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Posted
Aug 05 2008, 05:13 AM
by
Karen Datko
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This post comes from partner blog Blueprint for Financial Prosperity: I've never liked having debt because I've always felt uncomfortable owing someone money. When it comes to major purchases like a home, it's usually unavoidable; but for smaller- ticket items, I avoid debt like the plague because I know it's a slippery slope. You start owing a little here, a little there, and the next thing you know you're making large monthly payments with little to show for it. But we've all been there; we all slip up. Whether it's eating too much at a meal, spending too much when you're out with friends, or something else, stuff happens and you deal. Well, if debt happened and you're looking for some tips on how to get it unhappened, I'd like you to check out these 10 steps I've learned over the years.
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Posted
Aug 04 2008, 06:06 AM
by
Karen Datko
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This post comes from J.D. Roth at partner blog Get Rich Slowly. When I was a sophomore in college, I got my first credit card. I thought it was awesome -- it was like free money. Soon I got another credit card, and before long I'd maxed them both out. I entered the workforce with a handicap. I had the start of a nasty credit habit. My parents had never been good with money, and as a result I had no notion of proper financial skills. I made some bad decisions, which were in turn compounded by some rotten luck. Just five years after graduation, I had about $20,000 in credit card debt. For the next decade I tried to kick the habit. Sometimes I'd make progress, but then I'd find other ways to fall behind. Here are some of the mistakes I made along the way and the steps I took to correct them.
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Posted
Aug 01 2008, 01:11 AM
by
Donna Freedman
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Gas is expensive and food is going higher and higher. I'm not talking about today -- I'm flashing back to my teenage years. Times were tight between 1974 and 1976, when I ran the household for my father and younger brother. I remember how quickly the grocery money evaporated even though I made all our meals, desserts and snacks from scratch. Gasoline was not only costly but rationed during what was widely referred to as the "energy crisis."
People combined errands and stayed home a lot more. They cut back on nonessential foodstuffs, did without entertainment and new clothes, and generally tried to make their dollars go further. But this austerity didn't last. The age of conspicuous consumption cranked up in the 1980s, and cars seemed to get bigger each year. More than a few times I've said to myself, or to others, "Have we learned nothing from the '70s?"
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Posted
Jul 15 2008, 11:02 AM
by
Karen Datko
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We like the new blogger who posts at Sallie's Niece. She "went to school thanks to my Aunt Sallie Mae," her site says. "Now watch me struggle to pay and pay." She owes $72,735 to Sallie Mae, and that's not including a nearly equal amount in private loans. Sometimes it is a struggle. She has done battle with the "Evil Overdraft Monster" and payday loans. Her latest nemesis -- now vanquished after two years -- was the gyros truck outside her workplace. "At five days a week for three months each year, I am just now realizing that I spent $900, a whole emergency fund's worth of George Washingtons, on very thinly cut lamb rolled in pita bread with some tomatoes and onions!" Our foodie heart goes out to you, Sallie's Niece.
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Posted
Jul 15 2008, 04:03 AM
by
Karen Datko
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This post comes from partner blog Blueprint for Financial Prosperity. If you've ever tried to buy a car or a house, you've probably faced the monthly payment math trick. It's a psychological trick salespeople use to get you to buy something you couldn't afford or to pay an amount you weren't originally comfortable with. A salesperson will try to convince you to purchase something based on the monthly payment you'll have to make. It frames the purchase in a way that lets you begin integrating the purchase into your life, before you've actually made it, and may even make it more likely you'll make the purchase.
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Posted
Jul 07 2008, 04:49 AM
by
Karen Datko
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This post comes from J.D. Roth at partner blog Get Rich Slowly. While sorting through reader e-mail recently, I began to detect a subtle recurring theme. People were writing to me because they had a goal in mind, but their present circumstances seemed to be far from their intended destination. These two points were so far apart, in fact, that my correspondents were afraid to begin moving. Because the distance seemed overwhelming, they were paralyzed. The importance of action I used to feel this way, too.
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Posted
Jun 30 2008, 01:09 PM
by
Karen Datko
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What amount of money would vastly improve the life of blogger "Too Smart"? He says $3,600 would pay off a loan from a friend -- and get him out of the downward spiral of payday-advance loans. In his case, the interest on those loans is 400%. "We float checks every two weeks at three different payroll-advance places. The balance is around $2,000. The interest and fees are approximately $300 each time we flip. That's about $600 a month," he wrote at a new blog called Too Smart to Live Like This. How did a bright guy get himself into this fix?
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Posted
Jun 20 2008, 05:40 PM
by
Karen Datko
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"DogAteMyFinances" didn't report a success story when she recently updated her finances for her reading public. When she started her blog, also called Dog Ate My Finances, she had a net worth of $8,000 and $30,000 of debt, she wrote. Fast forward six months. The net worth is now $3,000 and the debt has grown to $45,000. "That's just embarrassing when you make over 150K," she admitted. But, she's being an adult about it. She's blaming no one but herself. In a reversal of roles, her readers offered sound advice to the personal-finance blogger.
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Posted
Jun 17 2008, 11:19 AM
by
Karen Datko
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Here's a little snapshot of reality we never thought we'd see: MP Dunleavey owns fewer pairs of jeans than we do. (She has one; we have two.) That factlet about the often loved, sometimes maligned New York Times and MSN Money personal-finance writer was contained in an e-mail interview she did with U.S. News & World Report. We've been among those who have sometimes wondered about MP's spending choices, particularly when she bought a larger house, but that wardrobe confession compelled us to give her another look.
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Posted
Jun 10 2008, 05:41 AM
by
Karen Datko
This post comes from partner blog Blueprint for Financial Prosperity. Some of my friends put a rubber band around one wrist if they're supposed to remember something, like getting milk on the way home. Some of my friends send themselves e-mail or schedule events in Outlook. Some of my friends draw treasure maps and hide them behind paintings in their attics. (OK. No, they don't. That was from "The Goonies.") The point is, we all have little hacks we use to remind ourselves about things we are supposed or not supposed to do.
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