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5 Ways to Avoid Bankruptcy

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The following guest post comes to us from Bailey Harris. Bailey writes about home owners insurance and other finance related topics for www.homeownersinsurance.org.

5 Ways to Avoid Bankruptcy

Financial freedom is helpful in achieving a state of happiness and is among the most sought after and satisfying of human conditions. Unfortunately, if you’re not careful with spending habits, you could find yourself approaching that dreadful time when your debt threatens to overtake your income. If it does, bankruptcy is an option in extreme cases but is almost always something to be avoided. If the threat of bankruptcy looms, the following five suggestions could help you relieve the stress and avoid the pitfalls of filing.

Don’t Overspend

Of course, the best way to avoid bankruptcy is to not let your spending exceed your income. Pay attention to your bank statements and balance your checkbook every month. Don’t get caught up in the “keeping up with the Jones’s” mentality. If you can’t afford a new computer or that vacation cruise, don’t spend the money. Instead, upgrade your present computer and take day trips to local points of interest.

Pay Your Monthly Debt

If you find yourself falling behind on your monthly payments, take steps to stop the bleeding as soon as possible. It may hurt, and you may have to go without some things you deem necessary, but once you owe more than you bring in it’s tough to control. You find yourself playing catch-up and can continue to fall further and further behind. Pay your bills as they come in.

Get Counseling

There is no shame in facing financial difficulties. Everyone makes mistakes or goes through hard times. The shame lies in ignoring the situation until it’s too late. Sometimes it becomes necessary to seek the counsel of someone who’s been through your situation, or better yet, a credit counselor, a professional trained to deal with the trauma of owing more than you are capable of paying and who can advise you in ways to alleviate the problem.

A credit counselor can not only help you find a way to pay your debt, but can also work with the people you owe to develop a payment plan that will be mutually beneficial. After all, bankruptcy not only hurts you, your creditors don’t get paid. It’s in their best interest to be as patient as possible. Another important point is to listen to your counselor, and take their advice…they’re there to help you.

Cut Spending

It may sound simple, but the key to paying off debt and avoiding bankruptcy is to make sure your cash income is greater than your cash outflow. It’s not just a matter of overspending, but once you fall behind it’s necessary to actually cut your spending. That may require a few sacrifices. Sit down and take stock of your spending habits. Beyond the necessities, such as food, clothing and shelter, find ways to save a few bucks here and there. Instead of renting a movie
every night, watch broadcast television. Eat at home instead of restaurants. Wear that dress or shirt or pants a few more times, and resist the urge to buy the latest and greatest video game.

Remember, a bankruptcy will affect your credit for years to come and should be avoided if possible.

Debt Consolidation

Lumping all your debts together and making one payment a month instead of several may help you manage your financial affairs in a positive manner. This could involve taking out a consolidation loan, an option only if you’ve managed to keep your credit score up, which is another reason to avoid bankruptcy. This calls for will power on your part, a mental and emotional decision to overcome your previous bad spending habits and make a dedicated effort to crawl out of a financial hole and avoid bankruptcy.

How about you all? What methods do you use to stay out of the debt trap? Do you have any techniques you can share with the community that helped you significantly?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy of http://talkmoneyblog.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/debt-debt-trap.jpg

Happy New Year From The My Personal Finance Journey Team

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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for free updates on articles like this.
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Just wanted to send out a quick Happy New Year greetings! Thanks to every one for making this year a success with our blog community!

My family and I are right now on a 10 hour plane ride heading to Chile for a vacation. It should be quite the fun time!

How about you all? Do you have any special New Years plans? Any vacations coming up?


