Still Counting…Crosses in Lafayette, California


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Not as bad as Viet Nam, no , not quite yet,
But where’s the fight against Jihad & Islam, how will we ever repay our debt,
To the families who have sacrificed for untruths to fight in Iraq,
We’re not paying attention, other countries, Al Queda, they’re taking stock
Iran, Pakistan & N.Korea are planning, making nuclear weapons,
All while we misuse our brothers, fathers, and our sons,
Now our country is hit the bottom, we’re in total hock,
0Billion owed to China, lining pockets of the Bushes, Saudi’s and Exxon,
The last eight years, is it stupidity, bad management, or just a con?
To our soldiers and armed forces I feel fear, and I pray,
That your bravery is so diminished by political decay.

Take Control of Finances Through Debt Management

You have piled up debts that are threatening to even ruin your life—you are left with little money for daily expenses after paying for the interests and also the sword of repossession of the property dangles over your head. What do you do to come out of this mess? Well, the remedy lies in debt management. You start taking control of the finances once you have decided to go for debt management,

Debt Management is all about bringing back your debts under your control. Any technique that helps in doing so comes under debt management. One popular technique for debt management is consolidation of all debts into one debt. For the consolidation, the borrower takes a loan at lower interest rate and pays off previous debts immediately. As a result the borrower saves lot of money that was going towards paying higher interest rates. This is very effective in managing debts.

In case you are not in a position to take the consolidation loan, then you should opt for negotiating with your lenders. You take a plan of repayment to your debtors and show them how you are going to clear debts. No lender wants to take expensive and time consuming route of repossession of the property. Therefore, debtors may even lower the interest rate, reduce outgo in monthly installments and may increase repayment duration for your comfort. This will give much needed respite from the debts.

But if you do not want to negotiate on your own, to manage debts you need to have a debt management company. Job of a debt management company is to negotiate your debt related concerns with creditors on your behalf. The negotiations include extracting lower monthly payments to the lenders. The company even posts your monthly payments on your behalf. This is very useful in case you tend to forget making timely payments to various creditors. All you do is make a combined payment of your different monthly installments to the debt management company.

A debt management company will also do all the calculations for you to make out how much of payments you have to make towards creditors. So debt management is only a service and should not be mistaken for elimination of debts. You still hold those debts intact despite the debt management service availed.

There are number of debt management companies available online. When choosing a debt management company; make sure it offers credit counseling service as well. Credit counseling is crucial in strengthening you financially. A credit counselor offers you vital tips in making a budget such a way that you not only get rid of the debts but more than that it shows how to stay away from debts in future.

Whatever plan of action you adopt under debt management, stick to it. Never be casual in paying the installments as per the new schedule. Debt management is aimed at reducing the financial burden and that can be done also by cutting your unnecessary expenses.

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Manage Your Personal Finances Prudently

“As flies to wanton boys are we to gods they kill us for their sport”-everyone at one time or other in their life, when the going gets tough should have praised the bard for these words full of wisdom. But why should we curse our fate, every time when something does not turn out the way we want. You can now avail the help of a personal finance manager to overcome these hurdles. We often blame it on our stars when we fail, without thinking about the possibilities around us. A plethora of opportunities are wasted because of our ignorance. A powerful and flexible personal finance manager could allow you to control your budget using as less time as possible. Nothing helps you as accounting software at a time of financial ailment. Even your most trusted friend may turn you down when you are in deep waters. This is where a little bit of planning by using a personal finance manager keeps you going. Just one week after the payday you will be on the lookout for next payday, even if you are paid a handsome amount. Expenses are on the rise and incomes are falling. Personal budgeting can keep your woes at bay. Personal finance brings about a discipline in our spending habits which hitherto went unbridled. The tools & facilities make accounting and personal finance management easier. Many people are not aware of various features that a personal finance manager would offer. This association with personal finance gets you in touch with these tools and you could direct your finances into investments with returns. If we can spend and save then why should we waste money in areas that do not yield? Choosing the right personal finance manager is not a problem now. Many companies provide you with powerful tools which are adept in helping you handle your money. These tools will give you an estimate of your daily spending and savings and prevent you from overindulging. Prudent spending and saving is the soul of any life. A person might end up in disaster owing to his irresponsible way of spending.

Personal Finance: Boost Your Dwindling Finances

Everyone wishes to upkeep their finances. However, very few people achieve the yearning mark. All it plays of demands and desire what make you to take up the extra financial burden. Sometimes these burdens are unnecessary while sometimes indispensable. When it becomes essential then people have to take advantage of personal finance. This finance service takes care of all your personal demands and desire. You can choose for these loans to cover the charges of your debts, holiday trips, home repair, business improvements and many more.

Before all, you need to have a clear picture of you goal about the finances. You need to have a budget worksheet for Personal Finance. It works for you and helps you meet your goals. Though, there are many different types of worksheets, you need to find one that is easy for you to use. And then, apply for the finance you require for

Thereafter, you are offered fixed and variable rates for the use of personal finance. A fixed interest rate means that for the particular amount you borrowed, you are required to pay a specific amount of interest throughout the loan term. Also, you will be going to pay a fixed monthly fee. If your creditor uses variable rate then the rates differ every month. It almost depends upon the market’s fluctuation.

