Owner: CreditWithdrawal URL:www.creditwithdrawal.com Join Date: Thu, 06 Dec 2007 12:03:02 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: Credit Withdrawal is a 'support group' for people tired of living paycheck to paycheck. It's a place to come learn from others and share your stories, ideas and tips. Site statistics:Click here
Saturday Roundup 2007-12-08 12:21:47 From the blogroll and other places over the last week:
JB takes the opportunity to turn adversity into advantage with - The Perfect Opportunity to Save has Arrived - Adventures in Debt
JLP made me laugh out loud with his - Discover’s Holiday Shopping Survey: 17% of 18 - 24 year olds are stupid! — AllFinancialMatters
Beware if you have a Macy’s credit card! - Citibank Busted Issuing 3.5 million Credit Cards to People Who Never Even Applied » American Consumer News
BFP gives good advice about year end money - 7 Responsible Ways To Spend Your Holiday Bonus - Blueprint for Financial Prosperity
Nickel has a (short) list of year-end chores Year End Money Moves - FiveCentNickel.com
LC repeats one of my favorite ways to make a guaranteed profit - 401k Match Trumps Debt Repayment - Free Money Finance
No matter what side of the counter - Why customers and retail employees hate each other - Mighty Bargain Hunter
Silicon Valley Blogger asks - Where Shoul Read more:Saturday
American Express is Stalking My Children 2007-12-07 00:01:19
Among the stacks of credit card offers I receive regularly, one stuck out this week for being in particularly poor taste. AmericanExpress
sent me an offer to get additional cards. Since I already have an Amex card, I get these ‘add a card’ letters on a pretty regular basis. The difference about this one though was the first line of the offer; "Give your teenager something that they will always carry with them."
What? Are they talking about DEBT?!?? Because that’s basically what they’re suggesting.
Reading on, I find out the terms of the offer.
Anyone who is 15 years or older can receive an Additional Card,…
That means that someone that’s too young to drive, too young to vote, too young to do ANYTHING of legal binding authority (hence, the minor part) is being handed something as dangerous to them financially as a hand grenade. When did this get to be acceptable behavior??
It’s hard enough today trying to install good fi Read more:Stalking
, Children
, American Express
Marijuana and Mortgages 2007-12-04 00:01:48 While listening to NPR the other day, they mentioned a strange fact. The rate of ‘home-grown’ marijuana busts by police has increased dramatically during the last couple of years. It was speculated that these home marijuana farmers were getting into the ‘biz’ because of their increasing ARM mortgages, and the need for additional funds to cover it.
That got me thinking about an incident that happened in my own neighborhood, literally across the street.
A few years ago, one of the major employers in my area started MAJOR layoffs. People that were used to making six-figure incomes were suddenly shown the door. This had a huge ripple effect throughout the area because most of the people let go were IT workers, which drove the supply up (and the demand down).
The quiet neighbor across the street was one of these layoffees. To add insult to injury, he soon got divorced, and the wife and kids moved away. he started staying in and wasn’t seen very often.
Soon Read more:Marijuana
A Public Thank You to the M-Network 2007-12-02 23:59:03 I’ve been browsing over my site’s statistics, and I’ve realized that the help I’ve been getting recently from members of the M-Network has really helped and inspired me to continue the blog. I enjoy writing about finance, but as most bloggers do, was quite depressed when you put your work out there and no one sees it.
It’s kind of like standing up on an empty stage in a deserted theatre and trying to give the performance of your life. You dance and sing, but not a peep comes from the (nonexistent) audience.
Just recently I got a big boost from Glblguy over at Gather Little By Little. His encouragement and help had me garnering more readers in a day, than I had been able to get alone during the entire previous time I’d been writing. I still remember the day that a deluge of traffic started coming in on one of the articles he referenced (Rebuttal: Putting Credit Cards to Work for You (GP)).
The excitement was tangible in the air as the hits came co Read more:Public
, Thank
Do Credit Cards Raise Interest Rates if You Close Them? 2007-12-01 09:01:18 Followup to: You Tell Me: Is it better to get rid of the cards or keep them? | beingfrugal.net
Over at BeingFrugal there’s a lively conversation about whether it’s good to get rid of credit cards or not. One of the readers. (Jennifer - Lordsofthemanor.blogspot.com) said;
If you close an account before its paid off, often a company will increase your percentage rate to the maximum allowable by law. That means if you were to close an account it could jump up to 30%!!!!,..
Now I’m not trying to dispute Jennifer, but I’d never heard of this before. I’ve closed credit cards and it hasn’t happened to me, but I’m only an individual.
So my question to the readers is;
Have you had a credit card company raise your interest rates after you close the card?? If so, how about sharing the circumstances.
