How To Increase Your Savings

In today’s society it is practically impossible to stay on top of bills, increasing gas prices and extraneous financial obligations with just one job. What’s more, it is becoming increasingly scary to rely on one stream of income because the economy is so shaky. Who knows when that one lifeline will falter? Many people are discovering that the way to stay afloat in today’s rapidly fluctuating market is by using multiple streams of income. This simply means drawing funding from various venues.

One venue that many people find convenient to their schedules and their lives is taking part in an Internet business. Since lots of people are only using their Internet businesses as one of several streams of income, they only do it on a part time basis. There are lots of opportunities on the Internet to earn multiple streams of income, including starting an ebay business, taking part in an affiliate program, making contacts for freelance work, and writing and selling an ebook. The flexibility of working a business on the Internet is valuable for many people who also work other jobs, and especially for those with loved ones who need to be taken care of.

Other off-the-web venues that people use as multiple streams of income include real estate, starting a small independently owned business, mail and phone-based freelance work, and childcare. Many of these businesses are owned and operated out of people’s homes, which is time effective for people who are multi-tasking.

If you are planning on using multiple streams of income to stay on top of your growing pile of bills, remember that it is important to think about your personal needs as well. Make sure that you still have enough time to sleep, eat, and spend quality time with loved ones. Time efficiency is very important, so think about cutting down on commuting by multi-tasking from home, or by commuting only to one job. Though more complicated than relying on one job alone, using multiple streams of income can be an effective way to ensure your financial stability.

Few people would deny that using credit cards can make day to day life more simple, reducing the need to carry cash and making it easy to shop online and by telephone.

However, spending with plastic can sometimes be a little too easy, as it doesn’t always feel like you’re actually parting with any cash. This means the temptation is to spend without thinking about the consequences too carefully, until you hear the ominous thud of a huge credit card bill hitting the doormat.

If you’ve been caught out like this, the size of your card debt may seem overwhelming, but don’t panic – there are a few simple steps you can take to start getting your debt back under control.

Try and make a little more than the minimum payments:

The minimum payments required by credit card companies have steadily fallen over the years. Where once it was typical to have to repay a minimum of 5% of your balance every month, it’s now common to only have to pay 2.5% or 3%. With repayments this small in proportion to your debt, a large chunk of each payment gets swallowed up in interest charges. Depending on the APR rate of your card, up to 75% of each payment could be ‘lost’ in this way, meaning that it takes a very long time for your balance to reduce to any great extent.

By trying to repay more than the minimum, even if only by a little, you can speed this process up, and in the long term you’ll end up paying much less in interest charges.

Prioritize your card debts:

If you have more than one card with different rates of interest, it makes sense concentrate on the one with the highest interest charges. This means not just the one with the highest interest rate, but the one which actually charges you most each month, which could have a lower rate but a higher balance.

Check your statements to see which card is costing you most in interest each month, and try to focus on repaying this card first by putting any spare cash you have into extra payments while keeping to the minimums on your other cards.

Change your card:

The credit card market is very competitive, and rates have fallen over the last few years. You may be stuck with an old card charging an old rate that is much higher than newer cards. If you can get a new card with a lower rate and transfer your account balance on to it, you could save a lot in interest charges, helping you to bring down your debt. If you can get a card with an introductory rate on balance transfers then all the better – you’ll get a few months of interest free credit which you can use to really drive down your balance as 100% of each repayment will be helping to clear your debt.

Debt consolidation:

If getting a cheaper card isn’t an option or isn’t something you feel happy about, then maybe a consolidation loan would be worth considering. If you take out a loan and use the money to pay off all your card debts, you could benefit from a lower rate as loans are normally quite a bit cheaper than credit cards.

The downside to these loans is that the repayment period might be quite long, and so even though your monthly repayments will hopefully be lower, you’ll stay in debt for longer and so end up paying more in interest. Done carefully, however, consolidation can be a sound move if there’s little chance of clearing your debt in any other way.

Watch your spending!

