In classic Google fashion, there is a friendly video overview of Google Goggles over at the Google Mobile Blog. For those who haven’t viewed it yet, Goggles brings picture search to Android phones in a big, big way. Here’s how it works:

• Using your Android phone, you snap a picture of a logo, a book cover, or even a storefront.
• Google Goggles identifies the object and then kicks back relevant information, whether its search results, user reviews, price comparisons or store hours.
• You can save your visual search history just like you save your regular search history via a web browser.

The examples on the website are pretty impressive. A snapshot of a certain iconic bridge in San Francisco makes Goggles instantly spit back “Golden Gate Bridge” and offer a Wikipedia entry for perusal, while a picture of a business card automatically parses out the name, phone number and email address.

Google Goggles

But what’s more exciting, and scary, are the capabilities that Google Goggles will wield once it emerges from its infancy. The exciting aspects of visual search are easy to fathom. There’s many a time words fail us when we try to come up with an effective search query. Questions like: “What species of tree did this leaf come from?”, or “What kind of pill is this?”, or “Is this rash contagious?” will be far more answerable (much in the same way Midomi revolutionized the “name that tune” conundrum).

Read the rest of this article at ReveNews.

Photo by lietus

Keep these tips in mind to make sure your vacation isn’t a waste of coin:

Be prepared.

Maybe you’ve watched too many movies, but for some reason you have it in your head that everything will unfold smoothly once you arrive. All you need to do is parachute in with a rucksack and an assured outlook on life and you’ll instantly be ushered into an affordable, comfortable hostel and bump into a shy, but quirky and cute local girl who will act as your interpreter and personal guide. That may happen if you set out on your journey without a game plan, but a more likely scenario involves you, alone, in the train station, ten minutes to closing without a euro or a clue.This can be a wee bit stressful.

Instead of dropping yourself immediately into emergency mode, where you’ll be desperate enough to pay exorbitant prices for any available taxi or bed, have some of the basics mapped out and booked before you arrive. Yes, you could ask around town until you stumble upon the best deals, but, amazingly enough, most of the legwork can be done from home, seeing as you obviously have Internet access. (Or did you get someone to print this article for you? Tree-waster.) Researching hotels at sites like hotels.com or venere.com or ricksteves.com can easily be done during your lunch break at the office, weeks or months in advance – you know, when you’re not in a foreign land, jet-lagged and lugging 80 pounds of luggage.

Do as much planning as possible ahead of time. Consider yourself a military operative with a clear objective: relax, have fun. Your mission is only to execute the orders delineated at HQ, not to cook up directives on the fly. Have a plan of attack before you touch down so you can go about the business of chilling on autopilot. Find a couple good restaurants, figure out where to change your money, find a place to stay (at least for the first few nights), read a recent guide book cover-to-cover, print off a map and a bus or train schedule before you hop a plane. Take care of the basics – once you are oriented and have a place to stash your stuff and sleeping body, then you can start winging it.

Remember: You are visiting a foreign nation, not an amusement park. You aren’t guaranteed fun if you haven’t planned for it, and no one is going to go out of their way to keep you smiling except you.

Stop being a sitcom male and ask a damn stranger for help.

Even a former Boy Scout won’t be prepared for everything. When you roll into town, straight off the boat, there is likely going to be something that throws you for a loop. Maybe something has changed since your guidebook was published or perhaps you have no freaking clue how to get into the pay toilet. Don’t sit there like a tourist consulting your guidebook in a crowded train station when you can easily reach out to any number of strangers bustling about you. Someone who lives there will have far more information than the intern that was sent by Lonely Planet to scope out Gare du Nord.

I know, I know, you’re a man and you ain’t never asked for nothing from nobody. A snow leopard could rip the arm from your socket and you wouldn’t so much ask for a band aid. But here’s the thing: being lost in a foreign country is an entirely different universe than being lost on the interstate in Ohio. You need to ask for help.

