Can you go one month without using plastic?

~Manda

Money money money money
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Debt

David presents How to Eliminate Credit Card Debt posted at Worldwide Success.

Pinyo presents My Foray into Prosper as a P2P Lender posted at Moolanomy.

glblguy presents Chase doesn’t really love me they just act like it posted at Gather Little By Little.

Alison presents The Story Of Our Emergency Fund posted at This Wasn’t in The Plan.

Free From Broke presents Family – Can’t Live With ‘Em…Unless It Helps Debt posted at Free From Broke.

monawea presents Why Baby Steps Are So Important – Decision Happen Now, Results Take Time posted at Time To Budget.

Investing

Value Seeker presents Why Most Investors Underperform The Market posted at Stock Investing.

Dereck Coatney presents How To Make A Million Dollars In About 8 Years posted at The Best Stock Trading in the World.

The Investor’s Journal presents Lessons from the Dot-com Bubble posted at The Investor’s Journal.

Super Saver presents Staying Calm In A Volatile Market posted at My Wealth Builder.

FIRE Finance presents Our 7 Mutual Fund Investing Mistakes! posted at FIRE Finance.

Brip Blap presents learning to walk away posted at brip blap.

Pivotal Investor presents Top 10 Growth Stocks For Under $10 posted at Pivotal Investing.

Net Worth

Jacob presents Early Retirement Extreme: On how car dealerships helped me save money posted at Early Retirement Extreme.

Business

Woody Maxim presents What will you do with the message? posted at Woody Maxim.

Blaine presents Something From Nothing- Think Big, Start Small posted at BlainePower.com.

Sutocu presents Domain Name as a Business Brand posted at Your Website Profit.

Silicon Valley Blogger presents How Christmas Can Cost Your Life’s Savings posted at The Digerati Life.

Peter25 presents Building Relationships For Business Growth posted at Business Opportunities.

Blaine presents Business venture is starting to take root posted at BlainePower.com.

Kenton Newby presents Can You Really Make Money Showing People “How To”? posted at KentonNewby.com.

Credit

Credit Help presents Do Capital One Credit Cards Work Abroad? posted at The Truth About CreditCards.com.

Ted presents Using a Credit Card in College posted at The Campus Grotto.

General

FMF presents Sumo Omni: My Son’s Dream Come True (And How You Can Win One) posted at Free Money Finance.

James D. Brausch presents The $200 Horse posted at jamesbrausch.com.

Lynnae presents How Much Emergency Fund Do You Need? posted at beingfrugal.net.

JS presents Six True Stories of People Who Found Cash and Turned it In. Part 2 posted at Smart Money Daily.

paidtwice presents My Lack of Organization Costs Me Money posted at I’ve Paid For This Twice Already….

Ashley presents Why Didn’t I Major in Finance? posted at College of Cash.

supermom_in_ny presents Do You Have Money You Don’t Know About? posted at Getting Out of Debt.

Madison presents Volunteer Income Tax Assistance posted at My Dollar Plan.

Raymond presents Sometimes Saving Money Isn’t Worth The Extra Time and Effort posted at Money Blue Book.

Eden presents What I Have Learned Since Starting My ‘Finance and Fat’ Turnaround posted at Finance and Fat.

Paula presents Sleeping With Money: Going Along for the Ride posted at Queercents.

David presents Customer Service At Its Best – Thanks SmugMug. posted at My Two Dollars.

Blaine presents Frugality, America’s worst nightmare posted at BlainePower.com.

Joshua C. Karlin presents An Amazing Story posted at Marketing & Fundraising Ideas.

Silicon Valley Blogger presents How Christmas Can Cost Your Life’s Savings posted at The Digerati Life.

wilson ng presents No Luggage, No Hand Carrys in the Final Journey of Life posted at Reflections of a BizDrivenLife.

JP presents Being frugal posted at Watch Me Become A Millionaire.

That concludes this edition of the Carnival of Money stories. Submit your articles to the next carnival here.

What I am about to say is not something I think Dave Ramsey would not agree with but I find it the only way I can keep from letting my existing credit card debt take over my life. Despite Dave Ramsey’s suggestion of canceling all credit cards we had decided to leave some open.

The reason we have decided to do this is because banks are cleaver and will find any way they can to get as much money from you as they can. Most credit cards now offer some great interest rates that are worth taking advantage of if the purpose is to transfer an existing balance. However if you happen to be late just one time that great interest rate will no longer exist. Not only will it not exist you will have to live with the high interests rates that are in the 20 percent range.

So what happens when your interest rate is now in the 20 percent range? Your payments jump to 2 to 3 times (maybe more) larger than they were before. Guess what happens when you go from a $200 a month payment to a $400 a month payment? If you are like us there is no way you can make the payment which means the cycle of becoming delinquent starts. The high payments making it impossible for you to pay the entire amount as well as the late fees and overdraft fees you can’t afford to pay either. If you become delinquent on the credit card then you risk getting bad credit scores as well.

