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avoid being trapped by introductory lowinterest credit card offers - Posted March 15, 2010 by Monty Loree

Avoid being trapped by introductory. low-interest credit card offers

By Lily Wolf

You could be one of those people who got promotional offers for a low interest credit card and immediately enrollled before reading the contract. A few years ago, Greg Lipinski applied for a couple of low interest credit card offers but he didn't read the contract to make sure he knows what he is applying for. His application was immediately accepted and he got his credit in just a couple of weeks. He was even given a huge credit limit, which sounded so good, and within a year, after the offer expires, his APR skyrocketed and he was laden with debt when he couldn't keep up with his payments.His interest rate went from 1.5% to 29% in just a span of nine months, he had to ask his mother to co-sign a loan so that he can pay his debts. To make matters worse, he used his other credit card to pay the balance of the other credit card, which helped him stabilize his credit history but buried him deeper into debt.

A case like this is not unusual. You can be tempted by offers like this when you are trying to build a good credit history. But what many failed to do is to read the fine prints that usually states that the APR will jump once the introductory rate expire. This can be very devastating. But there are ways to protect yourself from rate hikes like this.

Here are a few tips to observe before you apply for any creditcard:

1. Make sure to read the fine print on the contract before signing up.

The application you get in the mail discloses what will happen to your interest rates after the introductory offer is up but they are usually written really small so you have to look for them. read it and try to understand what the card offers and what will change after the introductory period expire.

2. Research.

Look at the websites of big banks (i.e. BMO or TD Canada Trust) and check what rates they offer. You might notice that their rates varies for students, businesses or wealthy customers and these rates usually stays with the card and does not expire after a specified period and they don't hike up their rates unless the client abuses his credit. Just don't be hasty in signing up, compare offers and choose the best one.

3. Choose the best options you can find.

The best thing you can do is to choose the card that offers the the lowest permanent rate (the rate that will apply after the introductory period is over), lowest initial rate and zero annual fee.

4. Speak to a representative.

Talk to someone who is up on a higher ladder, like a manager, not just the representative who is trained to convince you to sign up. Don't signup upon reading a piece of paper. Inquire about their rates and what they can do for you. It is best to tell them that you are shopping for the best offer you can find.

5. Be aware of the introductory time period.

The rate change witll occur without warning and credit card companies will count from the time they accepted your application instead of when you recieve and register your card> Just make sure that the balance on your card has been paid off before the rate change occur so you won't have to pay your bill with the higher rate.


VIA CreditCards.com

Keyword: Credit Cards

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conversation with jon chevreau author of findependence day part 4 - Posted March 14, 2010 by Monty Loree

Conversation with Jon Chevreau Author of Findependence Day Part 4



Monty Loree: Interesting. Say those four money personalities again?

Jon Chevreau: Spenders, savers, builders and givers. Builder is somebody who builds a business. Giver is a philanthropist. You can be two, right? Most Canadians are probably either spenders or savers. I'd say two spenders are disaster, two savers are probably, they don't even need to read the book. Spenders and savers, that's where you get the interesting complex. I can certainly know in my own orbit, of at least three couples - baby boomer couples - and they had different money personalities. They were all spenders, and they split. It's not a very stable way. Once your financial lives start to unravel, so does your emotional and romantic life. Then all of the ramifications. So I think it's important to take these lessons to heart. If you really did do these stuff and as you'll know, this book constantly has searched the need for a financial plan. As a good, certified financial planner or a financial adviser, I don't think most people really aren't aware to go in alone. So put it all together - get a good adviser, a good financial planner and then live. Live the book. I think you'll do pretty well.

Monty Loree: That's what I'm thinking as well. As you said, the target audience is maybe people that are 20 to 30 and they're just starting off. At that point, you're just starting into the game. You're kind of just learning about money. That's what I find as well, that I recommend people to read like crazy and concentrate on their money. Then it'll start to get easier for them.

Jon Chevreau: The book has a two-paged bibliography at the end with a lot of the other book titles suggested and sprinkled throughout the book. I gathered them all at the end. There's a character called Theo who's a financial adviser and sort of called a [pick-a-field] library which is just a fancy phrase for bibliography but it sounded better. It was seen in the book where Jaime goes and glimpses the library, goes through the books and picks a couple off the shelves and gets good ideas. A lot of them are well-known, like Chilton's “The Wealthy Barber” and the Milevski book I mentioned and quite a few other books. You take that list. You wade through at least half of them and you as a financial adviser would have half the job done for you.

Monty Loree: Exactly. That's good. Again I'm talking with Jonathan Chevreau who's the author of Findependence Day and that's one couple's turbulent journey to financial independence. You can find this book all over the place. I just got to ask you some other questions. Where does Jon Chevreau go on the internet? What are some blogs that you like to do that talk about money?

Jon Chevreau: If you count Twitter as the internet, I think I believe you and I first encountered each other - correct me if I'm wrong - through Twitter. For me Twitter was, I went on about a year ago after the financial times and did one whole page on it. My first reaction to Twitter was like most people, sort of like it's weird. What can you say in 140 characters? Soon I realized what it really is - a headline in a link. For me, I'm writing a US edition of the book. So I put Findependence Day, to me, as a way to put The Wealthy Boomer blog known in the States and also the book in the states. So I work at it. As you know, you don't get a lot of people calling you just because you're whoever, unless you're a great big star. You're kind of a star, far in between, so my strategy is basically - it's a lot easy to follow and be followed. It seems to be working. I've actually gotten a few reviews and a few contacts down in the States just from that. Other than Twitter, and my own site wealthyboomer.ca, I tend to re-tweet a lot of financial post content during the day because after all I'm paid in the day to work for them. I think that's only fair. I do a lot of other stuff on nights and weekends. I feel a little more able to tweet other people's content.

