Wondering who to follow in the big wide world of Twitter? There are plenty of great Twitterers out there tweeting about money, debt, and finance– the topics we know you love. So every other Tuesday we’ll be highlighting a Twitterer to follow. This week we’re turning the spotlight on @GreenBacksGal.
Organic, natural, green, oh my! Eco-friendly products are extremely popular and they can also be expensive. But according to Andrea Green, aka @GreenBacksGal, they don’t have to be. She’s found a great niche, spreading deals and discounts available on organic and earth-friendly products. You’ll find everything from where to find cheap cleaning supplies to how to make an affordable meatless meal.
She’s into Twitter interaction as well which is refreshing when it seems so many Twitter accounts are automatically updated and involve little real human connection. Most of us can Read more…
During the present economic slowdown, many Americans are dragged into debt as they are habituated to spend money as much as they earn without savings. This attitude of Americans continues since ages and as a result is experiencing when there is slowdown in economy and rise in unemployment rate.
It is very hard to change the habit of spending suddenly when someone has reduced income too and that leads to mounting in debt as they start borrow money to cover their expenses.
For those who can not control their spending habits, it is necessary that they take help of debt solutions. There are many ways to find debt free and debt consolidation is one such alternative to become debt free. When people think of choosing debt consolidation they often come up with one doubt in mind – will debt consolidation hurt my credit score? A
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According to reports, debt is piling up for bookseller Borders, forcing them to close hundreds of stores and file for bankruptcy. According to Reuters, the company will shut 200 of its retail outlets, that’s about 30 percent of its stores. Those bookstores that are closing are a mix of Borders stores and Waldenbooks shops.
Those stores that are being closed are the weakest performers in sales. “Borders will not comment or speculate upon Borders’ future course,” a company spokesman told Reuters. “If and when the company has something to disclose, it will do so.”
There are already fewer retail shops in Borders’ portfolio. The number of Borders superstores has remained roughly the same, but they have closed many of the Waldenbooks locations already. There were 49 Read more…
Could you give up $12 million you were contractually obligated to receive because you didn’t work for it? That’s essentially what Kansas City Royals pitcher Gil Meche did. According to The New York Times the player’s contract stated that he would earn $12 million in 2011 and with most baseball contracts, players get that money even if he’s injured or performs poorly.
Meche’s right shoulder gives him constant pain, so much so that he knew he couldn’t play. So instead of having surgery or going through the motions, Meche retired a couple of weeks ago which means he won’t be earning that $12 million. “When I signed my contract, my main goal was to earn it,” Meche told The New York Times by phone from Lafayette, La. “Once I started to realize I wasn’t earning my money, I felt bad. I was making a crazy Read more…
Debt more than a decade-old is being drudged up by at least one credit card company. According to the Los Angeles Times, Frank Cavestani and his wife got behind on their Capital One credit card payments ten years ago. They say they resolved the issue by writing off about $2,000 in debt the couple wasn’t able to pay. Since then they’ve heard nothing and believed the account was closed, the issue resolved.
But recently the couple got a new bill from Capital One, after a decade of hearing nothing. The company sent a bill for the $2,000 debt plus interest, a total of $5,195.07. When the couple called the company to get answers they were told that Capital One is bringing back old debt accounts because of recently-approved regulations by the Federal Reserve. The Read more…
The IRS is going high tech in 2011. The Internal Revenue Service just released a new app to help taxpayers track their returns. It’s called IRS2Go and anyone with a smartphone can use it. “This new smart phone app reflects our commitment to modernizing the agency and engaging taxpayers where they want when they want it,” IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said in a news release. “As technology evolves and younger taxpayers get their information in new ways, we will keep innovating to make it easy for all taxpayers to access helpful information.”
The app is available in the iTunes store or the Android marketplace and is free. It only requires basic information like your social security number to be useful. “This phone app is a first step for us,” Shulman told Reuters. “We will look Read more…
According to a simulation made by the Government Accountability Office, by 2020 the government could be left with just eight cents of every dollar to handle most services. Right now, the US spends about 76 cents of every tax dollar on the following: Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and debt interest. That means we currently have 24 cents left for everything else.
But by 2020, experts estimate that could drop to just eight cents on every tax dollar, unless some big steps are taken to drop the national debt. CNN reports that by 2020 we’ll be spending 92 cents to cover Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and debt interest. So what would that eight cents have to cover? A Read more…
You can blame it on the economy or the fact that Americans love a good Cinderella story, but it seems that there are more and more reality shows focused on turning junk into cash. It all started with “Antiques Roadshow” and exploded into a multi-channel love affair with the hunt for rusty gold. Shows like “American Pickers,” “Pawn Stars,” “Auction Hunters” and now “Storage Wars” follow ordinary joes as they try to make money on other people’s castoff stuff.
In “Storage Wars” four men make bids on defaulted storage lockers, then try to resell the contents in order to make money. The show started in the fall and has raked in millions of viewers. According to the website StorageUnitAuctionList.com, they have seen a huge increase in interest because of the TV show. Some bidders are thrift s
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The federal government is trying a new program to get tax refunds doled out quicker to those who don’t have bank accounts. The new program will test out the idea of issuing refunds on debit cards with hopes of deterring people from using Refund Anticipation Loans, which can be extremely expensive short-term loans. According to a news release from the Treasury Department, the government will send out 600,000 letters to low and moderate income people by the end of the month asking whether they want to participate in this pilot program.
The program is focused on those who don’t have bank accounts and who may be more likely to use check-cashing services or payday lending. “This pilot program will provide low- and moderate-income Americans with a low-cost option for faster delivery of their federal tax refund,” said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Neal Wolin in a news release. “This i
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