"My partner and I bought a small business five years ago from the person who originally started it. We assumed his existing lease for a terrific retail space, and personally guaranteed the lease. As we are both getting ready to retire, we decided to sell the business. We found a great buyer, who is willing to pay us an above-market price because of the business location.
The downward trend of early tax filers continues, with only 29% of Americans saying that they have already filed their income taxes.
Does confidence in the direction of personal finances drive sentiment on economic growth, or is it the other way around?
Voters clearly don’t have much confidence in their elected leaders to make the spending cuts necessary to reduce the nation’s historic-level budget deficit.
The documents the White House includes with President Obama's $3.7 trillion proposed budget for 2012 project that government spending will top $4 trillion in the next two to three years, but most voters aren't aware of that increase amidst all the talk of spending cuts.
Most voters don’t think President Obama’s proposed $3.7 trillion federal budget includes enough spending cuts, and despite House Republican plans to cut substantially more, a plurality of voters don’t think the GOP goes far enough either.
A sizable number of Americans remain less likely to buy a General Motors car because of the company’s government bailout. One-in-four says anti-buyout sentiment has kept them or someone they know from buying a GM vehicle.
Just over half of Americans think General Motors and Chrysler may repay their taxpayer bailouts, but that doesn’t change the negative view of future bailouts.
Americans are beginning 2011 with renewed confidence as financial security sentiments reached their highest level since April 2010. The COUNTRY Financial Security Index(R) rose 0.8 points to 64.9 in February. This marks the first time Americans have started the year with improved sentiments since the COUNTRY Index began in 2007.
Most voters continue to believe that government bailouts were a bad idea, and a plurality still fears the government will do too much to help the economy.
As frequent readers of this column know, I am not the biggest fan of e-mail.
Half of all Americans own stocks, bonds or mutual funds, but most are also unaware of that fact.
Homeowners continue to hold little hope for the value of their house in the short-term and show no new confidence in long-term recovery.
Economists still argue about what caused the Great Depression of the 1930s and what got the nation out of it.
The number of homeowners who say their homes are worth more than what they still owe on their mortgage has fallen to its lowest level in nearly two years.
"I have been running a successful online company -- a limited liability company -- for several years, with a number of different lines of business. Another company has made an offer to buy one of my lines of business for a very attractive price, and I'm inclined to accept.
Consumers' confidence sharply rebounded in January, fueled by a surge in the number of middle-income consumers who see improvement in the U.S. economy and in their personal finances are improving, according to the Discover U.S. Spending Monitor.
The Rasmussen Employment Index made a modest gain in January to reach 77.2.
"I have a successful retail business that I want to take online with a killer website and a social media marketing campaign on Facebook and Twitter. The problem, of course, is money. I need to raise $100,000 to build the website and launch the campaign, but am having trouble finding the money.
After falling in December, confidence among small business owners rebounded in January as more see the economy and economic conditions for their businesses improving, according to the Discover(R) Small Business Watch(SM). The monthly index rose to 91.0 this month, up 9.4 points from December 2010 and 5.5 points higher than one year ago, the highest the index has been since December 2007 when it stood at 92.7.
