Ebaying in effort to get Debt Free

In my efforts to get debt free, I am again taking some items to Ebay.


Take a look, and maybe bid (buy) an item or two from my collection.







---
go ahead share your thoughts with me now.




Get Paid to Sign Up, Refer Others, Read E-Mail, Complete Offers, and More!

Review: How To Get Out Of Debt

Being in debt to a tune of around $12,000 (currently) with an annual earnings of about $19,500 (2007), I was excited when a promoter contacted me and asked me to review, "How to Get Out of Debt," by Harrine Freeman.

Reading her book, her story sounded a lot like my own, and for good reason. Freeman herself was once $19,000 in debt while earning $21,000 a year. However, she learned how to climb out of debt without filing for bankruptcy and shares her personal story and strategies that she's used for thousands of clients in her book, How to Get Out of Debt; Get an A Credit Rating for Free.

There are somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 million Americans who are in debt and receive bad credit ratings every year, according to the Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO). They have no idea how to get out of debt, and more than 1 million of these debt-ridden men and women file for bankruptcy each year. Now with this book, you can learn how to clean up your FICO score for free, without using one of those rip off "credit repair" places.

As a personal finance blogger, I have read a lot of books on this subject. Harrine Freeman recommends a method very similar to Dave Ramsey, in which one uses small and attainable goals. Pick the smallest debt you have, let's say it is $100, and pay it! That debt is gone, and you can move to next. Simply put you can 'Nickel and dime' your way out of debt.

It is a good concept, one that I myself am already using to get out of debt. The author recommends this method from her own personal experience. Much the same as personal finance guru Ramsey does. Freeman's debt, was from misuse of credit cards, used for fun rather then necessities. Which also means that this wasn't student loan or medical debt that plaques so many Americans. There are differences, however, between Ramsey and Freeman. For one, she seems to worship at the altar of the FICO score. Much of her book talks about rebuilding your credit. I do applaud her as she recommends staying away from the so called credit repair places. All they will do is take your money and give you empty promises.

She explained paying the minimum payment on the credit card means that you are going to pay for that item three times. In other words, that $5 coke and sandwich that you charge at lunch, will cost you $15. Is that scary or what? I know, some of you have thought I was crazy when, I have said the same thing previously in this blog. Perhaps, you should read this book and see what she has to say, for yourself. I really enjoyed it, and it really is a well written book without all those mind numbing calculations that so many finance books throw at you.

The book hit the shelves in November 2006, so you shouldn't have to much trouble finding it. You can easily find it by visiting Amazon.com.



---
go ahead share your thoughts with me now.






Get Paid to Sign Up, Refer Others, Read E-Mail, Complete Offers, and More!

Free McDonald's? Really?

---
And that's my view, what's yours?




Get Paid to Sign Up, Refer Others, Read E-Mail, Complete Offers, and More!

Video Promotes Stealing

I just found a video on Facebook, entitled "How to get a free meal at McDonald's." To put it simply. The answer is called stealing. Here see what I mean.



Do people really think they can get away with that.


---
go ahead share your thoughts with me now.




Get Paid to Sign Up, Refer Others, Read E-Mail, Complete Offers, and More!

Was Jimmy Carter Right on Economics?

In the past 2-years I have read much about American consumption. The dreadful decline in our savings savings as we spend more then we earn. With each year, it seems to get worse. Is it any wonder, that our economy is beginning to collapse? You can support the economy for only so long, before over spending will fall in top of you. Look at from a personal angle. If you earn $30,000/year but spend $35,000/year, how long do you think you can do that, before you fall financially. Eventually, you either have to cut spending or file bankruptcy (and cut spending). Back in 1979, Jimmy Carter tried to warn us.

In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We've learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.
- Jimmy Carter, 7/15/1979

Carter's speech, which you can read in it's entirety online, as well as his pessimistic attitude was so unpopular (his popularity was only 25%) that he was defeated in a landslid by Ronald Reagan, in 1980. Since then, no President of either party has dared talk about our over consumption. Instead, they have tried to pump it up.

