Banks Pull In Over $1 Billion Dollars In Overdraft Fees!

Another interesting article that I found online!

Banks are certainly making a lot of money!

According to the article most of these overdraft fees come from atm transactions and debit card purchases.

The Federal Minimum Wage Will Increase This Week!

The federal minimum wage will increase this week from $5.15 an hour to $5.85 an hour.

What is even interesting to note here is that there are some states that have an even higher minimum wage! It's kind of confusing but it is politics.

Now even though some politician gripe about how $5.85 is still a very low wage, we don't see them doing anything to increase the minimum wage.

The article gives an example of a single person who makes minimum wage and if you go by $5.85 and hour that amounts to around $12,000 a year. The poverty level for singles is around $10,000 a year.

I do know this - If companies/businesses are required to pay a higher wage then they are going to look for ways to cut costs - outsourcing, not providing benefits.......

I also have a Working From Home Blog and the reason why I mention this is because a lot of people want to start their own business and be able to work from home. But there are those that want to work from home but they also want to be able to work for a company but they want to be able to work for that company from their home.

I became disillusioned working for someone else a very long time ago. My dream job has always been to work from home and that is exactly what I am doing now!

Real Estate Investing?

I can see why a lot of people recommend real estate investing as a good way to make money. It's one of the few ways that I know of where you won't have to pay taxes!

But there are some things about it that I'm not too comfortable with. For one there are expenses involved when you buy and sell real estate and the longer you hold on to the property the more in expenses you are going to have to pay. If you put a tenant in your property then you have to make sure that its a good tenant that will pay their rent on time every month because if they don't then that will be more expenses that you may have to incur. It may even get to the point where you will have to legally evict your tenant. I have had some experience with this and though it may be different for each state I can tell you that the process of legally evicting a tenant is not a pleasant process to go through. It also give you that stereotype of being the cruel landlord!

Another thing is foreclosures. While foreclosures may be a good deal for real estate investors I can't help but think about the people who owned the property in the first place. It is not a very pleasant thing to go through when your home is being foreclosed on.

I know that Donald Trump is a big advocate as far as real estate investing is concerned and why wouldn't he be? Real estate investing is where Donald Trump has made a lot of his money.

So if you're thinking about investing in real estate then there is a lot of research that you should do because you do not want to get in way over your head!

AAA

AAA - Keystone!

Yes I think being a AAA member is well worth the cost if you can afford it. There have been times when my car would stop working and those were times when I was glad that I was a AAA-Keystone member! I have had my car get battery jumps, quick repairs so that I could get home and there was even one time when I was able to get gas from AAA. All in all a very good deal and well worth the price of membership!

I Don't Have A Bank Account

If you don't have a bank account - don't worry because you are not alone! I remember a time long ago when I had to close my savings account because they were just taking out too much money in fees. It would have got to the point where I would owe THEM money - so I had to close the account.

I do know that there are at least a few banks that let you open a checking account with a minimum deposit. There are no minimums (as long as your balance isn't negative) as to how much money you can have in your checking account. If you can manage it please try to have a bank account - at least a checking account. Manage to save from at least $50 so that you can open a checking account. While you have to be careful that you don't have a negative balance in your account if you can keep that balance above 0 try to at least keep it that way.

I have to tell you that I have talked to a few bank tellers in my time and what gets me is that I actually talked to a woman bank teller who told me that she didn't even have a bank account. I thought that was strange when she told me but I have since come to realize that just because you work at a bank doesn't mean that you are rich.

Waitress Gets $10,000 Tip!

Well it just goes to show you that you never know where money will come from!

This waitress that worked at a Pizza Hut got a $10,000 gift from someone. It's hard to say whether or not it was a tip or a gift but it doesn't really matter because I'm sure that amount of money will always be welcomed!

You can read the entire story by clicking the link in the title.

CyberBegging For Money

The only successful cyberbegging website that I have seen so far is the one by the woman who was asking for money so that she could get breast implants. She managed to get enough money sent to her so that she could have the operation.

With that being said I have been to a few sites where people post asking and quite literally begging for money. While missing a few bills can make one feel frustrated and depressed enough to post their financial woes, I'm quite amazed at the people who have actually asked for amounts of $50,000 and above!

Do they really think that someone is actually going to send them that amount of money?

