Work hard and stay focused, right? That’s what Chee Kui would have you believe. That sounds like standard stock inspirational fare to me. Sure… think positive, visualize, take action, stay focused, and never quit.

Sounds like a sports metaphor! …and we all know how people love to use sports metaphors when it comes to business. Personally, you could have figured out by now that I think they are overrated as an allegorical tool.

Here’s the REAL top 5:

1. Inheritance - There’s nothing like a good, old fashioned inheritance. It doesn’t take a lot of work and it can happen instantly. Some waiting may be involved.

2. Equity - Own a piece of equity in whatever you do. Otherwise, your upside is limited to a pat on the back and an eventual pink slip from an eye averting boss.

3. Save - This method is tougher than the first two, but works just as well. Change some of your spending habits, hold off on the grande espresso and watch your mutual fund compound riches.

4. Business - Plan and start your own business. Work long and hard hours to make it succeed. This sounds a lot like the original top 5, but has a call to action?

5. Blog - This is by far the most commonly tried approach. Technorati now claims 71mm blogs. By the time you read this article, it may be 72mm.

I’ve already spoken a bit about the concept of microfinance. For those of you who love the thought of lending, but don’t really appreciate the collection part of the process, this is the site for you.

Check out Prosper. It’s the modern day version of organized borrowing and lending, and it really works like a song. You can browse all the listings, check credit ratings, investigate, and search. Eventually, you’ll find the person(s) that you’re willing to lend money to and voila!, you post your bid. The interface is easy and pretty understandable. It even offers tools to automate the lending process so that you can spread your risk by credit type, amount, and return.

And remember that this is P2P, so the peer that lends can be the peer that borrows. Meaning, you can borrow money as well!

Of course, you have to build your rating and feedback, as well as your profile. But this is a great tool for those willing to take the time to scope out their lending and/or borrowing activities and take an active role in that research process.

As long as you don’t see any defaults, the rest is as easy as sliced bread! Just sit back and relax. Even if there is a default, Prosper gives you the option to use one of its contracted collection agencies. Not that you should ever count on seeing that money, of course

For some more detail on the site, check out The 3rd World View…

The incessant chatter about the demise of big old evil Wal Mart has certainly been raised a notch. With yesterday’s news that Wal-Mart’s sales declined 3.5% in stores open at least a year in the month of April, we’ve seen a lot of those that disagree with its policies come out of the woodwork. Again.

Take this guy. Wal-Mart must have laid him off to get him to use such irresponsible comments and logic.

Let’s face it. Wal-Mart is the paragon of price cutting and has forced the entire retail industry to adopt to its methods of bringing the best prices to the widest swath of goods known to mankind. It’s done great things for society, is the largest employer in the United States, and continues to save billions (yes billions) of dollars for its consumers.

There’s a reason why people shop there. Not because of the fashion (that would be Target), not because of the camaraderie (that would be Amazon), but because of the savings. Pure and simple. One dollar more in my pocket, one dollar less in yours.

Is there a better deal?

That’s why I say that Wal-Mart should be allowed to register as a bank and enter into urban areas like New York City. After all, I’d like to save a penny or two as well.

Wouldn’t you?

Since this is the first capitalAI personal finance site of the day, I figured I should attach some sort of explanation. I’ve been critical of internet companies because of their inability to create some sort of breakout hit that revolves around finance. As the blogging community very often acts as a marketing conduit for many new internet companies, it’s partially responsible for the lack of a breakout success.

So… I’m going to try to chronicle a new site, not necessarily in depth, but with enough information so you may just want to take a look!

Zillow is now officially initiated as the first capitalAI Personal Finance Site of the Day. Zillow is a great site for any sort of research around real estate. For instance, I now know that the value of my house is $506,511 (don’t ask what the outstanding balance on the mortgage is). Is that accurate? Maybe a bit overstated, but it does a great job of graphically integrating street level maps and analysis of all other houses in the area. This was certainly not available a while ago.

Critique: It should show more detailed information about the houses, like zoning, surveys, tax rates, etc…

Even so, it’s still worth a look!

Standard wisdom says that when economic bubbles occur, they cause economic fallout and negatively affect the economy. That’s usually correct widsom in the short term, but history has proven that in the medium to long term, bubbles have a great effect because they change the mental landscape and lay down the groundwork and infrastructure to allow for lasting growth.

Daniel Gross comments on this in an article for Slate, and makes some great points and ones that we can take into consideration when we analyze the real estate bubble of today and the alternative energy bubble of tomorrow. Going back to the telegraph, railroad, and now the web infrastructure, Americans saw multiple companies sprout from entrepreneurial minds, with the majority of them staggering towards bankruptcy. However, after each of these cycles, we saw a renaissance of better organized and capitalized companies come into place to take advantage of the mental mindset change and the infrastructure that had been built. Take all the fiber that had been laid down in the late 90’s. At the time we saw massive bankruptcies in the fiber optic space. Now, all those lines are being used to capacity.

Great history lesson, but how do you apply this to current times?

The first lesson is to stay away from alternative energy companies. Don’t invest in them and don’t even talk about them. The majority of them are being funded by government campaigns to satisfy the Al Gore constituency. While in relative terms some of the eco-energy products helps save the environment, in absolute terms they don’t. The production and consumer costs is usually greater than the original cost of non-alternative energy means. Now remember, you’re still doing a great service to society by buying these products. You’re participating in the bubble and you’re bringing producting costs down! Eventually, these products will achieve absolute cost savings and we’ll all utilize them.

