Free Money?

You know you never know just what you are going to find on the Internet! I say that because I have happened upon a site that is in a way just giving away free money!

Actually it is a site that was started by someone who started their own business (fulfilling a dream that they had always had!) and then sold their business for a lot of money!

Now that they are financially free they have started a website for those who are in need and are looking for some financial help!

And you know the oddest thing about this site? IT WORKS! Now I'm not saying that you are going to make millions of dollars but I have seen people on this site receive on an average of $100!


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Updates!



September 2008! - One disaster relief organization received a $75,000 donation in 5 days!




July 11, 2008

• You can also use this site if you would like to start a memorial fund in someone's memory!
  
  
• July 14, 2008 - here is an excerpt from someone who has received donations of money in the past from this website!
  
  "Thanks to all of you I'm able to pay my back taxes. Wow, what a relief. I'm so blessed by all of you, and will never forget your kind acts. Without your help, I would be homeless soon. Words just can't express my gratitude enough."
  
  
• A woman who is requesting $500 in donations for her and her family to help them get back on their feet has received $100 in donations so far!
  
  
• August 10, 2008 - a woman just joined the group and is requesting $12,000 so that she can buy her family a mobile home so that they can have somewhere to live and have a home of their own!

Paying Bills Online?

This is something that you may want to consider doing yourself! I just added another bill account to my online banking at this late hour of the night (what the heck! I couldn't sleep!) and it made me realize just how convenient online bill paying can be! Not to mention the fact that you won't use as many stamps and it will definitely help save you money on postage! (Did I mention the fact that the cost of stamps has gone up again!)


I know that people have to be careful about their money and how they handle it but since I do work from home, paying my bills online has become quite convenient for me and it might be the same for you if you give it a try.

I remember the first time I paid a bill online for the first time! When I first opened up my bank account one of the customer service people at the bank showed me how to do this! He was very helpful and he showed me how one pays their bills online. It took me awhile before I actually did it myself because I was worried about something going wrong! Goodness knows that I don't need ANY mistakes with my bank account!

But I finally managed to do it - nervously of course - and I got through it! Now I'm glad that I did do it because it saves a lot of time and it saves me a lot of postage costs!

If you would like to try paying your bills online then you should talk to one of the customer service representatives at your bank and ask them to show you how. You might be very glad that you did!

Want To Read About An Actual Government Grant Recipient?

If you don't already know, I do grant research as a living.

There are so many people out there who are skeptical about government grants but I'm here to tell you that they do actually exist! As a matter of fact here is a link to someone who actually got 2 government grants to get their power shut back on!

Well I'm In The Process Of Filing My Taxes Online!

I'm kinda almost finished though!

I must say that this is the first time that I have ever filed my taxes online! And for me - and I don't know why - but it felt like a scary thing to do!

First of all there was my local area tax which is called the Earned Income Tax - EIT for short. This is a tax that my local area has where residents are charged a 1% tax on any income that they have earned. Of course in the previous years I have always filed this tax the old way which was by filling out the form, paying the tax and mailing it in. But this year I decided to try and file online. Well the first time I tried to file this form online it wasn't working for me right and I got frustrated and stopped. Then a few days later I decided to try it again and it went almost 100% smoothly! I was still quite nervous filing it out maybe because it is getting so near the due date to file the income tax forms. But I did manage to get through it in one session and when I saw "your tax return has been filed successfully", I breathed a sigh of relief! *I should note here that while filing a tax return online may be more easier and convenient for some, I noticed that as far as my local tax return is concerned the company that handles it charges a fee for filing online if you owe any tax!

Ok so next comes my state (Pennsylvania) income tax form. Now while I was feeling good about filing my local tax online successfully, I was still a bit nervous about going to the next filing - I don't know why - maybe it was just because I was doing it for the first time! But after a slow start, I did successfully manage to file my state income tax form online as well and as well I got that same "your tax return has been filed successfully".

Goody! I was successfully able to file both returns online and I made it by the due date (which is next week!)

I haven't filed my federal income tax return online yet because doing 2 of them in one day is just too much more than my nerves can stand! So I still have a few days left yet to file my federal return online.

If you have never filed your income tax forms online before I'm here to tell you that it is kind of a scary thing - at least for me it was - but it may be something that you might be interested in doing. Of course you save the cost of a stamp but maybe that is just a small matter.

I'm blogging about this mostly because I don't know why I put myself in such a state of nervousness when I was trying to do this. In fact I think my nervousness and anxiety about doing this made it even worse! But I got through the first 2 forms and I'm feeling good! Now I have the one form - the federal - left to do.

If you're thinking about filing your taxes online you may find out that it isn't as hard as you thought it might be!

Direct TV - Did You Know?