Memorize key phrases such as, “Excuse me, where is the tourist information center?” and “Where is this train headed?” and “Where is [my hotel]?” Also note that most employees in Western European countries do speak English, but they’d really prefer that you at least try to speak their language, even if all you can say in their native tongue is, “Excuse me, I am a silly monolingual American, please, do you speak English?”

And for God’s sake, don’t resort to the slow, loud-talking, wildly gesticulating attempts at communication that some hapless tourists adopt. For one, the person you are trying to speak to is merely Spanish or Italian or German, not deaf, and also, even if they can’t understand your words, they can read your tone loud and clear and if you sound annoyed and condescending, they’ll feel less obliged to help you. Locals in the know are your saviors when you are in a jam, and getting on their good side requires a dose of humility and patience.

Budget like a bean counter and then spend like a jackass.

One big problem with vacations is that they are expensive. It’s expensive to get there, and, at least recently, with the dollar in the doldrums, it’s expensive to do everything else once you arrive. Knowing this can throw a wet soggy blanket on your fun factor. If you’re the fiscally responsible spendthrift that I think you are, you are likely to feel every euro or pound that passes through your fingers and wince at the thought of spending so much per day.

Budgeting on the fly leads to one of two major hang ups: either you overspend to the point that you run out of money before you get home (”C’mon, I’m on vacation” is the argument here) or you underspend for fear of breaking the bank and miss out on a one-of-a-kind experience.

Read the rest of this article at Primer Magazine.

We know already: your boss sucks, your salary sucks, your co-workers suck, your commute sucks, your benefits suck, heck, with so much suck in the room it’s starting to feel a little bit like you suck. Loathing your job, it seems, is par for the course. But does it have to be? If it feels like you have a potential “case of the Mondays,” and are having trouble stomaching the ol’ rat race, you should consider some lessons from some actual rats.

Check this out.

Some disturbingly sadistic scientists took three rats and put them each in a little box-like container. You could almost call it a cube, or maybe even a cubicle. These three rats were walled off in their little cubes with nothing but their tails sticking out. For 21 hours, the scientists administered shocks to the rats at random intervals. All the rats received the same amount of shocks – however, one of the rats had the ability to deactivate the shocks by pressing a button. He quickly figures this out and whenever the shocks come, he starts pounding away at that little button. The other rat, meanwhile, is getting shocked off and on and has no clue what’s going on.

At the end of the study, the scientists compared the amount of “stomach lesions” (i.e. ulcers) each rat developed due to the shocks. As it turns out, although both Rat A and Rat B received the same amount of shocks, Rat B had twice as many ulcers as Rat A. (Rat C, by the way, was a control rat. He’s just chillin’ and has no ulcers.)

So, what’s the X factor? Control.

Look – everyone has to work to make a living (except, of course, the trust fund babies who live off of mommy and daddy for their entire lives – but I know none of those types read Primer). We all put in our 40+ hours a week, we all get shafted by middle management, we all get our thunder stolen from co-workers. In short, we all get the same level of shocks in our little cubicle.

But the key to escaping the pain and suffering of a workaday existence isn’t crying to your LiveJournal about being passed up for a promotion or boring your date with epic complaints about the smarmy IT guy who keeps deleting your iTunes. The only way out is to gain control over the stressors in your career. For the rat, control was given to him by his quasi-benevolent overlords. But you’re a man, not a mouse. And it’s your job to seize control. Here’s how to do it:

Change Your Outlook

Stress is a mental thing. As we learned from the rats, it’s not about how many shocks you receive, it’s how you respond to the shocks. Poor Rat B rightfully considered himself a victim, subjected to a cruel, unusual and inexplicable regimen of torture. And this is how many disgruntled workers view their situation.

This may or may not be true. If it is, you should go ahead and skip down to the last section. But chances are, it’s not. We largely focus on the frustrations surrounding our jobs and often ignore the value of our toil. Instead of loathing your cubicle as a prison, you really should be rejoicing for the freedom it grants you. The freedom to pay the rent, stay out of debt, pay off student loans, go out drinking with friends, buy an X-Box, rent movies, go on dates. All of that takes money and that’s what your job gives you. In this economy especially, you should be thankful for being privileged with a job to complain about.

