Even though most Americans have become very frustrated with this economy, the reality is that the vast majority of them still have no idea just how bad our economic decline has been or how much trouble we are going to be in if we don’t make dramatic changes immediately. If we do not educate the American people about how deathly ill the U.S. economy has become, then they will just keep falling for the same old lies that our politicians keep telling them. Just “tweaking” things here and there is not going to fix this economy. We truly do need a fundamental change in direction. America is consuming far more wealth than it is producing and our debt is absolutely exploding. If we stay on this current path, an economic collapse is inevitable. Hopefully the crazy economic numbers from 2011 that I have included in this article will be shocking enough to wake some people up.

At this time of the year, a lot of families get together, and in most homes the conversation usually gets around to politics at some point. Hopefully many of you will use the list below as a tool to help you share the reality of the U.S. economic crisis with your family and friends. If we all work together, hopefully we can get millions of people to wake up and realize that “business as usual” will result in a national economic apocalypse.

The following are 50 economic numbers from 2011 that are almost too crazy to believe….

#1 A staggering 48 percent of all Americans are either considered to be “low income” or are living in poverty.

#2 Approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are living in homes that are either considered to be “low income” or impoverished.

#3 If the number of Americans that “wanted jobs” was the same today as it was back in 2007, the “official” unemployment rate put out by the U.S. government would be up to 11 percent.

#4 The average amount of time that a worker stays unemployed in the United States is now over 40 weeks.

#5 One recent survey found that 77 percent of all U.S. small businesses do not plan to hire any more workers.

#6 There are fewer payroll jobs in the United States today than there were back in 2000 even though we have added 30 million extra people to the population since then.

#7 Since December 2007, median household income in the United States has declined by a total of 6.8% once you account for inflation.

#8 According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 16.6 million Americans were self-employed back in December 2006. Today, that number has shrunk to 14.5 million.

#9 A Gallup poll from earlier this year found that approximately one out of every five Americans that do have a job consider themselves to be underemployed.

#10 According to author Paul Osterman, about 20 percent of all U.S. adults are currently working jobs that pay poverty-level wages.

#11 Back in 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs. Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.

#12 Back in 1969, 95 percent of all men between the ages of 25 and 54 had a job. In July, only 81.2 percent of men in that age group had a job.

#13 One recent survey found that one out of every three Americans would not be able to make a mortgage or rent payment next month if they suddenly lost their current job.

#14 The Federal Reserve recently announced that the total net worth of U.S. households declined by 4.1 percent in the 3rd quarter of 2011 alone.

#15 According to a recent study conducted by the BlackRock Investment Institute, the ratio of household debt to personal income in the United States is now 154 percent.

#16 As the economy has slowed down, so has the number of marriages. According to a Pew Research Center analysis, only 51 percent of all Americans that are at least 18 years old are currently married. Back in 1960, 72 percent of all U.S. adults were married.

#17 The U.S. Postal Service has lost more than 5 billion dollars over the past year.

#18 In Stockton, California home prices have declined 64 percent from where they were at when the housing market peaked.

#19 Nevada has had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation for 59 months in a row.

#20 If you can believe it, the median price of a home in Detroit is now just $6000.

#21 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 18 percent of all homes in the state of Florida are sitting vacant. That figure is 63 percent larger than it was just ten years ago.

#22 New home construction in the United States is on pace to set a brand new all-time record low in 2011.

#23 As I have written about previously, 19 percent of all American men between the ages of 25 and 34 are now living with their parents.

#24 Electricity bills in the United States have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row.

#25 According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, health care costs accounted for just 9.5% of all personal consumption back in 1980. Today they account for approximately 16.3%.

#26 One study found that approximately 41 percent of all working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt.

#27 If you can believe it, one out of every seven Americans has at least 10 credit cards.

#28 The United States spends about 4 dollars on goods and services from China for every one dollar that China spends on goods and services from the United States.

#29 It is being projected that the U.S. trade deficit for 2011 will be 558.2 billion dollars.

#30 The retirement crisis in the United States just continues to get worse. According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 46 percent of all American workers have less than $10,000 saved for retirement, and 29 percent of all American workers have less than $1,000 saved for retirement.

#31 Today, one out of every six elderly Americans lives below the federal poverty line.

