BenRaines

Maybe I am even older. I have forgotten some of them I used to know. Ben Raines

President Kimball taught that two people can have a very happy marriage if both of them are unselfish. If they are both so eager to give and please their companion they will learn to love each other. If one party is selfish or is looking for what is in it for me then it will not be a happy marriage. Marriage and love is not all like it is shown in the movies or books. Ben Raines

Honest in your dealings with your fellowman? I think that includes family. Ben Raines

I am a cynic. Not by nature but the Internet has made me one. I don't believe it is real. If it had been in the moment that he went out and did it, then yes. This was all set up with tripod for camera, etc. Just my cynical view. Did she deserve his response? Yes. Was it real? I don't believe so. Ben Raines

Do everything you can first to avoid using retirement funds, 401K, Roth IRA. The growth on these accounts is sheltered. On Roth no tax if held long enough. Ben Raines

Personally I think that a person should do direct to a lender. Mortagage brokers, I bet there are a few here, make a fee for collecting your financial information and sharing it with a bunch of lenders. If you have an 800 score you should be able to go to just about any lender and get a home loan as long as value of purchase, appraisal, is inline with hope price. Not wanting to put mortgage brokers out of business but they are intermediaries to the lender. During the boom time there were many Mortgage Brokers who were part-time workers. Lots of money to be made on uninformed borrowers. My two cents. Ben Raines

In California we do not pay taxes on groceries, food stuff. We do on cleanser, things like that in grocery store but not on food items. Vegetables, meat, milk, bread, chips, canned food, etc. Ben Raines

Bread is taxable? I thought food products were not taxable. Food prepared in a restaurant is but not food bought in the store. Basics for sustaining life type food. Ben Raines

RM, not to quibble about words but I think of sacrifice being giving up of something very important or valuable to benefit others. I think of missionary service of making a commitment to serve The Lord. I worked and saved money for that purpose. My parents took on a part time job doing custodial work to help pay what I came up short of. Ward members do help those who can't pay for their own and after that then the General Missionary Fund steps in. None of these are automatic other than your own money. Bishop, Stake President determine if potential missionary has done all they can to prepare. Ben Raines

Law abiding citizens do not "hide" their money in Cayman Islands. They use US Tax Code to shelter money. Sure there is illegal money laundering going on in Cayman Islands and many other places in the world. Even in the US. US Tax Code says you must report all income. If you find a great deal on a car. Buy it for $100 and put $100 dollars in to it to fix it up and sell it for $2,000 dollars cash, by US Tax Code you must report the $1,800 gain. It done within one year it is taxed as ordinary income. If you hold it for 12 months and one day it is capital gains income. How about garage sale stuff. Great underground economy. All transactions for more than you paid for it are gains. Gifts given to you and then sold are gains too. Do you report all that income on your taxes? Perhaps it is only the wealthy that should be attacked and criminalized. I mean all the rest is the American Way. Again much sarcasm here. Ben Raines

How many here have been to the Cayman Islands to see the military defenses they have? War with Cayman Islands, really? A legal business by US standards, by Cayman standards and we send Marines to take their records? Almost all money transactions go through US banks before they go anywhere else in the world. Swift transfer. Wire transfers of funds almost always to through Chase or Citibank first. US can cut off transfers of funds in and out of Cayman Islands very easily by denying transfers. What about Switzerland? They have a much longer history of secrecy and hiding ownership of funds. Lets attack Switzerland too and Nevis and Isle of Man. Oh wait it was only Cayman Islands that they made that movie "The Firm" about so it must be a criminal place. Plenty of sarcasm here. Ben Raines

I can speak from personal experience. I worked in the financial industry in Cayman Islands for four years. US Tax Code does not prevent someone from placing assets in other countries. US Tax Code only requires that you report, not pay taxes on, but report all income, both domestic and foreign. Investments outside the US you are not required to pay taxes on until those dollars are brought back in to the US. Example: I have 5 million dollars that I have made honestly in the US. I open an account in Cayman Islands, in the name of an offshore corporation. The offshore corporation has as directors another corporation to manage it. The 5 million is deposited there. I invest the money in offshore mutual funds, stocks, property in South America and over time it grows to 10 million dollars. I sell everything and buy a castle in Spain. While the US government requires that I report the income generated there is no tax to be paid on the profits until they are brought back in to the US. During my time in Cayman Islands, the firm I worked for, we did no business with US citizens or residents to avoid any conflict with US Tax Code. Many of our clients came from Canada, South Africa, Asia and Europe with quite a few for Latin America. As someone mentioned earlier there are countries with currency controls, are unstable. Hyper-inflation, etc. that chose to have their assets outside their home country. If you were in Venezuela living there would you want your money in a bank there that Hugo Chavez could nationalize overnight and you would lose everything? I think not. Cayman Islands is not the only tax haven in the world. Isle of Man, Nevis to name a couple of others. Ben Raines

Florida Ft. Lauderdale (Spanish) Mission was everything south of Ocala, FL. Also all the Caribbean. Served 11 months in Puerto Rico. The rest in Miami, FL. For all you children I served from 73-75. Only a few here who were before me. I speak spanish as well as I speak english. Can read and write it as well. Taught at MTC when I returned home. Well at Knight Magnum Hall. Mission Training Center opened the month after I left school. It was a great two years of my life. I got to sleep in. No cows to milk. Animals to feed. Loved the work. Have always been happiest when doing missionary work Ben Raines