Monty Loree: So your twitter address is twitter.com/jonchevreau?

Jon Chevreau: Yes. With Twitter you can also define people functions. You can find people, ask for just the job description and switch to that account if you can't remember. A lot of people there, they don't use their real name as they're counted, some weird name like mrfinancialplanner or whatever you might choose to be. You see - I think you use your real name don't you?

Monty Loree: Yes, Monty Loree. I'm all about real names and stuff on Twitter.

Jon Chevreau: I think so. Certainly the best ones are known because in context, that's what they appear to be. The good ones like Roger Walter seems pretty good, in Chicago for example. I actually have a financial planner list because the big thing on Twitter is these lists. So you can actually go and find a list of all the people I follow on economics and politics, financial planners, Findependence Day list, Wealthy Boomer list, healthy boomer list. They're very handy. You can basically see whatever I'm seeing, the way I'm filtering the information just by following my lists and your lists.

Monty Loree: That's exactly it. I noticed along with that, I was going to ask you though, you said you tweet for the Financial Post. Is that under this account or do you have a separate one for that?

Jon Chevreau: No I only have one account. I put ally my eggs in one basket when it comes to Twitter. I set up placeholder names for Findependence Day and The Wealthy Boomer but I don't tweet to them. I just tweet them my real names. The list - I think there's a limit of 20 lists actually, which I have because you have a public list and a private list that only you yourself can see. So I may have a couple of little lists, like friends and colleagues for example so I can pay extra attention to people I know. That wouldn't be a public list.

Monty Loree: That's right. This is good because your account is obviously very busy because you've got 17,000 followers. That's a lot of people who know about you and your book and really appreciate it. I have one more question and we should get going again. I'm talking to Jonathan Chevreau here who's the author of Findependence Day. In the foreword, Patricia Lovett reads, used the word frugers. What is a fruger?

Jon Chevreau: Well that's a short for frugality gorilla, a big phrase throughout the book. The TV show at the beginning of the book talks on and on about gorilla frugality. So it's basically super frugality and somebody who practices - basically I'm saying you have to be frugal, number one to pay off all your debt and number two, even after your debt is paid, you must continue that frugal behavior in order to build wealth, build stocks, DTS or whatever. It's the exact same behavior that got you out of debt, it's the behavior that's going to build wealth. So basically the key to findependence is gorilla frugality. The person who practices gorilla frugality is a fruger or a frugality gorilla.

Monty Loree: Right on, perfect. I just want to thank you for taking the time today.

Jon Chevreau: Thank you Monty. It's a pleasure, anytime. I guess I'll see you on Twitter. One other forum that I go to a lot is canadianmoneyforum.com by the way. It's a discussion forum I go to.

Monty Loree: That's canadianmoneyforum.com.

Jon Chevreau: A number of those people are on Twitter, so you've got capitalists and Money Highway. I'm sure they're all on your list that you follow as well. It's all congregated, that's big of a forum as well.

Monty Loree: You've got Frugal Trader there from Million Dollar Journey and so on.

Jon Chevreau: That's right. You can probably go to every one of those…

Monty Loree: Again, your website is wealthyboomer.ca?

Jon Chevreau: It as wealthyboomer.com but there was a sort of story that I don't wish to go into here. But it forms part of the subplot of Findependence Day. For various reasons, it's wealthyboomer.ca, which is a microsite house that's part of financialpost.com. You go on to financialpost.com and you want to see the video interviews. If you ever come to Toronto, I'll be glad to do a video interview of you Monty. That's sort of an adjunct to the blog and all the columns that are there. It's all housed in the same place there in thefinancialpost.com.

Monty Loree: I won't keep you, because we always say we go for a short interview here. We're doing about 100 podcast interviews this year and I want to get to know everybody that's blogging and any personal financial service providers and so on. I'm glad that you're the first person I've interviewed for this podcast series.

Jon Chevreau: Glad to be a guinea pig. Just go through my list and pick them all off.

Monty Loree: That's good. Thanks again and we'll talk again soon.

Jon Chevreau: Thanks for talking Monty.

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Introducing Canada's WestJet Frequent Flyer Program - Posted March 14, 2010 by Monty Loree

Introducing Canada's WestJet Frequent Flyer Program

A program called Frequent Guest Program (FGP), Westjet clients will get "WestJet dollars" that customers can use with no blackout dates for future WestJet travel to any WestJet destination.

How it works:

Customers can earn WestJet dollars at 2.5% of the sum you spend on any WestJect flights published fares (this excludes fees, taxes, and surcharges) when you spend no less than $1,500 in a year. When WestJet members garner $1,500 on the whole annual qualifying year (this is the 12-month period which starts from the date you apply in the program) they will recieve a $50 value of WestJet dollars to spend and they will also start earning 1% on cash spent on WestJet Vacation packages, but the amount used for WestJet vacations does not qualify for your annual spend of $1,500. If the member's annual spend reaches a total of $4,500 they will get $165 value of WestJet dollars plus a "Canadian JetAway" companion flight to anywhere within Canada where WestJet flies, including 4 vouchers for complimentary advance seat selection and 2 airport lounge passes. WestJet members only need to spend $3,000 to get the Canadian JetAway perks as an introductory offer to last until Dec. 31, 2010.

