Tag Archives: moolah

Dec19

The Redemption of Debt: Can It Ever Be A Good Thing?

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The Redemption of Debt: Can It Ever Be A Good Thing?

If you were writing a film of modern life, it’d be pretty easy to cast the good guys and the bad guys. The good guys – medicine, financial freedom, political freedom – basically cast themselves. So do the bad guys: illness, political strife, debt –

Now, hang on a second.

It’s time someone did this. It’s not popular; it’s not the kind of thing that we’re supposed to say. It rubs against the grain of all of those sayings we constantly hear; against being implored to live within our means.

It needs saying, though: Debt is not always a bad thing.

[ Audience gasps, women grab their pearls, and mustached men shake their heads with disappointment at such a statement. ]

Don’t believe me? Here are some examples of points in life in which debt is actually a useful thing. When it can be constructive. When, for once in the story of life, debt can wear a white hat.

The Case For Debt – Student Debt: We hear a lot about student debt in the media. We hear about it rising uncontrollably, how students fear not being able to pay it off and will spend their working lives trying to do so. No one is saying that the cost of a college education doesn’t need to come down. However, without student debt – without the bad guy – people wouldn’t have college degrees. In this instance, debt is the price you pay (figuratively as well as literally) for an education and for career prospects. Without it, these things would be out of reach for many people.

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Pixabay Image

The Case For Debt – Home Remodeling: For homeowners, debt is frequent. We don’t tend to think of a mortgage as a debt, but it is – technically, the issuing bank owns the property. So there’s the first good debt, and it’s not even the point I wanted to make.

Home remodeling with companies like innovateatlanta.com (or something similar in your local area) is a wise investment. It can increase not only your enjoyment of your home but the price of your house. In a rising housing market, you could make a huge return on the cost you paid for the home improvement. You don’t have to get into debt to make home improvements, but it’s not uncommon. The cost of good renovation work that will have the benefits as mentioned above is not cheap; personal loans is the quickest and easiest solution. You can then pay it back and make money back when you sell the house. Who’s the good guy now?

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 Pixabay Image

The Case For Debt – Reassuring Creditors: It isn’t necessarily just financial products that you have to pass a credit check for now – so you need your credit file to be in good shape. Creditors don’t want you to be a mystery. If you have no debt, you’d think that would be a good thing – but to potential creditors, it’s a leap into the unknown. They don’t know if you make your repayments, as they have no prior history to judge off of. Keeping a small, well-managed debt on your credit file is more reassuring and makes you more likely to be approved.

So while debt may never be a permanent white hat, it’s not always the darkest of blacks either.

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 Woohoo!

 Featured Image By: Pixabay

Dec15

Time To Love Being A Student And Stop Fearing The Financial Consequences

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Time To Love Being A Student And Stop Fearing The Financial Consequences

Getting into college can be your opportunity to really excel in life and start focusing on the path you wish to travel on in your adult life. But for almost everyone that gets in, there’s a specter that looms large over what can be a fantastic and transforming experience. We’re talking about the money that you’re going to have to spend to get that education. Student debt is the biggest it has ever been, so you really want to start making the decisions of how you’re going to handle it as quickly as you can.

Get Side Hustling: Not everyone has the opportunity to get a job to finance their way through college. Or even if you do, you might want to make sure you have a little extra. Nowadays, the market for freelance work is bigger than ever. Particularly online, there are a few technical skills that can make it significantly easier to make a little money on the side. With good writing skills, you could get into creating a monetized blog with marketing partners. There are international businesses of all kinds that can use the translation and localization skills of someone proficient in more than one language. There are opportunities for people who want to get into becoming a virtual assistant, too. Even if you can’t spend a long time away from campus, you can still find ways to make a little extra money.

Take Whatever Advantage You Can Get: One of the biggest ongoing expenses of a college student is the cost of tuition. It can end up costing you as much as $24,000 if you’re out of state. It accounts, on average, for 39% of the in-state student’s budget. Attending a no-tuition college is an option. But there are other opportunities that can help a few specific groups of people. College tuition discounts are available, for instance, to students from low-income families, to students with Native status, or students who have faced hardships like natural disasters. Other schools offer work-subsidized programs if you become an employee of one of the school’s departments.

