Because they fly under our financial radar! Those small monthly charges don’t seem like much, just $9.99 a month, or $4.99 a month. You see the amount on your statement, but hey it’s just $5, or its just $10 right.

They know you talk yourself into ignoring it for one more month. You have to sit on hold and wade through customer service to cancel. So month after month it chips away and you don’t even know it.

If that same company were to suddenly hit you with a $120 charge I bet you would take notice, and pick up the phone, right? That is exactly what they are doing… just not all at once, month after month. I don’t have to tell you want 9.99 x 12 equals.

Anytime I see a monthly fee for anything I always multiple it by 12 in my head and tell myself that is the real cost. If I had to pay that all up front right now, there is now way I’d add that protection plan to my cell phone bill.

http://twitter.com/#!/daysleftblog

• 35% of your score is based on your debt history.
• 30% is based on your debt level.
• 15% is based on the length of time you’ve been in debt.
• 10% is based on new debt.
• 10% is based on type of debt.

2009 everyone gets their shirt back?

Year to Date Jan 1, 2009 to Oct 31, 2009: 26.49%

This year going well for retirement accounts, if you left them alone. Did you leave yours alone? Or did you make some radical changes? If so what happened?

I have heard numbers from $1 million per taxpayer, and other figures all over the place.

Here is your answer.

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/news/0901/gallery.money_summit/index.html

What happened to letting the market work? I think our economy just took a huge step backward today. This bailout is saying, if you’re going to screw up, make sure you do it BIG BIG BIG. That way the US government will come in and save your behind.

How in the world can the Government justify this bailout, but not other bailouts? I believe we are now being setup for an ever large crushing blow in the future, this rescue attempt certainly will not and cannot work. The 85 billion may as well have been flushed down the toilet, or better at least been distributed out to taxpayers as a tax cut or a stimulus package.

This combination of a failing company combined with the federal government is like asking for a hangover. The US government has never successfully run any enterprise, now somehow they are going to be able to salvage AIG? Not going to happen. 2 years from now, when this “loan” comes due, AIG will be in the exact same position as today, and we’ll be extending or increasing the loan – directly from the tax payer. Again.

Try out the CAGR Calculator!

In an effort to help financial
services organizations collect on large volumes of uncollected debt,
Experian(R), a global information solutions provider, today announced the
launch of Collection Triggers(SM). Collection Triggers is a robust and
flexible collections solution that monitors a company’s portfolio of
collections accounts. When new information on one of these accounts becomes
available, indicating the possibility of recovering the debt, the organization
is notified within 24 hours and can then resume efforts to contact the
consumer and collect the outstanding debt.

So you are now getting back on your feet and are ready to start paying off old debt? The old advice was to just call one creditor at a time and setup a payment plan with them. This would avoid the barrage of calls and mail from all your old creditors at once, and allow you to pay off the debts one at a time. But if one of those creditors subscribes to this new collection trigger service, as soon as you start making payments to one creditor, you are going to “trigger” others to start coming after you.

Read the full press release: Experian Collection Triggers

I guess I wouldn’t mind taxes as much if I thought the system was more fair, but it is sorely unfair right now. There is so much government waste and fraud that I feel my money is being flushed away. I see pictures on the news of hundreds of unused FEMA trailers sitting and rotting away in a parking lot down south. I think, one of those should be MY trailer, I bought it!

Anyway…that is my tax rant for the day.

Michigan needs a big turnaround, and soon. I am still bewildered why the people of Michigan re-elected Gov Granholm, instead of a proven business leader in Dick DeVos.