Online Credit Card Approval

Needless to say, electronics and the Internet have changed the way that people maintain and conduct their financial affairs. Internet banking, Internet bill pay, and Internet credit card applications have paved the way for faster and more effective money management.

Pre Internet banking dominance, everything financial was done through the United States mail and telephone. Everything was a slow process. In regards to credit card applications, you had to go to your local bank and get one, or you had to wait for a credit card offer to be sent to you in the mail. You had to fill out the credit card application by hand and mail it to the credit card company. If your application was accepted, you would receive a letter a couple of weeks later telling you such. Another few days later, you would receive you credit card. On the other hand, if your application was denied, you had to wait those few weeks just to discover this fact.

Thank goodness for the Internet and instant credit card application decisions. Nowadays, all you have to do is go to the website of the credit card company in which you are interested. You select the credit card of interest. Next, you fill out the available credit card application. Once that is complete, you submit the application and get a credit card decision, usually, within thirty seconds. Thirty seconds sure beats a few weeks!

If you are in the market for a credit card and you have never used an Internet credit card application, I suggest you give it a try and get an instant credit decision.

Conventional Personal Finance

There are many bad things that you can do with your money or to your money. There are also many goods things you can do with or to your money. What should you do and what should you avoid?

(1) Plan Your Finances – Budgets are very hard to stick to and can cause many headaches, however, planning the big purchases can help protect you from a financial blunder. Always plan out the big purchases before reaching a final decision. This will not guarantee that you made a wise purchase, but it will make you think out and research all the details before concluding one way or the other.

(2) Always Use Interest Bearing Accounts When Possible – Many banks offer interest bearing checking accounts, and various other interest accounts. While deciding between investment opportunities or for the money you keep in an account to pay the bills, collecting interest on this idle money can quickly add up. You will not become rich, but this is the easiest, risk free money you will ever collect.

(3) Diversify – This is very common and effective advice. The recent volatility of the real estate market is a perfect example. Many people lost everything because they threw all of their investment money into the real estate market during the boom. Unfortunately, like gravity, what goes up must come down, and that is what the market did, with a vengeance. If these people had been diversified (meaning they had spread their investment dollars through various industries and markets) these people would have minimized, and probably offset any loss they received from the real estate market.

Doing these three, simple things will help you generate and maintain income for many years to come.

Surviving Financially After You Have Been Laid Off

It happens to the best of us. Sometimes, economic factors beyond your control cause a company to downsize. Sometimes, a merger or a buyout means that a company’s employees will be laid off. What do you do now?

For purposes of this article, we will assume that our fictional, laid off worker did not have any savings, or money set aside in order to “weather the storm,” so to speak. To tell somebody that has been laid off to tap into their savings assumes that the person has savings. One cannot give advice about what to do AFTER one has been laid off based on assumptions of what one should have done BEFORE one was laid off. Do you see the problem with that?

First and foremost, you cannot stay discouraged for long. Being discouraged makes you doubt yourself and, therefore, takes away your motivation to find a new career. If you are feeling discouraged, remember that statistics show that people now-a-days change career three or four times throughout their work lives.

At this point, you have to sit down and calculate your bills. Note what you have in your bank account and see how long (under a worse case scenario) that you could survive without working. Now take that timeframe and shorten it by two (2) weeks. Once you figure this out, you now know your deadline to find a new job. You shorten the timeframe by two weeks because that is how long it usually takes before you get a paycheck at your new job.

You may to get a part-time job in the mean time to cover any bills that you cannot afford while you are in between jobs. The part-time job should be easy to get and not interfere with your goal of getting a new, full-time career.

If things are taking longer than expected, you might want to consider cutting costs. Getting rid of some luxuries (eating out on the weekends, your morning latte at the coffee shop, expensive cable packages, etc.) will help reduce monthly expenses until you have your new career in hand.

If all else fails, start thinking about selling assets. This does not mean hold a garage sale. This means you might have to dump a car, some television or stereo equipment, or something else that when sold would actually have a positive financial impact.

Just remember that your main goal is to find a new career. Do not procrastinate and stay positive!

Defining Financial Freedom

What is financial freedom? Basically, one would probably define financial freedom as being rich or as being wealthy. But, what is rich? What is wealthy? Do you define “being rich” or “being wealthy” as having a lot of money? Do you define “being rich” or “being wealthy” as having the time to do what you want when you want, or do you feel that spending more time with your family is the defining characteristic of success?

Here is the million dollar question: do you need a lot of money to be able to have the freedom to do what you want and to be able to spend more time with your family? In other words, do you have to be “financially free” in order to achieve your “higher” goals?

Up to this point I have asked many questions but have provided few answers. The reason for this is because each person is different. A lot of money, a big house, and an expensive car are not necessary for many people to be happy. Many people who are not financially rich lead exceptionally happy lives. These people create a budget and stick to it, however, these people enjoy quality of life over financial success. Some of the happiest people on earth make barely enough money to fit into what is defined as the “middle class.”

How does this help define financial freedom? Basically, there are two ways to think of financial freedom. First, one can have an abundance of money and can, therefore, afford anything one wants. This means that money is not an issue of concern. The other way one can be financially free is for one to not care about money. These are the travelers and movers in the world that make just enough money to support themselves, but because they are always on the move, traveling around and discovering new things, money is not an issue. These people believe that life experiences are more important than the size of a bank account.

The big question you need to answer is: what kind of financial freedom do you want?