Friday, November 12, 2010

Credit Cards: Pros and Cons – Love them or Hate Them

by PF Journey on February 10, 2010

What do you think of when you think of credit cards? Do you think of cash back rewards and redeemed airline miles or are you plagued with thoughts of insurmountable debt…or somewhere in between?

Love them or hate them, credit cards are a part of the norm in America. Cardratings.com reports an estimate of 640 million credit cards in circulation in the United States with the average American holding 4.

Popular arguments for credit cards:

Convenience

It is easier to carry and swipe plastic than deal with paper bills and change.
However, a debit card is the same size as a credit card and affords the same convenience.

Protection

Credit cards offer better protection if they are lost or stolen.

Debit cards offer protection as well, but the amount of protection is highly dependent on when you report the card missing. Also, many debit cards can be used as credit cards, when that is done, you are afforded the same protection as the credit card counterpart.

From Visa.com:
Does my Visa Debit card have security protections? Yes, when you sign for your purchases…

MasterCard.com also offers a Zero Liability policy for signed purchases

Redeemable Points & Rewards

If you have excellent credit, you may be eligible for a credit card that offers cash back, rewards, redeemable airline mileage or some other incentive. It’s been argued that the rewards entice people to spend more. However, if someone is disciplined enough to gain & maintain the credit worthiness to be eligible for a rewards card, they are probably disciplined enough to use it responsively. Also, some of these cards carry annual fees, the highest I’ve seen was the Visa Black Card with a hefty $495 annual fee! Read the fine print! If you decide to chase the rewards, do a cost benefit analysis and make sure it will truly benefit you.

With the new Credit CARD laws, rewards may dry up as credit card institutions will be looking for new ways to maintain a profit. Also, while rare, debit card reward programs do exist. However, their rewards are generally smaller than those offered by credit card companies.

Credit Cards are Necessary to Improve Credit Score or Establish Credit

While it’s true that paying your bill on time, over time will increase your score it is not the only factor. Your credit score is also factors in

  • How many open accounts you have (so too many credit cards can hurt you)
  • Your debt to income ratio (too much debt owed negatively impacts your score)
  • Credit utilization percent (a good rule of thumb is not to use over 50% of your credit balance)
  • Duration account has been opened (the older the better…so opening a new account is not going help your score)
  • and more!

Some feel it is necessary to use a credit card to establish credit so they have credit history for bigger loans in the future. While responsible use of a credit card can factor into a strong credit report, lenders have alternatives for determining if someone is a candidate for a loan. Lenders can look at payment history on installment loans (cars, student loans), rent and even utility bills.

Bottom line: Responsible credit card use can be used to establish a strong credit history, but it is not the only solution.

Security for emergencies

I cringe at this argument! Credit cards are NOT security. You are at the mercy of a financial institution that can close your account or lower your limit. The best security for emergencies is an emergency fund, not a credit card!

Interest-free short term loan (assuming the bill is paid in full each month)

If you pay the balance in full each month, you don’t have to worry about interest. However, you have to be careful not to overspend.

Popular arguments against credit cards:

Credit Cards create the debt problem

Let’s get one thing clear – credit cards do not create debt…people create debt. That being said, the credit card industry makes it difficult to recover from debt with steep penalties and high interest rates. Will the Credit CARD act remedy the problem? Only time will tell.

Tendency to Spend More

Credit cards fulfill our need for instant vr. delayed gratification. Instead of saving for a purchase and taking the time to evaluate rather it is something we really want (or need)…credit cards enable us to live in the moment and make an immediate purchase before reflecting on rather it’s what we really want.

Personal finance guru Dave Ramsey takes a strong against credit cards:

When you play with a multi-billion dollar industry and you think you’re going to win at their game, you are naive. You cannot beat the credit card companies.

While it may seem there are more arguments for credit cards than against them. The debt problems carries a lot of weight. So where am I? I’m at a fork in the road looking at signs pointing to Camp Rewards and Camp Avoid. I’m thinking of forging a 3rd path, and that is Camp Minimal Use. I am not persuaded by rewards programs but I’m not ready to shred my last card either. I travel enough to appreciate the benefit of using a credit card when renting a car or checking into a hotel over debit. My frequency of travel is enough to keep my credit account active but not enough to rack up any real frequent flier miles. I don’t carry the card with me, so for everyday purchases I am limited to what I can afford from my bank account. It works for me!

What about you? How do you feel about credit cards? Love them, hate them, or indifferent?

