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Archive results for “August of 2007”
On this page you will find the search results for the search term that you queried.
Wisebread has a pretty funny article on frugal things my mom does - packet squeezing. If you check it out, make sure you read the comments too.
Family Man discusses growing up now and then. He’s only a few years older than me, so his whole post hits close to home. Oh, and if you watch the last video he posted…you might want to grab some tissue. Good stuff.
Lastly, a fellow shout-out to a fellow personal finance blogger who is the new person behind About.com’s Financial Planning subject. Congrats to Jeremy from Generation X Finance!
I don’t know about all of you, but this weekend we are using the extra day off to do quite a few things around the house (shhh…don’t tell my husband, he doesn’t know yet LOL). Don’t worry, we’ll have some fun too 
Hope you enjoy your weekend!
I’ve been trying to write the post that details my financial fear. The more I try to explain my fear and give examples of it, the more I realize how much of an impact that fear has had on my life. It’s spans further than just a financial fear. It impacts many areas of my life including this blog.
It’s a little hard to swallow and the further I get with writing the post, the harder it is becoming. It’s not easy to take such a deep look at what makes you tick. Especially when you realize that you are not sure how to overcome your fear because I’m trying to figure that out while writing it.
I do want to share it with you, but I think it will take me longer than I expected. I just can’t seem to concentrate tonight. Too much going on, I guess. I think I am going to take a shower and go to bed a little early and try again tomorrow.
John Leland from the New York Times is again discussing debt (he’s the one who interviewed me back in February). This time, he’s discussing payday loans and a new thing out there called non-profit payday loans.
Payday loans are notorious for charging huge amounts of interest in the neighborhood of 500%+. Way back when, I almost worked at a payday loan place and while I didn’t know too much back then about finance, I knew that the rates they charged were very high. Needless to say, I got a call back but I told them I wasn’t interested. Now that I know more about finance, I’m glad I did that.
Non-profit payday loans (sometimes called alternate payday loans) sound a little better. They are non-profit, right? But are they really that much better than payday loans?
“…alternative payday loans have also drawn criticism from some consumer advocates, who say the programs are too similar to for-profit payday loans, especially when they call for the principal to be repaid in two weeks. At GoodMoney, for example, borrowers pay $9.90 for every $100 they borrow, which translates to an annual rate of 252 percent.”
[Via New York Times.com]
252%!!!
I’ll give the non-profit payday loans one thing…compared to payday loans they are technically better since they have a lower interest rate and it appears that some organizations will work with you to try to help you with your debt. But that isn’t enough to help people avoid the debt traps that payday loans (of any type) create. To me, they will remain a prime example of predatory lending for they target those who have a need for money and little knowledge about interest rates.
I’ve read stories online from those who have been trapped by payday loans. I’ve even tried to get an interview once from someone that I’ve talked to, but it didn’t work out. If anyone reading would like to share their story about payday loans, I’d love to hear it and share it on here.
I was contacted by Jim at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity. He was wondering if I would be interested in an article that discusses how 0% balance transfers may not always be the best thing to go after. This is the guy that often disputes common personal finance “rules of thumb” with his Devil’s Advocate posts. Knowing that he’s good at presenting a less represented side of the story, I told Jim I’d be very interested. He didn’t disappoint…
0% Balance Transfers Are The Bait, Understand The Trap
Nothing in life is free right? So why are credit card companies so eager to offer a 0% balance transfer to you? What does a mouse see when he sees a cheese laden mousetrap? He sees the cheese. What he doesn’t see it the bone-crushing striker panel that will flip whenever he snatches up the juicy piece of Cheddar he smells. What does someone in debt see when they are offered a wonderful 0% balance transfer? They see 12 months of interest free breathing room, where their payments go towards principal, and a little respite against the daily battle. I’ll help you see the rest of the trap.
Trap #1: Fees
If you aren’t careful, the 0% balance transfer offer may come with a balance transfer fee of 3%, which will cut into how awesome of an offer that is. In fact, while some companies do have caps on the fee, others, such as some Chase cards, don’t have a cap. Read the fine print very very carefully because if you apply for a card with a fee and then don’t use the transfer, you might be tempted to use it anyway because your credit score already took a hit for the new card. Don’t put yourself in that situation!
Trap #2: Interest Rate After Promotion
You probably know your aggregate interest rate this very second… so how does the post-promotional rate of the credit card compare? Does it make sense? If you have a 9.99% interest rate for life on a loan, it may not make sense to get a 0% interest rate for a year and then have it spike up to 19.99% afterwards… especially if you plan on taking more than a year to pay it off. However, if you think the 0% will let you pay down the debt so fast that you can get rid of it within the promotional time period… then it’s definitely a good deal. You need to do the math and figure out if it’s really the right decision for you.