All the above strategies for getting your debt under control will only work if you stop getting deeper into debt – and this means stopping spending on your cards. Ideally, you’d
cut them up so that you can’t use them again, but this might not be realistic as you may need to keep them as a credit option in an emergency. In any case, cutting your spending to an absolute minimum will keeping your repayments as high as possible is the only sure strategy to clearing your debt in the long term.

There are several options available for you if you are in credit card debt and do not want to declare bankruptcy. One option is obtaining a debt consolidation loan and closing all existing credit lines. Debt consolidation is where you take a new unsecured loan and use the funds to pay off your outstanding debts. All this does is revolve your debt so its not really a wise choice.

What an unsecured debt consolidation loan will do is consolidate all your unsecured debt and help you avoid bankruptcy. This new money can save you hundreds of dollars per month if you choose to use your loan to pay off existing debt – especially high rate credit cards. Even if you don’t own a home, you could qualify for their debt consolidation loan. But dont forget now you will have to pay this loan back.

Debt consolidation loans are repayable over a longer term at a relatively low interest rate. This means that the monthly repayments are lower. If the loan is secured on your property then the interest rate and payments may be even lower.

But you must compare the pros and of debt consolidation loans before taking the plunge. There are two options for consolidating debts – either you borrow money to pay off all your debts or seek assistance from a debt consolidation program. Which option will meet your needs has a lot to do with whether you can qualify for qualify for low mortgage rates on debt consolidation loans , and the total amount of debt you need to consolidate.

Borrowing for debt consolidation immediately eliminates multiple debt payments. All debt collection actions eliminated. Seeking debt consolidation services immediately decreases your monthly payments. It also brings to a stop, and in some cases, eliminates some interest and fees. All you do is pay ONE LOW monthly payment when choosing a credit counseling program.

Debt consolidation is an excellent tool that can help you manage and decrease your debt when you just can’t seem to do it on your own. There is no way that you can completely fix bad credit without the ability to reduce debt and pay your bills on time. However, once your debt has reached a certain level, this can seem almost impossible to accomplish.

A credit counsellor can provide you with the option of enrolling in a debt management plan, which provides immediate relief and allows repayment of debts without the high fees and negative ramifications of bankruptcy.

However, your choice has to be based upon your financial situation, as well as fit in with your own sitiuation. A debt consolidation program is the better choice of the ones given above.

Banking experts estimate that up to

The field of bankruptcy law has exploded in recent years, even though the process of filing for bankruptcy really only involves filling out a few forms. Misconceptions, frightening news articles, and misleading advertisements put out by many of the firms now specializing solely in bankruptcy law have convinced the average consumer that they absolutely must hire an expensive attorney in order to get rid of the money they owe.

Even if the client has an above-average number of questions or a combination of income, debt, and assets that are more complicated than most, an experienced lawyer should be able to handle a bankruptcy claim from start to finish in a matter of hours. Some honest legal professionals only bill their clients for this small amount of work, but the majority charges a minimum of $2,000 for a basic filing. In fact, in some areas, rates can skyrocket as high as $10,000 for a single case!

These inflated prices have actually driven many of the honest attorneys out of bankruptcy altogether, because once a client has been convinced that bankruptcy should cost them thousands of dollars, they are naturally wary of hiring anyone who charges much less.

Filling out bankruptcy paperwork is so simple in many cases that attorneys have their secretaries fill it out. Yet the field has created so much money for certain greedy lawyers that instead of letting their clients know this, they instead pocket the cash and stand back and watch while bankruptcy filings needlessly get out of control.

No matter what circumstances brought you into your current financial situation, declaring bankruptcy should never be a first choice when trying to deal with high levels of debt. Especially after taking into account high attorney fees and new credit-card-friendly laws, it would be much better for you in both the short-and long-term if your financial difficulties are handled out of court.

We allow the credit card industry to make fools of us and we do nothing about it. If someone told you that you were being made a fool of, wouldn’t you address the issue? I know I would.

