Vegas is hurting in almost every economic category, starting with the collapse of the real estate market and ending with underpopulated casinos.

Yet Vegas has not seemed to respond well. The city is increasingly difficult to get around. The streets are crowded. The monorail system is anemic and over-priced. The worst is that the hotels are trying to boost profits by price-gouging convention travelers.

The conventions in town this week are huge. Most of the moderate and high end hotels are sold out. My assistant found a standard room at Caesar’s for the ridiculously high rate of $450 – on a Wednesday. I have been to Vegas many times with Mrs. ToughMoneyLove and sometimes with the kids. We have always stayed at nice hotels and never paid anywhere near that rate. I complained to the desk clerk at check-in. He unapologetically told me that when a large convention is in town and the hotels are full, the rates get jacked-up big time.

That’s classic supply-and-demand capitalism, of course, but here is what really bothered me. As he was checking me in, the clerk asked if I wanted a room upgrade. In response, I asked him if the upgraded room would cost more than $450. “Of course”, he said. I told him no thanks. Ten seconds later he told me that he was going to upgrade me to a mini-suite at no extra charge.

Who is he kidding?

Obviously, there were no standard rooms available. This mini-suite was the only room he had to accommodate my reservation. But instead of just giving it to me (because he had no choice), he tried to suck some more money out of me. Then he pretended he was doing me a favor.

This is a classic case of customer abuse, which to me is foolish behavior in the hospitality industry.

It is sad, really, that Vegas cannot seem to find its place in our economy. I used to enjoy coming here. Considering that Vegas has been built on excess and wasteful spending, it may never regain its former self. Our personal spending habits have evolved and Vegas has not evolved with them. Vegas may not deserve the economic recovery that it desperately needs.

I’m going to give Las Vegas my Fools of Finance award this week.

Have any of you experienced the Sin City recently? Thoughts?

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And what will CIT do after its pre-packaged bankruptcy clears the courts? Start lending again, using the same business model that put it in the dumper to begin with.  How about funding a fine company like Eddie Bauer. Oh – you already did – after Eddie Bauer filed bankruptcy last summer for the second time since 2005? Too bad for us.

The CEO is Jeffrey Peek, who pushed CIT into the sub-prime mortgage and student loan business to “pump up growth.” How’s that plan working out for you, Mr. Genius?

If you own Bank of America stock (I’m glad we sold ours a year ago), you might want to check its balance sheet and think about getting out. CIT owes B of A $7.5 billion, all unsecured.

I don’t give a rat’s you-know-what about whether a company like CIT lives or dies. There will always be another to take its place. I do have problems having billions in our hard earned tax dollars flushed down that rat’s hole.

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I thought Halloween would be a good day to throw a few links out there for your consideration, to see if I can scare you on to something of value.

First, have a look at Cash Commons. This is a brand new site launched by a fellow personal finance blogger, the Mighty Bargain Hunter. The concept is simple. Users ask questions of a financial nature. Other users answer them. It’s all free. I spent some time there this morning reading the questions and offering some answers. I’m going back because I’ve already found some useful stuff there that I can use. Cash Commons can only get better as more readers learn about it.

If you want to know what professional financial planners are thinking about current topics in personal finance, try reading some of the online articles in the Journal of Financial Planning. In the upcoming (December) issue, these subjects will be covered: Constructing and Defending Portfolios During Chaotic Markets; Bonanza or Bust? Roth Conversions in 2010; and Long-Term Approaches to Managing Retirement Healthcare Costs. Each of these is important to most of us.

A site I’ve recently discovered for learning about sales, discount codes, and online coupons, is Offers.com. Some of the offers are exclusive to this site. You can also find free shipping and free trial deals, and learn about upcoming Black Friday deals.

Speaking of learning, the Khan Academy has something for almost everyone. The publisher of this non-profit site has created over 1000 YouTube educational videos on a variety of scientific and mathematical topics. More to the point of my readers, there are sections covering numerous contemporary issues in economics and personal finance. You need to check it out if you are an audio/visual learner.

