Personal Finance Blog

Tips And Stories To Help You With Managing Money

Creative Ways To Use Eggshells

By

I had the privilege to watch Jeff Yeager’s video on creative ways to use eggshells, produced by Carolyn Presutti and edited by Bill Creed.  What caught my interest was how eggshells can be recycled for many different uses which can help you save money.  In this short video, he shows us how the use of eggshells can help you to be thrifty and help the environment.

Eggshell Tips

  1. Throw your eggshells into the compost pile instead of the trashcan. According to him, these eggshells are calcium rich and are great for the soil, though it may take a couple of months before they actually decompose.
  2. Put your hard or soft boiled eggshells along with the ground coffee on the brewer when making it, as it lessens the bitterness of the java and improves its taste.
  3. Use the eggshells as biodegradable planters for seedlings as they effectively nurture the young plants, which is quite useful if you are into gardening.  Sprinkle pieces of eggshells around your flowers and plants as they repel deer and creepy crawly pests.
  4. Crush the eggshell and mix it along your dish washing soap. The solution you create acts as an abrasive which is great for removing pot stains if you shake it with water and let it stand overnight.
  5. Use eggshells as hydrogen fuels for the car.According to engineers at Ohio State University,  these eggshells are perfect for use as the fuel of tomorrow.

Jeff Yeager, author of “The Cheapskate Next Door” and “The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Road Map to True Riches,” is well known for helping people save money.  He has numerous videos online teaching people how to save “practically.” He even tours by bicycle throughout the Midwest, Pacific North West and up to the East Coast to promote environmentally friendly living among Americans.

Credit Card Consolidation – Resolve Debts Faster

By

Are you having trouble paying your credit card bills? Are you getting warning notices from your creditors? Are your accounts being turned down to collection agencies? If your answer to all these questions is yes, then you need to do credit card consolidation. Remember that you are not alone. There are millions of people who are facing such credit card debt related problems. You can consolidate your credit card debts in two simple methods. Read on to know about them.

Debt consolidation program

You can go for credit card consolidation with the help of a debt consolidation program. You can enjoy the following benefits if you sign up with a debt consolidation company.

  1. Lower monthly payments: In a debt consolidation program, your debt consultant will negotiate with your creditors and attempt to lower the interest rates on your credit card debts. With lower interest rates, your monthly payments also reduce helping you to pay off your debts in affordable monthly payments.
  2. Single monthly payment: If you enroll in a debt consolidation company, you will have to make single monthly payments. Instead of making multiple payments to multiple creditors, you now just need to make a single monthly payment to the debt consolidation company. They will pay off your creditors as the money in the account starts to accumulate.
  3. Eliminates late fees and penalties: If you have accrued a huge amount of late fees and penalties resulting from late payments, then you can eliminate them with credit card consolidation. You can save a lot of money by taking help of debt consolidation companies.
  4. Rebuilds your credit score: By reducing your debts with a debt consolidation program, you can also rebuild your credit score. Since your debt consultant starts making regular payments to your creditors, you can rebuild your credit score in this way.

Debt consolidation loan

You can also consolidate your credit card debts with a debt consolidation loan. A debt consolidation loan is taken to consolidate all your unsecured debts. Here also you can lower your monthly payments and decrease the interest rate on your debts.

So, if you are overburdened with huge amount of unsecured debts, then consider credit card consolidation. Pay off your debts and lead a stress-free life.

How to Dispute Errors On Your Credit Report

By

Your credit scores play a big role in your life and your ability to borrow money for large purchases at the lowest possible interest rate. Credit scores can determine whether  you can purchase a car or a house at low interest rates or high interest rates. So what can you do about managing your credit scores? Get a copy of your credit report and fix any errors you find.

Disputing credit errors may not be a fun thing to do but it is very important to managing your financial health. Why? Because banks use consumer credit history to determine your eligibility for a loan and to determine what interest rates they will charge you.   If you think you might be applying for a loan, it would be best to monitor your credit scores.

Finding Mistakes On Your Credit Report

Murphy’s law states that “anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” This is especially true with credit reports. Experian, one of the three main credit bureaus, stores 65 trillion bytes of data. Mistakes are bound to happen. Consumers should remember that inaccuracies found in your credit report can significantly lower your credit score.  Raising your credit scores depends on  getting these mistakes corrected. Remember that disputing errors is free to you.

You will need to get a copy of your credit report from three credit bureaus:  Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.  You should print a copy of these reports and go through each of them very carefully. If you find mistakes, highlight the data in question. It is important that you ask the credit bureaus to make corrections for you. Write down the credit report number for each of your reports. You will need to reference that number when communicating with the bureaus.

Once you have gone through all three credit reports, write an explanatory letter for each credit bureau. Your written request is generally called a dispute letter. Explain each disputed item clearly and concisely.  Send in your dispute letter with a copy of your credit report  via certified mail, call them or use an online form. Meanwhile, you can contact all lending institutions such as banks and credit card companies to tell them that your credit report is undergoing an investigation and that you have filed a dispute for erroneous information.

