Thursday, April 24, 2008

Be On The Offensive To Credit Cards

Stopped by a cool blog called Debt Free Hispanic, left a comment and thought I'd share it

@-Debt Free, just recently became debt free as well and I can't stand it whenever I call Citibank for something; they are always pitching this $10,000 dollar personal loan to me, it always gets me pissed off. So to get back at them I use there credit cards for all the purchases I would have made anyway and rack up on their cash back. I've already made over $100 from my Chase Freedom and I love getting 5% off my gas from Discover. If you can resist the temptation to use those cards for un-needed purchases then take advantage of the credit agencies by playing them at their own game.

I especially like the gas incentive. If your getting 5% back, that's like paying $3.57 for gasoline that costs $3.75 per gallon. If one gas station was selling gas for $3.57 and another for $3.75 across the street, deciding which gas station to patronize would be an easy decision. Just be sure to pay that card off asap; if you can, pay the card the next time your online even though the CC company hasn't asked for it yet.

BTW - the link to the gas card I'm talking about

Monday, April 14, 2008

How To Spend Other People's Money

It was recently my birthday, a side affect of this occurrence is people close to me decide they want to buy me stuff. Usually people buy things they think are meaningful and what usually happens is they either collect dust (what they were destined to do in the first place) or are regifted.
This doesn't happen in my family because we have an extremely evolved gift giving practice. When the individual who's birthday it is, is asked what they want, they simple reply with the item and/or place to purchase the gift or they just request cash. This negates having the gift giving party wasting time, attention, and energy giving a gift that wasn't needed or even wanted. Their are exceptions of course, like a very thoughtful gift from my sister (Quicken Software) which she thought I would want but wasn't specifically asked for. She is of course going to buy the sunglasses I requested of her. Chillies Eye Gear (a.k.a Pepper's Eyeware) are great by the way, cheap polarized lenses, that you won't kick yourself for breaking or loosing them because their so inexpensive.
Another example of intelligent gift giving practices my family uses would be how I'm waiting until June (Father's Day) to purchase tools because they will be on sale like they are every year, instead of right now. The only problem with this one is my Grandma loves to give and waiting until June to give me my birthday gift maybe requesting to much ; ).

Friday, April 4, 2008

The Story

Lets start at the beginning. I was born to middle class parents, my father a musician and my mother a jack of all trades, since I can remember my mothers cleaned houses, been an aerobics instructor/personal training and now an English teacher after going back to completer her second masters degree. I was raised with the "wisdom" of if you want money you need to work for it. Despite the infinite wisdom of my parents and family I also had a God given revelation that these people have no idea what their talking about because they don't have any money!

It wasn't until I graduated from college that I realized I don't want a middle class lifestyle and more importantly it was possible to learn how to make money, not just a little but the kind that gives you the ability to buy Lamborghini's.

From college I basically learned one key piece of information. Know what you want (financial freedom) find someone who has the same thing and is willing to tell you how they got it (Books, courses, blogs, personal advice, if it's your parents, great!) and fearlessly execute your plan. I'm in the process now of fearlessly executing my plan and look forward to financial freedom.

In case you were wondering, financial freedom = buying Lamborghini's