What to Do If You Can't Pay Your Debt

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Every day, many people sit at the table staring at a stack of bills they simply cannot afford to pay. Some don't even have to open the envelopes to know it's just another creditor asking for money. It's easy to get in over your head with debt, but much harder to find a way out of debt. When you can barely afford to pay your debt, it's time to make some crucial decisions. Prioritize!

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CHART OF THE DAY: The Internet Has A Short Attention Span


The Internet has a short attention span.

According to research by link-shortening service Bit.ly, click rates drop by half after about three hours for links posted on Twitter, Facebook, and regular Web pages (direct). For hot news stories, the dropoff is even faster -- within the first five minutes, those links get half the clicks they'll ever receive.

YouTube has a much longer half-life -- around 7 hours. That's probably because watching a video requires more time and concentration, and can't be done as easily at work.

chart of the day, lifespan of a link, sep 2011

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Here Is A List Of Things Samsung Is NOT Buying

Qaddafi's Heat Seeking Missiles And Other Notorious Missing Weapons From History


Surface-to-air missiles

Massive amounts of surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) have vanished from Libyan weapon stockpiles and flooded local markets to such a degree that prices for the illegal arms are actually dropping.

Check out the missing weapons >

According to The New York Times, at least one weapons cache at a schoolbook warehouse had been ransacked, with numerous SA-7 and newer SA-24 missiles missing. 

While international forces find the threat from these weapons credible, France has dispatched additional security to numerous civilian airports, it's impossible to secure all the weapons before falling into dealers hands.

There is some good news, however, the chemical weapons and poison gas belonging to Qaddafi appear to be safe.

This isn't the first time numerous or especially potent weapons have disappeared or gone unaccounted for.

From small-arms to nuclear bombs, nearly every kind of weapon you can think of has been lost by one nation or another.

U.S. nuclear weapons

The United States has lost at least 8 and possibly as many as 11 nuclear bombs in accidents. Most of these have vanished into the sea, but the worrying part is that they were never recovered.

200,000 American guns in Iraq

More than 200,000 rifles and pistols and 250,000 pieces of body armor and helmets are unaccounted for in Iraq. The equipment, given by the United States to the Iraqi army, could be stolen, in the hands of insurgents, or still being used by the Iraqi army, but nobody knows for certain.

USSR suitcase nukes and weapons-grade plutonium

Former Russian National Security Adviser Aleksandr Lebed, in an interview with 60 Minutes in 1997, claimed that the USSR had produced 250 suitcase-sized nuclear bombs and that 100 of them were unaccounted for. His claims were denied or discounted by a number of other former USSR officials, but Lebed stood by them.

Less disputed is the fact that weapons-grade uranium and plutonium remain stockpiled in Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, and Russian officials have broken up hundreds of smuggling rings surrounding the material since the dissolution of the USSR.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Talking To Your Teenage Girl About Finance


Girls teens shopping

If you have a teen girl in your life, you're already all too familiar with how much she thinks about the future.

She’s probably spending a lot of time looking at colleges and career choices.

Has she given any thought to her financial future?

If that seems like too much responsibility too fast, it shouldn’t. Kids should start learning about smart money management in elementary school, and it’s not as complicated as it sounds.

Running a lemonade stand?

Sorting Monopoly money?

It all counts.

However, the high school years are an especially important time to review money management skills with your teen, because she’s close to the age when she can open her own bank account or apply for her first credit card.

Women lag behind men in financial literacy. If your teen girl's age is not enough of a reason for her to learn more about money, consider the unsettling financial literacy statistics for women. Regardless of race and socioeconomic status, women still lag behind men in their knowledge of personal finance and make less money than they do. The good news? They also make better financial choices when they learn money management skills from their families. That’s where you come in. And even if your teen doesn't dream of trading on Wall Street, she’s probably more interested in money than you might think. The recession has caused many more teens (both boys and girls) to become more interested in smart money management strategies.

She knows more than you think...but not enough. Charles Schwab conducts an annual Teens and Money Survey. In 2011, they polled more than 1,000 teens 16 to 18 years old. The results surprised many people, especially when they compared them to the 2007 survey. Many more teens reported interest in saving money and learning about it. Seventy-three percent said they learned about the importance of emergency savings from the recession, and 77 percent now consider themselves "big savers" instead of "big spenders." However, the surveys also show notable declines in financial literacy, especially for 18-year-olds. In 2011, only 32 percent said they knew how credit card interest rates and fees work, down from 43 percent, and 39 percent knew how to balance a checkbook or check the accuracy of a bank statement, down from 64 percent.

Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz, senior vice president of Schwab Community Services, believes that the recession has made more young people realize they don't know as much about finance as they thought. If you’re wondering why they aren’t teaching this stuff in school, it’s time to check and see if your teen’s high school even offers an economics class. According to the National Council for Economic Education, as of 2007, only 17 states require high school students to take an economics class to graduate, and only 7 require a class in personal finance.

