How 2B Debt Free Blog

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When you are looking for an easy home based business, you should consider the benefits of getting paid to take survey questions online . This type of activity makes an ideal way to start a  home based business for many people looking to simplify their lives.

Marketing research firms have been paying consumers to participate in surveys, focus groups and such for some time. The low cost and fast response time of the Internet make it a favorite medium to get the survey takers and survey makers together. To get enough qualified volunteers the survey makers offer to pay the survey takers in cash, gifts or points redeemable for cash for taking each survey.

 There are a lot of sites out there that want you to pay a membership fee or give them your email address to access their list of paying survey sites, but it is simply not necessary.  There are many sites out there that want you to pay for access to a list of paid survey sites, but the information they are selling you is freely available on the internet. Never pay for this information  you can get it for free.

There are some very legitimate survey sites that will require a small fee for sign up. These companies want people who are going to give them honest, informative feedback. Charging a small fee helps the company get serious survey takers for better results. Those willing to pay a little money to start will be more likely to take the surveys that are sent to them. This fee can easily be recouped after taking one or two surveys, always make sure that these real paid survey sites offer a strong money back guarantee.

Doing paid surveys for cash is a numbers game, the more sites you register at the better off you will be Make sure that you sign up for more than just one paid survey site. One site will not be able to send you enough surveys to make a meaningful difference. You need to sign up for as many paid survey sites as possible so that you can pick and choose the very best paying opportunities. If one site makes you $5 a week then 20 sites will make you $100 a week. A much better way of making money online!

 So the important things to remember about finding real paid surveys is to do your research and respond to each survey as quick as possible. Taking surveys at home may not make you a millionaire, but it can make you some easy cash for those little extras in life.

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Be aggressive in paying down Bad Debt, but don’t get so ambitious that you risk missing minimum payments on your mortgage, automobile, or any other secured credit accounts.

Step one: Work it out
Sit down and work out how exactly how much you owe and who you owe it to. Gather the latest bills from all  your Debt accounts.
 Find the minimum monthly payment for each account and then add these up to get an overall monthly minimum. Pledge to pay this overall minimum PLUS an additional chunk every month — enough to make a good dent in the outstanding balance of at least one account.

Next, order the latest bills according to annual interest rate charged. Apply the ” additional chunk” (beyond the minimum) to the highest rate account(s). Repeat this process monthly until the last  Debt account is paid in
Step two: Budget
Once you know how much you owe you can draw up a budget, including a schedule for repaying your debts. Be realistic and work out what you can afford to repay and still stay within your budget.
 Do this by setting up a simple spreadsheet. In one column, list your monthly bills (rent or mortgage, auto payment, utilities, cable, etc.) — everything that is a regular monthly expense. Then list variable expenses (things that change every month) like groceries, gas,  etc.

In the second column, put down the amounts for each. Be sure to put enough for things like gas and groceries, as you don’t want to be short. Also include your minimum debt payments and your emergency fund deposit.

Now, list your income sources and monthly amounts. This is now your temporary spending plan . If the expenses are greater than the income, you’ll need to make adjustments until the expenses are equal to or less than the income.

Step three: Be disciplined
Don’t borrow any more money or take on any more debts until you have repaid what you already owe.
Pay bills on time. This may be a problem for a lot of people. It’s important, if you want to get out of debt, to start paying all your bills on time.  If you have trouble remembering, try one of these methods:

•  pay bills as soon as they come in — take them to the computer and pay them online, or write out a check and prepare the envelope to be mailed the next day; or
•  set up a reminder in your calendar program to tell you when bills are due. 

Step four: Watch your daily spending.
If you find it hard to keep track of your spending and ensure that you’re sticking to your spending plan. Here’s the key:

• Take a set amount of money out of the bank at the beginning of the week.
•  give your card to a friend or family for self-keeping.
•  first do the emergency fund deposit.
• Then do the debt payments.
• Then do your monthly bills.
• Now withdraw the variable amounts in cash 

 and put all these amounts into separate envelopes. This system is  old-fashioned, but it works, as you don’t have to worry about overspending. When your envelope is empty, you can’t spend anymore.