***Photo courtesy of http://www.gibni.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/happynewyear.jpg

Educate Yourself On Finance, Knowledge Is The Key To Fiscal Responsibility

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Today’s guest post comes to us from Brad Tussle. Brad lives and breathes personal finance. Writing in his free time, he enjoys sharing his knowledge about some of the top online finance schools.
Educate Yourself On Finance, Knowledge Is The Key To Fiscal Responsibility
In today’s economy, practicing fiscal responsibility is more important than ever. Being fiscally responsible means managing your assets in a way that is productive and in the best interests of your future. 
It means not wildly spending money or buying things that are outside of your price range. While that hot new car or big TV probably seems like a necessity today, it will come back to haunt you in the future. A person who is fiscally responsible understands that they can’t get caught up in what they want today because they need to be able to have money to finance their needs of tomorrow. Before someone is qualified to practice fiscal responsibility or teach others about the topic, they must understand several basic concepts of finance.
What You Need vs. What You Want
The basic principle of personal finance is understanding the difference between needs and wants. A thorough understanding of this topic can be a significant budget helper because it allows you to make sure you have enough money to make the purchases that are most important to your life, while the extras and frivolous wants are only purchased after all needs are met. The basic needs include shelter, clothing and food. That means you should make sure any rental or mortgage payments and grocery bills are taken care of before worrying about anything else. To some people, a higher education is also a basic need. If you are one of these people, you should put money away into a college fund before making other purchases.
Save Save Save
You need to know what to do with any money you have left over after meeting your needs. Saving money must be your top priority for surplus income if you want to practice true fiscal responsibility. A percentage, no matter how small, of your paycheck should always go into a savings account. Even modest contributions to a savings account adds up over time, giving you financial security in the event something goes wrong. Even if you completely happy with your life, you should still be putting money away. You never know when something out of the ordinary might occur and you could be stuck in a financial bind.
Stick to Your Budget
The concept of a simple budget is one of the first things taught in any finance class. People should be taught about budgeting as early as possible. As soon as someone earns an income, even if it from a part time job, they should be creating a budget. On a budget, the basic necessities of life should be the top priority. Those are followed by any goods or services that are not completely necessary, but make your life easier. For example, an automobile tuneup is not a necessity to survive, but it will sure help your commute. Adding things like this into your budget can actually help you save money in the long run. Make sure to include the amount of money you want to put into your savings on every budget.
Want to Learn More?
While these are the basic things you need to know about finance to practice fiscal responsibility, you may want to learn more to really make your money work for you. If so, it might be a good idea to take some classes on finance at your local college or university. 
Learning about finance from online schools is also a quality option. You can learn at your own pace from the comfort of your home. The top online finance schools teach you everything you need to know about finance. With this knowledge, you are qualified to teach your kids or friends about how they too can be fiscally responsible and live a better quality life.

How about you all? What is the biggest key in your life to being fiscally responsible? Have finance classes helped you to further your understanding? 


Share your experiences by commenting below!

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Merry Christmas From My Personal Finance Journey

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Good Christmas morning everyone! 
I know we’re all busy with our families today, but I just wanted to send out a quick Christmas greetings note and say thank you for being supporter of our blog! 
My family shared our gifts and had Christmas dinner last night to accommodate work schedules, but I think today, we are going to go for a hike and then go see Meet The Little Fockers at the movie theater!

How about you all? Do you have any good Christmas plans for today?


Share your experiences by commenting below!

Did you like this article? You can get the complete text of all the latest articles at My Personal Finance Journey in your email inbox each evening by clicking the link below and entering your email address. Your address will only be used for mailing you the articles, and each one will include a link so you can unsubscribe at any time.

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Announcing a New Personal Finance Blog Carnival – The Carnival of Passive Investing

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Good day blogosphere! I wanted to let everyone know about a personal finance carnival I created just today – The Carnival of Passive Investing

Why did I create this carnival?

Whew…The real question here is where do I start? Let’s just make a list, shall we?
1) The first reason that I created this carnival is because I myself, as you have probably found out from reading my blog, am a big supporting of the passive investing strategy. In fact, if you take a look at my investing strategy, you’ll see that it is almost entirely composed of passively managed mutual funds.

2) In hosting previous carnivals, I have come across a great deal of very high quality posts about many topics in the vast realm of personal finance. During this time, I have found myself wondering – wouldn’t it be awesome to sit down and have a collection of ONLY passive investing strategy articles to review?!
Out of curiosity, I ventured over to Blogcarnival.com and looked in the money & finance carnival category (see link below for details).
List of Money and Finance category blog carnivals, sorted by upcoming edition dates at Blogcarnival.com

The following carnivals were listed as having upcoming editions:
  • Coupon crazy
  • Growth stock investing
  • Holiday spirit
  • Carnival of wealth
  • Carnival of money stories
  • Festival of stocks
  • Real estate investing carnival
  • Best of credit cards and saving money
  • The wealth builder carnival
  • Cavalcade of risk
  • Stock carnival ecstacy
  • Best of money carnival
  • Frugal feast…OK – you get the idea!
Clearly, there are a lot of options! However, not one has zoned in on this specific niche of passive investing. While I do realize that the other carnivals no doubt provide an outlet for passive investing blog articles, I figured, “Why not see if we can showcase these articles?”
So, let’s give it a try and see what we find out!

