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An Emergency Fund in Action: Our $500 Weekend

An Emergency Fund in Action: Our $500 Weekend
Direct your browser to just about any personal finance blog, and you’ll be able to find at least one post about emergency funds: why you should have one, how to build it, when you should start, and exactly how much (or how little) you should sock away. What I don’t see a lot of is emergency funds being used for, you know, emergencies. (A planned car purchase is not an emergency.) Maybe they don’t have many emergencies, or perhaps personal finance bloggers aren’t willing to admit it when their warranties expire. Whatever. Here’s some real life for you.Since the day we bought this house, the to-do list has included replacement of the basement door. It’s warped and in sad shape. The jam is a little rotten, and it lets in water during really heavy rain. Still, it opens and closes and behaves in a sufficiently door-like manner that we weren’t all THAT worried about it, until today. Today, that basement door went from a “to-do” to a “to-do now“. You see, Friday night, Boo (the resident cat and benevolent overlord) caught a mouse.For Boo, this isn’t a particularly unusual act. She’s a retired member of a hardware store extermination team, and it probably felt pretty good to shake the dust off the old stalk-n-pounce skills. She is a master mouser. For us, this isn’t so good. Nobody wants mice in their house. It’s just… oooky. *shivers*Dani did some research, and we poked around our basement, and decided that the first important step was to either fix or replace the back door to eliminate the wide gap at the bottom (and the ham-handed repairs of the previous owner). If you have mice, it seems, the first step to eliminating them is to cut off their points of entry. If you have any sort of holes in your house, it’s recommended that you stuff them with steel wool — apparently, mice don’t like the texture, so they won’t chew through it. Mice can enter the house through any hole larger than a US dime — like the yawning gap under our basement door.

Protect yourself against identity theft09Apr08

Protect yourself against identity theft09Apr08
Identity theft is when someone uses, without permission, your personal information in order to commit any frauds or crimes. Identity theft is a felony that is becoming more and more common. That is because some of us are not very careful with personal information, making the job easier for those trying to steel our identity. We should always be careful with information like Social Security number, credit card number, birth date, employment information, driver’s license number, etc., because if they enter into the wrong hands the consequences can be very serious. People that have experienced identity theft spend months trying to repair what others have damaged, and in the meantime they cannot get a loan or lose a job opportunity or, sometimes, they can get arrested for something they didn’t do.

7/3/08

I want to be a doctor, but let me steal your credit card first


Apparently, two guys in east haven’t developed enough common sense to know that these days, if you steal a credit card and attempt to use it you’re probably going to get caught. They attempted to buy an Xbox at Wal-Mart with it, but that part isn’t anywhere near as interesting as how they attempted to get away with it.

The story goes something like this: I might have been the guy in the surveillance tape, Alexander Brothers, criminal #1 told police. Might have been? Either you went to Wal-Mart or not; either you bought an Xbox or not. Then he told the pitiful story about being at a party and a friend asking him to go to the store and buy an Xbox, handing over a credit card to use. Since when do people decide they need a game system in the middle of a party? He admitted it wasn’t true, I guess his conscience got to him, or maybe just the fact that the story wasn’t even that believable.

What makes this awful attempt at theft pretty funny is that Brothers is a premed major, and his partner in crime, Kevin Connolly, is an engineer. Have fun applying to graduate schools guys, seeing as the university could have the ability to rescind your campus privileges. I wouldn’t want my doctor to be guilty of credit card fraud.
Posted by elle_famous at 10:29 1 comments

Can You Be Jailed For Not Paying Credit Cards?


We all know that life brings many stresses with it. One of those stresses is credit card payments! We are all human, and sometimes we make mistakes. Those mistakes can be as little as losing car keys, or even worse, not paying your credit card bill. Both are bad, but the credit card bill is probably a tiny but worse. So if that happens, what is the worst case scenario for you? Can you actually be jailed for not paying your credit card?


The Slammer, The Clink, The Hole, The Cell, Your Destination?

I appreciate the concern you have for not paying your credit card bill. But honestly...jail? You will not be thrown into jailed if you do not pay your credit card bills. We are not dealing with a criminal issue here. This is only a civil issue. So do not worry about the police knocking on your door dangling handcuffs. The worst thing that can happen to you is a person showing up at your door with papers telling you they will see you in court. The creditors have the right to get their money. They want to recover that money quickly. So they will just start off by mail you notices, then move up to phone notices. When that option is exhausted, then comes the lawsuit.


Let’s Not Make Lawsuits An Option

Like stated earlier, the creditors want their money. They will be kind at first, and that is the only stage you need to be concerned with. The key factor is that they are being nice to you, even though you are late on your payments. So do not make them upset, and pay those bills immediately. You have been granted leeway, and you should be thankful for that. Do not be happy there is no jail time involved, and become relaxed on payments. If this happens too much, then your credit will be so messed up that you might as well have been in jail. Because you will be getting no credit or any financial backing anyways, because of your poor credit.


Jump On Your Problems Before They Jump On You

Remember, if you take control of your financial situation before it controls you, then these things will rarely happen. I know that unforeseen things will arise, and troubles may happen. But whenever you can, make sure you are doing the right thing with your money. Pay off bills on time, or as soon as possible. Do not let these things get over 30 days, because that is when the trouble begins to mount. So just be careful, and make sure you are also acting in your best interest. These creditors will always act in their best interest, because this is how they have managed a successful company. So do the same for yourself, and make sure you do not let things get out of hand. In the end, you do not want to find yourself in a court room having to pay extra fees on top of the ones you already owe.
Posted by elle_famous at 10:28 0 comments
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