Finally 

 Continue to cut back on non-essential spending as much as you can at this point, so you’re able to stick within your spending plan.
 Make small cutbacks  look at things you normally buy and see if you can cut out a few of them, or spend less on them. Groceries? See if you can buy house brands instead of name brands. Coffee? Make it yourself at home instead of buying out. Lunch? Try packing it to work instead of eating out.

 Another great way to get out of debt faster is to make more money. Look at ways you can make money on the side — Take 30 minutes to brainstorm. Are there ways you can start a small home based internet  business ? Sell your valuables on eBay? Start freelancing on the side? Get a part-time job? This only has to be temporary, but the more money you make, the faster you’ll get out of debt. Be sure to apply your new income to your outstanding debt and you will soon be debt free

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Suze Orman: 9 Steps to Financial Freedom Review by Jesse Chettle

 In this article we are going to learn about Suze Orman’s 9 Steps to Financial Freedom.  I will be explaining each step in full detail and then giving you my opinion on how the step is/isn’t applicable to personal finances and benefitting you. 9 Steps to Financial Freedom is a book that Suze Orman wrote in 1997.  It is now over 10 years old but has stood the test of time and is still liked by many today.

Suze Orman’s 9 Steps to Financial Freedom:

Step 1 - Seeing how your past holds the key to your financial future

In Orman’s 1st step of her book she talks about how most people have some past memory that effects the way they perceive money and finances.  In this chapter she helps you to realize that past memory and move on from it so that you can start new with your personal finances.

This steps to be a bit off and useless for most people.  There are some people who have bad memories regarding money but in general most people are just to lazy and undisciplined. For most people it is an issue of motivation and not an issue of a bad experience.  This step could be helpful to some people to get them started but it not broad enough to be applicable to a lot of people.

2 - Facing your fears and creating new truths

Here Orman makes a connection with the first step in the book.  Orman has her readers look at their past memories and see how they cause them to act toward money in their current life.  Orman suggests writing out a list of your money related fears and then realizing how to overcome these.

Again, I find this step to be more of a mental exercise for those that need it but not to be widely applicable to all people.  The first two steps in her book seem to be more related to a traditional self-help type book and not a personal finances or financial planning book.

Step 3 - Being honest with yourself

In the third step of Suze’s book she goes into detail about budgeting.  Suze suggests getting all of your past records and realizing where you money has gone over the past 2 years.  The plan is to use previous records to determine your budgeting plan for the future.

This step is extremely good and something we should all consider.  Setting up a budget to track our income in the most basic and important step in starting on a quest for financial freedom.  The only issue here is having 2 years of old records.  If you do not have 2 years go with whatever you have to make estimates for the future.

Step 4 - Being responsible to those you love

In step 4 Suze talks about setting up your money so that it can help your loved ones if you were to pass away.  The basic setup of this step tells you all about insurance, estate planning, trusts, and wills.

I find this step to be very important but it seems to be out of place.  I think that before you can begin to plan for others once you are gone you need to get your own personal finances in order.  If you do not get your own finances in order you won’t have anything to leave to your heirs and it will be useless.  Steps 4 & 5 should be switched.

Step 5 - Being respectful of yourself and your money

Here Orman focuses on helping her readers sort through and organize their own finances.  This chapter includes information on putting money towards retirement, eliminating debt, and many other things.  Orman writes how taking control of your finances can make you feel a whole lot better about yourself.

This is another one of Orman’s best steps out of the whole book.  This is the most important step in achieving financial freedom.  Without the proper savings, debt elimination, and future financial planning people cannot even start to think about financial peace.

Step 6 - Trusting yourself more than you trust others

This step talks about how people should trust themselves over others when making financial and investing decisions.  It says that people should always go with their gut-feelings too.

I find this step to be completely inaccurate.  People should always seek out the proper advice about financial planning from experts and have all moves planned out rather than going with a gut-feeling at any moment. I think that all people should have a personal financial advisor to help them with their finance and investing decisions.  It is important to note that a financial advisor is only an advisor and all final decisions should come from you.

Step 7 - Being open to receive all that you are meant to have

In this step Orman goes into detail about money not bringing happiness but the opposite being true.  It also goes into detail about the joys of donating to charities.