Get a Head Start on Those Loans: Most of us are going to be coming out of college with some pretty hefty loans. If you’re able to, you want to try and pay them off as soon as possible. Otherwise, they’ll be a constant weight keeping you from financial freedom. Use lump sum payments that you get and create a budget, allocating 15% or more of your income towards paying off the loans. Doubling your monthly payments, meaning you have to really tighten those purse strings after college, could be the difference between paying for ten years and paying for three years. If you want to make sure that you’re not spending beyond your ability to pay the loans, then consider creating an automatic payment to your fund.

Don’t let money worries hang over your college experience. Meet new people, have new experiences and learn to your heart’s content. With a bit of planning, you can start making money a lot more manageable before you even set foot on campus.

Featured Image By: Pexels

Dec13

Things You Need To Ask Yourself Before Taking Out A Short-Term Loan

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Taking out a short-term loan can be an appropriate solution for some people, but it doesn’t suit every situation out there. If you’re trying to decide whether this is a good idea for you, ask yourself these questions before taking out a short-term loan:

Is This Really An Emergency? Short-term loans are usually most suitable for those who have an emergency on their hands. If this isn’t exactly an emergency, you should probably think twice before taking out one of these loans. It could end up more trouble than it’s worth. If you have a broken appliance that you need to replace ASAP, for instance, then this could constitute as an emergency. However, needing an outfit for a party is not an emergency. Be honest with yourself about whether you truly need this loan.

How Much Interest Will I Pay? Make sure you’re well aware of how much interest you’re going to be paying before agreeing on the loan. This will depend on how long you want the loan for, how much you’ve taken out, and other factors. The amount of interest you pay can also be dependent on your credit score. The lower it is, the more interest you’ll pay in general. You can try using a calculator online to get a good idea of what you’ll be paying back.

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Photo by CafeCredit

Is There A Cheaper Option? Short term loans aren’t always your only option if you do actually have an emergency. You may want to compare the features of your various options. For example, you could use a credit card, try payday loans with installment, or even use your overdraft. There may be other options for you, too, so it’s crucial that you explore them as best as you can and work out what the best choice for you is.

Is There Any Chance I Won’t Be Able To Repay The Loan? Now, you absolutely need to be sure you can pay back the loan in the agreed time before you take it out. If you don’t, your interest rates might be sky high. You might even get a fine along with people calling you up chasing you for the money. This isn’t ideal and can actually be really stressful. This is why it’s so important that you’re honest with yourself about what you can afford to take out and pay back. Take a look at you calendar to make sure you don’t have anything else you need to pay for that could affect how you pay back the loan.

Even if you’re sure you’ll be able to pay back the loan, it’s worth looking into what happens if you don’t. Will they make a guarantor pay your loan? Will they give you a fine? Make sure you know the terms and conditions well before you agree to anything. You don’t want to end up with a nasty surprise down the line if something unexpected happens. Some loan companies can be really understanding if you can’t pay them back and will even be willing to come up with a new repayment plan for you. This is why researching them first is crucial. You don’t want bailiffs knocking on your door the second you miss a payment!

Have You Found A Reputable Lender? If you’ve decided that a short term loan is for you, then finding a reputable lender is crucial. A cashfloat short term loan is a popular choice for those looking into reputable lenders. Make sure you research different lenders that you could potentially work with and read reviews from real people so you get an idea of the experience that they had, too. You can see if you can find a forum to help you figure out who the best lender for you is. People who have actually worked with the lender will be the best people for you to speak with. Make sure you read the terms and conditions and know exactly what you’re getting yourself into before you go ahead and take out a loan.

Make sure you ask yourself these questions and be honest with yourself before you even think about taking out a short term loan. If you know that you don’t have a genuine emergency on your hands, it’s better if you avoid the loan. If you do have a real emergency and you need money fast, make sure you find the best short term loan deal for you. This isn’t a decision that you should make lightly, so take your time and evaluate all of your possible options before coming up with your solution.

