Taking a grant from the government for your personal indigences does not invariably need to be a tough job. In general, this would necessitate you having needs, as well as the power to fill out applications for personal free government grants. Practically everybody in the United States of America today recognizes that government grants are available; nonetheless, not every body knows that the majority of this grant money scarcely ever gets employed each year.

It would appear that more grant money really exists likened to what we were told. The fundamental reason that this grant money goes totally unused would be the fact that individuals aren't conscious of their eligibility for present funds for various understandings, such as a lack in individual finances.

A lot of diverse cases of grants endure which meet different needs. People that fill out application programs for individual free government grants are generally in need of grant money for educational, personal, business, or housing reasons.

Grant money from the government is apportioned for the economy's universal well-being. The government knows about these demands that people have and therefore set aside tons of money to help them out when necessary. The one thing that classes a person in need from these monetary funds would be the filling out of practical applications for personal free government grants. This would be the most handy and swiftest way to start out the overall process of realizing grants. The majority of people know that this grant has no need of refund and doesn't regarded personal taxes.
The procedure required in getting grants seems to be exceedingly easy, while applying for grants through online applications is rather easy, as well. Nevertheless, there are balances and checks that come with realizing grant money from the government. There are also regulations that need strict enforcement. There are necessities by the government for each grant which has potential to be supplied, one of which would be to show legitimate grounds for requiring the grant money. Convincing plans need to be placed out as to why you want this money and the benefits it would bring to other people.

Making the personal choice to fill out applications for personal free government grants would just be the start of the whole grant process. However, if you do your enquiry, you will be able to put this grant to use in the wisest way feasible when you do get it from the government.

A lot of people are working for free these days.  Many are students who are securing unpaid internships as a possible investment in a future career.  Others are unemployed and want to gain experience and contacts, so they are volunteering their time and talent.   They are heeding advice by career counselors and columnists to offer to work without pay as a way of opening doors to new jobs and careers.

From a practical standpoint, I don’t blame anyone for using the internship/volunteer route to enter or re-enter the workforce, especially in today’s difficult economy.  As an educator, I have given that advice many times to students and recent graduates.  But I do so with ambivalence.  Something is very wrong with our economic system when those who provide genuine labor are not compensated for their work.  While I can understand public and non-profit employers having to rely on unpaid interns, it is wrong when profit-making enterprises do not pay at least the minimum wage.

In addition, it’s very likely that many of these arrangements — especially the common practice of unpaid internships — violate minimum wage laws.  The Fair Labor Standards Act, the federal wage and hour statute, does allow exemptions to the minimum wage for those who meet “trainee” status.  However, one of the requirements for trainee status is that the employer “derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the trainees or students, and on occasion his/her operations may actually be impeded.”  This is an awfully tough standard to meet.  Most interns provide an “immediate advantage” to the employer, even if the work involves relatively unskilled labor.

It’s not necessarily the small “mom & pop” businesses that are stiffing their interns.  Several years ago, in researching a law review article on the rights of student interns (see link below), I was stunned to learn that as of 2000, employers such the ACLU, Brookings Institution, CNN, Merrill Lynch, MTV, Rolling Stone magazine, Sotheby’s auction house, and the White House were among the prestigious and presumably well-financed entities whose internship programs provided no compensation.  Hopefully that has changed, but even so, today there is no shortage of other employers who happily accept free labor.

We have become so accustomed to unpaid internships as a rite of passage that we ignore the significant social and economic class implications.  Fields such as journalism (print and electronic), politics, and the arts are infamous for offering unpaid internships.  It means that these opportunities are disproportionately limited to those who can afford to work for free. 

I am skeptical that there will be any hue and cry against this widespread practice.  For students, volunteer internships have become very much a part of the educational and credentialing experience, and now many unemployed folks are joining the fray.  But is the minimum wage really too much to ask for anyone who is providing genuine work contributions to an employer?

For a freely downloadable pdf copy of my law review article, The Employment Law Rights of Student Interns (Connecticut Law Review, 2002): http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1303705

The template for this web cast is available in our Learning Center for $11

This is the final chapter in the 4 part saga (with one bonus in part 2).

Here is the link to watch this web cast (Video):

http://nerdenterprises.na6.acrobat.com/p74667017/

In part 3 we were not able to get into pivot tables too deeply so I wanted to devote another web cast to that part.

We show you how to use the transaction data to run pivot tables so that you can quickly and concisely report on the data to give you really meaningful information.

