prosperityseeker

Well, today is New Year’s Eve and I just wanted to chime in and tell you to be safe this holiday. I know that many of you are going to go out and have a good time but please remember to be safe and  responsible. After all, I want to see you in 2009.

Speaking of 2009, have you created your New Year’s Resolutions yet? If you haven’t, here are a few guidelines for you procrastinators:

1. Don’t stress out about creating your New Years Resolutions.

2. Create a few resolutions that you can definitely keep this year. No need to go overboard.

3. Don’t make your resolutions too small that you get bored easily but don’t make them so big that you feel overwhelmed and don’t do anything at all. Just choose 2-3 resolutions and make them come true.

4. Visualize success and know that you can achieve your goals, whatever they may be.

Well, that’s it. See, that wasn’t so bad was it? I certainly don’t think so and believe that you can accomplish your goals. Now go out there and have a blast prosperity seeker.

I’m a freelance writer and I have been in business for 10 years. I have about $10000 in outstanding client invoices. This is huge people. Although I have tried to recoup my money, I really haven’t tried that hard. Many of them have stopped responding to my inquiries and I have even found some of my work posted on their websites even though I still maintain the copywriters to their work. This is unacceptable and in 2009 I plan on taking massive action. I intend to get the money that is owed me once and for all. After all, it is my money, I worked for it and I deserve to be paid.If you allow others to take advantage of you by not paying you for services rendered, you will never crush debt and make your financial goals.

Here’s what I plan on doing:

1.    Create a better billing system. That’s right. I will go through all delinquent invoices and find out who owes me what, how late the payments are and then act quickly before the situation gets even worse. 

2.    Bombard them with invoices. Every 25 days, I will send them another invoice. Each month, I will get a bit nastier with my messages until finally I send them the dreaded collection account letter. 

3.    Hire a collection agency. Next, I will hire collection agency to get me my money. There are many freelancers and other collection agencies that specialize in getting their clients paid up. Although you have to pay the 1/3 or ½ of the amount collected, that is still better than getting nothing. I, for one, hate collection agencies and am more likely to pay them off first so hopefully this will work in my favor. My plan is to hire them to take over after 4 months of unsuccessful attempts. 

4.    Take them to court. I will take these scum buckets to court. For about 40 bucks, I can take them to court and collect the money that is owed me. I don’t even need a lawyer to file. Once the case is rendered in my favor, they may have their wages garnished and I will get my money. 

Enough said.

Everyone is blaming the economy on their inability to find or get a better job, pay down their debt and other stuff but it is really the economy’s fault? I mean, yes the economy isn’t as strong as it used to be. Companies are failing left in right and a people are losing their homes but is it really the economy’s fault?

I mean, we spend so much time posting blame that we aren’t taking care of our business. Instead of fixing our bad situations, we complain. Instead of finding a job, we complain. Instead of downsizing to a more affordable house, we complain. We complain left and right but we aren’t doing what needs to be done.

My advice is to stop complaining about the economy and make your situation better. Do what you have to do to improve your financial situation. Stop depending on the economy to improve. Stop waiting on the government to bail you out of this mess.

Clean it up yourself. Do your part to change your situation for the best.Only then will your life and situation improve.

Many folks ignore the warning signs and don’t think that they’re in any danger because of their credit cards. What they don’t realize is that any debt is too much debt and way too much debt can be bad for your health and happiness. But, how can you determine if you’ve got too much? It’s easy really.

Here is the test:

1. You can’t pay more than the minimum monthly payments on your cards.

2. You’re robbing Peter card to pay Paul Card.

3. You spend more time scrounging for new deals instead of making more income.

4. You’re considering taking out a payday loan or car title loan to pay your bills.

5. You’ve had to borrow money from family members to cover credit card bills.

6. You hide your credit card debt from yourself or your spouse.

7. Your credit report is the pits or you are scared to look at it because you know you owe way too much.

If you answer yes to any of these, you’ve got to get a handle on your credit. You’ve got to get in control of your finances before they wreak even more havoc on your life.

