pocket Internet Explorer, the stripped down web browser that Microsoft includes as part of the Windows Mobile operating system for cellphones and PDAs.

When you click the link from the Menu toolbar, the plugin will automatically submit the current web page to your del.icio.us bookmarks, taking the name of the page from World wide web Explorer. You can also add tags before saving your page.

Post to del.icio.us is available as a free download. You can also get the source code from Lane’s web site. The plugin requires Windows Mobile 5.0 or 6.

[via Hackszine]

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Filed under: Debt, Home, Real Estate

Interest. Blechhh. Especially mortgage interest. You borrow some money from some lender then not only do they want their money back but a tiny extra, if you please.

How much do you pay in interest? It depends upon how much money you borrow and for how long. Typically the longer you borrow money the lower your payments will be. But the catch is that you’ll also be paying more in interest charges while taking longer to pay down the principal. Comparing a 30-year fixed rate mortgage payment at 6% to a 15-year fixed rate of 5.75% on a $250K note you’ll find the payments are about $1,499 and $2,076 respectively. Although you’ll notice that a 15-year fixed rate is most always about a fourth percent lower than a 30-year rate, the monthly payments are higher with a 15-year loan. And you also pay a lot more interest when you stretch a loan over a longer period of time.

Over the course of both loans, the 30-year note has you paying $289,595 in interest alone…more than what you originally borrowed! At the same time, the 15-year loan collects $123,684 in interest…less than half of a 30-year loan. The problem with a 15-year loan is that it’s more costly every month, almost a third higher. Even though financial experts states it’s best to pay less interest, not more, the 15-year loan might simply be out of reach for many borrowers. But you don’t have to select between just a 30 year or 15-year note…there are other choices.

How about a 20-year? Or even a 25-year? Lenders typically don’t advertise loans with payback periods between 30 and 15 years but they’re available. You just have to ask your lender.

If you really, really wanted the 15-year fixed rate mortgage at $2,109 per month but the payments would keep you up at night, think about a 20-year fixed rate at 6.00% or a 25-year loan at 6.00%. A 20-year loan under those terms would have a monthly payment at $1,791 per month and the 25-year would be lower still at $1,610. Both the 20 and 25 year note saves you on mortgage interest compared to the 30-year mortgage while not breaking your bank. Just because you don’t see 20 and 25-year programs in the newspaper or on the internet doesn’t mean they don’t exist…they do.

You just have to ask.

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Filed under: College, Cards, Debt

Are college students adults or not? Because the last time I checked, it seemed they were adults and capable of making their own decisions. In fact, they’re capable of signing up for the military and capable of voting, so I’m thinking that the decision to sign up for a credit card might be within the realm of possibility for them.

But falling in line with our now-very-popular American way of blaming everyone else for our problems… credit card companies are taking heat for *gasp* offering credit cards to adults! How dare they!

A Milwaukee unit of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group is telling consumers that credit card companies are to blame for the debt of college students. And while I admit that the credit cards are the automobile for racking up this debt, the blame must be placed squarely on the college students and their spending choices. How many college students do you know who got a new credit card and ran out and maxed it out almost immediately? But on the flip side, how many do you know who just held onto that credit card in case of emergency or for an occasional buy? (Hint: There are lots more of the latter.)
The research group is blaming free t-shirts and free food for the boom in college students with credit cards. It seems that these students just can’t stop themselves from signing up for a credit card when offered something as enticing as a t-shirt. Yikes.

I admit it: Credit card companies are out to make money, and they’re willing to make a buck from anyone, at any time, for any reason. Many of the terms in credit card agreements are purposely confusing and punitive. But at some point, the consumer has to take responsibility for actually signing up for that piece of plastic and pulling it out of their wallet. Sorry, I’m just not buying the idea that college students can’t handle credit cards and the credit card companies are to blame. It’s time that these young adults start acting like the adults that they’re, and that includes exercising some restraint over their spending…. even when a free t-shirt is on the line.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Record-keeping, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

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Filed under: Debt, Home, Saving

Before the effects of the first economic stimulus plan can even be felt Democrats are already looking to put together a second stimulus package. This new package would help citizens who are facing foreclosure as well as providing funding for transportation infrastructure. Proponents of the transportation portion of the package cite concerns from constituents in their home says as well as the need to grow in the 21st century for support for infrastructure improvements. Senators hope that the bill can grant bankers to provide lower mortgages in exchange for increased federal backing. Even if the plan passes congress it isn’t prone to get past George Bush’s desk, as he has stated he will not pass any more stimulus plans.

I can’t argue with the need for improved infrastructure across the nation but I don’t comprehend any reason it is tied to a stimulus package which will bail out over their head homeowners. As Zac Bissonnette has pointed out before the government is bailing out those who are in debt but leaving those who practiced fiscal responsibility out to dry. Had I known that the government would make part of my house payment I would have signed up for the federal housing program last year rather than leasing an apartment. While I agree that the rash of foreclosures across the nation has played a major roll in the current economic situation we’re facing I find it hard to believe the ideal solution involves rewarding individuals for overextending themselves. If the federal government continues the current trend of bailing out individuals and investment banks how much are taxes going to rise in the coming years? Come to think of it, I should begin defaulting on my student loans and wait until the government decides to bail me out!

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Filed under: Debt, Real Estate

Nobody knows where interest rates are headed. Nobody. No one knows about tomorrow or next week and certainly not for the next 30 days. If someone does tell you that they know where rates are headed you need simply do nothing more than politely nod your head as they gibber. But there is a fail-safe strategy that works each time.

