Good point Jeff... if the card isn't costing you money, then it definitely makes sense to keep it open just for the sake of your utilization ratio. Thanks for commenting! :)
I like Dave Ramsey's stuff too and I definitely agree he's a good resource on personal finance. However, I don't think this article contradicts his advice... while a cash-only world would certainly save us in finance charges, the reality is, credit can be a good thing when used responsibly. I'm not advocating carrying big balances every month - quite the contrary, you should only charge what you can pay off at the end of the month when possible. But having a good line of credit ensures that you can borrow when you need it and that can be a lifesaver in certain circumstances. The key I think is balance.
Hi there and thanks for your comment... You're right - the age of the credit (how long you've had it) definitely factors into your credit score, so this is a good point. Adding new credit cards could affect the average age of credit and possibly drop your score.
I use my budget to also balance my checkbook. So I check my budget every night as I enter the day's purchases. Once it got into my daily routine it wasn't that hard to keep up. On the last Friday of every month I sit down and make up the budget for the next month. Its usually a copy of the current month but if there's a birthday or holiday expense coming up its gives me a chance to plan for it.
I mean obviously there's always that one guy at every job you could live without. He's at every job!! haha. If you say you've never had problems with anyone, you're being dishonest. I simply say "there's people you don't get along with but I don't let that effect my work". I try to keep my opinions of people to myself and make the best of it :)
I never really thought of debt as slavery until I read Dave Ramsey's book. If you think about how most people earn and spend their money, they are spending most of their time working and earning money for someone else.
I've been working on implementing the debt snowball recently and it is making a huge impact already. I can't wait to become debt free and actually being able to take home most of my earnings.
Great points Carlos. I think a lot of adults, especially when they start families and are working on forging their careers, lose focus on improving themselves. Lifelong education is a great way to invest in yourself and pays back in dividends later. Everything you do to enrich yourself really sparks personal growth and will lead to greater opportunities.
God forbid instead of this socialist crap the government picked their nuts up off the floor and made education loan and medical insurance/loan payments 100% tax deductible until an individual's effective tax rate is 0.00%.
I hate the sentiment in posts like the one above me. People that feel entitled to education making them money. Sorry honey, you make money, not your education. I also hate to break it to you, but you aren't paying crap and we are carrying you on your taxes because if $600 is "really" half of your income each month and you had half a brain during tax season you'd end up in a negative tax bracket, thus you're not paying for your kids medicaid. Why would you have kids before you can afford them too? I refuse to have kids until I have no debt, as in my house is paid for. Where has America's common sense gone.
This is an excellent idea and one I wish I could add to my new book 'How To Change Your Life One Day At A Time. - I'm editing right now and I could shoehorn this in, with a link to your blog of course. Let me know. Stu :)
Although a completely cash, no credit world may sound good,it is highly unlikely. Especially when there are those businesses like car rentals and hotels that use credit cards for reservations, otherwise you have to pay a large cash deposit. Not many people want to give a large cash deposit when they can just use a card. Or in my case, I'd rather use my cash ON my vacation, rather than give it to the rental car company to hold who is just going to give it back (minus the cost of said service)upon my return. That means I would have to save practically twice in cash when i can just use a card responsibly.
It's so hard to find a happy balance between budgets and fun, something i'm still battling with even now! That said, it is so important to budget especially in the current economic climate. I like to budget for a while and then reward myself with something i've wanted for ages!
Setting aside some time to record what you've purchased is important. It will also help you to see if you're staying on track. Set aside some time either daily or weekly (if you don't like planning you may want to only do it weekly).
Perhaps most important is motivation. If it's boring or you don't see a point to it, you may stop doing it. If you set up a reward for yourself, it could increase your motivation.
Soap is so bad for your hair! And speaking as someone who has had hair that gets oily excessively quickly ever since I hit puberty, oil-based anything is the worst thing I could ever do. I am sure I can speak for millions of other oily-scalped individuals when I say that that is absolutely not a choice.
And I'm positive that the ONLY reason this soap has not completely dried out your hair and given you breakage like you've never seen before is BECAUSE it's oil based. If it was not for that, I'm fairly certain your hair would be a disastrously dry and brittle mess. I don't know what Dr. Bronner's is, but I'm guessing that is also a soap, so... That is also most likely a very poor decision. Soaps are made to moisturize and clean your skin, which is a living organ. Your hair is just dead stuff that comes out of the pores in your skull. So naturally, soap and shampoo tend to have very different makeups intended for different uses.
