Thanks Edie for sending me your comments!
"A world of thanks! Your site has been a lifesaver and something that I
could not have figured out on my own. Money management is so important yet the
general public has no idea on how to do it. Most of us live pay check to pay
check and planning can be so confusing. Again thanks for your help!"
--Edie
Murgia More
reader reviews
A successful voice from the past!
Included in today's issue is an excellent piece written in 1869 by the legendary
P.T. Barnum! This excerpt is the Avoid Debt section of his The Art of
Money Getting.
Reward me!
Ah, the power of credit cards for rewards that you can use. We've been using the
Regal
Credit Card for a while now. They send $10 certificates for every $1,000 in
purchases. I recently took the family to see "War of the
Worlds"--great movie! There were three adults and three kids. We also all
got popcorn and three giant sodas. Total cost for all six, with food, $24.00.
That's $4 per person for tickets, popcorn, and soda--isn't that amazing!
I am horrified--they want to know what I am going to do with the money!
by Scott Bilker
Dear Scott,
I love your website and have passed the good word to others where I work. I play
the zero percent game every year and never ran into this one. Yesterday I did a
balance transfer at zero percent to pay down my house.
They gave me $20,000, which I will pay back in a
year. I was horrified that they asked me what I was going to do with the money.
I felt that they did not trust me and I always pay them back every year before
the zero-percent rate goes up. They never asked me this before with the same
amounts every year. I had to say something but did not lead on that I was using
it to go debt free and pay down the house, so I had to come up with something
fast or else I would be denied the balance transfer.
I told them I needed the cash to buy my neighbors
boat. Scott, I have a great credit score and I never pay a dime of interest to
them in the past. The credit card company even let me open six cards with them
and even let me transfer available credit to a new zero percent card.
Why all of a sudden do they want to know what I
am doing with the money?
Greg
How to save money on your phone service within minutes!
by Scott Bilker
For a limited time, I'm going to throw in a free
download of my DebtSmart Loan Calculator ($9.95 value) when you sign up for
this prepaid phone service. Both the calculator and the phone service are
worthwhile or they wouldn't be here. I personally wrote the calculator software
and stand behind it.
I always use everything I recommend to make sure that it's good! Ready for
this...their claims are 100% true! Great service! Great price! I signed up for
$25 and got the free minutes. So the total time I received was 1,578 minutes!
That's 1.58 cents per minute!
The online reporting was instant and accurate! This is all I'm going to be
using for a while. If you let them know what numbers your calling from, and call
their local access number, you get the lowest rate and you only have to enter
the PIN to make the call. It's easy to use, cheap as can be, clean connection,
organized online, and simple. Works just like you would want and expect!
My phone service is getting me for 10 cents per minute for in-state calling
and 7 cents per minute for long distance! What a rip! I can't believe I've been
overlooking this big potential savings. I'm going to easily cut my phone bill by
two-thirds! I figure that I'll save $1,000 per year with this new service.
* A Smart way to carry cash
* No credit Check
* Add funds at over 46,000 Agent locations nationwide.
* Enroll Today: Click Here or call 1-866-813-4052
No credit checks, No lengthy application and no
bank account needed.
Ideal for on line or off line shopping. Plus, it's a prepaid card.
Which means the ultimate in budget control is yours.
Household Math™: Job Offers This question is from my son's (3rd grade) New Jersey Assessment of Skills and
Knowledge (NJ ASK) sample test.
You have to choose between two different job
offers for the same four-day period. The first job pays $5.00 each day for the
four days. The second job pays $1.00 for the first day, and each day after the
first, you will be paid twice the amount you received the previous day. Which
job will pay you the greatest amount?
Featured Credit Cards Can Save You Money Now!
by Scott Bilker
Your
best defense against any one bank is to have credit options--to be able to
transfer your balance to a lower rate. That's your only real power against high
fees. That's how to be DebtSmart®! Make the banks fight for your business! Be
sure to add this web page to your favorites list so you can keep applying for
new credit when you need it. Which credit card is right for you? Select from the
list below and apply online right now!
"CardRatings.com has been offering
ratings of credit cards since 1998 and has been featured by Good Morning
America, The Wall Street Journal, Consumer Reports®, NPR, PBS, etc.
Thanks to consumers like you, CardRatings.com has become the most
comprehensive free source for comparing credit card offers."