Here Orman contradicts many statements from the earlier in her book.  In earlier parts of her book she continually talks about happiness and feeling better about ones self but then says the opposite here.  She says that you get happy first and then you achieve financial freedom. What does that even mean?  The two are completely independent of each other in both ways.

Step 8 - Understanding the ebb and flow of the money cycle

Here Orman writes about how sometimes all the tough and bad times in our lives teach us really good lessons for our futures.  She talks about how to make the most from our past failures to see success in the future.

I think that Orman hits the nail on the head with the accuracy of her statements but again, what does this have to do with the nuts and bolts of financial planning?

Step 9 - Recognizing true wealth

In the last step of Orman’s book she writes about how the real value in life does not come from money and wealth.

Again, I feel this section contradicts some of what Suze says throughout the book but I also think that it is very true.

Overall, Suze’s 9 Steps to Financial Freedom is an excellent book for people who want to learn about the psychology of money and want to change their mindset about it.  It is more of a self-help book for these people.

Her books give very little true financial advising plans and there is not much mechanical substance to it.  I would not suggest this book for people looking for the nuts and bolts about personal finance advising.  For these people I would suggest something by a different financial advising expert.
Jesse Chettle is a self-made Personal Financial Advising expert who specializes in giving out free Personal Financial Advice over the internet.  You can visit his Personal Finance Advisor blog to learn more about The Suze Orman Show.

Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com/Article/Suze-Orman:-9-Steps-to-Financial-Freedom-Review/398025

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If you want to learn more about Suze Orman or get any of her excellent products then. enter her name in the Amzon search box, on the right to see a list of her excellent products.

For more information about solving debt and debt management, go to How to be debt free.

Regards

Alan

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debt management

There is a way to control your debt and finally become debtfree, it is not as hard as it seems, in-fact it might sound silly, but the only reason why you are in debt is because of one silly rule that we tend to forget, which is,

We spend more than we earn

To control this debt monster  you have to  start making small changes to your household expenses, and you will soon notice a difference, you do not have to do any thing that is drastic, just have a plan that you can implement TODAY and each week you will start having more disposable income in your pocket. Do not go and spend this extra cash, use it to cancel more of your debt.

To get your self out of your mountain of debt, 3 things have to be in place.

1.  have a plan -  an expense and a  payment plan.
2.  start paying off your debt.
3.  start saving plan, (emergency fund).

 You have to learn to get your finances under control, it is crucial to  plan your spending,  and because we never know when an emergency could arise you need  to create an emergency fund.

One of the most important steps, as mentioned above, is  that you need to find a way of  increasing  your  income in multiple ways, in a series of steps designed to get your finances in better shape and to pay off debt faster.
Living within your budget should be the first thing you do,  It is vitally important. But it’s only a part of the equation — spending less only gets you part of the way. Earning more gets you the rest of the way.

How can you increase your income?  Sure, anyone can create a blog, write an ebook, freelance, write a print book.  But it doesn’t always work out for everyone.

The key is to find something you’re passionate about, and pursue that with all of your heart. That might mean educating yourself, and learning new skills. That might mean finding mentors, and starting at the bottom. But when you’re passionate about something, you’re more motivated to learn and to succeed. Really pour yourself into it, and you’ll find a way.

It’s also important to seek new opportunities, and don’t let good ones get away. If the opportunity doesn’t work out, well, drop it … but at least you gave it a shot. And who knows? One or more of those opportunities might turn into pure gold.

Start implementing this 2 step approach now, to start decreasing your debt and work towards becoming DEBT FREE.

Step 1 : Resolve to spend less than you make
 Realize once and for all that if you can’t pay for it today — you can’t afford it.

Work out your Debt.

Sit down and work out how exactly how much you owe and who you owe it to. Be honest or you’ll only store up more problems for the future. If your debt repayments take more than 20% of your net monthly income you are entering a danger zone and must take steps to cut back.