If you have Direct TV, then as a subscriber you should know

• that if you pay your Direct TV bill by phone there is a $5 extra charge for doing this. Direct TV encourages you to pay either by mail or online
  
  
• if you do not pay your Direct TV bill then they will start to bill you for their equipment - something like $50 per each receiver box that you have installed. Subsequently Direct TV will send you mailing boxes so that you can disconnect your Direct TV boxes and mail them back to Direct TV so that you won't be charged for still having their equipment
  
  
• if you can not pay your total Direct TV bill - pay at least something - even if it is only $10 because this will show that you are making the effort to pay your bill.

Need Financial Help With Paying Your Utility Bill Before It Get Shut Off?

I just posted on my Grants Basic 101 Blog about how you can get help if your utility company is going to shut off your power.

If you have received a shut-off notice then that means that the situation has gone very bad because there are some things that can be done BEFORE you get to this point.

First of all you should call your utility company to see if there are any type of payment arrangement plans that you can make to pay your utility bill. A lot of these utility companies will give you an extension in order to help give you more time to pay your bill. If you are still having problems some of the utility companies will send you information about grant programs that may be able to help you financially with your bill.

There is also another option that will at least help delay your bill for about three months. You still are liable to pay the bill but at least you will have some time to get the money together. This is often an overlooked and not known tactic that can be done if you need more time to pay your utility bill.

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.................

Getting Behind On Your Bills?

I know of someone who told me that they were a couple of months behind on their phone bill but they were afraid to call the company. My advice is for you to call and see if you can set up a payment arrangement. Time and time again I have seen representatives from these companies talk about how its important to keep in contact with them as opposed to not sending in any payment. In fact its better if you can send in what you can to at least show that you are making the effort.

I talk about a lot of programs that are out there to help people who fall behind on their utility bills and you should see if you are eligible for any of these programs.

Home Loans - Oh The Trouble We Get In!

There are going to be a record number of foreclosures nationwide! This is sad news for homeowners but good news for real estate investors.

I know that investing in real estate is a popular (and lots of people say) profitable business to go into but my thoughts are on the people that are losing their homes. It is not a very good feeling and it is not a pretty sight!

If you are a homeowner and you still have a mortgage on your property - in my honest opinion - I think that you should make paying your mortgage a priority! While you make your regular mortgage payments set aside what extra money you have and put it towards a "mortgage" fund. In fact try to make it a point of having extra money that you can put aside and put into your mortgage fund!

What about mortgage insurance? Personally I would rather set up my own mortgage insurance using the advice that I gave above. Insurance companies take your money and invest it and earn interest and dividends on it. Hopefully you should be able to do that very same thing on your own.

Property Tax Bill(s) Tidbit!

Here is an interesting little thing that I found out

It seems that there is at least one county that sells the unpaid property tax bills of its residents. Whoever buys these property tax bill(s) will pay the bill but will then become the person or company that you still owe the bill to.

In other words while you won't be liable to your county you are liable to whoever owns that property tax bill note.

Personally I think that this is just horrible - instead of finding a better way to work with the persons that owe the property tax bill they are sold off to the highest bidder.

So I guess that my piece of advice here is to just be able to pay your property tax bill because you might end up with a more worse creditor than your county tax office!

The Water Bill

Out of all my monthly bills, one of the smallest is my water bill. Paying this bill gives me a good feeling - enough so that I can tackle the higher bills for the month!

Auto Insurance - A Necessary Evil!

Of course I got another spam email and this time it was about auto insurance. Having auto insurance is a necessary evil but I don't think that I would go online to get it. I feel much comfortable being face to face with the insurance agent. I'm sure that not everybody feels this way because I'm sure that there are people who have bought their auto insurance online.

Maybe the procedure is not the same in every state but in my state you can't choose your initial auto insurance carrier. You can only choose them if you already have a policy in place.

I know its tempting to just go without having the insurance but if you get caught you will have to pay much more than the cost of insurance. I know some people get away with it but once when my auto insurance lapsed I got a notice from the DMV - how did they know? Well anyway if you get that notice from the DMV then you will be in trouble. If you have proof of current insurance coverage then it is alright and you shouldn't have to worry.

Like I said I know it can be tempting to go without it but I do know of a person who got his car towed away. He didn't have insurance, license and all that and when he went to claim the car it cost so much to get it that he ended up leaving it there.

I know its another added expense to your list of expenses but like I said it is a necessary evil so you don't want to get caught without having it.

Losing Your Home To Back Property Taxes

Here are some basic things that I know about this process....

If your property taxes are not paid (in some cases by the end of the year) then their is a lien put on the property. In that case if you sell the property then the amount of the back property taxed owed has to be paid before you get any money. If the property taxes aren't paid then the property is sold and the back taxes are paid from the amount that the property sold for.

I have heard different views on what a person can do in situations like this one. I have even heard the term "property tax consultant".

It is never a very pleasant thing when someone is losing their property especially when that property is their home.