Margret Sloan

My step daughter got a Cricket phone when we refused to add her to our home account. We had to take a hard stand with her and stop helping her financially - she just took advantage of us over and over and I finally put my foot down and said no more money. So she has a Cricket phone that works three weeks out of the month - the last week of the month it always seems to get shut off for non-payment and we won’t give her the money to turn it back on. Aren’t we the big meanies?

So the days when she does have cell phone service, she has a ringtone that she downloaded and it plays in the ear of the person calling until she answers the phone of it goes to voicemail. I knew the ringtone had to be a rap song - she loves that stuff - but I’ve heard the song maybe 100 times and I can’t understand the words. Then it occurred to me that I can look up the lyrics for any rap song and also listen to free ringtone samples by going to the web site called rapartists.com.

I found the song she is using for her ringtone by Kanye West called “Touch the Sky” and sure enough the full Rap Lyrics are there on the web site!

I’m a little nervous about my nephew’s plans to go to South Africa this summer as part of his college studies. The news there has not been good this week, with a lot of violence and even riots over a wave of African immigrants.

My nephew is a real sweetheart - a humanitarian and he has always had a strong interest in helping people. The college program takes a lot of precautions to protect the students, but such an unstable culture as the African countries exhibit makes me very concerned. He’s leaving the U. S. at the end of the month, so it occurred to me that something he might appreciate taking with him would be a calling card. You know, the prepaid phone cards that let you make international calls at very cheap rates?

I found an internet site that sells the phone cards in different denominations and has different types of cards, from single use to ones you can reload. From reading about the rates between the United States and Johannesburg, it is much much cheaper to call FROM the U. S. to South Africa than to call the U.S. FROM South Africa. So I will get him a card with at least 20 minutes of calling time that he can keep in his wallet and in case of emergency he can at least call home and let us know he needs help. Otherwise, because of the expense, his mother should call him at a pre-arranged time to save money, so I’ve buying a calling card for her, too.

We told my step-daughter that we want to talk with her this weekend and to make plans for someone to watch her son for a couple of hours so we won’t be distracted with his constant need for attention while we talk. We see some of the serious signs of her heading into financial trouble and we want to try to nip it in the bud.

She’s been trying to make a go of it on her own since she was 16 but didn’t pop into our lives until about 3 years ago when she showed up on our doorsteps with a suitcase and her son looking for someplace to sleep. And I don’t mind helping her, but at some point you have to cut the apron strings or kick the baby bird from the nest or whatever you have to do to get them on their own two feet.

So our talk will be about taking financial responsibility for herself and her son. I don’t think her mother ever talked with her about anything like balancing a checkbook, using a debit card and establishing credit. But in today’s world, the young people need to learn these things and be smart about their credit to build a secure future for themselves.

We’ll help her get a copy of her credit report, open a checking account and then apply for a credit card. We’ll work with her to find credit card deals and then monitor the card usage and bills for a few months to explain how it all works and to make sure she understands how important it is to keep these financial matters in good standing. After all, we won’t be around forever to bail her out, and she needs to be a good role model for her son, too.

I found a good website to help with our discussion and I’ve bookmarked their page. Here’s the press release that caught my eye:

Press Release:

We often hear: be responsible with your finances, use wisely credit cards, try to establish good credit history, etc. But why should we take pains to establish good credit rating? What good credit cards can give us? What does high credit score mean?
You credit history is considered to be good if your score is between 660 and 749. Having established good credit, you are eligible for the most beneficial credit card offers. High credit score proves your responsibility and payment abilities and banks are ready to reward you. Now you can apply for plastics with rewards programs. If you are frequent traveler, you will benefit from a credit card with free air miles or a hotel card. Gasoline credit cards will let you save on everyday gas purchases. Do you enjoy shopping? Cash back credit cards give generous rewards and rebates for the purchases you would make anyway.
Good credit history also lets you enjoy low interest rate credit cards that are certainly the most beneficial credit deals. Good rating gives a chance to benefit not only from using credit cards. It also helps to get a loan or a mortgage with more favorable terms and low interest rates.
The advantage of good credit rating is evident. So, visit FreeCreditScoreOnline.com to learn how to raise your credit score and build strong credit history.

I think at some point in each of our lives, everyone in my family has worked in a restaurant for some reason or another. I was a bartender and I loved it. Wish I had my own bar, but that’s the middle class American’s dream, isn’t it?

If I could make my dream come true, I would start a new business someplace where I want to live, pack up and leave here. One of the things stopping me is getting all the financing I would need. Banks are harder to deal with every day and I’m not interested in taking on partners. For one thing I want autonomy in making the business decisions and for another I don’t want to share the profits from my own hard work with people who don’t do anything except put in the start up money.

That’s why I’ve been looking into Business Loans online. There is a website, www.advancerestaurantfinance.com, that specializes in small business and restaurant loans. They are more flexible than banks and they have a simple application process that you can start right online. I like the fact that they are located and licensed int he state of California, so I am seriously considering making my dreams come true with the first step of finding the financing I’ll need.

Last night we had a board meeting for the non profit that I’ve been working with these past several years. We had to review the nominations for new board members and officers for the coming year. I was glad to learn that we’ve found someone new to serve as Treasurer, a young man who works for a large financial services company, Northern Trust.

I had reviewed their website and was totally impressed with Northern Trust. They offer a variety of financial services for individuals, including

• business owners
• legal professionals
• medical professionals
• corporate executives
• families in transition

I’m hoping that, if elected, the Treasurer can meet some of our consumers and works with them, as well as other board members, to help with long term financial planning. Some of them need help with understanding the processes of estate settlement and some just need a friend they can talk to about arranging for the future care of their disabled children and get the peace of mind that financial security brings.