'Quest to be debt free'- Another finance blog helping you to be debt free

I am trying to make this blog a place where you can easily find the reources and useful links to money or finance related information. I am not a tech or an expert person about money or finance related topics. I am an educator who learned very basics of budgeting, saving from her own life and still learning. I hope that my learning quest would help you find ideas and tips help you stay debt free.

'On a quest to be debt free' is a prettey finance blog. It helps make the transition from living life in debt to learning to live on less than we earn.

Anna (the blogger) started this site to help other families to learn 'to be debt free' as prior to raising her children she spent more money than earning. As she learned the saving and debt free life lessons from her own life, she shares it with her readers.

Top ten posts have these titles:
What is a Household Notebook?
CVS Posts
18 Ways to Beat the Rising Cost of Living
Money Hacks Carnival #30~Fall is in the Air Edition
25 Free or Low-Cost Entertainment Ideas
How To Cut Back on Discretionary Spending
The Five Best Coupon Sites on the Web
Finance Fiesta #15~The Patriot Day Edition
Carnival of Debt Reduction #159~They Never Said It Edition
Coupon Acronyms and Terms

These post topics can help you find out the information you expect to see at this site.

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Use budgeting software to help you stay debt free

Idea was not bad at all. One of my friends suggested me to use a software for budgeting purposes. I was not sure that it budget software can really help me to stay debt free, until I used it myself. I keep all my documents with me, saved at hard disk of my laptop. Usually I keep record of all essential documents and I felt that I was free from other worries involved in money management after using the budget software. It works like a budget planner, and no doubt that you can call it your financial assisstant. It is one of the essential tools which helps you manage your finances in a very easy manner.

We need to make monthly budget as it creates focused intensity and direction for your money, how to wisely spend it. The best part of budgeting software is that with a minimal amount of time, you can easily make a budget on your computer.
It can helps you to maintain personal budget or family budget. You can track your expenses and investments ase well ad calculating the difference.

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'Early Retirement Extreme' - A personal finance blog

As I have reviewed many money and finance related blogs, which were mostly from individuals who learned budgeting, planning and financial freedom out of their experiences. The reason of reviewing those sites is only one that we can learn better from individuals like us rather than consulting a professional. 'Early Retirement Extremes' is a blog which details the life, thoughts, and experiences of an ordinary person.

Early Retirement Extreme offers posts about financial independence, fugality, self-sufficiency, ecology, saptilism and voluntary. When I started browsing the blog, I thought that blogger would be near to retirement age (as name of the blog shows) and I was surprise to know that, Jacob (the blogger) is around 30.

This is short story of achieving financial freedom of the blogger:

"Six years ago, I decided that a lifestyle based on bills, mortgages, retirement plans, and conspicuous consumption that depended on working a job for thirty more years or maybe even the rest of my life was not for me. Therefore I set out on a journey of becoming wealthy and skilled enough to never have to work for money again. Five years later I reached that goal.

The most important thing I have learned during my journey is that financial success is not about how much money one earns and spends, it’s about how much one spends and how much one keeps. In other words, it is about values and efficiency. For several years I have now lived at an expense level that is comparable to the poverty rate and even half the poverty rate for some of the years while saving the rest and eventually investing it. For this reason my savings rate has consistently been around 70%."

To read more about his persoal story, click on the post link: How I became financially independent in 5 years

Other post titles:
- What early retirement means when you’re too young to retire

- Early Retirement Extreme’s budget

You can subscribe to the blog by submitting your email at the blog.

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Credit Card tips for saving money

These credit card secrets or tips are very important for a credit card holder, which bank don't want you to know. These tips or techniques are easy to keep in mind and can save you from future hassele as well as saving money.

1. Interest Backdating

Most card issuers charge interest from the day a charge is posted to your account if you don¹t pay in full monthly. But, some charge interest from the date of purchase, days before they have even paid the store on your behalf!
Tip: Find another card issuer, or always pay your bill in full by the due date.