Get her a bank account (if you haven’t already). Approximately half of teens already have a bank account or student credit card. With proper guidance, a debit card is an excellent way for your teen girl to practice managing her finances. If she doesn’t have a bank account, get her one. Many banks, including Wells Fargo and Union Bank, offer checking accounts for teens 13 and older; you’ll just have to co-sign. Check with your local bank or credit union to see if they offer similar programs. Try to choose a “teen account” to get the flexibility your teen is likely to need. These are less likely to require a minimum balance of $1,500 (thank goodness), and may even automatically convert to a regular savings account when your teen turns 18. Use the same discretion as you would when opening a bank account for yourself. You both will learn more by doing research together.

Encourage her to get involved. Your teen girl will learn so much more about money management by working on projects of her own. If she’s so inclined, encourage her to get involved in a larger organization, whether it’s through school, church, a local club, or a national club. Below are two of many national organizations that promote financial literacy for girls.

Girls Inc. Economic Literacy Program. Girls Inc. provides girl-centered programing for girls ages 6 to 18, and one of their core components is their economic literacy program. The Equal Earners, Savvy Spenders program is for girls ages 12 to 14, and the Futures and Options program is for girls ages 15 to 18.

Girls Scouts USA. Those yummy Girl Scout cookies are more than just a fundraising tool; they’re also a key part of the Girl Scout financial literacy curriculum. During cookie season, the girls are actively involved in all the business aspects of the cookie business, including marketing strategies, budgeting, and bookkeeping.

This post originally appeared at U.S. News and World Report.

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TIRED OF THE SPIN? More People* Tuned Into CNN Following Obama's Speech Than Maddow Or Hannity


piers anderson

This is telling.

Following President Obama's big address on jobs before a joint session of Congress -- during which he encouraged (directed) the GOP to stop politicizing and cooperate -- more viewers in the (much-coveted) demo (25-54) tuned into Piers Morgan's coverage on CNN than did to either Rachel Maddow or Sean Hannity.

That second result is particularly stunning considering the powerhouse ratings Fox News usually enjoys night in and night out.

 

Net 9PM Total Viewers (000s) Demo Viewers (000s)  
FNC Hannity  2,213  468  
CNN Piers Morgan Tonight  1,418  476  
MSNBC Rachel Maddow Show  979  313  

 

It's worth noting that significantly more people watched the actual speech on Fox News, but by 9pm had clicked away and apparently over to CNN.  (A fact the GOP may want to take note of since during that hour Hannity was featuring interviews and speech reactions with House majority leader Eric Cantor and GOP Senator Rand Paul.)

Another contributing factor may have been the news that there was evidence of a new terrorist threat tied to the Sept. 11th anniversary and aimed at Washington and New York.  As we've seen time and again this year viewers tend to turn to CNN for breaking news coverage.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/2y3SW0UmPiw/piers-morgan-obama-maddow-hannity-2011-9

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Why Jon Acuff Quit His Last Job: Reason 5


In Jon Acuff?s new book, Quitter, he explains how constantly leaving one job for another never led to anything different or worthwhile. So how did he and his wife decide to quit and go to work for Dave Ramsey? How did he know it was time to quit his day job and pursue his dream job? Reason 5 is below. Check out Reason 4 here.

We had the money to move and jump to a new job that wouldn?t initially pay as well as my old one.

We could afford to move. We could pay to put new carpet in our Atlanta home to replace the muted green look the lady before us chose. We could afford to have the entire interior painted so we could sell the house in the middle of a horrible economy. We could afford the first month?s rent and security deposit on a rental house in Nashville. We could afford three months of temporary health insurance while we waited for my 90-day probationary period to be over.

We could do all those things and many more that often come with a big dream and a big move, because we had our finances in order. How? Two things really. The first is that I hustled on freelance gigs and we had the patience to pay off our bills. We wanted money to fund our dreams, not limit them, and we worked hard to financially remove things that stood in the way.

The second big thing was that in 2004, years before I worked for Dave Ramsey, we read his book The Total Money Makeover. That book dramatically changed the way we looked at money and, unbeknownst to us at the time, allowed us to financially follow our dream years later. Clearly I?m biased about that book, but I don?t get any money for recommending it. If I did, I would have mentioned it a few thousand times already and probably had the title sewn into my pants like NASCAR. Nonetheless, I assure you it?s a great read and can play a big role in dream pursuit.

Read Quitter for more advice on the right way to quit your day job in pursuit of your dream job.

Excerpted from Quitter by Jon Acuff. Copyright 2011 by Lampo Licensing, LLC. Published by The Lampo Press. Used with permission.