When Frequent Guest Program members' reaches $6,000 on annual spends, they will get a $230 value of WestJet dollars plus another "Jet-Away" complimentary companion flight to anywhere WestJet flies, including 4 additional advance seat selection vouchers and 2 more airport lounge passes.

And if you're spending reaches a total of $7,500 within your membership year, you will recieve an additional $300 vale of WestJet dollars. Remember each membership year starts anew toward your at least $1,500 annual spend, which is equal to approximately 4 roundtrip tickets every year. So this program is not meant for you if you don't fly that much.

WestJet dollars accumulated can last for five years and will Expire if not used at the end of the 5th year after the member earned them. You can earn additional WestJet dollars using RBC MasterCard and other bonus offers.

VIA WebFlyer

Keyword: Travel Rewards Credit Cards

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Interview with Joel Sopp - life insurance discussion - Part #2 - Posted March 14, 2010 by Monty Loree

Interview with Joel Sopp - life insurance discussion - Part #2

Monty Loree: Right, okay. First question I’ve got for you is, tell me about life insurance and how it helps me and my family. We kind of understand the concept but give me some more specifics about that.

Joel Sopp: Well this is kind of my own mantra, being in this role now for nearly 5 years and this is what I truly believe in when it comes to how life insurance, critical illness, long term care – doesn’t matter what type of insurance. How it can help you and your family is – insurance, regardless of the type I believe is meant to help your family or yourself maintain dignity in a time of crisis. Whether that means not having to make the choice of selling your family home and moving to a rental because you can’t make your payments because of a disability or that means you lose a family member and other added expenses that weren’t considered beforehand during a full review. I think life insurance really gives your family or yourself independence depending on the situation. That’s very important to a lot of people.

Monty Loree: Okay. I’m just wondering if you have some specific examples of people. Because you’re in the industry, I’m sure you talk a lot and you learn about different instances. Is there an instance where a family didn’t have life insurance and then somebody passed away or a main breadwinner passed away and they didn’t have life insurance or they did have life insurance and it did help them out? Do you have some stories that you can talk about with that?

Joel Sopp: Definitely. I can speak from personal experience myself. I have relatives who had a baby passed away after being only a few months old. As a result, due to depression and everything else that comes along with the loss of a child, they ended up being off work for 6 months straight. Now the work they’re at was more of a self-employed role and had no coverage whatsoever. So that’s 6 months off work with no income coming in the household, living off from whatever savings they have. It really devastated the family both emotionally as well as financially. Had they had anything as simple as disability insurance so that if it was diagnosed as clinical depression, that the doctor will allow them to put that claim in, I think it would’ve put them in a much better situation financially because they can focus on getting well emotionally as opposed to trying to force themselves to work because they need to go to work.

That was one that really impacted me personally and made my goal of making sure, regardless if it’s a family member or a friend or someone I don’t even know yet, I want to make sure I offer my services to them so that they are not ever put in that situation. The good news is there are things that are positive extremes as well. It’s not all negative. That’s the good news. For example, there could be people – I know myself, personally I haven’t had to do anything with regards to death claim where it’s helped a family out. However one of my colleagues, Tom, he was actually able to travel to a family’s home and sit down with them, show them how the life insurance that was put in place based on the family’s need that will help them; help them set up a financial plan afterwards. Now a single mom with two kids is financially set until her children have graduated. There’s that one less thing to worry about on income in one family.

See Interview with Joel Sopp - life insurance discussion - Part #1

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interview with joel sopp life insurance discussion part 1 - Posted March 14, 2010 by Monty Loree

Interview with Joel Sopp - life insurance discussion - Part #1

Monty Loree: Hey folks this is Monty Loree here from Canadian Money Advisor. I’ve got Joel Sopp who has been an RBC and investment adviser based in Regina, Saskatchewan for the last four years. As a matter of fact, we met on Twitter and I don’t think we knew that we’re both from Regina but we are, so that’s kind of neat. Joel has spent five and a half years prior to RBC as a personal banker with another big bank. So he is celebrating the full decade in the financial industry coming this spring. These days, Joel‘s job takes him all over Saskatchewan into his clients’ home where he covers their financial needs. Everybody needs that - we know that because we’re talking about personal finance all the time. Joel is happily married to his wife Shelly for the last eleven years, and has two boys, [Brent] and Logan and also has miniature Australian shepherd named Johnny Bravo. Hey Joel, how are you doing? Thanks for joining.

Joel Sopp: No problem Monty, thank you very much for having me on. I am doing fantastic this morning, thanks for asking.

Monty Loree: Excellent. You got an Australian shepherd named Johnny Bravo,

Joel Sopp: Yes. We ended up being – being adopted. Fell in love with him right away and he was named John Lennon originally, but my ten year old and five year old had no idea who John Lennon was unfortunately. So they picked the new name of Johnny Bravo - a little more kid-friendly, a little bit more fun.

Monty Loree: Excellent. That will be more fun for them for however long you have the dog to call him that. So anyway, you’re doing life insurance and other things with RBC Insurance. That’s got to be kind of neat, and I’m always excited to talk about to people who are in life insurance, because quite frankly life insurance is a pretty complicated topic. People’s eyes glaze over when you ask them questions about it. How many times have you ever asked somebody, “Oh do you have life insurance?” They say yes because that’s about all they understand about it.

Joel Sopp: That’s about as far as they get. They’d say yes and then they say, “Okay so how much insurance do you have?” “Oh, I’m covered to work. I’m okay.” My usual response to that is, “That’s great to hear, so what does that insurance cover you for?” Typically that’s when a client doesn’t necessarily have an answer for me.