If you’ve missed the first 3 parts, be sure and get caught up here:

How to track your business in excel – part 1 – http://nerdenterprises.na6.acrobat.com/p30305366/

How to track your business in excel – part 2 – http://nerdenterprises.na6.acrobat.com/p20159112/

How to track your business in excel – part 2 – Bonus – http://nerdenterprises.na6.acrobat.com/p44179111/

How to track your business in excel – part 3 – http://nerdenterprises.na6.acrobat.com/p84834671/

And this one again

How to track your business in excel – part 4 – http://nerdenterprises.na6.acrobat.com/p74667017/

The pivot tables are the key to this when it is all said and done because this is how you accomplish what any accounting system should be designed to do – take what you’ve put into it and give you something valuable that you can take out of it. This is what any system’s reporting feature is all about. You won’t be able to do a well formatted P&L and Balance sheet with this, but you can get close by running the pivot table on the transactions and then adding the destination account to the filter, then filter for all Balance sheet accounts. Keep in mind it won’t be perfect. If, for example you have payments to “Accounts Payable” then this will show up on your report, but does not represent what is “Due” in accounts payable. Instead it represents what has been “Paid” on accounts payable. So you may want to exclude that one. You can enter bills in your transaction register and then you would have an accurate payable, because the bills would go in as a negative (credit) to Accounts Payable and the payments on accounts payable would be entered as a positive number. Then you could pivot on accounts payable to get an accurate balance.

Next week we’re back on to QuickBooks so visit us there at http://www.qiuckbooksnerd.com

In my post on Monday, I made the statement:- “Compulsive shopping is virtually synonymous with overspending or overshopping; so I use the terms interchangeably here.”

Yesterday, I was talking with another Financial RecoverySM counsellor, Danielle Ray, (www.integrativefinancialcounseling.com) and she challenged this statement. Danielle said that people could overspend, unconsciously; but without the compulsion and need to shop, that characterises compulsive shoppers. She’s right and so I retract that statement!

I think that part of my “confusion” was that, as an overspender myself, whilst most of it was unconscious,( not being aware of how much money I had, nor how much I had spent) occasionally there were elements of compulsion as well. When I decided that I needed (or was that wanted? – watch for a future blog on this!)something, I could be compulsive in my pursuit of it. I would drive all over town if needbe, that very day, to purchase it. The “having to have it, and have it now” syndrome!

This has, of course, now been made so much easier for us all and, dare I say, more dangerous, with the advent of online shopping. We no longer need to put any pause between the thought and action, in this case shopping, before the transaction is complete. For this reason, I also advise my clients to use a debit card and not a credit card at all times. (I do this myself although have a CC which I use for business, but very seldom.) This means that they can still send flowers on Mother’s Day and still order tickets on the internet for concerts and movies, but all the money comes immediately out of their current account. Therefore, the shopping has to be all that more conscious, or if it isn’t, the consequences are much more immediate!

So, thank you Danielle, for making me think more clearly about this.

As you must know, I work in two restaurants. My lunch job is at Michael’s (high-end chain steakhouse). My dinner job is at Carney’s Corner (somewhat high-end Mom ‘n Pop prime steakhouse). Both restaurants have been hit by the receding economy the last couple years.

My personal stats on Lunch:

• I went from 4-5 lunch shifts a week, to 2-3 + an O/C.
• The money used to average out weekly to $100+ per shift; that’s gone down to about $75.
• Meantime, we used to run 5 or 6 servers. Now we go with 3 or 4.

Stats on Dinner:

• I used to have 4 shifts, now I have 3.
• We used to make a reliable $200+ weekend nights and $150 per weekday night. That’s dropped to about $160 and $100.
• Used to be 4 servers weekends, 3 weekdays. Now it’s 3 and 2.

At Carney’s the owners’ answer to falling business is to cut prices. And that’s their only answer.

I addressed this in abbreviated form a year ago in Hammer And All The Nails, wherein I observed and groused that Carney’s husband Harry had only one tool in his box: cutting prices. The title refers to the old saying, when your only tool is a hammer, eventually every problem looks like a nail.

Sadly, things have only gotten worse. The most precipitous decline in check average came about when Harry collected all the ‘bar plate’ specials (he used to drum up business by offering cut rate entrees for bar customers only – for instance, a smaller filet mignon, with mashed potatoes, and a salad, all on one plate for about half the price of the regular, larger filet) and put them on a special menu supplement – now to be available also in the dining room. Gone were the inserts of the ’specials’ and fresh fish that went inside the regular menus. Now there was a separate open-face ’specials’ menu, featuring about eight cheap entrees, and the fresh fish.

We all know waiters don’t like to sell cheap stuff. We don’t make as much money because we’re tipped on a percentage of the check. That’s why coupons, happy hours, and early bird specials are roundly despised by waiters. Yes, we recognize the need to keep customer traffic healthy. Yes, we understand that these lower-echelon diners will still be paying full price for other elements of their meals (booze, appetizers, whatever). And yes, we know that getting new guests to try the restaurant is a good thing that might yield repeat business down the road.