Credit card companies have revenue of $76.03 billion dollars and the majority of this revenue comes from late penalties and over limit and cash advance fees. $29.2 billion came from late penalties, $15.2 billion from over credit limit fees and $3.04 billion from cash advance fees. This amount is 62% of the credit card companies’ revenue and this does not include finance charges. Nice profit!

The above is the reason why credit card companies can afford to mail over 5 billion credit card offers per year. This equals to 6 offers per household per month. Maybe the $2 billion in postage alone is a reason why our government does not look into the credit card industry seriously.

Every bank and retailer wants you to have their credit card. Having their credit card enables them to make huge profits. In 2001 both Sears and Circuit City reported that over half of their corporate profits were from finance related revenue. Do you think this could be the reason why retailers always have an employee at the front door of their store offering you to sign up for their credit card and in return you receive a special gift or extra “so called” discount? Most special gifts and extra discounts end up costing you more than the original purchase due to finance charges.

I may not be able to confront these institutions that are trying to make a fool of me, but I can fight back by believing that “Cash is King” and using cash instead of credit will save me money in the end.

It’s a New Year and personal money management should be on the top of your list for 2006.

For those of us who cherish civil liberties, the last thing we need is Sen. John McCain in the Oval Office. What many people don’t think about when pulling the lever in the voting booth is that the president appoints judges that control their lives – not only appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court, but up and down the federal judiciary.

Senator McCain’s "positions are nearly identical to the president’s on abortion and the types of judges he says he would appoint to the courts," "How Close McCain Is to Bush Depends on the Issue," New York Times, June 17, 2008.

President Bush’s arch-conservative choices for the Supreme Court are one vote away from a majority. One more appointment by either President Bush or Mr. McCain, if elected president, would mean a stunning reversal for human rights.

On June 12, 2008 the Supreme Court by just a 5-4 vote held that terror suspects held at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay could not be denied the right to file a habeas corpus petition to challenge why they were being held.

The news stories of the day claimed a great triumph for democracy. The linked piece is just one example of many television, radio and press stories that totally missed the point.

To anyone who claimed this was a "great triumph" or the like, that’s a frightening conclusion.

This decision was a near disaster.

Habeas corpus should be protected by a 9-0 vote.

This 5-4 decision mirrors the U.S. criminal justice system, which has the highest number of people behind bars in the world. Even more than in China. That is a stunning indictment of a "sink or swim" society and raises serious questions about the law that your courts are enforcing and just how uncivilized a society we have allowed the United States to have become. Law and order is fine, but for all the law, we don’t have much order.

The statute denying the historic protection of habeas corpus with the purpose of taking away the supervisory function of the courts was drafted and supported by John McCain. And his favorite judges – the kind he would appoint – voted against this necessary constitutional restraint on illegal government actions.

Chief Justice John Roberts, and associate justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas – whom Bush senior lied about when he said Thomas was the most qualified person he could appoint – all were the dissenters.

Thomas, Scalia, Alito and Roberts, our TSARs in waiting, would love to have just one more reactionary vote to chisel away more of the underpinnings of our Constitution and put an end to individual rights.

Here’s how it works for the TSARs: Business and government uber alles. Personal rights last.

In March a 4-4 split court in Warner-Lambert v. Kent didn’t have the five votes needed to take on the question whether a product liability claim could be brought be against a manufacturer of an FDA approved drug.

You were one vote away from losing your personal right to sue for personal injuries caused by dangerous drugs: Trasylol which causes kidney failure, Ortho Evra that causes stroke and heart attacks, MRI contrast solutions with gadolinium that are lethal for kidney patients, Zyprexa that causes diabetes and Vioxx the pain killer that kills. And those are just a few of the currently dangerous drugs without opening
the archives.

With one more vote the United States Supreme Court could have granted legal immunity to pharmaceutical manufacturers on the legal theory that once a defective drugs had been approval by the FDA, even though proven to be unsafe and dangerous, no further questions can be asked in a court of law.

