Is Your CREDIT IN CRISIS?

Loan to Scale an Online Business a Result of Lead Generation

2016-12-10T17:59:00.001-06:00

How to Dry Clean Microfiber Furniture DIY

2016-10-16T11:27:00.001-05:00

Local Business Owner Makes Money with My Formula

2015-06-16T11:15:00.001-05:00

Blog Beast Launch Dallas, TX 10-18-13

2013-10-17T20:37:00.001-05:00

Wanted 100 People to Lose Weight

2011-10-06T14:50:00.001-05:00

Big Daddy's BBQ won 1st Place in the American Express Big Break Contest!!

2011-07-13T14:16:00.002-05:00

Congratulations Big Daddy's BBQ, Gary, IN

for

Winning the Big Break!!

How much are you worth Online? You need a Blueprint

2011-07-05T11:53:00.000-05:00

The first video of Mark Hoverson and Magnetic Sponsoring's Irresistible Info-Marketing Blueprint has just gone live.

SistaSense Power Circle~2 Day Telesummit for Web Entrepreneurs

2011-07-04T20:02:00.000-05:00

Click here to view more details

Web Entrepreneurs Invited
Early Bird Registration Unil July 7, 2011

Summer Vacation is a good time for Nutritional Cleansing for Children!

2011-06-03T10:10:00.000-05:00

Are you Making Money Online Yet? Help is Here!

2011-05-16T12:00:00.002-05:00

I began my online business during the Recession of 2009. My husband and I have been real estate investors for over 20 years and we have seen the cycles in the Real Estate Market before, but this time it was different. A record number of homeowners were beginning to lose their homes. And the banks and lenders were taking homes left and right. We felt terrible because it was impacting our neighbors and people who attended our church and just people in general. Every news outlet propagandized the bad news. Bankruptcies were at an all time high. People were trying to get loan modifications and the banks were giving families temporary loan modification approvals and but unfortunately denying them permanent loan modifications. Thereby taking back the home in the foreclosure process.

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Depending on where you live in a judicial or non-judicial state determines whether the lender takes the house back in 35 days or as many as 24+ months. However, it has recently been reported that some lenders have taken up to 48 months to reclaim houses due to foreclosure.

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So many families were losing homes that we set up an office to assist families with home counseling services to help them to protect their home investment. We were successful in helping some get loan modifications and save their house. Yet in many cases lenders themselves were going "out of the business" so fast that some families weren't getting a response from the lenders and went into default. In those extreme cases we recommended them to a bankruptcy attorney.

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During our Real Estate investment days we began to use the internet to market homes online and we also began to seek products to sell online. We like you,realize that the internet is a global web that allows you to sell products and services to people online. However, we also realized through trial and error and some intense training how to find resources to support our goals.

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Recently we were estatic to find some information that explains the "how to make money online" information we were only able to acquire through many focused hours of webinars, reading and purchasing materials from the Real Estate and Internet Gurus. I am sharing this information with you because it is a valuable resource that will result in first a thorough understanding
of all aspects of successful marketing and selling online. Don't Miss This! You will get your business up and going when you complete this training! And begin to see the results!

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Are you online to be online? Or are you online to make money for your business?

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The Top 10 Credit Mistakes

2011-05-07T18:13:00.001-05:00

By John Ulzheimer

1. Closing Credit Cards Accounts
Some of you may wonder why Closing Credit Cards is number one on this list as the biggest credit mistake even above Missing Payments. In fact, closing credit cards is almost as bad of an idea to increase your credit scores as missing payments, but it is also a clear number one on the list of credit myths. It is perhaps the most common piece of advice that consumers are given when they ask,” How can I increase my credit scores?”. If there were ever a wolf in sheep’s closing as far as credit mistakes go, it’s this one. Closing credit card accounts will not increase your credit scores. So called “industry experts” such as mortgage lenders suggest that you close credit cards as a strategy to increase your credit scores to qualify for home loans. However, there are two huge reasons not to close credit cards that you no longer use. They are:
They will eventually fall off your credit reports – Information on your credit reports has to follow certain rules as far as how long it can remain on the report. In most cases credit information will remain on your credit files for no longer than seven years from the account’s Date of Last Activity or “DLA.” Your DLA will continue to update each month so long as the account remains open. So, an open account will never reach the seven-year mark because each month your DLA updates to the current month. However, once you close the account your DLA will cease to update and the clock begins ticking. Eventually the account will be removed permanently from your credit reports.
Why is this a bad thing? The answer to this one is very simple. It’s all about your impressive past. Here’s an analogy that might make this easier to understand. Let’s say hypothetically that you made straight A’s in high school. What if the record of that perfect scholastic accomplishment were permanently deleted seven years after you graduated? Would you ever want that history deleted? Of course you wouldn’t. This also applies in the credit reporting environment. If you have a perfect record of making your payments on time then this significantly helps your credit scores so why would you ever want that history to disappear? You wouldn’t.
What should you do with old credit cards that you don’t use any longer? The problem with inactive credit cards is that you are not generating any revenue for the credit card company. Eventually they will proactively close the unused account because you are a liability, not an asset. Prevent this from happening by using the card once every few months for dinner or a low dollar item like socks or a new belt. Once the bill comes, pay it in full. Doing this will ensure that the account will never be closed and you’ll always get credit for your good payment history.

You will hurt your “utilization” measurements – This is significantly more important than your closed accounts eventually falling off your credit reports. Revolving Utilization is the amount of your revolving credit card limits that you are currently making use of. For example, if you have an open credit card with a $2,000 credit limit and a $1,000 balance then you are 50% “utilized” on that account because you’re using half of the credit limit. This measurement is almost as important to your credit scores as making your payments on time. If you had a second open, but unused, credit card with a $2000 credit limit and a $0 balance then your aggregate revolving utilization is 25% because you have $4000 in credit limits and $1000 in balances. $1000 divided by $4000 is .25 or 25%.
How will closing an unused credit card hurt your credit score? Let’s say that you closed that second unused credit card from the above example. Once you do so then you remove it from any utilization calculation and now you’re stuck with one open card with a $2000 credit limit and a $1000 balance. Now your utilization has gone from 25% to 50% (divide $1000 by $2000 and you get .50 or 50%). As this percentage increases, your credit score decreases.

2. Missing Payments
The reason missing payments is number two on the list instead of number one is that it doesn’t take a credit scoring expert to tell you that missing payments is a bad thing. It’s common sense, unlike Closing Credit Card Accounts. The explanation why missing payments is a huge mistake is also fairly obvious. Credit scores look at your credit history to see how you have managed your current and past credit obligations in an effort to predict how likely you are to miss payments in the future. The most powerful “predictor” of future late payments is having missed payments in your past. There are three ways that missing payments will hurt your credit scores. They are:
How Frequent are Your Late Payments? – If you miss payments frequently then you will be penalized much more severely than someone who misses payments infrequently. Missing payments every once in a while indicates that you are a responsible consumer but you may have problems with finding the time to make your payments. Or, perhaps the bill was lost in the mail or you were out of town on travel when the bill came due. The point is that you are not making a habit of missing payments. Don’t start.

How Recent are Your Late Payments? – Since scoring models are designed to predict how you are going to pay your bills in the subsequent 24 months, it’s very common that they assign more value to how you’ve managed your credit in the most recent two years. If you have late payments that have occurred in the most recent two years then you are more likely to miss more payments in the next two years. As such, your score will suffer.

How Severe are Your Late Payments? – The severity of your late payment also plays a big part in your credit scores. This not only makes statistical sense but also common sense. Consumers who have missed payments by only a few weeks and then bring their payments up to date are going to score better than consumers who have payments that are 90 days past due or worse. If you have late payments it is in your best interest to do all that you can to bring them up to date.

