New credit card law, what you should know and do
Credit-card companies are being forced to adopt better billing practices. The best way to position yourself for credit changes, is to prepare in advance. Creditors will likely use income estimation models, along with your credit report, so go to annualcreditreport.com (free annual report) to make sure yours is correct.
The credit card companies were handing out credit cards like water, because they thought they had pricing models where they could handle people who didn't pay by gouging the people who did. Those models failed, and the big banks lost fortunes in bad debt write-offs. They can't gouge people as much or as easily under the new rules.
The big banks will try to charge customers with new $60 annual fee - charging higher interest rates, coming up with new variable rates, inactivity fees.There are NO restrictions on the types of fees that credit-card issuers can charge. If you get a notice like that, you have 45 days. Use those 45 days to go look for a new card from someone else. That is your power,use it
.Roughly 70% of all credit cards are issued by five players: Bank of America, Citibank, Chase, Capital One, and American Express. And they're seeing their profits cut collectively by tens of billions of dollars, by not being able to do bait-and-switch on you and coming up with every kind of fee they can think of.
The banks make tens of millions of dollars from false balancing and approving transactions when people don’t have any money in their account. You go to an ATM. You pull up your balance and you think, “Ok, good, I can make this withdrawal.” But what you didn’t know was, your bank was doing what is known as false balancing. They were popping up a balance that really didn’t exist to con you into overdrawing your account so they could charge you overdraft fees.Starting this summer, August 15, 2010, banks are not going to be able to approve transactions when they know you’re overdrawn on your account, thay need your permission to take your money.
If you look instead at the many thousands of credit card issuers out there - smaller banks, credit unions - you're going to find much better deals, try them. Make sure you know the fees your new bank will charge, whether it's a monthly charge for maintaining your checking account or penalty fees for overdrafts. Take extra care with any automatic transfers or automatic bill payment that you do. It's easy to overdraft your account when switching providers. Be sure that your new bank's ATM network is convenient for you.
Pay the balance off every month.....no matter how painful.....then you don't have to worry about what those loan sharks do or don't do.
Pay cash as often as possible. Learn more about leveraging debt and money management. Order your FREE credit report, read articles about credit strategies and get credit tips.
It is the business of credit card companies to find you, manipulate you, mislead you and trick you to get as much money out of you as possible.
If you like getting mugged, stay with the Big Banks!
GOALS For Your Future
A new year has begun, and if you are like most people you'll want to improve your results over last year.
Ensure each of your goals follows the SMART concept: specific; motivational; action-oriented; relevant to your situation; and time-bound.
Specific: "I will increase my sales by 15 percent compared to last year." Be as specific about your goal as possible. "I will start my own catering business" is a lot stronger than "I want to go into business for myself."
Motivational: Challenging goals are motivating. Set goals that will push beyond what you usually think you can accomplish. Remember to set a deadline. A goal without a deadline is simply a dream. Attach a realistic yet challenging deadline for accomplishment, and post this where you can review it regularly.
Action-oriented: Phrase your goal in the present tense and assume success. Don't say, "I want to," say "I will." This tells your subconscious that you have already achieved your goal, which means it will go to work at helping the goal become a reality. It will attract the people, places and situations you need to achieve that goal.
Relevant: Put your goals in writing. This simple act helps you clarify your goals and will allow you to visualize them more effectively. I recommend that you record each goal on a separate index card and review them twice a day – once in the morning (when you first wake up) and again before you go to bed. This process reinforces your goals, acts as a reminder and drives your goals deep into your subconscious. In fact, this is one of the most powerful strategies you can use to achieve your targets.
List the benefits you intend to receive by achieving each goal. This will keep you focused and strong, particularly when you face the inevitable roadblocks and barriers. The more benefits you can list for your goals, the more motivating those goals will become.
I make a simple list. I physically write down one goal in each of four categories. The goals have to be both significant, yet specific. Write them down all over, on your computer, the start page, your bed any place you can see and rewiev them.
The biggest thing setting these four goals does for me is focuses my energies for the year. Instead of pursuing all kinds of different things, I decide in advance what's important to focus on for the next 12 months. It might sound dumb – I thought it did at first. But it actually works for me...
It works so well, I strongly urge you to do what I'm doing... to take a good amount of time to think about and then write down what you really want to accomplish in 2009 Set one goal in each of these four areas:
1) Your health
2) Your wealth
3) Your personal self (hobbies and interests)
4) Your social self (friends, family, and community)
Remember to make sure that each goal is significant, yet specific.
Committing to your goals: Picking one, two, or three significant goals that are meaningful to you and devoting time and effort to pursuing them.
I recommend you share these goals with someone you'll feel accountable to a year from now. Make yourself a promise that you'll go over those goals with that person one year from now to see how you did. Again, it seems to work for me.
Give up excuses. If you hear yourself making excuses, write them down and become consciously aware of them. One of my excuses was that I was not the entrepreneurial type. I changed this excuse into the following affirmation: I am capable of doing whatever I set my mind to.
Next thing you know, you'll be fitter, wealthier, and better off than you imagined possible just one year ago. It works.
Adopting a new millionaire mindset
Think Big - Bank On Yourself
Armed with that mindset, people go at a job in a new way. Research shows they process information more deeply and retain it longer. They want more information on what they're doing and seek other perspectives. They adopt a longer-term point of view. In the activity itself, the mindset persists. You aren't just doing the job, you're explicitly trying to get better at it in the larger sense.
Again, research shows that this difference in mental approach is vital. For example, when amateur singers take a singing lesson, they experience it as fun, a release of tension. But for professional singers, it's the opposite: They increase their concentration and focus on improving their performance during the lesson. Same activity, different mindset.
Feedback is crucial, and getting it should be no problem in business. Yet most people don't seek it; they just wait for it, half hoping it won't come. Without it, as Goldman Sachs leadership-development chief Steve Kerr says, "it's as if you're bowling through a curtain that comes down to knee level. If you don't know how successful you are, two things happen: One, you don't get any better, and two, you stop caring." In some companies, like General Electric, frequent feedback is part of the culture. If you aren't lucky enough to get that, seek it out.
We can all learn something from a dot-com millionaire who made his wealth working for several Internet startups, isn't alone. In this era of conspicuous consumption, he and others like him are saying "no thanks," opting instead for a more reasonable lifestyle.
Even if we're missing the "wealthy" part now. In fact, adjusting your money mindset may actually be your ticket to getting that "Wealth"
Most of us figure that our biggest challenges when it comes to amassing money are unpredictable markets, inadequate paycheques, and the like. In fact, those obstacles shrink in comparison to the real foe — yourself. Our sheep-like tendency to follow the crowd is just one way in which our minds mislead us. We're far less rational than we think when it comes to money.
You can do yourself a favor by focusing on things that are truly within your power to change. Most of us, for instance, could benefit by putting less thought toward outwitting the market and more toward saving a few dollars every paycheque. Here's a promise: if you consistently save 5% to 10% of your salary and invest it intelligently, I guarantee that you'll wind up wealthier than most
One shouldn't work so you can get the new phone or the new car. Work should be something you enjoy not just for the money...If you think positve, good things will just fall in your lap. Trust me I never thought it could be this easy. I hope to ...open the minds of more people.
" The man who removes a mountain, begins by carrying away small stones"