Here's what I chanced upon when I checked my Facebook News Feed, a very funny video tutorial on Filipino accent. The video was made and starred by Filipino-Canadian artist, Mikey Bustos. Watch the video...
"Grenade" Bruno Mars cover - Acapella Live by Mikey Bustos
Mikey Bustos lives in Toronto, Canada and has won 7th runner-up in the finals of Canadian Idol Season 1.
Her modest apartment stands a few steps away from the bustling Roosevelt Avenue in Woodside, Queens. In a dire need to secure the financial stability of her children and grandchildren, she had given up her sheltered life in the Philippines four years ago then moved to New York City a year after.
“I was a certified public accountant back home. I graduated from the University of the Philippines and worked in a private corporation for years," said the 62-year-old woman, who asked her identity be withheld to protect her immigration status. Now she works as an elderly caregiver in Long Island on weekdays and as a babysitter-housekeeper on weekends.
Although she is rarely in her Woodside apartment, she said she made a conscious choice to live in the neighborhood along with her four fellow Filipino roommates. Smiling as brightly as she could, she spoke enthusiastically about her favorite activities on her days off.
“Ihawan definitely serves the best inihaw (barbeque) around here," she said enthusiastically, adding, “You should drop by our prayer group here in my apartment on Sundays. We always have a big feast, homemade Filipino food, after our meetings."
Filipino stores along Roosevelt Avenue
Further up the avenue from her apartment are some of the most popular Filipino restaurants in the area. Right off the main road on 69th Street is the Bayanihan Filipino Community Center, where Filipino community events are held. Establishments such as Johnny Air Cargo, the Philippine National Bank, and the Phil-Am Food Mart are scattered throughout the blocks. It’s as if she never left the Philippines.
“Did you know that 3,000 Filipinos leave the Philippines every day? And the number one destination is the United States," said Anne Beryl Corotan, staff member of the Philippine Forum, a not-for-profit organization running the Bayanihan Filipino Community Center in Woodside.
Corotan showed a book, Ating Kalagayan (Our Situation): The Social and Economic Profile of U.S. Filipinos. According to its author, Professor Peter Chua of San Jose State University, Filipinos are the second largest immigrant group in the United States next to Mexicans.
The book also revealed that there are over 4 million Filipinos in the country, and there are over a million more that are unaccounted for due to immigration restrictions. The most concentrated areas for Filipino-American communities include Southern California, Las Vegas, Honolulu, and Jersey City.
In New York City, the fairly small neighborhood of Woodside, Queens alone is home to about 13,000 Filipinos according to a report by the New York Community Media Alliance in 2006.
Welcome to Little Manila
Previously an Irish neighborhood, Woodside has grown to be one of the most diverse areas in the city. Amid Mexican-, Indian-, and Korean-owned stores lies a hefty sampling of the Philippines. The area now serves as home to the rising population of Filipinos in the city.
Food is a very important part of Filipino culture. Little Manila provides an ample taste of home. The oldest Filipino establishments in the area include Krystal’s Café and Ihawan Restaurant, both of which have been serving authentic Filipino meals for more than 10 years. They serve native dishes such as kare-kare, an ox-tail stew in peanut sauce and served with shrimp paste. Another staple food is inihaw na baboy or grilled pork barbeque, which Ihawan is best known for.
The stretch between 58th and 74th Streets along Roosevelt Avenue continues to grow more concentrated with Filipino businesses. The newest stores include Jollibee, a popular fast food chain with over 1,800 stores worldwide, and Red Ribbon BakeShop, famous for its colorful cakes and delicious pastries. Popular desserts often served at Red Ribbon include ensaymada, a fluffy sponge cake topped with butter cream and grated cheese.
Eric Soriano, manager of Jollibee Woodside, puts into numbers the popularity of Filipino food establishments in the area: “On a daily basis, we get about 400 to 450 customers. On a weekend, we get about 500 to 600 customers."
Most of their customers are Filipinos, but they now count customers from other ethnic backgrounds. “It’s very, very diverse in Woodside. So, we also have a lot of Hispanic, Asian and Caucasian people who come here to taste the food."
Other stores in the area that cater specifically to Filipinos include groceries, DVD shops, banks, freight services, travel agencies and driving schools. This is what makes Little Manila a hearth for Filipinos.
