Time to throw in the towel on WaMu?

The beleaguered bank just can't catch a break. Today Standard & Poor's Rating Services downgraded WaMu's counterparty credit rating to "CCC" from "BB-" further miring it in junk status. The reasoning being a split of the bank on any sale, as vultures are keen on snatching the strong deposit base while staying as far away as possible from the toxic mortgage assets.

As seen in the chart, WaMu's stock price (NYSE: WM) has fallen along with the confidence in the bank, dropping another $0.94 to a 52-week low of $2.26. Uncoincentally, this battering has led them to increase interest rates on online savings to 4.00% and on 12 month CDs to 5.00% in attempts to shore up capital.



While these are GREAT rates given current market conditions (who wouldn't want guaranteed returns in this financial crisis!) how safe is your money? Sure its FDIC insured on deposits up to $100,000 but with all these bailouts and government takeovers, but how long will the FDIC's printing press be available until it breaks down? Here's a great article on reasons to stay with WaMu from MyMoneyBlog, but seeing that nearly 60% of my cash is sitting with WaMu, I still am pretty uneasy with leaving my money in there.

I have an online savings account and an 8-Month CD (which I opened for 4.25% APY) and the trigger is itchin for me to withdraw the money. IndyMac is the closest example to what would happen should WaMu fail and after reading some stories from those customers (via SlickDeals) seems like it took 4-5 weeks for money to be returned. So seeing that a bailout of WaMu would be greater than IndyMac, I can't imagine how long my money would be locked away NOT earning interest.

So do I forgo the attractive interest rates and settle for a lower rate but more security? I'm leaning towards a move back to EmigrantDirect at 3.00%. So far I'm undecided, but I'll wait for this month's interest to be deposited and then I'll make a decision.

Happy rate hunting!

One Love,

Look

K.O.'d: Good Money Gone Bad

For most of us, having millions of dollars is a pipedream. For others it's a dream squandered.

Recently released at http://illicitohio.illicitohio.com/tyson are pictures of one of the former houses owned by heavyweight champ "Iron Mike" Tyson. Having earned a reported $300M over his career, he lived quite the lavish lifestlye and spent money like there was no tomorrow. The pictures from the site, however, show how the mighty have fallen. Falling into bankruptcy the "Baddest Man on the Planet's" house went from bachelor pad to plain empty. His residence in Ohio was abanadoned years ago, but suprisingly still looks well preserved. Check out the pictures after the jump. One of my favorite views is of the 10,000 sq. ft. indoor swimming pool complete with a sundae bar.

O the parties they must have had… Anywho, if you were rich would you want a mansion like this? What would you do with $300M?

Mo' Money, Mo' Problems.

One Love,

Look