3. Settling With Your Lender on a Past due Account
“Settling” is a term used in the consumer credit industry that means accepting less than the amount you owe on an account. For example, if you owe a credit card company $10,000 but you can’t pay them the full amount then they will likely make you a deal for less than that full amount. They have “settled” for less than the full amount, which is likely much less than you contractually owe them. This may seem like a good idea because you are happy that you didn’t have to pay the full amount. However, the lender will report that remaining amount to the credit bureaus as a negative item. This remaining amount is called the “deficiency balance”. A deficiency balance is considered just as negatively by credit scoring models as any other severe late payments. If you can arrange a deal with your lender so that they will NOT report the deficiency balance then that will be your best course of action. If they will not agree to this then you have to figure out a way to pay them in full or your credit will suffer for 7 years.
4. Over Utilization of Your Available Credit Card Limits
Having high balances on your credit cards will undoubtedly cause your credit scores to go down, and in most cases, in a big way. The mistake you are making is called “over utilization.” Over utilization is the practice of running up balances too close to your credit card limits. For example, if you have a Visa card with a credit limit of $10,000 and a $5,000 balance you have a utilization percentage of 50% because you are using 50% of your credit limit. The higher that percentage the fewer points you will earn for your credit scores. If your balance is $9,500 then you will be 95% utilized and in big trouble. Your best bet would be to use your cards sparingly and pay them down as much as possible each month. If paying your cards off every month is unrealistic then try your best to keep that percentage as low as possible. There is no magic target to shoot at, but it’s safe to say that the lower the percentage the better.
5. Excessively Shopping for Credit
Every time you fill out a credit application you are giving the lender permission to access your credit reports. When they access your credit reports they automatically post what is called an “inquiry”. The inquiry is a record of who pulled your credit report and on what date. Federal law requires that the lender post the inquiry. It also requires that the inquiry remain on the report for 24 months.
Inquiries are used by credit scoring models to determine whether or not someone is shopping for credit. It is a statistical fact that consumers who have more inquiries are higher credit risks than consumers with fewer inquiries. As such, the more inquiries you have the more points you will lose in your credit scores. While the exact point value is a closely guarded secret by the credit scoring companies you should assume that your scores would suffer if you have an excessive amount of inquiries.
Probably the most troublesome byproduct of holiday shopping is the collection of inquiries that consumers end up with. Think about this scene: you go to the mall to go shopping and are enticed by offers of “10% off today’s purchase” in exchange for applying for a store credit card. This sounds like a great idea because you are saving a few bucks on your purchases. But if you look at the big picture you will see that this is a horrible idea with dire consequences. If those excessive inquiries cost your credit score 10, 20 or 30 points you could expect to pay higher interest rates on either a future home or car loan. Either way, the thousands of additional dollars that you will spend in interest far outweigh the $20 you saved at the mall.
Think twice about applying for a store card simply to save a few dollars. It’s a better idea to pay for the product with cash, a check or a credit card you already have.
6. Thinking that all Credit Scores are the Same
Credit Scoring is already a confusing enough topic to understand. Add to the mix that there are as many different types of credit scores as there are soft drinks and it gets really confusing. The most commonly used credit score is a credit risk score. A credit risk score is designed to assist lenders by predicting whether or not a consumer will pay their bills on time in the future. The most common credit risk score is designed and developed by a company called Fair Isaac Corporation. This Minneapolis based company builds the industry standard “FICO” score. FICO is an acronym for Fair Isaac Corporation. The vast majority of lenders use their scoring models as part of their standard lending procedures.
There are many different places where consumers can purchase their credit reports and credit scores however not all of the scores being sold are, in fact, the authentic FICO score. On the surface this might not seem like a big deal but it certainly can be. For example, if you are in the market for a new car and you purchase a credit score from a web site that no lender uses then you are really no better prepared to go car shopping. If, however, you purchase the authentic FICO scores then you will have the same exact score that the car dealers will eventually see when they run your application for credit. This can be incredibly empowering for the shopper because you’ll know what your credit situation is before the dealer does. Given that there is a general distrust of car dealerships this will ensure a fair negotiation process when it comes to dealer financing. It will be more difficult to be taken advantage of by an unscrupulous dealership.
When you are shopping online for your credit reports and credit scores be sure that the score you are buying is branded as the authentic FICO® Credit Score. These can be purchased through various reputable web sites such aswww.myfico.com and www.equifax.com.
7. Thinking that all Credit Scores Predict the Same Thing
Adding to the confusion in number six above is the fact that there are models that predict other things than general credit risk. Scoring models can be built to predict almost anything including:
Insurance Risk – That’s right. Insurance companies use credit scoring models to predict whether or not you are likely to file an auto or homeowner’s insurance claim. A poor insurance score will mean that you will pay higher premiums or be declined coverage outright.

Response Rates – Raise your hand if you receive pre-approved offers of credit in the mail everyday. There is an incredible amount of science behind those offers and why you get them. It’s not random. You have been selected from hundreds of millions of other consumers to receive that offer because you have a “Response Score” that indicates you are more likely to respond to that offer than someone else who didn’t get it.

Revenue Potential – Credit card companies also use revenue scoring models to predict whether or not you will use their credit card and, therefore, generate revenue for them.

Collect Ability – For those of you who have collections on your credit reports you can feel certain that the collection agencies assigned to collect those past due debts are also scoring you to determine whether or not you are likely to repay your collections.

Bankruptcy Potential – Bankruptcy scores predict the likelihood that you will file for personal bankruptcy. You can assume that if you have a poor bankruptcy score that your credit applications will likely be declined.

Attrition Potential – These scores predict whether or not you will stop using one card in lieu of another. This is called attrition and it is considered the cancer of the credit card industry. If you have a score that indicates that you are likely to attrite and start using another lender’s credit card then you should expect to begin receiving special bonus offers as an effort by your current credit card company to dissuade you from moving on to another card.

Fraud Potential – Amazingly sophisticated, these models actually can predict whether or not a purchase you are trying to make with a credit card is fraudulent or not. What’s even more amazing is that it takes about 2 minutes to complete your check out at a store and in this short amount of time you have been scored to see whether or not the retailer will accept your credit card.

8. Not Understanding Your Rights Under The Fair Credit Reporting Act
This act, commonly referred to as the “FCRA”, is a list of the rules and regulations that govern lenders and the credit reporting agencies. You should become familiar with your rights under this act which can be accessed at no cost at the Federal Trade Commissions web site. The address is www.ftc.gov. Some highlights are:
Permissible Purpose – There are only eight legal reasons why your credit reports can be accessed. These are called “Permissible Purposes.” Some of the more obvious reasons are:
Consumer Disclosure – If you ask for a copy of your own credit report then this is a permissible purpose.
As Part of a Legitimate Business Transaction – If you fill out an application for credit then this gives the lender permissible purpose to pull your credit reports.

Your Right to Dispute Your Credit Information – Every consumer in the U.S who has a credit report also has the right to dispute the information in that report if they feel it is incorrect, outdated or unverifiable. The FCRA lays out the process and requirements on how to file a dispute and what kind of turnaround time your lenders and the credit reporting agencies have to complete their investigation.

Your Right to a Free Copy of all Three of Your Credit Reports – Recently the FCRA was amended by an act called FACTA also known as the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act. FACTA calls for national disclosure of credit reports for free. By September 2005 every person in the U.S can get a free copy of his or her three credit reports. Requesting your free copies if very easy. Go to www.annualcreditreport.com to verify your eligibility.

9. Not Knowing that you Have Three Credit Reports and Three Credit Scores
Most consumers understand that they have a credit report. However, most consumers do not know that they have three credit reports compiled and maintained by three separate and competing companies called “Credit Reporting Agencies.” These companies are essentially warehouses that store your credit history and sell it to lenders who want to grant you credit. These companies are:
Equifax – Equifax (NYSE: EFX) is based in Georgia. Their web address is www.equifax.com

Experian – Experian is a division of an English based company called GUS (Great Universal Stores). Several years ago Experian purchased the credit database that was formerly known as TRW Credit Services. Their web address is www.experian.com and they have U.S corporate offices in California.

