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Good Tuesday morning...here's your weekly Dose of Dover!
It's your weekly shot of un-common sense advice, ideas and other observations.
This all comes together as a direct result of your e-mails, letters and telephone calls from the radio shows, TV segments and newspaper column.
Do me a favor and put me out of a job!!!
Forward this e-mail to everyone in your Address Book,
others that will benefit from the information I've assembled below.
Tuesday, October 22, 2002:
Here's another example of religion being used to dupe naive consumers: If any company is promoting their religious beliefs in order to sell you on their services, you'd better make sure they haven't already picked your pocket! An Irvine brokerage firm whose president describes himself as a religious stockbroker was accused by the National Association of Securities Dealers of issuing fraudulent research reports about companies they were promoting. Which makes (yet another) effective argument for separation of church and wallet: Anytime anyone tries to use their religious beliefs as a selling point, run the other way. Ben's Bottom Line? Of course it's nice to do business with people you can trust, but if someone pushes religion as a selling point, go somewhere else.
It's a great time to re-finance your mortgage...if you can find someone who wants your business! It sure sounds like a good idea: Locking in lower interest rates by refinancing your mortgage. Now all you need to find is someone that'll take your business! There's such a huge wave of consumers trying to re-finance their mortgages that getting someone to take your money just isn't that easy! Ben's Tips for cutting through the process?
-- Call lenders during off-peak hours: You'll increase your chances of getting a call back if you contact your mortgage broker or banking representative early in the morning.
-- Check with your current lender: Call the loan officer that handled your current loan...if they're still working there.
-- Use the Internet to check rates: And compare multiple lenders without spending hours on the phone.
Claudia wants to cash in on the low interest rates, but it might not make sense: "We have three years left on our 15 year home mortgage...balance of $55,000 at an interest rate of 6.875%. Do you know of any lenders who would be interested in financing our loan at the now much lower rates? (We don't want to extend the duration or amount of our loan.) And would it be worth while? We're 64 and 70 years old." So I asked my trusted mortgage broker/expert for her take on Claudia's situation: According to Linda Knox, the president of Fidelity Pacific Mortgage Company in Mission Viejo (CA): "Rates just increased this week...plus Claudia's not eligible for a "no cost/no fee" loan because of the [small] loan size. It's simply not worthwhile for her to refi and incur the associated costs due to the small loan amount. Stay put & pay off the loan." By the way: Linda also warns that these "no cost/no fee" loans will simply make up for this selling point by charging you a higher rate. She'll take care of your Southern California mortgage needs; e-mail her directly or call: (949) 582-0200.
Why don't you forward this week's Dose of Dover to everyone in your world that would benefit from having their Common Sense IQ raised a few points. C'mon! The price is right [it's free], so what are you waiting for? Here's the link...[pass it on...]
Wanna avoid [unnecessarily] dying in your sleep? Then get off your lazy butt and spend a few bucks to protect yourself and your family; read more about it...and (don't) weep. Ben's Bottom Line: Check your smoke detectors at least every 6 months. While you're at it, that fire extinguisher you bought 10 years ago is probably good for breaking out a window but not much else. (They need to be checked and charged at least once a year while you're at it.)
America Online's done something innovative for a change: They've decided to listen to their customers! AOL rolled out their new Version 8.0 last week, a (supposedly) improved version of their previous incarnations, but the real story is their decision to forego over $30 million in advertising revenues generated by those pain-in-the-butt pop up ads. Ben's Bottom Line? Like tele-marketers, junk faxes and spam, if you wanna eliminate these nuisances, never do business with companies utilizing any of these marketing or advertising tactics!
Gotta question for Ben? Now you've got two chances a week to call in and get 'em answered live on the air:
Long Beach's finest are ticketing those wannabe deaf morons with car stereos heard 20 zip codes away: The Los Angeles Times had a nice story about this irritating form of noise pollution. Check out a recent column on this topic from last April '02, as well as all of the stuff already up on the website, designed to help silence the idiots breaking the peace in your neighborhood.
There are some amazing on-line resources that can not only improve your quality of life, but might even save it: Pointing and clicking your way to health is easy...here are the sites mentioned on the show:
Suicide isn't painless: It leaves behind permanent damage that could have easily been avoided. "Ed" was on the edge and reached out to Jesus Christ (Sunday mornings from 6-8a PT on KFI) right before Ben's show; his cry for help impacted not only Ben, but many of you in the extended KFI family of listeners. Times are tough; whether your problems stem from money or love or anything else that's put you into a dark place, suicide is not the solution. Tough times don't last...tough people do.
If you think you'll ever sell a house/your eventual home, you could end up being a victim of fraud that will haunt you for years! You can't afford to miss the next Benjamin Dover Show(s):
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