#32 According to a study that was just released, CEO pay at America’s biggest companies rose by 36.5% in just one recent 12 month period.

#33 Today, the “too big to fail” banks are larger than ever. The total assets of the six largest U.S. banks increased by 39 percent between September 30, 2006 and September 30, 2011.

#34 The six heirs of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton have a net worth that is roughly equal to the bottom 30 percent of all Americans combined.

#35 According to an analysis of Census Bureau data done by the Pew Research Center, the median net worth for households led by someone 65 years of age or older is 47 times greater than the median net worth for households led by someone under the age of 35.

#36 If you can believe it, 37 percent of all U.S. households that are led by someone under the age of 35 have a net worth of zero or less than zero.

#37 A higher percentage of Americans is living in extreme poverty (6.7%) than has ever been measured before.

#38 Child homelessness in the United States is now 33 percent higher than it was back in 2007.

#39 Since 2007, the number of children living in poverty in the state of California has increased by 30 percent.

#40 Sadly, child poverty is absolutely exploding all over America. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 36.4% of all children that live in Philadelphia are living in poverty, 40.1% of all children that live in Atlanta are living in poverty, 52.6% of all children that live in Cleveland are living in poverty and 53.6% of all children that live in Detroit are living in poverty.

#41 Today, one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps and one out of every four American children is on food stamps.

#42 In 1980, government transfer payments accounted for just 11.7% of all income. Today, government transfer payments account for more than 18 percent of all income.

#43 A staggering 48.5% of all Americans live in a household that receives some form of government benefits. Back in 1983, that number was below 30 percent.

#44 Right now, spending by the federal government accounts for about 24 percent of GDP. Back in 2001, it accounted for just 18 percent.

#45 For fiscal year 2011, the U.S. federal government had a budget deficit of nearly 1.3 trillion dollars. That was the third year in a row that our budget deficit has topped one trillion dollars.

#46 If Bill Gates gave every single penny of his fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for about 15 days.

#47 Amazingly, the U.S. government has now accumulated a total debt of 15 trillion dollars. When Barack Obama first took office the national debt was just 10.6 trillion dollars.

#48 If the federal government began right at this moment to repay the U.S. national debt at a rate of one dollar per second, it would take over 440,000 years to pay off the national debt.

#49 The U.S. national debt has been increasing by an average of more than 4 billion dollars per day since the beginning of the Obama administration.

#50 During the Obama administration, the U.S. government has accumulated more debt than it did from the time that George Washington took office to the time that Bill Clinton took office.

Of course the heart of our economic problems is the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve is a perpetual debt machine, it has almost completely destroyed the value of the U.S. dollar and it has an absolutely nightmarish track record of incompetence. If the Federal Reserve system had never been created, the U.S. economy would be in far better shape. The federal government needs to shut down the Federal Reserve and start issuing currency that is not debt-based. That would be a very significant step toward restoring prosperity to America.

During 2011 we made a lot of progress in educating the American people about our economic problems, but we still have a long way to go.

Hopefully next year more Americans than ever will wake up, because 2012 is going to represent a huge turning point for this country.

Orginally posted at http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/50-economic-numbers-from-2011-that-are-almost-too-crazy-to-believe/comment-page-1

Popularity: 12% [?]

Rental rates have been going up considerably over the last year and it appears it is accelerating, rising at a rate beating most economists projections for 2011. A new report released by real estate search site HotPads.com reveals that residential rental listing prices have jumped 6.7% from June 2010 with the fringe listings of studio and five bedroom apartments escalating most rapidly.

HotPads.com says that this is a telling trend which may indicate a growing demand for rental housing among first time renters and larger families but we see it more as a supply and demand issue in that studios and very large rental units are less common (low supply) and because rentals of all sizes are in high demand right now, it appears a premium is being set on studios and five bedroom units.

In most cases, the rapid rise in rent has occurred in 2010 rather than a slow increase over the past twelve months. We are seeing consumers flocking to their chosen social networks, flustered that their landlord is screwing them over and are being met with the harsh reality that it isnt their landlord, it is the entire market. Times have been rough for landlords, is this the time to recoup the losses met since 2008? In some markets, rents have been held down but national trends are allowing an increase as perception of the market is softening.
Rental trends graphed:

According to HotPads.com, the data in the graphs below was calculated based on the median listing price of 500,000 rentals on HotPads across all major U.S. metro areas.