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Interview with Promod Sharma Four Hour Work Week- Part #1 - Posted March 14, 2010 by Monty Loree

Interview with Promod Sharma - blog.riscario.com Four Hour Work Week- Part #1

Monty Loree: Hey folks this is Monty Loree here from Canadia Money Adviser and I’ve got Promod Sharma. He’s a blogger over at Riscario Insider. Hey Promod, how are you?

Promod Sharma: I’m great Monty, how are you?

Monty Loree: Good. I’m glad that you are able to take part in our 100 personal finance podcasts for Canadians. I think what we should talk about today - I’m pretty excited because we’ve talked quite a bit about The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss. It sounds like you’ve got some good insight on it and I want to talk to you about that. I think our visitors and listeners will be interested in that as well.

Promod Sharma: Let’s talk about that.

Monty Loree: Good. You said right now you’re kind of practicing The Four Hour Work Week a little bit.

Promod Sharma: Well, The Four Hour Work Week is a great title. It’s very hard to implement in practice unless you have a lot of residual income coming in. So I’m adopting more of the philosophy of it, rather than actually just working four hours.

Monty Loree: So you’re implementing some of the techniques or whatever?

Promod Sharma: Yes. One of the points that the book makes, which I haven’t really thought about was, when you look at how much someone earns we tend to look at earnings per year. So for example, someone who is earning $100,000 which seems to be much better off than someone earning $50,000, and Tim Ferriss makes the point that you really want to break that down into hours - so dollars per hour. So someone who is earning $100,000 may be working 80 hours a week and the person earning $50,000 may be working 40 hours a week. So if you look at their hourly earnings, they are both earning the same, except the person earning the $50,000 actually has 40 extra hours that they can then use to do other things. They could actually have a greater quality of life and that’s I guess fairly obvious but it’s something I haven’t thought about before reading the book.


Monty Loree: Right. That’s one of the big premises of the book, is to do a mini retirement or abolish slavery, the 9 to 5 grind. He’s all about the quality of living.

Promod Sharma: Yes. That was also another great point he made, is the idea of the mini retirement. What we often think about is saving money and the when we’re old and gray then enjoying ourselves. But when we’re old and gray we may not be physically capable of doing all the things we would like to do now. So it’s better to actually take breaks while we’re working and then enjoy our lives before we get very worn out.

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research before opening a rewards - Posted March 13, 2010 by Monty Loree

Research Before Opening a Rewards

Shop Before Opening a Rewards Card Account, Expert Says

People are using their credit cards more and more because of the difficult economy, and studies have shown that more people are participating in a credit card rewards program. Rewards program are usually for airline miles, retail discounts, cash back, shopping points or a variety of other benefits.

Studies have shown that most credit card holders takes advantage of rewards programs, which can earn extended warranties on purchases, shoppers discounts at retailers, airline miles and many other benefits.
Mellody Hobson, president of Ariel Investments and "Good Morning America" personal finance contributor, discussed which credit card reward programs are best for consumers when she visited the show.
Hobson also extended additional tips that consumers maybe useful for them to make an informed decision about whether to open a rewards credit card:

Buyer, Beware

1. Do your homework before you choose a credit card. Shopping for comparison is important. Hobson likes the information presented at creditcards.com or bankrate.com for more information on credit card rates , terms, and benefits,.

2. Do not open a credit card for the purpose of getting airline miles, discounts or other rewards with the intention of closing it later. Open one only one because you really need it, she said. Opening and closing a credit card lowers your credit score.

3. Examine your credit card statement each month to be certain that proper fees have been posted and you have received the correct points for your purchases. The best way to settle all of your charges is to save your receipts.

4. Regularly check the terms of your rewards program. Reward program terms frequently change, so be certain you know exactly what you are getting.

VIA ABCNEWS

Keyword: Credit Card

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statistic showed one out of 3 people believe theyve been - Posted March 12, 2010 by Monty Loree

Statistic Showed One out of 3 People Believe They’ve Been a Victim of Debit or Credit Card Fraud

by Jonathan Chevreau

TD Canada Trust revealed a startling statistic showing that one out of 3 people in Canada feel that they were victimized by credit or debit card in the past and that 40 percent are extremely worried about being defrauded in the future. This is big concern is grounded as Canadian financial institutions are relying on “PIN” and “Chip” system to avoid fraudulent activities. However, a research at Cambridge University found that criminals can get around the new “chip” technology to perform their nefarious activities. The new PIN and chip technology only means that we should not let our guards down. As BBC reported this morning, we live in a world filled with sophisticated hackers and cyber criminals, and it is very doubtful that all of these criminals can be shut down or arrested. What we can do is minimize the chances of losing a lot of money if they got through our credit/debit cards. One thing we can do is to lower our daily withdrawal limit, whether for lines of credit, credit card or checquing accounts. It’s true that the banks said that they will reimbursed customers who have been robbed, but as British banks who have incorporated the new Chip technology are still being a victim of fraud, some bans seemed to be having second thoughts reimbursing customers, especially those who are partially or wholly responsible for their misfortune.