Events for the general Filipino community in New York City are also often held in Little Manila. Culture, language, sports and art workshops are held periodically at the Bayanihan Filipino Community Center. The center also hosts semi-annual cultural festivals. There are free health screenings, vendors, musical and theatrical performances. Every Christmas, the St. Sebastian’s Parish co-hosts Simbang Gabi (night mass), a novena of nine masses at dawn, which is an important tradition to devout Filipino Catholics.
Seeking refuge in Little Manila
Many Filipinos migrate to seek refuge from a broken economy and unreliable government in their homeland. With so many struggles that come with moving to a demanding environment such as New York City, many can find comfort in Little Manila.
"The events we hold here are meant to encourage unity among Filipinos in New York City," said Corotan of the Philippine Forum. Activities and programs hosted by the Bayanihan Filipino Community Center are often held within Little Manila. Employment, legal and immigration workshops, as well as community action campaigns, are made available to the public.
During cultural festivals, informational booths are made available for those who wish to join human rights groups such as GABRIELA-USA and BAYAN-USA. There are also many volunteer opportunities based in the area with nonprofits such as Philippine Forum.
Little Manila does not isolate itself from the larger New York City community. Since the neighborhood is very diverse, all establishments are accessible not only to Filipinos but also to other minority groups. Food stores, especially bakeries, are often admired by non-Filipinos. The same goes for community events.
“We also recognize the struggles of other non-Filipino immigrants in the city," shares Corotan. In fact, nearly half of Vambudo martial arts classes held by the Philippine Forum’s YEHEY program are not Filipinos. Non-Filipinos are always welcome at all workshops, especially at the Tagalog language classes and immigration campaigns.
Indeed, Little Manila has provided a safe haven, a home away from home, for Filipinos trying to make a living here in their newly adopted country.
source: Liaa Marquez, Queens7.com
The Cheat: The Adobo Experiment
By: Sam Sifton, New York Times
Published: January 5, 2011
There are more than 7,100 islands in the Philippines, a nation slightly larger than the state of Arizona, and if you could devote your life to traveling through them asking questions about food, you would discover a different recipe for adobo on each one.
It is the national dish, many Filipinos say: protein braised in vinegar until pungent and rich, sweet and sour and salty at once, sometimes crisped at the edges in high heat, always served with the remaining sauce. Its excellence derives from the balance of its flavors, in the alchemy of the process. Cooking softens the acidity of the vinegar, which then combines with the flavor of the meat to enhance it. Whether consumed in Manila’s heat or on the edge of a New York winter, adobo holds the power to change moods and alter dining habits.
It is a difficult dish to cook just once. For the adobo neophyte, there are always adjustments to be made to increase a diner’s pleasure in one direction or another — a touch more salt or sour, sweet or fire.
Until there is not. Then the recipe — your recipe — becomes set in stone.
As a result, there is great fun to be had in asking Filipinos how to make adobo, particularly when they are in groups. Filipino cooking is an evolutionary masterpiece, a cuisine that includes Chinese, Spanish, American and indigenous island influences, all rolled into one. But where for one Filipino the most important aspect of the dish is Spanish, for another it is Chinese, or both, or neither. (The journalist and food historian Raymond Sokolov has made the point that the ingredients for adobo were present in the Philippines before Magellan — only the name, which comes from a Spanish word for sauce, came later. “Lexical imperialism,” he called this process.)
Husbands argue with wives about adobo. Friends shoot each other dirty looks about the necessity of including coconut milk or soy sauce in the recipe. There are disputations over the kind of vinegar to use, over the use of sugar, over the inclusion of garlic and how much of it. Some use chicken exclusively in the dish, others pork, some a combination of the two.
Some serve the dish as a stew. There are those who call for broiling the meat at the end, to caramelize it and provide a crisp texture alongside the sauce. Others advocate pan-frying. Some demand deep-frying. Or grilling.
“No two people in the same house will cook adobo the same way,” said Amy Besa, who runs, with her husband, Romy Dorotan, the excellent Purple Yam restaurant in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn. At Purple Yam, she said, Dorotan makes chicken adobo with a sauce that combines vinegar and coconut milk with soy sauce, garlic and fiery little Thai chilies.
Left to her own devices, Besa added, she and other purists would not use the soy sauce. In Manila, she said, you would find people turning up their noses at the coconut milk. “You can make adobos in many, many ways,” she said. “But the dish must be based in vinegar. You cannot make adobo without it.”
