Should You Consolidate Debt With 0% Balance Transfer Credit Card Offers?

Consolidation Loans For People with Bad Credit With the new CARD act, a lot of card companies started to change their business models which helped in making zero percent credit card balance transfers a very rare commodity according to the wall street journal. But there are still a few and when properly executed, they can [...]

The post Should You Consolidate Debt With 0% Balance Transfer Credit Card Offers? appeared first on legal debt help online.

Source: http://www.legaldebthelponline.com/2012/06/28/should-you-consolidate-debt-with-0-balance-transfer-credit-card-offers/

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Ewan McGregor Says He'd Return For 'Star Wars' Episode 7

Obi wan kenobi ewan mcgregor

It's not only the classic "Star Wars" cast who say they would return for Disney's franchise reboot. 

Some newer cast members wouldn't mind reprising their characters on the big screen, too.

Ewan McGregor, who starred in prequel episodes I, II, and III told Digital Spy he'd be glad to return as Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi.

"Yeah of course. If they need me, yeah, I'd be happy," said McGregor.

Since "Star Wars" McGregor went on to "I Love You Phillip Morris," "Angels & Demons," and more recently, "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen."

Watch the interview below:

SEE ALSO: The most expensive movies ever made >

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/ZeZNcbIyFsk/ewan-mcgregor-says-hed-return-for-star-wars-episode-7-2012-12

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5 Steps to a Successful Stewardship Ministry

Over the past decade, Gateway Church has developed a stewardship ministry that serves more than 3,000 people a year with 170 stewardship classes. The charge is led by Gunnar Johnson, who is often asked: ?What does it take to develop and maintain a successful stewardship ministry??

Gunnar says it?s really an easy ministry to keep running if you start with a little bit of guidance on the front end. Too many churches start off just thinking in terms of curriculum. People from the congregation aren?t as receptive to this approach because the church is often violating the very principles they are teaching.

Gunnar has a passion to help other churches create thriving stewardship ministries like the one Gateway enjoys, so he has shared five steps that have helped to make theirs so successful:

1. Determining Vision

Gunnar said it's key for the senior leader to be involved in this discussion. The vision of the stewardship ministry must tie into the church?s other ministries from the get-go. Gateway?s pastor had a vision for the people of the church to be radical givers and good stewards. At the same time, God had spoken to Gunnar about building a comprehensive stewardship ministry. Their vision was birthed out of 1 Timothy 6:17?19:

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

These verses lay out exactly what good stewardship looks like: People would be generous, have margin, and put their faith and hope in God. They would not be materialistic, and they would be building up their lives in contentment and serving the Kingdom.

?I think each church has its own unique vision,? Gunnar said. ?There?s not a single mission statement for every church. The leaders of the church have to get together and decide: How are we going to teach on money? They have to determine it from the head. It?s not about starting a class because we should or because giving is down.?

2. Creating Mission

This is when you ask: ?Why are we here? What are we doing? What is our purpose?? Gunnar says mission and vision are easily confused. Gateway sees their mission as being the Great Commission. ?We are going to launch these people out to do what God wants them to do. Our mission isn?t just to teach them biblical principles, it?s to get them active in their faith,? he said. ?At the end of all of our lives, each one of us has a date with Christ. I want every person in our church to hear, ?Well done, good and faithful servant,? because they have been faithful with their time, talent, treasure.?

3. Setting Objectives

Now it?s time to create something you can put your hands on and answer, ?How can we actually do this?? Objectives need to be meaningful, measurable, manageable.

Gunnar explained Gateway?s five straightforward stewardship objectives:

  • To create givers: Not so we can raise the budget or bring in more money, but because God does something in people?s lives when they allow Him to change their perspective about money.
  • To have Christ-centered stewards: I don?t want them to just get wealthy. If they do, I?m okay with that. But whether they have a lot or a little, I want them to be Christ-centered and know what God has purposed them to do with money.
  • For people to be biblically literate: We want them to know what the Scriptures say?where it is and how to do it. Theories come and go. If someone comes in and tries to sell them a bill of goods, we want them to know how it violates biblical principles. If they are being told to leverage debt, they?ll know the truth of Proverbs 22:7 that tells us, ?The borrower is the slave of the lender.?
  • For people to be debt-free: Debt chains us to our past and robs us of our future. If I open a credit card to buy Christmas gifts, it chains me to that year?s Christmas and robs me of what God may have for me. I don?t want the mistakes of my past to hinder my future. That?s what inspires me about being a Christ follower. He gives us the opportunity to erase the past: sin debt and financial debt.
  • For people to be savers: The Bible tells us that wise people save money. A debtor loses opportunities, but a saver is ready when God presents them.

4. Building a Strategy

This is when you determine how, when and where you will meet your objectives. Now is the time to talk about the curriculums out there and how they might fit in. Gateway categorizes people as struggling, stable, solid, or surplus and ministers to each of those groups in different ways. For the struggling it?s a compassionate yet accountable process of benevolence. For the stable and solid, they offer all kinds of classes with practical application. Those with surplus are treated differently, but not better because they have wealth. They experience a time-intensive, slow-going process that helps them become good managers of their wealth.

5. Determine Your Tactics

This is where you lay out your plan. For example, Gunnar said they are planning to run Financial Peace University (FPU) in the spring. He knows how many memberships he needs to buy, has the room secured, a team to run it, registration set up. They do this for each area of their strategy. It?s a calendar-heavy step, and a lot of work goes into it based on their overarching visions and goals.