What are you seeing in your area? Are any particular type of unit or size of unit rapidly increasing in price over others?

Popularity: 9% [?]

RISMEDIA, April 21, 2011Sales of existing-home sales rose in March 2011, continuing an uneven recovery that began after sales bottomed last July, according to the National Association of REALTORS. Existing-home sales, which are completed transactions that include single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, increased 3.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.10 million in March from an upwardly revised 4.92 million in February, but are 6.3% below the 5.44 million pace in March 2010. Sales were at elevated levels from March through June of 2010 in response to the home buyer tax credit.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, expects the improving sales pattern to continue. Existing-home sales have risen in six of the past eight months, so were clearly on a recovery path, he said. With rising jobs and excellent affordability conditions, we project moderate improvements into 2012, but not every month will show a gainprimarily because some buyers are finding it too difficult to obtain a mortgage. For those fortunate enough to qualify for financing, monthly mortgage payments as a percent of income have been at record lows.

NARs housing affordability index shows the typical monthly mortgage principal and interest payment for the purchase of a median-priced existing home is only 13% of gross household income, the lowest since records began in 1970.

According to Freddie Mac, the national average commitment rate for a 30-year, conventional, fixed-rate mortgage was 4.84% in March, down from 4.95% in February; the rate was 4.97% in March 2010.

Data from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae show requirements to obtain conventional mortgages have been tightened, with the average credit score rising to about 760 in the current market from nearly 720 in 2007; for FHA loans the average credit score is around 700, up from just over 630 in 2007.

Although home sales are coming back without a federal stimulus, sales would be notably stronger if mortgage lending would return to the normal, safe standards that were in place a decade agobefore the loose lending practices that created the unprecedented boom and bust cycle, Yun explained.

Given that FHA and VA government-backed loan programs turned a modest profit over to the U.S. Treasury last year, and have never required a taxpayer bailout, we believe low-downpayment loans should continue to be available for those consumers who have demonstrated financial responsibility and are willing to stay well within their budget. Raising the downpayment requirement would unnecessarily deny credit to many worthy middle-class families and veterans, Yun said.

A parallel NAR practitioner survey shows first-time buyers purchased 33% of homes in March, compared with 34% of homes in February; they were 44% in March 2010.

All-cash sales were at a record market share of 35% in March, up from 33% in February; they were 27% in March 2010. Investors accounted for 22% of sales activity in March, up from 19% in February; they were 19% in March 2010. The balance of sales were to repeat buyers.

The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $159,600 in March, down 5.9% from March 2010. Distressed homestypically sold at discounts in the vicinity of 20%accounted for a 40% marketshare in March, up from 39% in February and 35% in March 2010.

NAR President Ron Phipps, broker-president of Phipps Realty in Warwick, R.I., said some renters are looking to homeownership as a hedge against inflation. The typical buyer today plans to stay in a home for 10 years, while rents are projected to rise at faster rates over the next few years, he said. As buyers gain more financial security, the advantages of homeownership become more obvious. Rents will continue to trend up, especially in comparison with a fixed-rate loan which provides financial stability and gradual accumulation of equity over time.

Total housing inventory at the end of March rose 1.5% to 3.55 million existing homes available for sale, which represents an 8.4-month supply at the current sales pace, compared with a 8.5-month supply in February.

Single-family home sales rose 4.0% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.45 million in March from 4.28 million in February, but are 6.5% below the 4.76 million level in March 2010. The median existing single-family home price was $160,500 in March, down 5.3% from a year ago.

Existing condominium and co-op sales increased 1.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 650,000 in March from 640,000 in February, but are 4.1% below the 678,000-unit pace one year ago. The median existing condo price was $153,100 in March, which is 10.1% below March 2010.

Regionally, existing-home sales in the Northeast rose 3.9% to an annual level of 800,000 in March, but are 12.1% below March 2010. The median price in the Northeast was $232,900, down 3.0% from a year ago.

Existing-home sales in the Midwest increased 1.0% in March to a pace of 1.06 million, but are 13.1% lower than a year ago. The median price in the Midwest was $126,100, which is 7.1% below March 2010.

In the South, existing-home sales rose 8.2% to an annual level of 1.99 million in March, but are 1.0% below March 2010. The median price in the South was $138,200, down 6.6% from a year ago.