The TSARs wants to turn over total control of regulating drugs to the FDA, a proven administrative disaster, and allow drug companies to profit by selling highly questionable, and sometimes known dangerous drugs, without allowing victims a chance to hold them responsible in front of a judge and jury.

Don’t doubt for a minute that isn’t likely to happen.

That’s why we need a Democratic president.

Voters should stand proud of the voice they gave to Obama and Clinton. It was an historic race. Sen. Clinton made a spectacular run against a culture of misogyny and Sen. Obama proved it was the person, and not the color, that counted.

But it can be even more.

An Obama-Clinton ticket means more than the vote’s of18 million Clinton supporters and it’s more than merely seeking women to support the Democratic ticket. It would show Obama’s commitment to real change at two levels.

First, at a very personal level, Obama could show that to change the country he is willing to change himself.

Secondly, that leadership action would cement his position as the most committed Democratic leader since Franklin Roosevelt.

USA Today on June 10 2008 described on page one the changes on abortion, job bias, and campaign finance and racial polices that have occurred since the retirement of Sandra Day O’Connor from the Supreme Court in January 2006.

In short, Justice O’Connor’s legacy has faded.

Imagine how bad it would be with the next Supreme Court justice appointed by McCain, giving the TSARs a solid Supreme Court majority.

We are on the cusp.

A Democrat in the White House is a must.

An Obama-Clinton ticket guarantees a Democratic win – a win that we must have to protect ourselves against right-wing abuse on the Supreme Court and to preserve human rights.

This is not the time for risk. There is way too much to lose. There is so much to protect.

It seems that some people do not recognize that dispite some unpleasant aftereffects, bankruptcy is truly a “fresh start.”

Instead of being satisfied with the benefits they receive some people remain unhappy.

Here is a letter I received:

“Why does it take attorney’s six or more weeks to discharge a chapter 13?

Why do apartment leasers hold a bankruptcy against you when I don’t see how you could add apartment rent onto your bankruptcy?

If life is so miserable after a bankruptcy, why are lawyers constantly telling people it’s okay to file. (They want to get paid.) “

My response:

“Six weeks for a discharge isn’t that long and may well be governed by the schedule of the bankruptcy court.

Some landlords may not want to rent to someone with bad credit. They may feel that they will have to chase the renter for their money. Dispossessions are time consuming and expensive.

In many cases the landlord will get possession of his apartment, but may never recover the unpaid rent.

While the court proceedings drag on, the landlord has lost a part of his source of income. So he haa a right to be careful.

However life is not that bad after bankruptcy. Debtors used to be sent to jail.

Not too long ago, bankruptcy would mean that the bankrupts would have to carry a stigma for life. Many committed suicide rather than face the disgrace.

Many people who went bankrupt during the Great Depression spent years paying off their discharged debts as a matter of honor.

Now nobody much cares. You will be able to get credit. Your debts have been wiped away. What more can you ask for?

You were the one who ran up the debts, whether through bad luck, bad planning or the simple inability to control your spending.

You did contract to repay the money and you didn’t.

For the most part you are now free of the pain and pressure caused by your financial problems. You will face some obstacles over the next few years, but you should have realized that before filing.

You approached a lawyer, not the other way around. I’m sure the lawyer didn’t twist your arm to force you to file. If you’ve gotten your discharge, be happy, restart your life and live with the consequences.

Things could be worse.”

In my opinion this person needs an attitude adjustment.

Awhile back I got the dreaded letter from the bank saying you are overdrawn. I couldn’t believe it, I wondered what the heck did I do?

Then I opened it up and I was overdrawn by over a thousand dollars and I was real concerned.

I called the bank and they told me the $3000 dollar check that I had written was insufficient. Well I did not write a check for that amount but they assured me I did and told me where to.

I couldn’t believe I could do something so foolish but I called the company that I had written the check to and they said yep, that was what I wrote it for, and I was overpaid on my account.

Then we had to start the process of me getting the money back that I had overpaid, in the meantime I needed to do a quick transfer or I would have more insufficient checks.

After I got the check covered and started the return process of getting my money back I got to thinking I couldn’t have done anything that dumb.