TransUnion – Based in Illinois, TransUnion is privately held. Their web address is www.transunion.com.

Each of these companies maintains credit files on over 250,000,000 consumers, which they sell to lenders. They do not share credit information with each other since they are competitors. As such, you will likely have a unique credit report and credit score at each of these companies. Do not assume that your credit reports and scores are all the same.
10. Not Having Credit (or a Credit Score)
That’s right. Not using credit is a huge mistake. The way the credit system in this country works is that it rewards consumers who manage credit responsibly. The reward is in the form of easy access to inexpensive loans. However, choosing to not use credit will prevent you from building a solid credit history and score and will subsequently make it very difficult to secure home or auto loans when the time comes.
Secondly, not having a credit history will result in you not having a credit score. Credit scoring models depend on your previous credit history from which to generate a score. Not having a credit score will make it more difficult to apply for and obtain credit because most lenders use automated systems in order to process your applications. A lack of a credit score will make it more difficult for lenders to process your applications. Some will simply chose to decline your applications rather than manually process them.

Nutritional Lifestyle Change is Good!

2011-05-01T15:55:00.002-05:00

By Kathryn@creditincrisisnow.com

Eat Healthy Live Healthy!

Recently my husband said to me, "We need to change the way we eat", I thought to myself, "Sounds good" and I agreed. I have been blessed with excellent health and I know it is important to follow a healthy regimen. Heart Disease and Diabetes have been killers among family members and we thought how it may one day affect us if I don't make some immediate changes. Winter was in full swing and the new year was only a few days away. I was excited just thinking about spring. And how much better I would feel and look.

Our progress has been steady. Results are becoming more apparent as I try on clothing that is too large on the waist on my hips. I have accumulated different sizes of clothing as the years have passed; so as I lose I go back to something hanging in the closet. Very Cost Effective.

My husband has been the biggest loser so far he has lost 30 pounds and I lost 20 pounds. Happy Day!! But more important than the weight lost we have learned how important the politics of what you put in your mouth is. It is possible to change how you think about nutrition which is a far cry from the proverbial "Food Pyramid.

As an infant I suffered from severe colic and my Mother used to tell the Doctor that I had chronic symptoms as a result. His response was, keep giving it to her, and my Mother complied reluctantly. All my life I have been allergic to all dairy products (except cheese). Yet now I can drink milk, Unsweetened Almond milk. And I am enjoying Multi Grain Cheerios which is a new staple in our household! To think that we can actually make decisions to change our eating habits without provocation is a dream come true.

We went on a 9 day cleanse (30 day Cleanse also available) with this and we used the shakes and the tropical drinks as well as the energy accelerator to boost protein and metabolism. A Cleanse is one of the best things you can do for your digestive system because it helps you detox your blood stream, improves colon function and clears up brain fog. You know that sluggish feeling you get that is referred to as fatigue. Distilled water, 8-12 (8 oz.) cups that is alkaline balanced must be part of the plan. I will discuss that more the next time.

I feel refreshed each day and with the help of a Montel Williams Health Master we drink fruit smoothies for breakfast most days. Last year a seasonal fresh produce market opened a permanent location about a half mile away and they offer fresh pineapples which they core, mango, oranges, bananas, avocado, tomatoes, lettuce, sweet potatoes, red potatoes, green bean, red, orange and yellow bell peppers, fresh ginger, zucchini, squash, watermelon, lemons & limes, cantaloupe, apples, pears, grapes, fresh coconuts and the list goes year round. A women was shopping during the winter and said to me, "Fresh strawberries and watermelon in January? I must be in America." "God Bless America"!!

Here is a recipe I created for a Tropical Smoothie it is my Banana Pineapple Delight.

1/2 Fresh Pineapple
2 Bananas
2 Navel Oranges
1 Mango
2 Cups of Ice
Optional 1 Cup of Greek Yogurt or 1 Cup Unsweetened Almond Milk

Try it and let me know what you think! I will be adding more recipes as we go along! So stay posted. Here's to good eating and excellent health!

"Today We Are Rich"

2011-04-28T12:07:00.000-05:00

BY Matthew E. May

There is something compelling and admirable about an intensely personal, emotion-evoking story that delivers positive, meaningful messages and substantive lessons with universal applicability. Today We Are Rich: Harnessing the Power of Total Confidence, the new book by former Yahoo! executive Tim Sanders, is one such narrative.

Sanders's title comes from the heartwarming opening story about his childhood in Clovis, Texas, where he was raised by his grandmother. It's the first of many such stories that mark milestones in the personal journey Sanders refers to as the prequel to his first book, the New York Times bestseller, "Love is the Killer App."

If you are familiar with the various ideals espoused by the positive psychology movement—appreciation, optimism, abundance—you will recognize the underpinnings of Sanders's work. His idea to write Today We Are Rich was born amidst the economic collapse. In 2008, Sanders found himself compelled by the pervasive fear and scarcity to revisit his childhood with his grandmother in order to reconnect with why he is so committed to abundance and generosity.
Sanders realized that his success and generosity stemmed from his confidence, bestowed on him as a child by his remarkable grandmother, who taught him that rich was the belief that “you have enough to go around, enough to share. And when we share, we are worth something.”

Big Idea:

Positive thinking is possible during good or bad times through lifestyle design. Without it, you’ll likely move sideways or backwards when faced with economic, social or personal adversity.

Key Takeaways:

Sander lists seven principles of lifestyle design that turned his life around two different times: "once as a scrawny outcast and later as a sideways-moving adult."

Principle 1: Feed Your Mind Good Stuff. "The reason it is so important to feed your mind good stuff," Sanders writes, "is that the resulting thoughts determine your success or failure, your happiness or misery, and most important, the circumstances of your life."

Principle 2: Move The Conversation Forward. No matter how much good stuff you put in your mind, if the self-talk between your mind and subconscious—what Sanders calls the "internal conversation"—is distorted, you'll still produce negative thoughts.

Principle 3: Exercise Your Gratitude Muscle. According to Sanders's grandmother, "gratitude is a muscle, not a feeling...if it was a feeling, you'd feel it all the time. You've got to give your gratitude muscle a workout avery day if you want to feel grateful. People who don't spend time on this muscle get spiritually flabby over time and forget to appreciate the very things they wished for."

Principle 4: Give To Be Rich. "Giving," states Sanders, "is a wonder drug. By its nature, giving requires a focus on other people's needs, as well as on your assets. This redirects the mind toward strengths and away from weaknesses. In turn, the subconscious responds to this stimuli by deploying an array of chemicals and enzymes that change your mental and physical state."

Principle 5: Prepare Your Self. Most people stop at surface prep: gather resources, organize, and practice your craft. "Deep preparation" is the Abraham Lincoln thought that "If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six sharpening my ax." Read deeply, think deeply, build a knowledge network, and rehearse, rehearse, rehearse...under battle conditions.

Principle 6: Balance Your Confidence. Sanders's grandmother knew from her experiences, including the Great Depression, that the key was to possess total confidence-in yourself, in those you rely on, and in something greater than yourself. Strike a balance between all three, and a rich sense of confidence ensues.

Principle 7: Promise Made, Promise Kept. Integrity is everything. Sanders writes that "if you don't respect yourself, you cannot maintain your confidence, regardless of how well you follow all the other principles...nothing will inform you more than your promise keeping ratio during your life.

Liked Most:

Today We Are Rich is like chicken soup for the professional soul. The Prologue and Epiologue that bookend Sanders's journey were my favorite two stories about grandmother Billye, age 95, whom everyone now calls Ms. Billye. They are wonderful anecdotes packed with emotional power and meaning.

Best For:

Read this book if you're facing a daunting challenge, a setback, looking for inspiration, struggling to find purpose in your work, or even simply charting a new path in work and life.

What Others Are Saying:

"Tim reminds us that riches are never on the outside, but always on the inside. And he gives us some helps for ordering our hearts accordingly. The one idea that 'rich' equals 'having enough to share' is well worth the read." Dr. Henry Cloud, author of Boundaries.