The month of March is also Fraud Prevention Month. We must always be vigilant with our transactions. A little paranoia is not uncalled for when we are swiping our card and entering our PIN. We all cannot afford to trust strangers and people we deal with in situations where we use our cards. Avoiding credit card fraud will require you to b eternally vigilant and not just for the month of March. Never assume that it will never happen to u. I urge you to take the time to answer the TD Canada Trust's 12-question card fraud quiz if you have not yet done so by clicking Here

Your credit and debit cards should be treated same as your money and your PINs like your key to your house. Always keep them in a safe place and never trust anybody with them. Never disclose your credit card number unless you made the call, and immediately call your bank if the card went missing so that they can block it. You should also make sure to check your statements and transactions to ensure that every transactions made with your cards are authorized by you. Choose your PINs wisely and remember to periodically change them. Never give them out to anyone, not even your bank is supposed to know it. When you’re in your ATM machine, always make sure to cover your hands when entering the PIN for there may be a hidden camera somewhere looking over you as you enter your PIN.

VIA National Post

Keyword: Credit cards

statistic showed one out of 3 people believe theyve been a victim of debit or credit card fraud

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how to pay off your credit cards - Posted March 11, 2010 by Monty Loree

How to Pay Off Your Credit Cards

by Drew Graham test

Coping with credit card debt can be a difficult for a lot of people, and credit card companies don’t make it any easier. It is very hard to pay off your credit card bills between minimum payments and high interest rates issuers charge. The whole thing is overwhelming for people with debts it leaves them with no idea to settle credit card debts. The best solution is to settle your debts one at a time.

One of the reasons that most people find it hard paying off their credit cards is the outrageous interest rates. Only a small percentage of your payment goes to towards paying down the principal, the bigger part goes to paying the interest. This is especially true if you only pay the minimum payments each month. Minimum payments are contrived to keep you in debt for as long as possible, it is important that you pay more than the minimum if you want to get out of debt.

It is a great theory to say that you should pay more than the minimum of your balance every month; the problem is that you probably have multiple credit cards. Paying a little more than the required minimum payment each month isn’t going to help you to pay off your debts any faster. A far better approach will be to pay the minimum on all but one card and to pay as much as you can the balance on that card.

Choose the credit card with the highest interest rate and pay the most on that card. Ideally you should first transfer any balances you can to a card with a lower interest rate. Even a small change in the amount of interest that you are paying will be a huge help in paying off your debts. Once the balances have been transferred to the card with the lowest interest rates possible, pay the card with the highest interest rate as much as you can. As soon as you finish paying off this card, move to the card with the next highest interest rate. This will make paying your credit card debt easier, as well as significantly reduce the amount of interest that you have to pay.

The key to handling credit card debt is to take it one step at a time. Gather all of your effort into paying off your cards one at a time. This should make paying off your debts easier, as well as keep you motivated.

VIA LoanSafe

Keyword: Credit card

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conversation with jon chevreau author of findependence day part 4 - Posted March 10, 2010 by Monty Loree

Conversation with Jon Chevreau Author of Findependence Day Part 3

Monty Loree: Okay. So I'm just noticing here, chapter two here you've got “Money, Money, Money - It's a Rich Man's World”. So basically what you're saying is the best investment is paying off debt.

Jon Chevreau: I think when you're in your 20s and 30s, I think in particular with all the stock market volatility - I think essentially get rid of your student loans, get rid of your credit card debt and ultimately buy a house, pay for it. Before getting worried too much about the stock market, I think for most people you have to get rid of the debt. If your employer offers you a pension plan where they match your contributions, even if you don't, then I think that should be your first exposure to the stock market. Just find whatever the corporate pension plan is giving you. Secondly of course, RSP, I think the TSSA - I started one for my daughter, she's 18. She's already got one going. Mind you it's not her money, but it doesn't matter. Baby boomer parents can certainly get these tips going for them. She's really excited about Apple so I bought stock. Not so much because I thought it was a great investment. It might be, it might not be, but I wanted her that feeling of sense of ownership. This whole being - own and not her loan anything and hopefully by seeing it grow and she's going to get a feel of ownership. Then maybe start one day, I hope, contributing her own money through tips or anything. As a financial planner yourself, you know what a great start it would be. If you put $5,000.00 in domestic property from the age 18 up ‘till you're 55, she would've her Findependence day 50, no problem.

Monty Loree: Exactly. That's interesting because my girl is 16 years old and she's just learning the concepts. We're just starting for her to learn the concepts. So that's important. I appreciate that you're doing that. Again, I'm talking with Jonathan Chevreau here today. He's the author of Findependence Day and we're talking about the book because it's a pretty good one. People need to read it, I think. Chapter 4, you got “Baby You're a Rich Man - The Concept of Human Capital”. That's all about realizing that, what I got from it was that people actually already have wealth.

Jon Chevreau: That's right. Scotiabank says, “You're richer than you think.” I'm not sure if they're referring to human capital. Moshe Milevski of the York Univestiy articulates the human capital argument well in a book he called, put out about a year ago, Are You a Stock or a Bond? Basically you start out in life with no financial capital, but you've got this great human potential - your earnings potential. This is why you need to spill the insurance because if you can't save them, you can't convert your human capital to financial capital things are not good. Same with life insurance, you need life insurance if you're married because if you die, then all that human capital that you've eventually converted to financial capital doesn't happen. Therefore the life insurance kicks in to provide the financial capital to the surviving spouse. So as life goes on, so in this 22-year time frame of this financial novel, Jamie gradually converts his human capital into financial capital. Because he's an owner not a loaner, he tries to build a business. A lot of the plot revolves around that. She, on the other hand, again a different personality. She has a secured, fine investment plan. She's a teacher, a salaried employee. So I tried to have that contrast, not just by money personalities but even in one is a stock, one is a bond. One is an employee, one is an entrepreneur - that way you kind of draw a lot more lessons from this couple's experience than if they were both of the same money personality.