Quarter of lenders is out there in the money market for personal finance. You can access to them even online. Today, online tool of loan obtaining is gaining precedence. It saves a good amount of your time and energy, and makes the loan processing fast. Furthermore, lacking in collateral valuation for the loan helps you escape from unnecessary paper work too.

So, you do not have to waste your precious time in waiting for personal finance on the money market. Finance options are readily made available for you in the loan market to dissolve the problem of your dwindling finances.

Online Banking – Personal Finance – Money Management – Quicken Online_1202417331082


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Personal Finance Manager- Tool That Manages Your Finances

Are you struggling with managing your finances? Do you need somebody to help you in managing your financial matters in the best way? Then do not look here and there and go for the best and most reliable personal finance manager that are now available; in the form of financial planning tool. This amazing money management software provides the most trustworthy suite of financial calculators and tools through which you can acquire the maximum benefits from your personal finances.

This personal finance planning software helps everyone to manage their finances, investments just like the finance advisor will do. It is quite simple and easy to use this software and gain control of your budget, debt, spending as well as savings.

Good personal finance management software can do various things for you such as:

1.    Divide your spending in various categorizes
2.    Make a most authentic budget for you after considering the pattern of your spending.
3.    Offer the most reliable way to access your bank, credit card and investment accounts.
4.    Record your investments and its performance
5.    Calculate and track your net worth.
6.    Graphically represents your spending and investments
7.    Receives stock reports to help you in knowing the market.
8.    Provides all the information related to tax
9.    Create your personal financial statement
10.    Dig out the perfect credit card, bank, mortgage and brokerage account deals after considering your spending style.
11.    Provide reminders for payments of you various bills.
12.    Helps you to manage your debts in such a way that you can easily pay them off
13.    Assist in making your retirement plans.

With this incredible software you can simply handle your financial matters as it also gives advice on loans, investments, retirement plans, debt management and information about IRA accounts. Through online personal finance you can conveniently put an accountant on your fingertips 24/7. Just grab this software and bid farewell to your financial matters and acquire peace of mind.

Personal Financing for Canadians for Dummies


Image by Wade Tregaskis
Some people might say the title contains a redundancy..

Personal Finances – Getting Off the Paycheck to Paycheck Roller Coaster

There are three traditional methods of managing personal income.

1. Budgeting,

2. Keeping a spending history, and

3. Doing nothing (also known as living from paycheck to paycheck).

Budgeting involves setting what percent of future income is to be spent on which categories of expenses, and then recording all purchases in order to track how well spending is staying within the predefined limits. The process sounds very simple, however, it is difficult, in my opinion, to stick with a budget for very long. The energy and dedication needed to keep track of where the money goes is tremendous. I’ve tried budgeting on several occasions and failed miserably because I couldn’t stomach keeping track of every penny I spent.

Traditional budgets also tend to fail because the setting of rigid spending limits does not lend itself well to being flexible. When unforeseen expenses pop up, a budget can be rendered useless very quickly. It’s my experience that budgets can feel like monetary straight jackets that are soon abandoned.

Spending Histories – A Vicious Cycle

Keeping a spending history also involves the recording of every penny spent. The intent is to use the spending history as a basis for identifying spending habits that can be improved and then making needed changes to future spending patterns. The main weakness of keeping a spending history is that it is focused on past activity and, therefore, is of little help when a person is trying to make immediate decisions about spending for current and future requirements.

Here’s the normal cycle of keeping a spending history. This cycle highlights the spending history’s weakness as a personal cash flow management tool.

1. It takes time to accumulate a spending history. While accumulating the history, inappropriate spending habits will probably continue. If you don’t consistently continue your bad habits, you won’t be able to document them in your spending history.

2. You have to keep track of, and record every penny of your spending. Spending information must be recorded in some type of tracking device that is capable of organizing the information and displaying useful reports and graphs. Two popular examples of these tracking devices are Quicken and Money. As mentioned earlier, keeping track of every penny spent, and dutifully recording that information, takes dedication and a lot of energy.

3. Whether or not changes to spending habits are effective, and whether or not habits are really starting to change, cannot be determined until additional spending history has been accumulated. After you have accumulated sufficient spending history such that you can see some of your bad habits, it’s time to adjust your spending patterns. To determine whether these adjustments are appropriate and have the desired effect, you have to return to step 1.

The failure of keeping a spending history as a personal cash flow management tool is, in my opinion, to be expected. This money management technique is, I believe, based on GAAP (generally accepted accounting practices) which are used by businesses specifically to keep track of what happened; not plan for what is about to happen. The “about to happen” part is left to annual budgeting processes. This accounting approach is appropriate for businesses; but, is cumbersome and unresponsive for personal use.