But damn it, I still have a problem with it.

First, let me grouse about the new ’specials’ menu at Carney’s. First, it’s an attention-hog. It’s like a sleazy girl with an okay body wearing a really short, tight dress. Even if she’s not your type, you’re not in the market, or you’re even a gay man, you will take notice and stare. Well, this menu is open faced, as I said. It is staring at the guest every single second. Whereas the ‘real’ menu is two pages book-style. It’s dynamite, loaded with things like Australian lobster tails, double cut rack of New Zealand lamb, New York pepper steak. But it’s closed. I can’t tell you how often diners don’t even open the regular menu. The ’specials’ menu is staring them in the face. The prices are 50-60% of the regular menu. Portions are smaller, but it includes a salad – usually a $6 add-on in the ‘real’ menu.

So, yes, I can hardly blame people for ordering from this special menu. But it does get worse. Everything on the specials menu is a cannibalization of impressive and superior entrees on the regular menu. The specials are basically half orders. The lamb? Just a single rack and already sliced into chops: half price. Pork loins? Sliced pieces from the same amazing thick-cut pork chop: 2/3 the size, half the price. And everything, incidentally, is prepared the same way as the regular menu.

The other day, Carney, herself, pointed to the ’specials’ menu and said to me, ‘You know, this is what’s saving us. This has become 70% of our overall entrée sales.’

Great. Just like when Coca-Cola’s marketing folk introduces five new flavors/permutations of Coke, and then brag about how the new products have become 20% of gross sales.

Well guess what? The pie hasn’t gotten bigger. It’s just been divided differently. And it’s your same pie, you idiots. And further, what you’ve ‘added’ to the mix are actually increased sales of the lowest priced and least profitable items.

Don’t know if you’re keeping track through the blog, but Carney’s does not advertise.

That said, I want to add this: I can’t tell you how many times regular, well-to-do Carney’s guests will sit down – prepared to order their Carney’s Corner favorites – and see this new ’specials’ menu and opt for a small filet instead of their usual 10 oz. baseball cut.

These are people who don’t need to be ’sold’ by lower prices. They are already here. They are here because they already like the traditional Carney’s fare – portion, preparation, price, everything. They are ready to order off the ‘big kids’ menu. But instead our owners just cut their own income in half by billboarding the specials menu.

Harry’s take is along the lines of shearing the sheep many times rather than slaughtering it once. Sure, wealthy people can afford the higher prices. But wealthy people are not immune to fear; they are looking to cut back where they can just like us normal poor people. Harry reasons (though he hasn’t said this specifically to anyone) if these frightened rich people see they can eat at Carney’s for $85 instead of the usual $120, then they’ll come back more frequently – maybe keep up their historical frequency of visits.

And it’s a fact that’s hard to argue with that, but that doesn’t usually stop me. Rather than rehash the argument I made in another post, I’ll just state here that without making people aware of this strategy (read: promotion and advertising) it takes too long to effect. We could well be out of this downturn by the time people are widely cognizant that Carney’s is quite reasonable for a ‘fine dining’ restaurant. But more on that day later.

Rather, for Carney’s my take – stipulating the reality that there’s no advertising going on – would be to have smaller, inferior, and different items on the lower-priced ’specials’ menu. If people are motivated by price, then let them take a flier on some of these items. Why not offer a Choice top sirloin (we serve only prime steaks currently) that doesn’t duplicate the filet, new york, and rib eyes we do serve? It’s a cheaper cut in the first place, it’s also a lower grade. It would still be a good steak. Just not prime.

Meantime, this strategy preserves the primacy of the signature dishes, the dishes long-time guests return for again and again. And they pay the regular prices for them.

Let’s move on to Michael’s, my lunch job. A corporate place, Michael’s has behaved like all the others. First there was the New York and Crab package special. Used to be a summer-only thing to boost business in the slowest months. Lately? I haven’t been keeping track meticulously, but I think it’s been running without cessation for the last two years. It is steak and crab legs and a salad and side item and dessert for each person for $60 per person. Yes, each person gets all of those things. Not shared. It’s more food than you’d know what to do with, at Michael’s quantities. It’s about $100 of food at normal prices.

I won’t lie. As a lunch server, this was a great thing. It was a massive up-sell over our $15-27 lunch fare. For dinner, it didn’t work so well. Mainly, though, I want to show the sign posts on the way to Michael’s self-fulfilling prophecy.

Next, we were dealt the Prix Fixe Deluxe at lunch. A selection from five normal-sized lunch entrees inclusive of a side, choice of soup or salad, followed by a dessert: $22. These items ordered a la carte from the lunch menu would run in the neighborhood of $38.