In the same speech, Carter said,

The symptoms of this crisis of the American spirit are all around us. For the first time in the history of our country a majority of our people believe that the next 5 years will be worse than the past 5 years. Two-thirds of our people do not even vote. The productivity of American workers is actually dropping, and the willingness of Americans to save for the future has fallen below that of all other people in the Western world.

As you know, there is a growing disrespect for government and for churches and for schools, the news media, and other institutions. This is not a message of happiness or reassurance, but it is the truth and it is a warning.

These changes did not happen overnight. They've come upon us gradually over the last generation, years that were filled with shocks and tragedy.

We were sure that ours was a nation of the ballot, not the bullet, until the murders of John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. We were taught that our armies were always invincible and our causes were always just, only to suffer the agony of Vietnam. We respected the Presidency as a place of honor until the shock of Water gate.

We remember when the phrase "sound as a dollar" was an expression of absolute dependability, until 10 years of inflation began to shrink our dollar and our savings. We believed that our Nation's resources were limitless until 1973, when we had to face a growing dependence on foreign oil.

Over the years, I criticized the Carter administration. It was however, Reagan, who got me interested in politics. Even though I loved how Carter has helped the poor through habitat for humanity, since leaving office. However, as watched the documentary "Affluenza," and now locating Carter's speech, I have even more respect for at certain aspects of his administration. We are beginning to see more then ever the very things Carter was trying to warn us about 29-years ago.

The answer to correct it, is simple. All though, it is an unpopular idea. Cut spending. Live on less then you make and put the remaining into savings.



---
go ahead share your thoughts with me now.



Get Paid to Sign Up, Refer Others, Read E-Mail, Complete Offers, and More!

Linkage Updates

I created a link page today. Every single site i was linked to yesterday, I am stilled linked to, but I now have a link page. The handful of sites that actually link back to me on their front page, are now the only Personal-finance sites that I link to on my front page. Just because a site was moved to my new link page, doesn't mean they don't link to me. Some of them link to me, but not on their front page. To get to the link page, a link at the bottom of the Personal-finance blogs links, guides readers to the rest of the links. In doing this, it should make my front page open easier and faster.



---
go ahead share your thoughts with me now.






Get Paid to Sign Up, Refer Others, Read E-Mail, Complete Offers, and More!

AmeriFirst Annoys Me

I am fighting with Amerifirst again this month. They had me on lower payments, through the month of February. Now I am back to regular payments. Payments are due on the 10th of each month. I have been sending them $20 a week ($80/month), but thy claim they have only received $60/month. What they are doing is, as I learned as I talked with the supervisor, is not counting the payment on Feb 22 or 29th as payment for the 3/10 due date. Instead they are applying it to the past month and charging me a $10 late charge, because they only received $60 by the 21st (keep in mind the due date is the 10th). So they expect me to send them $80 by 4/10, but the payment they received on 3/25 doesn't count. Seems they want it both ways, so that they can charge me that late fee. Once again, after I complained they have agreed to waive the late fee, but I MUST get them an additional $80 (as I mentioned) by the April due date. I am getting tired of this rip off company. I really want to get the cash and pay them off like I planned.

On top of that, before I was given the supervisor, the person spent 10 minutes explaining how he made a mistake in calling me a lady, even after I pointed out what my name was. Further, explaining that he made a mistake by not scrolling the screen and seeing the other payments that I had been claiming to have made. As I said, I will be glad when I can get rid of this company that rips you off and is so freaking rude.

	Amerifirst Home Improvement Fina	$10.00	Success	2/5/2008
	Amerifirst Home Improvement Fina	$30.00	Success	2/12/2008
	Amerifirst Home Improvement Fina	$20.00	Success	2/19/2008
	Amerifirst Home Improvement Fina	$20.00	Success	2/26/2008
	Amerifirst Home Improvement Fina	$20.00	Success	3/4/2008
	Amerifirst Home Improvement Fina	$20.00	Success	3/11/2008
	Amerifirst Home Improvement Fina	$20.00	Success	3/18/2008
	Amerifirst Home Improvement Fina	$20.00	Success	3/25/2008
	Amerifirst Home Improvement Fina	$20.00	Success	4/1/2008

---
go ahead share your thoughts with me now.






Get Paid to Sign Up, Refer Others, Read E-Mail, Complete Offers, and More!