All posts by Jacob A Irwin
Carnival of Personal Finance #373 – Summer Olympics Financial Statistics – August 6th, 2012 Edition
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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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Click here to enter my free $119.13 giveaway for a chance to win 5% of My Personal Finance Journey blog income and give another 5% to a charity of your choosing! Deadline to enter is August 31st, 2012.
The theme for this week’s carnival is a listing of several interesting financial statistics of the Olympics since the summer games are currently going on in London! I hope you enjoy the posts and that you can stop by My Personal Finance Journey on my non-carnival days as well!
Listed below are this week’s top 5 editor’s picks. Congrats to the five winners! Some truly great articles here!
1. Our #1 pick of this week is by Lazy Man from Lazy Man and Money, who presents Reader Email: Can You Help Me with a Small Business?, and says, “First things first, congrats on taking a steps to try to reach financial freedom. That’s huge. Second, I should start off by saying that I’m not the world’s leading expert in any of this stuff, so I hope the reader will get a lot of other opinions. I’m also hoping other readers can share their thoughts and resources as well. Here are my thoughts on some of Anya’s business ideas:”
Jacob’s Comments – This is a really cool post in response to an email that Lazy Man received from a reader requesting some guidance on entrepreneurship. I really like posts like these where readers of PF blogs get involved with the discussion!
2. The #2 pick of this week is by Rob from Dough Roller, who presents What Happens To Your Credit After You Divorce?, and says, “In addition to the emotional and familial challenges, divorce can also affect your finances.”
Jacob’s Comments – This post does a good job shedding some light on a subject that people do not often think/research about until they are actually going through a divorce – who is obligated to pay off loans that were obtained during a marriage. Several of the specific topics discussed include home loans, credit card debt, and car loans.
3. Our #3 pick for this week’s Carnival is by Mrs PoP from Planting our Pennies, who presents How We Decided To Self Insure, and says, “Faced with an increase of $2K on their homeowner’s insurance premium, the PoPs go through the risks and rewards of self insuring part of their property. ”
Jacob’s Comments – To me, it’s very fascinating to learn about exclusion/inclusion clauses in insurance contracts. This posts shares a first hand account of deciding how to insure a screened-in pool enclosure on the authors’ property. Pretty interesting story!
Jacob’s Comments – This post shares some solid advice to advancing one’s career. In the working world, it can be easy to lose sight of your strategic career plan because of the hustle and bustle of everyday tasks. So, this post serves as a good reminder to always make sure you are making forward progress in your job.
Jacob’s Comments – As the title of the indicates, this post shares several fun ways that the Olympics can remind us of good financial planning/management. My favorite point was the international diversification one!
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Source
And, listed below are the rest of this week’s great article submissions.
Justin from Saving Without a Budget presents Take Control of Your Financial Life with These Simple Steps, and says, “Simple steps for improving your financial situation.”
CF from The Outlier Model presents What to buy at the dollar store, and says, “Buying household items at the dollar store can save you a lot of money – but what is actually worth buying? Read on to find out!”
NCN from No Credit Needed presents Mortgage Refinance Is Almost Here, and says, “My wife and I are going to refinance our mortgage – with our current lender. Here are the details.”
Roshawn Watson from Watson Inc presents The Price of Eliminating Failure, and says, “The struggle to pull (ourselves) through a crisis, to come to terms on a deep level with (our) own shortcomings, and to labor to overcome them — is exactly…” what is needed to achieve uncommon success. Here are some reasons you should not be afraid of failure.”
Edward Antrobus from Edward Antrobus presents How I Spent Less than $200 on My Wedding, and says, “My wedding cost less than $200, a far cry from the $27,000 average wedding costs. Here’s how I did it.”
Eric J. Nisall from DollarVersity presents Mortgage Escrow AKA Banks Stealing Your Money, and says, “Escrow accounts attached to mortgages may seem like a good idea, but they are really costing you money!”
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Sean Smarty from Grow Money presents 4 Tips for Saving Money in a Renter’s World.
Elizabeth from Women’s Money Week presents How and Why to Find a Second Job, and says, “A second job offers more than just a few dollars an hour – there are great discounts in addition to having the bonus cash.”