I’d like to figure this one out. It’s a VERY significant penalty to those getting out of debt if this becomes or already is a com Read more:Cards
, Interest
, Rates
, Close
, Credit Cards
Dealing with a Foreclosure 2007-12-20 00:01:22 Hopefully this post will be irrelevant to the vast majority of my readers but for those of you that are contemplating losing your house in this hard mortgage time, a little encouragement won’t hurt.
You see, I HAVE Been There Too.
Back in the last economic recession/slowdown/readjustment during 1993, the wife and I had just purchased our own home. It was more than the realtor recommended for our debt/income levels, but we could make the payments (barely) and thought that it was better to get more house now, rather than ‘trading up’ later. So I went ahead and bought the house.
I say I because I made the #1 financial mistake you can make in a marriage, not getting your spouse’s support on financial decisions. Yes, I still hear about it to this day, 14 years later. I was a gung-ho pro-homeownership, I’ve-lived-in-rentals-my-whole-life-and-hated-it buyer. I convinced my wife finally to sign the paperwork, even though she had some VERY fearful feelings abo Read more:Foreclosure
Could You Walk Away from a Pile of Cash? 2007-12-19 16:17:36 The Simple Dollar » Why I’ve Decided To Abandon (Virtually All) Ads On The Simple Dollar
Trent, over at The Simple Dollar has taken an extremely bold step for a blogger; He’s discontinued AdSense on his web site. For a blogger, that’s akin to taking a chainsaw to an extremity. And for Trent and TSD, probably moreso than most run-of-the-mill blogs.
AdSense - is an ad serving program run by Google. Website owners can enroll in this program to enable text, image and, more recently, video advertisements on their sites. These ads are administered by Google and generate revenue on either a per-click or per-thousand-impressions basis.
From Wikipedia - AdSense
With a subscriber base of over 21,000 he’s got quite a bit of remaining revenue and clickthroughs to support his writing, but still it’s been estimated in various discussion forums I troll around in that he’s losing on the range of $3000/month in ad revenue.
That’s no small number Read more:Walk Away
Stupid Credit Card Trick - Decreasing Interest Lock-in 2007-12-18 12:01:02 Recently I got an offer I really had to scratch my head about. The offer goes like this;
Pay on the card at the rate of 10.99% for a year, then the rate reduces to 9.99% for the life of the balance of the loan.
Now, 9.99% isn’t bad, but I don’t know why the company would make you pay 1% more to get it.
Let’s do the math.
If the balance is $10,000, that means you would pay about $250/month (assuming a 2.5% payment which is typical).
So in the first year it looks like this.
Balance
Payment
Interest
$ 10,000.00
$ 250.00
$ 91.58
$ Read more:Stupid
, Trick
Why "Same as Cash,..' Isn't 2007-12-18 00:01:05 You see the ads everywhere. "Buy Now, 90 days, Same As Cash" or "No Interest for a Year" or some other eye-catching but truly ludicrous statement designed to draw in the unwary consumer.
Like a fly into the spider’s web, these kinds of advertisements bring in buyers with the lure of getting something and not having to pay on it for a long, long time. Businesses use this type of ad to get the swing buyer (the ones that are looking at high-ticket items, but are not buying because of the ’sticker shock’) to come in and buy.
The only problem with this scenario is that it’s not really Same As Cash. What’s actually happening is that you’re buying something on deferred interest. What that means is when you go in and get that washer/dryer on 12 months no interest, you’re actually accruing interest from day one. The trick is that if you pay off the whole amount within the year, they deduct all that interest back off.
Businesses li
Best Personal Finance Idea of the Year 2007-12-17 15:24:06
Mrs Micah has inadvertently started a meme going around the PF Blogosphere about the Best
Personal
Finance Idea of the Year, so I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon too.
My Best Personal Finance Idea of the Year (and of all time) is
Automate Your Finances
by automating your finances you don’t have to worry about missing card statements, of not contributing to retirement accounts and of having penalties and late fees tacked on to your credit card bills.
Automate the Bills
The first thing to do is to look into getting a bank account with on-line access and Free Bill Pay Service. I use Bank of America, and have since they started on-line banking. Everyone’s opinions differ, but I’ve never had any problems with BofA in the years I’ve been with them.
(more…)
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More posts you might like...What Would You Do If You Were Out of Work for an Extended Period?The Debt S
Sunday Musings 2007-12-23 11:32:44 Slow day, so I thought I'd update everyone on goings-ons here at CreditWithdrawal next week. I just heard from Glblguy at Gather Little By Little that he's going to post a guest article on his site. (Yay!) so tune in tomorrow to see it. It's entitled "Being Frugal isn't Being a Miser". I also submitted stories to the following Carnivals, so we'll see what gets accepted and what doesn't. Carnival of Personal Finance @ The Digerati Life Carnival of Debt Management @ Debt Consolidation Lowdown Carnival of Everything Finance @ Everything Finance Carnival of Financial Planning @ The Skilled Investor Carnival of Money Stories @ <Not sure who's hosting this one this week> Merry Christmas. If you liked this post, maybe you should Subscribe to the CreditWithdrawal Feed.
