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Newsletter to Your Friends (Use this link only if you receive this newsletter by email) Week of October 5, 2009This is an OPT-IN list ONLY! If you feel that you have received this message in error, please follow the directions at the bottom of this email to unsubscribe. Thank you.Click Here to view this newsletter online. Navigate This ColumnGrandpa Terry's Update Welcome to The Budget Stretcher! I've just added another incentive to submit your tips for our newsletter. If you submit a tip and it's used in the newsletter you can now get 50% Off a Lifetime Membership to Budget Stretcher Premium. Just visit your Subscriber Benefits Page to submit your tips and select the BSP 50% off offer. With the U.S. Census process beginning, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) advises people to be cooperative, but cautious, so as not to become a victim of fraud or identity theft. The big question is - how do you tell the difference between a U.S. Census worker and a con artist? Click on the below link to learn what the BBB suggests: 2010 Census Cautions. If you haven't visited Thrifty Fun.com you are in for a treat. They have thousands of Money Tips and articles. You can visit them at http://www.thriftyfun.com or join one of their Newsletters or discussion lists by visiting the below site: http://www.thriftyfun.com/subscribe.ldml Have you heard about the proposal that has been on the Congressional agenda for several years that could make paying our Federal Income Tax and Social Security a lot easier? Believe me it's worth checking into. To read an article I wrote to summarize the Fair Tax just Click Here To see a comparison between the current tax system and the Fair Tax you can read the below article: Fair Tax Sample Tax Returns (PDF) That's all for now. Remember, I really enjoy hearing from you folks. If you have any comments, complaints, suggestions or just want to say Hi, please send me an email to tre2000@midwest.net If you know someone that may be interested in subscribing to our newsletter just copy and paste the below link into an email to them and have them subscribe: http://www.homemoneyhelp.com/confirmsubs.html Have a great week, Grandpa Terry Sponsor AdvertisementTHE FASTER YOU CAN PAY THEM OFF! Paying highest-interest debt first is the SLOWEST way out ... You can laugh at money worries - if you follow our simple plan. Discover savvy consumer money secrets your friends don't know and banks won't tell you. Limited time only. ACT NOW: http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/aftrack.asp?afid=107959 Grandpa Terry's Tip of the WeekHi Grandpa Terry, I have finally paid off all of my credit cards, and now am looking to close most of them. However, I want to do it correctly, so that my closing these accounts shows up the correct way on my credit report. I have excellent credit, that isn't a problem. Can you help point me in the direction of what I need to do to get this done correctly and get these accounts closed so that it doesn't negatively affect my credit? I don't want to chance running the credit cards up again; I usually keep them in my safe so I don't use them, but I've heard its also a negative to have the open accounts and not use them. Kinda seems like a rock and a hard place to me...its the classic "damned if you do; damned if you don't"!! Thanks for your help, Erika Hi Erika, A big congratulations to you for paying off your credit cards!! My recommendation would be to not close the accounts at all. The reason for this is that the credit bureaus look at the amount of unused credit you have available to you to determine your credit score. If the accounts are open they list your spending limit and show a zero balance which indicates to them that you have spending discipline. This increases your credit score dramatically. You may want to just cut the credit cards up. However, if these cards have an annual fee or you are sure you want to close the accounts you have to be careful. Here is a link to an articles that explains the process very well. Closing Credit Card Account Properly If you have any other questions please don't hesitate to ask. All the best, Grandpa Terry Sponsor AdvertisementAre you frustrated trying to get by on the money you make? Would you like to get a good view to where all your money is going? Would you like to start saving your money, or save even more? Looking for something easier then software like Quicken or Money? Would you like to teach your children about finance? Click Here to check out My Budget Planner Today Grandpa Terry's EmailGood Morning!Such a great article about learning to manage our money! My husband and I also learned by trial and error after we got married. One of our (few) smart money decisions was when his cousin and wife got a new car, and my husband said, “Now I suppose everyone will think we should get a new car, too.” After a short discussion we made a long-term decision that we not make purchases based on what our relatives bought. Sadly, we still overspent and used our cards too much. Then, when hard times came, we had to use our cards some more, and we soon were in “over our heads”. Just when things looked better, our daughter decided to get married in Jamaica. Call it a stupid choice, but we went, and we paid for our son to go along. (I don’t regret it, either!) Now we are once again to the place where we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, with no anticipation of any emergencies. However, I think we are much smarter this time. I am so aware of how quickly things can turn---a horse that needs emergency care, a breakdown of machinery, an accident. If anything