Archive for August 16th, 2008

Think traveling with the jet set is too expensive? Try these tricks and you can fly in peace for as little as half the price.

Jason and Rodney Carr hate to raise their prices. Their Gardena, Calif.-based distributor of curtains and home fabrics, Softline Home Fashions, usually keeps its costs low by sourcing materials overseas: 100% of their raw goods and 80% of their finished products come from China. But recently, China hasn't paid off the way it used to. In the past five months, the Carrs have seen their manufacturing expenses rise 20%.

If purchased on the newsstand in Zimbabwe, the issue of Fortune you're holding would have cost you 270,543,825,555 Zimbabwean dollars. But don't worry about pulling your Weimar-era wheelbarrows out of storage. As of July you could pay for your magazine with three newly issued $100 billion bills.

Question: I recently retired and visited a Certified Financial Planner on the advice of a friend. He developed a portfolio for me, at no charge, and presented me with an investment plan for a fee of 1.35% per annum. I scrutinized all the paperwork he sent me. It seems that in addition to the 1.35%, there are a number of hidden fees, including various fund fees within the portfolio that he said nothing about. What should I do?

Another penny came off the national average price of gasoline Saturday, the 30th straight daily decline, bringing the total drop in the period to more than 35 cents a gallon.

Jet setters, get ready for more fare hikes and fewer flights.

The National Federation of Independent Business' monthly Index of Small Business Optimism fell one point to 88.2 in July, continuing one of the longest strings of recession-level readings in the 22-year history of the survey. Weak capital-spending plans, lower earnings, a soft labor market and heavy inventory reductions contributed to the continuing decline.