Lance from Money Life & More presents What Would You Do?: I Won One Million Dollars!!!, and says, “Two words. I WISH! But it is fun to dream so let’s continue with this theoretical situation… We have to make assumptions so everyone is on the same page when they share what they will do! You just won One Million United States Dollars so convert to your own currency if necessary to find out its buying power. The taxes have already been paid so you can spend every penny of it if you wish. You are in the financial situation you are currently in, not in my financial position.”
Paula @ Afford Anything from Afford Anything presents Renovating the Rental Property, and says, “When renovating rental property, assume expenses will be higher and income will be lower. Here’s a true story about that … “
Glen Craig from Free From Broke presents Will Divorce Make You Happier? The Emotional and Financial Implications of Divorce, and says, “It’s common for a couple going through a rough patch to think that divorce will make them happier. But the truth is that’s not always the case.
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PK from Don’t Quit Your Day Job… presents Real Personal Income: New Heights, and says, “At least one measure of Economic strength in the United States has fully recovered – Real Personal Income. Sure, a fair amount of it is form transfer payments – but don’t let that get in the way of a good chart!”
Mike from Experiglot presents 10 Ways to Save Money Right Now, and says, “We help you come up with different ways that you can save more money right now.”
Mike from The Financial Blogger presents Should You Quit Your Job If You Hate it? The Quick Guide to Quitting, and says, “How you can finally quit your job.”
Robert from The College Investor presents How Europe Affects Your Portfolio (and What to Do about It), and says, “Stock market corrections are not recessions, international exposure doesn’t just come from an international ETF or mutual fund, and in time, the holdings that you have will become more and more heavily weighted towards international economies. So while Europe grabs all the headlines, something productive might as well come of it.”
Nicole from Nicole and Maggie: Grumpy Rumblings of the Half Tenured presents Fixing little annoyances, and says, “Sometimes there are little things that you can do to greatly improve your quality of life, just by fixing tiny annoyances. These may not cost a lot of money or even time, but just need to get done. The grumpy readership chimes in with examples.”
Bob from ChristianPF presents How to pick the right realtor, and says, “Do you have time to market your home, do you have the knowledge to accurately price your home, figure out all of the paperwork required with listing and closing, and stage your home to make it ready for showings? Much of this is accomplished by a quality realtor for those people who don’t have the time or the knowledge to do it at a professional level…”
Mr. Money from Smart on Money presents What Things Motivate Your Spending?, and says, “Examining your money motivations can help you figure out where you could change your spending, and maybe start using your resources for things that matter to you, rather than wasting money and racking up debt for things you don’t actually need or even want.”
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Peter from Bible Money Matters presents Lending Club Returns at 12.02%: Lending Club Has Issued over 775 Million In Loans to Date, and says, “My Lending Club account has continued to show good returns despite the fact that this month I had another loan go late. My net annualized return is still above 12% (which was my goal to reach a year or so ago).”
Echo from Boomer & Echo presents The Ins and Outs of No Medical Exam Life Insurance, and says, “No medical exam life insurance has higher premiums than a standard life insurance policy, but may actually be less expensive for someone who’s likely to be rated. The tradeoff is in the benefits.”
Bret from Hope to Prosper presents How Large Corporations Skirt Taxes, and says, “Although America has some of the highest corporate income tax rates in the world, the amount some large corporations actually pay is embarrassingly small.”
Money Thinker from Money Thinking presents Considering Trade School.
Karl Marrion from WiseStockBuyer presents How to Invest in Your Children’s Trust Fund, and says, “Help your children get ahead right from the start by investing in a trust fund for them.”
eemusings from Musings of an Abstract Aucklander presents What to do if you’ve been burgled plus things to check RIGHT NOW.
Jeff Rose from Good Financial Cents presents It’s Time For Another Movement – Life Insurance Style, and says, “The Life Insurance Movement is coming. Help bring awareness to a much needed cause.”
Eric from Narrow Bridge Finance presents How Should a Young Person Get Started with Investing, and says, “Your first job. Such a big milestone. For the first time ever, you are financially independent. You have moved on from being a broke college student to a successful young professional. Don’t get too comfy with that big paycheck, though, it is time to start investing.”
Adam Hagerman from Walking To Wealth presents 5 Awesome Techniques to Energize Your Savings Today, and says, “Why do Americans find is so hard to save money? Use these 5 awesome techniques to ramp up your savings today!”