Some people are so desparate that they include their phone number and address in their posts which isn't a very good thing to do. You run the risk of getting scammed, junk mailed and worse. But like I said people are so desparate that they include their personal information with their posts.

I have only really seen a few examples of people who have websites that have begged successfully for money.

Comments Received

msladyrag said...

Yes, there are cyberbegging websites where people are just posting a story on a list...Hoping a kind stranger will actually read it. These same people need know that there are good sites that exist. Cyberbeggars where your story will get the attention it deserves. So if your looking for a better place to seek help them try http://www........com

Paying Your Bills - Loopholes?

".......Well when you do the kind of work that I do you become "privy" to certain types of information. First of all hopefully your bank is one of those banks that can only charge this fee for a certain # of days - like for one bank it's $6 per day for 5 days for a total of $30 and you have 30 days from the overdraft to get your account back above $0


Now like I said above there are just some things that go on as far as one's utility bills are concerned that the utility companies don't want you to know about. Now your case may be too late but for those who have been threatened with a shut off notice there is at least one thing that you can do to delay your shutoff. Mind you I say DELAY - you are still responsible for paying the balance owed but you won't get shut off for at least 3 months. Hopefully that will give you enough time to either find a way to make a payment arrangement, get some money to pay the back balance owed or to find a grant program to help you with the utility bill.


Of course "rich" people use this method and it is one of those "loophole" things that the utility companies are trying to get rid of but until they do this "loophole" sometimes turns out to be a person's last resort. Ironically enough this information comes in the bill for your utility bill but people don't read it (or they don't notice it).

I don't even think that its ethical for the social services agencies to suggest it but its not illegal and like I said before its usually a person's last hope - but at least it does provide them with some (temporary) time.................

Would You Like To Get Paid Answering Surveys?

Here is an interesting little site. The name of it is AW Surveys and it pays you to answer surveys. The reasoning is that companies want to be able to test their products and find out what consumers have to say about their products. So that is where YOU come in.

At the time that I found out about this website they had a $6 promotion just for new users to sign up.

You can make $4-$25 per surveys that you answer. Once your account reaches $75 you can cash out. There are 2 ways that you can cash out. One is by regular check which can be sent to you by regular mail - it will take 4 to 6 weeks or the second payment option is via Paypal. However if you choose the Paypal option you should know that $25 will be deducted from your $75 minimum cash out so you will only get $50. That's one of the things that bothered me but if you're still interested in this the click the bottom below to find out more:

One Person CAN Make A Difference!

A student felt absolutely boggled down with all of the college costs that he had. But then he decided to do something about it - and he did! He managed to get started a new program that provides incentives to students who remain in their state after they finished college. The reasoning behind this is that the students would leave the state after they finished college and the new program that was put in place gives the students the incentive to stay in that state.

Of course getting this law/program passed was not easy and the student said that one of the hardest parts was getting enough signatures to get the initiative passed.

A well noted point in the story was that a lot of people feel that as far as politics is concerned they don't think that they can make a difference. But one student managed to do just that! He made a difference!

Going Into Foreclosure? It Doesn't Necessarily Mean The End!

Is your home going into foreclosure? It doesn't necessarily have to mean the end!

I have written a lot about foreclosures on this blog. First off there are going to be so many more of them this year and also too I think that going through foreclosure is a terrible thing! I know a neighbor in my area whose family lost their home because of the property taxes not being paid.

If your home is in foreclosure there are some things that you can do that can maybe help your situation. I guess the first piece of advice would be for you to avoid the foreclosure process in the first place by paying your mortgage on time but I realize that that isn't always possible. Sometimes an emergency financial crisis will pop up out of nowhere and you have to choose between the lesser of 2 evils.

If you think that you are going to not be able to make your mortgage payment you should call your mortgage company and discuss it with them. Some mortgage companies may re-negotiate your payments to a smaller amount. It is a common-held belief that a lot of the mortgage companies don't want to have to put your property in foreclosure because they lose out so they may be very willing to work with you to help make your payments more manageable.

Secondly you may be able to qualify for some grant programs to help pay for the mortgage payments that you missed. Beside government grant programs you should also look into other grant programs to help you. There are a number of "financial emergency" grant programs that will provide grant money that you don't have to pay back to help you pay your back mortgage payments.

Lastly every state's foreclosure process is different. Sometimes it can take as much as six months for the foreclosure to take place and in that amount of time you may be able to pay the money that is owed.