I hope you benefit from learning about at least one of these links. Either way, please let me know in a comment.

Thanks for reading this week and enjoy your weekend.

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I just returned from the second floor lobby of our office building where I (and many others who work in this building) received an H1N1 flu shot. Yes, the flu shot that is now in short supply across the country. The flu shot that our county health department ran out of last week after only a few days.

How is this possible? Who gave me this flu shot? How much did it cost?

This is where the entrepreneur part comes in.

The company that came on site to provide the shots is called Nursing Resource Solutions. According to its website, it is a local nurse staffing business, owned and operated by nurses, for nurses. That in itself is relatively unusual. Most nurses are employees of large health care facilities and are pushed around by corporate bureaucrats and by physicians. Mrs. ToughMoneyLove – being an RN herself – knows all about this. So I was happy to see that this group of nurses had taken matters – and business – into their own hands.

One of the owners of the business – a young African American man – was on-site with his team of shot-givers. After I received my shot, I asked him how he was able to get the H1N1 vaccine (mist and IM versions) when so many others could not. His answer:  We filled out the paperwork and submitted it early. How refreshingly simple is that?

In other words, this small business was on top of things from the beginning. The owners saw an opportunity and jumped on it. Now they have a product that is in high demand and in short supply. What a great combination for a small business entrepreneur.

I also have to give this business credit for its efficiency. First, they distributed the pre-shot literature and consent forms early by providing it to building management who then emailed it to all of the tenants. Everyone showed up with the forms in hand, filled out. The shot cost only $20.00. No insurance forms were involved. They provided a receipt on request so the recipients could file it with insurance if they desired. Their non-labor overhead consisted of a folding table and chairs and few bags of cotton balls and alcohol swabs.

When it comes to signs of a successful entrepreneur, that’s what I’m talking about.

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Here are some key NRRI findings and metrics and further commentary by Nationwide Insurance, the NRRI underwriter:

• Fifty-one percent of Americans would be unable to maintain their standard of living if they retired at age 65, compared with 44 percent in 2007. This estimate is actually conservative because it doesn’t include medical or long-term care costs.
• Americans are facing a decline in home equity at the same time that the government is increasing the age at which retirees qualify for full Social Security benefits. The average 401(k) retirement savings account fell by almost one-third in 2008, and people aren’t saving enough to make up the difference.
• The U.S. personal savings rate fell to 3 percent of disposable income in August from 4 percent in July. (It was 8.9 percent at the end of 1992!) The saving rates needs to increase to at least 8 percent  to compensate for the drop in retirement assets.

It gets worse. It seems that our friends and neighbors are so discouraged by what has happened to their home equity and retirement accounts that they are disengaging from the retirement planning process.

This is from Nationwide:

Along with the new NRRI data, Nationwide’s senior vice president of Customer Insights and Analytics, Paul Ballew, says the company’s own research is showing that a significant number of consumers who were actively planning for retirement before the recession are disengaging from the process. Those insights are confirmed by existing market conditions.

“We’re really looking at a one-two punch right now,” Ballew said. “We’re seeing the number of disengaged households increasing by more than a third. Many of these individuals felt the brunt of the economic downturn to a greater degree than others and have moderated their expectations toward retirement. It’s clear that many of these people who were planning before the downturn are now pulling away from the table. That’s exactly the opposite of what they should be doing.”

And the scariest data of all? According to Nationwide, compared to 2007, there has been a 60% drop in agreement with this statement: Creating a retirement income source is important.

Are you kidding me? Do you want to live in a van down by the river when you retire? Or do you plan on dropping dead in your Walmart greeter’s vest?