FMF from Free Money Finance presents How to Get Great Deals on Outlet Purchases, and says, “Products sold in outlets may not be of the same quality as those sold in retail stores, return policies may be different and you may have to spend extra gas money getting there. Still, outlet prices are often cheaper than retail, and you may score an even better deal if you have coupons.”
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Dan Meyers from Your Life Their Life presents Two emotions that make us broke, and says, “There are two main emotions that cause us to get into debt over any others.”
Sean from One Smart Dollar presents Beginner’s Guide to Finance – Approaching Retirement, and says, “Knowing what to do with your money as you approach and enter retirement is extremely important. It can mean the difference between living comfortable and returning to the workforce.”
Miss T. from Prairie Eco Thrifter presents 7 Ways to Save Money When Dining Out, and says, “If you like to eat out a lot, and you would like to save some money, here are few tips to save when dining out.”
Earth and Money from Earth and Money presents The Value of the Corporate Social Responsibility Label, and says, “Corporate social responsibility is the integration of social, environmental and economic concerns into the values of a company. But is a company that calls itself socially responsible actually socially responsible?”
Savvy Scot from Savvy Scot presents How Much is Enough?, and says, “Savvy Scot discusses the reasons why we are never satisfied – why do we always want more? If you invest wisely and make the right moves, you can retire at 50!”
J.P. from Novel Investor presents What Is A REIT?, and says, “REITs, for the most part, are traded just like stocks. But there are some unique differences every investor should be aware of before buying.”
Squeezer from Personal Finance Success presents How to stretch your dollars when you are unemployed, and says, “With the Bureau of Labor Statistics pinning unemployment at 8.2%, many individuals are out of work and looking for a new job. To combat this, one should trim his or her budget to extend any savings as long as possible.”
Well, that concludes this week’s edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance! To all of this week’s participants – it was an honor to be able to read and get involved with such high quality articles! Please remember to link back to this post if your article was included here and to promote via social media when possible.
Next week’s carnival (#374) is scheduled to take place on August 13th, 2012. Be sure to submit your articles for next week’s edition, using the following handy submission form.
Also, if you’re interested in hosting a future edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance, you can apply using this form.
***Photo courtesy of http://www.texample.net/media/tikz/examples/PNG/the-olympic-rings.png
$119.13 Giveaway – Community and Charity 10% Monthly Blog Income Give Back # 11 – August 2012 Edition
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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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The 10% give back giveaway fun rolls on for the month of August!
In case you missed the 10 editions of the 10% Blog Income Give Back, after doing some thinking at the beginning of October 2011 about what direction I want this blog to grow and evolve towards in the future, I decided that any income made from this blog would have more significance to me at a personal life values level if I knew that a portion were being given back to the following places:
- 1) The readers – Obviously, without you here to read my articles and interact with my ideas, there would be no blog in the first place (let alone blog income). As such, it is only fitting that you receive a portion of any blog income.
- 2) Charitable organizations – If you’ve read my blog before, you know that I’m a big believer in donating a portion of my money to charity. Each year, I donate between 5-10% of my income to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society as part of the Bike for MS fundraiser that I do. Beyond the good that is done by donating your money, getting used to contributing to charity is also a good practice to emulate the actions of affluent individuals (T. Harv Eker discusses this in his book, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, which I would definitely recommend reading if you have a few hours).
Because of these considerations, I’ve decided that each month going forward, I’m going to give away 10% of my net (after-tax) blogging income/profit to My Personal Finance Journey readers (5%) and to charity (5%). Listed below is how the process will work:
- After each calendar month passes, I’ll tally up my net blog income and determine what Dollar value correlates to 10%.
- I’ll post the giveaway (similar to this post you’re reading now), and you’ll have approximately 2-3+ weeks to enter.
- Once the giveaway is over, a grand prize winner will be announced, and that winner will then select what charity they’d like to have 5% of my blog income sent to. Once the giveaway entry window ends, I’ll send out the money to the blog reader winner(s) and personally drop off the charity donation.
- So far, I’ve been very happy with the success of the October 2011 – July 2012 give backs. Listed below is a summary of what we’ve accomplished so far with the give backs.
- Current total given to 8 different charities = $617
- Current total given to blog readers = $639
- $119.13 total blog income to give away – $60 to a My Personal Finance Journey reader and $59.13 to the charity selected by the giveaway grand prize winner (see bullet point below for additional details on how the charity selection will work this month).