2. Two-Cycle Billing

Issuers which use this method of calculating interest, charge two months worth of interest for the first month you failed to pay off your total balance in full. This issue arises only when you switch from paying in full to carrying a balance from month to month
Tip: Switch issuers or always pay your balance in full.

3. The Right To Setoff

If you have money on deposit at a bank, and also have your credit card there, you may have signed an agreement when you opened the deposit account which permits the bank to take those funds if you become delinquent on your credit card.
Tip: Bank at separate institutions, or avoid delinquencies.

4. Fees Are Negotiable

You may be paying up to $50 a year or more as an annual fee on your credit card. You may also be subject to finance charges of over 18%.
Tip: If you are a good customer, the bank may be willing to drop the annual fee, and reduce the interest rate 9 you only have to ask! Otherwise, you can switch issuers to a lower- priced card.

5. Interest Rate Hikes Are Retroactive

If you sign up for a credit card with a low "teaser" rate, such as 7.9%, when the low rate period expires, your existing balance will likely be subject to the regular and substantially higher interest rate.

Tip: Pay in full before the rate increase or close the account.

6. Shortened Due Dates

Most card issuers offer a 25 day grace period in which to pay for new purchases without incurring finance charges. Some banks have shortened the grace period to 20 days9 but only for customers who pay in full monthly.
Tip: Ask to go back to 25 days.

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Download Free e-book 'Money Matters For All Ages'

I am a learner like you who want to make life financially secured and debt free. I have tried to accumulate useful resources, links which can help us learn more about money and finance matters. I have personally learned a lot from these FREE links. You would be noticing free e-books on the side bar of this blog, and I strongly recommend those books to every one as these e-books and tutorials are very helpful. (These links are not selling anything to you, but offering handful of useful information to you)

"Debt Free Revolution" is offering 'Money matters for all ages' which is a combination of a series or posts from different blogs. You can easily download this free e-book and distribute it as well.

* Download link for pdf version

"Debt FREE Revolution" is from an Army wife, sharing her debt reduction efforts and strategies with us.

You can check the best posts of the blog at 'this link'

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Get tips and ideas for saving and investing at -'A Penny Closer'

The easiest way to learn is from others as learning from our own mistakes is always expensive. For money or finance matters it is true that we should plan ahead or we have to suffer a lot. Planning, budgeting, saving and investing are some tools which can help us live debt free. There are many sites or blogs around sharing ideas, tips and suggestions relating to these topics and naturally reading that stuff motivates us in this regard.

The story behind creation of 'A Penny Closer' is very inspiring. Melissa is one of the persons who learn from their mistakes or life experiences and share those words with others.

A Penny Closer is for those of us who want to improve how we spend, save, and invest. It is a site sharing ideas and tips for budgeting, saving and investing.

Mission: We want to be able to manage our money so that we can use it to enjoy our lives today while still saving to reach our dreams. It is about finding ways to cut back in areas that mean little to us while putting our money into the areas that count.

Few post titles are:

How We Chose Our Credit Card
The Downside to Debt Consolidation Loans
Using Credit Cards Online
Manage Rising Fuel Costs With Plastic
You Can Avoid The 24 Hour Flu
You can subscribe for the blog posts by submitting your e-mail at the site.

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"Ovation Credit Services"- Offering credit repair and credit report repair services

The first question come in our mind "Why do we need to worry about credit report repair?" Financial statistics can answer the question:

Facts about credit reports:

- 79% of credit reports contain some type of error.
- 25% of all credit reports contain errors serious enough to result in the denial of credit.
- 29% of consumers have variances of 50 points or more in their credit scores as reported by each of the three major credit bureaus.
- 54% of credit reports contain personal demographic identifying information that was misspelled, long-outdated, belonged to a stranger, or was otherwise incorrect 30%of credit reports contain credit accounts that had been closed by the consumer but incorrectly remained listed as open. These errors are costing consumers billions of dollars.

In financial terms, repairing your credit profile is the most important part. But how to get help in achieving our optimal credit profile by making the credit repair process easier?

