Can I survive without a credit card?
I remember thinking that there was no way I could live without a credit card.
Now that the economy is the way it is, now that I have charged up my credit cards to its maximum and now that I cannot afford to pay even the minimum payments on these credit cards, I KNOW that I can survive without one.
My credit score is lousy right now. My credit card accounts are delinquent. I have no credit cards anymore. I have no credit. I probably can not get any credit. It’s ok. My life is not over. I do have a checking account. I do have money in the bank (on most days). I have a debit card. Again, I’m ok.
I have learned to buy everything with cash (or debit card, same thing). If I don’t have money in my checking account, simply put, I cannot purchase a thing. I have learned to plan better. I have learned to buy only what I *need* today. If it can wait until next payday, it does. I am very mindful of each item I put in my grocery basket.
All is good. I do without, yes I can! You can too!
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Sometimes it helps to get out of our own world and walk the shoes of someone else, especially someone who may be less fortunate, especially someone living in a third world country.
A lot of our company went to a leadership conference last week. One of the speakers was this young lady jessica Jackley who had a great vision, and did something about it.
Kiva
Check out their website. This is the outcome of her walking in someone else’s shoes, wanting to make a difference. This company lets you loan to an entrepreneur “empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty”. This company changes lives….of the entrepreneur and the lender, the lender being me or even YOU.
Cash for Clunkers
Have you heard of the new government program? It’s called Cash for Clunkers. This program will give you up to $4500 credit towards a more economical automobile. This deal will expire in November 1, 2009, or when the money runs out, so check out their site for details.
Where is your money going?
The other day I decided to take a close hard look at my bank statement, to pin point exactly where each and every dollar is spent. I took out a calculator a piece of paper and categorized my spending from Payments, Food, and Shopping. At the end of my calculations, I was able to take a look at all my expenses. It was astonishing! I could not believe how much money I had spent on online shopping.
The point is, by actually calculating each and every expense, you can realize how much of your expenses is being spent on irrelevant items. So,go ahead and dare to take a look at your bank statement and question your actual spending. It could be a real budget saver.
Quizzle Beta
I was on a website and “Free Credit Report” caught my eye. A lot of times these kind of words are just gimmicks, ways of getting us onto their site, ways for different companies to capture and spam our email. YUK!
I hate this. Well, I looked into it more and apparently Quicken is testing this resource. You know Quicken, the company that created the financial accounting software.
Quizzle is a new website that I’ve been seeing more and more. Its purpose is to give us consumers a simple, better understanding of their home & money. They also have a blog that has news, tips & tricks for home & money management.
What I didn’t like is that I think the *free credit score* is not a true one from the credit reporting agencies. I think it’s an estimate from the criteria that they chose. The score isn’t a FICO score, but itis free and gives you a general guideline of where your creditworthiness may stand.
This is misleading to me.
Ummm…it might be a good resource but I think the way the company is advertising to you and leading you, it’s not what I truly am seeking but it MAY have other information that might benefit me.
Check it out for yourself, but don’t always believe what you read. Research!
Thrift idea
I was asking a friend where he got his stylish shirt. I know he’s a great shopper, he likes value and dresses sharply. He had this red shirt on that my husband had his eye on. It was the “perfect” red. My husband decided he was going to ask to try it on. It wasn’t the correct size. I asked him where he got the shirt from, I thought he was going to say Robinson’s or Nordstrom. I know he’s a sucker for value so I was even thinking that he might say Ross.
You know what he said?
He said ” Salvation Army.”
Wow! Who would’ve ever known?
Then I remembered a few years ago when my mother-in-law would go to Salvation Army or those other thrift stores, shop on the day where they give her the senior citizen discount. She would look for the brand name shirts, send them to the drycleaners, bring them to my husband and older sons, pressed with high starch. The shirts were like brand new.
My friend said that there are days when they’ll have half off discounts. That is definitely the way to go to save money and have a fresh wardrobe, for low prices.
Recycle, that’s the ticket!!!! Try it out! Find the thrift stores around town, find those values that we all LOVE!
Cut the Cost of College
For all of the college students who are pursuing their educational goals…Isn’t it expensive???? I know it is. So I wanted to share some money saving ideas that could benefit you. The first is, shop around before you buy your textbooks! Honestly, you have great chances of saving hundreds of dollars on your textbooks if you look on sites such as half.com and hamazon.com . I know some students in my area that have said they got most of their books from half.com and saved a ton of money on their books. Also, their books were in very good shape when they received them. To a college student, money matters. The more you save on books, the more money you can spend on food! So before you go out and buy your next textbook, search the web for better bargains. And by all means, share the info with your friends!
Owning up to Debt
Which headlines are you reading in the paper or online these days? Which are alarming and which are putting you in fear and giving you anxieties? ….Probably all of them. There seems to be this heavy cloud above our nation these days, whether it be for our economy or our election or even the war. YIKES….where do we turn? Here are some of the headlines the past week: “Stocks Loses Ground Amid Financial Uncertainty”, “Dollar sinks sharply to euro”, “Bailout Bill Passes–Now the Hard Part”, “IMF predicts a Recession”, “US Retails Report Decreased September Sales”, “Retirement Account loses near $3 trillion”, it goes on and on. People are panicking, people are hopeless, people are looking to bankruptcy, to bailouts. What is this world coming to?