- $60 in the form of one prize available to one reader as follows –
- 1) Grand Prize = $60 Amazon Gift Card or $60 cash via PayPal.
- Because of the success experienced in the October 2011-July 2012 give backs with building relationships with local charitable organizations, I’ve decided that for August we’ll keep how we select the charity that receives the 5% blog income donation the same as last month. Continue reading below for more details:
- Instead of having each entrant specify any charity in the world, the goal for this month will be for My Personal Finance Journey to develop a relationship with one of the 7 charities listed below. The Grand Prize winner will select which of these 7 organizations receives the donation on behalf of the blog.
- Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Virginia
- The Nature Conservancy
- Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville
- Meals on Wheels of Charlottesville-Albemarle
- United Way Thomas Jefferson Area
- Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA
- Alzheimer’s Association of Central and Western Virginia
- All of these charities were selected because 1) they are high quality organizations who do very good things and 2) they all have a significant presence/office in the area in which I live and operate this website (Central Virginia).
- I have contacted the local offices of these organizations and told them that they are part of the 10% blog income give back. After the Grand Prize winner is selected and the selected charity announced, I hope to be able to visit the local office of the organization, meet their staff, and present them with the money personally.
- It’s been very fulfilling developing a relationship with the local chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society through the MS150 fundraising bike ride I do each year, and I’m hoping that this experience will be just as awesome! I look forward to seeing which organization is selected.
How to Enter the Giveaway – Deadline to Enter is 11:59 PM, August 31st, 2012
Like last month, I’ve decided to use the RaffleCopter giveaway management tool to handle sign-up facilitation for the August giveaway, so simply go through the steps listed in the widget below to enter the running for the prize and accumulate entry points.
There is no limit to the amount of points you can earn. If you refer 10 subscribers – your name will have accumulated 170 entry points! Or, if you link to the giveaway more than once, you can accumulate those 7 entry points multiple times. You can also retweet the giveaway and/or share other My Personal Finance Journey articles via social media sites once per day. In the event of a tie, I will be using a random number generator to select the winner.
Important instructions: After you complete an entry method, make sure to click and fill out the “I Did This” or “Enter” button in the widget so that I have a record of your points.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Remember, the deadline for entries will end at 11:59 PM, August 31st, 2012 (a little over 3 weeks from today – the start of the give back). Good luck to you all! Please contact me if you have any questions. After the deadline for entries passes, the winner (one with the most points accumulated) will be contacted via email to receive their prize and select this month’s charity organization for the donation.
Tour de Personal Finance 2012 Post-Race Show – Awards Ceremony, Race Recap, and Goals for the 2013 Tour
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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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On June 17th, I announced the coming arrival of the 2nd annual 2012 edition of the Tour de Personal Finance with an introductory post laying out several goals I had for the event. Over one month later, the 2012 Tour de Personal Finance has ended, a winner has been crowned, and I can decisively say that the 2012 edition of the event has been a great success! The success could not have been possible without tremendous support from the participants and readers/voters. A big round of applause is in order for all of you! **Cheers fill the streets!**
AWARDS CEREMONY and Charity Selections
- Yellow Jersey – Winner of overall competition. Article voted “best” by readers. Way to go!
- The Yellow Jersey winner for 2012 is Maria from The Money Principle with her article entitled, “Money for all seasons I: income, spending and age.” A brief description of the article is shown below:
- Using the four seasons – spring, summer, autumn and winter – as a metaphor for the four different stages in our lives, I have set out some age related expectations regarding income, expenditure, investments and cash-flow. It is a common sense way to illustrate how our financial situation today carries into our future and that it is never late to change one’s financial trajectory.
- As the Yellow Jersey winner, Maria received $75. However, she was very generous to donate all of her winnings to the Alzheimer’s Society of the UK.
- Yellow Jersey Charity Selection – As the Yellow Jersey winner, Maria also decides which charity she wants to have receive the $123.05 charity give back amount.
- As with her winnings, Maria elected for the $123.05 to be donated to the Alzheimer’s Society of the UK.
- This is really a great cause to donate to and one that I feel very strongly about since I do Alzheimer’s disease drug research!
- Podium Placings – The 2nd and 3rd placed articles that are on the podium with Maria are shown below. Congrats for making it so far in to the competition!