Existing-home sales in the West slipped 0.8% to an annual pace of 1.25 million in March and are 3.1% below a year ago. The median price in the West was $192,100, which is 11.2% lower than March 2010.

For more information, visit www.realtor.org.

Popularity: 10% [?]

To watch majestic cities decline is never fun. New Orleans took its hit with the natural devastation of Hurricane Katrina and can come back, but what will happen to great cities like Detroit that are crumbling under the mismanagement of auto executives and union representatives?

The rust belt cities have taken a huge hit during the last decade as industry leaves and people flee for better opportunities. The crashing of cities like Cleveland and Cincinnati have slid under the radar of Detroits epic fall. Even mighty Chicago has lost 200,000 residents.

What is even worse for these cities is they all have huge public works infrastructures that are driving taxes even higher as their populace flees. Most of the cities are highly unionized in both the public and private sector so there is very little flexibility to improvise and improve their lot.

Instead, they watch their mobile, productive citizens flee and are left trying to keep the cities moving forward.

What mayor will be the next Ozymandias? (Poem below)

Top 10 Cities Losing Population Since 2000 in the United States

City 2010 +/- Since 2000 % Change

New Orleans 343,829 -140,845 -29.1
Detroit 713,777 -237,493 -25.0
Cleveland 396,815 -81,588 -17.1
Cincinnati 296,943 -34,342 -10.4
Pittsburgh 305,704 -28,859 -08.6
Toledo 287,208 -26,411 -08.4
St. Louis 319,294 -28,895 -08.3
Chicago 2,695,598 -200,418 -06.9
Baltimore 620,961 -30,193 -04.6
Santa Ana` 324,528 -13,449 -04.0

Via US Census bureau via the WJS

Popularity: 15% [?]

Below Ive given you the 10 Secrets of Renegade Millionaires from Dan Kennedys newest program.

Enjoy and please comment and let me know what you think.
10 Million Dollar Secrets of Renegade Millionaires

1. They turn ordinary businesses into extraordinary businesses.

* There wasnt a shortage of coffee before starbucks
* There wasnt a shortage of pizza before dominoes

The formula is they turn a mundane ordinary business turned into an extraordinary businessnot an incrementally better business. This is a shift in thinking. You leave the core business there were in X but now what are all the radical things you can do that nobody in X would ever dream of doing?

2. Defy industry norms

Industry norms is average results. Conforming to be accepted.
Everyone making good money defies them, everyone making average money conforms to them.

Make a master list of everything that is a norm in your industry everyone conforms to ie how things are priced, sold, delivered, advertised, marketed, contracts usedthere should be 100s.

Now defy as many of them as humanly possible. You will transform your income in direct proportion to the number you manage to violate. Seriously. Show me the wall. There is no wall. Its a belief.

3. Positioning

You need to carve out some territory in the marketplace you can own.

A piece of space in the market you can own.

Sometimes you need to completely reinvent your business to do it. Ie. Subway taking a fast food business and making it a weight loss business.

Stake out territory your competitors dont have and thus making it difficult for your competitors to get into it with a radical positioning approach.

Same business, different positioning. Carve out a different place in the market. Ie positioning as extreme specialist but doing the same stuff, positioning in a cluttered field in terms of what youre NOT about, positioning as reverse of norm / reverse position (women approach you)

4. Process change

How can you do it better or perhaps substitute an entirely different process for it etc. Ie having people pay in advance (lay away plans) rather than later in installments, 1 step selling to relationship lead gen, single sale to continuity as in you cant just buy one thing of acne goop as you need to sign up for acne goop proactive for life to get it and you need to stop it if you dont want it (still selling goop and simply changed process from you can join the club if you want to you ARE joining the club), bundling versus cafeteria style, options in the second sale after the sale

5. Price

PRICE CHANGE (ie offer a premium option of what you sell and also getting to $1 million using 1 transaction or 2 at $500K and so forth PRICE starbucks did not get to $8 a cup of coffee by looking at Dennys and averaging out coffee prices), Price elasticity

6. Immunity to criticism

Some people when criticized dont recover.

The antidote is: renegade millionaires dont care what anyone thinks except those who give them money. Thats the only vote you get. Not your mother in law, brothers, sisters, not even YOUR opinion countsthe only thing that can count, is results.

