Your credit card is a source of interest-free loan. But, this will work, if and only if you think of your credit card as a tool for personal cash flow management –rather than additional cash in your wallet.
It often happens that a purchase has to be made before your expected cash has become available. If you know that your cash will come in before the bill from the credit card falls due, make the purchase with your credit card –but pay off the whole purchase when your cash comes in and save yourself the interest cost. …read more

I’ve always maintained that accounting is also for business. It’s concepts, relationships among accounts, system of balances are applicable in almost anything in life.
Accounting Solver presents a Balance Sheet for Living:

Keeping up with the Joneses is a great contributor to Stress. It pushes you into Conspicuous Consumption (e.g., a gas-guzzler luxury car instead of a cost-efficient model, designer clothes, etc) –which increases your Bills & Obligations and makes for great Stress.
The Joneses probably have more than $10,000 in unpaid credit card bills for which they are paying as much as 30% in interest & penalties, live in a …read more

Whenever you use your credit card for a purchase or any expense payable through a credit card, the issuing bank or credit card company is betting that you will not pay your whole balance within the free 30-day grace period and they will earn revenues from your account. By paying the whole balance before the 30-day interest free period, YOU WIN THE BET.
The greatest income of issuing banks and credit card companies come from the interests and penalties they charge for outstanding amounts at the end of the 30-day period.
So, bet on a sure thing. Pay your whole credit …read more

Susan Gunelius’ http://www.brandcurve.com/ is all about branding and marketing.
One way of presenting a strong marketing image is through the financial statements. Admittedly, financial statements have a limited market. However, it can outdo a picture’s worth of more than a thousand words.
Financial Statements can be used (and have often been used) as a form of public relations ploy and as enticements for financial institutions to lend, investors to put in funds, and suppliers to extend credit.
Without being downright dishonest and inaccurate, Financial Statements can be used to present the best aspects of a business or one’s own financial status.

Financial …read more

Any business (especially small businesses, single proprietorships, partnerships) should build excellent PR with all their publics and stakeholders (i.e., customers / clients, stockholders, its own employees, the community where it does business, the media, government regulatory / supervisory agencies, civic organizations, even the churches, etc).

Eric Eggertson at http://www.commonsensepr.com/ can show you how.
One of the first institutions with whom you should build excellent PR is a bank. Don’t just set up a bank account. Get to know the manager and get to be known by the manager. Invite bank personnel to your office or production facility. …read more

A company who has had a poor performance resorts to “accounting noise” to make it look better than it really is (e.g., Enron, WorldCom, etc).
In addition to fudging revenue figures (recording future / potential income that may or may not actually be realized) and fudging expense figures (postponing the recording of expenses into the future), one other common practice has to do with accounts receivable and notes receivable.
Before audit time, the company “sells” the over-aged receivables (in arrears for more than 90 days or notes in default) to a finance company or an affiliate with an agreement to “buy back” …read more

The windfall from the “stimulus” bill can provide some shelter from subprime fallout.

In addition to paying down debt to stave off arrears or default in credit card and mortgage payments in the looming tough times, another productive use which will have an effect longer and more permanent than paying down debt is to enroll in a skill-upgrading course.
For those who remain employed in a company that has not yet undergone downsizing, an additional skill or a higher level of proficiency will add value to the employee’s status in the company, so that –if / when the company does …read more

Some relief can be obtained from the recently passed stimulus bill. Before the end of the first semester of this year, people will be receiving the windfall from the recently passed “stimulus” bill:
individuals = $600
couples = $1200, $300 additional for each child.

This can be part of a source for shoring up personal / household finances. One use of this windfall which can serve as an umbrella against subprime fallout would be to pay down as much debt as it cover (i.e., credit cards & mortgages).
Image from Microsoft Clipart

The fallout from the eruption in the financial markets caused by the collapse of worthless subprime mortgages is already being felt, not only in the United States, but in the rest of the world as well.

Worst hit with wide ranging effects are businesses. Large corporations are downsizing and turning out employees in the thousands into the streets and unemployment lines.
Wage earners and their families are filled with anxiety and uncertainty about the future. Many are being forced to go into arrears and into default in their credit cards and mortgages.

What can you do? In …read more

Before the end of the first semester of this year, you will be receiving the windfall from the recently passed “stimulus” bill:
individuals = $600
couples = $1200, $300 additional for each child.

This will be an excellent opportunity to climb out of subprime. Pay down as much of your credit card as the windfall will be able to cover. If you are in the deepest of the subprime category, you can be paying as much as 30% in additional interest and penalties. By using your windfall to pay down this debt, you will in effect be earning that much …read more