That tells me that too many folks have transitioned from being merely negligent about their financial planning to being recklessly or willfully foolish. It also tells me that they are likely counting on the government (us) to bail them out. They have thrown up their hands in disgust and are now ignoring the retirement crisis in their future. They want their crisis to become my crisis.  They hope that Obamacare expands beyond health care to solving their retirement problems. That’s not gonna happen to Mr. ToughMoneyLove. I intend to tax-plan my way out of that obligation. (Yet another reason to pay off that mortgage.)

I’m not trying to sell Nationwide products here (particularly variable annuities) but I have to give it credit for supporting the National Retirement Readiness Index and for having one of the better sites  for retirement assessment. In that regard, if you want to get some feedback on your retirement readiness, try Nationwide’s “RetirAbility Check” interactive tool. Get your “R-Score” and let me know in the comments how you did.

Whatever you do, keep your head out of the sand and face your retirement problems head on – now.

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This “policy” is not free to the consumer. Rather, if you want to reserve the right to return your new Chevrolet, it will cost you $500. The reason is that Chevy is offering all buyers a $500 “rebate” if you “waive” the right to return your purchase.

Seriously, who is going pay $500 for a sixty day “free” trial on a Chevrolet?

Instead of buying a GM car, spend some time catching up on your personal finance reading. I recommend the following:

Over at Debt Free Adventure, Matt Jabs joined the “I don’t care what my FICO score is” club. Don’t overlook the comments to the post. I wish more folks would throw off those credit score shackles. It’s sad and disappointing that many personal finance bloggers devote so many of their words and advertising links promoting the “best” credit cards. There is no “best” credit card. Rather, there are some that are less bad for you than others.

Andrea at Fools and Sages wrote a nice piece on the attributes and benefits of thoughtful spending.  Americans are notorious for being impulsive shoppers and less than mindful of the consequences. As Money and Such tells us, buyers on credit are often undisciplined consumers.

For a final dose of hard truth, the Macroblog (from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta summarizes the evidence that our economic recovery will be a “jobless” recovery. A lot of the jobs that have been lost are not coming back. Get used to it.

On my Go To Retirement blog, I wrote about planning for a phased retirement and at Failsafe Retirement, I commented on ways to turn savings into retirement income.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

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There is occasional anecdotal evidence that some folks treat being on the dole as a means to prop up an unsustainable career lifestyle. Here is one example from an article about the unemployed “losing their lifeline.”

Gregg Rock, a business strategy consultant, drained his savings after joining the ranks of the unemployed in summer 2008. He was forced to move back to his mother’s home in Huntington, N.Y., for the first time in more than 20 years.

With so many people looking for work, Rock feels his best chance is land a new job is through networking. But it costs him $18 just to trek into Manhattan, not to mention $4 for a cup of coffee at Starbucks, where he often meets people who he hopes will lead him to a job.

Rock’s benefits ran out last week. Now, he says, he’ll be forced to drive a cab at night or take a bartending job just to earn enough to keep job hunting.

“Unemployment is what allows you to afford to be out there networking,” Rock said.

Really? We should be paying Mr. Rock to network at Starbucks in Manhattan?

Mr. Rock is a “business strategy consultant.” A “consultant” is typically an independent contractor, not an employee, so I’m confused about how this guy is receiving unemployment benefits anyway. Consultants are always networking. It goes with the territory. I don’t understand why we should feel bad that he is a failure as a consultant. I’m speculating that no one is interested in his “business strategies” which leads to no consulting income.

He laments the fact that instead of “networking” at Starbucks, he may actually need to go to work so that he can continue to look for a consulting gig. He has been “unemployed” since the summer of 2008. (No word on what he did before that.) Isn’t that a signal that Mr. Rock’s networking strategy has failed? There is no market for his consulting services. No amount of “networking” is likely to change that. Maybe needs to hire a consultant to tell him that.

Mr. ToughMoneyLove is sorry Mr. Rock is not doing the kind of “strategy consulting” to which he aspires. I am not sorry that he may have to go to work to finance his networking activities. Maybe he will figure out that it’s time for a career shift.

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