Remember that mortgage rate quotes are completely no good until you, the borrower, teach your loan officer or lender that you want to “lock in” or otherwise guarantee your interest rate for as long as it takes to close your deal. Rates can go up or they have the ability to go down over the course of a week. Heck, they can even change throughout the course of a day. Especially so with all the stock and bond market volatility we’ve witnessed over the past few months. So, do you lock or not lock? That’s the question.

The strategy is really quite simple. Tell yourself that whatever you decide, to lock this day or wait, you’ll have made the wrong decision. That’s right; the wrong one. Next ask yourself, “Which way would I rather be wrong?” If you locked in the initial rate you were quoted -and apparently happy with when you selected your lender- and rates in fact moved lower, well, you didn’t get the lowest rate but you got one you were happy with. If you decided that you wanted to wait a few more days to lock in and rates moved up then you would be paying for that mistake in the form of higher payments each and every month. 360 months in fact if you took a 30 year mortgage to term. Worse yet, you decided not to lock and rates moved up so high that you could no longer qualify and you lost the house.

Now…which way would you rather be wrong? Hmmm?

David Reed, a veteran Mortgage Banker, successful Real Estate Consultant and author of Your Guide to VA Loans, Mortgages 101: Swift Answers to Over 250 Critical Questions About Your Home Loan, Who Says You Can’t Purchase a Home!, and Mortgage Confidential: What You Need to Know That Your Lender Won’t Tell You, is a former columnist and Contributing Editor with San Diego-based Mortgage Originator Magazine. He is President of CD REED Mortgage Bankers.

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Filed under: Deals, Raising money, Venture capital industry, Private equity industry

IDFC Private Equity Fund II has announced this day that they invested 400 million Rupees in India’s carbon credit advisory firm, Emergent Ventures India PVT. Ltd. In dollar terms this nets out a mere $10 million or so based upon a currency conversion of 39.975 Rupees per 1 U.S. Dollar. This almost sounds more like a venture capital investment rather than a private equity transaction, but either way it is worth looking into.

Emergent Ventures provides solutions for the domestic and international carbon market. The investment by IDFC is intended to enhance Emergent’s South and Southeast Asia businesses and to build on its current abilities.

The investment is stated to be listed as “illustrates both companies’ commitments to environmental friendly and sustainable energy.”

frankly, the size of this isn’t important as the implications of bringing awareness of this trend for carbon offsets into the massive former third world countries we all refer to now as developing nations.

Carbon emission trading and other such activities are still heavily debated as far as the overall benefits since much of this is a zero sum game and since it merely sets the price of over-pollution. As far as the overall arguments on both sides, the jury is still out.

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Filed under: Financials and analyticals, Raising money, Texas Pacific Group, Investments, Value and lack thereof

There was an interesting report that surfaced over the weekend that took greater hold on Monday morning, yet nothing official has been released.

Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM) shares are rising sharply today on “weekend talk” that they’ll be supported by an investment from private-equity group led by TPG Inc, also known as Texas Pacific Group. The company has been forced to write-down billions on home-mortgages and loan losses since the credit crisis, and WaMu is also one of the huge quasi-money-center banks that’s at-risk of being in jeopardy on its own. According to Reuters, it said “a source” says the deal could be announced as soon as today

It could be a substantial investment of some $5 billion, although once you get into details the number mysteriously changes wildly among sources as far as terms and as far as dollars. Whatever it is, it’s working for the banking giant whose stock has been battered. Shares are up $2.70, over 26%, to $12.87 on the speculation. The 52-week range is $8.72 to $44.66.

What’s perhaps more interesting than anything, is that this doesn’t necessarily include Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC). That company has been listed as one of several companies in a position to be a savior for distressed financial companies. This would also lend credibility to a bank or private equity saving grace for National City Corp. (NYSE: NCC), which has also been in the soup.

If private equity ends up being a savior for the banks, even if it is an iconic trend it would be nothing short of ironic if you’ve been reading about all the private equity deals that have failed.

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Filed under: Fun, News, Social Software

RealNetworks, one of the many fingers dipping into the pie that is Scrabble, has released an on the web version of Scrabble for the social networking site Facebook. This new twist is just one of many in the saga that is Facebook-Scrabble-Scrabulous.

Scrabulous, the insanely popular, yet completely unauthorized on the internet version of Scrabble, was a large hit on Facebook, with over 600,000 users. Unfortunately, that popularity caught the ire of Hasbro and Mattel, the controlling celebrations of Scrabble, and they sent their gaggle of lawyers to close down the application.

Public outrage was immediate, loud, and prolonged, so much so that RealNetworks, the company that controls the electronic rights to Scrabble, pledged to save Scrabulous. But now, with the introduction of a totally separate, yet authorized, version of Scrabble (aptly named “Scrabble by Mattel”), it seems as if they are headed in another direction.

So far, user response to Scrabble by Mattel hasn’t been overwhelmingly negative or positive. Some state that it’s slow to load, others that it’s an excellent application. The main complaint was that the game does not accurately reflect the official Scrabble dictionary, and seems to miss commonly used yet not officially sanctioned words, such as “zen.”

One more thing: because it was Mattel that worked this deal, and they don’t own the rights to Scrabble in the U.S. (that’s Hasbro’s domain), it’s only available to users outside US and Canada.

No word yet as to whether Scrabulous is dead on the operating table.

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