Home / Personal Opinion & Commentary (Page 23)

• The Truth About Personal Credit

  In Personal Finances, Personal Opinion & Commentary / 23 August 2009 / 0 comments

  In October 2008, many of the problems that have long been hidden in the credit industry finally showed up in a big way. The immediate response was for the government, the very same people who caused the problem to begin with, to now solve the problem by taking $700 billion of your money and mine and giving it to the people who created this disaster. Yeah, that works… Since this book is about personal finance, I’m not going to talk much here about the problems with the mortgage industry and the government bailout. I’m going to focus on the credit industry which many of our politicians wanted to include in the bailout. The cause of the big financial crash is the exact same cause that [...]

   

• It’s Even More Important Now

  In Personal Finances, Personal Opinion & Commentary / 23 August 2009 / 0 comments

  The financial scare we’ve witnessed in the past couple of weeks is just symptom of the real problem: our country and most individuals are up to their eyeballs in debt, and as such, are becoming enslaved to false affluency and a lack of fiscal discipline. The bail out is like putting a bandaid on a flesh-eating infection. It’s just a temporary cover. If you are complacent after such a clear warning signal, you have no one to blame but yourself when the REAL crisis hits, which will be sooner rather than later. You need to get out of debt (and you can!), and you need to start living a financially disciplined life if you 1) don’t want to suffer the worse when the crash finally [...]

   

• Eliminating Debt – The Lifestyle of the Cosmetically Affluent

  In Personal Finances, Personal Opinion & Commentary / 23 August 2009 / 0 comments

  It’s a generally true statement that debt-ridden, credit card addicted people appear to more wealthy and more affluent than they really are. Why? Because they spend their "money" (and credit) on LIFESTYLE expenditures. I overheard a fairly loud twenty something woman today in a restaurant (she was purposely being loud enough for all the tables around her to hear). She was going on about how "I love this restaurant, but if I ate here every day, I’d be really heavy and broke". She was already "heavy" and given the rest of the conversation, mostly likely already broke. I know it’s "mean" to say someone is fat, but she was the one putting herself out there for public scrutiny by clearly proclaiming she WOULD BE "heavy" [...]

   

• Calling all SUCKERS: Rent-To-Own

  In Personal Finances, Personal Opinion & Commentary / 23 August 2009 / 1 comment

  "Calling all SUCKERS" is going to be a series outlining some of the rip offs and scams you need to be aware of. This first part is about the rent-to-own rip off. "Rent To Own" is where you pay a company to rent furniture, appliances or electronics. The "to own" part is where, at the end of the contract, if you make all your payments, you either have "bought" the items, or you get to purchase them at some predetermined lower price. It is a rip off, and a waste of money from all aspects. The offering takes advantage of the "gotta have it now, even if I can’t afford it" mentality that is rampant in credit-laden countries like America. Let me see if I [...]

   

• Calling all SUCKERS: Payday Loans

  In Personal Finances, Personal Opinion & Commentary / 23 August 2009 / 0 comments

  While I don’t deny that there are legitimate and true emergencies that could cause a person to NEED a payday loan, I would still tell them to beg, borrow and scrape every way possible to get help somewhere else before jumping into the black hole known as "payday loans" or "payroll cash advances". Payday loans are typically a small loan where you give them a post-dated check to repay the loan. If you are unable to repay the principle, you are "loaned" the money again for another pay period with renewed fees and interest. This is known as "flipping". A lot of people get into a vicious cycle where they have to take to payday loan just to pay the previous loan, plus a new [...]

   

• Calling all SUCKERS: Payday Loans

  In Personal Finances, Personal Opinion & Commentary / 23 August 2009 / 0 comments

  While I don’t deny that there are legitimate and true emergencies that could cause a person to NEED a payday loan, I would still tell them to beg, borrow and scrape every way possible to get help somewhere else before jumping into the black hole known as "payday loans" or &qu"Calling all SUCKERS" is going to be a series outlining some of the rip offs and scams you need to be aware of. This first part is about the rent-to-own rip off. "Rent To Own" is where you pay a company to rent furniture, appliances or electronics. The "to own" part is where, at the end of the contract, if you make all your payments, you either have "bought" the items, or you get to [...]