Please tell me I’m not the only one that finds these credit card offers funny (in a sad kind of way).

“Dear Mr. Smith,The road to financial success has many milestones marking how far you’ve come. You’ve just reached one such milestone.

You’ve been Selected for the American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Card

You should know that Selected status is not easily achieved. But with your excellent financial record, our decision was really very simple – we want you as a Card member.”

“Selected” status is not easily achieved? Give me a break. All they mean by “excellent financial record” is that you have a high FICO (a.k.a. “I Love Debt”).

“Dear Mr. Jones,Congratulations are in order. You’ve earned an important distinction – a Card that reflects your achievements and complements your life. A Card designed to reward you and bring you the extra service and privileges you require.”

A card designed to bring you the privileges you require? Aren’t privileges by definition things that are not required?

VISA Terms & Conditions:
“You authorize us to allocate your payments and credits in a way that is most favorable to or convenient for us. For example, you authorize us to apply your payments and credits to balances with lower APRs (such as promotional APRs) before balances with higher APRs.”

“…in a way that is most favorable to or convenient for us.” Well, there you go. Letting you know right up front where there priorities are. Good to know they’re looking out for the customer!

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Another year of Financial Peace University is in the books. We had a fantastic class! It was such a privilege to get to know everyone and hear their stories. Nineteen families made it all the way to the end. All together they cut up more than 20 credit cards and paid off over $216,000 in debt! I am so proud of this class and I know they are well on their way to financial peace.

It was a rewarding experience as usual and I look forward to the next one!

Great article by Scott Burns from MSN Money:

Foreclosure ‘crisis’ is overblown

This news will disappoint the gloom-and-doom crew and all those seeking the excitement of financial upheaval.

The media exaggerates? Unbelievable. 

Here’s the deal on those tax rebates:

IRS Information on Stimulus Payments

If you’ve been hearing rumors that this money coming from the IRS is an “advance” and that you’ll just have to pay it back next year, well, it’s only partly true. It is an “advance,” but it’s an advance on a credit. The government voted to give people a temporary tax break on 2008 income taxes, but instead of giving it to us when we file our 2008 income tax returns in 2009, they are sending us the money early.

Some notes from the IRS website: (more…)

Dave Ramsey Pickup Lines:

• I still have money in my “restaurant” envelope … can I buy you dinner?
• Would you like to dance? I’d love to show you my Baby Steps.
• Why am I nervous about talking to you? Because you’re better than I deserve.
• Allow me to introduce myself … I am “borrower”, and you must be “lender”.
• Good thing I just got term life insurance … because I saw you and my heart stopped!
• You can’t spell Financial Peace University without U and I.
• I’ve already kicked Sallie Mae out. Want to take her place?
• I just bought a bass boat with cash … and it’s a good thing, because you’re quite a catch!
• I’m not mortgage interest baby … don’t write me off.
• The good news? I’m debt free. The better news? I’m also date free.
• What would you say if I asked you out? (response: no) That’s not good enough.
• Courtesy of one of Dave’s listeners: On a scale of 350-850, I’m a Zero!

The stimulus package has been approved by Congress which means in 12 weeks or so we should be receiving up to $1500 of the government’s borrowed money! If we were good little consumers we would go out and spend it but unfortunately for the politicians and economists, our family will be applying it toward our debt. See, we already spent many years feeding the economy. We were good little consumers… a little too good if you ask me. We spent money we didn’t have and now we are being responsible little adults and paying back what we owe. No worries, once we are freed of those stupid monthly payments we’ll have more cash to play around with!

Congress Votes for a Stimulus of $168 Billion

Here is an interesting piece to the plan:

 ”In a nod to the housing problems, the stimulus plan will increase the limits on home loans that can be purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored finance companies, and on loans that can be insured by the Federal Housing administration. The one-year increases will make it easier to refinance loans or obtain new mortgages in expensive markets.”

There has been a lot of media attention on the crappy housing market and all the foreclosures. I don’t know how real it is in other states but in Michigan it truly is crappy. People are losing their homes to foreclosures because they bought houses they couldn’t afford. Here’s a solution! Let’s up the limits and make it easier for people to buy homes they can’t afford!!

What is with our bonehead government? Geesh. I think we need to send them all to Financial Peace University.

