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Monday, December 8, 2008

Ignore The Recession and Fight Back With Business Growth

By Christina Helwig

All over the world people are turning into little squirrels. They are gathering up their nuts and seeds and stuffing them away for "spring." They are passing up opportunities to conserve what little they have left because they do not want to be left with nothing at all when this economy turns around. This is absolutely the wrong thing to be doing right now. While of course people should be shoring up their financial situation, they should not be ducking their heads in the sand and hiding money in the mattress.

The first thing you should do is form a clear and concise plan of what your goals and objectives are for the next three years. Your plan should include a very precise snapshot of where you are financially right NOW! If you have not been keeping careful track on your monthly expenses and income you have some work to do. You cannot change anything until you first know where you are. Once you have that baseline you can decide where you would like to be in three years. Start off with thinking of the amount of income you would like to have and the different things you would like to have in your life: a new car, home, toys, charitable giving, money for your child's school etc. Once you have thought about these things then figure out how much each of these things will cost you. With your current financial snapshot and your "dream" list completed you then are in a position to figure out how much you need to earn to accomplish those goals in three years. The more income you want, the higher level of service or "effort" will be required on your part.

You will want to build into your financial plan both a way to reduce your financial obligations and a way to build up your wealth. Take your current income and divide it in a way you feel comfortable to accomplish these goals. Make sure to include a reoccurring monthly amount for starting a business or an investment account. If you solely focus on eliminating debt you will force yourself into not being able to act on opportunities until you have all your debt paid off. This cycle gets you no where. You will have no savings and never be able to act on your goals and dreams. We all know the debt cycle. Somehow just when you are almost finished paying everything off... boom the car breaks down or someone needs braces. By having a monthly wealth building account you have money set aside to invest and grow a business.

While your wealth building account grows you want to keep an eye out for bargains and potential ways to either grow your business or start a new business. An example right now would be consultants for people looking for jobs. As the job market shrinks more and more people need help to differentiate themselves from other job seekers. There are countless ways an entrepreneur could help people get and find jobs. You should also be on the lookout for innovative ways to improve things you use all the time. New and improved products always have a place in the market. Also start to pay careful attention to the way millionaires and more importantly billionaires are behaving in the market place. If you watch closely, they will give very big clues on stable companies and markets that it is wise to think about investing in. Many people make massive fortunes in troubled economic times. Its all a function of the way you think and how well you prepare yourself to meet challenges head on.

One of the most important things you can do to improve your earning capacity is to increase your knowledge and more importantly your self-confidence. Simply reading a book a week or watching a motivational video can help give you the confidence to take action on your goals and dreams. Nothing happens while you are sitting around complaining about the economy. The prizes in this new era will go to the people who are not afraid to invest in themselves and take action even when others are hiding from the world.

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Affordable Online Banking Strategy

By Ricky Pointing

Online banking is now a normal way of banking but not very long ago it was practically unheard of when it came to banking. Only a few short years ago in 1995, Saving Bank was the originator of the online banking option when they gave clients a choice of being able to look at their accounts and to do certain banking online. Today practically everyone uses online banking to take care of their checking and savings accounts. They online bank to pay bills, keep track of their outgoing and incoming funds and even set up accounts that can be automatically debited for the amount of a bill on a recurring basis.

When online banking first became popular it was not nearly as sophisticated as it is today. With the speed of computers and the advance of technology, a purchase is immediately deducted from your checking account when you used a debit card. Unlike the days of writing checks and waiting for up to a week or longer for them to appear on your account, the money is immediately deducted and there is less chance of messing up your account balances. Another great thing about online banking is the option of being able to access your account at any time. The banks close at a certain time usually between 4 and 5. If you are not able to get there you have to either spend your lunch time waiting at the bank or take time off to go. When you online bank, you can take care of your account at two o'clock in the morning if that is when you choose.

There are many banks to choose from when it comes to keeping track of your balances and TCF is one of them. For an easy way to keep track of your banking, TCF offers the way to check your balances, pay bills, transfer funds, and let you bank during hours that are convenient for you. Just like all the other banks that have taken the initiative and gone with online banking this is one way to keep track of your money and have the convenience of being able to check your deposits, withdrawals, and transfers all from the privacy of your own home. TCF is just one of the many banks that offer online banking today.