- 2nd Place – Glen from Free From Broke (and last year’s Polka-Dot jersey winner!) with his article entitled, “Should You Charge Your Boomerang Kids Rent?” A short description of his article is shown below:
- It’s no longer a given that kids will move out on their own when college ends. In fact, there’s a term for this group – Boomerang Kids. Should you charge rent to these boomerang kids?
- As the 2nd place podium finisher, Glen received $50. However, he was very generous to donate all of his winnings to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
- 3rd Place – Todd from Financial Mentor with his article entitled, “Pay Off Mortgage Early or Invest– The Complete Guide.” A brief description is as follows: Should I pay off my mortgage early or invest? Forget the dangerous half-truths and over-simplified conventional wisdom about getting out of debt. Instead, learn the many dimensions to paying off your mortgage early in this complete guide so you can make a smart financial decision that perfectly fits your personal situation.
- White Jersey – Goes to highest placing, new blog (blog that was started less than one year ago).
- The White Jersey winner for 2012 is Jefferson from See Debt Run. His article (“What If You Find Out Your Co-Workers Are Making More Money Than You“) made it to the 3rd Round of the competition. Nice work Jefferson!
- Green Jersey – Goes to the blog whose article wins a single stage “the fastest.” In other words, the Green Jersey goes to the blog who wins a single stage by the biggest margin against their competitor.
- The Green Jersey winner for 2012 is Donna Freedman from Surviving and Thriving (and the winner of the 2011 Tour de PF I might add!). Her article entitled, “The value of work,” won one of the Stages in which it was competing by 32 votes over her competitor! Quite impressive! Nice work Donna! The sprinters of the Tour de France (such as Andre Greipel and Mark Cavendish) would be proud of you! Your next goal will have to be to win 6 stages like Cavendish did last year in the Tour de France! 🙂
- Polka-Dot Jersey – Goes to the best placing blog article entered which details information on “climbing” out of the debt “mountain”.
- The Polka-Dot Jersey winner for 2012 is Todd from Financial Mentor (also our 3rd place finisher for this year!) with his article entitled, “Pay Off Mortgage Early or Invest– The Complete Guide.” Todd’s post made it to the 5th Round of competition and features a great walk-through of the decision between investing or putting extra money towards paying off your home loan debt! Nice work Todd!
RACE RECAP
The 2012 Tour de Personal Finance began on July 2nd (same day as the first Stage of the 2012 Tour de France) with 52 participants/blogs (up from 46 in 2011!).
In order to start and finish in the same approximate time period as the actual Tour de France, the competition proceeded quickly through the first round with 8 blogs (4 intermediate sprints) per day. Each sprint was given 3 days for voting to occur. In the last two Rounds of competition, voting was extended, when possible, to a four day time period to give everyone a chance to vote.
You can view the complete story of how each Stage played out by viewing the 2012 Tour de PF Bracket.
When all was said and done, the month-long event featured the following statistics:
- 18 total Stages
- 32 blog posts
- 544 total comments/votes – Wow! That is an awesome amount of participation! Thanks to everyone involved!
- 1,798 page views of Tour de Personal Finance Stages and posts.
- 1,500 unique visitors to Tour de Personal Finance Stages and posts.
2012 REFLECTIONS AND GOALS FOR 2013 TOUR DE PERSONAL FINANCE
As I mentioned above, I think that overall, the 2012 edition of this event went very well.
Listed below are the things that I very much enjoyed about this event the past month:
- It’s enabled me to interact and get to know many new bloggers and readers.
- I’ve learned a lot by reading some of the best articles from each blogger’s site that have participated in this competition.
- I liked how the race started and end of the race stages coincided with the start and finish of the 2012 Tour de France. I thought that was really cool!
- We were able to get a larger number of blogs involved in the event this year (52 vs. 46 blogs/articles last year).
- Having done the event last year, I had more of a well-defined system for running this year’s event that made things go smoother.
- I was able to reserve the June and July 10% blog income charity and reader give back amounts as rewards and charity selection options for coming in first and second place in the competition.
- I was able to get experience putting together a sponsorship kit to attract potential supporters to the event.
Listed below are some things that I see as areas for improvement:
- First, in this year’s event, we had 52 participants. Even though this is a round number and event pairings/bracket placements were chosen with a random number generator, the participants in the “lower-half” of the bracket had one less Round of competition to get through. Even though I don’t think this ultimately affected the final placings, it is something I want to improve in the coming years.
