Money Walks

Welcome to the Carnival of Debt Reduction #92. I hope everyone had a wonderful fathers day weekend.

First of all, I want to thank John of Might Bargain Hunter for giving me the opportunity to host this edition. I was really surprised to see the number of submissions to this edition, it was really low.

As always, there were really good articles submitted so please take your time to read these posts. I made some comments on the articles and also took out a quote from each just to give a small idea on what each article talks about. I hope you have a great time here and take a lot out of these great tips with you. Without wasting any more of your time, here are the articles for edition #92:

These articles are in order in which they were submitted

Personal Finance Blog Articles on “Getting Money to Finance Your Purpose in Life“.

Editors Note: This is a nice article on how to get into the right mind set into helping you get out of debt. “No matter how much you earn from these financial streams of income, you must manage your money effectively….
You can have as much money as you want because money is an energy. You may need to change the way you think about money”

3 Debt Consolidation discusses “When Is Your Credit Card Debt Too High?“.

Editors Note: Also shares a nice list of ten indications that shows you carry too much credit card debt. “You know your credit card debt is too high when you have to spend more than 20% of your take-home pay towards paying off the interest + original principal balances on your credit cards”.

Stewart Hsu shares his experience on “Advice from a Billionaire“.

Editors Note: Stewart’s right, its not everyday that you get the chance to hear a billionaire speak about their experiences and their success stories. This article points out some useful tips from a billionaire. Stewart says “Sitting in the audience, what made him so compelling was the genuineness and warmth in which he spoke; I personally felt he was speaking from his heart”.

Family Finance Blog tells us “How to get out of debt - one day at a time“.

Editors Note: “Debt is one of the easiest things in the world to get into and one of the hardest to get out of. There are thousands upon thousands of tips for getting out of debt whether it be slowly or quickly”. FFB is right, debt is so easy and so inviting with hard temptations and once you’re in debt its so hard to get out of. Like what FFB says, take it one day at a time.

The Happy Rock posts, “Having Goals Is Great, But Having Purpose Is Better“.

Editors Note: Happy Rock gives us two situations in which deals with getting out of debt and explains that having purpose is the key success in becoming debt free. “Having goals is very helpful, but having purpose will change your life.”

Golden Fleece Blog on “Bundling Cable, Phone, and Internet Costs More“.

Editors Note: The title says is all. Read on to get some advices on how you can save money on cables, phones and internet costs. “One advantage to bundling is that you can periodically call your cable company and threaten to cancel, citing the low promotional rates offered by its competitors.”

Might bargain Hunter explains that “A mortgage is still debt that needs to be reduced”

Editors Note: Amy has a debt of 72,000 and she wants to pay it off by April 2009. Now that’s a great goal, shes going to have to pay roughly 3,000 each month to pay that off in time. MBH says, “I wonder why there’s not the same urgency for people to pay off their mortgages”.

No Credit Needed says he prefers “Creating The System Versus Doing The Work“.

Editors Note: NCN has many tips here on techniques for building better systems. “First, you need a budget that you can setup, modify, and actually use. Elaborate, fifty-page, multi-screen budgets only work for a select few. Create a budget can and will actually use”

That about concludes this edition of the Carnival of Debt Reduction. I hope you will take many tips from these articles and apply them somehow in your life. I hope you will have a great week. Submit your articles for the next edition of Carnival of Debt Reduction here.

Yes, I’m really excited to announce that I have completely paid off my credit card as of this past weekend. I have wrote many posts about my credit card situation and it has been an ultimate goal for a while now. I am finally glad to announce that my long journey has finally reached an end.

For those who do not know, I originally had a credit card debt of about $9,000.00 as of last year May. Over this past year I have been trying really hard to fight temptation to not buy anything that I don’t need and only worrying about paying off this debt.

So now that it’s finally paid off, what’s my next goal? What am I now going to do since my debt has finally been paid off? It’s simple. Save, save and save. Invest, invest, and invest. That is going to be my next goal. Over this past year, paying off my debt has definitely been a great learning experience and through the process I’ve learned to budget effectively and to live frugally.

Now my main goal is to save up for my down payment for my first home. I plan on purchasing my first home in about 3-4 years from now, so I have plenty of time to start saving. I live in Maryland and houses here are quite expensive. If I want to save for a 20% down payment, I’m going to need about $70,000. That’s going to be my next 4 year goal.

Having this credit card debt paid off has relieved a lot of stress off my back and now I’m ready to continue my financial journey.

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Statistics show that the average American has over $8,000.00 in credit card debt. If you fall under that credit card debt range, then you’ve got some major cleaning up to do. There are millions of people who have come out of some heavy credit card debt, so now it’s your turn.

Follow these 5 steps to be on your way to being credit card debt free. 