Dec6

Get Ahead On Life With These Practical Pieces Of Home Technology

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Spend a day counting up all the different pieces of technology you see and use and you will realise just how much we live in a technological age. A lot of people are concerned about just how much we rely on it – and this can certainly be true when it comes to bringing up children. It’s very important that we spend time in the real world, rather than just on social media or playing video games, as this can rub off on our kids.

But at the same time, there are many amazing pieces of technology that have now been invented to make our lives easier. If you haven’t already invested, you may not be getting the most out of what this constantly developing sector has to offer. Technology that’s cool and helps you out day to day? What’s not to love? Take a look at these tech-forward solutions for any home that can have a real impact on your life.

Smart Home Heating: Hands up who wants to save money on their heating bills? That will be most of us, then. Many people think that the only way to heat their home economically is to layer up and switch off the central heating. But, this isn’t much fun, especially throughout the cold winter months. Thankfully, new technology allows us to keep our homes warm while still saving us money and being kinder to the environment. We are, of course, talking about the best wifi thermostat. These amazing high-tech thermostats can be controlled from your cell phone, allowing you to dictate when your heating comes on and off even when you’re not at home. Many of them also come with motion sensors, so they can determine when you need heat and when they can switch themselves off.

Smart Home technology can be implemented not just for heating but for lighting and security systems as well. This provides homeowners with extra peace of mind and that is priceless. If you are interested in a smart home update, simply enter a search for “professional smart home system installers in Lake Tahoe” (or your local area). This upgrade will modernize your home and help save you money too!

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Forever Freezing!!

Slow cooking: Time is something all of us could do with more of – but it’s so hard to find! Working long hours, trying to have a social life, and looking after children (if you are a parent) all means that when it comes to cooking, most of us would just rather order takeout. But as well as being bad for your health, this can also become quite an expensive habit! Investing in a slow cooker, however, can help to solve this issue. Slow cookers, or crock pots as they are also known as, have quickly become a staple of every savvy chef’s kitchen. Simply put all your ingredients in there in the morning, set to ‘low’ for a few hours and then when you come home you will have a bubbling meal ready to eat straight away.

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Yummmm

Motion Sensor LED Lights: It comes as no secret to most of us that LED lighting is much more economical than regular lighting. They consume far less electricity and are also much safer, due to the fact that they are cooler and more resistant to breakage. If you are already considering installing LED lights in your home, why not go a step further and go for a motion- sensor option? These lights switch on and off when someone enters a room, so you’ll never waste money due to leaving lights on again.

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Pexels Image

Nov30

Personal Debt: Answers You Need To Put Yourself Back In Control

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Personal Debt: Answers You Need To Put Yourself Back In Control

There comes a certain point in human lives when we think that we are in sole possession of the “right” outlook on life. People younger than us haven’t lived as long, haven’t seen what we’ve seen. Those older than us don’t understand how the world has changed and haven’t changed with it. An older person’s attitude to mental health may seem unenlightened to us because we expect them to be more conservative.

What we sometimes don’t grasp is that they do understand mental health issues and know a bit more about avoiding them. Consumer debt totals keep rising pretty much worldwide; certainly in the West, anyway. We’ve become almost comfortable with a “manageable” amount of personal debt. The older you get, the less likely you are to be okay with it, though, and there are signs that the seniors have it right.

Debt Is Linked To Mental Health Issues: If you looked through your accounts and found that you owed more than you thought, but weren’t at risk of default, would you be okay with that? And when I say “okay” I don’t mean “could you push it to the back of your mind for the moment?”. We know it’s there, but it’s inconvenient. So we end up resolving to get it sorted out later. There’s always a later. And though you may think it’s locked up safely in the back of your mind, the door is wide open. Though you may not perceive it, the stress is there.