Jose Antonio Vargas, a Filipino journalist who writes about technology and digital culture for The Huffington Post, said his adobo recipe combines chicken and pork, which he marinates overnight in a mixture of vinegar, soy sauce and garlic. “Sometimes I even add brown sugar,” he said, “depending on who I’m cooking it for.”
(Not Besa: “I rail against sugar,” she said. “If it becomes too dominant, then the dish becomes a Chinese sweet and sour.”)
This week’s recipe is derived from the adobo served at Purple Yam. It is a dish Dorotan developed at Cendrillon, a restaurant he and Besa owned and ran together in SoHo until 2009. (A version of it appeared in their 2006 cookbook, “Memories of Philippine Kitchens.”) There is soy sauce in it, and the coconut milk that is common to the southern part of Luzon, the island from which Dorotan hails.
As the mixture cooks, the rice vinegar turns mellow, and the sauce thickens in the heat. There are notes of garlic and bay, of chicken fat and chili fire, coconut sweetness and the nutty saltiness of soy. The combination is ridiculous: a dark and creamy flavor that covers the chicken in silk.
Care should be taken in the assembly of the ingredients. If you can manage to secure Filipino coconut sap vinegar, that would be best, though good-quality rice vinegar from the supermarket will yield excellent results as well, and white wine or even cider vinegar will do in a pinch. (Coconut sap vinegar is available in specialty markets and, as always, online.) A fresh bottle of soy sauce on the lighter end of the taste spectrum would also not be in error, rather than something from that dusty bottle in the back of the larder.
Combine these with your chicken thighs (best-quality again, please), a ton of garlic and chilies, bay leaves and pepper. Allow the marinade to do its work. Then place the mixture in a heavy pot, bring to a simmer, and cook for around a half-hour, until the chicken is tender. Remove the chicken and allow the sauce to reduce. (Really, that’s it.)
At Purple Yam, Dorotan finishes the process by tossing the chicken into a deep-fryer, to crisp and to caramelize it at once. Then he returns the pieces to a reduced version of the sauce and serves the dish in a small clay pot, where it bubbles and steams enticingly. For the home cook, however, some time under the broiler will achieve much the same effect.
Serve with white rice and some steamed or sautéed greens.
Now taste what you have. Next time you may wish to increase the amount of vinegar or soy sauce in the marinade, or reduce it a little or a lot. You may wish to add more chilies or even Vargas’s crazy brown sugar. You may wish to have less coconut milk, or none at all. You may wish to have more.
This is adobo. Every man an island.
Idiot with a Tripod
Here's a high-quality copy of the short that's been circulating. It's also known as "Man in a Blizzard," as it's been called by Roger Ebert. Thanks to everybody who's seen the short and liked it. -J
Idiot with a Tripod from The Mutiny Company on Vimeo.
Read more...New York Knicks vs Toronto Raptors
Madison Square Garden
December 8, 2010
New York Knicks from Aligzandr on Vimeo.
Read more...
PURPLE YAM to open on November 10, 2009
1314 Cortelyou Rd (between Rugby & Argyle), Brooklyn, NY 11226
Read the news about Purple Yam:
The New York Times - Ambitions and Prices to Suit the Moment
NYMag - Want-to-Eats
TimeOut New York - Fall in NYC
Cendrillon - News
June 07, 2009 • Sunday • New York
Opening Ceremonies, Independence Day Parade, Street Fair & Cultural Festival
8:00 - 8:30am
FLAG CEREMONY & THANKSGIVING MASS
Philippine Center
556 Fifth Avenue, NYC NY 10036
10am - 6pm
STREET FAIR
Madison Avenue
From 24th Street to 26th Street
Lining up both sides of the Avenue from 24th to 25th Street are food vendors making for a virtual Filipino Food Festival. On the next block, 25th to 26th Street, are merchants, exhibitors, service companies and corporate institutions.
For booth rentals or information, call Committee Chair Isagani Puertollano at (908) 964-5473 or (908) 230-6468, or Co-Chairs Medy Taeza at (646) 415-3040 • Tambi Wycoco at (212) 420-0145 • Rev. Gaudencio Soriano, Sr. at (201) 947-2126 or (201) 282-9341 or PIDCI President Gerry M. Austria at (201) 238-1785.
11:45 a.m.
OPENING CEREMONIES
Madison Ave. at 41st St.
Ribbon-cutting, then the start of the parade.
