Credit Cards Can Be Evil

It is common knowledge that over the last few years, almost anyone could obtain a credit card, which is one of the reasons why so many millions of people are up to or even over the top of their head in debt. I am raising my kids on credit and it is really costing me!

This is no secret, nor is it a secret that many people are struggling to keep up with their credit card payments just to maintain a steady income.
As suggested, there are things that you can do to reduce your credit card burden, one of which is to pay off your credit card accounts from your mortgage. If you are in the fortunate position of being to do this, the first thing you should do immediately afterwards is to get rid of the freaking credit card that got you into this mess in the first place.

We’re not talking anything complex here.Do what I did! Take the biggest pair of scissors you can find and cut all of your credit card into the tiniest pieces. Start going without and paying in cash only and you are never going to go far wrong.

I have already mentioned that obtaining credit cards over the past few years has become incredibly easy. It is undoubtedly true that one of the reasons so many families have got into credit card debt to such a tragic extent is that most people were not satisfied with just one card.

Individuals with no previously proven financial track record, people who previously would have found it difficult to obtain even a store card, never mind a fully fledged credit card were inundated with offers of one card here, another card there and all too often, they took all of these offers up. I had terrible credit and still got credit at really high interest rates.

While the situation is to get rid of all your credit cards if at all possible, it may simply be impractical to do so, meaning that you have to look at the most efficient way of dealing with the credit cards that you retain either by choice or because of a lack of choice.

If you cannot add your credit card debt to your mortgage, an alternative is to consider is switching to a credit card lender who is offering a 0% interest rate on any credit card balance transferred to them. However, when you do so, there are a variety of potential pitfalls which you must keep your eyes open for.

Firstly, 0% interest rates are unlikely to last forever. Make sure that you understand what the interest rate is going to be like once this special introductory discount offer expires. Work out how much it is going to cost you once the ‘real’ interest rate kicks in, and how well this figure compares with what you would pay with your current card providers.

One final thing to be careful of is the fact that if you use the credit card which you obtained with the specific intention of transferring the balance to it, any additional purchases will be charged interest.

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How to Avoid Panic During the Recession

The recession has me worried. Sometimes I am truly concerned about how I am going to make ends make. Absurd as it may sound, the first thing that you should not do in a recession is panic. Panic is the opposite of logical, well planned preparation, which is exactly what you need in order to survive a recession.

Regardless of how you define a recession or how it affects national governments or international conglomerates, the meaning of recession on a personal or family level is fairly straightforward.\

In times of recession, there is considerably less money around than there would be when times are better and tightening the purse strings in this family has been necessary for a while.

Hence, on a personal family level, the first step that you can take to fight against the recession is to get your own house in order before it actually becomes necessary or critical to do so.

In order to start getting things sorted out, the first thing that you have to do is prioritize, and then you need to economize.

To begin the prioritization process, write down everything that you are currently spending on a piece of paper or create an online document for the same purposes. Then, put everything that you are currently spending money on into a prioritized list, with the most important aspects in the top slots and less important requirements further down the page.

Remember that this list is designed to be a prioritized list of things that you want to money on, rather than things that you would like to spend money on. Consequently, there is no place on a list like this for something as frivolous or unnecessary as upgrading your present 36 inch LCD TV to a 42 inch model when you got kids to send to university.

It may seem like it should be unnecessary to mention such a thing, as who would consider spending money on is what is non-essential, luxury item when money is tight?

Perhaps surprisingly, the answer is, quite a few people, because over the past few years, I think it is fair to say that people in most developed Western nations have convinced themselves that owning luxury goods is a ‘taken for granted' necessity. It just isn’t especially if you have kids!

It is absolutely essential to get out of this way of thinking right now if you are to have any realistic chance of surviving a recession with your mental self esteem as well as your physical health intact.

In short, no matter how bad things might appear to be, panic is not going to help in any situation or under any circumstances, so don't succumb to acting in unplanned haste!

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