Russell Simmons: Getting rich is so simple

2011-04-28T11:49:00.000-05:00

By Tania Padgett, small business editorApril 26, 2011: 2:56 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Russell Simmons, business mogul, activist and best-selling author, has a message for small business owners. He's a small business owner, too, and getting rich is a lot easier than people think.

That might be hard for most to believe. Simmons, the founder of Def Jam Recordings and the Phat Farm clothing empire, successfully sold those companies for more than a hundred million dollars apiece years ago. He now heads up Rush Communications, a holding company for his financial, media and fashion businesses.

(See all Success Books)
The mega entrepreneur's net worth is reportedly $340 million.

Despite this, Simmons still views his current businesses as small. UniRush Financial, Inc. offers financial products, such as prepaid debit cards, aimed at the low-income and middle-income market. His Simmons Lathan Media Group is a media firm focusing on hip-hop and urban content. Simmons American Design Group is a company focusing on fashion for Macy's, Wal-Mart and retail trading group Li & Fung.

They are nowhere near the size of Def Jam or Phat Farm, said Simmons. "I am still trying to grow them."

Businesses that Succeed
And he has no doubt that these companies will thrive. In his latest book "Super Rich: A Guide to Having It All," Simmons says that a positive attitude, passion and openness to wealth -- both spiritual and material -- are some of the qualities needed for entrepreneurial success.

Small business owners be warned: This is not your conventional how-to small business manual.

"Super Rich" is not a book about business plans, raising capital or restructuring business models during recessionary times, Simmons said. It's a guide to "spiritual enlightenment," which is the surest path to wealth, he said.

Some reviewers have knocked the book for being light on business advice and long on metaphysical talk.

Simmons dismissed the criticism, adding that entrepreneurs are always approaching him at book signings to thank him for the advice in the book.

And for people who don't think "Super Rich" is good? "Whatever," Simmons said, shrugging his shoulders. "Do you, baby."

Simmons offered the following advice for all entrepreneurs: young, old, big and small.

• Do a business you believe in: "I'm an entrepreneur who is moved by passion, but not numbers. I am constantly being approached with business ideas that will make money, but if I don't believe in the business, I won't do it," said Simmons.

• Be passionate about what you do.

• "Stay on your hustle," said Simmons. "Don't quit."

• Give away your business products and services for free. "If you are a good giver, you will be great getter," Simmons said. "The less you need, the more you attract."

• Find businesses that lift people up.

• Don't worry about the results. Focusing on results distracts the entrepreneur, from building his or her business, said Simmons.

• "Quiet the mind," said Simmons. The entrepreneur who has a still mind is the entrepreneur who can do anything, he said.

To write a note to the editor about this article, click here.

Super Rich: A Guide to Having it All (See all Success Books)

Acquire Credit for a Business Start-Up/Expansion

2011-04-22T23:20:00.005-05:00

Business Credit and Personal Credit can help you start and/or expand your business. As the jobless rate in the US is remains difficult starting your own business can help you end your dependence on a dried up market. What is the best alternative to create stability? Creating a business that meets a niche in the marketplace. Something that will catch on in an underserved market. You may ask what could that be?
Well it starts with your knowledge of what is missing in your local marketplace.Is there something that you get excited about that you been wanting to do as a business for a long time? Perhaps you are good at something and when you research the local marketplace you find no one else is doing it. Talk to your neighbors, friends, the local Chamber of Commerce. See if there is something that residents in your community need or want but no one is currently offering this good or service. That is a good start. Now you need a plan and start-up funding. But in this rigid credit starved environment where do you begin?

Due to the failings of banks, mortgage lenders and "too big to fail" corporations, lender approval decisions will weigh heavily on consumer fico scores more than ever before. The acronym FICO stands for Fair Issac and Company, which was founded in the 1950's by engineer Bill Fair and mathematician Earl Issac. It is a numerical system developed to quickly analyze a consumers credit file. In 1957, Conrad Hilton, hired the Fair Issac company to design a billing system for one of the first credit cards, Carte Blanche (thank you Conrad for that and Paris).What is a fico score?Fico is a three digit number, between 300 - 850, which gives potential lenders an idea of a consumers overallcredit history. These scores assist banks, credit card lenders, mobile phone companies, insurance companies, landlords, government agencies and employers in determining your credit score. Fico Scores- are not actually part of the credit report that is why when requesting a report complete with fico scores it will cost you. A fico credit score is based on your credit history and a calculation by the three major credit bureaus, Experian, Transu

Save as much money as possible before you open a business. All too often, people go into business without any savings, exclusively using loan money from friends, banks, or the SBA. They except to be able to start paying the loans back right away with their profits. What these business owners don't realize is that it can take months or years to make a profit. Often new business owners have to take out home equity loans or use credit cards to pay off their loans .Save up as much of the needed investment money as possible, including your living expenses for the first year, or even two. Odds are that your business won't be profitable for one to two years. Even if you get plenty of business coming your way -- and your customers pay you on time, which isn't always a sure thing -- you'll want to be able to invest most of that money back in the business for space, equipment, advertising, and insurance needs.

Think small. Don't rent premises if you can work somewhere else, and don't hire employees until you can keep them busy. (You can hire independent contractors or temps in the meantime.) People who start their small business on the cheap, often in a garage, den, or some other scavenged space, and create their first goods or services with more sweat than cash, have the luxury of making their inevitable rookie mistakes on a small scale. And precisely because their early screw-ups don't bury them in debt, they are usually able to learn and recover from them.

Protect your personal assets.

When you go into business for yourself, you are usually personally liable for all judgments and debts that the business incurs. This includes business loans, taxes, money owed to suppliers and landlords, and any judgments against the business as a result of a lawsuit. If you don't protect yourself, a creditor can go after your personal assets, such as your car and your house, to pay for these debts.
While you can protect yourself against lawsuits by buying business liability insurance, this won't help you with business debts. If you will be running up big debts, consider forming a corporation or limited liability company (LLC). Just one person can form either of these types of businesses.

Understand how -- and if -- you will make a profit.

You should be able to state in just a few sentences how your business plans to make a substantial profit. For starters, you need to know your costs: how much you'll spend purchasing inventory, paying the rent, compensating any employees, and covering what is likely to be a surprisingly long list of other costs. Then you can figure out exactly how much you need to sell each month, for how many dollars, to cover those expenses and have an adequate profit besides. These numbers are all you need to create a "break-even analysis."
Make a business plan, no matter how short.

Understanding your profit numbers and creating a break-even analysis is the first step in making a business plan. For most small companies, the key portions of a business plan are the break-even analysis, a profit-and-loss forecast, and a cash flow projection. (Projecting your cash flow is key and will make or break your company: Even if your business is getting plenty of work or selling its products, if you're not getting paid for 90-180 days, you're not going to survive unless you've planned for it.) With a cash flow spreadsheet in place, as well as a profit-and-loss forecast, you can tinker with your business idea and improve it before you start -- and continue to use them after you start.
Creating a business plan also allows you to determine what your projected start-up costs are (how much money you'll need to save) and what you marketing strategies are (how you'll reach customers to make sales). If you can't make the numbers work on paper, you won't be able to make them work in real life.

Get and keep a competitive edge.

Building a competitive edge into the fabric of your business is crucially important to long-term success. Some ways to get this edge are by knowing more than your competitors, making a product that is hard or impossible to imitate, being able to produce or distribute your product more efficiently, having a better location, or offering superior customer service.
One way to hold on to your competitive edge is to protect your trade secrets -- confidential information that gives you a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Examples of trade secrets include customer lists, survey methods, marketing strategies, and manufacturing techniques. To protect your trade secrets under the law, you need to take steps to keep the information confidential. This includes marking documents "Confidential," using passwords to protect computer information, using nondisclosure and/or noncompete agreements, and limiting access to employees with a reasonable need to know the trade secrets.