The software used to accumulate a spending history, in my opinion, also contributes to the failure of the spending history technique. These types of programs tend to be too complicated and inflexible for many people. I’ve tried both Quicken and Money. In addition to my own dislike for these programs, I have met very few people who actually use Quicken and Money for their intended purposes. The usual reason I hear for buying either of these programs is because they contain a check register. That is the only feature being used.

The “Doing Nothing” Method

I believe most people end up doing nothing either because they’ve never been shown a better way, or because, like me, they’ve tried and failed at budgeting and/or keeping a spending history. Doing nothing means their personal finance management is reduced to paying bills when the bills come due with the money that is on hand at the time. They live from paycheck to paycheck with periods when they have lots of money interspersed with periods when there may not be enough on hand to buy bread and milk. This roller coaster approach to personal cash flow, in my opinion, encourages ill advised spending and almost guarantees growing indebtedness.

What Is Month-To-Month Personal Finance?

There is a new alternative which overcomes all of the above personal cash flow management problems. Created out of practical necessity, this new alternative may require new ways of looking at, and thinking about personal finances and the tools that are used to manage those finances. Before looking at this new approach to managing personal cash flow, let’s first take a new look at the activities that comprise personal finances. Before you can begin to effectively manage your finances, it helps to have an understanding of what you are managing.

I break down month-to-month personal finances into the following five activities.

1. Receiving income.

2. Paying bills.

3. Paying day-to-day expenses.

4. Paying for larger than normal expenses.

5. Setting aside a cushion.

This list does not include any activity intentionally associated with wealth building. The concern here is dealing with the fundamental issues of living comfortably day-to-day and paying the bills on time. Once those issues are dealt with successfully and consistently, building wealth becomes a possibility.

It is my contention that the main reason people get into trouble with their finances is because they let activity 1, getting a paycheck, control when all of the remaining activities happen. Bills are paid typically on payday because that’s when money is available. Depending on how much is needed to pay bills each payday, the amount left over for day-to-day expenses could be a lot or a little. Sound familiar? And, since the receipt of paychecks is determining when bills are paid, and the size of the bills are determining how much pocket money is left, there is rarely any excess money for activities 4 and 5. Setting aside money “for a rainy day” just doesn’t happen. Making major purchases, such as replacing the refrigerator when it goes on the fritz or buying a new set of tires, adds even more to the credit card balances.

Having growing, uncontrolled debt and no savings can, I believe, be attributed directly to letting your paychecks control your cash flow.

Getting Off The Roller Coaster

How do you break the living from payday to payday roller coaster cycle? Budgeting and keeping a spending history, while very useful to some people, are, in my opinion, not the solutions that work for most of us. Getting control of your finances is, instead, a matter of simplifying your finances. This is done by decoupling all of your personal finance activities. The five activities listed above are related, but they can be managed separately. Once you begin handling your personal cash flow management activities separately, something magical happens. The domino effect of (1) get a paycheck, (2) pay bills, (3) put what’s left in your pocket, is stopped. Instead, your bills begin to get paid on time, and money for day-to-day expenses is consistent from week to week.

The decoupling of personal finance activities is achieved by consistently applying these two techniques.

1. Separate the receipt of income from the paying of bills. Instead of paying bills on payday, sit down and arrange for the payment of bills on a consistent schedule that is independent of when income is received.

2. Fix the amount of money for day-to-day expenses at an appropriate weekly amount. Instead of pocketing what’s left over after paying the bills, “pay” yourself the same amount on the same day every week regardless of when you get paid.

When consistently applied, these two very simple rules for managing personal cash flow are powerful. I’ve been using them for several decades in my personal finances. Prior to stumbling on these techniques, I used to lie awake nights worrying about how I was going to pay the rent. It was habit for me to be continually on the lookout for yet another bill consolidation loan. Sometimes buying groceries was not possible on short paydays. Setting aside savings wasn’t even something I thought about.

Since starting to use personal cash flow management tools that are based on the above two simple rules, money is no longer a controlling force in my or my wife’s lives. We always pay our bills on time. Lois and I continually have money in our pockets for day-to-day expenses. We have no credit card debt since we pay our statement balances in full every month on or before the due date. And planning for major and unexpected expenses is simple because we have a detailed, forward focused view of our current and future cash flow. Money and bills are not the sources of stress and discord they used to be.

It’s Easy If You’re Willing

Applying the above decoupling rules to your personal finance does not require any special tools. A properly constructed manual or software spreadsheet will do the trick. I used such a spreadsheet in Excel to help a teacher friend of ours go from “more month than money” to “more money than month” in just a few weeks. The problem was that our friend had to come see me regularly so I could update her spreadsheet. She was not that knowledgeable about using Excel. Plus, I was having to coach her on the techniques that made the spreadsheet work. That was when I made the decision to write a program so that I, and anyone else who is interested, would have a readily available, easy to use tool for simplifying management of their personal cash flow.

You also can achieve financial peace of mind. It’s easy if you are willing to make a few simple lifestyle changes including using a personal cash flow management tool that is based on the two decoupling techniques discussed above.