And by the way, conditioner is wonderful. I have ridiculously oily hair, as previously stated, yet for the few years that I stopped using conditioner, my hair got very dry at the ends. My hair used to be fine, straight, silky, and beautiful, and now it has a very different texture. It's more coarse, although it's still soft now that I'm conditioning it again, but it's not remotely similar to the silky feel it used to have, and I'm sure it's because of that period in time when I only used shampoo.
Oh, and for those of you that are like me with the major overproduction of oil on the scalp, do not use conditioner throughout all of your hair. ONLY use it at the bottom of your hair, applying it no higher than the bottom of the hairline at the nape of your neck. The top of your head needs less moisture, conditioner will make the oil situation so much worse. If you have short hair, then you should just rub a VERY small amount on your hands the way you rub lotion in your hands before moisturizing your legs or the way you lather up the shaving cream, and then just lightly dab the conditioner on the tips of your hair with open palms.
Closing accounts after balance transfers are a big issue, but closing accounts in general is also huge. As a rule, if the card doesn't charge an annual fee, I keep it open indefinitely to have a good utilization ratio and extend the length of my credit history.
I recommend listening to Dave Ramsey. Just about everything you said contradicts his accurate view of debt. When applying for a credit card or mortgage, they're looking at your debt to income ratio. What's so bad about paying things off or in cash? It avoids the need for a credit card. People can wait to buy a tv, appliance, etc. Save your money and pay cash. It saves money when you can pay in cash instead of paying interest. I don't think people realize or think about that. Can you imagine if people paid for things in cash? Credit card companies would shut down and people would have more money to enjoy vacations with their families, save for retirement, etc instead of buying that $2k tv that will end up cost them several hundreds more because of interest.
Wii Sports get-togethers used to be my go-to winter activity. The only downside was that I got so good at Wii bowling that I became really annoyed with myself when I was still mediocre at real bowling. =)
Great article Kate. You point out some things a lot of people are definitely not aware of. In addition to messing up their utilization ratios, when they do balance transfers, they also drop their average age with new cards and that can lower their scores too.
Tony Robbins mentioned a tool that helps with this. He called it the key to motivations chart. Basically, if our values are in conflict, we experience pain.
For example, if you value hierarchy is
1) freedom
2) wealth
3) stability
4) love
And you need to quit your job to save your marriage, you have a conflict of values that places love above all else. However you also value your freedom and stability (steady paycheck). Most of the time, people stay at jobs because of FEAR, and a conflict of values. Eventually though your conflict is a way of forcing upon you a level of pain that sort of forces you to change...
Even though I am a single mother of two children,and a college student, I have found my own tricks to saving money. I have learned to pay myself instead of someone else. For example I cut all cable off in the house,about 8 years ago now like I said I have two chidren and did have plans to get it back someday, but not anymore. i pay myself the $120.00 dollars a month that I gave to the cable company. I invest it in short term CD's about 6month's to a year. I then turn around and spend the money plus interest that I've earned on a nice travel expense for my family. We don't even miss the TV anymore! It was the smartest thing I have every done and I have a much healthier relationship with my children because of it. Thier grades even came up in school,and I have been able to keep off an extra 30lbs that I have been fighting with ever since my second child was born,just because we are much more active without the mindless entertainment. Well this is just one example of the many things I have cut. Have a Great Happy Day !!!!! Amy
I've never played that game, but I remember the I'm a Love Machine commercial. I'm always looking for new games to add to my collections, so maybe this will be the next one. Thanks for the tip!
Try the game Mad Gab!!! It is hilarious. ima lub muh sheen!!!! (I'm a love machine)
That's what the game is. You read a phrase of sounds and you have to figure out what the correct phrase it. If you're like me, I could literally be saying it perfectly yet have no idea that I'm saying it, and sometimes can't figure it out!!!! Has anyone hear played it?
