Do all your little credit card payments often lead you to consider looking for a simpler option? There’s always a debt-consolidation loan. Offers for these financial products are an e-mail box staple. They’re in every bank and on many of the cable television channels. Chances are you get at least twenty signals from advertisers everyday, suggesting this as the solution to your growing debt problem.
A major appeal of consolidation loans is convenience. Instead of paying twenty » Read more…
If you go to one of the national debt clock sites as I did yesterday, it’ll remind you of the pitiful example our government officials are setting for us. The clocks are there help us realize what’s happening. Did you ever see that many numbers? Having trouble comprehending because of all the commas?
Looks different when you » Read more…
Be realistic about getting out of debt. In most households, this is a three to five year commitment. Get everyone in the family involved with the plan. Yes, get the children involved, too. You’ll be teaching them lessons they’ll carry with them and pass onto your grandchildren.
As a family, your lifestyle will inevitably change. Not for the worst, but it’ll change from spending money to enjoying a life involving simpler activities requiring very little cash. Because you’ll be spending money to pay for things you acquired in the past, your family is going to notice they aren’t » Read more…
While digging through a folder, I discovered an article someone had sent about a year ago, by Dan Thahn Dang of the Baltimore Sun.
According to his article, a recent Study of Consumer Preferences found plastic was used for 53% of store purchases. When we combine the credit, debit and prepaid cards, as a nation, we are identifying plastic as » Read more…
Two of our closest friends shared a real shocking admission with us the other evening. We were sitting around the scrabble board and it turns out that they are extremely worried about how to possibly retire. I was completely dumbfounded.
Here is a really great early sixties aged couple, living the upper-middle class lifestyle. We’ll call them Kathy and John. They have the nicest children and two of the greatest grand-children anyone could ask for. She works as » Read more…
Many homeowners with home equity are thinking about hitting that equity like an automatic teller machine for some cash. The total value of their home equity hasn’t completely disappeared during this recent market downturn. After all, most are getting letters announcing rising interest rates from their credit card companies.
Over the past couple of decades we’ve been conditioned by lenders and government policy to use our home’s equity to pay credit card balances, for big weddings, new cars, college tuition and even investing in the stock market.
Home equity lines have become almost like an ATM machine. Well, actually a credit card. After all, they’re structured about the same: You can borrow up to the account limit all at once or take little amounts as you want to spend.
According to Synergistics Research, a financial services » Read more…
Did you ever wonder how they set the speed limit on those hairpin turns on an old, country road? A buddy of mine used to work with the state highway department. He told me a story about how it was done.
Apparently 
fifty to sixty years ago, when they built old, country roads, the roads needed curves because » Read more…
Borrowing has been around since the beginning of time. Using someone else’s money to purchase something turns you into a borrower. That debt then, must be repaid.
The reason lenders let you borrow the needed money is because they make a profit from loaning it to you. They charge » Read more…
Do you find yourself creating debt because it’s simply impossible to get by on the money you bring home? Are you avoiding saving because you can’t simply grasp the idea of life without ALL you earn to make ends meet?
Are your parents attempting to persuade you into saving some of your hard earned money?
Our parents had it a bit easier than we have it today. Well, in one area anyway. Their ability to prevent the massive amounts of consumer debt was » Read more…
Q. In one of your pieces, you discuss the National debt being over ten trillion dollars. We hear about our debt in the media all the time. The government will pay the debt with all the money we send them. Is there any doubt that with the population at over 300 million, ten trillion is not manageable? Without debt our economy wouldn’t be » Read more…