major happened we would have to use our cards again, and I am paying just as much as I possibly can on them, with my fingers crossed, hoping none of these things happen to spoil my plans. As to health care, I wish I could tell Julie that of course people on Medicare love it when they don’t have to pay anything. My parents are on Medicare, too, and I am grateful for every Medicare cent that helps them. They also pay $400 a month for a supplemental insurance to cover what Medicare doesn’t pay. The fact is, Medicare is broke, just like Medicaid and Social Security. When she says “we can afford this” it shows a serious lack of knowledge of how things work. Just last week a lady came in to our office and told me that Medicaid was going to pay everything on her bill, and I told her, “No, Medicaid pays less than 50%, and our office has to write off the rest”. She was dumbfounded. She had no idea. She thought that somehow we were all getting something for nothing. People have to think and to use the same logic they use in any other situation. If something seems too good to be true----it is! The average medical/dental office has to limit the number of Medicaid patients they see, as they can’t keep operating with those kind of write off’s. Our society is so fixated on money, and there are costs associated with a new health care bill which have nothing to do with dollars. Just because we feel something is not working is no reason to rush headlong into something else that we know nothing about. In fact, the only concrete information we have to go on is that every single government program is riddled with corruption, greed, and inefficiency. People who have insurance they like are paying dearly for it. People are paying dearly for insurance they don’t like! I pay $500 out of pocket each month, plus a $25 co-pay every time I have to see the chiropractor (which is often) or my medical doctor, plus my 20% of what they don’t cover after my deductible has been met. I considered a different insurance with a lower premium, but they won’t cover visits to my regular doctor. It’s ridiculous, and I would like to see insurance companies have to change their ways. But I don’t want to jump from the frying pan into the fire, or to blindly accept a change that can’t even be explained to the general public. I’m not even saying I would oppose a new health care bill, but I want to know what’s in it and not have it rammed down my throat. I wonder if people are aware of a proposal made in Congress that when the health care bill is written it be posted on the internet for 72 hours so people are able to read it, and that proposal was voted down. So they do not even intend to let us know what they are voting on. That should raise a red flag with every single person in this country. It’s scary. I’m done with my rant now. Edit as necessary or you don’t even have to post it. I just feel that it is our responsibility to respond to the misinformation that is out there. Have a great week! I really am fine now!! Brenda Featured ArticleRead this article online at http://www.homemoneyhelp.com/articles/cashback.htmlAny retailer will tell you these days that money is tight. Consumers facing a squeeze on earnings and fearful of their future job situation as unemployment bites choose to hold onto their cash. Prices may be falling and the High St awash with bargains but consumers are not spending or at least not spending as much as they did pre-credit crunch. The cash has stopped being flashed. And yet it is possible to earn while you shop. Yes, you can earn real money, hard cash to spend as you like and even better its tax free. It`s called cashback shopping. The idea of earning while you shop is not entirely new. For some years now it has been possible to earn cash back while shopping with some credit cards. The more you spend on your credit card, the more cash you earn. A great way of earning money while you shopped, provided you were able to pay your bill in full each month otherwise any money you earn will be eaten away in interest charges. Now it is possible to register online at the many cashback sites available on the internet. These sites will offer a broad range of products and services from well known providers, each offering money back when you buy something or sign up for a product or service. All cashbacks you earn will be credited to your account and will be paid out on request straight to your bank account, though some sites may have a minimum threshold before they will pay out. Everything from groceries to electrical goods and bank and insurance products can be bought in this way. Indeed everything you might want to buy may be purchased through these sites. For businesses this can be an extremely cost effective way of recruiting customers online. Most online ads work by paying a commission to the website introducing the customer to another website. Cashback sites work in the same way except it is the consumer that gets the money rather than the website. This really is a great way to make money while you shop. There are no draw backs, no hidden catches. All you have to do is to shop as normal. And with some of these sites you might even earn more if you introduce a friend. Some sites might want to charge an upfront payment. Avoid these. You can sign up for free with many others. And be aware that it sometimes might be possible to get a better deal without cash back. So it is always wise to do your homework before buying. But the idea of earning free money while shopping is very attractive. What are you waiting for? free money and get earning your free money straightaway, hassle free. |
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