Be Carefull of the Economic Help Rip Offs

I have seen a number of late night scams on TV to help people solve their economic problems. We should all ask ourselves the question: if it looks to good to be true, it usually is.

When I see these infomercial about fixing your credit report, I ask the question, is this too good to be true. Doesn't our credit score simply record or document what has and is going on with our credit, good or bad. These companies promise to fix or repair your credit for a fee. Run, don't walk away. Never send them money and never give anyone access to your bank accounts. For a fee, these companies will bombard your creditors with letters to cause confusion. If your credit report has incorrect or inaccurate information on it, you can send them a letter on your own and they have to make the appropriate correction to your report. If something on you report is negative but correct, it cannot be eliminated. Only time will remove any negative activities from your report. No one can take off accurate negative information. Keep doing good stuff like paying off old debt on time and put money in saving just in case you have an emergency. This way you can use cash and not use a credit cards when things happens.

Next are the people who can negotiate with the IRS and get you great settlements. Well, the IRS is the IRS and they get their money no matter what. The IRS will only accept an OIC (offer in compromise) if you a) have no income, b) have no asserts and c) have no future of income or asserts. The IRS wants you to file bankruptcy because you can't include them in the bankruptcy and they will get their money including interest and fees. They have leverage on their side. Do not send these people the $6K to $10K to help you. They simply do not deliver as advertised.

Next are the people who promise you that they will negotiate with your creditors and get you a reduced offer. First they will get a large fee from you up front. Second they will have you delay paying your creditors or they will have you make your payment to the consumer creid counseling agency and they will stop paying your creditors. Fees will start to increase on your accounts. Once they have taken their fees and piled up some of your cash, they will try to offer the creditor a lesser amount. These actions are dishonest, deceitful and unethical. Most of the time these efforts will not work. You will pay more in the long run and your credit will be ruined. Don't do it. Again on your own, you can find ways to pile up some cash and offer your creditor a discounted amount. Also you can and should always call your creditor and ask for a better/lower interest rate. And as always, stop using credit. (check out your credit report at http://www.annualcreditreport.com/)




Last but not least are the consumer credit counselors who will handle your credit payments for you for a small monthly fee of $25 a month plus and an up front fee. You send them your money and they will negotiate with your creditors for longer payment term and lower interest rates. This usually take 24 to 36 months to complete. Remember, when you pay longer, you pay more in almost all cases. Again, you have the power to call or write your creditor to negotiate with them to pay the debt you have incurred.

Most people who decide to get our of debt and stay our of debt, stop using credit and have a written budget. The average person can get out of credit card debt in 18 months or less by stop using credit and using all their extra recourse to pay off this debt. Each of these rip offs cost money and do not produce result but the biggest problem is that they do not address the problem of changing our spending habits. It is like getting liposuction to loose weight and still eating Oreos and nacho every day while not getting exercise. We all need to change our habits and live on what we make and stop looking for easy ways to take care of the problems we have caused. There is no bail out for the average guy coming from Washinton. The light you might see is a truck wanting more of your money.

Lets be different and live on less that we make.


Check out the video.


http://www.hulu.com/watch/1389/saturday-night-live-dont-buy-stuf





Dave Williams

www.lighthousefinancialcounseling.com

Kenny Perry is still a winner dispite the lose at the Masters

Kenny Perry was sitting on top of the world on Sunday at the Masters in Augusta. Two holes to go and up by two. He would be the oldest man to ever win the Masters at the age of 48. Well life happens and he boogied the next two holes to go into a three way play off only to lose in the second payoff hole. Wait, he was not crushed. What is up with this guy. Does not his identity and confidence come from being a pro golfer who has won other Majors and played in the Ryder cup and now blew a two stroke lead in the final round of the Masters. He will become the next Greg Norman.

Nope, Kenny's confidence comes from his identity in Jesus. Kenny is a great Christian who loves and wins at golf and in life. Kenny regularly gives 5% of all of his winnings to Lipscomb University a Christian University. Thats over $1,000,000 in a trust fund for kids from Franklin County, Kentucky who are allowed a scholarship to Lipscomb.http://www.lipscomb.edu/

Kenny has a great story to tell about how God has used him week in and week out playing golf to touch others and to give to kids.

Kenny says to people " you can do anything you want to do in life. if you put God first and continue to strive for what you want to do, those doors are going to be open for you. You'll make it."

This reminds me of a verse my friend Tom Young from the Navigators shared with me,
Matthew 6:33 "seek frost the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you"
http://www.navpress.com/ Check out the TMS memorization system. Worked form me eventually

I bet Kenny's witness today is even more powerful knowing he may be a little shaken but not stirred and his confidence is still the same as it has been since he accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior. What at light to the world.

I want to be more like Kenny Perry who is trying to be more like Jesus Christ.


Dave Williams
http://www.lighthousefinancialcounseling.com/

See the 2006 atrticle on Kenny Perry a
http://www.linksplayers.com/
http://www.linksplayers.com/Player_Profiles/Kenny_Perry/kenny_perry.html

Read the Bible for Financial Wisdom

I' am reading the latest book by Pat Morley and the Man in the Mirror Ministries http://www.maninthemirror.com/ called How to Survive the Economic Meltdown http://survivingthemeltdown.org/. Pat makes a statement that I feel convinced by, " most men read the Bible for comfort and read the Wall Street Journal for direction." Wow, what a statement. All we have to do is to look around and see the results. The government is in debt, our churches are in debt, we are in debt and our kids are in debt. As I look through the Bible, I can't seem to find any thing about borrowing from tomorrow to pay for today. Even David had to pay for the threshing floor offered to him so he could worship God. I think during these current times we could all take a step back and see the Bible for what it is "the inspired word of God that is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness."

It makes me think a little more when I read Proverb 27:12
The prudent see danger and take refuge,
but the simple keep going and suffer for it.

Ouch, I think I need to take refuge

Dave Williams

http://www.lighthousefinancialcounseling.com/

Abraham Lincoln's Rules of Conduct

I was cleaning out my office and found Lincoln's code of conduct. What worked back then might just work today.

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak ou and remove all doubt

The fact is, truth is your truest friend, no matter what the circumstances are.

Leave nothing for tomorrow whick can be dont today.

The way of a you man to rise is to im[porve himself every way he can, never suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him.

Quarrel not at all. No man resolved the make the most of himself can spare time for personal contention.

By all means don't say "if I can, say "I will."

Let none falther who thins he is right.

I say "try." IF we never try, we shall never succeed.

Stand by anybody that stands right. Stand with him whhile he is right and part with him when he is wrong.


Abraham Lincoln.

What do you think