Financial Reflections

Identity theft is still around. Of course, it always has been, but sometimes it takes a story to bring things back into the spotlight.

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Note:  I first wrote this article in 2006.  It’s interesting to see what’s happened in the mean time.  The much-hyped  exotic loans have caused a collapse in the credit industry. Here’s an update to what I wrote back then.  It’s sad to see how things have ended up slightly worse than what I predicted.  Here’s the toll silly lending has taken:

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I’m talking about plastic money - credit cards.  A new twist on this is the use of debit cards in games.  Of course, marketers and game makers are always looking for ways to mix advertising into a game.  Just look at the multiple editions of Monopoly that exist, such as university branded games.  But is it right to add plastic money to a game children will play?

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I’ve written about student loan consolidation before, because the date that loans go up is July 1st.  I know one couple that has had to make sure they consolidated their student loans in order to avoid the rise in loans rates.  They’re trying to reduce their debt load as much as they can, and this is one step in the right direction for them.

Interest rates seem to be going up all over the place and the rates that new students are going to pay are might be much higher than student’s have had to pay before.  Be careful and do some research before you consolidate your student loans, because there are some caveats. For example, this article points out one pitfall:

“Borrowers who consolidate must immediately start repaying the loan, whereas most variable loans give students up to six months past graduation during which they have no payments.”

So if you have student loans, now might be a great time to at least look into consolidation and see if it’s right for you.  If you’ve had any experience with this, please comment and let me know how things worked out for you…

I’ve mentioned student loans before, now is a good time to mention them again.  June 30th is the deadline for those seeking to perform student loan consolidation.  Why?  Loan rates are set to jump on the 1st of July.

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I’m the one in the house that goes through the mail.  I end up with about a ream of paper in a week.  Most of that is credit card applications offering seemingly great deals.  I’ve heard that about six billion (yes, with a B) are sent out every year.  I’m thinking about 2 or 3 million of those end up in my mailbox.

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As some of you may know, I’m in the process of paying down my credit cards.  But lately I’ve gotten very frustrated with the lack of progress I’m making.  I’ve considered doing some rather drastic things, none of which are realistic right now.  Then I just get depressed.  What’s a blogger to do?

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I paid off my student loans a while back, so I don’t need to consolidate them.  But I just read ”Time Is Running Out for Student Borrowers” on Yahoo! News and it caught my attention anyway.  As you may know, I’m considering refinancing my mortgage due to rising interest rates.  Rising interest rates will also shortly affect student loan rates.  From the article:

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While there’s very little doubt that Americans are sinking deeper in debt, I haven’t heard much controversy about why people are going backwards financially.  The Washington Post just ran a story on a study about the trend of high consumer debt, and I feel the need to comment.

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Americans have a continuing love affair with debt.  I’m not sure when all this stared, but it seems that the marriage between consumers and debt began with the arrival of the first “gold card” about 25 years (or so) ago, and has only strengthened.

But if you’re faltering in your indebtedness, I’ve come up with a sure-fire guide to keep you up to your eyeballs in debt:

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