More posts you might like...Saturday RoundupSaturday Roundup
Read more:Sunday
, Musings
Saturday Roundup 2007-12-22 13:10:12 Time to look around the Blogosphere and see what we shall see. Of course here on Credit Withdrawal we had My Mutual Funds Dropped 23% Yesterday!! Planning for a New(er) Car Roll a Traditional 401k Directly to a Roth IRA Dealing with a Foreclosure Could You Walk Away from a Pile of Cash? Why 'Same as Cash,..' Isn't Stupid Credit Card Trick - Decreasing Interest Lock-in Best Personal Finance Idea of the Year Saved! Portable Power Supply Saves My Bacon My favorites On the M-Network + Annex and Around the Blogosphere Being Frugal - Lessons Learned from My Hippy Brother Cash Money Life - Protect Yourself Against Charity Scams Get Rich Slowly - It's a Wonderful Life and the Value of Social Capital Green Panda - 10 Cars that Can Last 200k BripBlap - Is College Worth It #2 Lazy Man and Money - What's Your Definition of Retirement Moolanomy - A Deeper Look at the 80% Rule Mrs Micah - If I Were Going Read more:Saturday
My Mutual Funds Dropped 23% Yesterday!! 2007-12-22 12:19:51 If you've seen a huge drop in your mutual funds over the last few days, DON'T PANIC!!! What's happening is that a number of mutual funds are making their annual required disbursements of dividends. For the investor unfamiliar with this (like I was last year) it can be a scary thing to see your investments seemingly plummet downward at double-digit percentage rates. If you wait a few days, you should see a reinvestment of the dividend amount into your account. Here's the Process Fund shares are sold at what's know as the Net Asset Value, (NAV). Each day at the end of trading, the stocks, bonds, cash, and other assets of the fund are calculated at their market value(s). That's the NAV for the day. This is also why mutual funds don't report share price changes until after market close. The assets of the fund pay returns back to the fund; stocks pay dividends to the fund, etc. These dividends stay in the fund as cash which causes the fund price to rise (more value beca Read more:Funds
, Yesterday
, Dropped
, Mutual
, Mutual Funds
Planning for a New(er) Car 2007-12-21 15:00:43 I'm one of those that plans to keep their car until it either falls apart around me, or just gives up the ghost one day and turns out to cost more to repair than to replace. So, I've still got a number of years left on my cars, with good care and careful driving. But I started thinking about what steps to take when I DO get a new car. Is it Time to Shoot Bessie? Cars should last for a couple hundred THOUSAND miles or more with regular maintenance. Today's vehicles are a lot better-built, and much better engineered than their ancestors. It isn't surprising to hear about cars passing 200k miles nowadays. SO, when is it really time to turn the old busted in and get a new hotness? Recurring repair bills are mounting - Pick a number as a rule of thumb, say $3000 and add up the amount of money you've spent on your vehicle in the past year. If it's over your amount, maybe it's a candidate for the scrap heap. The Vehicle is Unsafe - Even maintenance can't keep some cars on
Roll a Traditional 401k Directly to a Roth IRA 2007-12-21 00:01:18 Starting in Jan of '08, thanks to the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA'o6), the working man has a new option for his retirement funds. The 'Old' Way Previously, if you left your job or had a 'qualifying event' (an event that allowed you to withdraw your 401k money, depending on the funds' rules), the only place you could put the money from your old 401k would be either; Another 401k, or a Traditional
IRA. That or take a cash disbursement + early withdrawal penalties + paying taxes due. Assuming you wanted the money to end up in a Roth IRA, the jump path would be Original 401k -> Traditional IRA -> Roth IRA. And in addition, you couldn't roll the Traditional IRA to a Roth, if you had a Modified Adjusted Gross Income of over $100k for the year. Another stumbling block. Not much flexibility there. But now with the PPA'06, the money can be moved directly into a Roth IRA. The 'New' Way Here's the steps Open a Roth IRA at your bank or financial institut
Suzy Orman Has Brainwashed My Wife 2008-03-11 08:41:34 Do you have one of those spouses that seem to NEVER believe what you say until it's been verified by an unimpeachable third-party source? My wife is like that. I could say that the sky is blue and grass is green, but until she hears it from an environmental scientist or botanist, I'm just [...] Read more:Brainwashed
Looking Back, 10 Years of Home Ownership Mistakes 2008-03-10 07:40:22 I've always been a big believer in buying a home as an investment. The reason for that is I spent my life moving from rental to rental every few years, never having spent more than a 4-year stretch in any one location. Growing up, that was pretty rough. The trend continued for a [...] Read more:Years
, Ownership
, Looking Back
, Home Ownership