How do you submit your article for review?

If you have a great article about passive investing, submitting your article for inclusion in the carnival if super-easy! Simply visit the following link to view the Carnival of Passive Investing’s page at Blogcarnival.com – The Carnival of Passive Investing @ Blogcarnival.com.
Or, you can submit your article directly to the upcoming December 31st edition of the Carnival.

How often are the carnivals currently scheduled for?

For now (and until we can get a gauge of the blogosphere’s response to this carnival), the Carnival of Passive Investing will be held 1X (once) per once. The deadline for submitting your post is the 30th of each month, and the carnival will be published the following day (either the 31st or the 1st, depending on the month).

How can I sign up to be a host?

If you would like to host an upcoming edition of the Carnival of Passive Investing, simply email me at jacob@mypersonalfinancejourney.com and we’ll figure out a slot that works well for you!

Also – just a quick note to say that I am hosting the Carnival of Wealth’s December 26th, 2010 edition later this week. Submit your entries for review by clicking the following link

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The Basics of Debt Snowballing

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Today’s guest post comes to us from Louise Baker. Louise is a freelance blogger and journalist who writes for Zen College Life, the directory of higher education, distance learning, and online degrees. She most recently wrote about where to get the best online criminal justice degree.

The Basics of Debt Snowballing

The idea of using a debt snowball to eliminate debt has become a commonly used debt reduction strategy in recent years. A debt snowball prioritizes debts by balance rather than interest rate. Many debt counselors will suggest this as the method of choice due to its ability to motivate individuals and families to continue on their path to becoming debt free. The snowball debt method is most commonly used for revolving debts, such as credit cards, but can be successful with other debt as well. Oftentimes, debt counselors will leave mortgage and car loans out of the debt snowball and focus on those debts at a later step.

At a very basic level, a debt snowball works in this way:

  1. List all revolving debts that you plan to include in the snowball method.
  2. Order all debts from lowest balance to highest balance. In the case that two balances are similar, use the debt with the highest interest rate as the higher priority debt. This order will be the order in which you pay off your debts.
  3. List the minimum payment on every debt and commit to paying it on time each month.
  4. Determine how much extra money, apart from the minimum payments, you can devote to paying extra on your debts.
  5. Pay all debts on time, adding the extra amount from the previous step to the minimum payment on the top priority debt (smallest balance).
  6. As each debt is paid in full, add the minimum balance to the extra amount in step 4, and pay on the new lowest balance.
In order to do understand the principal, it is best to see an example. Take the following debts:
  • Debt 1: Balance of $50 – Minimum Payment of $10
  • Debt 2: Balance of $150 – Minimum Payment of $50
  • Debt 3: Balance of $500 – Minimum Payment of $30
  • Extra money that can be used to help pay off debt: $40
Using the principals above, you would make a payment of $50 on debt 1 (the minimum amount plus the extra amount you devoted to paying off debt). After the first month, the first debt is paid in full, so you now have the following debts:
  • Debt 1: Balance of $100 – Minimum Payment of $50 (paid off $50 last month)
  • Debt 2: Balance of $470 – Minimum Payment of $30 (paid off $30 last month)
  • Extra money that can be used to help pay off debts: $50 (original $40 plus the previous debt’s minimum of $10).
Now you are able to pay $100 on the lowest balance debt. This includes the minimum payment of $50 as well as your “snowball” of $50. You continue with the principal until all debts are paid in full. As you can see, your extra money available to help pay off debts will increase as each debt is paid and a new minimum payment is freed. This is the “snowballing” effect. As you progressively pay off each new debt, it will act as a motivator to keep on track to becoming debt-free.

How about you all? Have you ever used a debt-snowball to help motivate you to get rid of your debts? Did it work well for you? Share your experiences by commenting below!