- Because of this, I’d like to start promoting the event earlier next year and get a total of 64 blogs involved to make everything evened out.
- This year, I started gathering entries to the event about 2 weeks before the start. I figured this would be enough time, but have since realized that I need to give people more notice because a lot of people were on summer vacations. Lesson learned, so no worries! 🙂
- Second, in the coming year’s of the Tour de Personal Finance, I need to be more proactive and get an earlier start on obtaining event sponsors.
- This year, I was actively seeking out platinum, gold, silver, and bronze sponsorships from various contacts in the PF realm throughout the entire month of June with a sponsorship kit I put together.
- The plan was to donate half of all sponsorship proceeds to a charity selected by the overall competition winner (Yellow Jersey).
- At first, it was looking fairly promising in that I had gotten a couple sponsors interested, but nothing was finalized in the end.
- Third, increasing awareness of event prizes.
- This year, I made the mistake of not spreading the word about the specific prizes on offer for the 1st and 2nd place finishers until the 2nd or 3rd Round.
- I think that if I finalize and share this information earlier on (even before the 1st Round), everyone will have a better idea about the ins and outs of the competition.
How about you all? What did you think of the 2012 Tour de PF? What would you like to see the different or the same for next year’s event?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/wyllphotographie/7645504308/sizes/l/in/photostream/
Different Uses for Credit Cards
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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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Credit cards have become very interwoven in to the fabric of today’s society and economy. In fact, it’s becoming almost an anomaly to actually pay for something with cash! Needless to say, credit cards, if used properly and paid in full each month, have a lot of utility.
Listed below are some of the most common and powerful uses of credit cards:
Building Credit History
A very beneficial use of credit cards is to either start or continue to build up your personal or business credit history. By using a credit card for several purchases each month AND PAYING OFF THE BALANCE IN TIME, you can improve your credit score and thus, increase your chances of a getting a good quality loan for future needs.
Reducing the Cost of Debt Payoff
Credit cards can be a powerful tool by offering options to consolidate credit card balances on to one lower interest card.
Generally, when you are searching for a new credit card, there are often very enticing deals that enable you to perform a balance transfer from your existing higher interest rate credit cards and then keep a 0-3% APR interest rate for a certain introductory period.
There are several things to watch out for before embarking on this form of debt payoff.
- First, you have to watch out for fees that are incurred/charged for transferring balances. These can often be 3% of the balance transferred. So, you’ll need to make sure that the interest rate savings you receive on the new card is worth this balance transfer fee.
- Second, you will need to make sure that you are able to pay off all of your debt that is transferred within the introductory, reduced rate time period. If you cannot, you will often find that your interest rate will be increased after the introductory period to a level that could cost you more than your previous card.
- Third, performing balance transfers is by no means a ‘magic formula’ that will make it effortless to pay down debt. It will take long-term discipline and MOST OF ALL, changes in spending behavior, to fully pay off your debt balances. In fact, if you’ve already got a credit card that has a fairly low interest rate (say below 10%), you might even be better off simply sticking with your current card and paying off the balance aggressively.
Obtaining Rewards and Cash Back
Another one of my favorite uses of credit cards is to receive a portion of your purchase amount back in either the form of cash back or rewards points. Typically, the amount of cash or redeemable rewards points you can receive is around 1% of your purchases. However, you can often get good credit card terms that enable you to get 3-5% cash back in certain categories.
In addition, credit cards often feature payment insurance protection on certain purchases. For example, if you pay for a rental car with a credit card, many cards offer insurance in the event that you get in an accident.
Short-Term Payback Expense Account
Another use of credit cards that is quite powerful (but that can easily get people in trouble if they don’t pay off their balances quickly) is providing some immediate access to funds to pay for expense items so that you don’t have to wait for money to be transferred from your savings to checking account.
By using a credit card for most all of your purchases, you can keep a minimal amount of money in your non-interest bearing checking account and just transfer money from your interest bearing accounts as it is needed to pay for expenses that come up.
A Bad Use of Credit Cards
While I definitely believe there are a lot of good uses for credit cards, one inappropriate use that I feel is worthwhile to mention is the use of credit cards for things you actually do not have the cash to pay for. Once you get in to this cycle of overspending, you can rack up debt balances that compound daily and get you in to trouble faster than you think.