Contact Information For The Three Credit Bureaus

Equifax Mailing Address
P.O. Box 740241
Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
1-888-202-4025

TransUnion Mailing Address
2 Baldwin Place
P.O. Box 2000
Chester, PA 19022
1-800-916-8800

Experian Mailing Address
P.O. Box 2104
Allen, TX 75013-2104
1-888-397-3742

What The Bureaus Do

Once the bureaus have gone through your files, they have 30 days to respond to your request. They will send you a letter containing the results of the investigation along with a note that they will remove or erase the inaccurate information in your credit report.

Once that is done, you can also request the bureau to mail correction notices to banks and lending companies they have sent the report to in the last 6 months. If you ask, they can also sent it to places that have requested your credit report in the last two years. The credit bureaus should send  you a copy of your report and they should include the details of the revised information.

In instances where the dispute has not yet been resolved, you can request the bureau to update you on the status of your request. Consumers must remember they cannot remove erroneous information on their own. A dispute must be filed for an investigation to happen.

Recommended Reading

For further information about credit management, you can visit the Federal Trade Commission site where you will find consumer information about credit and loans.

Experian provides the latest >credit analysis news from 90 countries around the world. You’ll find out bits of information like New Yorkers have the most open credit cards and Phoenix has the least.

If you want to limit the credit card offers you receive through the mail, call 1-888-567-8688.

Strengthen your financial well being by educating yourself about managing your credit and making smart financial decisions.

Internet Privacy Policy With Goggles

By

Goggles captures business information easily.

On August 24, 2010, the L.A. Times published a photo of a man who had just stolen a  $9,200 Rolex gold watch from Classic Design, a store in the California, Glendale Galleria mall. The Glendale police department requested help in identifying the man in the photo. As this photo circulates the Internet and reaches more and more people, it will likely reach someone who can identify this person and help apprehend him.

Technology probably could in the near future identify this man with the use of Goggles by Google. Although David Petrou, a project lead of Google Goggles, claims that for privacy reasons, Google does not do facial recognition, one could see that it would certainly be helpful in catching criminals.

Currently, the new Goggles software allows cell phone users to snap photos and send them to  Google’s cloud services. Computer vision algorithms organize search results and provide you with  information about what you are seeing. In order for Google to identify the correct information in the picture, it has to compare it with an existing database. They already have 150,000 images for landmarks which give correct results only 50% to 60% of the time. Goggles can also be used with  logos, contact info, artwork, businesses, products, barcodes, or text.

The primary use for Goggles is in language translation,  helping people traveling in foreign countries. The user can photograph signs, menus, and other text related items and the output will be in the users native language. Goggles can translate English, French, Italian, German and Spanish.

Given the rapid development of technology in the last fifteen years, one wonders what life will look like in 2030. Will someone have developed the Goggle technology to be accurate 99% of the time?  Will society agree to allow law enforcement officials to  use a perfected facial recognition software in their pursuit of criminals? Will people be able to snap a photo of you and find out instantly where you are from? What does the future hold for us?  What do you think?

Entrepreneur Resource Center In Utah

By

Small Business Entrepreneur Support Center
Roy W. & Elizabeth E. Simmons Entrepreneurial Center

There are some hidden treasures for business entrepreneurs in Kaysville, Utah. Entrepreneurs have access to a beautiful 16,000-square-foot building and a team of supportive staff to help them with their businesses.

Entrepreneurs are sometimes a disconnected group of people. Entrepreneurs need somewhere to go for support, networking and help without overspending. The Roy W. & Elizabeth E. Simmons Entrepreneurial Center center solves that problem.

The idea for creating this type of center came from the business teachers at the Davis Applied Technology College. They thought that it only made sense to build the center and have the staff supported by the proceeds of renting the building out to various companies and small entrepreneurs who need a small office arrangement without huge overhead fees.

Thanks to a generous donation from the Roy and Elizabeth Simmons, the $2 million dollar building itself is completely paid off and runs using that very business model.

History of Roy and Elizabeth Simmons

One may wonder how these people were able to offer such a generous contribution, so a little background history on this family is helpful. Roy Simmons began a career in banking in 1938. He worked for his father-in-law, L.E. Ellison, at the First National Bank of Layton, Utah. His career in banking skyrocketed and by 1952 he had organized the Bank of Utah. By 1955, he and his partners gained controlling interest in Zion’s First National Bank. Roy was named President and CEO of Zion’s and served until 1990.

This family was able to make significant contributions to the welfare of their community. They created The Simmons Family Foundation which contributed almost $3.5 million to the community. One of their contributions was the Roy W. and Elizabeth E. Simmons Trauma and Emergency Services Center at Intermountain Medical Center. It  is a state of the art facility and one of the  largest and best-equipped trauma centers in the area.

NorthFront Business Resource Center
Northfront Business Resource Center

Services Provided By The Center

One of the services that they provide is a private consultation for you about any aspect of your business you need help with. They have gone through training to counsel with you and have experience running their own businesses.

This is where the Davis County Chamber of Commerce has their headquarters.

The center provides office space for people to rent and rooms to use for making presentations. There is a beautiful meeting room that has a view of the valley below. It is large enough to hold a hundred people.

The meeting rooms can hold up to 30 people and people are using it all the time. Be sure to find  their schedule of presentations. You may want to attend a meeting.

The administrative staff helps you get oriented to their building and services. They are completely supported by the revenues of the building and are very happy to be there.

For any entrepreneurs in the Utah area, be sure to take time visiting this incredible resource.