Another one is Capital One. The basics are just about the same with online banking no matter what bank you decide to choose. Some may offer a few more incentives to get you to choose their bank, such as rounding up the change from using a debit card and putting it in your savings. However, they all basically offer the same services. It is just the convenience they offer that is so appealing.

The added benefits of financing your home, your car, or practically any other big purchase you want to make using Capital One or TCF is going to be about the same except the interest rates may vary. Often this is a result of your credit score rather than what a finance company, bank, or other lending institution offers when it comes to interest rates.

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Do You Qualify for a Reverse Mortgage?

By Leon J. Thorson

In America, our seniors are in a crisis. Health-care costs are at all time highs, including prescription drugs and normal living costs. Some seniors are opting to skip their prescriptions to pay for groceries, others are rationing their drugs to last twice as long. If you or a loved one have taken these drastic steps, or if you have gone back to work in an attempt to afford living, you should know what thousands of seniors know.

There is light at the end of the tunnel. Some people are beginning to take action in ways that have not been seen before: the reverse mortgage.
With the popularity of this mortgage increasing many people are asking, "what does it take to qualify?" With few requirements, it is one of the easiest mortgages to get and one that truly has long lasting benefits for the homeowner.

The requirements are simple and straight-forward:

You must be 62 years of age or older.

You must be a homeowner.

Equity in your residence

Getting a reverse mortgage will certainly make life easier to live, if not far more enjoyable. It is important to know that you are still responsible for your home. All maintenance and upkeep is yours to do or hire and proper insurance must be adhered to. Taxes are also the responsibility of the homeowner as well.

Reverse mortgages offer tremendous benefits to those that quality, but they are not appropriate for everyone. If your property is in poor condition, it may not qualify as homes need to be inspected and meet specific standards through either the loan company or the government. If you are planning on selling or refinancing a home within the next few years, a reverse mortgage is also not for you.

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When do I Call In a Credit Collection Agency?

By JR Rooney

You should call in a credit collection agency sooner rather than later. The longer you wait to begin the collection process on past due accounts, the less of a chance you'll have at recovering your money.

The day after an account becomes overdue, you should place a polite phone call to the customer who owes you money. If that doesn't work, you may want to send a few past-due letters yourself, or you may want to go directly to a credit collection agency. Base your decision on how much money is owed to you and the history of your relationship with the customer. If it's the first time you are doing business with them, you'll want to call in a credit collection agency earlier than you would with a 10-year customer with a solid credit history.

Most companies call in a credit collection agency once a debt is 60 days to 90 days past due. If you wait much longer than 90 days to begin collecting past-due receivables, your chance of collecting drops dramatically.

If you discover that your customer has gone out of business, find out what type of business it was - a corporation, a partnership, or a proprietorship. If it was a corporation, don't bother calling for the help of a collection agency. It is doubtful that you, or any one else, will be able to squeeze the last few nickels out of that client. If the company is a partnership or a proprietorship, you may be able to get the individual owners of the company to pay you out of their own pockets.

If you try to recover a debt and cannot, consider that bad debt a tax-deductible item (Tax Code IRC 166, Reg. 1.166). You will be able to deduct the cost of the goods sold (but not paid for) as an ordinary business expense. You can't deduct any lost profits from the sale, nor can you deduct the money owed for services rendered.

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Getting Cheap Car Insurance

By Susan Tanner

Not knowing the right methods and procedures can be a big hassle to getting the best, right, and cheapest car insurance quotes for yourself, especially if this is your first time doing so, whether for yourself or for someone else.

Call several different auto insurance companies and ask for a quote. You can find their information online or from a phone book. Make sure you know what kind of insurance you need before you call, or you won't be able to get the best quote.

You can also get instant car insurance quotes by submitting your data online. After processing your information, these companies will send you your insurance quotes to your registered e-mail address. Some will even mail the quotes to you, if you choose.

The companies will give you quotes based on what information you give them. Compare the quotes you receive decide which one fits your needs best. Keep in mind that you have a limited budget to work with and ensure that these companies understand as much.

Though the companies would always follow you but it is very important that you keep a strong follow up to the companies who you think are offering you the best quote. This is because they show more leniency and better rates to their serious customers.

Auto insurance companies will mold their plans around your needs so that you find them attractive and beneficial compared to competitors' quotes. Good policies and low rates will attract and keep loyal customers. You should have a few quotes to choose from by now, so keep in mind your income and expenses before you make any further decisions.

