My wife and I are days away from closing on a home refinance through River City Bank, and the money is already spent! We recently remodeled our home. Nothing fancy, just a long overdue update of a home loved and beat into submission by four kids. We upgraded the windows, put on a new roof, patched some holes, installed a new air conditioning unit, and updated the flooring and paint. Now a home that has lasted us 13 years will hopefully keep standing for another 13.

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The polls confirm California's high taxes and mountain of regulations make doing business here a challenge. Fortunately, we've developed a suite of business-friendly programs and services to help companies thrive. With competitive financing, exclusive educational and networking programs and convenient cash management tools, we've made growing your business less of an uphill battle. Even in California. For more information call 916-567-2600.
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In the Digital Age, it’s never been easier for Americans to clean house and get their clutter under control. The aptly-named “Cloud” is rapidly becoming the warehouse for our redundant files, as many of us no matter what age are adopting better habits for managing the ever-increasing assortment of documents that dictate our lives. Quite simply, the Cloud embodies the “out of sight, out of mind” principle that we strive for on a daily basis. Copies are rapidly being replaced with pdf’s, and now when we feed our 3 in 1 business machines with documents , instead of copying them and storing them in a fireproof cabinet in the garage, we are simply striking the scan key and creating digital versions of the files.

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Cybercrime is on the rise. There has been a 600 percent increase of online fraud incidents since 2008, averaging a $500,000 loss per day. In June 2012, there was $2.49 billion in attempted online banking fraud. Small business owners are not exempt from these cyber thieves, in fact 32 percent of all small business owners have been victimized by online banking fraud. Although these staggering statistics may shock you, practicing simple, yet powerful, security processes can keep you and your business secure. Remember, no one security layer is fool-proof; each security element you implement is another layer of protection. read more

For years, the goal of retirees has been to pay off one’s mortgage. In addition to the immensely positive emotional benefit that comes from owning one’s home “free and clear,” there is a financial reality of making a retirement budget much easier to manage if one doesn’t have a mortgage.

But extraordinary times call for a re-thinking of conventional wisdom. Our government and the Fed are taking unprecedented steps to drive down interest rates. One reason they are doing this is to spark economic growth in an effort to eventually lead to hiring. Another reason is so the government can re-finance its debt at very low levels; borrowing money for 10 years and paying less than 1.7 percent a year. What a deal! With interest rates so low, it makes financial sense to rethink where money goes.

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