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Famous Quotes from "Rich Dad Poor Dad" by R. Kiyosaki

  • “Financial Literacy = Know your Assets from your Liabilities.”
  • “An asset = something that puts $$$ in your pocket whether you work or not.”
  • “Choosing to be rich starts by choosing your IDEAS.”
  • “Too many middle-class people try to “keep up with the Joneses”. The problem is… the Joneses are broke. They may have the big house, the nice car… but if you study their financial statements, you’ll find that they own nothing, they have no assets, they are in debt.”
  • “Most people grow up in a family where they didn’t have much money – that became their reality. Most of us live by ideas passed on down by our parents.”
  • “401k’s – most of us have bet our retirement on the stockmarket – but our educational system has not taught us to be good investors!”
  • “There is no “job security” anymore – you need “financial” security.”
  • “With every $ that comes into your hand, you have a CHOICE. If you’re smart, you’ll buy an asset with that dollar.”
  • “People with a job pay the highest taxes. Jobs trap you. No time with your kids, etc. People in corporations are… simply… corpses, going through the motions. The spirit of the entrepreneur – that’s what the world is made for. If you are not in your true life direction it is almost impossible to be successful. You want to succeed and move fast? Make sure you’re in the right arena for yourself. Get in alignment with who you are, and with the right vehicle for yourself. Passion comes naturally when you’re moving in your Life’s true direction. What’s YOUR passion.”
  • “Most people are afraid of failing and being rejected. Get over these 2 things, and life is easy!”
  • “Your financial statement is your report card after you leave school. It measures how smart you are financially.”
  • “Think big! Leverage your ideas! How can I reach more people with less effort?
  • “To get rich, you need to desire it. Do you have the strong reasons why?”
  • “Do you wish to learn from your mistakes? Get up once you’re down?”
  • “It’s not how much you make that matters – it’s how much you keep. Check out your saving/earning ratio. Live below your means! How much actually drops to your bottom line?”
  • “Who you know can make the biggest difference in your financial life. Get out there and meet people! NETWORK!”
  • “Poor people are afraid of risk, rejection,fear of losing, losing face… Losing is part of the winning!”
  • “Successful people try and try again, they fail over and over again. At school we are taught that losing and failing is bad. At school, if you make mistakes, you are a “failure”. People spend their entire lives fearing MISTAKES. And yet mistakes are how we learn. There is a priceless kernel of knowledge in every mistake. Admit it – don’t deny or justify it. Learn from it!”
  • “Only borrow money when you don’t need it.”
  • “Just do it once. “How can I do it just once, for it to return money to me forever?” Creative multiple streams of passive income!”
  • “Pay yourself FIRST. Every day put money aside to buy income-producing assets, before you pay bills, food, rent, ANYTHING.”
  • “The rich buy assets first, so that they can eventually buy liabilities.”
  • “Instant gratification will kill your finances. Delay gratification!”
  • “What it takes to be rich: be willing to make mistakes, learn from them, pick yourself up, be perseverant.”
  • “The biggest challenge you have, is dealing with your self-doubt. Challenge your self-doubts!”
  • “More important than the HOW we achieve financial freedom, is the WHY. Find YOUR reasons why you want to be free and wealthy.”
  • “Most people look for the easy road to wealth, because they lack a strong enough why. The easy road ALWAYS leads to a dead end.”
  • “The “How to’s”: put $1 a day in each piggy-bank. Look at 100 real estate/stocks, pick 1.”
  • “Stop hanging out with some of the people that are holding you back.”
  • “Thinking is the hardest wish you’ll ever do.”
  • “The no1 way to overcome fear is to learn more. Find out numbers and rations.”
  • “Getting rich is not about being smarter – but being BOLDER.”
  • “Imagination is more important than knowledge – it is unlimited! Everyone has multi-million ideas – they just fear going for it.”
  • “J. Paul Getty – rather have 1% of the efforts of 100 people than 100% of his own effort."
  • “Does school prepare children for the real world?”
  • “Getting a good education and making good grades no longer ensures success. People are working harder and harder, only to pay more taxes and end up in debt.”
  • “There is no security anymore. You can’t rely on Social Security or company pensions for retirement. We need new answers.”
  • “No longer can we simply tell our children to “Go to school, get good grades, and look for a safe, secure job.” It’s some of the most dangerous advice we could give.”
  • “I am extremely concerned by the lack of financial education our children receive in school. They never had a course on money or how to invest it, or how compounding works, the perils of consumer debt…”
  • “The goal is to GET OUT OF THE RAT RACE!”
  • “Most people are trapped in the Rat Race for the rest of their lives!”
  • “They work for their employers, for the government by paying taxes, and for the bank by paying off a mortgage and credit cards.”
  • “The only way to get out of the rat race is to become proficient in accounting and investing. These subjects are so important in your life.”