They dont care what anyone thinks about what they do except the people who respond to what they do. What they care about is the people who respond to them. Immunity to criticism. Complete immunity. People that make the most money ARE.

7. Systems

Reinventing 67 wheels in your business and business cant function if they arent there and day to day emergency stuff versus McDonalds. Most successful of all of them with the worst food. FAST food business everyone has a poor shadow of a system while McDonalds has a system for fast.

Everywhere one guy cant find a box for something, a girl cant find the cups, etc McDonalds has a system. Operational systems are easy. But assembly line approach to handling customers when they come is what most people dont havea MARKETING system.

8. Macro / Micro

Micro yes or no versus a or b, changing 1 word in a phone script for 10x resultmicro adjustments yielding big results
Macro whats the big vision? whats the big idea? How do we take the core business and wrap 5 businesses around it?
You need both to pay attention to big ideas and pay attention to tiny nitty gritty detail stuff.

9. Economics

Adjusting economics. Competitors ask: how can we spend and do less? But Snyder selling to recently bankrupt people sends FEDEXS while everyone else uses direct mail.

You know: the ultimate competitive advantage is being able and willing to spend MORE to acquire a customer than anybody else who is talking to them.

Change the economics to allow you to spend. You can now do things nobody else talking to your prospects are doing. Strive to spend MORE not less. The question is: how can I spend more than anyone else whos talking to my prospects is spending? Theyre sending mini trash cans on direct mail pieces? How can you send a full sized walmart trashcan handcuffed to the messenger so somebody needs to sign for it with the sales letter inside the full sized trashcan? The gatekeeper cannot throw it out and even if she wanted to what would she throw it out into? 100% get the sales letter, half call in, a third book appointments. Its expensive and people think the guys an idiot but hes doing VERY well.

10. Personal behavior

Business is driven by YOU. Its not so much about positive thought and attitude etc Thats all nice. Positive and dead broke. Truthfully, its behavior.

Behavioral congruency. Ask any leader how they think and you find big philosophical differences and simply differences in thinking. Big thought differences. But theres a few key behavioral commonalities. They DO certain things the same. Not so much what they thinkits about what they DO. Not so much about attitudesits about BEHAVIOR.

Look at the behavior of people who are getting what you want. People envy other peoples businesses, then go back to doing nothing resembling the behavior these people have.

Identify the behaviors of the people getting the results you want. Behavioral commonalities of enough of them that you can call it a principle or strategy.

Mimic the behavior (you dont even have to believe it), but if you mimic it almost magically the results happen. If you have behavioral congruency you get results congruency.

Find out 10 people who are doing what you want to do and find out what they do all the same. Get in sync, perhaps mentally and emotionally, but most importantly behaviorally with the people getting the kind of results you want so you can get those results. This is called MODELING. I saw a rich guy walking with a limp so I walked with a limp for 4 years > this is more right than wrong. Thats what modeling is. You got to look at how do they handle opportunities, problems and crisis, how to do they do advertising and marketing, how do they approach their business differentlyall the different things they do to build a model you can follow

Popularity: 24% [?]

Learn about the many tax deductions available to rental property owners. Every year, millions of landlords pay more taxes on their rental income than they have to. Why? Because they fail to take advantage of all the tax deductions available for owners of rental property. Rental real estate provides more tax benefits than almost any other investment.

Often, these benefits make the difference between losing money and earning a profit on a rental property. Here are the top ten tax deductions for owners of small residential rental property.

1. Interest
Interest is often a landlord’s single biggest deductible expense. Common examples of interest that landlords can deduct include mortgage interest payments on loans used to acquire or improve rental property and interest on credit cards for goods or services used in a rental activity.

2. Depreciation
The actual cost of a house, apartment building, or other rental property is not fully deductible in the year in which you pay for it. Instead, landlords get back the cost of real estate through depreciation. This involves deducting a portion of the cost of the property over several years.

3. Repairs
The cost of repairs to rental property (provided the repairs are ordinary, necessary, and reasonable in amount) are fully deductible in the year in which they are incurred. Good examples of deductible repairs include repainting, fixing gutters or floors, fixing leaks, plastering, and replacing broken windows.