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Source: http://www.daveramsey.com/article/why-jon-acuff-quit-his-last-job-reason-5/lifeandmoney_career

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God-Sized Goals Met at Northland

When Marc McMurrin, Executive Director of Operations, walked into his pastor?s office at Northland, A Church Distributed, he thought he had just the plan they needed to improve the church?s finances?a well thought-out capital campaign to eliminate the church?s debt in three years. But Pastor Joel Hunter said he just didn?t feel like it was the right time for that sort of thing; he felt they needed something totally different. Surprised, Marc went back to the drawing board. Soon after, a Financial Peace University (FPU) volunteer from the congregation encouraged him to attend Dave Ramsey?s Momentum training.

Marc decided to make the trip from Longwood, Florida, to Nashville for the workshop just to see what it was all about and explore new stewardship-related options to present. He discovered that it is a radical approach to financial discipleship that starts with teaching people how to manage money wisely. As the families in the church turn their finances around, the church?s finances follow as a natural result. When Marc found out that Momentum included setting a goal of putting 80% of the congregation through FPU at one time, he was overwhelmed. While he was fired up by what he learned at the workshop, he was concerned it might be too much of an undertaking for a congregation of 15,000, unless he had unanimous support from leadership.

When he took what he learned at the Momentum workshop to Pastor Joel, he didn?t know if it would fly. But as soon as he explained Momentum to Pastor Joel, he was on board. This was just the out-of-the-box approach they?d been looking for. The elders followed suit in unanimous agreement. Knowing what a big deal this journey would be, Marc told them from the start: ?The only way this will work is if, from the top down, we are all on board encouraging the congregation to make this happen.?

Momentum in Motion

Church leaders met with the elders to lay out a plan that included having 500 FPU small groups going on across the city at the same time. This was a huge undertaking for a church that did not have small groups in place before Momentum! ?It?s always good to set a goal bigger than you think you can attain, because then you?re leaving enough room for God to show up.?

That?s exactly what happened. Every church leader committed to lead or participate in FPU. The majority of senior leaders led a class.?Don?t just get leaders to buy in?ask for their participation,? Marc said. When they recruited small-group hosts from the congregation, the response was unbelievable?200 more people than they needed volunteered, for a total of 700 volunteers! The leadership had cast the vision convincingly. They assured people that all they needed to do was make themselves available to what God might do; after that, it was as simple as turning on a coffee pot, playing a DVD, and asking prepared questions to the group. Check out this video Northland put together to help recruit FPU small-group hosts.

The next question the leaders faced was how to fill these small groups. They knew that one of the most critical things was to have major support from the senior pastor from the pulpit. ?A senior leader has to rally everyone for this to work,? Marc said.

To kick things off, Pastor Joel preached a message on money as part of a year-long series on ?Breaking Free From Bondage.? People began to respond by signing up for FPU in droves. They reached out into the community and invited neighbors and friends. One of the neatest things that happened was neighbors began realizing for the first time that they attended the same church and got into groups together!

The journey wasn?t without its hitches, but the Northland team anticipated them and made plans to overcome hurdles. One way they showed the congregation how seriously they were taking the initiative was by subsidizing the cost of the FPU membership for every family participating. They also spread class start dates over a three-week period so that late adopters would be able to join in. They carefully created their small-group infrastructure for Momentum to ensure that it would last past their churchwide FPU classes.

Lasting Payoff

Now that testimonies of life change are rolling in continuously, the leaders of Northland know their hard work was worth it. They?ve heard phenomenal stories on financial, spiritual and community-building levels.

On top of that, the economic climate at Northland has improved for the first time since the national downturn. While they were affected by the hurting economy, as most churches have been, they were recently able to report some great news to their congregation: Expenses are down and giving is up! Giving increased from 92% of the budget in 2010 to 99% of the budget in 2011, even in the midst of a down economy.

With a fundraising background, Marc has never been afraid to ask people for money when it comes to building the Kingdom. Yet he believes it?s vital to understand that fundraising and stewardship are not the same thing. ?Fundraising can?t be successful unless you?ve done the stewardship part first.?

A traditional capital campaign is based around asking people to give sacrificially. Momentum is more of what Marc calls a ?reverse campaign.? It?s doing something for the people to get them out of debt. Then, the byproduct is they care about getting the church out of debt.

He believes it?s important that you treat people as individuals and not a program. ??Get involved in my stewardship program? is the wrong approach,? he said. ?Rather, ?How can I come alongside you to help you and your stewardship efforts???

The first run of FPU was just the beginning. Northland continues to offer FPU regularly and encourages FPU grads to continue by taking more classes, such as Howard Dayton?s new curriculum, Marriage and Money God?s Way.

?It?s been a great privilege for us to partner with Dave to get the tools in people?s hands to help them do it themselves.?

Dave Ramsey has created a program called Momentum to help churches teach their congregations what it means to live out biblical generosity. Momentum is all about bringing people back to God?s view of money management and cultivating a culture of lasting generosity. Discover today how Momentum can help your congregation.

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Source: http://www.daveramsey.com/article/god-sized-goals-met-at-northland/lifeandmoney_church

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