Good point Jeff... if the card isn't costing you money, then it definitely makes sense to keep it open just for the sake of your utilization ratio. Thanks for commenting! :)
I like Dave Ramsey's stuff too and I definitely agree he's a good resource on personal finance. However, I don't think this article contradicts his advice... while a cash-only world would certainly save us in finance charges, the reality is, credit can be a good thing when used responsibly. I'm not advocating carrying big balances every month - quite the contrary, you should only charge what you can pay off at the end of the month when possible. But having a good line of credit ensures that you can borrow when you need it and that can be a lifesaver in certain circumstances. The key I think is balance.
Hi there and thanks for your comment... You're right - the age of the credit (how long you've had it) definitely factors into your credit score, so this is a good point. Adding new credit cards could affect the average age of credit and possibly drop your score.
I use my budget to also balance my checkbook. So I check my budget every night as I enter the day's purchases. Once it got into my daily routine it wasn't that hard to keep up. On the last Friday of every month I sit down and make up the budget for the next month. Its usually a copy of the current month but if there's a birthday or holiday expense coming up its gives me a chance to plan for it.
These questions make me want to barf. Be self employed, or be a drone.
I mean obviously there's always that one guy at every job you could live without. He's at every job!! haha. If you say you've never had problems with anyone, you're being dishonest. I simply say "there's people you don't get along with but I don't let that effect my work". I try to keep my opinions of people to myself and make the best of it :)
I never really thought of debt as slavery until I read Dave Ramsey's book. If you think about how most people earn and spend their money, they are spending most of their time working and earning money for someone else.
I've been working on implementing the debt snowball recently and it is making a huge impact already. I can't wait to become debt free and actually being able to take home most of my earnings.
Great points Carlos. I think a lot of adults, especially when they start families and are working on forging their careers, lose focus on improving themselves. Lifelong education is a great way to invest in yourself and pays back in dividends later. Everything you do to enrich yourself really sparks personal growth and will lead to greater opportunities.
God forbid instead of this socialist crap the government picked their nuts up off the floor and made education loan and medical insurance/loan payments 100% tax deductible until an individual's effective tax rate is 0.00%.
I hate the sentiment in posts like the one above me. People that feel entitled to education making them money. Sorry honey, you make money, not your education. I also hate to break it to you, but you aren't paying crap and we are carrying you on your taxes because if $600 is "really" half of your income each month and you had half a brain during tax season you'd end up in a negative tax bracket, thus you're not paying for your kids medicaid. Why would you have kids before you can afford them too? I refuse to have kids until I have no debt, as in my house is paid for. Where has America's common sense gone.
This is an excellent idea and one I wish I could add to my new book 'How To Change Your Life One Day At A Time. - I'm editing right now and I could shoehorn this in, with a link to your blog of course. Let me know. Stu :)
Could you be more specific about how much a "box of barley" is? Barley where I live comes in many different size boxes, bags etc.
Also, is any organ meat necessary in this recipe?
Although a completely cash, no credit world may sound good,it is highly unlikely. Especially when there are those businesses like car rentals and hotels that use credit cards for reservations, otherwise you have to pay a large cash deposit. Not many people want to give a large cash deposit when they can just use a card. Or in my case, I'd rather use my cash ON my vacation, rather than give it to the rental car company to hold who is just going to give it back (minus the cost of said service)upon my return. That means I would have to save practically twice in cash when i can just use a card responsibly.
It's so hard to find a happy balance between budgets and fun, something i'm still battling with even now! That said, it is so important to budget especially in the current economic climate. I like to budget for a while and then reward myself with something i've wanted for ages!
Jay
Sterling Effort
Setting aside some time to record what you've purchased is important. It will also help you to see if you're staying on track. Set aside some time either daily or weekly (if you don't like planning you may want to only do it weekly).
Perhaps most important is motivation. If it's boring or you don't see a point to it, you may stop doing it. If you set up a reward for yourself, it could increase your motivation.
Soap is so bad for your hair! And speaking as someone who has had hair that gets oily excessively quickly ever since I hit puberty, oil-based anything is the worst thing I could ever do. I am sure I can speak for millions of other oily-scalped individuals when I say that that is absolutely not a choice.
