Archives for March 2010

Debt-Free On Any Income

March 31, 2010 By Sherry Tingley

Financial security may be hard to imagine for a lot of people. To acquire this type of security means that you will have to make sacrifices to achieve debt free living. If you have gotten yourself into debt for medical reasons, lost jobs, over speculating or even the bitter sweet problem of self indulgence, then you will need to find a way to crawl out from the burden of debt.

debt-free-living — Not what you were expecting?

Debt has two faces. One face is called good debt. Good debt is for purchases like housing or schooling that will increase in value over time. The other face of debt is ugly. It’s consumer debt on credit cards that have interest rates that are not tax deductible and can rise over time.

Many books have been written about getting out of debt, which most agree that they want to do. Some dream that they want to become debt free and some people actually do become debt free.

Lyle and Tracy Shamo have written a book called, “Debt-Free On Any Income.” It has an excel spreadsheet program that can help you list all of your debt and pay it down systematically. This is a good system to use and will help you get out of debt.

Let’s say you have four credit cards that have a variety of debt on them. Say for example the balances are $7,540, $238, $4,333, and $1,980. You are looking at a $14,091 debt. That should be enough to wake you up that you need a better payoff plan.

One way to tackle this debt is to make the minimum payments on each account. Then you are easily looking at a very long time before you’ll be debt free, but your credit score will stay intact. Say you decide that you are going to use $200 every month to pay towards your credit card debt. You would want to take the $238.00 debt and put money towards paying off that amount.

When you are done with that bill, you use the same $200 and put it towards the $1,980 debt until it is paid off. Theoretically you should now have more than $200 to put towards your monthly debt. Not having the minimum payment for these two bills could free up maybe $75 a month. So now you can put $275 a month toward your $4,333 bill. As you continue doing this, your monthly minimum payments will go down and the amount you can put towards your debt payoff will go up. By the time you are solely focusing on the largest debt, you’ll have more to pay that off every month.

The key to this plan though is to not incur more debt at the same time you are doing this. Basically you need to decide to quit spending money that is not in your bank account. When that becomes a lifelong habit, you won’t have to face these problems again and again.

The Bank of America/MBNA has issued credit cards and consumer debt they report is $194.70 billion. This includes the U.S., Spain, Canada, Ireland and the U.K. The average credit card debt per household is $16,007, according to CreditCard.com.

All of us can use a little help in controlling consumer debt and living a debt-free lifestyle. Practice using the payoff techniques and the spending rules and it won’t be long before you are on your way to becoming debt free.

Overdraft Bank Fees Limited

March 23, 2010 By Sherry Tingley

Overdraft bank fees are frustrating, annoying and can make you feel like you’ve been robbed. In one incident, a New Hampshire man, Josh Muszynski bought a pack of cigarettes from a local gas station. Later that day, he logged on to his bank account and was shocked to see a 23 quadrillion dollar overdraft ($23,148,855,308,184,500)! Josh thought that his account had been comprised and that someone had bought Europe with his card! He didn’t know what could cause that to happen. The bank, unable to account for the error, fortunately reversed the huge charge within 24 hours.

During 2009, abusive overdraft and insufficient-funds fees brought banks more than $38 billion dollars. The new credit card regulations have been helping to bring that number down. The new law protects consumers from abusive fees, penalties, interest rate increases.

With statements sent out in March of 2010, you might see additional information printed on your credit card statements. The new credit card statements include an easy to see LATE PAYMENT WARNING which tells you what your late fee is going to be if you don’t make a payment by the date printed. This is easy to see and is not buried in fine print on the back of your statement.

Then you’ll see the sobering statistics that will come to reality if you continue making the minimum payments. If you continue on your merry way, it may take you 20 years, 25 years or 30 years to get rid of this debt.

Followed by that horrifying news, it tells you how long it would take you to pay off your debt if you just made a larger payment every month.

Then you are asked if you would like an aspirin or a drink. Not really, but it does offer you credit counseling services and gives you a number to call besides 1-800-IAM-DUMB.

