Parrot on a PorchA Journey Toward the Little Mansion Dream

I’ve recently learned from a home decorating blog that Chinese buy gold coins and give these as good luck gifts to friends that can also be displayed in a home.  These gold coins can be artistically arranged within a golden frame and can be shown seemingly as an exhibit in the hallway or even in the living room.  It is said that coins signify riches while the element gold itself means good luck.  So gifting a gold coins collection means that one wish lots of wealth coming into one’s home.  So to friends visiting our little mansion very soon, do not forget to take a look at US Gold Bureau’s site where you can possibly order good gold coin collections as a good luck gift to us.

I had one of the weirdest dreams last night. It included scenes of me hitting the Lottery jackpot, the husband winning in a poker game using a trick that he learned at WSOP and the little one playing his Uncle’s poker chips. I don’t know what could have led me to dream about these things. Perhaps, I was just so into thinking last night before dozing off about things that I’m going to buy first should I win the Lotto jackpot. The usual wishes that one daydreams about. It’s just funny because my pre-sleeping thoughts proceeded up to my dreams. Now if only it comes true, that would be the greatest.

So to continue my thoughts..if I win the Lotto jackpot, these are the things I’ll spend my winnings on:
1. Around the world trip with my boys. I’ll also invite and treat my folks and siblings so it would be a one big family adventure.
2. Settle Little Mansion’s amortization in full.
3. Purchase a few more properties. This time, a big true mansion in one of the exclusive villages in the city.
4. Buy new autos.
5. Invest in a Jollibee and Starbucks franchise.
6. Secure my child’s education by allotting a trust fund.
7. Put a portion in time deposit.
8. Buy an iphone, a Macbook and an iPad.
9. Upgrade laptop and DSLR (and its lenses).
10. Celebrate by dining in my favorite first class restaurants.

…and the list goes on.

Whew! If only I could really get all these come true. But then, it’s just too impossible. Not unless, I start placing my lottery bets. I do not have the charm and luck in winning draws and raffles, but who knows. We never can tell unless we try.

You need it to do almost anything with financing. Want to buy a car? The dealer will run a credit check. Same goes for a house. This magic number can determine which options are open to you, and a low score can close doors.

Credit scoring in America is based on five measures, which are used to determine your overall score. These parts are:

Inquiries (hard): Expect intense examinations of your credit history by lenders. These inquiries account for 10 percent of your credit score. Remember that you can get a free credit score report for yourself without damaging your score.

Types of Credit Accounts: Another 10 percent depends on what credit cards you hold and the credit history of each of the cards.

Credit History Length: This credit scoring measure takes into account how long you’ve had your credit account. This determines 15 percent of your score. The longer the history, if it’s in good standing, the higher the score for this measure.

Debt to Credit Limit Ratio: This aspect of credit scoring looks at how much of your credit limit you spend. It’s recommended that you spend under 30 percent of your total credit limit, and 10 percent is preferable. This shows lenders that you’re a savvy spender. This ratio makes up a whooping 30 percent of your credit score. Your free credit score check will show you what purchases you’ve made and how well you did in paying them off.

Payment History: This is the big one. Lenders will look at what credit you have used, and how fast and reliably you paid it off. Any payments that are overdue (usually 30 days late) will drop your score.

So keep these factors about credit scoring in mind the next time you break out the plastic. You can check your credit score (and full credit report) on many sites, including http://www.creditreport.com.

Some intentionally avoid owning a credit card. Just like my dad, who never in his entire 63 years of existence ever tried applying for one and never did he accept credit card offers for the simple reason that he has this “pride” of not wanting to incur any “debts”. He always pays upfront with cash. Well, credit cards are not actually bad and it’s up to a person on how he will manage it and how will will he keep himself from suffering the bad effects or disadvantages.

I maintain 3 active credit cards myself. I filed for credit card applications because of the following advantages in mind: security in emergencies, reduced need to carry cash or checks and enhanced personal responsibility and independence. It also helps you build a positive credit history which you can use in future financial applications like bigger loans for a house, car, etc. Credit cards nowadays also offer rewards and rebates for every purchase. There’s even one that enables you to collect “miles” points which when accumulated in heaps will entitle one to fly in certain destinations for free. So far, owning a credit card works for me and I do not have any problems with it and so if ever, I’ll apply for a new one, I don’t need any credit cards for bad credit because of my credit good standing.

However, as I’ve mentioned, a credit card is not for everyone. Before applying for a credit card, one must ask himself if there’s really a need for one and he can realistically afford the repayments. Also, there are several types of credit cards to choose from. Good options like low interest credit cards, balance transfer credit cards, gas credit cards, rewards credit cards and a whole lot more. There are also credit cards for people with bad credit for those who have encountered difficulty in maintaining their credit cards. Depending which type suits one’s needs, it would be helpful to do a study or comparison first before deciding and passing that application form.

An investment is a way of securing one’s future. It comes in different forms, ways and value.  The bottom line is, we can never be complacent at any time as nothing in life is certain including one’s riches. An investment can be a gamble but more often than not, it always ends up highly valued and indeed, gives peace of mind.

Venturing in any type of a business, an insurance, buying a real estate, buying stocks are just few samples of long term investments. Another type is purchasing precious metals such as gold and silver. It may be tricky and confusing at first like when is the right time to buy gold bullion, but the precious metal industry is actually challenging and not to mention, high profit yielding especially that the value of gold does not change at all over time.

Let’s face it. With the world recession and a far from improving economic condition, life is indeed getting harder each day. Tune in to the nightly news and what we hear are the never ending and depressing news about inflation and laborers getting retrenched. As a homemaker and the finance manager of the house, I can directly feel the effects. Doing the math of our monthly expenses and budgeting are the tasks I truly abhor because the numbers just depress me.

It’s no wonder why people resort to availing loans and credit just to augment their salaries and make their ends meet. However, a debtor should always be in control and be wary of his availments because he may end up falling deep in the pit of high interest rates, charges and possibly negative impact on credit rating later on. In the US, their credit score is really important and it’s a thing that they do take very seriously. Future credit and loan availments are dependent on it. For multiple loans, they do debt consolidation which is a process of taking out one loan to pay off many others to secure a lower or a fixed interest rate. It is advisable to consolidate debt when paying multiple credit card debts to lower the interest rates which consequently means increased capability to zero out the debt. It may appear complicated but there are helpful service entities out there like the 3debtconsolidation.com that are well versed with such transactions. Their site even has a resource for sample debt settlement letter collection whatever the nature of the debt-related transaction is. In these difficult times like these, they certainly are lifesavers of those that need credit help.