At this point any hopes of snowballing your debt becomes almost an impossibility. You are struggling just to make the minimum payment that will never pay your debt down with the high interest rate. So what if you had kept a few credit cards open so that if this scenario where to happen you would be able to transfer your debt to lower interest rate card? If you keep your credit good then you are likely to get a good rate on another card or cards.

We are all human and from it’s possible that one month we forgot to make a payment on time. It’s unfortunate that credit card companies penalize you so heavily for just having one late payment but they do. They do this because they want to get as much money out of you as they can. We can keep from becoming delinquent or paying high interests rates just by playing them at there own game. If you can avoid it don’t let your credit scores get bad so that you can opt to transfer balances when needed.

Now, I am not a personal finance counselor or professional so take my advice with that understanding. I have just found this works for my family. I am not interested in paying the highest interests rates possible on my credit card debt so by keep a few cards open and maintaining good credit I am eliminating that potential.

Remember this is not a “keep credit cards in case of an emergency” situation. We have not used credit cards for purchases in two years and don’t plan on ever doing so. If you are using your credit cards for purchases then STOP. You don’t need credit cards anymore. You need to change the way you are handling your money. But if you keep a few cards open don’t hesitate to get the best interest rate possible so that you can pay that debt off.

I was reading a story to my son the other day out of his school literature textbook and it reminded me of myself and how I view life at times. The story is Eleven and was written by Sandra Cisneros. In the story there is girl who just turned eleven but doesn’t feel like it. In fact she throughout her birthday she experiences the feeling of being all the ages she already went through but not eleven. She goes through a somewhat traumatic experiences while she was at school on the day of her birthday. The teacher tells her to take home an ugly smelly sweater that wasn’t hers. She tries to tell the teacher that it’s not hers but the teacher basically ignores her. The teacher even tells her to put the smelly sweater on.

This is when I wish I wasn’t eleven, because all the years inside of me – ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two and one -are pushing at the back of my eyes when I put one arm through one sleeve of the sweater that smells like cottage cheese, and then the other arm through the other and stand there with my arms apart like if the sweater hurts me and it does, all itchy and full of germs that aren’t even mine.

The story goes on to say that she couldn’t control her emotions any longer and she starts to cry uncontrollably. Not just tears rolling down her face either.

I’m eleven and it’s my birthday today and I’m crying like I’m three in front of everybody. I put my head down on the desk and bury my face in my stupid clown-sweater arms. My face all hot and spit coming out of my mouth because I can’t stop the little animal noises from coming out of me, until there aren’t any more tears left in my eyes, and it’s just my body shaking like when you have the hiccups, and my whole head hurts like when you drink milk to fast.

Strangely enough I could completely to relate to this story. It’s been a while since I have cried from embarrassment like the girl in the story but many times, in fact probably on a daily basis, I feel as though I am a child still. Sometimes I don’t want to be thirty-something. I just want to be six or thirteen or even eleven again. I don’t want to have to pay bills and have stress over life’s worries. I don’t always want to do house work or any type of work for that matter. Lying in bed all day with a favorite blankie sounds strangely comforting . Then I have to remind myself I am an adult.

I am an adult with responsibilities that are important for myself, my family my country and even the world. Life was never promised to be easy and even though I may feel like reverting back to a child I can’t so I might as well start thinking like an adult. With regards to handling money, I have to remind myself as an adult I should be able to say no to certain buying impulses. I have to say no to laziness and selfishness.

Fond memories of childhood are good but these memories should stay memories and not turn to actions. I do realize there will be times throughout my life that I many not be able to keep those childhood years from coming up in tears or mini tantrums but I should alway making being an adult who I am. Especially since there is no chance of me ever being a child again.

Right now you are either thinking I am insane or you can totally relate with me. Either way the moral of the my story is to grow up and take control of your finances. Don’t let the child inside you run your life.

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Tags: debt, debt+freedom, borrowing+money, credit+cards, financial+advice