Related articles:

  • Debt Snowball

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The Best Grocery Coupon Sites Online

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The Best Grocery Coupon Sites Online


Today’s guest post is brought to us by Edward Stern. Edward is a guest blogger for My Dog Ate My Blog and a writer on distance learning  for the Guide to Online Schools.


Out of all of a person’s expenses every month, groceries are certainly up there as far as cost goes. Frugal families save money by cooking at home rather than eating out, but the costs still add up. However, groceries are one of the places where serious savings can be found, especially when buying store rather than name brand and using coupons. The days of looking through the newspaper with scissors handy are nearing an end, as online money-saving grocery coupon sites are en vogue. Here are some of the best ones to help you find those key discounts at major grocery chains, without a whole lot of hassle.


Coupons.com: The first is still the best. Many sites feed off coupons.com for their discounts, so cut out the middleman and just go straight to the source. There’s no sign up required, and coupons are non-location specific, meaning they are available nationally. Coupons.com is any discount hunter’s first stop among the online coupon circuit.   

Coupons Mom: Featured on Oprah, the Today Show, CNN, and other major media outlets, Coupons Mom boasts over 3 million members and counting. Just sign up for free and started saving. While not the prettiest looking site in the world, Coupons Mom is serious about discounts. Check out their tutorials for learning how to be a super shopper and save even more at the register. 

Krazy Coupon Lady: The tech-savvy moms of Krazy Coupon Lady won’t stop until everyone is saving 50-90% at the register. Their site, formatted in an up-to-date blog style,  offers printable discounts at major chains like CVS, Safeway, Albertsons, and Target, among others. Just look around, find a deal for what you need, and print it off. Coupon hunting has never been so easy.

Mambo Sprouts: For green-minded shoppers looking for organic goods, Mambo Sprouts is the place to go. The site offers discounts on healthy, green eating to help you save a healthy amount of green. Additonally, Mambo Sprouts is a community, featuring recipes, reviews of new products, and a section where visitors can link up with other like-minded shoppers and share tips and secrets.

Penny Pincher Gazette: The good folks at PP Gazette have gone to the trouble of taking all the best deals from many of the sites listed here and more and bringing them to one simple place. Membership is free, and PP Gazette also features discounts found in newspaper circulars in your area.

Red Plum: Red Plum is the new kid on the block and is making major waves. It’s super easy to use format is attractive. Just select all the coupons you want and hit print. Red Plum offers national deals and location-specific ones as well. Make sure to enter your zip code to see what deals are lurking in your neighborhood. 

Smart Source: Smart Source has thousands of coupons ready to print, free of charge with no sign up required. Get discounts on groceries and all sorts of household items. Sign up for their e-mail list to get notices for new deals and to get exclusive discounts. Smart Source also searches for deals around your area after you enter your zip code. Now isn’t that smart? 

How about you all? Have you used any of these or other good sites for finding grocery coupons? Share your experiences by commenting below!


Did you like this article? You can get the complete text of all the latest articles at My Personal Finance Journey in your email inbox each evening by clicking the link below and entering your email address. Your address will only be used for mailing you the articles, and each one will include a link so you can unsubscribe at any time.

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**Photo courtesy of http://bestfoodcoupons.com/images/grocery_coupons/grocery_coupons_250x251.jpg

Group Buying Online – 4 Websites to Check Out

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Today’s guest post is contributed by Kate Willson, who writes on the topics of top online colleges.  She welcomes your comments at her email Id: katewillson2@gmail.com.


Group Buying Online: 4 Websites


Sure, lots of us still clip coupons from the local paper and are always quick to mail out our rebate forms to get our money back, but how many of us participate in online savings programs that send coupons for local businesses directly to our email accounts? How many of us are even aware that these programs exist?


Coupon and promotion sites have grown recently into the latest money-saving craze on the internet, giving rise to new terms like ‘group buying’ and ‘social network consuming.’ The founders of these sites are looking to leverage the power of social media in order to save consumers money, create sales revenue for businesses, and earn a profit via service fees for organizing the whole package. What this means for you? Huge-savings!


These sites are simple to use and offer many opportunities to save money while patronizing local and national businesses. Basically, they work something like this: you sign up at the site, and you get daily emails about local deals and coupons, which you can then decide to purchase if you’d like or pass up the deal for another one later on. They also have credit opportunities if you refer friends to use the service. Usually these sites will have a limited time span for the deal to go through, and if not enough people pledge to purchase the deal or coupon or rebate, the deal gets canceled. Of course, every site will have its own differences, so you’ll want to look out for what’s best for you. Before you sign up, feel free to do a little more research and make sure the one you choose supports businesses near you.


