Cash

Auto leasing deals abound these days, with offers that often seem too good to be true. How about a well-equipped Honda Accord for $250 a month with no down payment or any other drive-off fees? Or better yet, $199 a month for a Chevrolet Malibu? So, what's the catch? There isn't any if you know what you're getting into. There are always details. You need top-tier credit to qualify. You pay a penalty if you turn that Honda in with more than 36,000 miles. And the payment is not $250 a month because of that little matter of tax. It is more like $275, depending on where you live.

Dear Liz: A few years ago I finished paying off my debt and now am in the very low-risk credit category. I have savings equal to about three months' worth of bills and am working to get that to six months' worth. I'm wondering, though, about an emergency that may require me to pay in cash (such as a major power outage that disables debit or credit card systems, or the more likely event that I forget the ATM or credit card at home). How much cash should a person have on hand? Is there a magic number?

NEW YORK -- The economy may be improving, but many U.S. companies are still hanging on to record amounts of cash, something they usually do in times of economic turmoil. U.S. companies held $1.45 trillion in cash in 2012, up 10% from the $1.32 trillion they held in 2011 -- which at that time was a record level, according to a new report from Moody's Investors Service. Apple is sitting on $137 billion in cash, a fact not lost on investors, who have sued in an effort to get Apple to give some of that cash to shareholders.

DineEquity Inc. isn't a name that would be familiar to most people, but they've probably eaten at one of the Glendale company's well-known restaurant chains: Applebee's and IHOP. The first International House of Pancakes opened in 1958 in Toluca Lake, a family-friendly place that inspired the IHOP Corp. chain and introduced children to colored syrups and gooey, whipped-cream-covered chocolate-chip pancakes. That company acquired the larger Applebee's chain in 2007 and became DineEquity the following year.

In the first raid, Orange County sheriff's detectives hit a Dana Point marijuana storefront, the San Clemente home of its director and a "stash house" he allegedly maintained nearby. In the two homes, they found cash stuffed everywhere: in buckets in the garage and attic, in an Igloo cooler in a bedroom, under a mattress, on an ironing board, in a dresser. According to a search warrant affidavit filed in November, they recovered more than $700,000. At the shop, investigators found spreadsheets showing sales over 10 months totaled $3.17 million, according to the affidavit, with $2.47 million "cash on hand.

After the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the George W. Bush administration flooded the conquered country with so much cash to pay for reconstruction and other projects in the first year that a new unit of measurement was born. Pentagon officials determined that one giant C-130 Hercules cargo plane could carry $2.4 billion in shrink-wrapped bricks of $100 bills. They sent an initial full planeload of cash, followed by 20 other flights to Iraq by May 2004 in a $12-billion haul that U.S. officials believe to be the biggest international cash airlift of all time.

Many people think the U.S. Postal Service is supported by tax dollars. It isn't. The nice folk who bring us snail mail are required by law to pay their own way in the world. They were allowed, though, to borrow cash from the U.S. Treasury, up to $15 billion. The Postal Service hit that limit on Sept. 28, the agency says. In other words, they've maxed out their credit card. What that means, barring an infusion of bailout cash from Uncle Sam, is that the Postal Service will have to significantly jack up rates to survive.

Apple says it will spend some of its nearly $100 billion in ready cash on a quarterly dividend and a three-year stock buyback program. The dividend is probably a good idea -- investors have been thirsting for a bigger taste of the company's success. The stock buyback, not so much. "A quarterly dividend will provide recurrent income to our shareholders, and we also believe it will broaden Apple's investor base by attracting new investors who don't currently own Apple stock," says Apple CEO Tim Cook.

More men are looking for housing to share, while more women are seeking housemates, according to a nationwide analysis. Some 44% of people trying to put their empty rooms to use at the rental website Easyroommate.com are women, 38% are men and the rest are couples. Quiz: How much do you know about mortgages? “Even though we usually have a significantly higher number of men registered on the site, the number of women looking to cash in on their spare rooms is growing exponentially,” said Sebastiaan Ram, who manages Easyroommate.com.

WASHINGTON - Republican-aligned “super PACs” are headed into the final months of the 2012 campaign having outpaced super PACs on the left in fundraising by nearly three to one, enjoying a cash advantage that's sure to have Democrats spooked.   Even after a costly GOP presidential primary campaign, Republican-aligned super PACs ended June with almost $80 million in the bank - more than Democratic super PACs have raised in the entire campaign cycle, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation.