Another way to keep your competitive edge is to react quickly to bad news. Once you see that your business faces some kind of adversity, you need to come up with a plan to deal with it immediately. This may involve moving your offices, introducing a new product or service, or developing a better way to reach customers.

Put all agreements in writing.

The laws of your state require you to put some contracts and agreements in writing:
Contracts that will last longer than a year.
Contracts that involve the sale of goods worth $500 or more.
Contracts that transfer the ownership of copyrights or real estate.
Even if not legally required, it's wise to put almost everything in writing, because oral agreements can be difficult or impossible to prove. This includes leases or rental agreements, storage agreements, contracts for services (such as consulting or electrical work), purchase orders or contracts for goods worth more than a couple hundred dollars, offer letters of employment, and employment policies. Get in the habit of getting and giving receipts for all goods, services, and deposits, regardless of how much.

Hire and keep good people.

Your goal should be to hire and retain truly excellent employees -- not just reasonably competent ones. A highly competent and truly enthusiastic employee is at least two and sometimes even three times as valuable as a person of average skills.
To create a stable and happy workforce, it's essential not only that your employees (and independent contractors) believe they are being fairly treated, but that your business is worthy of respect. Employees and contractors who like their work will represent you well on and off the job. And customers will more likely be loyal to an upbeat business -- and are more likely to recommend it to their friends.

Pay attention to the legal status of your workers.

When you hire workers as independent contractors, make sure they shouldn't really be taxed as employees. The IRS can impose substantial penalties against you for not withholding taxes and paying taxes for a worker who is really an employee. The IRS and other agencies are likely to think that a worker is an employee rather than an independent contractor under any of these conditions:
The worker works full-time or nearly full-time for you.
The worker doesn't work for anyone else.
The worker provides services that are an integral part of your operations.
You control how the worker does the job and provide detailed instructions and training for the worker.
One way to help avoid trouble is to have the worker sign a written service contract, or independent contractor agreement.

Most employees you hire will be "at-will" employees -- subject to being fired at any time and for any reason (except for illegal motives such as discrimination). It's important to preserve your at-will rights because they protect you from having to prove that you have a valid business-related reason to terminate an employee.

Rush Card is a great Way to Establish Good Habits!

2011-04-14T13:39:00.003-05:00

New RushCard Features!
- This Easter/Spring let Rush Card help you save money with a Free Prescription discount card to all RushCard applicants – save up to 85% on brand & generic prescription drugs!
- Card to card transfers – send money for a fraction of wire transfer costs.
- Free 2 way text alerts – text RushCard anytime to get account updates, like balance and transaction history.

*FYI – this is very, very handy for me when I am at the store thinking about using my RushCard but have no idea what the balance is. Most places only have 1 way alerts, where they push the text to the customer on a regular schedule. With 2 way, the cardholder can get this info when they need it, like in the checkout line.)

Free Webinar Online Sign Up!

2011-03-18T16:52:00.005-05:00

Topic: Introduction to Clean Up Your Credit Report with Simple Steps
Date & Time: Tuesday at 7:00 PM GMT-06
Duration: 30 min

To participate, click on the link below:

Register with the form below.

We will send you log in info.

Limit 10!

What To Do If You Can't Pay Your Bills

2011-02-19T15:37:00.000-06:00

By Jennifer

Many people are caught in a bad cycle of robbing Peter to pay Paul. They borrow money each month from one source in order to pay the minimum payments on other items. Or they use the cash they have to pay the minimum payments, and put all living expenses on the credit cards. At some point, something will usually happen that will cause the plan to come crashing down. So what do you do when you can't pay your bills?

The first thing to do is to stop spending money. You have to break the cycle at some point. Stop spending money and stop using the credit cards. Yes this will be hard; you will have to make some very tough decisions in the beginning. Make do with exactly what you already have for a few days while you sort through the mess.

Second write down every bill that comes into your house each month. Every debt you owe, every utility bill, etc. - write everything down. On one paper write down the basics that need to be covered each month - mortgage/rent, electric, heat, and water. These are absolutely necessary. There might be ways to reduce some of these later, but for now, these have to be paid every month, first. On another piece of paper list all the other bills that are either debt payments or are optional things (cable for instance). Write down the full debt owed, the interest rate and the minimum payment.

Once you have your bills written down, you need to decide on some other amounts. Obviously you need to eat every month. I am not talking steaks or Burger King here; I am talking the basics, the cheap stuff. You are in a desperate situation and you need to make some tough choices. In the beginning try to eat only what you have in the house for awhile while you get caught up on your bills. You do need to plan for food and gasoline purchases though, so decide on a minimum amount that you need for those each month and put them on the first piece of paper.

Now you have to decide the order in which to pay your bills, because if your world has come crashing down, then you probably don't have the money to pay them all. Everything on the first paper gets paid first. Everything on the second paper gets paid last. If you find out that by slashing your budget you can afford to make minimum payments on all of your debt that is great. You then have to decide on the correct order.

There are several ways to do that. You can pick the debt with the largest interest rate and pay it first or the debt with the highest balance and pay it first. I prefer to pay off the smallest debts first though. That might seem odd, but you will gain some traction very quickly this way. By putting extra towards the smallest debt first it will most likely be paid off quickly and you will have money freed up in your budget.

What if you can't make a minimum payment on all of your debts? It is time to talk to the companies. If you have student loans you can see about getting them put into forebearance, which will usually allow you to take some time off from the payments (interest will accrue though). If you have credit card debt I would first call each company and ask for an interest rate reduction. Your best chance at this is before you are actually late on a payment. If you can get your interest rate reduced, then chances are your minimum payment will go down some and you might be able to afford it. If you can't get a lower interest rate and you can't make the payments, then you need to be upfront with them and work out a payment plan. Usually the account will be frozen at this point so that you can't charge anything else.

Some companies will be unwilling to work with you though. If you can't pay all of your bills, credit cards should be the last thing that does get paid because it is unsecured debt. Other types of debt are secured with something like a car and the company can come take it if you don't pay. So if you have to choose, pick an unsecured debt to not pay. I am not advocating that you don't repay your debt though, eventually you will have to pay them back, with interest and fees, but we are talking desperate times and trying to get back on track, so for awhile you might have to stop paying on some debts.

I haven't mentioned cars and car loans yet. These are tricky. Some people really need there car and have to have the loan to pay for it. You have to evaluate your situation. If you make $20,000 a year and have a $500 per month car payment, you need to sell the car ASAP because there is no way you can sustain that payment. If you have three cars, all with payments, sell one. If you have access to good public transportation seriously consider selling a vehicle. Desperate times call for drastic measures and everything needs to come up for reconsideration. You have to make changes and selling a car might be one of them that has to happen.

Once you have a budget in place and a plan for repaying your debt you need to figure out a way to make some extra money so that you can dig yourself out of this hole you find yourself in. Chances are good that you have been overspending. On what? Can you sell any of that now? Is there anything that you haven't even used yet that you could return? I would sell anything extra that you can find. I would try to bring in any extra income you could to get back on your feet.

If you do all of these things, the chances are good that you will be able to get your financial house back in order fairly quickly. Once you are back to being able to pay at least the minimum on all your bills it is time to work through a debt snowball and get everything paid off as quickly as possible. If you can make the hard decisions immediately and make some changes to help you will be able to stop the bad cycle you have found yourself in. You are making some lifestyle changes here and if you can stick with the plan then it won't be long before you will be doing great financially.

Tips And Tricks On How To Save Money: How To Use Bartering Techniques

2011-02-12T11:45:00.000-06:00

By akirchner

HOW TO SAVE MONEY BY BARTERING

Learning how to barter as a means to get things you want while giving up talents or things that you have is an incredibly simple method for savingmoney.

Most of us, when we think of bartering, think of folks at a garage sale saying things like "No......25 cents is too high. I’ll give you a dime and that’s my final offer."

Or you might think of a trip to Mexico where you visit the local vendor stalls and offer them many less pesos for that decorative plate you want to take home to mom for Christmas.