The sites benefit consumers and businesses because they not only allow people who buy things to save money while enjoying what they most often would usually buy anyway, but also protect businesses that might otherwise lose money with these sales if there was a low turnout of consumers willing to purchase the product. The idea is that in order to break even or make a little bit of profit with these deals, the business needs to attract a certain amount of sales traffic, so often these sites build in a kill switch that stops the deal if a certain amount of pledges haven’t been made. The site refunds the money, thus saving consumers and businesses from a bad transaction.


So, if you’re still interested, here are four online group buying websites to check out:


Groupon, of all the group buying web sites, has earned perhaps the most since opening up shop in 2008.


Jasmere allows you to access its discounts without signing up or joining an online club.


8coupons is based around the number eight: eight deals a day, prices around eight dollars for items, and so on.


Deals.Woot aggregates deals from across the internet, with a sponsored deals section and a community deals section that lists deals recommended by users.


How about you all? Have you ever used group buying websites? If so, which ones did you use? Please share your experiences by commenting below!


Did you like this article? You can get the complete text of all the latest articles at My Personal Finance Journey in your email inbox each evening by clicking the link below and entering your email address. Your address will only be used for mailing you the articles, and each one will include a link so you can unsubscribe at any time.


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**Photo courtesy of http://simplyfantasticbooks.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/money-saving-tips.jpg?w=300&h=300

Who Can Be A Life Insurance Beneficiary?

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Today’s guest post comes to us from Denise Manchini. Denise is a manager with AccuQuote.com, a leading Life Insurance Quotes company providing free term life insurance quotes from some of the top-rated insurance companies in the United States. To learn more about her website, please visit the link above.

Who Can Be A Life Insurance Beneficiary?




It is fairly obvious that your life insurance and long term care insurance policies should name a beneficiary since the sole purpose of a policy is to ensure that your loved ones will be financially supported after your death. Most life insurance policies bequeath their proceedings to their spouse or children, but how this is worded in your life insurance policy is crucial and could avoid disputes and disappointments after your death.

There are very few rules regarding who can be your beneficiary. If you are naming an individual as your beneficiary, some states only allow you to choose a relative. You should consider a few points when naming your beneficiary.

Spouse


Simply designating your life insurance benefits to your “wife” or “husband” may not suffice. Without a specific name, such words may entitle your ex-wife or your ex-husband to have rights to life insurance benefits after your death. It is always advisable to name your wife or husband and to review your life insurance policy after a divorce to make the necessary amendments.

There are special considerations to make if your spouse is a non-U.S. citizen. In such a case, death benefits may be subject to estate tax marital deduction. It may advisable to make a lifetime gift of the policy and make your spouse the owner. You should take the counsel of a professional life insurance advisor.

Children


Naming your children on your life insurance policy may leave out children that are born to you after the policy has been made. It is always advisable to make amendments to your policy after the birth of each child. You need to be very careful with the wordings. “Children of the insured, John Doe” may exclude children from your previous marriage from getting any benefits from your life insurance policy. If you say “Children born from the marriage between Jane and John Doe” it may exclude any adopted children from getting the proceeds of your life insurance benefits.

Not naming your grandchildren as beneficiaries, would exclude the children of any of your deceased children from getting any benefits from your life insurance policy.

Estate


Designating your “estate” as the beneficiary can subject the benefits to the probate process, which can turn out to be lengthy and costly. If your beneficiaries are named, the process of disseminating death benefits is faster.

Other Beneficiaries


You can also name a company as your beneficiary, a charitable organization or donate your proceedings to a “trust”.

Contingent beneficiaries


It is always good to name a second beneficiary or “contingent” in the event that your beneficiary may pre-decease you.

Review Your Life Insurance Policy Periodically

Since no one can tell when your time of death may come, it is always advisable to review your life insurance policy periodically, particularly after major life changes such as a divorce or a birth, to make amendments accordingly.

Most life insurers trust a format that comes with a life insurance application. However, getting professional advice before you make this important decision of designating a beneficiary is important. To avoid any disputes which could leave your loved ones disappointed, make sure your advisors are informed of any change in your beneficiaries that you make after the policy has been in effect.