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credit card companies do they write off debt - Posted March 08, 2010 by Monty Loree

Credit Card Companies, Do They Write Off Debt?

by Johnny Simms

This is a very significant question. In some cases and in some circumstance, credit card companies do write off debt. A debt is usually written off if the person who owes the credit card company stops paying completely. In such cases, the credit card company usually writes off the debt, then sell the debt to a collection agency, and this agency in turn will pursue collections.

Getting a credit card company to write off your debt is something that varies depending on the situation, and is not something that you can plan. Some people think that if they just dismiss the credit card company's efforts to bill them, and cease paying anything completely, that they will get their debt written off. While something like this has happened before in the past, it is not something that you should attempt. Many professionals agree that, rather than worrying and wondering about how to get your debt written off, you should just try to avoid credit card debt altogether. This might be hard, it is a lot harder taking on the minimum balances of a credit card debt, with interest rates over 20 percent (which is normal on a credit card), can really soar you if you miss a payment.

So, attempting to have your debt written off is not really your best bet, unless you feel like you have no other option. In this instance, you might
want to contact a lawyer and ask for advice.

VIA Loan Safe

Keyword: Credit Card

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how to get a credit card if you have bad credit - Posted March 08, 2010 by Monty Loree

How to Get a Credit Card if You Have Bad Credit

Get a Credit Card if You Have Bad Credit

You can still get a credit card eventhough you have a bad credit, although it would make large purchases doubly hard for you. Follow these simple steps to get a credit card even with your bad credit.

1. Get your credit cards from smaller retail stores. Sometimes smaller retail companies are more willing than bigger stores to give you a chance. Once your application is accepted, make small purchases only and be sure to pay on time at least the minimum payment each month. (You won't pay as much interest rates if you pay above the minimum payment.)

2. Apply for a credit card thru your bank, credit union or savings institution. They may be more willing to approve a credit card for you if they have your business already.

3. If all else fails, then you can apply for a secured credit card. A savings account will be required for you to maintain as your line of credit security.

4. Ask a family member or a friend to act as a co-signee for a credit card. Make sure you choose someone with good credit as their credit will be inline as well. They must pay if you can't pay your balances and it will be bad for their credit rating.

Tips & Warnings
* Pay all your bills on time while you are trying to get a credit card
* Get no more than 3 credit cards- 2 cards with a smaller credit limit and a third with a bigger credit limit you can use in case of emergencies
* Don’t get a card from the same store and the same company. There’s a wide array of issuers available and they are all widely-accepted.
* Pick a card that does not charge an annual fee.
* Demand an explanation if your credit card application is denied. It is your lawful right.
* Control your spending. Don’t buy more than you can afford.
* Due to large interest rates, you might not be able to pay the balance. You might be overspending if you cannot pay the balance each month so stop using the card until the balance has been paid.
* There is no tax reduction for Credit card interest.

VIA eHow

Keyword: Credit Card

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how to avoid credit cards finance charges - Posted March 08, 2010 by Monty Loree

How to Avoid Credit Cards Finance Charges

Credit cards are a convenient way to purchase what you want when you want it, even without taking cash on hand.
Credit card companies profits from customers who use the balances on their credit cards by charging interest rates, and finance charges on top of the interest, as well

1. Make detailed budget of your income and expenses. You can avoid finance charges by keeping a tab on how much money you have afford every month to pay your credit cards.

2. Make a priority of your payments to your credit cards according to each card’s interest rates and the total balances due. The higher the interest rate, the higher the amount of money you should allocate for that card to avoid the biggest finance charges from being posted.

3. Pay the bills on your credit card on or before the due date, thus allowing time for your payment to be posted. You can avoid financial charges by scheduling payments or sending payments in advance.

4. Call your credit card company to request about waiving your finance charges. They may be willing to remove the charges if you have a good credit history with the company.

5. Try transferring your credit card balances to another credit card that offers no interest rate. To avoid incurring finance charges, apply for a new card that offers 0% interest rate promotions on balance transfers then transfer the remaining balance from the old credit card to the new credit card. Be sure to check your current credit card for promotional rates as well to see if there’s any other option.

Tips & Warnings
* Several credit card companies place a balance transfer fee. Try to balance cost-effectiveness of your options because the finance charges might be cheaper than the transfer fee.
* When you transfer remaining balances to a new credit card with a 0% promotional rate, make dure you pay on time and determine the promotion’s expiration to maybe transfer again before it expires because some credit card issuers ask for payment for the interest that you got within the promotional period.

VIA eHow

Keyword: Credit card

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U.S. GDP fails to move stocks at the open - Posted March 08, 2010 by Monty Loree

U.S. GDP fails to move stocks at the open

David Berman

There is a little change when the North American stocks opened on Friday, after investors were ripped following an unexpectedly worse reading on U.S. initial jobless claims.

There is a decline on the average by 1 point on the Dow Jones industrial average, to 10,320. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 fell by 1 point, to 1102. The S&P/TSX composite index in Canada rose 3 points, to 11,634.

The Commerce Department of the U.S. reported the economy broadened at a 5.9% annualized clip in the Q4, more than the 5.7% growth originally forecasted in January. The upward revision was not appreciated by economists.

“The overall growth in the Q4 [was] still very inventory-driven, with a 3.9% point contribution,” said chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, Ian Shepherdson. In a note, he said, “Final domestic sales increased only 1.6%, following 1.7 cent in the Q3 and 2.3% in the Q2.