Understanding how much debt you’ve accumulated is the first step toward reducing it. Use a  Debt Checker Calculator to determine the total amount of your debt. It can be difficult to confront that total, but it’s critical that you do. so you know exactly how much you owe to the world. Put them in a spreadsheet, with monthly payments, interest amounts, balances, and a running grand total of all your balances. Update it monthly as you pay off debt, and watch the overall amount go down slowly.

Create Your Plan

Put the plan for reaching your goal on paper. The Debt-to-Income Ratio Worksheet and Debt Goal Worksheet may help you set targets for monthly expenses such as utilities, groceries, medical costs, household needs, and transportation. Set realistic targets and then try to spend even less. Make hard decisions about how to squeeze more of what you earn from your budget to pay off your debt. Don’t forget to budget for the unexpected, such as replacing a broken hot water heater or emergency medical treatment.

Step 2. Distinguish between Bad Debt and OK Debt
OK Debt has an interest rate well under 10% — preferably with some tax advantages to boot. In the best case, what you bought with borrowed funds will appreciate in value. Home mortgages and student loans are examples of OK Debt. Automobile loans are on the border: They often satisfy the low-rate piece, but automobiles almost never appreciate in value. Bad Debt is everything else — from your Gold credit card to the 29% loan from Lenny’s Kwik Kash.

 Cut up store cards
Store cards charge by far the highest rates for credit, so if you’re finding it hard to manage these debts throw away your cards now to avoid temptation.
You’ll pay well over the odds for most store cards - it’s better to pay cash if you can. For those items you can’t pay cash for, shop around for the best deals - the market is competitive, so there are some excellent interest free credit offers around. It is also worth taking a look on the internet as many products are offered there more cheaply. 
 
Cancel the credit card.

Cancelling your credit card is  crucial in getting out of debt, credit cards are extremely tempting, and with the high interest, they can be very dangerous. It is possible to use them wisely and even profit from using them - however, most people don’t use them that way, so it’s better to just cancel the card.

Eliminate non-essential expenses.

You need to cut back on luxuries,  eliminate everything you do not need: cable TV,  eating out, going to the movies (except on rare occasions), alcohol, cigarettes, buying new clothes (except when really needed), etc. Re-learn what it is like to live frugally. This is an important aspect of being debt Free.

Create a  spending plan.

Most people don’t like to use the word “budget”  so use a more neutral  term like “spending plan”, because it conjures images of creating a plan to achieve a goal, taking action, and doing something about your problems. Nevertheless, both concepts are essential the same: figure out how much you make, and consciously decide how much you want to spend  this month.

Instead of doing a monthly budget try  a  paycheck budget, it is much more specific, you then can see exactly how far your paycheck can stretch.

Anyway, the spending plan is essential. You have to decide where your money is going to go before you actually spend it. Remember it was spending without a plan that  got you  into trouble. A plan should be flexible, and have a little manoeuvre, because life changes.

Finally
Always Track Your Spending—Using the plan you’ve developed, track your spending carefully so you can look for additional ways to save. The more money you can apply to your debt each month, the sooner you should be out of debt. If you need more help with your Debt, please see the following list of  Debt Advice Centres, which can really be beneficial in getting rid of your Debt Monster. 

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how to save money

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At one time or another, if you have access to the internet, you will be asked  to participate in a survey of some sort. Most of us, at least at first, actually go through the whole process and actually finish a survey or two.

However like with most “home Based Jobs on the internet”, you need to look out for the scams and scam artists, there are  many questionable, “middleman” paid survey sites that are out there poisoning the well, by hyping easy money for participating in online marketing research from home.

When there’s competition for selling an easy-money scheme working from home, you can bet that there’s also exaggeration, if not outright scams.

How to spot a Paid Online Survey SCAM.
The bottom line is, if the hype for online paid surveys sounds too good to be true, it likely is. That’s the safest way to screen out “offers” that hype big rewards for small investments of time or money. Don’t be fooled by:

• Testimonials - Scam artists and conman write these for scams, not satisfied customers.
•  Documented Proof - Some questionable paid survey sites provide checks and other documented replications as “proof.” But just because someone made money at least once, doesn’t mean that you will.
•  Guarantees - Don’t believe guarantees that promise the Moon. Paid survey sites can’t possibly guarantee you much of anything, except that they’ll refund your fees if you’re not satisfied.