When you finalize your decision, let the company know. However, try a last-ditch effort to negotiate to get them to give you as much as they're willing to do. Be polite and courteous, and perhaps they will help you out with lower rates and such.

Hence in the end one has to ask for discounts before finalizing the decision. It is vastly noticed that a little haste in financial services can miss better opportunities and services that one might avail from financial organization. By following the methods step by step one makes sure that he/she got the cheap car insurance quote with better policies and attractive benefits.

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Will buy to let mortgage survive the current market?

By Chris Clare

At this present time to say that the mortgage market is in a certain state of turmoil would be the understatement of the year. The situation has gone from one where whoever wanted a mortgage could get one to a situation where it is only the people who can afford not to need one will be considered.

Because of the credit crisis restrictions on lending and borrowing have changed the whole lay of the land. Lending institutions are now giving far more careful consideration to whom they deem fit to lend their money to and as a result who they seem beyond consideration. Self certification is all but a thing of the past and where not long ago 100% mortgages were the norm in this present climate 80% loan to value mortgages are as far as the institutions are willing to go. And the main area that has suffered is Buy to Lets.

A considerable amount of the growth in the housing market over the last few years can be put down to buy to let. Indeed it is what has kept it buoyant. But this in turn has had a huge effect on the economy in general and the individual in particular. The crux of the problem has been that ordinary people have been having a go at the buy to let phenomenon.

Car auctions in the early part of the 1980s were deemed to be the bastion of the motor trade. Anyone that was not from the trade was seen as an outsider and indeed could quickly be spotted as a rube who was well out of his depth. But gradually the situation began to change and more and more people were trying their hand at spotting a bargain and tidying it up for a small profit. People from all sorts of backgrounds were giving it a go.

But experience (or inexperience) started to show and the so called bargains were sometimes nothing more than the proverbial pig in a poke. And the outcome was that these guys would get fleeced. It is an uncannily familiar situation to the one that people had found themselves in with regards to the buy to let market. Okay, the amounts of money that were changing hands were different but the point is that people were participating in a market in which they had no prior knowledge, and were buying houses that were way overpriced, in some cases without even seeing what they were buying.

Personally, I have bought several properties professionally over the last 10 years, most of which have been bought as buy to lets. Even with the expertise and professional knowledge I have, I would never buy a property without first seeing and inspecting it, and I know of no self respecting professional who would. It baffles me why a non professional would step into an unknown market and think they are an instant expert.

The effect of this careless disregard for common sense is that the market is now in the state that it is. And because these people borrowed money from institutions who would end up having to acknowledge the fact that they had taken on risky borrowers, the institutions in turn put severe lending restrictions in place. Even over the last few months loan to value mortgages have tumbled from 85% to 75%. And things may still get worse before they get better as house prices continue to drop.

What we are left with is a stagnant market in a state of utter chaos. What I would propose is that the lending institutions get together to create a buy to let product that would be applicable to landlords with ten or more properties. They would then already have the assurance that these landlords are in a position to honour the loans. It would also reap benefits for the public in general in that it would at least breathe some life into the bloated corpse of today's property market.

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This is generally how a real estate short sale works

By Rem

The term 'real estate short sale' is being bandied about more and more as of late. Anyone who has read newspapers or watched TV has probably come across some sort of stories about the declining real estate market leading banks to consider real estate short sales as an alternative to foreclosure. Real estate prices have dropped dramatically, and the sell time has risen as well. Detroit is one such example of this. Declining real estate markets are the primary reason for the rise in short sale real estate opportunities.

Banks undergo a real estate short sale when they let a property be sold for an amount of money that is less than what it is worth. The following two conditions must be met in order for the bank to approve such a deal. Foremost, you will need to have a market value that is in such bad shape that the sale price of the property cannot cover the balance on the mortgage. The second condition is kind of obvious, but it dictates that the owners will be unable to continue making mortgage payments on the property.

For example, a property that was purchased five years ago with an adjustable rate mortgage for 217,000 dollars. Let's say that two years after purchasing the property the owners took out an additional 10,000 dollars second mortgage, which means that today the owners owe 227,000 dollars on the property.

In a five year time span, the amount the mortgages would have been paid is negligible. Let's also believe that the property is in a part of the country where the market values have fallen to 215,000 dollars for similar properties, and that the adjustable mortgage interest rate has risen from seven to eleven percent. Additionally, we end up with a real estate short sale situation once one of the owners has lost their job.