While you update information on your life insurance policy, you may want to review the policy to check whether you are getting the best deal. In the competitive business of life insurance you may find a cheaper policy for the same amount of coverage which may even include a few free riders. Online life insurance quote providers can provide you with instant quotes to help you evaluate your current policy against what is currently available.

How about you all? Who do you have named as your beneficiary on your policy? If so, can you use any of the tips given above to make your plan more specific?
Did you like this article? You can get the complete text of all the latest articles at My Personal Finance Journey in your email inbox each evening by clicking the link below and entering your email address. Your address will only be used for mailing you the articles, and each one will include a link so you can unsubscribe at any time.

**Photo courtesy of – http://www.lifeinsuranceinformation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/life-insurance1.jpg

Quick, Cheap Meal Ideas for Students

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No time to eat? Think again, these meals are quick, cheap, and healthy.
Today’s guest post comes to us from Louise Baker. Louise is a freelance writer and blogger who usually does car insurance comparisons over at CarinsuranceComparison.Org. She recently wrote about finding cheap car insurance quotes. Enjoy this tasty post! The egg muffin pizza is a personal favorite for me! 🙂

Quick, Cheap Meal Ideas for Students
What is for supper? This age-old question is on everyone’s mind every day. When there is no time to cook and even less money to spend on food, quick, cheap meals are essential for students. The following meal ideas are quick, cheap, and easy to make.

Ham and Cheese Pasta

Ingredients
  • 2 cups uncooked pasta
  • 2 cups frozen broccoli
  • 2 cups ham (cut in cubes)
  • 1 jar cheesy pasta sauce
Preparation

Cook pasta according to package directions, adding in the broccoli for the last five minutes. Drain the pasta and broccoli; add ham, and pasta sauce. Heat over medium heat until sauce is warmed to your liking.

Tips

  • Substitute lunch meat ham
  • Cooks in one pot
  • Makes 2 servings

Chicken Salad Sandwich

Ingredients

  • 1 can of chicken
  • 2 stalks celery (cut up)
  • ½ cup mayonnaise
  • Whole wheat bread
  • 2 tbsp. butter (optional)
Preparation

Mix chicken, celery, and mayonnaise in a bowl and spread on bread. This quick and easy meal has protein, a vegetable, and a whole grain. Store in refrigerator.

Tips

  • May substitute canned tuna or salmon for the chicken.
  • Make it a hot meal by spreading butter on the outside of the bread, put sandwich spread in the middle and heat each side for two to three minutes.

Ravioli and Peas

Ingredients

  • 4 cups frozen ravioli
  • 2 cups frozen peas
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • Parmesan cheese
Preparation

Cook ravioli according to package directions, drain, add frozen peas, and olive oil. Cook over medium heat until peas are warm. Sprinkle with cheese to taste.

Tips

  • May use cheese or beef ravioli
  • Add some tomato sauce for extra flavor
  • May use any type of frozen vegetables that are available

Easy Omelet

Ingredients

  • 2 eggs
  • Salt and pepper
  • Whole wheat bread
  • 2 tbsp milk
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
Preparation

Mix eggs, milk, salt, and pepper. Dip bread into the egg mixture and cook over medium heat for three to four minutes on each side.

Tips

  • Add cut up onion to egg mixture
  • Experiment with different spices and seasonings

English Muffin Pizza

Ingredients

  • 1 English muffin
  • 2 tbsp tomato sauce or salsa
  • 2 tbsp shredded cheese
Preparation

Slice English muffin in two and top each half with tomato sauce or salsa. Sprinkle cheese on top and heat in the toaster oven or microwave until cheese is melted.

Tips

  • Add meat or other vegetables, whatever is available
  • Can substitute bagels for English muffins
These quick, cheap meal ideas are perfect for students, families, or anyone on a tight budget without much time to spend in the kitchen.

How about you all?

Did you like this article? You can get the complete text of all the latest articles at My Personal Finance Journey in your email inbox each evening by clicking the link below and entering your email address. Your address will only be used for mailing you the articles, and each one will include a link so you can unsubscribe at any time.

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**Photo courtesy of http://thefuntimesguide.com/2009/03/college_care_packages.php

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