Why The Seniors May Have It Right: Young adults and those in their thirties and forties have an attitude to debt that has arisen with the greater availability of it. On one hand you always know someone worse off than yourself. On the other hand there is the fact that if you’re managing it now, it’s easy to think a little more won’t hurt.

Here it is useful to think of the boiling frog theory. If you put a frog into boiling water, it will instantly leap out. Of course it will, it’s too hot. But if you put a frog in cold or lukewarm water, and gradually increase the heat, it will stay in there until it is boiled to death*. Debt can be like that – you don’t perceive it as a problem until it quite clearly and damagingly is. Because older people are less conditioned to be okay with debt, they’re less likely to borrow. They’re also more likely to refuse to take on any more debt.

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Wikipedia Image

What Should You Do About It? If you look at your accounts and your debt is above what you earn in a year, consider homeowner loans. These may allow you to consolidate all your debt into a single payment which will be more manageable than all the smaller ones. Having it all in the one place also makes you less likely to overlook a payment and get landed with fees and charges.

Secondly, if you feel swamped by debt payments, speak to someone about it. In the first instance, a parent is the right person to speak to. They can bring a steadier perspective to the issue which will help you see it less as a tidal wave and more as an issue to be overcome. Debt need never be a terminal problem. It can be highly inconvenient. However, if you’ve made the mistake of over-extending your borrowing, don’t compound it by panicking. All this will do is increase the stress you are trying to banish.

*Don’t worry – this has been tested by scientists and it has been established that a frog will jump out if the water gets too hot. People in a certain amount of debt may not be so proactive, though. 🙂

Featured Image By: Public Domain Pictures

Nov30

Suffered A Financial Loss? Here’s How To Deal With The Situation & Get Back On Your Feet

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Suffered A Financial Loss? Here’s How To Deal With The Situation & Get Back On Your Feet

When it comes to your career, you may have made the decision that a lot of people have made and opted to go down the entrepreneurial route. No one said running a business would be easy – it’s a well-known fact that within the first year of launching, half of all new businesses fail. However, when things start to unravel and go wrong, that doesn’t make it any easier to deal with, does it?

If your business has suffered a financial loss, you’re probably not sure what to do next. You’re probably wondering what the next steps that you should take are. When things start to go wrong, the most important thing is not to panic. Because if you panic, you may rush into making a decision that you will later regret. So, it’s important to keep your head and think carefully about what steps to take next.

To help make it easier for you to cope with a financial loss, below are some tips and pieces of advice that you may find useful:

Investigate What Has Caused the Issue: The first step that you take should be to investigate what has caused the issue to occur in the first place. Financial losses don’t just randomly occur; there’s always a reason for them. It could be that you invested in a new product and that product has unfortunately failed to sell, leaving you out of pocket. Or, it could be that your accountant has calculated your taxes wrong and has left you short of funds because of it. If the reason for your financial loss is due to someone else, it might be worth contacting professional negligence solicitors. Whether it was an accident or not, if you’ve been left out of pocket and haven’t been reimbursed, you may have a case.

Learn From Your Mistakes: As a business owner, if you want to be successful, you need to be constantly learning and growing. It’s important to not just take mistakes at face value. If you want to make a success of your venture, you need to learn from your mistakes and ensure that they don’t happen again. By learning from your mistakes, you can up the chances of your business growing into a prosperous and profitable venture in the future.

Try to Find a Way to Keep Your Business Afloat: It’s all well and good saying to learn from your mistakes. But if you don’t know how to keep your business afloat while you recover what you lost, you could end up having to shut down for good. You need to think about your options, could you get a short-term loan perhaps? Or, would you be willing to have an investor who acts as a silent business partner? If you want to ensure that your business stays afloat, you need to find a way to get out of the mess that you’re in.

Hopefully, the tips and advice above should make the process of dealing with a financial loss a little bit easier and less stressful.