The first piece of good news is only good news to Mike. I am still not thrilled. In fact, I’m still a tad bitter but I’m working on it. We bought a new television. It’s a big screen projection HD something-or-other. All I really know is it’s bigger than me (65″, I am 61″) and we had to upgrade our cable. The cable upgrade actually worked out because Mike finagled a deal so we could upgrade and get a home phone line and it’s only costing us $13 more a month. We had been wanting to get a home phone line so I’m okay with that. Mike saved up his bonuses to buy the tv so we paid cash and I’m okay with that too. The thing I’m bitter about is that it is such a luxury item and I don’t feel like we had any business buying it when we still have debt to pay and emergencies to save for. Most of this is the nerd inside me wanting to hoard every dollar we can and not have any fun until 2012, but I think even Mike will admit it was a *little* over the top. But what does any of that matter? What’s done is done. To quote one of my FPU students, “Mindy, you agreed to it. You need to just get over it and move on!” So here I am, folks. I am moving on. Let’s try this again:

The first piece of good news is that Mike was finally able to buy the tv he’s been researching and saving up for. He worked extra hard at selling stuff and saved up his bonus checks and found a great deal thanks to Pre-Super Bowl sales. I don’t know much about the tv (I am still learning how to use it) but he is really excited about it. It’s a wide-screen HD. It has such a great picture it makes golf interesting.

The second piece of good great fantastic news is that Mike quit smoking!! He has wanted to quit for such a long time and has tried and failed several times. This time he got on the Chantix program everyone has been talking about and it is working! He hasn’t smoked since Thursday. His attitude about quitting has been so different than in years past  and when he talks about it you can really hear the dedication and resolve in his voice. It’s hard for me to get my hopes up about this because of his past failures but I really do think this could be it. I am extremely proud of him!

I don’t know what to blog about. My boss says I should tell everyone that Kohl’s has some great sales going on right now. While I’m mentioning that I’ll mention that Fashion Bug is having great sales too. I bought a couple things online (don’t worry, it was in the budget) and I saved so much money! Actually, I spent $30, so I didn’t really save anything.

That reminds me of a conversation my dad and stepmom had when I was a kid. She had just been out shopping and brought home a beautiful wool coat. I think she was nervous about telling my dad because the way she told him was by saying, “I saved 50%!” I will never forget how my dad responded: “How much didn’t you save?” I don’t remember how much she paid for the coat but I do remember she wore that thing forever. So she definitely got her money’s worth, whatever she paid.

Another great question my dad used to ask us all the time that stuck with me through the years: “Is it a want, or a need?” Even as an adult I find myself saying I need this or that. Then I stop myself and ask that question. There are so little things we truly need in this world. I don’t think there is anything wrong with going out and getting the things we want but I think it’s important that we make that distinction between a want and a need.

My new mantra:
“I don’t need a laptop, I want a laptop.
I don’t need a laptop, I want a laptop.
I don’t need a laptop, I want a laptop.“

I’ve asked this before but I’ll ask it again – why do we buy our kids toys? Note this photo of my friends’ children cleaning the cat hair off of my kitty condo. I wish I had it on video, because they were actually arguing over who got to clean which spot. “No, I want the bottom!”

I was talking to someone awhile back about the Montessori school their child attends. They told me that the school does not allow fiction books in the classroom. They feel it inhibits children’s natural creativity. That could be considered an extreme measure, but I believe there is some validity behind it.

I don’t remember having an obscene amount of toys growing up. My best memories were of writing plays and acting out talk shows and cooking shows with my brother and sister. We were all about make-believe. I remember one summer when Kari and I made up play names and created our own driver licenses. Our grown-up characters lived in Pretoria, Illinois. (We had never been there but I heard about it in a song. “We are marching to Pretoria, Pretoria, Pretoria!”) We had wallets with fake credit cards and we would carry them around in our purses.  Oh, we were cool back then.

The fake credit cards I played with as a child were the paper kind that came with wallets, sort of like the flimsy photos of strangers that come with new picture frames. Now they sell fake credit cards with children’s toys. Dave Ramsey was just on CBS News to talk about this issue. The whole thing really gets under my skin. Here I am every year with Financial Peace University trying to teach grown adults how to stop using credit cards and climb their way out of massive consumer debt, and meanwhile corporate America is spending billions of dollars to raise up more people to get right back into it.

Here are some scary statistics:

• Most teens (51%) agree that it is easier to buy things with a credit card than cash.
• Given the choice, almost one in three (29 percent) teens would prefer buying things with a credit card than cash. This represents a 61% increase over last year (18%).
• Almost three in ten teens (29%) are already in debt.

These numbers make me sick to my stomach. Credit cards are not for play. Consumer debt has destroyed so many people’s lives (if you don’t believe me, listen to ten minutes of Dave Ramsey’s radio show) and yet these credit card companies are making it into a game. Why do they do it? Because they know if they familiarize kids with a certain item or brand early on, when they are old enough they will become customers for life. It’s kiddie branding, it is certainly not a game I want to play.

Technorati Tags: Holidailies, kids, credit cards,  finances, Dave Ramsey, FPU, kiddie branding, consumer debt

Dave Ramsey Live Event in Grand Rapids January 24th, 2008!

I have been trying to go to this for the last three years and this is the first year I don’t have a schedule conflict or the event hasn’t sold out before I got around to buying tickets. I’ve gotta make it this time!

Who’s coming with me???!!!???