God bless them, Michael’s at least will promote when necessary. After a moderate media blitz, the Prix Fixe Deluxer’s (let’s just call them Prix) flood into the restaurant, ID tags dangling from their belts, the men in ill-fitting suits, the women wearing hair and outfits that have that ‘I woke up this morning at my boyfriend’s apartment and didn’t have a change of clothes nor the time to do my hair again’ –look.

Business ticked up for about a month, at least volume did. Of course, we weren’t making any more money. Remember Restaurant Overstaffing? Don’t get me started there . . .

Similar to Carney rationalizing the ’specials menu,’ our Michael’s pre-shift meetings featured a lot of talk about how all these Prix are people who wouldn’t normally be coming into the restaurant. And it was easy to agree with that. It was depressing to imagine how many covers we would have had some days without the Prix.

But which came first? The desire to go to Michael’s or the desire to get a good deal at Michael’s? In other words, what would have happened if the moderate media blitz instead promoted the fantastic lunch menu and high quality product and service? I kind of think we would have gotten a similar uptick in volume, and from our core-type guests: people with money.

Both my restaurants have created self-fulfilling prophecies by cutting prices then sitting back and noticing, ‘Wow! This program is really popular for us! It’s a good thing we did this, because it’s only thing people are buying!’

Well of course! And I think a $15,000 Mercedes-Benz sedan and a $75 Louis Vuitton hand bag and See’s Candies for $2.99 a pound would also be popular with their respective clientele. They’d find that quickly those items became the majority of their sales.

Congratulations! You’ve just destroyed your brand.

Which is my final point. Now that this new order has been achieved – Carney’s and Michael’s are successfully selling to more guests by lowering the prices and their profits, while still putting out the same quality – how do you re-convert your core guests once the economy turns around? How do you suddenly (or even gradually) take away these deals your guests have come to expect from, and even to identify with your restaurant? How (just one more rhetorical question, I promise) do you get them to feel good about paying $50 for a steak when they used to pay $30 and be perfectly happy?

The restaurant industry is in tread-water, stay-afloat mode right now. We’re all just trying to get through this till the seas calm down again. Unfortunately, what’s happening to many of the misguided and/or desperate places is they are making the wrong decisions and in the process disfiguring themselves. When they emerge from the economic storm, they will be unrecognizable to those wealthy whales [I know this metaphor has gotten out of hand, but just live with it, okay?] who are ready again to buy $100 lobsters and $200 bottles of wine. Meanwhile, their new ‘regulars’ will recoil when suddenly the ‘little’ menu is no longer available.

It takes some restaurants (Carney’s Corner) years to build up to a reputation of ‘high quality and expensive, but worth it’; and it takes others (Michael’s, who started out that way) years to entrench themselves in that position, able to fend off challengers because all those ‘qualities’ remain constant.

Now that I’m finished mangling my Stormy Seas, Bad Weather metaphor, let me finish with a new one. My restaurants will be like that unbelievable girl you somehow dated one time in high school. Then she appears at the 10 year reunion after too many years of clubbing, bad boys, cigarettes and cocaine. She doesn’t sound the same. She doesn’t look the same. She doesn’t have the same mojo. And even though you know you have a shot at her now, you’re really just not interested.

I volunteer with a great organization called JCCI Forward (www.jcci.org/jcciwebsite/forward/), the young professionals part of the parent organization, Jacksonville Community Council, Inc. (www.jcci.org). This group is a community interest, leadership development and consulting organization that brings community members together to study community issues and implement change in the greater Jacksonville area; it is, in effect, a think tank with an implementation component.

I have been a member for almost five years and my favorite parts of Forward are the issue forums is executes every year (www.jcci.org/jcciwebsite/forward/issueforums.html).  These are topics of interest to the community, where the group brings local leaders and experts on the issues in for presentations, q & a and discussions.  The meetings lead to key findings, which lead to:  what to do next with this great new knowledge and information, also known as “the action plan”.

This year’s fall forum entitled Dollars + Sense, just wrapped up last week. Over five weeks, attendees listened to experts discuss how our individual and collective spending habits, budgeting, retirement planning and approaches to insurance might be affected by the drastically changing economic environment. The basic thesis of the five-week series was:  how does the ‘new’ (post real estate and banking crash) economy affect what we thought we knew about personal financial issues?  In other words, what rules can we rely on, who can we trust, where can we go for reliable information, etcetera, to help us plan for our collective financial futures?

One neat aspect of JCCI and their method of study is the group’s action is always based on consensus thinking. Last week, we decided we needed to get the word out and let everyone know the great things we learned, and to spur interest in arming each person with the knowledge they need to make intelligent financial decisions. This caused me to think a great deal about what I learned in these five weeks, how I plan to challenge myself to change and adapt for the better, and how this plays out into the group’s action plan. My notes from the event have already spawned several ideas to explore in future blog postings.