Naturally our problems can be solved by the people who are expert in financial matters, offering you legal expertise and good customer service. We have to select the service which could provide us help in correcting our credit reports, credit scores and credit profiles.


There are a lot of companies which deal in credit repair or bad credit, or dealing in fix credit but better to check the companies whith good record and the services they offer. "Ovation Credit Services Inc." is one of the credit repair and credit report repair companies.

Speciality of Ovation Credit Services Inc.

- They work with the credit bureaus and creditors to resolve issues on credit reports. Their programs are based upon extensive research of consumer credit laws, credit bureau tactics and persistence for the clients.

- It is one of the lowest priced programs available. Their program choices start at only $35 per month.

- It is founded by attorneys who continually encountered individuals plagued by inaccurate and misleading credit reports.

- They assign an individual Credit Advisor to you, so you get one-to-one customer service.

- Their Fast Track service ensures that the client gets priority same day service throughout the disputing process

- They offer a 100% Service Satisfaction Guarantee, with a no hassle cancellation policy.

- You can have a professional case analyst review your credit situation with you over the phone with no obligation. During the consultation you'll be able to clarify exactly what Ovation can do for you, how the process works, the costs and timeframe involved, and what to expect during the course of being a client... all for no charge

To know more: About

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Tips to reduce stress and debts

Americans are stressed out about making ends meet, which is affecting their work and personal relationships. Nevertheless, many are optimistic and say they are committed to persevering with their personal finances, according to a new survey.

The Western Union Money Mindset Survey, taken in August, shows consumers are taking steps to manage their bill payments so they can pay on time and reduce their stress. For example, one in four (25 percent) have cut recreational activities (gym memberships, sports gear) and nearly three out of four (72 percent) have cut back on dining out.

“Americans have worked too hard to save their money and pursue their goals, and they are not going to just give up. Many people are wisely scaling back their budgets and seeking solutions that will greatly improve their situations,” says David Shapiro, senior vice president at Western Union. “Only 4 percent of people who believe their situation is going to get worse feel that declaring bankruptcy or defaulting on debt will help. To improve their situations, many are looking for a new, better-paying job or a second job to keep up with their bills.”

One in five Americans is paying bills late, the survey shows, and 31 percent of those surveyed were waiting longer to pay, racking up late fees and risking good credit standing.

Bad debt isn’t healthy for individuals or the people close to them. And some choices made to correct bad debt, such as withdrawing from a 401(k) account to make bill payments, can lead to bigger issues, impacting future financial activities like obtaining loans for mortgages and cars or getting a job.

tips to help people avoid and reduce debt:

* Start or revise a monthly budget -- Use calculators at www.BankRate.com to determine if your mortgage should be refinanced or if your money market account is earning interest that can help you build up savings or pay your bills off faster. Visit www.financialplan.com to download a budget tracker as a monthly guide for managing your money. You can also examine your expenses and see what you can cut back.

* Start an emergency fund -- Finance experts recommend having between three and six months of your budget stored in a savings account in preparation for unplanned events like losing a job, needing emergency medical help or treatment for a long-term illness. Try to cut back on entertainment activities so you can be ready for that last-minute car repair.

* Arrange automatic payments -- Having your rent or mortgage payment, utility bill or telephone bill automatically withdrawn on a designated day of the month helps you plan your finances better, maintain your cash flow and avoid late payment fees.

* Explore all payment options -- For instance, consider paying the bill on the day it’s due by going to a Western Union Agent location and paying in cash. Ask your bank or biller to explain all of the bill payment options available.

* Negotiate rates -- Contact your telecom provider to see if you can reduce your monthly bill payment by bundling your phone, Internet and cable services. Call your credit card company and see if you can get a lower interest rate. Research credit cards with the lowest rates by visiting www.cardratings.com.

* Winterize your home -- Insulate your windows, doors and pipes for energy efficiency. Visit your local energy provider for tips and check Web sites such as www.energyassistance.org and www.acf.hhs.gov.

Courtesy of ARAcontent

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