Some guy out in nowhereland was able to put a hold on the prices of $2.06 for his gas? How’d he do it? One of the few gas banks helped him do just that. A gas bank is a reserve of gas that allows people to put a hold on gas prices at any given time, and “put it away” for future use when they feel gas prices are too high.
You can put a hold say, on 500 gallons of gasoline if you want, and then when the time is right, you “cash in” your gas money and use it. Supposedly there is only a lifetime fee of one dollar to reserve your gas at these banks, and you must pay up front for the gas you want to reserve ( makes sense ). Why do I have a feeling these gas banks will really catch on?
I got a credit card offer in the mail yesterday from Bank of America offering zero percent APR for almost a full year. You have to be careful with these kinds of offers though, because sometimes they jack the rate up after the intro period. I don’t know about this one though, because I didn’t have the time to read the fine print.
It’s always advisable to read the terms and conditions on any of these offers, especially the ones that seem extremely generous.
I just heard a new ad on the radio this morning for a for-profit debt management service which promises to clean up your credit quickly using methods “the credit card companies don’t want you to know about”. Um, excuse me, is this just referring to the non-proprietary use of rate negotiation, that I can do myself? I have a hunch it is something like that, and they are hoping that uneducated consumers flock to them in hopes of getting some sort of free reduction in debt.
Most debt management programs will negotiate your interest rates with your credit card companies anyways, which is something most people don’t realize that they can actually do themselves.
This is really just personal commentary, but who knows, it might mean something to someone! I’ve decided that my goal for this year is to have $20,000 in the bank by the end of 2006 for a nice, fairly hefty downpayment on a home. How do I think I can do that?
Well, by cutting a few costs, such as my somewhat excessive shopping, increasing my withholdings from my paycheck for my investment program, which I may draw upon at the end of the year to help me meet that $20,000 goal, and also to step up my outside endeavors - meaning my outside interests besides my current job as a paralegal at a major insurance company.
You are More than You Owe - Tips for Getting out of Debt Part 1
American are officially overworked, overstressed and overextended in terms of debt and debt management. We are working record hours, new mothers are no longer staying at home as long, and even kids are getting jobs at younger ages, just to keep up with inflation, horrible gas prices and the ever-inflating credit card debt that all of us seem to fall into once we have lost some control over our financial straits.
But we all have within us the power to straighten out our debts, and get back into good graces with the credit report companies. This is the first part of my story on how I got out of credit card debt. It’s gonna span about four or five posts - hope you don’t mind!
The following few entries are going to be some fairly simple guidelines that I followed in my own life in order to recently become debt free. How much credit card debt did I have? I had about $10,000.00 of it and was able to pay it all off in less than one year, thanks to some of these guidelines and a little old fashioned discipline. You may find that some of these tips can help you reach your goals too, or at least be able to modify them to fit your lifestyle and credit goals.
1.) Put a strict limit on eating at restaurants - make it special occasions or emergency measure only. I overhear more people who are stressed about their personal debts talking about eating out a couple nights a week - and we’re not talking fast food either, we’re talking “eating out” at sit down places where you tip.
2.) Every time you go grocery shopping, make a list and a pre-determined budget and do not waver from it. Not only can your wallet benefit, but many times your waistline too!
A recent study and survey shows that the most work related stress doesn’t come from difficult or demanding bosses, but mostly from difficult coworkers. While most people may think a difficult boss would be the reason, the fact is, many of us in today’s job and career world have minimum contact with our superiors. We actually end up then, to have more contact with our coworkers. There are even books on how to deal with difficult coworkers, and not become a casualty of gossip and “clicks” at work.
I had often wondered what the difference was between a 401k and an IRA, and then when I went to a “free lunch” with an Ameriprise representative (who then proceeded to mercilessly call my house, even though I was not interested in his services), I learned that you should probably not put all of your money, or max out your maximum contribution to your 401k at your job, because you can actually see greater gains and maybe even better tax benefits if you put that money into an IRA.
Boy, was that a mouth full. Let me explain. I was putting almost 25% of my total income, pretaxes, into my 401k at my job. He said this was a mistake, because although I thought I was doing so good by being able to sock that much of my income away on a biweekly basis for my retirement, I was actually not garnering as much of an overall increase in value over the long haul.
He said this was because a 401k does not allow you enough options, and it’s better to just max out whatever your company match is, in my case 4%, and then look into putting the rest of your money that you WOULD HAVE put into your company’s 401k, into a tax sheltered IRA.
I’d love to be able to explain a little better, but unfortunately I am not a financial planning expert, I’m still learning this stuff myself. Anyone who reads this who has more knowledge on the subject, feel free to add a comment/explanation.
Everyone’s been there. They need more money, to pay their bills and live the American Dream, but they’re not quite sure how to go about asking for a pay raise to make more money. Heck, I’ve been there too.
It seems like even people who make “good money” are struggling somewhat with this strained economy, outlandish gas prices, and just the astronomical cost of living in general. What used to be good money is now just making ends meet for a lot of people with big mortgages, huge household costs like maintenance and other things, and then kids to raise too.
Here are some tips I’ve read over the course of the last few months on how to ask for a raise, the right way:
1.) Know the market value of your job. Look it up online - there are several good websites that offer this type of information. Your company may even offer a broad range that other companies offer for the same position.
2.) Get together a small presentation of the value you add in your position. You can even compare your position to others (be careful with this one though) when using them as a point of reference as to what functions you perform.
3.) Get an idea of what the company’s policy is on giving raisese that are not actually during a “review period” and are just simply because a person feels they need to get to the next step..
4.) Indicate that you are also after a better title, and maybe don’t emphasize the actual pay increase so much. This will show first off that you are willing to get ahead, and perhaps sacrifice the “money” aspect a little in order to seek a better title first.
We’re all looking to make a little more money, right? I know I am! Everyone nowadays seems to be drowning in debt, with little recourse but to suck it up. Well, April commemorates Equal Pay Day, a day which recognizes that pay rates and salaries should be equal amongst men and women.
Every yeah, the National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE) puts together this holiday which is now nationally observed (I’d never heard of it til I read about it though - think they need to work on their publicity campaign) to help to bridge the still existing gap between the money that women and men make, as well as the gap that still unfortunately exists racially (who knew?).
Equal Pay Day is a point-making holiday that aims to help equalize these gaps and bring us to what we’re supposed to be - a fair and equitable society that does not discriminate based on gender or race in the professional world. The holiday strives to accurately display how far into each year a woman must work to earn as much as a man earned in the previous year.
Tuesday is the day that was randomly picked to symbolize the day when a woman’s wages would catch up to a man’s wages from the week before that. Because women on average earn less, they must work longer for the same pay. For women of color, the pay gap is even greater.