Some tips for getting out of this mess are to:

• Figure out how much debt you’re in.
• Use cash only and don’t take on any more debt.
• Devise a workable plan and pay off your debt by paying more than the minimum, negotiating for a lower interest rate, consolidating your debt, etc.
• Pay your bills on time.
• Keep older credit card accounts (even if you rarely use them open) However, if you can’t keep from using them, it may be better to close them out altogether.
• Have faith, you can get it paid off if you work your plan.

If you’ve been considering getting a loan recently but were wondering just how tough it is to secure a loan, I can tell you that financial institutions have definitely implemented stricter loan terms. Not only do you have to have better credit to even qualify but only the cream of the crop are offered the really good interest rates and such.

Now you might be thinking that you have good credit. You don’t miss payments and you pay your bills on time. However, financial institutions are looking at a wide range of criteria and payment history is just one of them. In fact, many speculate that you need accredit score of at least 680-720 to qualify nowadays.  And this my friends is high, especially since credit scores range from 300-800.

Here are some more tips to help you qualify:

1. Pay your bills on time and pay more than the required minimum.
2. Don’t charge more than 10%. Therefore, if your limit is 2000 don’t charge more than 200.
3. Don’t’ close out old credit cards. Don’t use them but keep them open to show a long credit history.
4. Don’t keep applying for credit as this will decrease your credit rating.
5. Squash debt like a crazy person. The faster you pay off the debt you have, the sooner your credit rating will improve.

If you’re looking for ways to make extra cash online, I hear you. There are many great things that you can do to make cash. Here are a few ideas to help you make some fast online cash.

1.    Sell stuff on eBay.  Just about everyone has something that they don’t want. It could be a holiday gift that someone gave you or it might just be something you’re tired of. Either way, you should definitely sell items you don’t want one Bay. Let me give you an example, a friend of mine paid $2000 for a fur coat over 15 years ago. She hardly even wore it and kept it in her closet. Well, she needed a bit of extra cash so she put it on eBay and received 1000 cash directly to her PayPal account. Not bad indeed.

2.    Write articles. Associated content is a company that pays you to write. They pay $3 - $20 per article and typically pay rather quickly.

3.    Make stuff. Zazzle is a site that allows you to take your photos and create mugs, tee-shirts, etc. You can then profit from them when someone buys. No overhead. Just a bit of time.  A friend of mine recently netted $40 for 10 minutes of time. Visit www.zazzle.com for additional information.

4.    Write reviews. If you have an established blog that has a PR of 1 or up, you can get paid for a review.  One site that pays bloggers is payperpost.com. If you would prefer not to have your own blog, you can post a review on www.epinions.com.

5.    Complain. There’s this brand new site called www.rantblogger.com and if you post a short complaint about something they may just publish you on their site. In return for your efforts, you get a whopping 5.00 or more. Not bad considering that it will probably take a few minutes to write an acceptable rant.

Hey, did you know that if you have bad credit, you don’t have to have bad credit forever? Yes, that is right. You can significantly improve your credit score history. You don’t have to hire expensive credit repair agencies or others to improve your credit. No, you can do it all by your lonesome.

Now, it isn’t necessarily easy to improve your credit score. In fact, it will take a bit of discipline and hard work but if you stick to my plan, you will see your credit score history improve. Here’s a few tips:

- Understand your credit history. Get a copy of your credit report from the 3 major reporting agencies and review it for accuracy. If you notice anything that looks out of place, contest it with the agency. By filing a dispute, they will have to check  on it. If the reporting company can’t prove that you actually owe the money, it will have to be removed from your credit report.

• Don’t rack up more debt. Every time you ask for more credit or incur additional debt, your credit score is affected negatively. Therefore, don’t rack up any more bills. Pay cash.