4. Local Travel
Landlords are entitled to a tax deduction whenever they drive anywhere for their rental activity. For example, when you drive to your rental building to deal with a tenant complaint or go to the hardware store to purchase a part for a repair, you can deduct your travel expenses. If you drive a car, SUV, van, pickup, or panel truck for your rental activity (as most landlords do), you have two options for deducting your vehicle expenses. You can:
* deduct your actual expenses (gasoline, upkeep, repairs), or
* use the standard mileage rate (51 cents per mile for 2011; up from 50 cents per mile in 2010). To qualify for the standard mileage rate, you must use the standard mileage method the first year you use a car for your business activity. Moreover, you can’t use the standard mileage rate if you have claimed accelerated depreciation deductions in prior years, or have taken a Section 179 deduction for the vehicle.

5. Long Distance Travel
If you travel overnight for your rental activity, you can deduct your airfare, hotel bills, meals, and other expenses. If you plan your trip carefully, you can even mix landlord business with pleasure and still take a deduction.

However, IRS auditors closely scrutinize deductions for overnight travel — and many taxpayers get caught claiming these deductions without proper records to back them up. To stay within the law (and avoid unwanted attention from the IRS), you need to properly document your long distance travel expenses.

6. Home Office
Provided they meet certain minimal requirements, landlords may deduct their home office expenses from their taxable income. This deduction applies not only to space devoted to office work, but also to a workshop or any other home workspace you use for your rental business. This is true whether you own your home or apartment or are a renter.

For the ins and outs on taking the home office deduction, see Home Business Tax Deductions or Every Landlord’s Tax Deduction Guide, both by Stephen Fishman (Nolo).

7. Employees and Independent Contractors
Whenever you hire anyone to perform services for your rental activity, you can deduct their wages as a rental business expense. This is so whether the worker is an employee (for example, a resident manager) or an independent contractor (for example, a repair person).

8. Casualty and Theft Losses
If your rental property is damaged or destroyed from a sudden event like a fire or flood, you may be able to obtain a tax deduction for all or part of your loss. These types of losses are called casualty losses. You usually won’t be able to deduct the entire cost of property damaged or destroyed by a casualty. How much you may deduct depends on how much of your property was destroyed and whether the loss was covered by insurance.

9. Insurance
You can deduct the premiums you pay for almost any insurance for your rental activity. This includes fire, theft, and flood insurance for rental property, as well as landlord liability insurance. And if you have employees, you can deduct the cost of their health and workers’ compensation insurance.

10. Legal and Professional Services
Finally, you can deduct fees that you pay to attorneys, accountants, property management companies, real estate investment advisors, and other professionals. You can deduct these fees as operating expenses as long as the fees are paid for work related to your rental activity.

Did You Know?
* Landlords can greatly increase the depreciation deductions they receive the first few years they own rental property by using segmented depreciation.
* Careful planning can permit you to deduct, in a single year, the cost of improvements to rental property that you would otherwise have to deduct over 27.5 years.
* You can rent out a vacation home tax-free, in some cases.
* Most small landlords can deduct up to $25,000 in rental property losses each year.
* A special tax rule permits some landlords to deduct 100% of their rental property losses every year, no matter how much.
* People who rent property to their family or friends can lose virtually all of their tax deductions.

If you didn’t know one or more of these facts, you could be paying far more tax than you need to. For more information, see Every Landlord’s Tax Deduction Guide, by Stephen Fishman (Nolo).

Popularity: 23% [?]

Every investment carries significant risk that could destroy your wealth. Many of us have experienced losses in the stock market, real estate market and other investments. However, these investments are not the leading destroyer of wealth.

What is you might be wondering?

Inflation

Inflation occurs when governments pump too much money into the economy. The increase in the supply of money actually reduces the value (or purchasing power) of every dollar you and I have. And as you are firmly aware, the government has pumped a significant amount of money into the economy and will probably continue to do so throughout the next few years. Here’s a graph highlighting how much money has been pumped into the system since 1960:

This will ultimately lead to a dramatic increase in inflation, which will make our money (dollars) less valuable. On the surface, it will seem like prices for things we buy have increased. Or the price of goods we purchase will stay the same, but the quantity or portion sizes we receive will shrink.