Trap #3: They Trust You To Fail
Let’s be honest… you’re in debt for a reason, you spent more than you earned. While it’s not the worst thing in the world, it’s something the credit cards depend on. They depend on the fact that the probabilities are telling them that offering you a 0% balance transfer is going to earn them way more money than it is going to save you. What you need to do is to make sure, before you take on the offer, that you can change your previous behavior so that you don’t become profitable for the credit cards. They are counting on you to make yourself poorer, that’s the biggest trap of all.
There you have it, the three headed monster that stands behind each and every 0% balance transfer. Now that you are aware of it, it’s up to you to look at each of these offers in a new light and see them as more than free cash.
Note from Tricia: Often, on financial blogs, you will see links for credit card offers. These are usually referral links. The above links will take you to Jim’s sites where he has credit card offers listed. He makes a commission on each sale. As a blogger, I know about this, but I wanted to make sure you were aware. I don’t endorse obtaining new credit, but if you are going to do it anyway, the lists that bloggers like Jim produce can be very helpful in helping you select a card to apply for, since they often list the particular perks of each card and their offers.
One man had the idea of starting a blog where he featured the secrets of others. If you had a secret, all you had to do what to send him a postcard with your secret and send it to his address. He would go through them and post some of them on his blog.
That idea turned into something bigger. His site is now the “largest advertisement-free Blog on the web” and he has books where he has published the secrets of others.
The site is called Post Secret. I used to check out the site more regularly (the site is updated with new secrets on Sunday), but I actually forgot about the site for a little while there. Sometimes the secrets are funny, sometimes they are downright sad.
I have to thank Chris for bringing to my attention one of the latest secrets:
How very true that secret is, and I think it perfectly depicts the struggle that some of us in debt face. The words are powerful, and so is the postcard itself. While other postcards are fancier, this one was done on a white postcard using two different colored markers. That’s all.
15 words + 1 postcard = Strong Message about Debt
Looking around my site, you’ll see that I have a little graphic ad on the left hand side. Above it, I wrote “Great Organization.” This is not a paid ad, and I receive no compensation for having the ad on my site. Rather, that ad is there because I want it to be there.
I’ve discussed Modest Needs before, but I haven’t mentioned them in a while. To read what I wrote about them before, you can click here. For those new to reading my blog, I wanted to point them out again.
If you are experiencing a difficult time financially due to unforseen circumstances, you can turn to Modest Needs. A few examples of people they have helped:
- A woman needed a scooter to help her get around.
- Someone needed a hearing aid repaired.
- A woman needed help affording materials to get her G.E.D.
If you have some tissue handy, go ahead and read the testimonials page.
I love this organization, and I support it 100%. There are many requests that are looking to be funded, so if you are looking for an organization to support, you can become a donor at Modest Needs. Right now, thanks to a matching grant, your donation will be matched dollar for dollar. So if you donate $10, it turns into $20 that can help a family through a difficult time and hopefully keep them from the downward spiral that many of us in debt can probably relate to.
So if you need a little help, maybe Modest Needs can help you. Or, if you are looking for an organization to support, perhaps Modest Needs is one you would like to help. This organization does not spend their donations on advertising. Rather, they are hoping word of mouth will get the word out about them. I’m proud to help spread the word.
When I wrote about being back home, I mentioned that I had an an almost paralyzing fear when we visited a very high tower.
A commenter thought that maybe we were in Toronto or Seattle. Now, those are some towers! I guess the one I was in may not be very high to some, but it sure was to me!
The tower I was in was actually in Michigan and it is 210 feet high. Originally built by a Catholic Church as the Shrine of the Missionaries, the church later cut the project and now it houses a little museum on the ground floor and you can ride an elevator to some observation decks. We decided to pay the $12.00 fee and check out the view. The view was great, but my land legs didn’t do so well.
I almost freaked out. I started feeling my legs giving out from underneath me. It was a windy day, and this tower is just that…a tower. It’s not a tall building that has offices or even has anything between the ground floor and the observation decks (if it did, it would be more stable in my mind). Not to mention it’s pure concrete. The more I thought about the structure I started worrying more about how stable it was and the more scared I became.
I was very ready to go back down on the elevator. By that time, I was near meltdown and even the elevator ride started to get me nervous. What if the cable broke? What if we plummeted to the ground? The only thing that kept me together was my son right there next to me. I know I would have lost it if it was just me and my husband.
Sometimes I really don’t understand my fear of heights. I mean, this tower visit really showed how scared I am and I probably will not go in that tower again. But, some of you remember that I like small airplane rides. Adding to that, one of the things I want to do when we are better off financially is to go parasailing. Just goes to show how complex the mind can be, I guess.
Writing this post made me think about financial fears and whether I have any. I actually do have one, and it’s one that probably holds us back financially. I sometimes have a hard time getting the words out when I write posts like that, but I’ll try to explain my financial fear this week.
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