One main idea I came away with was that managing money is similar, in more ways than one, to other endeavors whose payback is long-term, like diets and exercise. For some, they all hold the same amount of interest and dedication (yawn)—practically none. We know we need to eat well; we know we need to exercise; we know we need to manage our money smartly. But we don’t always do it—why not? I think most people do not get the whole delayed gratification concept; it is very anti-American. Retailers teach us to look out for Number One, and that means buying what I want when I want it because, doggone it, I deserve it!

I am not about to scold anyone over the spilt milk of putting off your retirement savings, but at least we should live within our means. Overspending and undersaving is partly to blame for the financial mess our country is in. Simply put, Americans do not value long-term planning.  We are generally hardwired for spontaneity and we lack discipline. This is where we need to heed the immigrant ancestry from which many of us hail. I doubt most immigrants woke up one day, pay day, and whipped out a credit card to pay for their ticket to America; they had to laboriously scrimp, save and sock away cash for their dream.  Americans want easy. Diets, exercise and budgets are the opposite; they pay out over the long term.

Also, managing money takes work. You have to read, think for yourself, invest time, seek out information. Americans are too lazy for this budget thing. We want to follow the masses. After all, we are busy spending our time keeping up with the Joneses. On some level it is good to know the Jim Kramers and Dave Ramseys of the world are getting these issues out in the public eye. However, when you need to ask a media personality like Suze Orman if you can afford a pricy purse…well, that is absurd. Each of us should be able to figure that one out on our own. Invest in yourself enough to find more than one perspective on a financial question you have, or find someone you know well who knows money and has no conflict of interest on your financial success—and ask him or her. Once again, a couple going to their bank, not educating themselves first on terminology and consequences, then taking out a mortgage because of a low monthly payment (short-term thinking, sound familiar?)—this is what fed the financial crisis.

Financial management is very empowering. It should not feel intimidating. Everything should be framed in terms of what is best for each and every one of us as individuals.  What is best for me will not be the same as what is best for my brother or my coworker or her neighbor.  Be self-centered, the way we Americans like it.

A budget is a tool, and budgeting does not come naturally for most people, thus it is an acquired skill, but a life skill at that.  This was a resounding finding by the group during action plan discussion.  People think financial planning is not for them because they have low net worth, and that is just wrong. Everyone needs to protect whatever they have because…that is all you’ve got! It is about wisely managing what you have, so that when you have the opportunity to work with more later in life, you will be prepared. Understand the power of a budget, its control and how it allows you to plan and manage by being flexible. Practice with your modest assets now so you will not be paralyzed if you happen to be presented with good fortune.

It appears that there is a stigma attached to budgeting, that it is uncool. Like any other trend, the tide of recession is in so budgeting is back!  Maybe it was nice to be able to be wasteful—25%+ tips, eschew sales, name brand water—to not have to watch where you spend your paycheck. Maybe it was shameful to be prudent at one time. The decadence of the mid-2000s is passe; frivolity is out. There are many ways to combat this thinking. 

The main ideas I took away from the budget talk were three:  1) Be goal-oriented with your finances and it becomes more like a game.  You have something to aim for and achieve. Just as investments are categorized as short and long-term, so should purchases. If you cannot afford to buy it now, wait, save and buy it in the future—it just might be less expensive.  2) Budgeting is a learned skill for the most part. Some of us have an innate gift to be frugal, which helps us budget; yet, it does not solve everything. Young people mainly learn money management and financial biases from their parents, like most everything else, but it does not have a link to income level. You can be wealthy and know a lot less about managing your money than someone who grew up with lesser means. Those with spendthrift parents are at a disadvantage later in life, and it is something that needs to be taught in an approachable, fun way to youth today so that they grow up to act responsibly with their money. The word needs to get out about m-o-n-e-y.  3) Finances were once an extremely taboo subject, and still is not appropriate for cocktail hour discussion. Someday that may change. However, it is becoming more public, more acceptable to talk about and discuss. People are willing to call in to subject themselves to potential humiliation on t.v. shows and divulge how much they make, how much they owe, and admit to their vices in the hope of getting some legitimate financial direction. This is not necessarily all bad. Money management going social (isn’t everything these days?) could be good for Americans. Even the well-disciplined could use a money mentor or support group, or someone they can get honest tips and tricks from. Money is a major proccupation these days due to high unemployment:  so much media dedicated to financial reporting, the daily or even hourly direction of the Dow Jones, and how the government’s latest move will affect our collective retirements.

Burying your head in the sand will not balance your checkbook. We need to face the current economic reality, no matter how sour it is, and plan for the future even if that is just next month. If we can all string together a few good months, then we are on our way. And then in no time, we made it through a year with our sanity, and maybe a little bit of money in the bank.  This is our reality, small victories, not winning the lottery or one lucky tug on the slot machine. Get started today, or at least study up so you can make one heckuva New Year’s resolution!

