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  • Use credit cards -- and make money

    Posted May 07 2008, 12:07 PM by Karen Datko
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    Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money

    This tip from reader "kara17" is a good one, but only if you have unwavering discipline:

    We put absolutely everything on credit cards with cashback rewards. (Warning: This obviously doesn't work if you don't pay your full balance every month. If you're paying 15% interest, a 5% cashback reward isn't doing much good.) We both have cards (from different companies -- one from Discover and one from Citi) with 5% cash back on gas, 3% cash back on groceries, and 1% cash back on all other purchases. There is a limit on how much you can get 5% cash back on (I think ours is $2,000 a year), so once we hit that limit, we switch to using the other card we have. These percentages may not seem high, but if you put everything on the cards, the cashback savings really add up.   Read More...

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  • 'Room to breathe has no price tag'

    Posted Nov 14 2007, 10:01 AM by Donna Freedman
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    Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
    A month ago today, I became debt-free – made the last payment to a relative who had lent me some money. This loan had allowed me to throw a big chunk of cash against credit card debt accrued during divorce proceedings. (Lawyers bill by the hour, you know.) Once the credit card was paid in full, I started repaying the family loan. As money came in through diligence or chance, I’d let it build to $300 and then write a check. I'm not sure why $300 became the magic number; it just sounded good. Now I'm debt-free: no student loans (I'm blessed with a scholarship), no car payment (please let it last another six or seven years), no credit card debt (and there won't be any more). It feels about how you'd think it would: pretty darned great. 'A perpetual grin' This relative wasn’t dunning me. But it bothered me to owe money. Some people count sheep; at night I would lie in bed counting ways to stretch available funds to reach the next $300. Reading some postings from a Smart Spending message board   Read More...
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