When both are not willing to work on the issues. I chose to stay in a loveless marriage for over 20 years being told "I don't love you anymore" "I don't need counseling" "If you don't like it go somewhere else", etc. Once the children were all grown and settled down then I divorced. Married over 30 years. Now remarried to a true partner who I can never do enough for and she for me. This is how I knew it should be all along but it never was before now. Ben Raines

Here is a link to information on an LDS scientist. Mormon Scientist: The Life and Faith of Henry Eyring Good luck in your search. Ben Raines

Do we keep God's commandment for fear of being punished or do we keep them out of love of God and His Son, Jesus Christ? An earlier thread on church attendance made me think of this. I do what I do out of a love for God and His Son, Jesus Christ. I do not do it for fear of godly reprisal, denial of entrance in to the Kingdom. I do it for love of a Heavenly Father and love and sacrifice of His Son.

He was in my ward in Las Vegas a few years back. Very nice guy. Ben Raines

Just a guy. Agreed. So a failing, outdated industry is truly bailed out by the government to protect union jobs. Now that is something to be angry about. Ben Raines

Thanks for all your responses. Remember guys this is about the concept of "bank bailouts" not Occupy Wall Street. I think that is another forum. Here is my understanding and take on the whole thing. Banks have to have collateral to make loans. Banks are given very favorable lending ratios. At one time I believe it was 10 to 1. For every one dollar they held they could loan 10. During the real estate boom years those ratios were raised in some cases to over 50 to 1. Keep in mind this went on during a period of almost 30 years. Congress encouraged and then legislated that banks/lenders allow less and less creditworthy borrowers to borrow money for real estate purchases. Congress wanted everyone to be able to own a house. There were requirements put in place that 30 and near the end up to 50% of all loans must be in disadvantaged or lower income areas. The standards were lowered time and time again for who could qualify and how they could qualify for a mortgage. This was not the big banks setting these standards it was Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac. Government guarantees on loans. After making the loans the banks, with the help of Wall Street were bundling the loans in to CMOs, collateralized mortgage obligations, and selling them to investors for their yields. Banks also held many of them on their books as assets so that they could lend additional dollars. See earlier comment on loan ratios. During the decade of 2000 new accounting rules were put in to place that for non-liquid assets had to show a value of 0, yes zero. If there is no market to sell it then it is worth nothing. Along comes the real estate bubble burst. For some insight on bubbles bursting check this out The Dutch Tulip Bubble of 1637 • Damn Interesting As real estate values dropped the securities that backed the loans dropped in value with the risk of the loan going in default. Soon many of the assets on the banks books were worthless. Not only banks held these assets but insurance companies, brokerage firms, pension plans, your retirement and mine. Along comes TARP, government loans that guaranteed the balance sheets of the major banks and brokerages. The loans came with the requirement that borrower give the government warrants, options to buy stock in the borrower at a fixed price. If the loan worked then the government was repaid with stock at a lower than market price plus interest. In most of the cases I have seen the government earned between 14 and 18 percent on the money they loaned the government. Those who were bailed out were not the banks and other financial institutions. Those who were bailed out were the auto companies. A couple of them took their loans and then filed bankruptcy. Chrysler for one. Ford can be proud that they made it on their own. While I have never owned a Ford vehicle they will be the next one I consider. In response to a comment about AIG. Those who were going on the retreat trip were sales people who earned the trip as part of their compensation package for a certain level of sales. Sorry to be so long winded. I am not an expert by any means but have been in the financial industry for over 30 years and have a little knowledge and understanding how it works but by no means do I know it all. Ben Raines

I read through the posts. You are on temporary probation for not being loving to your wife? She needs to talk to the Bishop and get her life straight. You are the priesthood holder in the home and responsible for all those in your house. I would be talking to the Bishop. You, by your own statement, are allowing your wife, who you say is unworthy, by her affair, to attend the temple. That is my two cents. Ben Raines

I have read and listened to many who are so angry about the bank "bailouts". Without doing a Google search to define it please share from what you have heard, read in the past that has developed your opinion about what the "bank bailouts" was all about. Ben Raines

From what I have read about these "Occupy Wall Streeters" one of the things they are upset about is the "bailout" of banks. I am going to start another thread about bank bailouts. Please share your understanding, without doing a Google search, what you believe that the bailout was. No one will be ridiculed or harmed on this thread. Ben Raines

Ah that is the question. Ben Raines

Vort, agreed. If looking for support and have no one then Bishop is good place to start. I do know that many things that do not need to be brought to the Bishop are. Many things that should be handled by Home Teachers, Quorum Leaders, etc are not because many in the membership prefer to go to the Bishop. I am reminded of Moses when he was sitting in counsel over every little thing that happened among the children of Israel as they traveled in the wilderness. His father in law finally told him that he needed to divide the responsibility to hear the issues and only the serious matters came before him. We need to remember that today too. Ben Raines

Pam, this just came out. Do you work? :) Ben Raines