So I called the bank and asked them if they were sure I had wrote it for that amount and she assured me they check those kinds of things, I still didn’t believe her so I went down there and said I wanted a copy of the check.

Low and behold I HADN’T been stupid and wrote a 300 dollar check for 3000. The company I wrote it to had encoded it wrong and the bank didn’t catch it.

So after apologies from the bank and their assurance they would fix things right up for me I called the other company back and asked them if they were sure I had made the mistake. She also assured me they always check these kinds of things. Then I said then how come I am holding the check and it is obviously written for only 300.00. She didn’t have much to say then and they assured me they would fix things right up.

In talking to her she said she just assumed the fault was mine because even if they had made the mistake one of our banks would have caught it, yeah right.

So while most of you would notice a 2700 difference like I sure did, we may not notice those pennies and nickels if we don’t check every month.

Because the only one looking after your account carefully will be you!!

Bankruptcy may seem to be an easy solution for major financial problems. But it is always better to avoid filing bankruptcy at all cost and to turn to it only as a last resort.

Once you file for bankruptcy, this point will remain on your credit record for ten years. This will make it difficult for you to receive loans and credit. Some lenders may allow for limited credit with bankrupt; but only after extensive explanations, and at a higher interest rate and with added credit fees. Another reason for avoiding bankruptcy is that some types of bankruptcy call for repossession of assets. Once the bank finds that there is something with you that is not necessary for living, the item may be seized to pay for debts and bankruptcy expenses.

With bankruptcy, financial difficulty will not be solved and your life becomes an open book as the court pries into all aspects of life wherein you will have to provide all financial information like savings, investments and assets. Though bankruptcy may seem to suggest some freedom from financial debts, there may be other debts that will have to be paid like alimony, court judgment costs or child support.

So keeping these points in mind, it is always better to avoid bankruptcy. Debt consolidation is one of the best means of avoiding bankruptcy. These companies help you by examining your current loans and come up with a program that incorporates all these debts. The company handles the payment to all the creditors; you just have to make a single payment to them every month. They will also get you a lower rate of interest and a longer time period to repay the loans, thus making you save some money.

Easy access to credit cards and credit accounts at department stores has now made it rather easy to fall into debt. It is better to pay bills with cash, and not use credit when money runs low. So cancel the credit card account! If you fall in debt, instead of hiding from the debt companies, it is better to talk to them as they may be able to negotiate and help you solve your debt. It is always better to plan a budget calculating debt ratio to income when in debt. Just write all the bills and expenditure that you have. Then you can determine how much has to be paid for bills, and how much is left for other spending. If required, you can also sell your home and downsize to avoid bankruptcy.

The only benefits of filing for bankruptcy are that the stress of dealing with numerous creditors is relieved. Once bankruptcy is discharged, as most of the debts get written off, creditors cannot pursue them. However, the disadvantages to bankruptcy are many. Businesses can be sold and employees dismissed with bankruptcy. Equity in a home is most likely to be sold as with bankruptcy, reliable assets of value are lost.

Bankruptcy is a costly process where all the fees for courts and trustee are drawn from the debtor’s assets. On filing for bankruptcy, it is not possible to hold certain public offices like MP, magistrate or even practice as an accountant or a solicitor. Moreover, with the new bankruptcy reform law, it is difficult to use Chapter 7 bankruptcy to get a new start in one’s financial lives.

Under the old law, one could file for bankruptcy through Chapter 7 or 13. In Chapter 7, you can keep your exempt property like the equity in your home. Here most of the debts are discharged. However, in Chapter 13 bankruptcy, you have to agree to pay off all your debts over a period of three to five years. So according to the new bankruptcy law, most of the bankruptcies are forced to file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

Moreover, according
to the new law, you have to meet with a credit counselor for six months before applying for bankruptcy. However, as there are insufficient credit counselors, it is rather hard to accomplish this. It is also required that you attend money management courses at your expense before discharging your debts. However, it is always better to approach a good bankruptcy lawyer before taking any steps!