· “How many millions of people are out there in the real world struggling financially?”

· “The world has changed, but education has not changed with it.”

· “One of the reasons why the rich get richer and the poor get poorer is that most of us learn about money from our parents. So what scan a poor parent tell their child about money?”

· “Money, financial skills, are not taught at school.”

· “Rich Dad forbade the words “I can’t afford it” – instead, “HOW can I afford it.” One lets you off the hook, ad the other forces you to think. “My brain gets stronger every day because I exercise it. The stronger it gets, the more money I can make.”

· “Poor Dad thought that the rich should pay more in taxes to take care of those less fortunate. Rich Dad said: “Taxes punish those who produce and reward those who don’t produce.”

· “Study hard to find a good company to work for.” // “Study hard to find a good company to buy.”

· “Poor Dad always said “I’m not interested in money”, or “Money doesn’t matter”.

· “Money = power & choices.”

· “Poor Dad was poor not because of the amount of money he earned, which was significant, but because of his thoughts and actions.”

· “I encourage you to study to be rich, to understand how money works, and to have it work for you!”

· “A financial education is powerful – you gain power over money and you can begin building wealth.”

· “If you don’t learn how money works, you WILL SPEND THE REST OF YOUR LIVES WORKING FOR IT!”

· “Passion is ANGER and LOVE combined. When it comes to money, most people want to play it safe and feel secure. Passion does not direct them – FEAR does.”

· “More money will not solve the problem if you have the wrong “money blueprint” – most people, given more money, only get into more debt.”

· “It’s easier to work for money, especially if fear is your primary emotion when it comes to money.”

· “Fear keeps most people working at a job. The fear of not paying their bills, the fear of being fired, the fear of not having enough money. The fear of starting over. The fear of ‘what will people say?’”

· “That’s the price of studying to learn a profession and then working for money. Most people become a slave to money… and then get angry at their boss.”

· “How does it feel to have to ask for a job, or when you receive your paycheck at the end of the month? It seems like nothing, you’re disappointed. Especially after all the taxes.”

· “Taxes. You’re taxed when you earn. You’re taxed when you spend. You’re taxed when you save. You’re taxed when you die.”

· “The rich don’t pay taxes – the poor and middle-classes do.”

· “Most people work very hard, for little money, clinging to the illusion of job security, looking forward to 3-week vacation each year and a skimpy pension after 45 years of work. If that excites you, go for it.”

· “Most people never see the trap they are in.”

· “Every morning, they get up, they get ready, and hurry out to work.”

· “Do they look happy to you? Why do they do it?”

· “Coz everybody else is.”

· “Most people can be bought – they have a price, because of human emotions called FEAR and GREED. First, the fear of being without money motivates us to work hard, and then once we get that paycheck, greed starts us thinking about all the wonderful things money can buy. The pattern is then set. They’re in the Rat Race.”

· “There is another way. The first step is telling yourself the truth about how you’re feeling.”

· “Every day they wake up with this fear gnawing at their soul. They rush off to work, hoping that a paycheck will kill the fear. Money is running their lives, and they refuse to tell the truth about it.”

· “I often wondered why grown-ups hurried off to work. It never seemed like much fun and they never looked that happy, but something kept them hurrying off to work.”

· “I’ve met so many people who say, oh I’m not interested in money. Yet they’ll work at a job for 8 hours a day.”

· “The main cause of poverty or financial struggle is self-inflicted fear and ignorance, that keeps people trapped. To spend your life living in fear, never exploring your dreams, is cruel.”

· “To wake up in the middle of the night terrified about paying bills is a horrible way to live.”

· To live a life dictated by the size of a pay cheque is not really a life.

· “Thinking that a job will make you feel secure is lying to yourself.”

· “I’ve seen how money runs people’s lives. Don’t let that happen to you. Please don’t let $ run your life.”

· “A job is only a short-term solution to a long-term problem. Most people only have in mind the short term problem of the bills at the end of the month.”

· “Keep using your brain, work for free, and soon your mind will show you ways of making money far beyond what I could ever pay you. You will see things that other people never see. Opportunities right in front of their noses. Most people never see them because they’re looking for money/paycheck and security, so that’s all they get. The moment you see one opportunity, you will see them for the rest of your life.”

· “In life, it’s not how much money you make that counts, but how much you keep.”

  • FINANCIAL LITERACY

· “Rule ONE – you must know the difference between an asset and a liability, and buy assets. If you want to be rich, that’s all you need to know.”