And I'm positive that the ONLY reason this soap has not completely dried out your hair and given you breakage like you've never seen before is BECAUSE it's oil based. If it was not for that, I'm fairly certain your hair would be a disastrously dry and brittle mess. I don't know what Dr. Bronner's is, but I'm guessing that is also a soap, so... That is also most likely a very poor decision. Soaps are made to moisturize and clean your skin, which is a living organ. Your hair is just dead stuff that comes out of the pores in your skull. So naturally, soap and shampoo tend to have very different makeups intended for different uses.
And by the way, conditioner is wonderful. I have ridiculously oily hair, as previously stated, yet for the few years that I stopped using conditioner, my hair got very dry at the ends. My hair used to be fine, straight, silky, and beautiful, and now it has a very different texture. It's more coarse, although it's still soft now that I'm conditioning it again, but it's not remotely similar to the silky feel it used to have, and I'm sure it's because of that period in time when I only used shampoo.
Oh, and for those of you that are like me with the major overproduction of oil on the scalp, do not use conditioner throughout all of your hair. ONLY use it at the bottom of your hair, applying it no higher than the bottom of the hairline at the nape of your neck. The top of your head needs less moisture, conditioner will make the oil situation so much worse. If you have short hair, then you should just rub a VERY small amount on your hands the way you rub lotion in your hands before moisturizing your legs or the way you lather up the shaving cream, and then just lightly dab the conditioner on the tips of your hair with open palms.
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Closing accounts after balance transfers are a big issue, but closing accounts in general is also huge. As a rule, if the card doesn't charge an annual fee, I keep it open indefinitely to have a good utilization ratio and extend the length of my credit history.
I recommend listening to Dave Ramsey. Just about everything you said contradicts his accurate view of debt. When applying for a credit card or mortgage, they're looking at your debt to income ratio. What's so bad about paying things off or in cash? It avoids the need for a credit card. People can wait to buy a tv, appliance, etc. Save your money and pay cash. It saves money when you can pay in cash instead of paying interest. I don't think people realize or think about that. Can you imagine if people paid for things in cash? Credit card companies would shut down and people would have more money to enjoy vacations with their families, save for retirement, etc instead of buying that $2k tv that will end up cost them several hundreds more because of interest.
Wii Sports get-togethers used to be my go-to winter activity. The only downside was that I got so good at Wii bowling that I became really annoyed with myself when I was still mediocre at real bowling. =)
Great article Kate. You point out some things a lot of people are definitely not aware of. In addition to messing up their utilization ratios, when they do balance transfers, they also drop their average age with new cards and that can lower their scores too.
Tony Robbins mentioned a tool that helps with this. He called it the key to motivations chart. Basically, if our values are in conflict, we experience pain.
For example, if you value hierarchy is
1) freedom
2) wealth
3) stability
4) love
And you need to quit your job to save your marriage, you have a conflict of values that places love above all else. However you also value your freedom and stability (steady paycheck). Most of the time, people stay at jobs because of FEAR, and a conflict of values. Eventually though your conflict is a way of forcing upon you a level of pain that sort of forces you to change...
Even though I am a single mother of two children,and a college student, I have found my own tricks to saving money. I have learned to pay myself instead of someone else. For example I cut all cable off in the house,about 8 years ago now like I said I have two chidren and did have plans to get it back someday, but not anymore. i pay myself the $120.00 dollars a month that I gave to the cable company. I invest it in short term CD's about 6month's to a year. I then turn around and spend the money plus interest that I've earned on a nice travel expense for my family. We don't even miss the TV anymore! It was the smartest thing I have every done and I have a much healthier relationship with my children because of it. Thier grades even came up in school,and I have been able to keep off an extra 30lbs that I have been fighting with ever since my second child was born,just because we are much more active without the mindless entertainment. Well this is just one example of the many things I have cut. Have a Great Happy Day !!!!! Amy
I've never played that game, but I remember the I'm a Love Machine commercial. I'm always looking for new games to add to my collections, so maybe this will be the next one. Thanks for the tip!
Try the game Mad Gab!!! It is hilarious. ima lub muh sheen!!!! (I'm a love machine)
That's what the game is. You read a phrase of sounds and you have to figure out what the correct phrase it. If you're like me, I could literally be saying it perfectly yet have no idea that I'm saying it, and sometimes can't figure it out!!!! Has anyone hear played it?