1. Figure out how much you owe. Gather all your credit card statements and make a list that includes the interest rates, total amounts you owe and minimum monthly payments. List the cards by the interest rates they charge with the highest rate first and so on. “A lot of people have lost track of what they owe,” says Gerri Detweiler, author of “The Ultimate Credit Handbook.” This is actually a good tip. We should know how much we owe so we can be active about paying the debt off. I don’t know anything about the book they mentioned.
2. Keep the two cards with the lowest rates. Cut up the others. Write to the card issuers and close the accounts. (One caveat: Check the terms of use before you cancel. Some credit issuers charge higher interest rates on the remaining balance due to people who close their accounts. If this is the case on one of your cards, pay it off and then cancel.) >>>>> No, No, No! Don’t keep any credit cards. Contrary to popular belief, a savings account with an emergency fund is better than saving a credit card for “emergencies”.
3. If you don’t have a card with an interest rate of less than 14%, get one. I agree with this only if you are planning on transferring other credit card balances over to the new card and take steps to pay off all your credit card debt.
4. Resolve that you will use your cards only for essentials over the next six months. For other purchases, use cash or a debit card. >>>> Absolutely Not!!!! You don’t need credit cards. Say that with me “YOU DON’T NEED CREDIT CARDS”. Always use money you have, not money you hope to have or money you have to make payments. Debit cards and cash is the only way to go.
5. Add up your minimum monthly payments. Credit cards often require very low minimums. Follow them and you will be paying forever. For instance, if you owe $1,000 on a card with a 17% interest rate, experts say it might take you 12 years and cost you $979 (in addition to the principal) to pay it off if you make only the minimum payments. >>>> Make minimum payments until you have a budget in place and at least $1,000 for emergencies saved up. Then use Dave Ramsey’s debt snowball approach to getting out of debt.
6. Calculate how much you can pay over the minimum. Really stretch your budget. For instance, let’s suppose the minimum payments on your credit cards total $350 a month. What could you pay if you really stretched? How about $750? No pain, no gain. >>>> Like I said, Dave Ramsey’s debt snowball approach is the best.
7. Apply all of your additional repayments to the card with the highest rate. If two cards have the same rate, put the additional money on the card with the largest balance. Dave Ramsey would recommend paying off the lowest balance first. The gives one a sense of accomplishment which is very important when trying to stay focussed on debt freedom.
8. Consolidate your debt. Many credit card issuers offer introductory rates as low as 3.9% for six months. If you’re really serious about getting out of debt in a hurry, transfer your largest, high-rate balances to a card with an extremely low rate and pay them down aggressively. I agree with the first part of this. If you can get a lower interest rate, go for it. I still think it’s best to pay off the lowest balance first.
9. Pay the minimum on your lowest rate cards until you’ve paid off the balance on the more expensive cards. I would recommend the Debt Snowball approach.
10. Consider using your savings to get out of debt. Sure it sounds harsh. But if you put together a balance sheet, your debt would cancel out your savings anyway. If they’re in the bank, you’re probably earning just over 3.2% to carry debt at 18% or more. What’s about emergencies??? If you have a savings keep at least $1,000 of it and use the rest to pay off or down your credit card debt. If you clear out your savings and then have an emergency then what will be your first temptation? To use the credit card, right? Don’t use the credit card anymore!

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Best book you could buy to really find sound financial tips on getting out of debt is Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover.

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I remember a few years back I was working a part time job that was actually ‘extra’ money for our family. My husband and I decided we were going to use the money I made from this job to buy new furniture. We could have opted to put these items on credit cards but instead we went the lay-away route. Every paycheck I would go over to the furniture store and pay on the lay-away. There was a definite satisfaction that came from knowing that each dollar I put into the lay-away was going to pay for my furniture. There was no interest added because the items were still at the furniture store. It was an uncomplicated transaction and even more satisfaction came when we paid off the lay-away and brought the furniture home.

We bought and entire bedroom set and by having a little patience it was paid in full with no interest added. What happen to the days when people paid in full for things. It used to be that you would pay for a car – in full? What happen to world that said I will save and then I will buy? Very few people in the US treat spending this way anymore.

Next time you are tempted to by furniture on a credit card try lay-away. You might be amazed at how rewarding it is to pay it in full before you take it home.

Looking for free solid financial advice? Visit Dave Ramsey.

Tags: borrow+money, credit+cards, 90+days+same+as+cash

Let’s first image life with out credit or any sort of money borrowing. What would you do if you could not borrow money? Would life be really horrible if you could not have things instantly but instead took planning and saving. I think many people would say yes life would be horrible if this were the case. I don’t know that I can change the minds of people with this type of mentality but I would like for you to humor me for a minute and ask yourself this question honestly.

Does it feel better to buy things with cash that you know you have set aside for an item or to buy the item using a credit card or borrowed money?

It’s a simple question but if you are serious about change it requires an answer. If your answer was yes it feels better to buy with cash then why not just buy with cash (or debit card)all of the time. Yes, it would require intentional thought and the dreaded word,  ”budgeting“.  But the sooner you decide your are going to take your money management seriously the sooner you will gain financial freedom. The sooner you decide that using credit cards is not wise money management the sooner you will be debt free.

More than likely I will get one of those “I pay it off every month” readers. Ok, you pay it off. Why not just pay for it and not risk the possiblity of forgetting to make a payment or having to pay for an emergency instead of your credit card balance. You can play the “I’ll pay it off every month” game but one of these days it will bite you in the butt.