Amy Currioman

Scholarships are the hands down best way to reduce the cost of attending college or trade schools. When I was expecting my first born, I did a lot of reading about parenting issues, and one of the things that I was most interested in was how to be able to afford to send my children to school. Back then the Internet wasn’t even invented yet, so most of my research was done by reading magazines; most notably a magazine named “Parents.”

One of the more interesting suggestions that some of the articles in that magazine seemed to be making was to NOT save a lot of money for college, as the families that scrimped and saved for college were the ones that would get less financial assistance. The argument was made that financial hardship would actually benefit the students in the long run. What do you think of that advice?

With so many consumers struggling with job loss, many of them have been forced to make some difficult decisions between paying for their foods and medicines or to pay for loans that were taken on good faith that the income needed to pay those bills would be there. Suddenly many of us are getting embarassing collection calls; sometimes even for bills that have not even come due yet! Fortunately there are resources available on the Internet that the savvy consumer can use to help stop collection harassment for good.

In some states, there was a law enacted in 1978 in California called the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act that is designed to protect the consumers against abusive and unfair debt collection practices. Since then, lawyers have become specialists in how to stop collection harassment California and in some cases the debt collectors have had to pay penalties and fines for their unfair debt collection practices. Sometimes the government actually does help the little guy!

I am a bargain hound, plain and simple. I clip coupons. I search for discount codes on the Internet. I keep trying to grab up insanity deals at nomorerack.com because the nomorerack has an amazing selection of products at extremely low prices.

I’m sure that I don’t have to tell you that the world’s economy is changing in leaps and bounds, and the Internet has a lot to do with those changes. No longer is the consumer stuck with only the merchandise in his corner Mom & Pop variety store or ordering from the now extinct Sears & Roebuck mail order catalog. (Did you realize that the Sears & Roebuck mail order catalog used to sell complete house kits?)

Using the Internet to bargain shop is becoming more commonplace than going downtown on a Saturday afternoon to shop. Is that a good thing, or a bad thing? Well I think that question is moot because good or bad, it is in all likelihood here to stay. Many of today’s consumers don’t have the time on their hands to go into town to shop, and don’t want to have to find a baby sitter to watch their children when they go out to shop. And most parents don’t want to take their kids shopping with them because the children become bored and cranky pretty easily.

Not long ago townsfolk were alarmed at the thought that Wal-Mart, the Super Giant Retailer was going to destroy the commercial centers of their towns. In many cases, that is exactly what happened. Now it is the Internet’s turn to destroy Wal-Mart. More consumers would rather just sit down at their computer and order something to be delivered to their homes (in many cases delivery is free) than drag their families down to the crowded Wal-Mart on a weekend. I know that is what I would rather do! Because the Internet commerce is growing and giving Wal-Mart (and Target, and all of the other big discount stores) a run for their money, the commercial center of town just might enjoy a revival of small, locally owned service-based stores. After all, once the customer buys the product at a bargain rate, there will often be a need to service, clean, or repair the item. Yes, there will be the opportunity to ship the item needing repair to someplace “out there” but for the most I think that people would prefer to get their items repaired locally. What do you think? Is Internet bargain shopping better for the economy, or worse?

Guest post written by my buddy Lavern Small

I went to CannonSatellite.com to look into satellite and see if it was any cheaper than cable. I also talked to the people with my lawn care company to make sure they wouldn’t mind if I cut back to twice a month instead of every week – that’s helped us save hundreds a year. I don’t know why I got on this money saving kick but for me it’s all about making sure we’re financially viable in this economy and I know that my job’s secure but I get really worried that I might lose my job or get hurt or something else terrible. I love being part of a supportive family but there’s something to be said for taking matters into your own hands and that’s what I’ve done – I’ve asked every member of my family to put their best effort forward when it comes to saving money but at the end of the day it’s an individual effort and everyone has to answer for themselves with what they’ve been able to save.

When I was a lot younger I decided to invest in the stock market. The reason that I decided to do that was because my employer was offering a 401K plan where the money was invested solely in the company stock. Several years later I decided on a whim that I wanted to buy Disney Stock because I had just gone to Disney World and had a great time. I wanted to own a piece of Disney! At the time Disney Shareholders got special discounts (not anymore!) and a really nice magazine that came out a couple of times a year (again, not anymore!)

And a few years after that I read in the local newspaper that a Wal-Mart was going to build in a nearby town and the Motley Fool column in the newspaper suggested that Wal-Mart stock would be a good investment.  So I bought some Wal-Mart stock.  Not a lot, but I still bought some.

For the most part, the stocks that I have purchased have done relatively well, but a couple of months ago I met a financial advisor that suggested that I take some of my 401K money that was largely in the stock market and roll it over into an IRA that is full of annuities.  I really did not even understand how annuities work, but he sat down with me for about an hour and explained them, showed me some great Annuity Rates and convinced me that moving some of my money into annuities would be a smart thing to do at this point in time. I sure hope he’s right!