| Overspending on Kids Risks Parents' Financial Future
STRETCHING A $30,000 income isn't easy for Brittiany Dillon and her husband. Each month, gas and grocery bills alone eat up their disposable cash. But when it comes to their two-year-old daughter, the young parents she is 21 and he is 23 simply can't say no. "You want your child to have this idyllic childhood and not say 'My mommy never did this for me,'" says Dillon, a stay-at-home mom. For both her first and second birthday, the couple threw their daughter a birthday bash that set them back at least $600. Christmas gifts, planned to not exceed $50, somehow hit at least $300. That may not seem like a lot of money, but it's a fortune for the Dillons, who last year moved back in with family so they could make payments on their $30,000 credit-card debt, accumulated after a failed business start-up.
Financial ratings wrap-up: MetroPCS, Apple, Sierra Wireless and more
The following list includes ratings changes and financial information for wireless companies announced this week by investment-banking and financial-services firms.
Carrier
--Standard & Poors Ratings Services affirmed its CCC rating on Cricket Communications Inc.s $1.035 billion of senior unsecured notes due 2014 and affirmed its B- corporate credit rating on Leap Wireless International Inc.
--Standard & Poors Ratings Services revised its outlook on MetroPCS Communications Inc. to positive from stable and affirmed its CCC rating on its subsidiary MetroPCS Wireless Inc.s $1.3 billion of 9.25% senior unsecured notes due 2014. "The outlook revision reflects the company's continued progress in growing its overall revenues and EBITDA from the wireless markets it established since 2002," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Catherine Cosentino.
Fitch Ratings Affirms Boardwalk Pipeline's IDR at 'BBB'
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fitch Ratings has affirmed the Issuer Default Rating (IDR) and senior unsecured debt rating of Boardwalk Pipelines, LP (Boardwalk) and Texas Gas Transmission, LLC (TGT). The affirmations affect $735 million of outstanding debt at Boardwalk and $350 million of outstanding debt at TGT. Fitch has affirmed the following ratings with a Stable Outlook: Boardwalk Pipelines, LP --Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'BBB'; --Senior unsecured debt 'BBB'. Texas Gas Transmission, LLC --Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'BBB+'; --Senior unsecured debt 'BBB+'. Boardwalk is a subsidiary of Boardwalk Pipeline Partners, LP (BWP), a publicly traded master limited partnership (MLP).
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