I read an interesting post the other day called “Have you Ever Prayed for your Sports Team to Win?”.   The post and the comments caused me to reflect on how detailed God is in our lives and whether or not he wants us to prosper.

The Book of Mormon is full of stories of people obeying Gods commandments, becoming prosperous, turning away from God, and then losing their faith.  Also, I’ve heard many Christians say that proud people are rich and God wants a humble people.  Finally, scriptures such as 1 Timothy 6:10 are quoted often alluding to the fact that money is a sin. 

Personally I feel that those who think wealth is a sin are wrong.  I feel that God wants us to be successful and rich as long as it is done in the proper order.  That order is as follows:

1. Seek the Kingdom of God
2. Strengthen Yourself
3. Strengthen Others

Seek the Kingdom of God

Jacob 2:18-19 reads:

18 But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God.

  19 And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them; and ye will seek them for the intent to do good—to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted.

Alma 34:24-25 discusses praying for prosperity over our livelihood.  For me, I compare this with the scripture in Luke 22 that discusses once you are converted, to strengthen your bretheren.  How are we to help other people if our own houses are not in order and if we don’t have means to take care of ourselves and our families?

Strengthen Others

Debt settlement is simply the process and approach to getting out from under your unsecured debts. When you get into a debt settlement program you should be given a two basic services — a solution to lowering your unsecured debt and help in dealing with your creditors — these two services should help get you back on the path to financial freedom.

Right now household debt is a serious issue in the United States, and in this economic climate coupled with this level of unemployment debt is crippling for many people. Once you’re deep in debt it is very easy to lose control of the situation. And if you’re unemployed, or you are using credit to cover bills and basic necessities, debt can overwhelm your personal financial situation. When you reach a point of crisis your options become somewhat limited. Debt settlement is the best choice for most people, but other options include credit counseling or even personal bankruptcy.

The key to getting on top of debt problem is, of course, recognizing the problem in the first place. Usually debt problems have many ways to reminding you, maybe multiple times a day through collection efforts, of the problem. The next step is to not go into despair or resignation and start taking action to fix your debt problems.

If you are looking to go the debt settlement route you are halfway there. Be sure to take your time and choose your debt settlement company carefully. Make sure the company doesn’t make claims unsupported by the Federal Trade Commission, take note of their questions about your debt situation and household budget, get all the details about your program and find out up front how you will be charged for the service.

As you know, tracking household income and expenses in a monthly budget is a must for good financial management.  But without aligning this important short-term budget with an intermediate-term budget, do-it-yourself planners can go in the wrong direction and miss their financial goals.  Moreover, the integration between intermediate- and long-range planning is absolutely essential in order to produce useful results from the long-range plan.

So, how many families actually have a 5-year budget?  The answer is very few.  To learn more about this critical component in financial planning and discuss how Financial Fate’s free solutions can help, please let me know.

Monty Hothersall

The Canadian Real Estate Magazine published an article in their September 09 Issue, which takes an in-depth look into the best investment property markets in the country, and narrowed it down to the top 5 cities (in no particular order) -

- St. John’s, Newfoundland
- Kingston, Ontario
- Regina, Saskatchewan
- Winnipeg, Manitoba
- Quebec City, Quebec

No city was ranked above another, because the markets are just so differrent. What kind of investment property you are interested in depends on what kind of renters you are looking for. For example – Kingston ON is a univerisity and government town. But those two groups are vastly different; one is highly volatile (changing nearly every year) but a constant source of renters, and the other would be mid-term (3-5 year) families looking for higher quality housing.

Economic Indicators -

Some of the economic indicators that the magazine used in their evaluation were: population, new jobs and/or unemployment, cost of a monthly rental for a 2-bedroom apartment, and the average housing purchase price.

Following this article, I did a bit of research of my own – to see what market would be the best for the type of investment I am interested in: a duplex with 2 or 3 units for approx $140,000.  Some further criteria I’ve decided upon is that each unit should have minimum 2 bedrooms and 1 bath.  This will increase the renter base for each unit.