In spite of how you may feel, your job is not slavery. You are, in essence, selling your time. And depending on your line of work, you are leasing your mind and body as well. This is all part of the arrangement. This is what you signed up for. From 9 to 5, you aren’t you. You are your occupation – you’re a customer service rep, a programmer, a janitor or whatever it is that you agreed to be in exchange for cash. It doesn’t matter where your loyalties lie or what your ideals are or how bored you are, because for those 8 hours a day, you are a mercenary. It’s unpleasant to think of it this way, but it may help you from feeling victimized.

With that being said, make clear divisions between work and personal life. Don’t bring your frustrations home with you. Don’t log into Outlook from your apartment. Dedicate yourself fully to your job when you’re there and dedicate yourself fully to your personal life when you’re not. Because if you let them invade your private space, then you are basically giving them more of your time and energy than you bargained for.

Think of it this way: when you’re punched in, you’re playing a role. Alexandra Levitt mentions something like this in her book, They Don’t Teach Corporate in College. She calls it a “corporate persona.” This is the professional version of yourself that only cares about doing your job and serving the company. At the end of the day, go ahead and feel free to take the mask off.

Change Your Expectations

What have you learned after five grueling years at the same job? Are the same things ticking you off? Are the same people grinding your gears? If so, then there’s something you need to understand: you can’t change people.

Read the rest of this article at Primer Magazine.

Last night, my wife and I watched “A Night to Remember” on TCM. For those who haven’t seen it, this is a starkly different take on the Titanic than you may remember from the recent James Cameron version. There’s no epic Celine Dion anthems, no naked Kate Winslett and it’s about 60 minutes shorter, too.

Of course, all the historical basics are much the same– the boat still sinks and the steerage still gets locked below the deck as the water rises (women and children and the wealthy first, apparently) – but the biggest contrast is the scope of the drama. In James Cameron’s bodice ripper version, the camera homes in on a story of singular love and the tragedy is in the fleeting romance ended by unthinkable disaster. It is a story of heroic, selfish love.

But in the 1958 film, the heroes are the officers of the White Star Line, who, in spite of certain death, keep cool heads and dutifully and selflessly work diligently to save as many lives as possible.

The officers do an admirable job of keeping the panic in check. The gentleman calmly move about the ship, relating the captains orders to place the women and children in the lifeboats “as a mere formality. Meanwhile, the outwardly unshaken men wryly comment to one another, “I take it you and I might be in the same boat later?”

Even after the captain declares “every man for himself!” and widespread panic sets in, the officers continue to implore the crowd, “Don’t panic! Have some pride in yourselves! If we can get organized, we’ll survive.”

The hero in the 1958 film is the courageous, honor-bound staff of the White Star Line, not an uppity, handsome churl who wins the heart of an icy, high-bred maiden. Likewise, the villain is not a spoiled, jilted lover he’s a man who shamelessly sneaks onto a lifeboat, abandoning hundreds of women, children and his dignity on the sinking ship. This message is clear, as the camera frames his guilt-racked visage as the ship slips into the ocean in the background.

The Sinking Ship, The Grand Applause

Okay, so what does this have to do with credit cards? Nothing, really. It has more to do with the attitudes we take towards our occupations. As Hollywood reframes our historical tragedies – Pearl Harbor, Titanic – we make them interesting to modern audiences by making them very personal stories, where love and loyalties between individuals are more important than the suffering of society as a whole. It’s no stretch to compare the current state of our economy and the financial industry to a sinking ship. And who is at the helm of the consumer finance industry? Who are the White Star Line officers to the dire situation that is the credit industry?

As far as we’ve seen in America, there are none. From the outset, it has been “every man for himself!” In fact, even after the CARD Act was made law, one hundred percent of credit cards offered online by leading bank card issuers continue to include practices that will be outlawed once the Act takes effect next year.  (Pewtrusts.org) That shows that the lenders, the bankers, the credit card issuers will do anything that they can get away with to turn a buck, simply because that’s the American way of doing business. When the government clamped down on rampant unfair lending practices, the industry responded by ratcheting up interest rates an average of 20 percent while they still could, again, according to Pew Health Group.

