Debt

It really is possible to pay off your cars - and it puts you at a huge financial advantage!! These are the steps we took to pay off our cars…

This is a guest post from Shannon who is the author of minoritythinker.blogspot.com.
“When I was in Zambia, I was bothered that more people didn’t answer the call to missions,” said Mary, who spent more than two decades as a missionary nurse in Africa. “Now that I am back in the States, I can see that [...]

Recently a discussion popped up in the forums discussing the end of credit card rewards. The discussion was spurred by an article from the NY Times (thanks Krozfan!).
In the article, the author mentions that:
…Congress is moving to limit the penalties on riskier borrowers, who have become a prime source of billions of dollars in fee [...]

Do you have a plan to tackle your debt? It doesn’t necessarily need to be long and drawn out, but everyone should have some sort of debt reduction strategy if they want to get out of debt…

What have you done to manage your debt in light of our current recession? Have you started paying more, or less?

As some of you may know I have been working with the team over at DebtGoal.com in the development of the program. DebtGoal is now up and running and if you are trying to pay off your debt, I encourage you try it out and let me know what you think.

Money doesn’t solve money problems… I know it sounds absurd - doesn’t it? But the truth is that just like an alcoholic doesn’t break free from the addiction by drinking more, our money problems don’t go away with more money either. The reason it sometimes appears that they do, is because it can cover them up - for a while.

Saving money for college vs. retirement …I will say that I completely agree with Dave about this. His stance has always been to save first for retirement and if you have that covered then work on saving for the kids’ college. The simple point is that (worst case) you can take loans for college expenses at reasonable interest rates. While Visa and Mastercard are the only ones offering “Retirement Loans” at 25%. Thinking about it in those terms makes it pretty easy to decide.

Are there circumstances that justify walking away from your mortgage? As mentioned in the Credit Crisis video we are now in the middle of a cycle where home prices are falling, banks have an abundance of foreclosed properties, and supply is high and demand is low. Some homeowners are facing situations where they owe the bank $300,000 for their house, but the house is now only worth $200,000. So they are packing up their things and giving it back to the bank to let them deal with it. Now the bank has to deal with the $100,000 gap.

It is so critically important to reduce your credit card interest rates, if you don’t it will take a whole lot longer to get out of debt. Not to mention that it will cost you hundreds or thousands more in interest charges as well!

SNL recently had this skit called “Don’t buy stuff you can’t afford” and while I didn’t really think it was very funny (but what is on SNL?) it appeared to me to be more of a public service announcement. Watching it, I got the feeling that Loren Michaels (or whatever his name is) was trying to offer a 2 minute section of his show to help those who need it, in a humorous sort of way.

Paying down debts helps us weather the storm… I have been seeing a lot of major companies going out of business lately and it concerns me. I don’t enjoy seeing businesses fail and especially when you think about all the families who are greatly impacted by it. I don’t have a solution to solving the economy’s problems, but I will say that one of the best things we can do to be better positioned to weather the storm is to minimize our debts.

These are some simple ways to become poor… 1. Spend more than you make - Actually if you only do #1, you won’t have to worry about the other 9. This is the easiest way for anyone to become poor. It doesn’t matter if you make millions or hundreds each month, the same principle applies.

I was recently reading this article about the Obama tax cut and it really got me wondering if it is going to help at all. Personally, I am a bit more on the side of letting the economy resolve it’s problems rather than having government intervene, but I do understand that we are currently at a critical point and Obama sees no other way to fix it than a tax cut.

A $75 incentive to try it out Right now, for the first 30 participants only , they are offering $75 to try it out and participate in a couple user surveys (about 2-3 hours total) over the next few months.

… $75 for your feedback on new debt reduction service Fill out this short form to earn $75 for participating in a usability study for DebtGoal.com, a service that helps you set up and track against a debt reduction plan.

…How to not worry about your finances 10 businesses you can start for cheap/free Have some fun without spending a lot of money And these are a few carnvials CPF has been featured in lately…

I just saw this article called “My credit card was cancelled” on the money section of CNN.com. In it a reader asks a question about why her credit card company closed her account and how it would affect her credit score. The answer was a new one to me…

This isn’t really surprising if you think about it, but we can be sure that the credit card companies will be changing some policies as they adapt.

…The good news is that there have been so many complaints over the last few years that the government has stepped in and is creating new rules to prevent credit card companies from doing this. … Card companies will have to give consumers 45 days notice of any interest rate changes, up from the 15-day notice period currently in force, and give them more time to make payments.