NO MONEY TO SPARE?� INVEST YOUR NECESSITIES

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Rural Humboldt County, CA, USA December 30, 2005 --

Financial advisors and accountants urge every family to invest, setting aside funds or assets for college, retirement, and emergencies.� Not doing so, they say, is unwise.� However, this advice makes those advisors seem completely out of touch to the average American household.� According to annual data published by the U.S. Census Bureau, 40% of American households are doing their level best to survive on about 12% of the nation�s aggregate income.� How much of a household�s disability check or food stamps do the financial advisors expect them to invest?

The next higher 20% of America�s households may receive almost 15% of the nation�s aggregate income, but they have the disadvantage of possibly qualifying for credit, and therefore suffering the burden of debt.� How much do the financial advisors expect them to borrow for investment purposes?

To the upper 40%, out of the 60% of American households described, getting ahead financially usually means cutting corners on necessities, such as buying the cheapest calories their money can buy, rather than buying decent nutrition.� However, the lowest 20% of these households, who make do with less than 3.5% of the aggregate income, can�t even dream of getting ahead, and buy the cheapest calories their money can buy, in hopes that those calories will last until the next month.

How can such a household set aside money for investment?� Households that qualify for housing assistance may get a break on rent or mortgage payments from government subsidies.� Otherwise, the landlord isn�t likely to offer a discount coupon next month.� Some utilities may offer a small discount for low-income households, and households with health-related electrical needs.� Meanwhile, we can only turn the heat down so far before the family suffers, according to Sam Thorne, a disabled college student living in rural Humboldt County, near Eureka, California.� �And if you have a gas tank to fill, you can shop for the lowest price available, but someone else dictates the amount of that lowest price.�

That leaves the phone bill, if the household can afford a telephone, according to Thorne.� Fortunately, a federal mandate makes Universal Lifeline Service available to those who qualify.� Federal mandate also allows a choice of both local and long distance telephone carriers.� A household may choose a long distance carrier, regardless whether or not the household qualifies for Universal Lifeline Service.

Mr. Thorne provides www.CompetingPrices.com, a web site specializing in comparison-shopping calculators of telephone service costs as a community service, because he says, the opportunity to invest in a phone bill is unique, due to all the regional, state, and federal taxes and fees charged as percentages of our usage charges.� �Reducing the cost of your usage is like receiving interest on your savings�, he said.� �However, reducing your taxes by reducing your costs is like receiving compound interest.�

Comparing the costs of competing local telephone services presents a challenge to Thorne, because some companies don�t allow independent web sites to compare their rates side-by-side with their competitors� rates.� However, he recently worked around that issue and improved the Local Phone Service page on his web site.� �During the first nine days after I improved it, nine different people successfully used it to change their local telephone carrier.�

For the 60% of American households that survive on 27% of American aggregate income, a problem that remains is to invest the money saved, rather than to spend it on yet another necessity, according to Thorne.� As a disabled student, he still has a problem with that himself, �I do my best to apply the money I save toward paying down my debt, because the interest that costs me is more than I could ever earn on it.� Right now, that�s the closest I can get to saving my money.�

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Contact Sam Thorne at webmaster@competingprices.com, P.O. Box 133, Fields Landing, CA 95537, or using the CompetingPrices.com� message board at forums.delphiforums.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?nav=spider&webtag=OutToRecess.

Sam Thorne is a disabled student at College of the Redwoods, and a Digital Media and E-Commerce major who has designed web sites to help members of his local and online communities to find more cost-effective alternatives to their current digital and communications resources.