How to find the correct Paid Survey sites.
Be wary of conducting business with sites that list only email or PO box addresses for questions and other matters, as they might be fly-by-night, paid survey scams.

Perform “whois” lookups
 to reveal if paid survey sites were registered by proxy. If so, be wary of doing business with them too. Site owners might be hiding their contact information behind proxy services, because they’re running paid survey scams. Whois lookups will also tell you if different sites were launched by the same owners (unless they were registered by proxy). If so, be wary about that too. Owners might have launched multiple sites to make their “industry” appear to be more legit, dupe you into buying the same list of paid surveys more than once, or both.

Check with the BBB.org

 for complaints against specific online paid survey sites and their owners. But, be aware that, just because there are no complaints, it doesn’t mean that all who have conducted business with the sites are 100-percent satisfied. It just means that no one has yet complained to the BBB about those specific sites. More about that is below.

Browse scam forums,
 such as Scam.com and RipOffReport.com, for messages from consumers who think they’ve been duped by online paid survey scams. But, proceed with caution. Some messages are posted by ropers and shills pretending to “rescue” those who’ve been duped by paid survey scams or who are looking to avoid it.

If you want to have a look at making some extra money by doing Paid Online Surveys then check these opportunities out, all the products have been checked and are safe to use.

Hi

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If you’re just getting started with paid surveys in your home based internet business  then this article will serve as a good foundation to help you get started. Even if you’re experienced making money in your home based internet business, you may learn some new things that will help you in the future.

 Thousands of people right now are making money  working from home, by doing Paid surveys. Regardless of what you may have heard, you can earn money with online surveys. It’s just a matter of finding the best survey sites on the Internet.

The great thing about the internet is that there are so many ways to make money and nothing preventing you from venturing into several paths. While taking paid online surveys is not going to get you rich, it is another simple way to bring in cash. Cash that can be used to buy other programs or pay for things like web hosting etc.

 6 reasons you should consider doing paid online surveys.

1. Thousands of  online surveys available.
Perhaps the best thing about taking paid online surveys is that there are thousands of surveys to be filled out. As long as companies want honest opinions from people, there will be work for you. And because of the constant need to get ahead of competitors, paid surveys are on the rise.

2. Simple to Complete.
A majority of the paid surveys offered on the internet are extremely easy to fill out and require no technical experience or expertise in anything. All the companies are looking for is an honest opinion about something they sell or are considering selling. This allows anybody to jump on the internet and quickly make some money working from home

3. Limited risk.
The only real risk you face with paid online surveys is filling out surveys for companies that are a scam. The result is you not getting paid for less than an hour of work. You do not have to worry about investing a great deal of money into something that is going to fail and do not have to worry about the company going under.

4. Quick.
A typical survey should take no longer than 10 to 15 minutes to complete. You can fill out several surveys in a couple of hours and make a decent amount of money. The last thing you want to do is spend hours filling out a survey and take away time from your other ventures.

5. No binding contracts.
When you get into paid online surveys, there are no contracts or anything tying you down. If you find that filling out surveys is just not for you, you can quit at any time. There are no contracts between companies either, so you can fill out as many surveys for different companies as you like.

6. Treat this as a Proper Business.
Run your paid survey work in a businesslike manner. Get an email address just for surveys, check your inbox daily. When you are offered surveys respond promptly, fill the questionnaires out fully, answer the questions to the best of your ability.

 Although the pay is not going to get you rich, it is another simple way to make money on the internet in your own internet home based business.

Finally

One of the best ways to get started with paid online surveys is with CASHCRATE. The best part about this program is that you can see how much money you are making as you complete each section.
Do all this right and you can expect to be rewarded by a nice income stream from taking surveys and getting paid for it. Your payment will arrive in the form of checks coming in the mail each month.

One of the problems with starting a Home Internet Business, ( if you are not usinga FREE option) is that you need money to pay for monthly costs like hosting and autoresponder fees.

Even though these fees are not huge, the idea is to start a quick income stream that will pay these costs,  I have just found a fantatic opportunity called CASHCRATE.

To learn more about CashCrate, please read the product review below.

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