Bartering, however, can be a well honed savings tool if you know how to go about it.

You can really save money and you can make some sweet deals by learning how to barter your way through acquiring goods and services....and also selling your own worth!

Let’s look at some of the many ways that you can barter and get stuff....and give stuff back!

Source: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Retail_and...

THE FINE ART OF BARTERING

Why barter?

Because you need something – goods or services – and you don’t want to pay for it.
You’re frugal and you believe in stretching a dollar as far as you can without sacrificing quality.

Totally cool and you’ll make an excellent barterer!

Who barters? Tons of people barter from all walks of life. Professional people such as doctors, lawyers, hairdressers, computer experts.

If you have a skill or a profession, why not exchange it for someone else’s expertise?

That is what you’re doing. Not asking for a reduction in price – but an even exchange of your services or goods for their services or goods.

Everyone wins!

Source: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Internet_g...

RULES OF BARTERING

Figure out what you have to barter. What skills (or goods) do you have to barter with? Maybe you’re a super typist/editor or maybe you’re fantastic at training dogs….or both.

Maybe you’re a gourmet cook in your spare time and you play the piano.

Write down every single thing you are good at in terms of what you could offer to teach or help someone else do.

Include things like landscaping a yard, picking the right flowers and plants for backyards, planting vegetables in containers, grooming dogs, tutoring math.

TIP: Every single thing that you know how to do at least pretty well to exceedingly well is a bartering task!

Now make another list of goods that you want to trade or barter with....from a car to a house to tools in your garage that you have two of! These are all marketable bartering goods!

Start finding your market. Join a bartering club on line or a time bank. Time banks are where you barter an hour of your time giving a piano lesson let's say for an hour of someone else giving you a tutoring session in playing the guitar! It’s that simple.

There are many bartering websites – see below.

You can also post notices in the paper, on bulletin boards, at schools...anywhere you can think of that people with the skills you want or the skills you have to offer might see them and arrange a barter.

See if it’s a good fit. Once you set yourself up in a bartering market and you start getting responses for your skills or bartering wish list, begin to evaluate whether the person who you’re bartering with is a good fit.

Some people are just better at presenting themselves than others and maybe it feels like a good fit or maybe it doesn’t.

TIP: There are no obligations in the bartering system!

You either agree to make a trade for services or goods or you say "no thanks" and move on. Always though, be honest and specific about exactly what services or goods you’re looking for.

If you use a general statement like “I need to learn Quick Books" but you already know how to use Quick Books and you actually mean you want to learn higher level usage of Quick Books, you might have to wade through a bunch of bartering interviews before you find someone who is the right person for what you want.

Being specific from the beginning is essential – but communication is also key. Just by refining your requirements by communicating, you should be able to find the perfect match.

Decide on how you will swap and for how long. Will you meet face to face and swap? Will you swap services on line? Is it an hour by hour kind of barter? Is it a one-time swap out of goods? Do you want to loan things back and forth or permanently swap the goods?

TIP: Do you want to extend the bartering period for instance in terms of tutoring someone? Whatever you decide on – even a trial 1 hour swap of something – put it in writing.

It can be through email but get a confirmation email back. “We have decided to swap 1 hour of Quick Book instruction for 1 hour of Excel instruction between Joe Smith and John Black. It will occur on this date and this date and then we’ll reevaluate and see if we want to go further.” Then do what you promised and the other barterer should do what he or she promised.

You can refine the methodology between yourselves. Do you do it over the phone or do you meet in person and work on the programs at one location? There are many bartering systems that work online, some in person, and some local clubs that you can join to make it easier.

Keep records of everything you do. Bartering is something that is taxable in terms of goods and services. Bartering between businesses is taxable income.

TIP: If a lawyer offers to swap an hour of his time for professional services by a physician or a hairdresser offers to swap X amount of haircuts for 1 hour of computer service time, these are things that will need to be backed up and submitted as income for the IRS.
Even if the services aren’t taxable income, it keeps a record of what you’re swapping and with whom.

You don’t need to keep a legal record of exchanging babysitting services with a friend across town, but it does keep it all in the here and now and all on paper so there are never any misunderstandings.

Source: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Communicat...

HOW TO BECOME A GREAT BARTERER AND SAVE MONEY

Figure out what skills you have to offer and don’t be shy – list them ALL from pulling weeds to painting houses to tutoring math to playing the piano for someone as an accompanist.

What are your hobbies?
What are your building skills?
What are your computer program skills?

What are you home decorating skills?

What are your cooking skills and tricks that can save folks lots of money?

How short a time period can you teach folks to do something in?

Can you teach someone to paint a corner perfectly?

Can you teach someone to play this certain song on the guitar?

Can you teach someone to make a perfect pie crust?
Can you teach a malamute to come back?
Can you teach a foreign language or English as a second language?

Think about it – the list is endless. There are things we ALL want to learn – or services we need performed like learning what we need to know about computer programs but we haven’t been able to get that one thing – and we don’t want to go to an entire class to learn it!

TIP: Every single thing about you and me is marketable in some fashion or another.

But wouldn’t it be nice to spread your talents around and then get something back that you didn’t know how to do without spending a dime?

Just by exchanging talent for talent, you could help someone do something they want to do and you can learn something you want to learn....probably in a matter of hours!

This is a fabulous return on your "investment" which is YOU!

Register Today!

2011-02-02T18:31:00.000-06:00

The Many Factors that Influence Personal Finance

2011-01-29T14:38:00.001-06:00

By Elayne001

I have come about my personal finance education the hard way. I honestly think that personal finance should be a part of every high school student's mandatory education. Actually I have worked since I was 16 during the summers, and I thought I knew plenty about money, until later when I realized that I knew practically nothing.

I always had a goal that I would marry, buy a house, a couple of cars and be able to raise a family without much effort. My parents did it all, but they never told me about all the struggles and sacrifices they had made to make it look so effortless.

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Now that we are close to retiring, our ability to retire comfortably has been influenced by many factors:

Numerous moves from area to area

We have made 20 plus moves since we were married, some times from country to country.

Each time you move, there are relocation costs which must be paid. Also, you have to decide what to sell, what to keep, and then it costs quite a bit for storage facilities as well as shipping fees. Each time we moved, we had to give up some valuable things like furniture, dishes, vehicles, etc. It seemed we started over several times outfitting our home with the essentials.

Moving the family costs you time and money.

Health Issues

One of our moves was from a South Pacific Island back to the mainland USA. This was mainly due to health concerns. I was diagnosed with Primary Biliary Cirrhosis. It was decided that it would be best monitored in the United States. In the little countries we lived in they had social medicine which was very inexpensive, but you were not assured a good doctor or good medicine. As you are aware, good medical care in the United States is not cheap. Testing and treatments can run you into the hundreds and thousands per month, especially if you do not have adequate medical insurance, which is also very expensive.

You can never predict what health issues may arise for you or your family members.

Education

When we first got married, my husband had his bachelor's degree. I, on the other hand, only had a high school diploma, but had experience working in a few different areas. I finally got my degree 30 years later, after all of my own children had graduated from college. Luckily, my husband finished his master's degree and that qualified him for teaching in a University. This gave me the opportunity to go to school free. Also, our children were able to have half off on their tuition, which has been a great blessing.

Get as much education as possible so you are more qualified for the higher paying jobs.

Salary

Even though my husband had an advanced degree, we took a teaching job in a third-world country. He wanted to help his people and share what he had learned.

I remember that we made about $300 per month in Tonga, and that was considered a good wage. We could actually pay our rent, have money for food and a little extra.

I would not trade our fabulous experiences there for anything, and feel that the experience itself was worth millions. But,I know it set us back financially when we finally did move back to the states. I know that there are certain places you can go in the world that pay wages that can set you up for the future. I have friends that live in Dubai, and they have done very well there. Maybe in my next life!