Where is the dignity? Where is the concern for the fellow man, woman and child? How come the lifeboats are filled with the ones who steered us into this iceberg, while the steerage is left locked beneath the deck and the engine room workers are vainly attempting to bail themselves out?

Read more at Master Your Card.

Photo by vsmoothe.

That big opportunity with that company you’ve always wanted to work for. A date with that girl from the library who you’ve been eyeing for the past year. That invitation to go to the game with your friend who had two extra front row tickets. Boons like these can easily be called lucky breaks. But whatever your good fortune brings, don’t chalk it up to chance. Believe it or not, you earned all of these seemingly random blessings. How? Thomas Jefferson (allegedly) said it best: “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.”

Jefferson was being somewhat tongue-in-cheek with that comment, but it raises an interesting question: Which successes do we attribute to hard work and which ones to dumb luck? In answer to that question Richard Wiseman, professor of psychology and author of The Luck Factor, would explain that there is no such thing as “dumb luck.” Luck, he says, is distinct from chance because it is something that we build through our actions. In an interview with FastCompany.com, he stated:

Chance events are like winning the lottery. They’re events over which we have no control, other than buying a ticket. They don’t consistently happen to the same person. They may be formative events in people’s lives, but they’re not frequent. When people say that they consistently experience good fortune, I think that, by definition, it has to be because of something they are doing.

So what is this “something” you can do to increase your luck? After nearly a decade of study, Wiseman distilled four principles that contribute to a lucky existence:

(1) Maximize Chance Opportunities

(2) Listen to Your Lucky Hunches

(3) Expect Good Fortune and

(4) Turn Bad Luck Into Good.

Of course, these sound somewhat vague and, in the case of the last two, a bit new-age-y. But when you get into the specifics of increasing your luck, things start to make sense. Wiseman explains:

One way is to be open to new experiences. Unlucky people are stuck in routines. When they see something new, they want no part of it. Lucky people always want something new.

They’re prepared to take risks and relaxed enough to see the opportunities in the first place.

Being lucky, according to Wiseman, is mostly about creating opportunities and having the confidence to take them. He doesn’t go as far as to mention zen or any other enlightened states of mind, but he does have a point: being lucky has more to do with being open to opportunities than it does with preferential treatment from the universe.

In this way, luck is somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophecy: those who feel lucky seem to have better luck, simply by virtue of their being open to new experiences that may lead to good fortune. So what can a guy who’s looking for a new job, a new outlet for his creativity or a new female companion do to boost his luckiness? Why not try a few of Primer’s proven luck hacks:

Keep a Luck Diary

In his appearance on Wiretap with Jonathan Goldstein, Wiseman prescribed a “luck diary” in order to help unlucky folks turn around their misfortune. The idea is that unluckiness, too, is a self-fulfilling prophecy. People who feel like the cards are stacked against them are less likely to take the necessary risks that will open windows of opportunity. A luck diary puts you in the mindset to break the cycle of misfortune.

For the very pessimistic, it can be difficult to find something to feel lucky about every day – but that’s okay. You can start small. On day one, maybe you’ll consider it lucky that you got the last cannoli at the bakery. The next day maybe you’ll get lucky by getting a seat on the early bus, rather than having to wait 30 minutes to stand on the next one. The day after that, you can count yourself lucky for being the one to hold the elevator door open for the president of your company, who now knows your name and face. A month from now, you’ll find yourself in the lucky position of being top of mind when it comes to promotions.

Going through this diary after a week or so, you’ll begin to notice a more fortunate portrait of yourself being painted. Life will seem a bit more just and you’ll begin feeling better about yourself, more optimistic. You’ll feel luckier, and will feel more open to taking on new risks, exploring new opportunities and you’ll be more pleasant to be around in general. Which leads to the next point:

Read on at Primer Magazine.

