That is exactly what I did. I got a loan that I would not have to start paying back until after I graduated from school.  On top of that I also applied for a couple of credit cards so I could still enjoy life a little while in school, you know?  Of course, the debt started to really rack up at this point.  Here I was still living life like I had no cares and like it was on someone else’s dime.

After I got out of school the first thing I did was buy a car, financed, of course.  Again, I was not facing the reality of the debt that I was building up around me.  It took me a few months to find a job, and when I did I noticed that all of my pay was going toward paying off debts and money that I had wasted.  Most of it went toward interest too, so I was not even benefit from making these payments really.

After about a year of stressing out over my piles of debt, I realized I had to be proactive and get rid of it all.  So, I sat down and made a list of how much I owed to which place and I created a debt payoff plan using something that many people call the snowball method.  I took the smallest debt owed and paid a large sum of money to it until it was eventually paid off, while only paying a small amount over the minimum due on the other debts.  After one was paid off, I would move on to pay off the next.

Within a year and a half I became debt free and incredibly happy.  I wish before I set out in teh world someone would have just point blankly told me, “debt sucks.”

Just last week, I was contacted by my bank’s fraud center to alert me to a suspicious transaction.  Someone in a state 400 miles from me had used my debit card to complete a keyed transaction for $3.80.  The transaction was caught and declined by my bank, thank goodness, because they said they believed that had been a “test run” by the criminal in possession of my card information, and that, had it been successful, a much larger amount would have been taken from my account.  The downside of this is that my card had to be immediately cancelled, and a new one, with a new pin, sent to me in the mail — not to arrive for 3-5 business days.  In the meantime, I have bills that are automatically paid each month from the cancelled card, and since I have no new card yet, I can’t change my payment information yet.  Hopefully, the items will not go through as failed drafts.

Sometimes, the way people get your card information is simply by writing it down when you give it to them for some legitimate reason, such as making payments on accounts by phone;  another way is through skimming, where the criminal tampers with the equipment used to swipe your card so that your PIN code is recorded, along with the card number, expiration date, and security code.  So, if anything ever looks obviously tampered with, it’s best not to swipe your card there.

These days you can find head shops of many shapes and sizes in virtually every city in The United States and the world. One of the coolest of these shops is head shop sandhills located just off US 1 in the Pinehurst – Southern Pines, NC area. These new and improved modern head shops provide a unique and eclectic experience for any shopper. You can come in to the shop and find a vast array of clothing and apparel, books, even hand made jewelry and a wide variety of herbal incense, as well as hookahs, bongs, pipes and lighters of all shapes and sizes. Also, beautiful art and tapestries can be had.

There are still those forces out there who say head shops merely exist to sell illegal drug paraphernalia, but shop owners will argue that these materials are only to be used with legal products such as tobacco, and assorted legal herbal incense blends. All reputable head shops do have signs clearly posted in their stores that state if a person who is making a purchase even hints at the possibility of using their items illegally, they will by no means be allowed to buy those items and will most likely be kicked out of the shop for good. Since medical marijuana made it onto the scene some head shops do cater to that new market.

After college I did not find a job right away.  While I was looking I lived off credit cards.  I still went out to eat and drink with friends and shopped for new clothes and gadgets too.  I lived like I had a job and no student loans to pay off.  Once I found a job, the reality of the hole that I dug for myself in the form of debt hit me hard.  I felt so discouraged when the bills would come in.  I tried so hard to pay more than the minimum balance on my cards and loans, but still I got no where.

Finally, I took the snowball method to get rid of my debt.  I made a detailed spreadsheet with payments and dates and a year later I was completely debt free.  If you are ready to rid yourself of the burden of debt, there are three ways that people do it below.  You cannot imagine the joy that you will feel once you are no longer living under a mountain of debt.

During the Second World War, the US government started withholding a portion of everyone’s taxes from each paycheck.  This guaranteed that the government would have a steady stream of income at first simply to fund the war, but after wartime this remained the process and persists today.

The American tax code is now the largest, most complicated document in the world. The sheer number of words exceeds 7 million.  Over the years our tax code has become so complicated that some Americans believe it needs to be thrown out completely and reworked from the ground up.

This infographic shows us how the US tax system works — or doesn’t work, depending on your point of view.  What do you think about the US tax code?  Are you expecting a refund this year, or will you have to pay?

Here is an infographic that shows just how high those APRs can go in all the states of the US.  Believe me, they don’t cap off unless there is a cap.  You really should not resort to pay day loans unless there is abolutely no alternative, and even then, be prepared for a difficult experience.  To see these figures clearly, click on the graphic and view it full size.  You’ll be glad you gave it a second look.

“Our new memberships were three times as high as normal,” said one director of community relations at a credit union in Texas. Nearly all of the new accounts opened have been checking accounts, as opposed to the more typical savings accounts being opened.  The director attributed this to the notion that people have grown sick of banks and their policies and fees.  ADT home security is great, but you can’t hide all your money in a shoebox or a mattress.

Saturday was called Bank Transfer Day, the Facebook powered rally begun by Kristen Christian after Bank of America announced plans to charge its customers a monthly fee for using their debit cards.  The effort gained a lot of steam, and apparently its message was loud and clear:  the bank dropped its plans November 1.  Click on the infographic below to have a look at why so many people are fed up with big banks:

But what about security?  Sure, your digital transactions are protected by a pin.  So is your physical credit or debit card.  Only, if someone uses your physical card as a credit instead of a debit transaction, there is no need to use a pin.  So the digital wallet is safer in that respect.  But if you lose your phone or it gets stolen, you still need to contact your issuing company.  Here is the statement from Google Wallet’s page:

“Even though the Google Wallet PIN and Secure Element protect your payment card information, you should still call your issuing banks to cancel your cards.”

Like it or love it, the digital wallet is probably here to stay.  Click to learn more.

eg

1. You have no or very little savings.
2. You make only the minimum payment on your credit cards each month.
3. You continue to make purchases on your credit cards while carrying a balance.
4. You have at least one credit card that is over the credit limit, or very close to being there.
5. You are sometimes late in making payments on bills.
6. You are not aware of exactly how much total debt you have.
7. You use cash advances from your credit cards to pay other cards or bills.
8. You overdraw your bank accounts.
9. You have been denied credit.
10.You are not honest with family and friends about your spending and debt.

If any of this applies to you, then you might want to consider watching this video about the liberating effects of paying down your personal debts, and how that can even influence the global crisis.