• Pay your bills on time. Don’t miss any payments and get current with everyone. Not only will this help you reestablish your credibility but it will improve your credit score history.

• Pay down your debt. Do what you can to pay down your debt. Even if you have to take on a second job then do it. Get that debt paid off fast and don’t let anything stand in your way. By doing this, you will improve your credit score history.

Yes, this is a lot of hard work but if you follow my advice, you can significantly improve your credit score history. Good luck!

Ho…ho….ho…

 I just wanted to chime in and let you know that I wish you a Happy Holiday season.

 I admire everything that you are trying to accomplish as a Prosperity Seeker and I truly believe that you will achieve your goals. Instead ofworrying and being stressed out today, your assignment today is to be proud of you.

Write down the things that you have accomplished. Take note of all the positive things that you have accomplished this year and what you have to be thankful for. Include everything and I do mean everything. Also, include  those people that you are thankful for in your life as well.

Next, take some time to really read through your list and figure out what you can do differently next year. For instance, I am proud of the fact that I startedthis blog and amworking hard to squash debt and help others squash debt as well. As I said previously, helping others is one of my primary goals and I know that together we can get in control of our financial situation and improve our lives.

Once you do this, reflect and enjoy the Holidays. You deserve it!

So, you have been playing or considering playing the lottery so that you can pay off your debts. I hear you. There is something fun about playing the lottery and hoping to “strike it rich.” However, I see way too many people spending way too much money playing the lottery and not paying off their debt. In fact, I saw a lady at the grocery store buying $50.00 worth of instance lottery tickets.

I think she would have been better off investing the money in her own debts instead.  The reason is that $50.00 a month could make a big difference on your debt. That is a whopping $600.00 a year.  See what I mean?

Anyway, although it can be fun to play the lottery occasionally, you really should concentrate on building wealth with your “lottery money” instead of blowing it on a long shot. Instead, you should concentrate of squashing debt and get smarter about how you actually spend the money you have. By paying down debt and eliminating it instead, you’ll eventually hit a windfall of money that will be just like you actually won the lottery. You’ll have money to do the things you want to do. You’ll be able to take your kids on a trip, get a new car, retire comfortably, etc.  Imagine that!

Therefore, if you really want to win the lottery, pay off debt and get serious about building your financial freedom. Not only will you have a better chance of winning, you’ll guarantee it.

Good luck!

Today I visited an online forum and there was this guy on there advising people to make extra cash by using their credit cards. As you know, I was very interested in hearing what this fruitcake had to say and I have to be honest with you, it was not only ludicrous but just plain crazy advice. And the bad thing is that people were actually writing and commenting on “what a brilliant idea.” Now, I don’t know if they were just kidding, but to me, they had to be absolute lunatics.

Here’s his brilliant plan ( in a nutshell). He basically signs up for a bunch of credit cards offers and then takes advantage of the free offers. For instance, he might receive free gas, store gift cards, frequent flier miles or even a percentage of the purchase amount, whatever. He then sells the free gas, store credit cards, frequent flier miles, to someone else and makes “instant cash” for a few minutes of work. According to him, this is a great way to make some extra holiday money and he strongly advises you to do the same.

Here’s my thought about this plan.

• It sucks big time. It is never a good idea to rack up credit card debt to get extra cash. Not only will you end up losing money when you can’t pay the balance off, you’ll be bombarded with excessive interest rates on not only these new cards but your old ones too which could cost you thousands of dollars.

• By applying for so much credit, your credit report is going to get shot and your debt-to-income ratio is going to go up, every time your rack up credit. Then, when you need credit, you aren’t going to be able to get it.

• By having all this credit is just bad news. Its too tempting to charge it up and live stupidly when you have so many open credit lines.

My final advice….DO NOT DO IT. This guy would be better off getting a part time job so that he could make some extra cash shoveling snow, pet sitting or something like that.