In early March, 2010, Bank of America came to our financial rescue by deciding to help us avoid overdraft fees. Now they are actually going to decline your debit transaction at the point of sale if there are insufficient funds, instead of letting it go through and charging you fees.

Although there are new protections for consumers to avoid overdraft fees, you can still be charged fees if you are late on your payments. Do yourself a favor and keep your payments current if you have any credit card debt.

The best way for you to manage your money is to buy things that you can pay for with the money you have. Sounds pretty simple. Why has credit card debt quadrupled between 1992 and 2008 to $853 billion dollars? – Because many don’t follow this advice.

Joshua Kennon, a person who saved 90% of his income for a very long time, reminds us that “there are tens of millions of Americans who live free from the burden of credit card debt and there is absolutely no reason you can’t be one of them. ”

If you have suffered from overdraft fees and it has negatively affected your finances, you will most likely be very happy that the credit card rules and regulations will help you end this destructive force.

Basic Affiliate Marketing Tips

March 22, 2010 By Sherry Tingley

Affiliate marketing? People look at you quizzically when you tell them that is what you do to make money. Most people have no idea of what affiliate marketing is. They just can’t wrap their minds around the idea even when you explain it to them.

clickbank — Clickbank has paid affiliates over $1,503,759,460!

Most will ask how they would start affiliate marketing and how they would choose a product to promote? This is a common question that has an easy answer. Research your desired niche products and see what kind of demand is there. Use the Google keyword tool to choose a niche that has a lot of monthly searches – over 40,000 searches a month is good enough to get started. Make sure you have enough interest in providing your customers with as much helpful information as you can. If you have no interest, you can still promote the products, it just won’t be as fun.

Next, you will need to apply to become an affiliate through an affiliate marketing company. There are several major affiliate companies that are very highly recommended. One is Clickbank, which offers thousands of information products that people can download after purchase. Some of these products are software products that have a recurring charge and hence brings you a monthly payment without getting a new customer. Other products are solutions to various health problems. Some will teach you to learn a new skill. Some will actually tell you what the best selling products are.

A second company to check out is Google Affiliate Network. Google has combined their affiliate network payment schedule with their Adsense payments. So if you are already getting money from Adsense this is a good fit for you.

Google has thousands of merchants. When you log in to their site, they’ll give you statistics that are important to understand. There is a figure called EPC – and this means earnings per click. There is a 3 month EPC and a 7 day EPC. You’ll see that the higher the numbers, the better chances you have of selling their products. They list these statistics for each merchant. They also show you the merchant’s payout rank. So you’ll be able to see which merchants are paying the most to affiliates. Choose your merchants wisely with help from these statistics.

A third company to check out is
Sshareasale.com. They have hundreds of merchants with thousands of products. They will deposit your earnings directly to your checking account on the same day every month. Shareasale is run by Brian Littleton, who is experienced in every aspect of ecommerce. Shareasale has many merchants to choose from and they provide easy ways to make an web page that will display products on your site. They also have some video selling options available.

Affiliate marketing is challenging, but worth all the effort you put into it. You can be your own boss and set your own working hours. Be warned though, you’ll probably work twice as hard as you ever have worked. That’s what happens when you get to follow your passions. It hardly seems like work.

How To Apply For A Government Grant

March 17, 2010 By Sherry Tingley

: Image by Francisco Diez via Flickr

There are many different types of grants. The United States Government offers over 1,000 grants and a total amount of $500 billion dollars is available for these grants. Grants are awarded to people who have demonstrated that there is a public benefit for their project or research.

There are twenty one different categories that government grants fall into. There are environmental grants, educational grants, energy grants and many others. For a full list of the categories, you can go to www.grants.gov.

Grants are available to companies or organizations and to individuals. There are more grants available to organizations than there are to individuals. The government website lists 27 grants for individuals and hundreds of grants available for organizations.

One example of a grant for individuals is offered by the United States National Fish and Wildlife Service. They want to promote interest in conservation, and ecology. There is $5,000,000 available to be awarded for this project and they will give 40 awards out. The highest amount awarded can be up to $500,000 and the lowest amount awarded will be $1,000. So what does this grant require you to do?