Featured Image By: Pixabay

Apr22

iPoll Website Review

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iPoll Website Review

Hey everyone and TGIF! One of my ways to make an extra buck is participating on online survey websites. They’re a great way to earn money, gift cards, and various other rewards and deals. I recently just received a twenty-five dollar Amazon gift card from completing surveys on iPoll. Despite one major issue that I had with the website, I’m overall semi pleased with it, so let’s discuss:

The nice thing about iPoll is that they give you five dollars automatically just for signing up for the website. I love when survey sites do that because it gives you a great head start to getting bigger rewards. I also really appreciated the amount of money that completing each survey was worth. Some sites that I’ve used in the past were only paying pocket change for surveys. Not iPoll. Almost every survey on their site was a dollar or more so that made getting to the twenty-five dollar cash out goal a piece of cake.

Unfortunately, the quickness of completing the surveys did not translate at all to the receiving of monies. After you completed a survey, you then had to wait for what you submitted to pend. This could take one to over six weeks which just didn’t fly with me. The biggest pain in the ass was when I was one pending survey away from reaching the twenty-five dollar goal and it took the final survey EIGHT WEEKS to go through. At that point, it was easy to make the assumption that the website was just trying to hold on to the cash for as long as they possibly could before rewarding their participants. Not cool.

It took me sending an email to customer service for the final pending survey to go through but the waiting game was only just beginning. After I chose the Amazon gift card as my reward, I had to wait an additional six weeks to receive it. Frankly, I wasn’t thrilled with that, either. I finally got the email containing my e-gift card last week and now that I have it, I don’t plan on doing any more business with iPoll. I think that it’s a great site if you’re willing to wait around for months to receive your rewards but I’m just not that patient. It’s too bad, too, because up until those issues, iPoll was easily one of the better survey sites that I’ve used. Oh, well!

So there you have it, my iPoll Website Review! Who participates in taking online surveys? Which ones do you like the best? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah

Mar10

Facebook Buy/Sell Groups

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Facebook Buy/Sell Groups

Hey everyone and happy Thursday! So I don’t know about you guys but I can’t stand clutter. Once I don’t find use out of anything from clothing to perfume to old childhood toys and jewelry, I want them gone. But here’s the catch – I’d love to make some moolah off of these unneeded items, too! I recently became introduced to the Buy/Sell Groups on Facebook and they’ve been working brilliantly for me so far, so let’s discuss:

I’ve used and am still using the virtual garage sale app, LetGo, but I’ve found that items on there take forever to sell. Don’t get me wrong, it is a very handy little app and I don’t plan on deleting it any time soon because I do make sales on there…I just want something that’s a little more fast paced. I saw a girl on my Facebook newsfeed post about using the Buy/Sell Groups and how quickly she has sold her unused belongings on there so I figured that I would give it a go. All I did was search the Buy/Sell Groups on Facebook based on my area and then I requested access to the group.

By the next day, I was accepted to the groups and was eager to post some of my unwanted treasures for sale. I spent some time uploading pictures and descriptions of my items and before I knew it, my posts were up. Within minutes I had likes on the posts, comments requesting more information on items, and offers to make a purchase. In five days of my posts being up and running, I had made fifty dollars. Thanks to one lovely woman, I finally sold some of my unused perfume and another lady bought a Victoria’s Secret umbrella that I got for free with a purchase and have never used once.

Between my use of Letgo and the Facebook Buy/Sell Groups, I’ve made over one hundred and fifty extra bucks by getting rid of my unused items. I’ve been so pleased with my discovery of these handy tools because other than having a garage sale, I don’t know any other way to get rid of my unwanted but still somewhat valuable items. These virtual yard sales have also been my much preferred alternative to selling clothes at Plato’s Closet. I love it because I get to make the price as opposed to blindly accepting whatever they offer for the clothes they selected. Therefore, more money for me!

The Facebook Buy/Sell Groups really are the epitome of the phrase “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” and I would absolutely recommend them if you’re itching to get rid of some clutter! I’m looking forward to clearing out my hoard of unwanted items even more and making a few extra bucks, to boot! What is your way of saying bye-bye to your unneeded belongings? If you use the Facebook Buy/Sell Groups, how would you rate your experience? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah