To better maintain your finances, it is a good idea to have two separate bank accounts. Use one for your monthly expenses like rent, bills and food, and the other to save for emergencies or major purchases. It is also sensible to put money away in an account you never touch so you can build up your savings.

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Buying used can save you a lot of cash. Cars for example, lose up to 20% of their purchase price, just by signing on the dotted line and driving off the lot in it. Let someone else pay for that depreciation by purchasing a car that is a couple of years old. You will still have a low mileage warrantied car, but without the hit to your equity.

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When renting a home with a boyfriend or girlfriend, never rent a place that you would not be able to afford on your own. There may be circumstances like losing a job or breaking up that might leave you in the position of paying the entire rent by yourself.

As was discussed at the beginning of the article, improving your personal financial situation is important. It can give you peace of mind now, and a more secure future. The process of improving your personal finances is much easier when you have the right knowledge and information. Start making shrewd choices today, and you will be on your way to a better personal financial situation. It is plain to see how fairly quickly this can be put into action and pretty much anytime you want. But it is important with Easy Forex Review that you only choose what is most appropriate for your needs. It is easy to find erroneous and misleading information on the web. Although we do believe most content writers have totally sincere goals when they write.

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Source: http://madeintostories.com/personal-finance-secrets-for-your-eyes-only/

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New York Knicks’ Jeremy Lin (17) passes away from New Orleans Hornets’ Al-Farouq Aminu during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Friday, Feb. 17, 2012, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Filmmaker Spike Lee watches from the sideline during the first half of an NBA basketball game between the New York Knicks and the New Orleans Hornets while wearing Knicks’ Jeremy Lin’s Palo Alto high school jersey, Friday, Feb. 17, 2012, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

New York Knicks’ Jeremy Lin (17) shoots over New Orleans Hornets’ Al-Farouq Aminu (0) during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Friday, Feb. 17, 2012, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

New York Knicks’ Jeremy Lin drives past New Orleans Hornets’ Jarrett Jack (2) and Trevor Ariza (1) during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Friday, Feb. 17, 2012, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Fans of NBA Knicks’ Taiwanese-American Jeremy Lin watch him play against the New Orleans Hornets at a local sports bar in Taipei, Taiwan, Saturday, Feb. 18, 2012. Beyond his strong play, there has been enormous interest in Lin because he was undrafted out of Harvard and is the first American-Taiwanese player. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Can’t Lin ‘em all.

Not the way Jeremy Lin handled the ball Friday night, and he put the blame for the loss that halted Linsanity squarely on himself.

Lin committed nine turnovers, tied for the most in the NBA this season, and New York’s seven-game winning streak was stopped 89-85 by the New Orleans Hornets.

Lin scored 26 points, but his turnovers nearly doubled his five assists and the Knicks lost for the first time with Lin as a starter, falling back below .500 at 15-16 heading into a matchup with the defending NBA champion Dallas Mavericks on Sunday.

“Just a lackluster effort on my part coming out and careless with the ball, and so nine turnovers is obviously never going to get it done from your primary ballhandler,” Lin said. “It’s on me in terms of taking care of the ball and also the game in general.

“I think everyone wants to credit me for this last seven games, then I definitely deserve this one on my shoulders and so that’s fine with me.”

Trevor Ariza scored 25 points for the Hornets, who have won three in a row after a 4-23 start. Marco Belinelli added 17.

Amare Stoudemire had 26 points and 12 rebounds for New York.

Playing for the sixth straight game without injured All-Star Carmelo Anthony, the Knicks missed 20 of their 24 3-point attempts, were only 19 of 29 on free throws and were flat early, quieting a crowd that has been buzzing since Lin joined the rotation.

“Obviously it’s very disappointing just because we felt like, I felt like this could’ve been a good game for us to win,” Lin said. “But all the respect to New Orleans for what they did. They came in here with a great game plan and they shot well and they played harder than we did and they got the win.”

Down by 12 early in the fourth, the Knicks made a run with Lin on the bench, and cut it to 73-71 when Jared Jeffries hit a free throw after Lin returned during a timeout with 5:29 left.

The Knicks got it down to two again on Lin’s free throws with 1:06 to play, but Gustavo Ayon answered with a bucket, Lin missed wildly on a drive to the basket, and when Belinelli’s free throws with 25 seconds left made it 87-82, fans began heading for the exits, perhaps in search of Lin-burgers, “Lings” ? Asian-spiced chicken wings ? or “Lintinis,” Lin-spired items that have begun popping up at bars around the city.

“It’s the NBA man. I mean the kid is really good. I love his passion. What I love about him is he is so humble. He deserves everything he got right now and everything he is going through because, you know, the way he handles himself,” Hornets guard Greivis Vasquez said. “But tonight it was a little bit different. We came out and played great team defense.”

Thus ended a remarkable run by the Knicks, who were 8-15 when coach Mike D’Antoni finally turned to Lin, the undrafted point guard from Harvard who was perhaps days from being cut for the third time this season when he got this sputtering team on track.

They only figure to get stronger in the coming days. Anthony worked out before the game and is close to returning, and the Knicks signed his former Denver teammate, J.R. Smith, on Friday. Smith is eligible to return to the NBA after his Chinese team’s season ended, and the Knicks believe he will strengthen their poor 3-point shooting.

But none of that helped Friday.

“They’re long and they did defend well,” D’Antoni said. “But at the same time, I was telling him he’s trying to make the hardest pass out there; he’s trying to make the home run pass. That will happen for young guys. When they collapse so much, he has to kick. At the same time, we weren’t making any outside shots, so they weren’t coming out.

“He’ll learn. He’ll get through it. I thought he played well. Second half, he adjusted.”

The poor performance came just as many New York residents finally got to see Lin for the first time. Fueled largely by the Asian-American’s popularity, MSG network and Time Warner reached a tentative deal Friday that puts Knicks games back on TV for some 2 million Time Warner Cable subscribers in the New York area. New York state officials and the NBA had pressured the companies to settle a dispute that began Jan. 1.

The stalemate left some fans out of Linsanity, which has made the Knicks the story in New York, where they have ranked much lower on the sports’ scene in recent years. The crowd of cameras and reporters at the morning shootaround was so large that one reporter cracked that the Knicks must have signed Kobe.

Who needs him? The Knicks already beat the Lakers, when Lin poured in 38 points to outscore Bryant.

That’s turned Lin, who graced the cover of this week’s Sports Illustrated, into one of sports’ most unlikely stars.

“I lived through Vinsanity when I was with Toronto in Canada and that was big then, but this is bigger than that,” said Knicks interim general manager Glen Grunwald, referring to when Vince Carter played for the Raptors. “It’s really hard to believe.”

But it was finally halted in front of a sold-out Madison Square Garden crowd in which many fans wore shirts that read either Lin or Linsanity above his No. 17.

Spike Lee, who usually wears Landry Fields’ No. 2, switched up to a different model. He donned Lin’s high school jersey from Palo Alto, Calif. a dark green No. 4 he wore over a neon green long sleeve shirt, clashing horribly with the Hornets’ green and purple Mardi Gras uniforms.

But the ugliest thing at the start was the Knicks’ offense. Lin’s five turnovers in the first quarter matched their number of baskets, and Chris Kaman had 10 points to lead the Hornets to a 27-13 lead. The Knicks cut it to 43-39 at the half.

“We had a few lulls in the second and a little bit in the fourth. But when you play that kind of defense, to hold that team to 13 points in the first quarter and 19 in the third, you set yourself up to have a chance,” Hornets coach Monty Williams said.

The game was originally scheduled for ESPN, back when the story would have been Chris Paul’s last visit to New York before the Knicks’ expected pursuit this summer in free agency. Instead, the Knicks took themselves out of the free agent market by acquiring Tyson Chandler, Paul was dealt the Clippers, and the Knicks looked like they might have lasting point guard woes until Lin’s emergence.

But he’s been turnover prone ? committing at least six in five straight games ? and it finally came back to cost the Knicks this time.

“It takes a few games like this in order to learn from the mistakes,” Stoudemire said. “It’s a learning curve for him right now. He’s going to watch film, I’m sure, and get better.”

Notes: NBAstore.com has shipped Lin merchandise to 23 countries since Feb. 4, with Taiwan, Hong Kong and Australia ranking only behind the United States and Canada in largest shipments. … The Knicks had won the previous six meetings. Their longest current winning streak against an opponent is eight straight wins over Washington. … The Knicks paid tribute to former Mets catcher Gary Carter, who died Thursday, during a first-quarter timeout.

___

Follow Brian Mahoney on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Briancmahoney

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-02-18-Hornets-Knicks/id-460335d63f9c4c71b22c644ad75e05dd

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Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Panetta warned lawmakers that budget cuts will hit all 50 states, but he says the reductions have been carefully planned and there is little room for changes.

Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the budget tradeoffs were tough and complex, but they will produce the savings mandated by the $487 billion in reductions over a decade the President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans agreed to last summer.

“They will not lead to a military in decline,” Dempsey said. “Rather, this budget will maintain our military’s decisive edge and help sustain America’s global leadership.”

The testimony immediately met resistance from members of the committee. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the panel’s chairman, insisted that the military look to closing bases in Europe and overseas before targeting installations in the United States. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the committee’s top Republican and Obama’s presidential foe in 2008, expressed reservations with the budget and complained that it “continues the administration’s habit of putting short-term political considerations over our long-term national security interests.”

The proposed defense budget for the year beginning Oct. 1 includes $525.4 billion in base spending and another $88.5 billion for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The total is nearly $32 billion less than this year’s budget.

“It was this Congress that mandated, on a bipartisan basis, that we reduce the defense budget, and we need your partnership to do this in a manner that preserves the strongest military in the world,” Panetta said. “This will be a test of whether reducing the deficit is about talk or action.”

Defense officials have laid out plans to find about $260 billion in savings over the next five years, including moves to slash the size of the Army and Marine Corps, cut back on shipbuilding, and delay the purchase of some fighter jets and other weapons systems.

The plan also slashes war spending. Money for Iraq and Afghanistan will drop from $115 billion this year to $88.5 billion, with less than $3 billion spent for security in Iraq. It also cuts in half the amount spent on training and equipping Afghanistan’s security forces ? a key element to the U.S. effort to gradually withdraw forces and transfer security responsibility to the Afghans.

While military personnel still would get a 1.7 percent pay raise, retirees would get hit with a series of increases in health care fees, co-pays and deductibles. The impact would be greater on those who are under 65 and are likely to have another job, as well as on those who make more money.

Senators on Monday also complained that President Barack Obama and his defense team have made no plans to deal with an additional $492 billion in across-the-board military cuts that will occur in January 2013 if Congress doesn’t act to avoid them.

Panetta said that since it is now apparent what the current cuts will do, he hopes that Congress will be persuaded to avoid the additional 2013 reductions.

Dempsey said that even though there are fewer than 90,000 troops deployed in combat, compared with more than 200,000 just two years ago, the military must spend money to reset and restore itself. War-torn equipment must be replaced, weapons need to be modernized and troops need to be retrained, he said.

“We will have to do all of this in the context of a security environment that is different than the one we faced 10 years ago,” Dempsey said. “We cannot simply return to the old way of doing things, and we cannot forget the lessons we have learned.”

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/usmilitary/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120214/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_defense_spending

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“The Vow,” starring Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum, took in $41.7 million at U.S. and Canadian theaters from Friday through Sunday in the biggest domestic opening so far this year, according to studio estimates compiled by Reuters on Sunday. Twenty international markets added $9.7 million, bringing the global total to $51.4 million.

Action movie “Safe House” featuring Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds took second place with an estimated $39.3 million domestically plus $10.2 million from 25 international markets. The worldwide total stood at $49.5 million.

The studios had projected domestic openings in the $20 million range for each of the top two finishers. To the surprise of industry executives, four movies topped $20 million each. That lifted the domestic weekend total for all films 29.3 percent higher than the same weekend last year, according to the box office division of Hollywood.com.

After the 2011 domestic box office ended with sales down 3.4 percent and attendance at a 16-year low, the early weeks of 2012 have produced a comeback.

So far this year, North American (U.S. and Canadian) ticket sales are running 19 percent ahead of the same point in 2011. A range of options has helped boost sales, said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Hollywood.com’s box office division.

This weekend in particular offered a variety of films “that chased different audiences with each successfully drawing the targeted demographic, and the result was huge,” he said. Sales for all films totaled $193 million.

“The Vow” was inspired by the real-life story of a husband who must win over his wife a second time after a car crash erases her memory of him. The movie was released this weekend to draw in couples ahead of Valentine’s Day, said Rory Bruer, president of worldwide distribution for distributor Sony Pictures. The film cost about $30 million to make.

“We grossed what it cost to make the film in the first two days. It’s really a fantastic result,” Bruer said.

“Safe House” had a higher budget of around $85 million that was financed by privately held Relativity Media and distributor Universal Pictures.

The movie features Washington as a rogue CIA agent who shows up at the U.S. Embassy in South Africa. Reynolds plays a rookie operative who must bring him in. “People are back in the moviegoing mode” and audiences liked Washington in an “action antagonist role,” said Nikki Rocco, president of distribution for Universal Pictures.

In third place, family film “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson brought in $27.6 million, well ahead of studio projections of around $15 million.

The movie has brought in $74.7 million from international markets after opening in late January, bringing the global haul to $102.3 million. The 3D follow-up to 2008′s “Journey to the Center of the Earth” cost $79 million to make.

The movie tells the story of a man leading his stepson, a helicopter pilot and his daughter on a rescue mission set on an unusual island. “We dominated the family business,” said Dan Fellman, head of domestic distribution for Warner Bros.

