Making money through home based businesses

One way to put a dent in credit card debt is to build a reliable second income. Home based businesses can be a great way to make that extra money.

Of course, watch out for the many online and offline home business scams. Any real business takes time and effort to build. But if you do your homework and put in your time, you can start an internet home business for little money.

Once your business starts to show a profit, make sure you immediately save the proceeds and use them to start paying off your high interest credit card bills!

Duke Prosecutor's Replacement: Coman a Controversial Choice

A bit off topic, but I wanted to comment on the very recent replacement of Mike Nifong in the Duke case. Jim Coman, one of two prosecutors named to replace Nifong, seems a potentially controversial choice, given his 2004 statement supporting N.C. prosecutors who withheld impeachment evidence from the defense. This type of behavior is in direct conflict with Supreme Court rulings. (Impeachment evidence is evidence that would severely discredit a witness.)

Despite the fact that Coman later took back his comments, the very fact that he made them gives me concern and makes me wonder if it is possible that justice will be served in this case.

Is something rotten in this state or what?

Check out this article on Coman from December, 2004 from the Raleigh News & Observer.

Look for new ways to save money

In order to reduce debt, always be on the lookout for new ways to save money. One way is to examine your auto insurance policy. It is possible to get cheap auto insurance from a quality insurer. Many people pay far too much, either due to unreasonably low deductibles or just laziness - they don't spend the time to periodically shop for better quotes.

You can often save hundreds a year just by shopping for a better auto policy deal, and you can then use this money to help pay down your debts. It doesn't take much effort, and given that the savings will extend for many years, it can really help put a dent in your credit card debt.

The housing bubble and personal debt

Home sales fell another 1.9% last month (September '06) , and according to figures released yesterday (10/25), housing prices dropped a staggering 2.5% nationwide from September of '05, the biggest percentage drop in FOUR DECADES.

At the same time, David Lereah, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors has the brazen nerve to assert that the “The worst is behind us as far as a market correction". Mr. Lereah, as always, failed to present any factual basis for his assertion. Of course, his organization desperately hopes this to be the case, since they make their money off the percentage fee they collect from home sales. As such, Realtors would hardly seem an unbiased source for prognostications of home pricing trends, though you would hardly know this from the way Mr. Lereah is constantly quoted as an economic authority by members of our (lazy?) press.

How does this all relate to personal debt? Well, if you are considering taking out a home equity loan to put in that swimming pool or buy that new car, you might want to hold off until we have a more realistic idea of the direction the housing market will head.

Remember when you read the news and watch TV to consider the quality and bias of sources that are quoted, especially when it comes to the housing market. Neutral publications like the Economist, the Motley Fool, Money, etc, are all now projecting a long-term cooling and even possible major drop in housing prices.

Yet organizations like National Association of Realtors are claiming that we have reached the bottom. Of course, this same group has also claimed this every month since the market started cooling off. Furthermore, they previously claimed that there was no bubble at all and that prices NEVER drop nation-wide. Again, be wary of listening to forecasts from organizations that stand to lose from a drop in housing prices - they are have a serious vested interest in maintaining the high housing prices.

The truth is, NOBODY knows what direction housing prices will go. All that is certain is that prices are at historic highs, and no market has previously maintained such a level for long.

So be careful with home equity lines - using them as your personal cash machine could have dire consequences if (or, more likely, when) the housing market takes a further dive.

Two new travel blogs

Here are two new travel blogs, one dealing with general travel information and the other dealing with Alaska cruise and vacation information. If you love to travel as much as I do, check them out.

New Bankruptcy Law Update

A new CNN/Money article asserts that the new bankruptcy law isn't having as negative an effect on debtors as consumer groups had feared it would.

While this should come as a bit of a relief to those with large amounts of credit card debt, the trouble seems to be not the reality, but rather consumers' perception of reality.

In other words, many consumers who are aware of the new law seem to think that it has limited access to bankruptcy and that they will in fact have to repay their credit card bills, whether they file for bankruptcy or not. This makes them more susceptible to the manipulations of collection agencies, who may take advantage of this perception to force consumers to agree to less than reasonable repayment plans, etc.

In reality, people are actually having to repay less of their credit card debts under the new law. It is important that consumers be aware of this, as the threat of bankruptcy can be an important bargaining tool when negotiating with creditors.

Need a vacation? I do!

Here's a good site for planning an Alaska cruise. I'm hoping to plan one soon!

New debt site

There is a new site that covers the methods of eliminating Credit Card Debt Check it out if you are looking for information on how to handle your debt.

Dreamhost down AGAIN!!!!!! Day SIX!

Dreamhost could really not suck any worse than they are sucking right now. Just when my sites had been up for a few hours (though FTP has still been slooow), Dreamhost goes down again. Naturally their auto-detect problem reporting system claims nothing is down. But then why can I access any sites but those on Dreamhost? Let me guess, what is it now... somebody tripped and pulled out a cable? Rats in the control center? Oh, I know, it's techno terrorism, and they decided to target the least competent web host and take it DOWN. (Who said terrorists were the brightest bunch...)

OK, I am ranting and rambling, but these bozos have set me back almost a week now. And imagine if DMOZ or anyone else chose this week to check out one of my sites. Hell, a week is a long time. It is entirely possible I lost out on one or more directory submissions thick week thanks to the Dreamhost downtime fiasco, and I'm sure I wouldn't be alone. And to think of the time it will take to set up at a new web host. ARGGGH!