Debt Suggestions

Suggestions on how to get out of and stay out of debt

Cool little idea found on another site…

Some of my friends put a rubber band around their wrist if they’re supposed to remember something, like getting milk on the way home. Some of my friends send themselves email or schedule events in Outlook. Some of my friends draw treasure maps and hide them behind paintings in their attics (okay no they don’t, that was from Goonies). The point is, we all have little hacks we use to remind us about things we are supposed or not supposed to do in the future.

Here’s a hack: Write on your credit cards. If you’re saving for a new television, write “New Television” on your credit cards. If you’re saving for your kid’s 529 plan, write “College Education” on the front of your credit cards. If you are $10,000 in credit card debt and devoted to busting that monkey on your back, write down $10,000 on the front of your credit cards. This simple act alone has the potential to change your behavior for the better and, if nothing else, help you achieve your cash flow-related goals much sooner.

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No, it’s not just you — the U.S. economy really is bewildering. The government says gross domestic product expanded at an annual rate of nearly 4 percent in the third quarter, the fastest pace in a year and a half. The stock market is still up by 4 percent for this year, despite a sharp 3 percent drop on Nov. 7. On the other hand, growth in consumer borrowing slowed unexpectedly in September. Some economists argue that the U.S. is teetering on the brink of a recession, if it isn’t in one already.

Oil has exploded to nearly $100 a barrel, gold is near an all-time high, and the cost of food is soaring. It seems like high prices are breaking out all over, right? Yet the core rate of inflation is less than 2 percent a year, according to one widely followed measure. Confusion reigns right on up to the Federal Reserve, whose interest ratesetters are openly disagreeing about whether more cuts are needed.

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March 31, 2008 — There’s no magic bullet, says Steven Fazzari, economics professor at Washington University in St. Louis. The root cause of the current economic slowdown in the U.S. goes back several decades. There has been a concurrent wave of increasing consumer spending and rising consumer indebtedness. In the past, consumer spending actually helped the economy as it raised firms’ sales and encouraged more hiring. But the associated rise in household debt, most obviously in the recent housing bubble, has come back to haunt the U.S.

“For more than two decades we had consumer-led growth, which actually mitigated the recessions of the early 1990s and 2001,” Fazzari says. “Part of the reason we had mild recessions was due to consumer strength. But we kept building up debt. It was also a period of falling nominal interest rates. This meant that every cycle of low interest rates was another opportunity for people to refinance on better terms and extend their spending further.”

The economy is changing, however, and we can’t rely on consumer spending to keep rising beyond its already inflated level; households can no longer push the debt limit because the credit isn’t there. Even the Federal Reserve Bank’s move to lower interest rates doesn’t give Fazzari much hope for a turnaround.

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Jun. 30, 2008 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) — Tax rates could double. Spending on education, research, health and even Social Security could be squeezed tighter than ever. And foreign governments could use powerful financial leverage, rather than military force, to impose their economic and political agendas on the United States.

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CNN Money has a great artical on saving some hard earned cash as inflation beats down on all of us.

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/pf/0806/gallery.inflation_beaters.moneymag/index.html

Some sites that I’ve found that offer good suggestions on how to manage getting out of debt:

http://www.fool.com/ccc/debt/debt03.htm

http://financialplan.about.com/cs/creditdebt/a/GetOutOfDebt.htm

http://www.daveramsey.com/the_truth_about/get_out_of_debt_4055.html.cfm

Original Post From:

http://www.newstarget.com/z019659.html

Originally published July 17 2006
The coming financial collapse of the U.S. government: Fed papers reveal what’s in store for Americans

by Mike Adams

The bankruptcy of the United States government has been talked about for years by independent observers. If you’ve read the book, “Empire of Debt,” then you know where the U.S. is headed financially. But most people have no idea about the ultimate financial consequences of decades of borrowing and spending by Washington, and they remain irrationally convinced that the status quo will remain intact for eternity. No one in any position of authority, you see, has yet admitted that the U.S. government is indeed going bankrupt. Until now, that is.

In a remarkable paper posted by the Federal Reserve of St. Louis, and authored by a Boston University teacher named Prof Kotlikoff, it is revealed in blunt, powerful language that the era of borrowing and spending without consequence may soon come to a close. The paper, entitled, Is the United States Bankrupt?, may not remain posted for very long once the public gets word of what it actually says.

And what, exactly, does it say? For starters, Kotlikoff explains, “Unless the United States moves quickly to fundamentally change and restrain its fiscal behavior, its bankruptcy will become a foregone conclusion.”

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There is growing talk on Wall Street about the possibility of a recession. Since the beginning of the year three Wall Street firms (Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs) have all stated they believe we are either in a recession already or are very close to a recession. In other words, it’s no longer a matter of if a recession happens but when it will happen and how long it will last. In response to these developments, various presidential candidates have proposed various solutions. However, none of these will work, largely because this is not a typical slowdown caused solely by slowing consumer spending or business investment. Instead, it is a slowdown caused by inflated asset prices and a nation gorging on debt. As a result, it will probably take a lot longer to come out from under this problem.

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Do you own every gadget known to man (or woman)? Does your closet contain lots of shoes or clothes that you almost never wear? Are you feeling lost without credit cards? Do you come home with things you didn’t specifically go to buy? Do you use shopping as a quick fix for the blues? Do you spend more than you can afford? Are neighborhood malls and Internet shopping sites possess a mesmerizing magnetic appeal for you?

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Or you’ll end up like this:

“This lady who appeared on Oprah lives the life of a big house in the burbs, new cars, six beautiful kids, and spending way beyond her husband’s $5,000/month salary. Felice drops $400 a month on Starbucks, $240 on tans and manicures, and her children have no health insurance”

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There’s really no excuse for acting like this, if you run yourself into this kind of dept and stupid spending habits then it’s your own fault. Manage those credit cards wisely.