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel, after spending heavily on a TV advertising blitz that coincided with the start of early voting, entered the final stretch of the runoff campaign with roughly one-tenth the war chest of rival Eric Garcetti, according to new campaign finance reports. Greuel, the city's controller, also lagged behind Garcetti in fundraising. She reported raising nearly $937,000 in the four weeks ending Saturday and loaning her campaign $100,000, pushing her just past the $1-million mark in documents her campaign filed with the City Ethics Commission late Thursday.

Alice Marie Francis believes it's important to have health insurance, but finding a plan that fit her budget was no easy task. "Money is tight," says the 50-year-old Burbank mother of two, whose children are insured by their father's work-based policy. To make sure she had coverage that didn't break the bank, she opted for a high-deductible health plan - an increasingly popular option with lower monthly premiums but high upfront costs before most insurance payments kick in. High-deductible plans are typically recommended for younger policyholders who are in good health and have less need for doctor visits and prescription drugs, and for people with incomes high enough to cover the cost of routine medical care.

The Better Business Bureau wants you to know that it's cleaned up its act in Los Angeles. The organization reached out to me this week to say that a new operation is up and running after the old BBB of the Southland was expelled in March after years of reports that the branch had been awarding inflated grades to businesses in exchange for cash. Carrie Hurt, head of the national Council of Better Business Bureaus, told me that a "virtual BBB" has been launched in Southern California, enabling bureau officials from across the country to address local consumer issues via the Internet.

In a time when the whetted and arbitrary deficit-reduction knife is cutting bone out of critical U.S. government programs, the image of shopping bags stuffed with CIA cash handed off on a monthly basis to Afghan President Hamid Karzai - who reigns over one of the most corrupt governments on the planet - has outraged many Americans. The New York Times, which revealed the years of payoffs this week, noted that "there is little evidence the payments bought the influence the CIA sought.

Can a value-hunting traveler truly be loyal to loyalty programs? Name : CooBoutique.com What it does: Rewards you with cash back for booking luxury hotels through its website and rewards points for sharing with your social network. What's hot: Cash is hot. I liked seeing how much cash other users were getting for their bookings as I was searching for hotels in the U.S. And when I looked up the member page (free), I saw that I could earn as much as 4% on my bookings.

George Jones, who died Friday, worked magic with the hyper-melodramatic lyric of “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” the self-negating story line in “The Grand Tour,” and the romantic hopelessness in “The Race Is On.” But there's another George Jones track, one that originally wound up on the cutting-room floor, that I've gone back to time after time after time since it surfaced a decade ago. This recording represents to this longtime country...

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney and a "super PAC" working on his behalf churned through more than twice as much money than the two campaigns raised in January, underscoring the financial challenge the former Massachusetts governor faces as he tries to fend off rivals Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. In a month in which Romney lost two out of the four GOP primary contests, his campaign raced through $18.7 million while raising just $6.5 million, according to campaign finance records filed Monday with the Federal Election Commission.

In a novel twist on rewards programs, Bank of America Corp. is introducing a credit card that pays cash to borrowers who pay more than the minimum due each month. Card users would earn $25 a quarter and an additional $5 if they have a BofA bank account, meaning the bank would pay as much as $120 a year. Industry observers and consumer advocates said the product targets a very different customer than the usual candidates for rewards cards, who are higher-income borrowers with excellent credit who often pay their cards off in full every month.

I'm at Coachella this weekend, where maybe I'll try to do the story-song combo in reverse order: hear a song, and try to think of a story that fits it. My mind is already full of possibilities. For the Stone Roses' "I Wanna Be Adored" (probably my all-time favorite song title), just about anything involving a Hollywood actor would work, no? I'll keep you posted on Twitter. In these roundups of the week gone by, I'm offering the first paragraphs of each Column One--maybe they'll buy your eye and you can settle in for a good weekend read.

Dear Liz: I try to watch out for my neighbors, a married couple in their early 90s. Two of their three sons, who are both in their 60s, want them to get a reverse mortgage. The couple's house is paid off as well as their cars. They pay all their monthly bills with Social Security and his pension. They have a living trust as well. Neither I nor the couple see any reason or upside but the sons are pressuring. Any input? Answer: A reverse mortgage is typically a last-resort option for elderly people who are strapped for cash and who have few options for generating income other than tapping their home equity.