1. First thing, you need to stop the credit card offers. You want to get away from all these tempting offers. You can actually force credit card bureaus to stop selling your information at 1-888-5-OPTOUT. Call the number to get the forms.
2. Reduce your interest rates. The average credit card interest rate goes for about 18%, which is really high. You want to be in the 7%-12% range. You can call your credit card provider and negotiate for a lower interest rate. If you have been a customer for a while, then it should be really easy to negotiate. 
3. Stop using your credit cards. If you’re trying to reduce your debt, the last thing you want to do is to keep adding to it. If you have a hard time not using your cards, then take them out of your wallet or purse and leave them at home. If those methods doesn’t work, you can even cut up your cards.
4. Always pay more than the minimum due amount. Credit card companies love it when you only pay the minimum amount because the balance is calculated based on a system so that they can extend your payment plan as long as possible to make optimal profit.
5. Consolidate your debt. Once you have reduce the interest rates of your cards, you want to combine your credit card debt into the card with the lowest interest rate.

Once you have stopped using your cards, reduced your interest rates, and have consolidated your debt, then you’re heading in the right direction for paying off your credit cards.

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So whats the big deal with budgeting and why is it so important? Let me tell you why I love to budget, I have ten reasons and maybe you might see for your self the reason for its importance. Here they are:

1. Big Awareness. Through budgeting, it keeps me aware of how much I spend on the daily basis.
2. Saves me money. By knowing whats coming ahead and being able to plan, it helps me to spend less and less every month.
3. Smart planning. Knowing how much money I have allocated, daily budgeting keeps me financially aware of my situation.
4. Puts me in the right direction. Helps me to reach my financial goals.
5. Helps me Prioritize. By keeping a nice balanced budget, I don’t have room to always buy things that I want. Instead, I need to make sure that I am able to buy the things that I need first before being able to buy anything else.
6. It just feels good. The satisfaction of spending within my allocated funds is a great feeling and an accomplishment.
7. Helps reduce debt. Financial planning and strict budgeting is a great way to help reduce debt.
8. Keeps me in a positive financial mind set. When I’m consistently around numbers and percentages, I’m always being reminded to keep going.
9. I love numbers. I love to calculate and to see how I’m improving from month to month.
10. Organized. Being able to plan my budget has definitely helped me to be more of an organized person.
11. (Extra)I’m ready for those emergencies. Life is unpredictable and you never know what’s heading your way. Being on a budget prepares me for those emergency times when I need those extra few bucks.

Budgeting is a very nice way to keep track of all your expenses and it also helps you stay organized. The best thing is it only takes about 20 minutes per week. I recomend using this program called pear budget. Its an excel spreadsheet that keeps track of how much you spend on the daily casis. If you want to give it a try, you can download it for free here.

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One of the most important life lessons you can teach your kids is to develop successful money management habits  and  a sense of financial responsibility. When it comes to teaching your kids about money, the sooner they learn the better.

1. Help your child understand the value of saving money.  Here is where you start showing them the importance and the  benefits of saving money. This can be done with a simple but balanced form of an allowance. While they are young, giving them small amount of money will help them prepare for the future when the amount becomes larger.
2. Discuss the privileges and pitfalls of owning a credit card.  Show that credit cards can be a very powerful tool which could help you dramatically with your finances and also in return, how you could misuse a credit card and how much that could affect your life.
3. Give your teen ‘real world’ experience with money and budgeting. Instead of buying their yearly school clothes yourself, give them a set amount and let them decide what they need and what they don’t need. Emphasis that that is all they are getting so chose wisely.
4. Teach your child how to track spending. Get them in the habit of tracking their spending by either getting a notebook or a creating a simple excel spreadsheet on your computer.
5. Cover the basics of investing. It’s never too early to start explaining the general overviews of investing. The earlier you start, the better they’re equipped when it’s actually time for them to start investing.

So I managed to bring my credit card debt down to an even $4,000.00 just this past weekend. Paid off $1,404.22 out of the $5,404.22  which brought my total to an even $4,000.00 I plan on paying off a little more as soon as I receive my refund from my federal return. My goal is to bring it down to $3,000.00 by next week. It would be nice if I could have it completely paid off before summer starts but I doubt that will happen, simply because I am only working part time and spent money on worthless junk. However, this will not stop me form trying to get it down as much as possible. Here is a general idea on how I plan on getting it down as much as possible. Some of the stupid/unnecessary things I spend on includes:

1. Chinese food - This one is really stupid considering I have a meal plan on campus which is completely already paid for. I just need to throw out all my carry out menus from my room.
2. Starbucks - Ah, how I love coffee. This one is going to be a little hard to stop but I am going to try to cut down little by little. I go about 5-7 times a week. I love their new Dulce de Leche Latte. Such temptation makes this one quite tricky.
3. Random grocery shopping. Yes, I am truly a college student. I all I do is eat and study. Although I love the infamous Ramen Noodles, I tend to spend a little more on the hot pockets and frozen pizzas.
4. Car gas. Gas price is no joke. Especially since my car only takes premium fuel.
5. Pure junk. Stop carrying my cards and cash everywhere. Simple.

I think that if I am able to cut down on these 5 things I can save so much more. I’m going to set my target date for May 21st. Until then, I plan on keeping a record of how much I would of spent and instead saved.