Archive for November, 2007

Personal Finance Bloggers – Charity Spotlight 2007

If you have a blog, let me encourage you to write a post about your favorite charity. Send me the link to your post (and a link to the charity) and I’ll mention both to my readers.

To my readers, if you have a charity that you would like to make us all aware of, please contact me and let me know about it! I’ll write a “Reader’s Charity Spotlight” post – and share your charity and it’s information with everyone else.

Click here to contact me.

(Side note: Obviously, I reserve the right to screen the posts or charities that are submitted.)

Back In The Saddle – Plus A Stroll Through My Blogroll

Thursday evening, I went to the movies.  I saw No Country For Old Men.  I loved the movie.  (When the movie was over, half of the audience booed because they hated the ending – the other half clapped!  Awesome.)

I’m ready to get back to blogging – but first, let’s take a quick stroll through the best posts from last week.

From the Money Blog Network:

FMF writes about house hunting.

Jim talked about mutual funds and their fees.

MightyBargainHunter has list of checkbook tips.

JLP talked about calculating compound growth.

Nickel has issues with Dish Network.
JD published a guest post about hidden costs of products.

Flexo wrote about timing your salary bonuses.

From my Blogroll:

Sun talked about increasing dividend yields.

SVB talked about how to increase your income.

Jeremy writes about if Americans are saving too much for retirement.

Ben talked about living within a budget.David writes about poverty in Mexico.

Lazy Man talked about saving money on vacation.

4M talked about the “sandwiched” generation.

New Episode Of The NCN Podcast – Plus, A Contest And A New Way To Connect With NCN

I have recorded and released Episode 52 of the No Credit Needed Podcast.  Click over to listen to the podcast – and you’ll see that I’ve added a new “feature” to the podcast – a listener line!  That’s right.  Now you can pick up the phone and leave me a voice mail.  Plus, I announce a new contest – with a prize pack worth $50!  For more information and all of the details – you’ll have to head over to the No Credit Needed Podcast and listen to the latest episode.  (By the way, you do NOT need an mp3 player or special device to listen to the podcast!  You can “stream” an episode directly from the website, download an episode to your computer, or subscribe to the podcast using iTunes.  If you have questions about “how” to listen to a podcast, feel free to contact me and I’ll try to answer them.)

Exactly HOW I Pay Off Debt, Mortgages And Credit Cards Early

I just received an interesting email from a reader, Bob.

Bob asks, “NCN, I understand how the debt-snowball (and various similar methods) work while paying off debt, but I wonder if you could share HOW you actually paid off your credit cards early. Did you send one payment per month to each debt account? Did you send multiple checks? I am worried that if I send in extra money to one of my accounts, a creditor may not apply the money to my account, if I don’t use the right “process”. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks, Bob.”

I emailed Bob and asked if I could write a post, answering his question. He responded, “Sure!”.

Let’s assume Bob has a fixed monthly mortgage payment, a fixed monthly car payment, and a fluctuating credit card payment.

  1. I use online bill pay, which reduces the number of physical checks I write and the number of stamps I have to buy.
  2. When I receive a bill from a creditor, I send in a check for the “monthly minimum payment due”. In other words, if my car payment equaled $300, I would send a check to my automobile loan company for $300.
  3. After making minimum payments (to all accounts), I then go about “attacking my debt” – by making extra payments, throughout the month, if possible, to a specific creditor.
  4. By using online bill pay, I can schedule MULTIPLE extra debt payments each month. At one point in my debt reduction process, I was sending $5 a DAY to one of my creditors. Why? I loved the psychological boost that I received when I saw, not one, but thirty payments!
  5. Please note, when making an extra payment, it is always a good idea to write the words “apply to principal” in the memo section of the check. Some companies will “hold” any additional checks they receive and cash them at the beginning of the next billing cycle. Needless to say, you want your creditors to cash your additional checks as soon as they receive the checks.

Here are a few things that I would NOT do:

  1. I would not sign-up for a bi-weekly mortgage service. Why should I pay someone to set up a system that I can set up for myself, for free?
  2. Use a credit counseling service. Again, why should I pay someone to set up a system that I can set up for myself, for free? I can call my creditors, I can create a debt repayment plan, I can make extra payments.
  3. Obsess over interest rates. I did do one transfer from a high rate card to a zero rate card, but I didn’t spend my time moving balances from card to card. Instead, I really, really focused on paying off principal.

I hope that Bob enjoys this post – and I can’t wait until I receive an email from him, letting me know that he’s debt free! (As always, please remember that I am NOT a financial professional, and the information that you find at No Credit Needed is just “my way” of doing things. I’m debt free and here’s how I did it.)

ING Direct Has Acquired ShareBuilder

I just received an email from ShareBuilder, informing me that ShareBuilder has been acquired by ING Direct.

I have been an ING Direct customer for more than four years. (I have my emergency fund in the ING DIRECT – High Yield Savings Account and I also have a Electric Orange Interest Bearing Checking Account. [affiliate links]  I also have an investment account through ShareBuilder.

If you want to read more about the acquisition, read this article from Reuters or this article from the ShareBuilder homepage.

I really like the ING Direct interface and I am excited to see what they are able to do with ShareBuilder.  Hopefully, they’ll integrate ShareBuilder into their main interface and I’ll be able to easily move money between my savings, checking AND investment account.

One of the main reasons I keep my Emergency Fund in my ING Direct account is the fact that I can move, seamlessly, between my savings and checking accounts.  If an “emergency” happens, I initiate a transfer, and send a check, or, I can initiate a transfer and withdraw money from my checking account, using my debit card.  Either way, I have “almost-instant” access to my emergency savings.

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