“At this time, please pretend to pay attention as we go over the safety features of this plane. In case you haven’t been in an automobile since 1964, the seat belt is fastened by inserting the flat end into the buckle until it latches. If cabin pressure is lost, a yellow oxygen mask will drop from the ceiling. Affix the mask over your face and breathe normally (yeah right…you’ve seen Fight Club haven’t you?). In the case that this flight becomes a cruise, we will provide fashionable yellow life jackets. Pull the tabs to inflate automatically. For overachievers, inflate the life jacket by blowing into the tubes located on either side of the jacket.”

The FAA requires flight attendants to go through this spiel. They know that we know the routine, and we know that they know, so most of us tune it out. Most airlines have their attendants go through the motions as quickly and generically as possible, dutifully fulfilling their obligations to their captive audience. But Southwest at least takes this opportunity to entertain their passengers and lighten the mood, which is much appreciated, especially after a long delay like mine.

A quick YouTube search of “funny Southwest attendants” reveals that my experience with Southwest is not unique. Undoubtedly, this novel approach to the mundane drag of regulatory compliance was part of the staff’s training. The practice turns out to be very astute for two reasons: it gets people to listen and it makes a memorable impression.

Like flight attendants, Web writers are representatives of a company and whether drafting a sales letter, providing copy for a website, or addressing customers through a newsletter, we  speak  with the voice of the company. While the safe route is to adopt mind-numbingly innocuous corporate language – “Moving forward, our company’s vision is to add value to the paradigm that we have pioneered through our excellent service and award-winning innovation” -  in many cases, it can be more successful to connect with readers in your target audience by adopting a more relaxed tone. After all, on the Web something more interesting is always a click away, and if the medium doesn’t hook the message will never be delivered.

Read the rest of this post at ReveNews,

Image by PinkMoose.

You may think that your vanity credit card with pictures of puppies or your alma mater’s mascot is what helps the cashier at the grocery store peg your personality, but in reality, the features and terms of your credit card are far more telling. Of course, no one but you and your issuer know whether you have a low interest rate, cash back rewards or monthly reporting to credit reporting agencies. So, consider this rundown of credit card personality types as an exercise in self reflection. You may learn something about yourself.

The Low Interest Rate Card

You, oh low interest rate seeker, are one who lives in the moment. A true American, you buy now and pay later. You carry a balance today so you can enjoy living beyond your means. To you, that finance charge is well worth having all the things you want, when you want them. You are first in line at Best Buy every Tuesday – ready to be the first to get that newly released DVD, the first to hear the new album from everyone’s favorite band. Sure, you’ll pay more for it in the long run. But you’d rather have something tangible in your hands now than waiting to save up the cash. Of course, you’ll need to be careful: if you charge too many things today, you may not be able to afford the next impulse buy down the road.

Shopaholics who live in the now may enjoy the Capital One No Hassle Miles Rewards or Capital One Platinum Prestige. You’ll pay 0% APR on purchases until May 2010 – but you’ll need excellent credit to qualify.

The Rewards Card

You, my friend, are a bargain seeker. For you, the pride of ownership isn’t satisfying enough. You need something a little extra to make purchases worth your while. But to you, it’s worth it to know that your spending is accruing you extra perks down the road. You’re a modern day coupon clipper – always getting a deal. That’s why you research each of our purchases carefully, diligently ascertaining:

• Where am I going to get the best deal?
• How can I get a discount?
• Who should I buy from to get the most rewards?

With today’s tightening credit card terms, getting the most rewards for your spending habits isn’t always as easy as picking three top categories. Now, you have to shop online through your card issuers partners and keep track of “rotating categories” and “platforms.” It’s a lot of legwork, but that free vacation, free upgrade to first class, $250 cash back or $50 gift card to your favorite retailer is well worth it. You may even opt to pay an annual fee at the chance to earn rewards, because you’ve done your homework and know that it’ll pay for itself in the end.

Looking for free stuff down the road? Get $50 cash back right off the bat with the Chase Freedom Mastercard. Or why not spend towards a nice tropical vacation with your Sandals Resort Platinum Plus Visa Credit Card.

Read the rest of this post at FinancialMethods.org.

