The Raging Tech

Light at the End of the Tunnel

The financial crisis in the economy has some light at the end of the tunnel, at least for me. I realized today as I started to get a knot in my stomach about how tight things had become in my budget, that there’s plenty of hope and I’m not at all in a bad situation. First of all, I work for the state, in an IT position. My job is probably a lot more secure than a lot of people. I’m glad I didn’t try to go freelance or go start my own business just yet, because a lot of people will be tightening their belts and not hiring freelance writers or computer repair guys. 

Secondly, I bank at a credit union, not one of those giant corporation banks that has investments on Wall Street that could make or break them. My mortgage was not a sub-prime mortgage and while things are tight now (because of my house payment, not because of the economy), they’ll be better for me soon. 

Good news that affects me: the new home owner’s tax credit is still on for this tax season. It’s basically a $7500 zero-interest loan from the government that gets paid back over 15 years. I’ve been trying like crazy to refinance my credit card debt to all lower interest rates, and I’m pretty sure $7500 will cover my debts (including what I owe Mom) and you just can’t beat zero percent interest. That’ll leave me with just my car, student loan, and house payment and regular utilities, groceries, and gas. I recently deferred my student loans until 2014, because I’m back in grad school, paying for it out of my pocket. 

So basically, I just have to be poor until after taxes are processed, and then when the tax credit comes in I have to solemnly swear to spend it all on knocking out debt, and not crazy stuff I don’t need. Knocking out debt feels great. When I got my inheritance money I paid off my Bank of America card entirely and closed the account. It felt SOO good, and now I don’t have that monthly payment anymore. If I can eliminate all of that, I’ll be a good ways on my way to being debt-free.

My house will probably be the last thing I pay off, and I hope I can do it in less time than the 30 years my mortgage is supposed to last. I’ll figure that out later, though. Maybe eventually when I’m out of all other debt I can put that same amount towards the principal on my house that I was paying every month, and get it paid off sooner. 

I hope for all of you that if things get bad, you’ll look for hope, and if you aren’t sure where to find hope, look to Jesus. He’s our provider and He always takes care of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (That’s in the Bible, kids).

Is It Still Safe to Invest in Stocks?

With the stock market as a whole plummeting to dire straits, you would think it would be time to bail out before you lose all your assets, right? Wrong. That’s the problem facing the market right now: a self-perpetuating failure. People see the market plummet, so they’re taking out their money and causing it to plummet more. 

Taking your money out of the market isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but you could be missing out on some fantastic opportunities. The stock market isn’t going to be in the dumps forever, and even the best financial analysts are hesitant still to use the “R” word. Prices are dropping, and this may very well be the best time to buy. All that money had to go somewhere when people sold their stocks, which means somebody made off like a bandit. 

If you’re not sure where to begin investing, or maybe you’re already investing and want some help from financially experienced people, check out Inner8.com. It’s like MySpace for investors. You can read and vote on people’s stock picks and financial advice, and make high-rated analysts your friends in your Inner 8 circle of trusted advisors. 

The big investment firms and stock brokers are all going bankrupt, because they were greedy and made bad choices. The technology available now is better than it ever was for making smart forecasts about stock trades. Combine that with a community of investors, and you’ve got a formula for financial success. Inner8 is created by veterans of E*TRADE, who come with years of financial experience. Check it out if you think stocks could still be your avenue for successful investing!

Bills.com Offers Free Debt Consolidation Information

Today’s economy, at least here in the United State, is an unstable one. The trouble on Wall Street, the fuel shortages and price hikes, everything is directly affecting the prices we pay at checkout for the things that we buy. For those of you with debt, this is making a time of economic hardship even worse. But there’s hope yet. If you’re still paying high interest on credit cards (especially store credit cards!) or other credit lines, you could be saving tons of money both up front and in the long run by consolidating all your debt.

Bill.com’s web site is pretty thorough, offering guidelines on some smart ideas and what to avoid when attempting to consolidate all your debt at a lower interest rate. They even offer a debt consolidation quote that you can get for free.

Some of the articles on how to consolidate debt on here are pretty interesting. They talk about debt counseling, debt settlement, and other debt issues. One neat article I saw was about whether or not minors could be held liable for signing an agreement to take on debt, especially for things like medical bills. You can find information about debt management or even debt relief.

The best option for saving on interest though, is to try and refinance your mortgage, credit cards, and other debts into one big loan, and while you might have one huge monthly payment, it should end up being less than paying each of those bills individually.

Two Days to Pay Day

Man, this month stung pretty hard financially speaking. I had to pay for a $300 appraisal on this house I’m living in. I had to pay rent weekly to Marq & Melissa while waiting to close on the house. I had to pay for a U-Haul and supplies for cleaning / moving out of the old house (including buying food to feed my friends that came to help). I bought gas for many trips back and forth between the old house and new.