How about you all? How do you use your credit cards? What is your favorite and least favorite feature about them? What credit card is your favorite?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/76657755@N04/6881501238/sizes/l/in/photostream/
Finding the Right Type of Credit Card to Suit Your Needs
The following is a guest post. Enjoy!
There are many good reasons (and perhaps, a few bad reasons) why someone would want to have a credit card. From desiring to improve/build your credit history to having a way to pay for everyday items without having to keep large amounts of money in your non-interest bearing checking account, credit cards, if used properly and paid off in full each month, can be a big help to a person’s life.
After making the all-important first decision that you indeed want to get a credit card in the first place, the question then shifts to what type of card is going to be best for your specific circumstances and life.
Listed below are several of the most popular types of credit cards and some of the deciding factors that can help you determine whether or not that specific type of card would be a good fit.
Cash-Back Credit Cards
Cash-back credit cards, as you might imagine, are a very popular choice among credit card consumers because a certain percentage of EVERY purchase you make (regardless of the merchant) gets returned to you in the form of cash-back rewards. In other words, you get cold hard cash back as opposed to only getting a discount on future purchases at specific stores, as with some of the other rewards cards discussed below.
The bottom line here is that cash-back cards are the best for someone that wants to see the rewards return on their purchases as soon as possible.
Airline, Points, and Gas Rewards Credit Cards
This category that could be summarized as “other rewards” credit cards allows you to accumulate rewards points on all of your purchases (regardless of the merchant). However, you often get added benefits for making purchases from the card issuer. For example, if you have an American Airlines credit card, you get certain perks and additional rewards points for purchases that you make towards flights with that airline. For a review of some popular airline credit cards, click here. Once you’ve accumulated a certain number of points, you can then redeem them by getting a discount on a purchase with the card issuer.
The bottom line here is that “other rewards” credit cards are good for someone that shops at one specific merchant VERY FREQUENTLY, or enough to make it worthwhile to be restricted to only redeeming the reward points with one merchant.
Student Credit Cards
Student credit cards are generally low-balance starter credit cards for younger adults that are looking to get their first credit card that is not co-signed by Mom and Dad. These cards generally are typically somewhat “stripped down” in that they do not carry as good of rewards as other credit cards.
The bottom line here is that student credit cards are great for someone 18-25 years of age who is looking to get their first credit card and doesn’t have a lot of credit history built up yet.
Pre-Paid Credit Cards
The last category of card on the list today is pre-paid credit cards. In fact, these are not credit cards at all, in a strict sense, because you are not being loaned any money. Instead, you send in cash to the credit card company, which is then loaded on the card for you to spend. These cards generally come with higher fees than the other types of cards on this list, since you’re paying for an added service from the credit card company.
The bottom line here is that pre-paid cards make sense for someone that has bad credit history and can’t yet get a regular credit card, but wants to start gradually restore their credit history.
How about you all? What type of credit card do you carry? Why did you pick that specific category of card?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/68751915@N05/6722592957/sizes/l/in/photostream/
The Essential Mortgage Loan Refinance Checklist
The Essential Mortgage Loan Refinance Checklist
Looking for a way to put more cash in your pocket? Refinancing your home is a great way to modify your home loan payment and make it better fit your budget. Whether you’re looking to take advantage of low mortgage refinance rates or to change the terms of your loan, it can be a smart move. Of course, refinancing requires some upfront fees, so you’ll want to do the math to be sure they’re covered by the eventual savings.
Before you sit down to tackle your refinance application, be sure you’ve gathered all of the necessary documents and important information you’ll need to complete it. The mortgage refinance process will go more smoothly if you’re prepared upfront.
Ready to refinance your mortgage? Use this helpful checklist.
Information on your home and mortgage:
· All properties you own, including addresses, estimated value, annual taxes and insurance.
· The year you purchased the property you’re seeking to refinance.
· The original cost of that property.
· The amount you owe on any loans tied to this property. This includes all mortgages and home equity loans and lines of credit.
· Any additional liens against the property, such as judgments.
· Your most recent mortgage statement.
Personal information:
· Residential addresses for the last three years.
· Social Security Number.
· Driver’s license or state ID card.
· Tax returns, W-2s, and pay stubs for the last two years.
· Employer information, including name, address, and phone.