Fast forward a couple of months, and now I’ve somewhat stumbled into gainful self-employment. Now, we’re working on transforming my wife into a professional shut-in, too.

I enjoy this resource that Steve has created because it gives a clear, concrete method for achieving what many of us who are planning on having children desperately want: to be able to stay at home with the kids without sacrificing income. Interestingly, as was pointed out earlier on the blog, one reader commented that he found the small business startup guide entirely too daunting, which compelled him to give up. This struck me for several reasons. Admittedly, I, too, found the guide a bit intimidating. But that’s because my journey to working at home was starkly different – and perhaps a bit easier.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I fully intend to apply a more methodical approach while attempting to liberate my spouse from the 9 to 5, simply because I think her situation merits it more. But I’d like to offer my story as a bit of contrast to the diligent checklist approach. It’s something I’ll call, an organic transition to self-employment.

I call it organic because I didn’t implement any conscious system or follow any certain steps to get to where I am today (I’m a full time freelance writer). It feels more like I willed myself into self-employment rather than getting there by brute force. For me, saying goodbye to the commute and the suffocating 9 to 5 work schedule has always been somewhat of a dream that I kept in the back of my mind. It was this – and the following five essentials – that I believe eventually made me my own boss.

Friends (and Spouses) with Benefits

When you’re undergoing a risky venture such as self-employment, you’re going to need some support – fiscally, emotionally and logistically. I’m lucky enough to get all of that from my spouse. Thanks to my full time job having pretty crumby benefits in the first place, I had already switched over to her medical insurance. Also, with her steady salary, we could keep paying the bills if I got off to a slow start.

For most of us, these two factors are probably the most comforting safeguards. But don’t downplay the value of emotional support. It’s good to have a co-pilot when you’re flying solo. And without a water cooler and the collective ire of your coworkers to help you process ideas, work out problems and vent your frustrations, you’ll definitely need an open ear and an open mind to keep you sane.

If you aren’t married or have some other kind of domestic support, it’s highly advisable to find a mentor or a group of friends with similar entrepreneurial aspirations.

A Little Bit of Experience

The hardest thing to do when striving to be self-employed is to figure out what exactly you’ll do to make money. The experts always give the exact same answer to this question: “Do what you love.” That advice is all well and good – but ultimately, it’s the same thing your high school counselor told you when giving you career advice. I followed that advice and did what I loved all throughout college (slept late, played video games, drank beer and ate pizza) and, unsurprisingly, landed myself a career that didn’t quite meet my expectations.

Instead, I would give this advice: don’t start from scratch. The easiest way to become gainfully self-employed is to take something that makes you a little bit of money and ramp it up so it makes you a lot of money. This may not be what you consider to be your “true calling” – meaning, you’re not going to take your job and shove it and then go become a painter or a dancer or a chef, because, unless you already have a bit of success in those fields, you’ll have to go back to school, get experience and get noticed again all from square one. Essentially, you’re not transitioning to a new career, you’re just starting over.

The danger of starting anew is that you’ll either find the task entirely too intimidating and give up before you start or you’ll simply end up having to make the same types of compromises that wound you up in the cubicle in the first place. By choosing something that already makes you money, all you have to do is figure out how to make the venture bigger and better.

In my case, I was lucky enough to land a gig in college writing web content. At the time, it was the perfect job. Before getting this gig, I was washing dishes in the cafeteria. After tipping over one too many towers of freshly washed glasses and making a paltry $7.50 an hour, I decided that there had to be some better way to spend my time in which my poor coordination wouldn’t pose a danger to my pride or any innocent bystanders. Through some thrice-removed personal connections, I ended up landing a position as a contractor for an SEO firm, where I wrote just a few articles per week, which wasn’t a lot of money, but it kept the pizzas and textbooks coming.

I did that all throughout college, which made it, in essence, my very first real job. And, not-so-coincidentally, it’s the same job I do today. After working for a couple years in the office and finding it unfulfilling, I decided that I wanted more control over my time and income. Copywriting on the web seemed like the obvious answer. I just needed to figure out a way to go from making a few hundred bucks a week to matching my current salary.