Avoid Debt
by P.T. Barnum
Excerpt from The Art of Money Getting or Golden Rules for Making Money
Young men starting in life should avoid running
into debt. There is scarcely anything that drags a person down like debt. It is
a slavish position to get ill, yet we find many a young man, hardly out of his
"teens," running in debt. He meets a chum and says, "Look at
this: I have got trusted for a new suit of clothes." He seems to look upon
the clothes as so much given to him; well, it frequently is so, but, if he
succeeds in paying and then gets trusted again, he is adopting a habit which
will keep him in poverty through life. Debt robs a man of his self-respect, and
makes him almost despise himself. Grunting and groaning and working for what he
has eaten up or worn out, and now when he is called upon to pay up, he has
nothing to show for his money; this is properly termed "working for a dead
horse." I do not speak of merchants buying and selling on credit, or of
those who buy on credit in order to turn the purchase to a profit. The old
Quaker said to his farmer son, "John, never get trusted; but if thee gets
trusted for anything, let it be for 'manure,' because that will help thee pay it
back again."
Mr. Beecher advised young men to get in debt if
they could...
Helping you with your debt is very important to me personally! If you've been
reading my articles, you know that I always encourage self-help as a first step.
However, being buried in debt can be very overwhelming, which is why you may
want to explore other options.
One of those options is professional, ongoing help with credit counselors.
I've started to personally check out certain companies so I can recommend the
ones that are worth considering!
If you would like to speak with a representative from a...
DebtSmart® Download Debt Elimination Package Four powerful software programs in one package!
The 30-Year Loan Amortization and Analysis
Worksheet Many mortgage companies charge $10 or more for a single amortization
table! This spreadsheet will compute unlimited calculations that you can cut and
paste into many applications!
DebtSmart® Loan Calculator
This powerful loan
calculator can compute principal, interest rates, time remaining on loans,
balances remaining on loans, monthly payments and more! Written by Scott Bilker,
author of Credit Card and Debt Management, it's his personal loan calculator.
No Bills! Debt Elimination Program
Winner of the
Ziff-Davis Top Software Award in Personal Finance! This is the main program,
which helps you develop a precise credit-card repayment plan. It also tracks
your debts and makes suggestions regarding consolidation PLUS repayment
strategies.
Living Within Your Means--The Easy Way
This ebook
that was written to address all of the money questions and problems that the
average individual and family experience in their day-to-day lives! Whether you
are just having problems organizing your bills and files or you are just about
to declare bankruptcy this ebook has the answers you are looking for. You not
only get my insights on this issue, but also links and articles by the foremost
authorities on personal money management. In addition, there are several links
and articles to government sites like the Federal Trade Commission to let you
know what your rights are under the law.
High School Students and Credit Cards--A Recipe for Disaster?
by Rebecca Lindsey,
Ahhh, school days. Reading, writing, and rooting
for your school football team. Hanging out at the mall and surfing the web. Ok,
so things have changed a little since you were in school. The current generation
of teenagers now has more purchasing power than ever, and companies are spending
millions of dollars to get your teen to pay attention to their products.
If you're like most American families, your
teenager has some sort of income, be it an allowance or a job. The problem: how
do you teach your child about money, before they "invest" it all into
the current fad? Believe it or not, the solution may be a credit card.
Once upon a time, giving a teenager a credit card
was laughable, if not impossible. However, now there are several cards available
just for teens. Options such as parental control and digital allowances serve to
let parents participate in their teen's initial journey through the world of
credit. Although the thought of your teenager with a credit card in their back
pocket might cause you to break into a cold sweat, there are some good reasons
why...
The author(s), Press One Publishing, and DebtSmart.com shall have neither
liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or
damage caused, or alleged to be caused, directly or indirectly by the
information contained in this email newsletter and/or at the DebtSmart.com web
site. The information, methods and techniques described may not work for you and
no recommendation is made to follow the same course of action. Every effort has
been made to verify the accuracy of all content contained herein. However, there
may be mistakes; typographical, mathematical, or in content. This email
newsletter and the DebtSmart.com web site have been created for your
entertainment only. You must always seek the proper professional advice before
taking any financial or legal action. You have been warned.
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"The DebtSmart Email
Newsletter is packed with
cutting-edge strategies for
solving credit problems. I
highly recommend it."--Gerri
Detweiler, radio host and
author of The
Ultimate Credit Handbook