Emergencies

We did not actively save a particular amount of money each month until we had been married for several years. It is easy to look back and say that we should of or could have saved, but it seems that there were always little emergencies that came up which took what money we might have saved.

I remember two particular Christmases that we had in third-world countries. The first one was right after our second child was born. My husband's parents had been called on an LDS mission to serve in New Zealand for two years. His youngest sister was left behind to live with us while she finished high school.

My husband's sister got very homesick for her parents, and she begged us to take her to see them in New Zealand. We spent all our savings to purchase tickets for my husband and I, two tiny children and one teenager to go to New Zealand from Tonga. We actually only had enough money for one-way tickets, so my husband had to find a job once we got there to earn our trip home again (I know it sounds crazy, but we were very young and oblivious). We lived with my husband's aunt in Auckland, and he worked in a restaurant washing pots and pans in order to pay our way back to Tonga. It was a great experience, but financially draining.

The other Christmas, we had just moved to Samoa where my husband taught for the Department of Education. My husband's brother came to live with us for a while, and then he asked my husband to pay his airfare to Hawaii so he could get a job. It took all of the money we had saved up until then to purchase his ticket. That Christmas we did not have any funds to purchase gifts for our three children (we had added one more by then). I remember that our neighbors generously brought some gifts and food so we could enjoy the holiday. It was very difficult and humbling for me.

My husband is very generous, and his culture is such that if someone needs the money, you give it. It seemed impractical to me, but I understood that he had been helped to get to America and receive his education by others, and so he felt obligated to give back.

Investments

I never realized the importance of investing some money towards your retirement financial health until it was almost too late. Now we are in a situation where my husband cannot retire at the usual age. We would be unable to live from day to day unless he works longer.

I remember trying out my luck in the stock market just about the time when the bubble burst in the 90s. I would get up very early in the morning, since we live in Hawaii, and New York was hours ahead of us. I picked a few stocks that looked ready to fly, and put my money on them. Luckily I did not lose too much, and the education I gained was well worth it. I found out it was very similar to gambling in Las Vegas. Better to let the experts control where the money goes.

Worrying about money can either motivate or immobilize you. I have felt both. Anxiety about money is the one issue that has come between my husband and I during our marriage. We have had totally different ideas about finances, and have had to leave it out of most of our discussions. I know that this is not very healthy, but it has worked for us. Fortunately, most of our children have done well financially, so if all else fails, we can go and live with them (they have all invited me).

I hope you have learned something from my financial experiences that will help you in your future.

Repair Your Credit & Improve Your Score

2011-01-27T11:51:00.001-06:00

Is your credit report in need of repair? Why pay someone, when you can do it yourself. In the online training course, students will learn how to interpret their very own credit report, identify data which is wrong or inaccurate. Students will also learn how to dispute their report if the information is not showing accurately. Lear the secrets the credit repair industry doesn't want you to know. http://creditincrisis.eventbrite.com/

Quicken 2011 - How to use Personal Finance Software to understand your Finances

2011-01-25T14:46:00.000-06:00

By Sunforged

Why Use Personal Finance Software

In order to make personal finance goals, one must have an understanding of what their personal finances actually are. For most, this is a boring and tedious task. Many of us, know from the top of our heads what our general bank balance is and can get by just using a simple check register.

But, when tax season comes or one makes New Years resolutions to make a home budget or start saving for kids college funds or vacations or buy a house or just about anything in a grocery list of responsible activities one should partake in with their personal finances--- a more detailed understanding of cash on hand, spending habits and budget planning is necessary.

Quicken Software can get anyone up to speed in these basic functions within an hour and more advanced users can easily run their businesses and household bill payments through the software if desired.

It really can do as little or as much as you are willing to let it. For around $40 its one of the best investments you can make at the beginning of your fiscal year.

Its kind of fun too...since you can see projected income, How much could you save or what could you do with what you saved if you undersatnd how much you wasted on non-essentials or poor buying decisions?

Quicken can show you.

Easy Personal Finance Software

Setting Up and installing Quicken

The basic set up of Quicken is very intuitive and mostly automated.

There are three main sections in your home screen visible after you have inputted the necessary data.

Spending

Bills

Budget

Quicken provides a simple visual graph (pie graph) to illustrate what categories you are spending money in. The categories are often auto-discovered via merchant information but can be edited manually to be completely accurate or to have custom names that best help you quickly visualize your spending patterns.

The Bills portion can also auto discover monthly payments you make to the same merchants and will allow you to set a monthly debit and set the schedule of payment. You can quickly see what your "spending budget" is at all times with a simple glance.

The Budget section is very powerful and can handle just about any level of complication you throw at it.

Your first step to achieving easy automation and to get some data to work with and learn the program quickly would be to connect your bank account and perform a synch.

Connecting Quicken to your Online Banking

Its impressive how intelligent personal finance software such as quicken can be. After performing a synchronization of your savings and checking accounts with Quicken, the software will already have discovered much of your important credits and debits based on their frequency.

I only have one Bank account so I cant vouch for how easy it syncs with different banking services, but my initial sync using my pre-existing web banking information was painless and the program had me all sorted out within about 3 minutes of downloading past transactions.

I was asked additional security questions during my first sync, for future updates of your bank balance you can store password information in the Quicken Vault and reconcile with one touch or on an automated schedule.

Quicken and PayPal problems: How to get PayPal Balance into Quicken

Unfortunately, Quicken and PayPal have not been well matched for auto syncing for some years now. Many of us who perform online business use PayPal as frequently as a normal bank account and often even have debit or credit cards through PayPal.

Although, if you search through the banks listed within Quicken, one can find PayPal listed. The synchronization will always fail.

There is a workaround to import Paypal data into Quicken and use it as a cash account within your personal finance software.

Quicken Easy Set Up tab

By going to the set up tab, one can quickly enter in Tax information , add additional bank accounts and saving funds, keep track of cash on hand, enter in monthly bills and even create seperate yet connected accounts for individual businesses. I use that option to separate my various hosting and domain costs to see how my various websites and online activities are fairing in a quick glance.

Advanced options exist to create invoices and to even automatically pay bills, as stated earlier this very easy software can do just about anything you can imagine if you can discover a financial need.

Quicken on the Go

If you have a smart phone, you will find that most personal finance applications for your phone can be somehow synced with your Quicken data. This can be a great way to easily track your daily spending.

Pocket Quicken is no longer under development and was only compatible with the PalmOS but with some digging and ingenuity most are capable of at least allowing you to upload your daily spending and keep track of categories for you.

Can anyone use Quicken?

What I have outlined can easily be performed in under an hour. I hate financial tracking and by no means enjoy data entry, this is exactly what makes Quicken suggestible in my opinion. By automating so much of the process and integrating easy quick glance charts, I can avoid rows and rows of line items and see the financial data that is most important to me.

How to Understand Personal Finance When You Haven't a Clue

2011-01-23T15:33:00.000-06:00

By Patty Inglish

Necessities vs. Luxuries
Before an individual can begin to grasp, understand, and develop a successful application of knowledge to Personal Finance, that person must understand a basic premise --

The premise to firmly understand encompasses the goal to become financially self-sufficient, followed by the opportunity to develop income streams to support an advanced quality of life, retirement, and in come cases, charity and other non-profit projects.

One of the support beams in the foundation of these goals it to know and understand the difference between necessities and luxuries. Many have not yet considered that distinction, since America has become a land of conspicuous consumption and some of our Cable TV programs encourage this phenomenon.

Millions in America haven't a clue.

Financial Literacy
American high school curricula across the nation have changed in the last 20 to 30 years, adding Work Readiness instruction that includes Financial Literacy.

These classes are meant to help students learn what it takes to seek, find, and hold a job and how to live on a year's earnings without borrowing. In short, Financial Literacy classes help a student to become financiallly responsible and self-sufficicent.

When Welfare Reform began during the Clinton Presidential Administration, Work Readiness and Financial Literacy classes were instituted in many communities, beginning in Kindergarten.