News, Stuff, and Other Things of Interest 2008-03-07 10:29:27 For some reason this flu just won't completely go away, so writing articles of substance hasn't been easy this week. To bring everyone up to speed, I'm doing the monthly review today for the blog (a few days late) and an update of the S.M.A.R.T. goals for the year. [...] Read more:Interest
As Subprime ARMs Adjust, More People are Walking Away from Their Homes 2008-03-05 13:22:38 It seems that the continuing Subprime
mess is about to get messier. With Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARM) for Subprime borrowers adjusting this quarter, the economy definitely showing signs of recession (first job cutbacks in 5 years, foreign investment in U.S. dollars and bonds down) it's no wonder that everyone's starting to think the sky [...] Read more:Walking
, Homes
Now Is the SECOND Best Time to Get Out of Debt 2008-03-04 13:04:03 Note: This is a guest post from Ana of Debt FREE Revolution, who is gladly pinch-hitting for me while I still battle the flu bug. Thanks Ana!! Right now is the second best time to get out of debt here in America. All you need to do is turn on the [...] Read more:Best Time
Just a Quick Quicken Contest Reminder 2008-03-12 10:24:06 Just a reminder to all those people wanting a copy of the Quick
en Starter edition. The contest is still on, but the flaky footer in the feed seems to only work when it wants to. So as an alternative, remember; As a contingency, you can also e-mail me directly at [...] Read more:Quicken
, Contest
, Reminder
The Dumbest Purchase Ever - Siding on the House 2008-03-15 10:02:10 This post is in response to a contest being run over at DebtKid. He wants you to share your dumbest purchase for a chance to win his dumbest purchase, a Nintendo DS Lite. Be sure to leave a comment on his blog for 1 entry. If you have a personal finance blog and write [...] Read more:Purchase
, House
Newest Subprime Victims - Renters 2008-03-17 06:37:22 I knew it was bound to happen, the Subprime
mess being what it is. The ripple-effects of the great Mortgage Meltdown is starting to be felt far and wide. It's most recent victims? Renters. Articles are starting to appear across various news sources about how investors that have overextended themselves, gorging on [...] Read more:Victims
Why NOW is the Best Time to Get Out of Debt 2008-03-20 01:01:27 Unless you've been living under a rock, you've heard about all the problems with the U.S. economy and the up-and-down rollercoaster that is the Market nowadays. Things aren't looking too good for the economic outlook, at least for the short-term, with 3 out of 4 economists now saying they believe we are in a [...]
Are You Mad at the FED? Good! But be Mad for the Right Reasons 2008-03-19 06:59:38 The Federal Reserve yesterday dropped the Discount Rate by .75 basis points, to 2.25%. That, in response over the weekend to the Bear Stearns implosion, and the on-going weakness in the American economy have a number of people up in arms recently. With all the economists running around with little or no [...] Read more:Right
, Reasons
Do You Have Plans for Your Stimulus Check?? The Stores Do! 2008-03-22 11:11:48 Many large-chain stores, such as Target, Wal-Mart and other that focus mainly on the middle class are gearing up to attempt to separate you from your stimulus checks (due in late May) as quickly as possible. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as the intent of the stimulus package was to stimulate [...] Read more:Check
Quicken Contest Still Going On 2008-03-21 06:59:43 This weekend, we'll be giving away another copy of the Quicken
Starter edition. Entry rules; Subscribe to the RSS Feed (above, more an honor requirement than a rule, as the stupid footer thing I was using seems to be working only sporadically). E-mail me at Tips@creditwithdrawal.com with your name [...] Read more:Contest
, Going
America - The Bail-out Capital of the World 2008-03-25 06:47:11 I've just about had it with stupid people that do stupid things being bailed out by the government. Sorry, but it's starting to get on my nerves. The straw that broke the camel's back is the announcement that Sen. Hillary Clinton is trying to put forward a measure to save the poor [...] Read more:America
, World
Yet Another New Type of Spam - GMail Calendar Spam 2008-03-29 08:20:20 Just when I thought they were starting to get a handle on the various types of spam advertisement drek, one comes along that just blows my mind. Logging into my GMail account, I find that I have a GCalendar
invite to a 'meeting'. The details are attached and range somewhere between threatening and laughable. [...]
Final Weekend for Quicken Giveaway, and Other News 2008-03-28 06:25:14 This weekend, we're drawing for the final copy of Quicken
Starter edition. I have a single Windows version available. (Last week someone chose the Mac version. I thought I was going to have a hard time finding someone for that one). Game Rules Subscribe to the RSS Feed (above, more an [...] Read more:Final
, Weekend
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