Once you work through these five steps, you can pull back at any time and ask: Are we meeting the goals we?ve set? Things are going to change from year to year, and that?s okay. ?God will give us a new revelation and call our church to do that, and we?ll move into that,? Gunnar said. ?But creating a healthy stewardship ministry is much deeper than just starting a class. ?

By laying a foundation of interconnectedness with other ministries with leadership support, you will invite a spirit of unity, and where there is unity, there is blessing.

Dave Ramsey has created a program called Momentum to lock arms with churches that want to do just that. 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/5-steps-to-a-successful-stewardship-ministry/lifeandmoney_church

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Banks Can Boost Profits Without Raising Fees On Its Poorest Customers

Sallie KrawcheckThis post originally appeared on LinkedIn. Follow Sallie on LinkedIn

The topic of banks increasing fees on unprofitable "low balance" (ie, low income) customers is back in the news.

Here’s an idea for the banks: Don’t. And never do.

Instead, think about the issue in a completely different way:

Think of the provision of basic banking services as a valuable public and community service you provide for some group of these low-income individuals.

Think about it, categorize it, quantify it, analyze it, talk about it….heck, crow about it….in the same vein as the (very significant) donations you make to non-profits and the community service days you organize your employees to participate in (but without the matching bank t-shirts and the annual report photographer on hand).

Think about it as a return you provide to taxpayers for the explicit and implicit public support banks receive.

And think about it as a means of bringing your formal “Corporate Value Statements” – the part about making the communities in which you operate better places – to life in a tangible fashion.

The good news: Don’t think about it as costing you much, as the fixed costs for your banking infrastructure are already in place. And the profitability on these customers is already low.

(The bad news: Increasing your returns for shareholders, in this interest rate environment, likely isn’t going to be as easy as just charging the same customers more for the same services. Yes, you can cut costs. But at some point, it’s also going to require the hard work of great customer service and innovation.)

One other thought: those community service days you organize are good. It’s hard to argue against cleaning up parks and helping build homes. But an even greater impact could be to help with one of our country’s greatest needs by doing what you do: providing financial education and financial guidance….in this case not to the wealthy, but to struggling families. If every bank and Wall Street employee contributed just one day a year to this, the impact to low-income families could be life-changing, and the impact to our country could be extraordinary. And, check your internal employee surveys: your employees want to be part of the solution.

Let’s face it: the big banks are not one sharp advertising campaign away from restoring their reputations. Instead, the smart management teams will reframe the issue. They will fundamentally rethink how they can employ their unique attributes – their branch systems, the expertise of their employees – to tangibly improve their communities and help with the challenges those communities are facing, thus improving their own standing. While I understand the pressure of the quarterly earnings cycle (yes, learned the hard way), I’ve also seen that making long-term investments of this type can pay off surprisingly quickly

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/puXrgKFZihc/banks-can-increase-returns-by-not-raising-fees-on-low-income-customers-2012-12

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EIA: Here's What Oil Prices Will Do For The Next 30 Years

The Energy Information Administration (run by the Energy department) just released its initial Annual Energy Outlook for 2013.

The big news: the agency sees Brent spot prices declining to $96 into 2015 — but then exploding to $163 in 2040.

Here's the chart:

aeo 2013 energy

And here are their assumptions:

  • Average economic growth of 1.8 percent per year for major U.S. trading partners
  • Average annual economic growth in other U.S. trading partners of 4.0 percent
  • Declining liquid fuels consumption per unit of GDP
  • The OPEC market share of total liquid fuels production remains at approximately 40 to 45 percent over the projection period
  • Production from non-OPEC countries increases to levels above those in last year's annual energy outlook

SEE MORE: Take A Tour Of The Most Profitable Oil Play In The World >

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/4yu3_Uk-C1I/energy-department-oil-projections-2012-12

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The Cost Of Debt Consolidation

Best Credit Card Consolidation Companies Opting for a debt consolidation can be a great solution if you are looking for a way to settle your debts, get lower monthly payments or maybe low interest rates. Don’t just sign any documents without reading and understanding the terms. Be sure you have read every clause and you [...]

The post The Cost Of Debt Consolidation appeared first on legal debt help online.

Source: http://www.legaldebthelponline.com/2012/06/30/the-cost-of-debt-consolidation/

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Guilt Makes For A Delicious Addition To Forbidden Foods When You?re On A Diet

When all you want, all you need is just a bite of smooth, creamy, calorie-laden chocolate ice cream and you’re not supposed to have it for whatever reason (dieting, it doesn’t belong to you), giving in to that impulse feel so guilty. And it’s so tasty, partly because it is forbidden, says a new study. Guilt makes for quite a … [More]

Source: http://consumerist.com/2012/12/04/guilt-makes-for-a-delicious-addition-to-forbidden-foods-when-youre-on-a-diet/

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Benefits of Credit Card Debt Consolidation

Consolidation Loans with Bad Credit Is debt consolidation a good solution for my credit card debts? Debtors, upon realizing that in a few years their credit cards would have accumulated thousands of dollars through interests ask the same question. Credit card purchases, in many instances are actually more expensive because of high interest rates. Someone [...]

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Source: http://www.legaldebthelponline.com/2012/06/29/benefits-of-credit-card-debt-consolidation/

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Why Paying Celebrities To Lose Weight Is A Risky Endeavor

This may come as a shock to some, but celebrities are real people. It’s true! They might have a lot of money and herds of photographers following them, but they also wear sweatpants and eat food just like us. Their status as actual, corporeal people has led to a problem for the sellers of weight-loss products: what happens if … [More]

Source: http://consumerist.com/2012/12/04/why-paying-celebrities-to-lose-weight-is-a-risky-endeavor/

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