‘STAR WARS’ STRIKES AGAIN

Families also turned out for a 3D remake of 1999′s “Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace,” which took fourth place domestically with $23.0 million. Distributor 20th Century Fox had hoped the film that tells the story of a young Anakin Skywalker, the boy who becomes Darth Vader, would bring in $20 million or more.

Sales in international markets hit $20.5 million, bringing the movie’s weekend total to $43.5 million around the globe.

Last weekend’s domestic winner, thriller “Chronicle” about three boys with superpowers, slipped to fifth place with $12.3 million.

The movie division of Sony Corp released “The Vow.” “Safe House” was released by Universal Pictures, a division of Comcast Corp. News Corp unit 20th Century Fox distributed “Star Wars” and “Chronicle.” Time Warner Inc unit Warner Bros. released “Journey 2.”

(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Jackie Frank)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120212/en_nm/us_boxoffice

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The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline rose 11.57 cents to $3.5101 as of February 10, the survey of about 2,500 gasoline stations in the continental United States found.

That was a greater change than the 3.5-cent rise in the previous survey, which covered the two weeks that ended January 20.

Survey editor Trilby Lundberg told Reuters that the higher prices came as the price for North Sea Brent crude rose more than $7 per barrel. Brent prices are more volatile and sensitive to changes in the Middle East than is U.S. crude.

One barrel holds 42 gallons.

Lundberg said U.S. pump prices will likely rise a few more cents in the short-term because retailers have yet to pass along all of the recent wholesale price increases.

Among cities covered by the survey, the lowest average price was in Denver at $3.01 per gallon. The price was highest in Long Island suburbs of New York, at $3.82. The price difference is largely because of taxes, Lundberg said.

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46360396/ns/business-oil_and_energy/

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The landmark $25 billion settlement between major banks and state and federal governments is aimed at doing more than just helping people who lost their homes through improper foreclosures.

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It’s an attempt to fix the biggest weak spot in the nation’s economy. Although analysts are unsure the cure will take, the outcome could help determine whether voters give President Barack Obama a second turn in office next fall.

By most measures, the economy is improving: Unemployment is down, consumer spending is up, and financial markets have regained the ground they lost in the 2008-09 financial crisis.

The housing market is the last holdout, with home prices nationwide down nearly 34 percent from their peak in 2006, according to real estate data firm CoreLogic. The average home is now worth what it was in 2003.

Although Thursday’s settlement originated more than a year ago as an effort to discipline lenders for improper foreclosures, it has evolved into a housing?relief?package.

Most of the money _ $17 billion _ is earmarked for people who are struggling to make their payments, chiefly by reducing the amount of principal on their?mortgages. An additional $3 billion will be spent by the banks to refinance mortgages?of homeowners who are current on their payments but owe more than their homes are worth.

“This isn’t just about punishing banks for their irresponsible behavior,” said Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan. “It’s also about requiring them to help the people they harmed by funding efforts to help homeowners stay in their homes.”

For Obama, whose administration pushed hard for a deal, an upturn in the housing market would be a boost to his re-election hopes this fall. The banks receive incentives to provide?relief?within 12 months.

“This isn’t just good for these families,” Obama said of struggling homeowners. “It’s good for their neighborhoods, it’s good for their communities and it’s good for our economy.”

There’s broad, bipartisan agreement on that. After hectic last-minute negotiations this week, 49 state attorneys general _ 25 Democrats and 24 Republicans _ signed on to the long-sought settlement.

Only Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a Republican who reached a separate, more narrow settlement, did not join the broader deal.

Julio Zapata, 44, of Diamond Bar, Calif., is one of the struggling homeowners the agreement is supposed to help. But Zapata, a medical equipment technician, is skeptical that the banks will live up to their promises.

Zapata said he had trouble making his payments, and after a two-year battle, he recently persuaded his lender to alter the terms of his loan. He won a small reduction in payments but is still not sure he can keep the house without another modification.

“It was a horrific process _ draining, frustrating,” he said. “It just took a lot out of me. And at the end of the tunnel, I’m still not in a better position than before.”

Housing experts say the settlement probably will lead the banks to pick up the pace of foreclosures, which they have kept in low gear because of the pending settlement.

That will produce pain for homeowners and could push prices down further _ at least temporarily. But clearing up the foreclosure backlog created by federal and state investigations should help heal the real estate market.

“The servicers will start working through those big backlogs of foreclosed homes … and that will put downward pressure on home prices,” said Celia Chen, a housing economist at Moody’s Analytics.

Stuart Gabriel, director of UCLA’s Ziman Center for Real Estate, said the housing markets in the state’s hardest-hit areas largely have hit bottom already.

“This will have some modest effect on the healing of those markets,” he said.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/AHwOojP862w/Mortgage-relief-plan-Can-it-spark-housing-rebound

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