My criteria for top-earning markets -

Here is my evaluation of the 5 top-earning markets (listed from west to east) based on my criteria, and what I am looking for in an investment property, calculated using this handy Investment Property Calculator :

http://www.goodmortgage.com/calc_investment_property.htm

Regina, Saskatchewan
(* No property matching exact criteria was found, but an estimate of a 4 bedroom, 2 bath potential convertible house was taken)
Property $124,900 with 20% down and 4.0% interest rate
Monthly Income: $1600
After Tax Cash Flow: $7,196 per year
Yearly Addition to Net Worth: $16,386
ROI: 2.3 years

Winnipeg Manitoba:
Property $134,900 with 20% down and 4.0% interest rate
Monthly Income: $1600
After Tax Cash Flow: $7,091 per year
Yearly Addition to Net Worth: $17,049
ROI: 3.8 years

Kingston, Ontario
- Currently no listings matching my criteria for under $215,000

Quebec City:
Property $159,900 with 20% down and 4.0% interest rate
Monthly Income: $1800
After Tax Cash Flow: $6,900 per year
Yearly Addition to Net Worth: $19,741
ROI: 4.6 years

St. John’s, Newfoundland
(* No property matching exact criteria was found, but an estimate of a 4 bedroom, 2 bath potential convertible house was taken)
Property $144,900 with 20% down and 4.0% interest rate
Monthly Income: $1500
After Tax Cash Flow: $5,180 per year
Yearly Addition to Net Worth: $15,874
ROI: 3.1 years

Household debt is an issue in the United States, and in the current economic climate and level of unemployment it is crippling for many people.

Check out the trend line on this chart of household debt from the beginning of 1953 to the middle of this year:

US household credit market outstanding debt

Once you’re underwater it is very easy to lose control of the situation and if you’re unemployed, or you are using credit to cover bills and basic necessities, debt can take over your personal financial situation. Once you reach that point your options become somewhat limited. The most drastic step is personal bankruptcy, but there are drawbacks to that approach and personal bankruptcy underwent significant reform in 2005 making personal  bankruptcy a much more difficult process. Other choices include credit counseling and debt settlement.

If personal debt gets beyond your control, of the three options listed above seeking professional debt settlement help is the best for most people. You don’t need to repair your credit. What you do need is to reduce your personal debt to a manageable amount, get that debt paid off as quickly as possible and move forward with your personal finances.

From the link:

Debt Settlement is process and approach to becoming free of unsecured debts. The goal of a debt settlement program is to find the best solution to lower your debts, help you deal with your creditors, and get you on the road to financial freedom.

And:

A debt settlement program can help you be free of unsecured debts in as little as 2-3 years for a fraction of your original owed amount. Even better than simply saving money is that once the settlement payment is made, your accounts will be satisfied – meaning you no longer have any of your original debt outstanding.

Hit the above link for the six steps to debt reduction.

Everyone is looking for tips or shortcuts to get ahead. People have been doing it forever, but the financial crisis and dimly lit economy bring it all home to you that you need to really focus over the coming months and years on saving more, investing wisely and gaining any advantage you can in terms of supporting your family, growing your savings and wealth and dealing with retirement down the road.

How can you reinvent yourself, your personal finances and grow stability, savings and eventually wealth for your family in the coming months and years?

START SIMPLE

Review your debt and focus on reducing and then eliminating all credit card debt. Separate credit cards by interest and pay extra on the highest interest rate cards first until you have any credit card debt under control. Treat it like a war. Fight to win and don’t give up.

Debt is the #1 impairment to the production of wealth in the middle class.

Check out our “1% Savings Plan” to boost your personal savings (see previous blog entries).

Aggressively pursue the companies you do business with today (cable, telephone, regular bills) and seek their help reducing the amount you pay out to them each month. Be open to their ideas as well as any you have to reduce the bill you pay each of them 10 – 15%. If they provide any savings, you MUST take this savings and put it in a money market savings account (FDIC-insured).

If you don’t put savings in actual savings regularly and force yourself to push money from checking to savings, you are NOT saving money. You are allowing money to control your life.

CHECKING ACCOUNTS are money laundering accounts for other people’s money. Use any excuse to push money from checking to savings. The more you do this, the better off your family will be as the days, months and years roll by.

WHERE YOU LIVE

If you are living in a big pillbox house in the suburbs, consider your space and your real needs. Would you consider downsizing and using the extra savings to pay off your mortgage on a new and smaller place?

THE NEW MATH

Think about this: Smaller place = smaller payments = less debt = more to pay off mortgage, credit card and other debt and more for savings and investments.

THE STUFF YOU LOV(ED)
We all have things in our homes that we don’t use anymore. Sell it. Put that money in savings. With Craig’s List and ebay, you can sell anything. And why not? It is a great way to juice your savings without changing your lifestyle.

HAGGLE ON DOWN

We also believe you can make great progress if you negotiate for EVERYTHING. Remember – we are consumers and we drive 60 – 70% of the U.S. economy. We don’t have to purchase from one retailer or on-line vendor. We can use the power of choice and negotiation.

Today is your opportunity to start. Today you can begin a new beginning. Today you can start developing your own plan for saving money that can lead to real stability and savings that will help you eventually build actual wealth.

Are you ready?