The second lesson is the real estate bubble. Yes, we’re in the middle of a prolonged “recession” in residential real estate prices. However, this is where the opportunity is. Find asset enriching properties where the CASH FLOW is positive (not just the cash flow plus depreciation) and purchase them. You’ll still find that to be a great conservative and safe long term investment.

Happy hunting!

You may not care about this, but it really does affect you deeply. More than you know. The Federal Reserve’s actions have ramifications across the board and it even affects you if you live and/or travel abroad.

Let me explain.

The Associated Press wrote a nice article about the current events as it relates to rates. Of course, there’s a lot more to discuss because the ripple effects of rate changes or lack thereof affect the stock market in the near term and the economy in the short to long term.

It’s a well-versed rule of thumb that the stock market tends to be a pretty good prognosticator of where the economy is going to be in 6 to 9 months. We were lucky enough to see a favorable reaction from the stock market today, indicating that traders feel the economy will have a “soft” landing and that we won’t fall into a severe or prolonged recession. Let’s face it, you can take comfort that the fed’s hands are really tied behind their back.

Why?

Very simple. The housing market is entering a prolonged slump and, right now, the shock of increased rates would do a few things:

1. It would lower inflation: This would be great from an inflation targeting perspective. However, inflation would only slow because the economy would slow. Not good.

2. It would increase short term mortgage rates: Even though increased fed fund rates over the last several years have not materially increased the 30 year bond, an additional increase in rates at this point in time would still affect the short term bond market in a material manner. Traders would feel the unease, knowing that the economy would collapse because of increase interest payments on adjustible rate mortgages, additional widespread foreclosures, and the like.

3. The trade deficit would move in the wrong direction: An increase in interest rates would make the dollar more competitive with foreign currencies. This would cause a movement to the dollar, increasing its relative value. The value of imports would increase as American consumers would find foreign goods cheaper, and the value of exports would decrease as foreigners find American exports to be more expensive.

Add it all up, and the Fed is staying put for now. However, as we get into a deeper housing funk and the economy continues to slow, I expect the Fed to lower interest rates. We’ll see.

Many of you may be aware of the unique selling proposition that Zecco is making.

Free stock trades!

Now, I don’t blame the founders. They came up with a great marketing tool and promoted the heck out of it. After all, Zecco is trying to grow and maintain its customer base. I’ve long argued that the cost of trading will come down to near zero because the marginal cost of another trade is near zero (there are some SEC fees, etc…). Wherever you see an industry with a marginal cost of zero, you know prices will keep decreasing. Of course, Zecco monetizes its active users through option trading and margin balances. It will continue to offer ancillary monetizable services, while it advertises the free areas.

For an in-depth view of the Zecco experience, you can check out My Money Blog’s experience with the Zecco site.

While some people love the experience and want to save a few dollars, the overall impact of switching your account to the site really needs to be analyzed. There’s a few reasons for that:

1. Most people are not active traders, so they don’t really care whether the commission is $10.95 or free.

2. Interest rates on credit and debit balances may not be as competitive as what you get with the larger discount players.

3. There are other things that go into choosing a brokerage like trading ease of use, research, advice, etc…

In other words, there’s no guarantee that you’re going to like the “Zecco” experience any more than you would some other discount firm. In fact, based on some of the feedback, it looks like the customer service leaves something to be desired (sort of like the vonage customer service - they’re open 24 hours a day/7days a week to open an account, it’s M - F to close one!). So while it made a big marketing splash, you should really consider whether it makes sense for you to switch.

Utility shouldn’t be and is not guided by price alone, other factors do come into play. For some people at least

It’s humorous how, if you look hard enough, you can find connections between some of the most mundane things in life. In this case, take the connection between Paris Hilton and your personal finances. The layman might not see one, but since society is wrapped in the frivolous or rather idealistic pursuit of celebrity, it never hurts to compare and contrast.

In this case, The Thinker has a great timeline of events about the Paris Hilton fiasco (not that the timeline will ever be complete). From the news, you’d think that she didn’t open up the letter, had no idea that her license was suspended, and shouldn’t be held responsible for driving illegally.

Great spin by her PR!

In fact, the timeline tells us that she knew about it, and even signed an affidavit. Maybe, it was forged (I wasn’t there). That brings me back to the financial lesson of the day. Keep track of what’s going on in your life and try to follow the rules as best as you can. Sometimes there are minute details that can make all the difference. For instance:

Should you put your money in regular IRA or a Roth IRA? — Could result in hundreds of thousands of dollars in or out of your pocket

Should you roll your money out of your employer sponsored plan? — Fees and more fees. Look into it.

Should you take that deduction on your tax return? — Itemize or standard.

Should you take that bonus this year or next? (we should all have such problems) — Effect on AMT.

Should you spend money on People, Us, or Entertainment Weekly? (great Paris Hiltion news) — Could have put it in the Roth IRA.

Should you drive to work or mass transit? — Follow the theme.

Should you open that letter that requires you to pay your bill? — Paris didn’t.

And look at where she is… Asking Arnold for a pardon.