· The cash flow of an asset:

· “This box is an Income Statement, often called a Profit & Loss statement. It measures income and expenses. Money in and money out.

· The bottom diagram is the Balance Sheet.

· Many financial novices do not know the relationship between the Income statement and the Balance Sheet. That relationship is vital to understand.”

· “The rich focus on their asset columns while everyone lese focuses on their income statements.”

· “Money only accentuates the cash-flow pattern running in your head. If you pattern is to spend everything you get, most likely an increase in cash will only result in an increase in spending.”

· “What is missing from people’s education is “how to spend money” – what to do after you make it, how to keep it, how long you keep it, and how hard that money works for you.”

· “The primary reason the majority of the poor and middle class are fiscally conservative (“I can’t afford to take risks”) is that they have no financial foundation. They have to cling to their jobs. They have to play it safe.”

· “Acquire income-generating assets! Businesses that do not require my presence; Stocks; Bonds; Mutual funds; income-generating real-estate; Royalties; etc.”

· “Build and keep your asset column strong. Once a dollar goes into it, never let it come out.”

· “Once a dollar goes into it, it becomes your employee. The best thing about money is that it works 24 hours a day and can work for generations.”

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Tips from the Bestseller "The Millionaire Next Door"

The Millionaire Next Door is a book by Drs. Thomas Stanley and William Danko that strives to draw a portrait of millionaires, especially self-made ones. Let's look at some of their habits as we strive to improve our own financial status.

Essentially, the millionaire next door is usually a down-to-earth person who is relatively unpretentious and lives a relatively unglamorous, but abundant lifestyle. Drs. Stanley and Danko have identified seven traits of self-made millionaires. These are people who have gained financial freedom. Here they are...

They live well below their means.

People who become millionaires put more emphasis on building a strong financial base than on having all the showy toys. They might forgo a luxury car and buy a more ordinary one so they can put that extra $5000 into an investment that builds their net worth. They are more interested in being solid than stylish.

They allocate their time, energy, and money efficiently in ways conducive to building wealth.

This is another way of saying that they are very intentional about building wealth–they have a plan. While some millionaires are more obsessed with building wealth than I would recommend, one lesson we can learn from them is that it does take planning to work toward financial independence.

For most of us, that plan includes getting out of debt, having a reserve fund, owning a home, and becoming an investor. The millionaire next door started with a plan and did without some of the fancy toys to continue to work on it.

Following through on these plans often involve choices–some big some small–between consuming now or building a base. These choices can be as small as doing without a few dinners out a month to pay a little extra on the mortgage to delaying becoming a two-car family to stay out of debt.

They believe that financial independence is more important than displaying high social status.

Actually, the millionaire next door is secure enough about who (s)he is that (s)he doesn’t have to flaunt it. (S)he considers conspicuous display of wealth a true waste of money.

Their parents did not provide economic outpatient care.

Indiscriminate bailing out doesn’t often lead to financial success. Better to help a person learn to be self-sufficient than to bail a friend or relative out when (s)he is suffering the consequences of financial mistakes.

Their adult children are economically self-sufficient.

This is the mirror image of the above point. Receiving too much bailing out for financial mistakes keeps a person in financial adolescence. Neither the giver nor the receiver benefits.

They are proficient in targeting market opportunities.

They know the times. They study the environment. They figure out how to make the market work for them.

While some millionaire obsess on this to a level that many of us don’t want to, I think we can all learn something from them about stepping back, taking a look at opportunities, and using them to our benefit.

They chose the right occupation.

It is so difficult when you are a twenty something to choose a line of work that will serve you well for the rest of your life. Fortunately, we don’t have as much as we used to.

Remember the organization man of the 1950's? He stayed with his corporation with absolute lifetime loyalty. He depended on that corporation to outlive him and take care of him with pension and lifetime medical benefits.

Those days are gone. The world of work is much more change-friendly. If work isn’t working, you can look for something else.

I’m in the middle of that very process. My day job, an elementary teacher, doesn’t really work for me. I’m taking time off to assess the situation and hopefully to move on. This is not easy, but I know it is necessary.

Here are some points gleaned from the book:

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The millionaire next door has a budget, or spending strategy. They set limits on how much they will spend and employ the "pay yourself first" strategy.

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The millionaire next door is more likely to shop at solid, but unpretentious stores than at boutiques or high-end chains (like the woman I met at the upscale closeout chain)

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The millionaire next door researches major purchases.

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The millionaire next door strives to buy what (s)he buys at the lowest possible price. Tools to get those low prices include use of coupons and sales and driving a hard bargain when they can.