They are looking for people interested in natural resource careers and would like to provide individuals with guidance and training by professionals. You will be working in wildlife refuges, fish hatcheries, and ecological services offices as an intern. You will be assigned seasonal work sometime between June 1 and Sept. 30. Award recipients need to be willing to administer a program for identifying and recruiting people for assignments at various stations in the United States.

After you have found a grant that fits your expertise and interest, you will need to go through an online application procedure at www.grants.gov. There are multiple steps involved in applying, however there are videos to help you walk through the entire process.

You first will need to register with the website and then you need to apply for the grant you want. This procedure can take time to do, so plan on several weeks for this process.

Writing a successful grant proposal can be very challenging and competitive. You have several options. One is that you can hire someone to write it for you or you can train yourself to write a good proposal. There are classes you can take that can prepare you for this.

If you are going to write the grant yourself, you will need to summarize your project in two or three paragraphs. You will need to communicate important information about your organization that shows that you can be trusted to use their funds wisely. You’ll need to state what your organization’s track record is with similar achievements. One thing to remember when writing your proposal is to describe the problem you are attempting to solve with the same magnitude as the solution you provide.

Although the procedure for applying is lengthy and requires you to write a very good proposal, you should try your best and see if you qualify. A federal grant could be just what you need.

How To Register A Trademark

March 15, 2010 By Sherry Tingley

If you are in business for yourself, you might be interested in learning about trademarks and possibly registering a trademark for your company.

Owning a trademark is appealing to people because they hope that one day, their particular brand may receive universal recognition. This universal recognition can make your company become more profitable than you may have imagined.

Historically, famous trademark names like Levi Strauss Jeans, Dutch Boy, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola have made life long impressions on millions of people. There are trademarks on other things that you may not have thought of like sounds. In 1924, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer registered the sound of a lion roaring. When you go to the movies today, you’ll hear that sound and associate it with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie productions. Even the design of buildings can be trademarked. The famous McDonald’s golden arches are trademarked.

Images can be trademarked and they have powerful effects on consumers. The most reproduced image in the world is that of Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse. There are over 7,500 items that have that image on it. The second most reproduced image is that of Jesus. Surely you’ve seen thousands of products with his image on them. You may be surprised to know that the third most reproduced image is of Elvis Presley and he “ain’t nothing but a hound dog.”

The average person knows what these symbols, sounds and words mean and generally that is good for business because of their universal appeal. So how does that affect you and your new business?

Suppose you have been dreaming of a new product or already have a great product and a very unique name for that product. You will want to make sure that you and your company are the people who benefit from your brilliance. You don’t want other people using this name to generate profits for themselves which will ultimately diffuse your profit making efforts. The best thing to do is to get a trademark for your name, idea or product.

Cost of Trademarking

This is perhaps the first question on your mind. It has a complicated answer. There are fees involved in getting a trademark and they vary. You may be able to complete the process for as low as $325.00 or if you have a lawyer handle it for you, you could be looking at several thousand dollars in fees.

How To Trademark

The government has a special procedure for you to apply for a trademark. Perhaps the easiest thing for you to do is to call them at 1-800 786-9199. If you want to be a bit more prepared to talk to them, you’ll need to find out if the idea you have is already trademarked. You can use a trademark search at the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

You can apply online for a trademark, but you must be able to provide information in a timely fashion. They have strict deadlines that must be met to process your application. You will need to provide the name of the applicant, name and address for correspondence, a clear drawing of your symbol or the words you want trademarked, the goods or services you intend to provide and a filing fee.

Once you submit that information, a lawyer will research it and decide whether it will be approved. This procedure may take up to two months. Once it is approved, they will print a public notice in the the Official Gazette. The public is given 30 days to issue a protest against your filing if they can prove that your trademark will be damaging to their business. If you make it through that step, then within 3 months you will be issued a NOTICE OF ALLOWANCE. Then you have six months to notify them of your intended STATEMENT OF USE plan. Once that is sent in and approved, you will be issued a REGISTRATION CERTIFICATE.

Do you think it’s worth your time and effort to register a trademark? I’m sure Levi Strauss did!