I know I was eating out more times than I care to think about (foolish thing to correct this coming month). One of the people I lived with in Virginia wanted me to pay off an old debt I’d forgotten about before he would sign one of the papers saying I lived with him, which I needed to get the house. Regular bills, and random items for the new house that I needed like a cheap set of pots and pans and paper products also ate into my paycheck.

There’s probably more stuff I paid for, I just know my bank account is sitting at literal pennies right now.

God is so good though, because I got money from working on computers on the side, and the last of my PayPal money from blog sponsors kept me in the black. I even got some work from my realtor (Thanks Mona & Leslie!)

Thursday is pay day; I only wish it were sooner! Kylara’s birthday is around the corner, and I need to decide what she’s getting for her birthday present. I also want to get the kittens some cat toys, and buy the book I need for class, and pay for the class. I also could use some groceries, the cupboard is kinda bare right now. I’m not starving, don’t worry (Mom). August is going to be easier, because no rent or mortgage to pay, but that just means I need to adjust to being more frugal and try to leave some extra for next month. Plus, an inheritance check is coming my way, and that should mean new Apple stuff and some debt paid off completely!

JustTrade: A New Digg for Stock Trading Tips?

If you’ve been looking into ways to save or invest your money lately like I have, you might have taken a daunting look over at the stock market exchange. If you’re already familiar with trading stocks, you may already have been helped or hurt by OTC (over-the-counter) stock trading tips, or maybe a shady broker.

JUSTtrade is a neat site because you can rate individual tips and posters to the site, meaning that their future tips might be rated higher and be considered more trustworthy. Also, you can pick up some good advice on how to trade and what to trade.

A post on the homepage, for example, hasn’t been rated much yet, but sounds like a neat tip on buying gold low this morning and if the price holds, could see a huge rise later in the day for a nice profit. If I had the money to invest, I’d have gone through to the exchange mentioned and invested in gold and made a killing by this afternoon.

I don’t have the stock savvy or the finances to lose while learning right now, but maybe some of you who do own stocks could take a look at this site and gain some more insight into OTC trading, or maybe even offer some to others.

How Do You Put Away Savings?

In this era, you just can’t rely on social security for retirement. Also, when you’re my age, you might be thinking about the future: marriage, a house, kids, kids’ college funds, vacation money, hire a hitman for the in-laws money, etc. Or maybe you’re just thinking about how to get out of debt.

Recently, I received my Economic Stimulus payment from the U.S. government. And as a single person, I qualified for the full $600. I thought “whoopee! 600 bucks to blow!” and then immediately went – “No, I’m broke nearly 1/3 of every month. I need to buckle down, form a budget, and open a money market account,” which I did. I opened a money market account at the credit union and deposited almost half my payment. I hope to try and match that each month and once my car is paid off (27 months from now) I’ll try to put my car payment into that account as well, since I won’t miss it.

I did some basic math, and not including what I’ll earn from dividends, in five years I’ll have saved up about $24k – not too bad if I can stick to it and not spend it all.

What I can’t decide is – instead of putting so much into savings, should I instead pay off my higher-interest debt and then as those are paid off start saving the money I was paying in my Money Market account?

Know some better ways to put away for another day? Leave me a comment below on how you do it.

Shop For a New Credit Card Online

There are lots of people who play the credit card game – using it to their benefit and not just their downfall. A lot of people are firm believers in not using credit at all, except for maybe a house or student loans. It is a smart idea to save up cash to buy the things you want, but what about the things you need?

I’ve had lots of situations in my life where maybe I blew out a tire or had to pay for something for school, or needed emergency gas money to get home to my family for a funeral or something similar. Sometimes you run into these unexpected situations, and even the most savvy of people who have savings accounts and emergency funds may find that they don’t have enough when the need arises.

If you’re responsible and don’t abuse credit cards, you might find that you can improve on your current interest rate just by calling your credit card company and asking for it. If they won’t do it, call up another company and tell them what you’ve got and what you’d like to be offered. Once you have the offer, you could either accept it and do a balance transfer (many banks do this with a 0% interest rate for 12 months) or take the offer and call your company back and use it as leverage.

Whether you’re new to credit cards or just looking for a lower interest rates, or a rewards card, or just a different bank to deal with, you can comparison shop online by reading up on credit card reviews and find the one that best fits your finances. If you travel a lot, you might want an airline rewards card. Or if you talk on the phone a lot, you might want one that gives you free long distance minutes.

Be responsible, don’t buy things you don’t need on credit, and pay off balances as early and as soon as you can without making yourself stressed out.