Maybe you’re already starting to see this happen. We certainly have in our family. Consider this quote about the price of coffee…

According to Dow Jones Newswires, “Higher prices have prompted some roasters to raise prices. Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE: KFT) said Wednesday that it had increased ground-coffee prices by 12% for its Maxwell House and Yuban brands. Starbucks Corp. (NYSE: SBUX) and Farmer Bros. Co. (NYSE: FARM) announced price increases for some of their products earlier in the autumn.”

The New York Times recently ran an article titled, “Food prices worldwide hit record levels…”, which highlighted how the price of food is increasing dramatically throughout the world. There are many reasons for these increases; however, inflation is the main driver.

Here are some shocking price increases for commodities – all since July of 2010:

Soybeans – 50% increase
Corn – 50% increase
Cotton – 50% increase
Wheat – 75% increase

A little scary, isn’t it?

Who do you think is ultimately going to pay the tab for these increases? We are. Now the big problem is that our wages are not increasing by the same magnitude. This simply means your money will bring home fewer groceries for your family going forward.

Starting to see how inflation is the leading destroyer of wealth?

One way to protect yourself from inflation is to buy products your family uses routinely in bulk. As as example, you could buy a 12-month supply of coffee, paper towels, napkins, light bulbs, shampoo, conditioner, soap, and toothpaste. As inflation continues to eat away at the purchasing power of our dollars, you’ll be protected.

Another way to protect yourself would be to take care of any major repairs or replacements in your home. Need a new furnace? Need a new roof? Have them replaced now, because it will ultimately be more expensive in a year or two.

If you think this article is off base, call a few contractors and ask them if the cost of the materials they use are increasing. You’ll probably be surprised to hear their answers. A roofing contractor recently shared that the cost of roofing shingles he uses have recently increased by 15%. He was scrambling to lock in prices for many of his customers before the increase.

Please understand this is only going to get worse and the longer you wait to protect yourself, the less your money will buy.

To be honest, it’s probably better to buy in bulk now than it would be to leave your money sitting in a savings account earning 1% interest. Think about it and you’ll see this makes a lot of sense. If the cost of products your family consumes increases by 5% this year and money sitting in your savings account earns say 1%, you’ll lose 4% by saving instead of buying in bulk.

Finally, do not rely on the inflation numbers presented by the government. They are completely bogus, because they’ve been fudged to show inflation at low levels. Instead, pay attention to what you experience in your day-to-day life. Does $200 at the grocery store bring home the same quantity of food for your family today as it did a year ago? No it doesn’t and that’s the point.

Popularity: 9% [?]

The U.S. home-vacancy rate, measuring the share of properties empty and for sale, rose to 2.7 percent in the fourth quarter as more residences stood unoccupied after being seized by banks.

The number, up from 2.5 percent in the third quarter, is based on 2.1 million vacant properties for sale out of 74.8 million residences, the Census Bureau said in a report today. The rate that measures the share of people who own their homes fell to a 10-year low of 66.5 percent from 66.9 percent in the previous three months, according to the report.

Measuring empty residences is a gauge of housing supply that includes the so-called shadow inventory of properties not listed with real estate agents, such as bank-owned homes being held off the market. Lenders seized a record number of homes in September, according to RealtyTrac Inc., an Irvine, California- based data firm. Banks may sell directly to buyers, list the homes with real estate agents or decide to keep properties until they determine its the right time to put them on the market.

Were in a situation with relatively high inventories, and foreclosures are adding to it, said Brian Bethune, chief U.S. financial economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts.

The residential vacancy rate reached a record 2.9 percent in the first and fourth quarters of 2008, the year Lehman Brothers Inc. collapsed and American International Group Inc. was taken over by the U.S. government.

Falling Home Ownership

The home ownership rate has fallen for every quarter since mid-2009 as foreclosures surged, according to Census data. The rate rose to a record 69.2 percent in 2004 as credit standards began to fall, according to the Federal Reserves Senior Loan Officer Survey that gauges banks willingness to lend.

Foreclosures are included in a part of the Census Bureau report that also tracks vacant properties empty for other reasons, such as renovations. There were 3.6 million such empty homes in the fourth quarter, up from 3.5 million a year earlier, according to the report. Bank seizures also may be counted as owner-occupied homes if lenders havent yet evicted previous owners, the federal agency said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kathleen M. Howley in Boston at kmhowley@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kara Wetzel at kwetzel@bloomberg.net

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