“The reported increase today in the second estimate of Q4 GDP to 5.9% from the formerly reported 5.7% does little to change the fact that the bulk of the posted surge in GDP growth in the Q4 reflects a sharp reduction in the rate of inventory liquidation after the unexpected drop through the first 3 quarters of 2009,” said Nathan Janzen, a Royal Bank of Canada economist, in a note.

In the US, Boeing Co. increased 0.9% and General Electric Co. increased by 0.8%. Home Depot Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. dropped 0.7% each.

Energy stocks in Canada generally increased with crude oil’s price, with Suncor Energy Inc. up by 0.3% and Talisman Energy Inc. up by 0.2%. Among gold stocks, on the other hand, Barrick Gold Corp. and Goldcorp Inc. increased 0.6% each.

Financials decreased after Thursday’s strong earnings-inspired returns, with Royal Bank of Canada dropping by 0.3 %, Bank of Nova Scotia dropping by 0.4% and Manulife Financial Corp. dropping by 0.6%.

VIA Globe and Mail

Keyword: Stock Investing

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credit card company visa reported visitors for the olympics spent 115 million - Posted March 08, 2010 by Monty Loree

Credit card company, Visa, reported Visitors for the Olympics spent $115 million  
 
By Gordon Hamilton, Vancouver
 
The Olympics which lasted for 17 days proved to be a great boost for the economy of Canada. In Visa alone, the Olympics added $115 usd to the B.C. in international spending, as figures revealed by the credit card company Tuesday.

Andrew Woodward, Visa’s head of marketing and sponsorship communications said that the Olympics is a proof point of what they said about the economic benefit of the Olympics. In the same 17 days last year, foreign visitors spent $55. The figure shows twice more than what was normally spent by visitors on the same period.million in the B.C. that’s a difference of $60 million usd. The total spending during the Olympics breaks down to approximately $6.8 million per day during the commencement of the games.

The Americans spent the most with $61.1 million, followed by China at $7.8 million, then U.K. at $5.1 million and the Russian Federation in the 4th place with $4.3 million dollars spent.

Visa is the real winner for the profits because Visa has monopolize all credit-card transactions at the venues of the Olympics. They, however, gave a breakdown of the spending on all credit card transactions, listing travel, accomodation, restaurants, retail sale, and entertainment taking 92% of all business transactions during the games.

Woodward reported that most of money came from people who were at official venues as well as people who were at restaurants and hotels.

VIA Vancouver Sun

Keyword: Credit Card

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choosing the best travel rewards credit card - Posted March 08, 2010 by Monty Loree

Choosing the Best Travel Rewards Credit Card

Travel rewards credit cards offer great benefits to people who travel a lot. If you only travel once in a while, the benefits you get from your travel rewards credit card will only be offset by the high Annual Percentage Rate (APR) and other fees charged for this rewards credit card. Travel reward credit cards offer credit card users perks like discounts on hotel accomodation, gas, auto rental, or purchases at retail shops. A great reward credit cards also offer cash advance for when you are travelling and in need of extra cash, although you have to be sure to know the charges applied for cash advances before choosing a travel reward credit card. Travel reward credit cards also offer travel insurance for emergencies, including emergency expatriation, medical evaluation and lost luggage. These are hard to resolve if you do not purchase coverage and did not have sufficient pre-travel preparation. They also offer rewards or points for every purchase you make on the card (take note that some credit cards only offer discounts to those who have a balance carried over at the end of the month).

You should also consider the value and the schedule offered by these credit cards. Cash rewards is a good example. Don’t wait till the end of the year to get your money from your credit card’s cash reward. Make sure that you get the money everytime you accrue the amount of twenty dollars. Some travel rewards credit card also offer round trip flights at the redemption value of one round trip ticket for every purchased twenty-five thousand miles purchased using the card.

Finally, when you’ve found the right credit card, make sure that you follow the terms and pay your balances or the minimums on time every time so you won’t have any problems later.

VIA AmericanAirlinesCreditCard

Keyword: Rewards Credit Card

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improve your credit scores in 5 easy way - Posted March 08, 2010 by Monty Loree

Improve Your Credit Scores in 5 Easy Way

Getting a good credit score is essential especially now that the mortgage market is still in a bind. Your credit score greatly impacts your financial status. It not only increases your chances to have your mortgage approved, but it also affect your interest rates for applicants with top credit scores always get the best interest rates.

A lot of consumers are not aware of their credit scores and what affects them. Furthermore, they are not aware of the factors that can help them improve their credit scores. Here are some of the things you can More importantly, they may not be aware of the many things they can do to improve their scores. Here are some tips that could do to help hike your credit scores.

* Request a copy of your credit report. Check if it’s correct and if you find an error, you must immediately contact the creditor to correct the errors. Go to http://www.equifax.ca/ or www.transunion.ca to request a copy of your credit report.

* Always be punctual in paying your bills. This might be the simplest way and the most important way to improve your credit score. Remember to pay your bills on time. You can also set-up automatic payment thru your credit card or your bank so you never have to worry about paying on time and you only need to take note of one bill (in case all your bills are in automatic payment) at the end of the month.

* Pay off or pay down your credit card balances or loans. Paying off your loans or credit cards will help boost your credit score score, but so will paying down your credit card balances. Just remember to keep your balances below 30% of your credit limit.

* Refrain from closing credit cards that has not been used. Remember that an old credit history is better for your credit score. So keep your old credit cards and periodically use them just to keep the account active. Remember to be prompt in paying your bills..

* Check your credit limits. Your score will be depressed when your credit limit was reported by your lender than it actually is. Have it corrected so your credit score will improve.