Ultimately we put ourselves in this position, didn’t we? We signed those papers, didn’t we? The papers that allowed us to own the SUV we drive and then can’t afford the gas, gas is too expensive. (Was that the problem? The price of gas?) The papers that got us into this house that’s too big, the payments made for just the interest so that we could pay against the loan later…and boy, are we *paying* later (now)!?! The papers that allowed us to use that big screen TV today and not have a payment for 6 months-6 months is now and we can’t seem to collect the first payment. We signed the papers/receipts for that extravagant dinner (a year ago) that we thought we deserved and we are still paying for it.
It’s really sad because all the nation is looking for the government and the leaders to bail us out. Our nation is trillion (?) dollars in debt and they’re going to bail us out. We’re going to have our kids pay for OUR debt. We’re using all our natural resources and expect our kids to pick up the slack. How selfish is that?!
My wish is that each and every one of us own up to our responsibilities. You signed the loan papers to your car, pay your monthly debt each month. You signed your home loan papers, pay your mortgage. If you have to, look into refinancing, look into something. Don’t look to the government, don’t look to bankruptcy. Get through it, buckle up and take one step, one payment at a time. Go to a financial advisor and get some good advice. Own up to it, people.
Do your kids value money?
My husband was jogging while my 9 year old was riding his bike. My husband had to stop to see what was slowing down my son. When my son reached my husband, my husband asked, “Why did you stop?” My son answered, “There was a penny on the ground that I picked up.”
This is the same son that I overheard talking to his 6 year old little brother. Little bro says, “If you want that game, just ask mommy if you can get money from your bank account.” Big bro says, “No, I’m saving for college. Do you know that college costs a lot of money?”
How do you raise two boys in the same household that have totally different ways of thinking??
One of the most important things parents can do is teach their kids good money-management skills, help them create good financial habits and be good examples of great stewards of money. Remember that kids are more in tune with what you do and not as much with what you say. You tell them not to waste their money on dumb toys, they see you spending money on clothes and shoes when they know you have lots of that stuff in the closet. They’re thinking it’s *dumb* clothes. You tell them not to spend money just because you have it and they see you grabbing products off the store’s shelf impulsively. You tell them not to go over their minutes and text messages on their cell phone plan and they see you chatting on the phone all the time, hearing nonsense conversation. I know, you’re the adult, you pay for your stuff, we shouldn’t compare yourself to your kids but the truth is that your kids are watching you and learning from your actions.
There’s so many things that us parents can do to help teach our kids to value money and watch their spending. But remember that each kid may need different techniques. First things first is I tell my kids that whatever I have in my possession today is a gift, I don’t deserve anything. I don’t deserve it because I worked for it. I don’t deserve it because my other friends have it. Truly I deserve nothing and what I have should be appreciated. The next thing I try to do is keep them focused by encouraging them in friendships that have the same values. It’s so hard for me to teach my kids these skills when they have a good friend that has parents that give their kids EVERYTHING. Even if I could give my kids everything, I just wouldn’t. Remember Warren Buffett?
The rest of the lessons will go on from here. There are just too many different philosophies out there that will work for some kids and will not work for others. Whether you have to play Monopoly or the Game of Life with your kids, whether you have to give them allowance(or not), whether you have to let them earn money to buy things, whatever it is, that is your call. But truly, teach them to really understand that whatever they have, they need to value it. Growing up we never went on vacations a lot, we didn’t have much but I never thought we were poor. I remember vividly this time where I wanted something that was expensive. I knew it was expensive and my mom saw my reservations. She didn’t tell me not to get it, she just said, “Sometimes if you really like something, you need to get it.” What does it mean? I’m not sure, but I know I never thought I was without and even when we had money, we never became spoiled brats.
Anyway, here are some online resources that your kids may have fun learning with and may just teach them about money earning, saving, spending and investing.
Kablinga and Planet Orange
I can’t believe I almost forgot this part. Teach your kids how to be good givers too, cheerful givers. I don’t think it’s good to hold on to all the stuff that’s out there. Give it away, just be smart about it!
Who wants to become a Millionaire?
I ran into an article on CNN Money. The article is about a couple that are both 27 years old, on their way to retiring at the age of 40. Yikes! I’m just over 40 years old and I’m just barely holding my head up above water. How do they expect to do it? Read their story. It’s pretty amazing and puts my spending in perspective. Again, why do I need a new pair of jeans when I have lots hanging in my closet? They spend $300 a year on clothes. That puts me to shame! They have a couple of rental properties and are paying rent to their parents for a minimal amount, until they find a home that’s suitable for them. They don’t feel the need to keep up with the Joneses, they don’t care what people think about them. They are happy with their life and have set their goals. They’re hoping to see their prize in 13 years. Only 13 years to sacrifice…13 years to financial freedom of not having to take on a job for money.
CNN Money also gives the couple suggestions on how they can better attain their goals. There are also other couples & families who share their stories of what they’re doing to become millionaires.
When will we start our stories to become millionaires? And what are we doing about it? Nothing’s going to happen if we just think about it, we have to do something. What will be your first step?
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