For you, your starter gig could be anything. Think of all the things that anyone has ever given you money for – these things are the valuable skills or products that you have to offer the world. You could learn how to market a craft through an online store (if so, you’ve really, really come to the right place), become a personal trainer, start a dog grooming and boarding business, sell things on eBay, build websites, design t-shirts, trick out cars, file income taxes, mow lawns. Chances are, you aren’t a one trick pony capable only of manning a cubicle. Find out what you already have to offer and slowly start building it into your main stream of income.

Read the rest of this story at MyWifeQuitHerJob.com.

Image by Ballistick Coffee Boy

Ryan Bubb and Alex Kaufman, writing for the NYTimes, certainly think that credit unions have more to offer. Bubb and Kaufman argue that, while many claim that the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act is the death knell of the credit card as we know it, credit unions prove that it’s not impossible to run a successful consumer lending operation without gouging the hell out of borrowers. That’s because they’ve been doing business the way that Credit CARD act dictates long before any legislation started twisting the arms of card issuers on behalf of the little guy. But before we get into the nitty gritty of what’s so hot about credit unions, it’s important to understand the fundamental differences between a credit union and other financial institutions.

What is a credit union?

The primary difference between a credit union and the other major credit card issuers lies in ownership. As the name implies, a credit union is owned by its members. So, in essence, you aren’t borrowing from investors, but other credit union members. Members pool their assets by opening savings and checking accounts and provide financing and other loans to each other from this pool. Credit unions are not-for-profit cooperatives, often operated by volunteer boards and are overseen and insured by the National Credit Union Administration. Profits are reinvested into the union or paid to shareholder-customers.

Investor-owned banks, on the other hand, are businesses. They are owned by stockholders and controlled by board members and investors. Dividends are paid to shareholders and the bottom line is the bottom line. These credit card issuers are regulated by the FTC and bank deposits are insured by the FDIC.

So it all boils down to interests. Credit unions are usually sponsored by employers for their employees or organized by churches, schools or regional or professional associations. Credit unions worry about the interests of their members and community. The other lending institutions answer to their shareholders.

Read the rest of this article at Master Your Card.

Photo by Dan4th

I really think that before giving me a credit card they really should have given me a math test. Like a series of story problems:

• Question Number One: If Maria works as a comedian for $100 a week but spends $20 a day on hair scrunchies, how many years will it take for her to pay off a Taco Bell Gordita she bought in 1992?
• Question Number Two: If Maria’s boyfriend is in a folk band but he only smokes pot every other day, what percentage of the rent will he be able to contribute?

I thought 50%, but the answer is zero. That’s good to know. That’s going to be on the test.

But in all seriousness, there are some truths that consumers should be able to wrap their heads around before being granted access to revolving credit. If you’re new to credit, I strongly recommend you be able to work out each of the following math equations:

Minimum Payment Costs

As penny pinching scrooges, we love to pay the minimum. We want to pay the minimum amount for our used cars, our utility bills, our phone and  Internet service. Heck, we’ll even forgo one of our slices of cheese on the McDonald’s double cheeseburger before we pay a single cent over the minimum. Bottom line: we don’t like to pay more than we have to.

But when it comes to your credit card balance, you shouldn’t pay the bare minimum just because you can get away with it. Here’s why:

Let’s say you have $2,000 in credit card debt.Your minimum payment (typically 2%) is $40 a month and your APR is 18%. Guess how long it’ll take you to pay that off? The answer: just over 24 years. Not only that, you’ll pay $4,396.57 in interest. That’s 2 grand and nearly a quarter of a century down the drain.

Now, taking Ms. Bamford’s example, let’s say she abstained from hair scrunchies for one day a month and applied that extra $20 to her credit card balance. The debt is gone in just under 4 years and she pays only$793.44 in interest. That’s no typo.

The formula for this doozy is too complicated to keep in your head, but luckily you don’t have to. Just visit the credit card minimum payment cost calculator and hit CTRL – D.

Read the rest of this post at Master Your Card.

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