SAVE MORE THAN MONEY

In this country we don’t do enough to teach our children about money, managing money, saving regularly (and automatically), compound interest and steady investing for a long-term future. As a parent, we are always concerned that they get a good education and go to a good college so they can make a lot of money or have a valued career path. The truth is that we could do our children the biggest favor and one of the best things by sharing with them sound saving and investing principles.

You can join our free Facebook group (or have your children do it, too) by searching in the Facebook bar on your “wall” for “Live The Lifestyle Your Family Deserves.” Click on “become a fan.” It’s free and it ties our free blogs into that group.

If you want to give your children the same information we are giving ours, you can purchase the only thing we sell on any of our blogs or groups. It’s called “How To Survive Any Financial Crisis” and you can get it for only $4.95 at www.middleclassmoney.com.

Thank you for reading our blog and good luck!

Loyd Ford
www.stickyasset.com/blog
www.middleclassmoney.com
www.boostmywealth.wordpress.com
www.squidoo.com/boostmywealth
www.stickyasset.com

Benjamin Franklin once said:  ‘In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Well, today it’s taxes!

Up until December I lived, and worked, in Oakland, California.

Whilst my job finished in June, I stayed on until December and saw something more of the USA, which was great.  It’s a long story, but essentially my contract was still based here in NZ, so when my position was “eliminated”in the US – I love that phrase – the NZ division of the company I worked for, were responsible for paying my redundancy or severance!  And that they did so all’s good so far! Until that is, my US taxes had to be calculated.

NZ and the US have a reciprocal agreement so it’s still all good for the US Federal taxes; the US Federal government recognised the taxes I’d paid in NZ so I didn’t need to pay them anymore. However, NZ and California have no such agreement and I have just paid a very, very hefty Californian tax bill. When my business is just getting established, that really hurts!

So, the blog on compulsive spending is still coming, but today’s is on the compulsory (well, certainly if I ever want to go back to the US, and I do, it is!)spending on taxes!  And trust me it’s not fun!

Credit card dept is stupid, and I have way too much of it. I can defend myself by saying very little of it went for consumer purchases; there were medical bills, house repairs, a child’s college education. Also, I have great interest rates that are locked in because I transferred balances back when credit card companies were clamoring for our money. Also, I always pay my monthly payment on time and am bringing down the balances. But, still, it’s stupid of me to have so much.

Big banks who back these credit cards can also be stupid. Take Chase Bank for example. I have three Chase cards, and if they dug into their detailed numbers they would say this Drums guy is a great customer. He always pays on time, so while we’re not making the big bucks off of him, he’s still making us a fair return on investment.

But Chase is looking at a much bigger picture than Mr. Drums’ accounts, and they must need money badly or just don’t like making little bucks off of me. They couldn’t raise the interest rate, so they decided I would have to pay 5 percent of the balance each month, thus more than doubling my payment amounts.

My wife called; they didn’t care. I paid the greater amount a couple of months, but then our property tax bill came and I realized I couldn’t keep up with all of it.

So, goodbye, Chase Bank. I have moved my money elsewhere. You would never get the big bucks from me, and now you will not get the little ones either. And, unless I get really desperate, I don’t plan on you ever getting any of my money again.

You think these guys who are getting paid so much would have more sense. It’s just greed. I can understand that, but I will not reward it.

Being a college student who is close to graduation, finding a job, getting married and possibly buying a house, it’s hard to remember to take time to relax. There’s always something that you could be doing. The question is, should you really be doing it right now?

I tend to get very intense when I have a lot on my plate, and most of the time it helps me get my work done very efficiently. But after about a week or two of that, I start to wind up into a little ball of nerves who isn’t really capable of doing anything exceptionally. I am slowly learning to avoid becoming that little ball by remember to take time out for a chill pill.

For me, a chill pill is a good book (currently: Atlas Shrugged), an online mystery game or an NCIS marathon. My fiance helps a lot too. He is a very laid back kind of guy, and he takes time to remind me that not everything needs to be done the moment it is assigned.

It also helps that I have committed myself to doing whatever it takes to support myself after graduation. If that means finding a full-time job at Starbucks while I search for a marketing/comm position, then so be it. I’m not ashamed to use my food-service experience to get us through a wedding, student loans and house hunting without mountains of unneccessary debt.

Besides, I could easily offer up my comm/marketing skills to my employer as an added bonus for both of us. He/she gets a two for one employee deal and I get to hone my skills and stay active in my field between graduation and career searching.

Just to be clear, I would much rather have a full-time comm or marketing job waiting for me when I graduate. But the world won’t end if I don’t, and it won’t even be put on hold for a while. No down economy is going to keep me from living my life the way I want to. That would just be a waste.

Now, back to planning in specified chill time in my planner. Hey, I said I was still getting the hang of this, didn’t I?