It may seem odd that posting about a minimalist lifestyle may seem odd on a site about business.
This article is about Graham Hill. An internet entrepreneur who found himself living a life through material objects. He took a full 360 and through his travels and experiences founded www.treehugger.com and living the life of his dreams. It is a great read and teaches that material objects don’t complete you and happiness is a choice. Enjoy!
Debts can indeed play devastating role on your personal finances. In most of the cases, personal debts originate out of credit card debts. Many of you get allured by the easy access to cash offered by credit cards and use those cards indiscriminately. As a natural consequence of this, debts pile up for many of you. However, till the time you make regular repayments, you do not face any problem. However, problems start cropping up when you start defaulting on your payments. This is the time when you start facing the wraths of the creditors. Debt collectors, on behalf of your creditors, start making embarrassing collection calls to you. Sometimes, it is also seen that the debt collectors do not abide by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). The FDCPA laws are mainly aimed at protecting the interests of the debtors from the unfair practices of the creditors. However, in case you are indeed finding it very difficult to repay your debts, you must seek for a proper debt elimination program. One popular debt elimination option available before you is credit card debt settlement program. Opting for debt settlement program is a far better option than filing for bankruptcy. In debt settlement program, your credit score is slightly damaged. In other words, your chances of obtaining a new credit with better terms are also slightly hurt. But in bankruptcy, your credit score is severely damaged and this in turn very much affects your chances of obtaining a new credit with better terms.
In debt settlement program, a settlement amount is decided for you to eliminate your debt. This settlement amount is a one time lump sum amount that you need to pay to the debt settlement company to eradicate your unsecured debts. Moreover, this settlement amount is much less than your total outstanding balance. This settlement amount is fixed by the representatives of the debt settlement company after negotiations with your creditors.
In debt settlement program, one important thing is to choose an authentic debt settlement company. This is highly important because if you get trapped by an unethical debt settlement company, your debt elimination efforts get aborted. So, before selecting your debt settlement company, you must check the license, certification registration of the company. If you find something dubious about that company, you should not work with that company. One good way to get referrals of a debt settlement company is to consult your friends and relatives who have already gone through the debt settlement program. You should not however forget to check the status of the settlement company with Better Business Bureau (BBB). Clean records with BBB, add to the reputation and credibility of the debt settlement company.
Anyways, the settlement company that you have chosen then thoroughly reviews your financial situation. Thereafter, the representatives of the settlement company decide your debt settlement amount after negotiation with your creditors. You then are required to pay the settlement amount to your debt settlement company so as to eliminate your debt obligations.
Here is this weeks stock watch list!
| AAPL | Apple Inc |
| QCOR | Questcor Pharmaceutical |
| SAVE | Spirit Airlines Inc |
| PII | Polaris Industries Inc |
| TDG | Transdigm Group Inc |
| LQDT | Liquidity Services Inc |
| SWI | Solarwinds Inc |
| ALXN | Alexion Pharmaceuticals |
| ULTA | Ulta Salon Cosm & Frag |
| LULU | Lululemon Athletica |
| PCLN | Priceline.Com Inc |
| FOSL | Fossil Inc |
| MA | Mastercard Inc Cl A |
| V | Visa Inc Cl A |
Thank you,
Michael B.
(Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney appealed for the support of working-class Americans in industrial Ohio on Wednesday, a day after narrowly averting a humiliating defeat by rival Rick Santorum in Romney’s home state of Michigan.
Romney focused almost exclusively on the U.S. economy, China and stiff criticism of President Barack Obama’s leadership at his first campaign events after Tuesday’s Michigan primary.
“The reason I won yesterday in Michigan and Arizona is because I’m talking about the issue people care most about and I understand that issue,” Romney said at a rally in Bexley, outside the state capital of Columbus.
Bruno Treves
(Reuters) – North Korea agreed on Wednesday to stop nuclear tests, uranium enrichment and long-range missile launches, and to allow checks by nuclear inspectors, in an apparent policy shift that paves the way for resuming long-stalled disarmament talks.
The surprise breakthrough, announced simultaneously by the U.S. State Department and North Korea’s official news agency, makes possible the resumption of six-nation nuclear negotiations with Pyongyang. It followed talks between U.S. and North Korean diplomats in Beijing last week.
“These are concrete measures that we consider a positive first step toward complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula in a peaceful manner,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
Bruno Treves
NEW YORK (AP) — The price of gas has jumped 45 cents since Jan. 1 and is the highest on record for this time of year, at an average of $3.73 a gallon. On Wall Street, talk has turned from the European debt crisis to another worry: Will higher gas prices derail the economic recovery?
Not yet, economists say. They argue that the U.S. is in much better shape now than early last year, when a similar surge in fuel prices weighed on economic growth by squeezing household budgets. Americans spent less on clothes, food and everything else.
Rising gas prices are less of a concern when the economy is improving than when it’s slowing down. So economists expect other spending won’t be badly hurt, at least for now. If gas breaks its record of $4.11 a gallon, however, all bets are off.
Bruno Treves
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday offered a tempered view of the U.S. economy, pouring cold water on the notion that recent upbeat signs herald a stronger recovery.
Bernanke told Congress that unless growth accelerated, the unacceptably high U.S. unemployment rate would not keep dropping.
But he stopped short of signaling further Fed bond purchases, dashing the hopes of some traders in financial markets who were betting on more monetary stimulus.
Bruno Treves
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The economy grew slightly faster than initially thought in the fourth quarter and a gauge of factory activity in the Midwest hit a 10 month-high in February, pointing to underlying strength in the economy.
Gross domestic product expanded at a 3 percent annual rate, the quickest pace since the second quarter of 2010, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday in its second estimate.
The reading, which was up from the 2.8 percent pace the government reported last month and reflected modest upward revisions to almost all components of GDP, added to the recent run of fairly upbeat economic reports.
Bruno Treves
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Apple is expected to announce the iPad 3 at a “special event” in California next week.
Apple sent emails to journalists on Tuesday, inviting them to the private event in San Francisco on March 7, at 10 a.m. Pacific Time.
The invitation (pictured above) included a photo of someone using an iPad, with a single line: “We have something you really have to see. And touch.”
Bruno Treves
Apple has joined an elite group of companies to reach a $500bn equity valuation amid expectations it is to launch the new version of the iPad next week.
Shares in the iPhone maker rose to $532.35 in morning trading in New York on Wednesday, lifting its equity value to $501bn. Apple shares are already up 30 per cent this year, extending gains over the past 10 years to 4,414 per cent.
Bruno Treves