Source: Century 21 Canada

VIA Century 21 Canada

Keyword: Credit Score

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stocks concluded the month strongly with modest gains - Posted March 05, 2010 by Monty Loree

Stocks Concluded the Month Strongly With Modest Gains

The S&P 500 finished Friday at about 2 points higher, concluding the month with a 2.7% gain. The consumer discretionary sector assisted in driving the index, up 5.2% in February.

Tech generally surmounted performance in February with the Nasdaq Composite Index closing its month with a 4-point gain Friday, ending the month 4% higher.

Intuit (NSDQ: INTU) and Autodesk (NSDQ: ADSK) were the best performers in Nasdaq for February, adding 9% and 17%, respectively.

In corporate news, insurance company, American International Group (NYSE: AIG) reported a Q4 loss that was bigger than expected. The $8.87 billion loss, however, was smaller than $61.7 billion lost in the prior year within the same period.

The insurer reported that a large part of the loss was from repaying the $6.2 billion from New York Federal Reserve. AIG has continued to repay the bailout money and is in the process of selling its American Life Insurance Company to produce additional cash.

Meanwhile, on the economic front, the Supply Management Institute said its Purchasing Managers Index rose to 62.6
in February, thus surprising economists as they forecasted a decline to 59.7.

The National Association of Realtors reported that existing homes sale swayed 7.2% in January to a yearly pace of 5.05 million homes. The outcome did not reach expectations as economists foresaw 5.15 million.

VIA AllHeadlineNews

Keyword: Stock Investing

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interview with nick farina moneyinenglishcom part 1 - Posted March 04, 2010 by Monty Loree

Interview with Nick Farina - MoneyInEnglish.com - Part 1

Monty Loree: Hey folks, this is Monty Loree here from Canadian Money Advisor. I've got Nick Farina who's the author and publisher of Money in English blog, MoneyInEnglish.com. Nick's kind of a young fellow. He's been involved with personal finance for about five years, and he's 22 years old. So he likes to talk about money issues that are related to younger people, people who are just getting out of high school, people who are in the university. We just had a little talk before and he just mentioned just really good things that we really need to talk about. Hey Nick, how are you doing?

Nick Farina: Hi, good Monty. How are you? Glad to be on the show

Monty Loree: This is good. I'm really excited about this. So you said you've been blogging for five years now? So you've been blogging for a short time...

Nick Farina: Yes, that's correct. I've only had the website up for about five months now, but I've been involved with personal finance for quite a while, about five years. Very quickly, five years ago when I was in my last year of high school, my parents were really busy. They had a lot going on. Their financial situation wasn't bad, but it was complicated. They had a lot of bills to pay and a lot of bills going on and it was complicated. They were starting to lose track. So I thought maybe I can help with this and at the same time it would help me learn about financial world that I need to use later in life. Then I got hooked on it. I thought it was really interesting, just trying to maximize what kind of credit cards to use, what bank accounts to use so they've got an efficient system. I realized that there were a lot of tricks out there. There's a lot of things you shouldn't do, but at the same time there's a lot of things that would be great if you did do them. So that was the beginning of my interest in personal finance. I've been writing about how people overcome them.

Monty Loree: Wow, that sounds good. Sounds like you're a natural at it, if you've taken to that.

Nick Farina: Yes, I hope so.

Listen to this MoneyInEnglish.com podcast

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interview with tom drake canadianfinanceblogcom part 2 - Posted March 03, 2010 by Monty Loree

Interview with Tom Drake - CanadianFinanceBlog.com - Part 2

Monty Loree: So with all of that, somehow you got interested into personal finance blogging and you got online and started typing away. What did - you said before you were initially talking about taxes and so on.

Tom Drake: Yes, again it was writing about whatever I was doing at the time and starting in February of last year, it was searching all these different tax tips, how to optimize as best as you can. So it's a lot of, not just tax tips, also looking into mortgages and I've kind of gone more into a lot of how to save money and how to earn extra income, especially again with the wife and taking care of her. It's more important that you can either save a dollar or gain a dollar somewhere, then it's great for us.

Monty Loree: So basically then you're - you said your blog is not your main business, but can you describe what you do for a job?

Tom Drake: I'm the financial analyst for Sobey's West, which is basically all the stores from West of Ontario. So I do all the retail budgets and forecasts and I also do a lot of reporting and everything on how our stores are doing. So it's a great job and I have to do it.

Monty Loree: That sounds like a pretty busy job if you ask me, unless it's automated. I guess when I was a financial analyst 20 years ago, it was not automated and it was pretty busy.

Tom Drake: It probably gets better as new systems come. My extra title is actually Application Development as well. We use a lot of new programs, like SAP, Calix and SAS. They all speed up the job a little. Previously budgets would be done at different divisions throughout Canada and we consolidate them together. Now we just are able to run the whole thing because we've got everyone's data in the data base and it's pretty simple to forecast into the future.

Monty Loree: So with that you must have CMA or CDA training?

Tom Drake: No I don't. I took marketing here in Edmonton. CGA/CMA, it's something you certainly can do. But I've been doing it for so many years and it hasn't been a need.

Monty Loree: Right, exactly. But I guess if you've got a mindset for being a financial analyst, that would translate usually to the blog there and to writing about personal finance. I found when I was a financial analyst in Toronto, I learned an awful lot about personal finance just from what the companies were doing.

Tom Drake: Yes, you're always dealing with numbers. It starts to pick up even well before I had the blog. If you tell somebody you're a financial analyst, they're automatically asking for some kind of depth.

Listen to my podcast with Tom Drake

See Tom's blog at CanadianFinanceBlog.com

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