· Financial assets, including checking and savings account balances, investments, life insurance, vehicles, jewelry, antiques, etc.
· Documentation proving other income sources, like Social Security checks, retirement accounts, child support, alimony, rental income, dividends, etc.
· Information on any bankruptcy proceedings or discharges.
Of course, the documents required by your bank to refinance mortgage terms could vary somewhat from this list. But, this is still a good place to start when you’re preparing to refinance. Once you’ve completed the refinance process, you’ll have peace of mind knowing that your mortgage is best suited to your finances.
How about you all? Have you ever refinanced your home loan? If so, do you still think it was the best decision financially?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/alancleaver/4439276478/sizes/o/in/photostream/
Improving Your Small Business Cash Flow
The following is a guest post. Enjoy!
What is Invoice Factoring?
How Does Invoice Factoring Work?
Is It Right For You?
How about you all? Has your business ever used invoice factoring? If so, did it work pretty smoothly?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/23024164@N06/7222346312/sizes/l/in/photostream/
What is Private Mortgage Insurance?
The following is a guest post. Enjoy!
When You Need Private Mortgage Insurance
How Private Mortgage Insurance Works
How about you all? Do you currently have insurance on your home mortgage loan? If so, does it provide you with any additional benefits aside from the implied financial protection?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/68751915@N05/6869769579/sizes/l/in/photostream/
5 Financial Planning Tips for Families
The following is a guest post by Philip Reed. Enjoy!
Save for College
If you have children, they are probably growing up much faster than you would like. Before you know it, they will be heading off to college to get an accounting degree or to become a doctor. Unfortunately, tuition costs continue to skyrocket, and total student loan debt has already ballooned to more than $1 trillion. However, you can help your children – not to mention yourself – by taking advantage of 529 college savings plans, which can give you a way to save for future college expenses with a tax advantage.
Establish an Emergency Fund
Life is full of unexpected surprises. Whether your car breaks down or your kid needs braces, there are times when you will need quick access to cash and won’t necessarily want to utilize your credit card. And, quick access to cash is exactly what an emergency fund is designed to provide.
However, nearly 30 percent of Americans do not have an emergency fund at all, and many other people have insufficient funds to protect themselves when unexpected problems arise. If you haven’t already started, set aside a small amount of money every month into a separate savings account; one day soon, you will be glad that you did.
Cut Your Expenses
Although making more money would be the ideal solution, that can be very difficult to do in an economy that is suffering from eight percent unemployment. Fortunately, there is another way to take control of your budget: reducing your spending. If you are not sure where you can save money, consider some of the following possibilities:
- Make more meals at home
- Borrow books and movies at the library
- Buy gently-used items on sites such as Craigslist.org
- Cancel subscriptions
Review Your Asset Allocation
There is no denying the fact that the past decade has been terrible for stock portfolios. Thankfully, it is hard to imagine another decade of such poor returns. However, you still need to ask yourself if you are comfortable with the amount of risk that you are taking in your portfolio. If not, consider increasing your allocation to bonds and other low-risk investments.
Increase Your Savings Rate
Thanks to a $20 trillion funding gap, future retirees will need to supplement Social Security with more of their own savings. Unfortunately, only 15 percent of people are saving enough in their 401(k) plans to retire comfortably. If you want to relax during your golden years, use some of the money that you save from cutting expenses to boost your retirement savings.
Conclusion
By following the tips listed above, you can avoid the major mistakes made by many families and put yourself on a path toward financial security. It will certainly take discipline and commitment on your part, but the rewards are worth it.
How about you all? What financial planning initiatives are taking priority in your lives these days?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/serpicolugnut/172616929/sizes/o/in/photostream/
Financial Independence: Start With Your Savings Goal
The following is a guest post. Enjoy!
1. Get serious about your savings goal
- Set up an automatic savings account transfer to move a set percentage of your take-home pay into savings each month.
- Set short-term and long-term savings goals with dates and dollar amounts to keep yourself on track.
- When you save money on a purchase, move the difference into savings.
- Transfer found money, bonuses, and commissions into savings.
2. Make sound financial investment decisions
3. Always look for the best interest rates
How about you all? In your opinion, what is the first step towards becoming financially independent? Is this first step also the most important step, or is there another more important step further down the road that you need to overcome?
Share your experiences by commenting below!
***Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/rvoegtli/6691093687/sizes/l/in/photostream/