The rationale for K-12 Work readiness was that the schools were to instill the knowledge that Everyone Will Work in America, married or single - everyone. This included the most severely physically and mentally chanllenged people. The concept, when applied, did not work.

In Central Ohio for instance, 400 families were booked for removal from public assitance rolls in 1998, but the members of most suffered physical and mental challenges preventing 1) work, but were not disabled enough to 2) qualify for disability income awards.

However, the school-wide world-of-work and Financial Literacy training helped many students and their families complete a budget and stick to it.

Who Among Those That Need Financial Literacy Can Be Helped?
Gradually, America's youth are becoming finance-savvy, but members of our long-term public assistance rolls are continuing to experience difficulty in understanding real earnings, costs, and savings in a subsidized world.

Another population sector at odds with successful financial navigation is that of the suddenly widowed that never worked outside the home and had no access to the household financial records. Thsi includes women and stay-at-home fathers as well. many of these spouaes or partners haven't a clue about their partner's income or household expenses.

A portion of our Disability Income recipients also have little grasp of financial realities. A lack of activity caused by many physical and mental challenges can increase immobility, increase health probelms, and decrease comprehension. Some of these individuals become the victims of consumer fraud quite easily. Others do not know the dollar amounts of their income and/or expenses. Some are supervised by quardians, while others are not.

Another sector of our population that have little understanding of personal finance is a portion (a sector, not all) of homeschooled youth, while other sectors of the US population could also benefit from Financial Literacy.

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Impact of Financial Literacy
The Wrong Way to Learn

I had no financial literacy classes in school, but I learned about a passbook savings account on my own. Having no idea what life costs in the real world when I graduated from high school and worked my first full-time job, I literally spent nothing, except for rock bottom basics.

I found a rooming house 1.6 miles away from the job and walked to woork. Two meals daily were included in the rent and that was plenty. Health insurance was provided by work, so I needed to spend only a small amount on toiletries and laundry. In this way, I saved enough in a little over two years to be able to afford a college degree. Along the way, I learned about checking accounts; also that I disliked credit cards and the errors of their billing. Financial literacy came piece meal at best.

A Worse Way to Learn

A colleague of mine had a rougher financial time. He went straight to college and his father provided him with a credit card.

My friend never saw a credit card statement and did not add and keep his receipts. He had no idea how much he was spending. The week after graduation, he received the current statement with a note that his father would no longer be paying the bill. He started his first job buried far in the hole of severe financial debt.

These are stories of two extremes - impossible non-spending, and unregulated spending, Both could have been avoided with an effective financial literacy class in high school or college - but none were offered by school or parents.

Subsidized Living Provides an Unreal Picture
I taught Work Readiness and Career Advancement courses to adults and teens, sitting in on Financial Literacy classes offered by banking officers that volunteered their time to the classroom. These classes were effective and helped many students. The same classes were given to public assistance recipients regularly, attendance often required as a prerequisite for receiving the next month's check. This requirement helped many people as well.

Public assistance recipients can live in an unreal world, where subsidized rents are very low and incomparable to actual rents in the city. When using Food Stamps, most do not combine them with coupons or purchase specials or the healthiest foods. A number tend to buy the highest-priced goods until their Food Stamps ran out. Then they use food pantries. Using Medicaid at their physicians' offices, some never see a bill for actual costs, or they do not read them. Some long-term DIsability Income clients have had the same experiences.

I see disabillity clients spend monthly Food Stamp allotments, uses food pantries in several parts of town, accept bags of groceries from churcher, and then go to restaurants for at least 4 evening meals per week. Many receive Medicaid or free medications from programs in the community or through pharmaceutical companies and are unaware of actual costs. All this is not only poor stewardship and financial management, but it also results in working people becoming quite angry with those that do not or are unable to work. In addition, some of these diability clients have huge Cable TV/Internet/telephone bills and, therefore, cannot pay the rent/mortgage, water bill, or electicity. The payment method some use is to divide all monthly bills into two groups and pay one group each alternating month. All bills remain one month behind and interest expense accumulates for late payments. Often, the Cable is revoked, the electricity disconnected, and the house goes into foreclosure (a renter is evicted).

Individuals and families without a frame of reference for financial literacy must be detected and aided early on in order to prevent these sorts of tragedies.

The Suddenly Widowed
I was surprised with one client who, at age 56, was widowed and had no knowledge at all of the household finances. She had never written a check and had no understanding of savings accounts. Her reading level was grade 6 and she had worked only a few years in diners after dropping out of the 6th or 7th grade. Her husband, 20 years her senior, had handled all of the family finances and had arranged for her health insurance (part of his retirement package) to end when he died. She was in dire straits

Imposed financial blindness of one spouse or partner on another is not a good or effective activity, even if it allows the controlling partner to prevent potential losses of a spendthrift or ill or mentally challenged person. These days, it is considered financial abuse. The woman mentioned above became nearly destitute, but was made the object of two legal guardianships. Unfortunately, the first guardian mishandled funds. The second was a firm of attorneys that righted the situation.

Victims of domestic abuse and/or violence, once they leave the situation, can benefit from the Financial Literacy classes offered by domestic violence shelters in many cities. Churches also often offer these classes as another location choice.

Homeschool Question
Does Homeschooling Adequately Prepare Children for the Future? - Dyalogues
Homeschool News
Arts update
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette2 days ago
AT THE LIBRARY: •The Allen County Public Library, 900 Library Plaza, will feature "Mangaka" manga drawing and writing club at 7 p.m. Thursday in Young Adults' Services.

Library calendar: Zumba at your library
Spartanburg Herald-Journal5 hours ago
Today, 3 p.m. Headquarters Library, Zumba@Your Library. Party yourself into shape with this Latin-inspired fitness party. This program is free. Call 596-3502.

Homeschoolers
Homeschool is one way for families to drop out of mainstream society and its growing problems with in-person bullying and cyberbullying as well as to stand against curricula they find offensive. However, does homeschooling prepare a child for the world of work? A continuing debate drones on the topic of whether a homeschooled child can grow up to hold a job.

A budget and overall financial literacy are part of an adequate education and can be taught in the home. Is this occurring? If you are a homeschooling parent and would like to incorporate Financial Literacy Classes in your curriculum, see the link at the top of this Hub for free lesson plans.

Some homeschoolers undoubtedly grow up to find and maintain well-paying work. Others, after completing studies, cannot hold down a salaried or hourly position with set hours and responsibilities, because they have lived by an irregular schedule. Some of these young adults cannot work at all, but others find success in the artistic fields or in other types of self-employment. Regardless of job or career type, all homeschoolers can benefit from financial literacy training.

A Simple Monthly Budget for a First Job
Expense Categories
Expense Dollars
Income Dollars
MONTHLY INCOME TOTAL
---
S

---
MONTHLY NECESSITIES:

---
RENT

---
UTILITIES: Gas, Water, Electric, Trash

---
..Telephone or Cell Phone (not both)

---
..Cable TV?

---
..Internet Access?

---
--Better Deal: Bundled Phone/Cable/Internet

---
FOOD: 1) Groceries and 2) Lunches packed for work

---
Transportation: Busfare or Auto payment, maintainence, and Insurance

---
Health & Life Insurance

---
Physician and Medications

Clothing and Laundry

---
Savings

---
SUBTOTAL >>>
$
Subtract from Income = $
OPTIONAL:

---
Entertainment

---
Vacation Fund

---
Gifts

---
Other (define)

---
NEW SUBTOTALl>>>
$
---
TOTAL EXPENSES (add subtotals)
$
Subtract from Remaining Income = $
(c) Patty Inglish, MS January 1, 2011. All rights reserved.
Note: If you arrive at the first SUBTOTAL, subtract it from the INCOME and have $0 or a negative number, you have too many expenses already. You cannot allot any dollars for the OPTIONAL expenses and will need to reduce some of the NECESSITIES expenses -- For example, find a cheaper Phone/Cable/Internet bundle, find ways of saving on utilities, etc.

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