12:00 Noon
INDEPENDENCE DAY PARADE
Madison Avenue from 41st Street head South (downtown). The Philippine Vice President Manuel “Noli” L. de Castro, Jr. has accepted the invitation of the Philippine Independence Day Council, Inc.(PIDCI) to be the Guest of Honor on Philippine Independence Day. Leading the 2009 Independence Day Parade will be Independence Day Parade Grand Marshal Dr. Teofila Malanum Santos and her family.
Immediately behind them is the line of VIPs, which this year will include Vice President Noli L. de Castro, Jr., PIDCI 2009 President Gerry M. Austria, the Honorable Consul General of the Philippines, Ambassador Cecilia B. Rebong, in the past, His Honor, New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and other honored guests, as Parade spearhead. Following are the contingents of marchers from Filipino- American associations, organizations and assorted groups, Marching Bands, floats, open cars, and others.
Bringing up the rear of the Parade, in her own float is the year 2009 Diwa Ng Kalayaan (Spirit of Independence), Monica Castillo Meares. Preceding her float is another float bearing her court: Miss Filipino American Renee Nicole Lago, Hiyas ng Pilipinas Janette Gomez, Bituin ng Luzon Loriella Reyes, Bituin ng Visayas Alexandra Uy, Bituin ng Mindanao Demellen Faith Cuerda, and Lakambini ng PIDCI Natasha Abella.
For information or to join the Parade, call Chair Gani Puertollano (908) 230-6468 • Co-Chair Juliet Payabyab (917) 557-7300 • Elmer Abustan (845) 352-8756 • Rene Reniva (908) 765-1953 • Belen Castillo (973) 393-8018 • Linda Limcaco (609) 903-1123 • Rudy Mariano (860) 848-7055.
2pm - 6pm
CULTURAL FESTIVAL
Madison Avenue, North of 23rd Street. Filipino-American talents, performers. For information, call Chair Dr. Bernie dela Merced at (973) 699-1849 or Co-Chair Vivian Velasco at (917) 623-3827
June 13 • Saturday
7pm - 1am
INDEPENDENCE BALL
Grand Ballroom
Sheraton Newark Airport Hotel
128 Frontage Road
Newark, NJ 07114-3721
This is the culmination of the 111th Philippine Independence Anniversary commemoration.
For information or invitations, call Chairperson Anna Mercado (732) 925-5217 • Joanne Garcia (908) 922-0306 • Katrina Austria (201) 889-3615 • Basilio Valdehuesa (201) 736-0124 • Mark Mendoza (848) 219-8484 •Michael Espiritu (646) 623-7392 or President Gerry Austria (201) 238-1785
source: pidci
Watch our "kababayans" lined up at the opening of Jollibee store in Woodside, New York. It is true that it would take you 4 1/2 hours to get to the counter, whew! It's amazing that as of today, the line is still very much the same as shown on the video.
Video 1:
Video 2:
For menu prices, go to the previous post.
Jollibee in the news:
nytimes.com
nymag.com
seriouseats.com
gothamist.com
Location: 62-29 Roosevelt Ave., Woodside, New York
JOLIBEE IN WOODSIDE opens Saturday, FEBRUARY 14, 2009.
You read it right. The JOLLIBEE store in Woodside, New York. See you guys!
Read the previous post.
more links:
seriouseats
jenniferboylephotography
nymag.com
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Jan. 27
Over 90 Million Tagalog Speaking Filipinos Globally Can Now Use Friendster To Keep in Touch with Friends and Family
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Friendster, Inc., a top 20 global website based on traffic and the #1 social network in Asia, today announced that Friendster.com is available in Tagalog, the most popular language in the Philippines that is used by over 90 million people worldwide. Friendster's mobile site m.friendster.com will also launch in Tagalog in the coming days. This new language addition on Friendster gives the 14 million Internet users in the Philippines and users around the world a greater choice of languages with which to navigate the site, share content and use Friendster's complete set of social networking features.
Friendster.com now fully supports 11 languages - English, Bahasa Indonesian, Chinese (both Simplified and Traditional), Japanese, Korean, Malay, Spanish, Tagalog, Thai and Vietnamese. These languages represent over 70 percent of the world's Internet users, or approximately a billion Internet users in total. Friendster's mobile site m.friendster.com supports 7 languages - English, Bahasa Indonesian, Chinese (both Simplified and Traditional), Malay, Korean and Tagalog.
"Over 90 percent of all Internet users in the Philippines are currently using Friendster, which is an order of magnitude larger than any other social network in the country. Launching support for Tagalog on the Friendster web and mobile sites will help us maintain our leadership position in the Philippines and within Filipino communities around the world," said David Jones, vice president of global marketing at Friendster.
79 million people in the Philippines - 85 percent of the total population of 93 million - are not yet using the Internet.
"Friendster in Tagalog gives even more Filipinos a reason to get started online and join their friends and family on Friendster. And, for those Filipinos who don't have regular access to a computer, they can join and enjoy Friendster via their mobile phone by visiting the m.friendster.com mobile site. We look forward to welcoming millions of Tagalog speakers to the Internet and to Friendster," said Jones.
Users can set their language of choice on Friendster several ways through links at the top right of every page of the Friendster.com website, the "Settings" link at the website or mobile site, or the Languages link at the bottom of the homepage of the mobile site at m.friendster.com.
Friendster also announced today the ability for advertisers to target ads on Friendster based on the language preference of the Friendster user. With this new enhancement, advertisers can choose to target ads on Friendster via geographic location, age, gender and/or language preference. In the Philippines, for example, this will be particularly useful for advertisers to target ads in the Tagalog language to users who have chosen to use Friendster in Tagalog and ads in English to users who prefer to use Friendster in English.
Tagalog is spoken by more than 64 million Filipinos, or about 70 percent of the total population in the Philippines. Tagalog is spoken throughout the world outside of the Philippines and is most popular within Filipino ethnic groups. There are approximately 90 million Tagalog speakers globally, and it is the fifth most spoken language in the United States.
Read more...
As the economy continues to look grim, the word "bankruptcy" is on the tips of more and more tongues. While being unable to pay one's creditors is never a good situation for a company or an individual, it may not be the financial kiss of death that you might think. (Just ask Donald Trump, whose casinos have gone bankrupt twice.)
A number of successful people have found themselves overextended and ended up filing for bankruptcy, only to successfully stick it out and find firmer financial footing again.
Here are a few famous names who knew what it's like to be strapped for cash:
1. Abraham Lincoln
His face may now appear on the penny, but at one time, Lincoln didn't have a single cent to spare. Lincoln tried many occupations as a young man, including buying a general store in New Salem, Illinois, in 1832.
While he may have been terrific at splitting rails, winning debates, and wearing stovepipe hats, Honest Abe wasn't much of a shopkeeper. Lincoln and his partner started buying out other stores' inventories on credit, but their own sales were dismal.
As the store's debts mounted, Lincoln sold his share, but when his partner died, the future President became liable for $1,000 in back payments. Lincoln didn't have modern bankruptcy laws to protect him, so when his creditors took him to court, he lost his two remaining assets: a horse and some surveying gear. That wasn't enough to foot his bill, though, and Lincoln continued paying off his debts until well into the 1840s.
Lincoln's not alone in the annals of bankrupt commanders-in-chief, though. Ulysses S. Grant went bankrupt after leaving office when a partner in an investment-banking venture swindled him.
Thomas Jefferson filed for bankruptcy several times, including after leaving office, possibly because he threw around a lot of cash on food and wine.
William McKinley went bankrupt while serving as Ohio's governor in 1893; he was $130,000 in the red before eventually straightening out with the help of friends. He won the White House just three years later.
2. Henry Ford
Speculation abounds about the future of the Big Three motor companies, leading some observers to wonder what Henry Ford would think of this financial peril. Ford actually couldn't be too judgmental, though, because he was no stranger to debt himself.
In 1899 the young mechanic and engineer started the Detroit Automobile Company with the backing of three prominent politicians. Ford hadn't quite mastered the innovation and production techniques that would eventually make him rich, though. Over the next two years, Ford proved to be too much of a perfectionist, and his plant only produced 20 cars as he painstakingly tinkered with designs.
The enterprise went bankrupt in 1901 and reorganized into the Henry Ford Company later that year. Ford eventually left that group and finally got things right in 1903, when he founded the Ford Motor Company. Things didn't go so badly for the Henry Ford Company after he left, either; it changed its name into one you might find a bit more recognizable: the Cadillac Automobile Company.
Ford wasn't the only auto magnate who knew how bankruptcy felt, though. General Motors founder William Crapo Durant took a massive hit during the Great Depression that saw his fortune fall from $120 million to bankruptcy. He spent his last few years running a bowling alley in Flint, Michigan.
3. Walt Disney
His name may be a stalwart brand today, but early in his career, Disney was just a struggling filmmaker with too many bills. In 1922 he started his first film company with a partner in Kansas City, Kansas.
The two men bought a used camera and made short advertising films and cartoons under the studio name Laugh-O-Gram. Disney even signed a deal with a New York company to distribute the films he was producing. That arrangement didn't work out so well, though, as the distributor cheated Disney's studio.
Without the distributor's cash, Disney couldn't cover his overhead, and his studio went bankrupt in 1923. He then left Kansas City for Hollywood, and after a series of increasingly successful creations, Disney debuted a new character named Mickey Mouse in 1928.
4. Milton Hershey
Milton Hershey always knew he could make candy, but running a successful business seemed just out of his reach. Although he never had a formal education, Hershey spent four years apprenticing in a candy shop before striking out on his own in Philadelphia in 1876.
Six years later, his shop went under, as did a subsequent attempt to peddle sweets in New York City. Hershey then returned home to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he pioneered the use of fresh milk in caramel productions and founded the successful Lancaster Caramel Company.
In 1900 he sold the caramel company for $1 million so he could focus on perfecting a milk chocolate formula. Once he finally nailed the recipe down, he was too rich (and too flush with delicious chocolate) for anyone to remember the flops of his early candy ventures.
5. Burt Reynolds
Burt Reynolds was one of Hollywood's biggest stars of the 1970s. Unfortunately, though, he spent money like his career would never hit a downswing. He owned mansions on both coasts, a helicopter, and a lavish Florida ranch.
Gradually, his financial situation got grimmer as he made boneheaded career choices and weathered a pricey divorce from Loni Anderson. By 1996, the Bandit owed $10 million to his creditors, and the royalties from "Cop and a Half" just weren't flowing in quickly enough. Reynolds declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy, from which he emerged in 1998.
Not only did he not have to sell his trademark mustache at auction to pay his bills, Reynolds even got to keep his Florida estate, Valhalla. This homestead exemption raised the ire of some observers who didn't think hanging on to a $2.5 million mansion while writing off $8 million in debt was quite in the spirit of bankruptcy laws' provisions about keeping one's home.
In fact, when the Senate passed measures tightening these loopholes in 2001, Reynolds' keeping his ranch was one of the examples they used to decry bankruptcy proceedings as going too easy on the wealthy. "There is no greater bankruptcy abuse than this," said Wisconsin Senator Herb Kohl.
6. H.J. Heinz
When Heinz was just 25 years old, he and two partners began a company that made horseradish. As the legend goes, the spicy root was the first of Heinz's famed 57 varieties, but it wasn't as lucrative as he'd hoped. A business panic in 1875 bankrupted his enterprise, but Heinz's passion for condiments remained strong.
The very next year, Heinz got together with his brother and a cousin to start a new company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The reorganized group started making ketchup, and the business took off. Last year the H.J. Heinz Company had over $10 billion in revenue.
7. P.T. Barnum
Famous showman P.T. Barnum was always quick with a quip, but he wasn't so snappy about paying back his loans. Although he was successful showing off oddities in New York and around the globe, Barnum had a habit of borrowing cash from anyone who would open their wallet for him.
He'd use these funds to buy real estate, particularly around Bridgeport, Connecticut, where he was trying to foster industrial development. Unfortunately for Barnum, he went too far with borrowed cash, and in 1855, things bottomed out. Barnum was bankrupt and owed his creditors nearly half a million dollars.
Barnum didn't give up, though, and he slowly worked himself out of debt over the next five years. The showman gave lectures around England about showmanship and making money, and he regained control of his main attraction, The American Museum in New York City, in 1860.
In 1871, just a few months shy of his 61st birthday, Barnum entered the circus business with Barnum's Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan, and Circus, which raked in over $400,000 in its first year.
source: mentalfloss.com
The economy is in a financial crisis, but what about you? Here are some warning signs that you have a debt problem, and tips on how to get a handle on it.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Yes, the country is in a financial crisis, and the government has provided a $700 billion Band-Aid to help stop the bleeding. But what kind of first aid is there for your personal finances?
Financial experts offer these steps to help consumers climb out of personal debt and turn their financial picture around - even before the economy does. Here's how:
1. Look at the big picture. Experts agree that before fixing your finances, you must first take stock of your complete financial picture. Compile all of your bills and outstanding debts, including credit cards, mortgages, student loans, auto loans, personal loans and bank loans, and pinpoint exactly what you owe on each account and in total. List the creditor, monthly payment, outstanding balance, interest rate, due date and credit limit for each.
2. Pay important bills first. If you have to make choices about what to pay, prioritize the bills that are necessary to cover health, shelter, basic food and transportation to work or school, Bill Hardekopf, CEO of LowCards.com said.
3. Call your creditors. If you have missed payments, your creditor may be able to help you work out a payment plan, lower your rate, or lower your monthly payment, or even waive the late fee. Also try to negotiate lower rates. If you're paying the monthly minimums, then you're likely getting killed by interest. But some lenders may be willing to lower your rate if you explain your situation to them. Otherwise, shop around for a mortgage or credit card with a lower rate.
4. Transfer balances. If you have a high interest rate on one card and a running balance, consider transferring that balance to a card with a lower interest rate. Some cards still offer 0% for 12 months for balance transfers. That's a great opportunity to pay as much as you can over the monthly minimum and pay down your balance over 12 months. But keep in mind that most cards do charge a balance transfer fee of 3%, Hardekopf warned; so look for one that has a cap on the balance transfer fee. The amount you save on interest payments should more than offset the fee.
5. Quit the cards. If you feeling like you are drowning in credit card debt, stop using credit cards altogether. Often switching to cash or a debit card helps keep balances under control, save money on interest and has also been shown to decrease spending overall.
6. Prioritize paying down debt. Start with the credit card that has the highest interest rate. If they are all about the same then start with the credit card that is almost at its credit limit. Reducing your debt-to-credit ratio will improve your credit score. Experts suggest getting your credit card balance to less than 30% of your credit limit.
7. Bulk up your payments. Aim to pay more than the minimum amount for your loans, especially credit cards. The minimum payment might be a mere 2% of your balance, which makes paying off that debt almost impossible. For example, Hardekopf offered, if you have a credit card balance of $8,000 and your interest rate is 12%, making only minimum payments of 2% a month would take 346 months to pay off the balance and cost $7,696 in interest. If you pay 5% of your balance each month, it will take 109 months to pay off and will cost you $1,579 in interest.
8. Check your credit report for mistakes. For a free copy of your credit report, visit annualcreditreport.com or call 877-322-8228. It's not uncommon to find an old error that's dragging down your credit score. You can make a dispute by mail, telephone or online. If a corrected error results in a higher credit score, contact your creditors to make sure they know about it, and ask for a lower interest rate.
9. Get help. If paying down debt and cutting expenses doesn't seem feasible, contact a reputable debt counselor for help. The National Foundation of Credit Counseling (nfcc.org) is a good place to start. But look for someone that has a skill set that matches what you need, Eric Tyson, author of "Personal Finance for Dummies said. "If you're struggling with 'should I refinance my mortgage' a lot of financial advisers are not set up to answer questions like that."
10. Start saving. According to Greg McBride, senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com, the greatest barrier to saving is not the means but rather the discipline. Start putting a small amount aside in a high-yield bank money market deposit account or savings account. "Nothing you do financially will help you sleep better at night than knowing that you have money in the bank for a rainy day," McBride said.
Source: CNN Money
Great News!
Jollibee to open soon in Queens. As per Jollibee website, the address will be 62-29 Roosevelt Avenue, Woodside, NY. It will be at the corner of 63rd St and Roosevelt Ave. currently a Mexican Restaurant. Opening is said to be September of this year.
"Update: Opens SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2009."
Another great news is that it will be just 3 blocks away from our place.
Can't wait the LANGHAP SARAP at Jollibee.
Read more...
The photo looks the same but Noel rode again this year's Five Boro Bike Tour. The event was successfully carried-out last Sunday, May 4, 2008. Click on the image for more pics.
bikenewyork.org
Last Sunday, we took time out to celebrate the Memorial Day weekend, and what a better place to celebrate it than on the flight deck of the USS Intrepid, a living memorial to the sailors and Marines who served on her. Intrepid saw combat during World War II and the Vietnam War.
Each year, in honor of the men and women who serve in the United States military and their families, the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum participates in and co-hosts New York City’s Annual Fleet Week celebration.
Click on the photo to see more...
© Free Blogger Templates Columnus by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008
Back to TOP