In avoiding time delays and expenses, the bank will probably decide to go with a short sale. The reason for this is that the banks believe it is better to get the property off their books and accept a smaller amount of money they are guaranteed to get than to accept an unknown amount in the future. This is generally how a real estate short sale works, though there are other complications that can arise from having owners and lenders not agreeing to the terms of the sale.

A real estate short sale is an unpleasant experience for an owner, but it is not the worst thing in the world. The methods may not be flawless, but it will beat having a foreclosure on the credit report. On the other hand, a truly savvy investor can take advantage of these short sales for excellent buying opportunities.

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What is Earned Income Credit (EIC)?

By William Blake

In the world of taxes, tax credits help taxpayers to lower their tax bill. One such credit is the Earned Income Credit, or EIC. This credit was instituted as a way to help low income wage earners to rise above their circumstances.

The earned income credit began in 1975. The idea was that the poor were just getting poorer with the taxes they were paying on top of a low income job. The credit gives back to taxpayers a good portion of the money that they paid in taxes throughout the year. In that way, families could keep more of what they earned.

As time has passed, the amount that the earned income credit returns to individuals has gone up. Supporters of the EIC assert that the earned income credit does more for low income workers than simply increasing the minimum wage would. This is because people who are awarded the EIC use the money they get back to make purchases that boost their local economy.

There are three types of EIC eligible incomes. The first is money that is earned at a job. This money would include any wages earned by means of tips. If you are given a bonus by your employer, it can also be counted towards the earned income credit.

Self-employed earnings are also eligible for the earned income credit. If you own your own business but the money you earn with it is not enough to sufficiently care for your family, you may be able to receive the EIC. Any and everything your business earns can be counted.

Any money earned by one of your dependents can also be used to obtain the EIC. For example, the money that your teenage son or daughter makes while working summers or before and after school can be counted by you in order to get the earned income credit. This is true even if they have not earned enough to have to file for taxes themselves. The combined total of your income and your children's will be used to determine your EIC.

The money that your investments earn for you is counted as income by the IRS, as is money you collect because of unemployment. These sources of income may reduce your chances of getting the earned income credit. For example, if your investments earn you more than $2,800 in one year, you are disqualified from the EIC.

Sadly, many tax filers are not even aware that they qualify for the earned income credit. Many people think they don't qualify or just are not aware of the EIC. Some people do not earn enough to have to file their taxes, but still qualify for the EIC. Be sure to check into the EIC so that you don't miss out on this opportunity.

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Chase Credit Cards No Credit Required

By Louis Soul

There is no doubt that over the past years credit cards have become more important to people. Aside from being an effective way of obtaining credit, credit cards also make it easier for people to spend their money the right way.

One of the most popular brand names of credit cards in the market today is the Chase credit card. The Chase credit card is no different to other well known credit cards and like them accepted around the world. Other cards that are offered include auto cards, students and also travel.

So there are a number of reasons to have a Chase credit card all of which will be of great benefit to the user over time. Probably the most used feature is its online capabilities used by workers and other people that have little time to go out shopping. Using the web site, secure of course means that managing your finances is only a few mouse clicks away.

For some people, the ease with which they can go online to manage their account is the only excuse they need to own a Chase credit card. If you are looking to save money then Chase offers waived membership fees along with other introductory deals including low APR's.

There is more than one type of Chase credit card and loyal customers can expect to be rewarded when they use the card. For those that don't fly but still want rewards then they can have a version of the Chase card that will award you points when you spend any money. These points will then enable you to purchase from a Chase credit card catalogue and they will have your chosen item shipped to right next to your doorstep! There are holidays, plus other well sought after rewards and all at no charge to you.

There is bound to be a reward just for you including trips if that is what you like. It is the customer service that makes most people stay with or leave a company and Chase credit cards are no different. For me, it is that knowledge that if I need someone to help me, there is always someone there at any time no matter where I am. Having your card stolen or even lost for example can create a trying time until a new one is delivered safely to you which is the great benefit of the customer service facility at Chase.

If you are thinking about transferring your balance then this is the way to do it with a guaranteed six month zero percent interest rate which also incorporates current purchase balances as well. A no annual charge policy and if you pay your bill in full, there will not be any other interest charges to pay. Having a Chase credit card also allows the holder to earn cash rewards on purchases. If you are considering transferring your account or balance, it is easy over the internet with the secure server.

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