If you have been ready my blog and following my money saving advice the answer is yes, because this is what you have been doing all year long.

You know that last year you spent $200 buying presents. You are paid every 2 weeks and you have been putting $10 in a savings account every time you are paid. You now have enough money saved to buy presents. If I just described you then you can stop reading this post now.

For the rest of you, what are your plans? What do you do if you haven’t been able to save up money? If your first thought is to make purchases on your credit cards, STOP. You have to consider how much you will really be spending over time. The $200 in presents may end up costing you a total of $350 when you add on interest.

Instead look for other ways to save money this holiday season.

If you are buying for children consider a toy swap with a friend or neighbour. Chances are you both have used toys that are no longer played with.

You can also check out websites such as Kijiji. I found a great gently used train set a few months ago for a small amount of money. None of the children that play with it care that it was once belonged to someone else.

I often scratch my head when I hear someone say “my friend is so hard to buy for, she has everything”. Then why exactly are you buying her something she doesn’t want or need? Instead think of another way to exchange gifts. Maybe she doesn’t bake and you do. Why not make her a batch of your world famous chocolate chip cookies? I remember always having a hard time buying for a relative of mine. Every present she received was always to be saved for a “special occasion”. Instead one year we put together a basket of her favourite canned goods. It was the first time I say her use a present she was given. When she moved out of her home, we ended up donating many “special occasion” items to the local charity.

If you have a large family, consider doing a gift exchange and setting price limits for everyone to follow.

What about gift cards? We have all read about gift cards that get put away and forgotten about or worse, the company closes down. Did you know that many grocery stores have gift cards? Everyone goes grocery shopping. What can be better than saving a few dollars off your grocery bill by using a gift card someone gave you? Since this is something that is done every week or two, there is less chance it will become worthless.

The list of ways to save money can go on and on. If you have a tip to share, please post it.

But the most important tip of all is to have a safe and happy holiday.

Event: Money Habitudes™

Location: Financial Fitness
420 Devonshire Rd. Windsor ON

Date: November 16th 2011

Time: 6pm

Cost: FREE

Details: Money Habitudes™ is a fun and easy way to discover the real issues that make people argue, act irrationally or keep them from reaching their financial and life goals.

If you and your partner disagree about money, or if you can’t seem to get ahead no matter what, Money may not be the problem. It may be habits and attitudes related to money.

Find your money habitude and how it affects how you spend, save and earn money!

Contact: Call to book a space
519-258-2030 x0

Financial Fitness is a registered Trade-mark of the Ontario Association of Credit Counselling Services. Credit Counselling Services of Southwestern Ontario, Inc. is an authorized licensee of such Trade-mark.

Times are tough for you.

Maybe your hours were cut back at work, and you are having difficulty paying your credit cards. Things were fine when you were working full time.

Maybe your relationship recently broke down. Things were fine when there were two incomes in the household. Now that it is just your income, you find there isn’t enough money to go around.

Whatever the reason, the creditor calls are starting. The calls are stressful and you don’t know where to turn. The first thing to know is that you are not alone. There are options to help you with your debt problems. What you need is a fresh start.

What is a fresh start?

I refer to a fresh start as a way to be free from your debt. It can come in various forms. For some people a fresh start is a bank consolidation loan.

For others credit counselling may be the way to their fresh start.

It could also be a consumer proposal or bankruptcy.

Everyone will have their own path to their own fresh start. It’s important to talk with someone about which option is best to help you. Give me a call at 519-250-8060 or 310-PLAN and I would be happy to meet with you to discuss the road to your fresh start.

On Saturday, September 24, 2011, Doug Hoyes and Ted Michalos will be live 570 News (Kitchener) speaking about myths you have heard about debt and how to deal with it including debt consultants, pay day loans, consumer proposals and bankruptcy.

They will share their stories and personal experiences from some of the thousands of people they have helped.

Join Doug and Ted at 1:00 pm on Saturday, September 24, 2011 for this informative hour.

Recently I posted a blogs about the study Hoyes Michalos undertook to discover who “Joe Debtor” is. In this study they determined that the average person we see owes around $24,000 in credit card debt. However in the past 6 months I met several people with credit card debt exceeding $100,000 and recently met someone with credit card debt just under $200,000! Now, when I say credit card debt, that is what I mean, I am not counting mortgage, line of credit or loans. I am just referring to good old fashioned plastic. The person with $200,000 in credit card debt had 20 credit cards.

This leads me to ask a number of questions:

1 – How many credit cards do you really need?
2 – How did the balances get so high?
3 – How did they even get his credit in the first place?

How many credit cards to you really need?

I guess the best answer to this is zero. If you don’t have the cash to buy something, don’t buy it. But let’s be honest, most people have a credit card or two. Credit cards are just convenient. They allow you to avoid carrying cash and they are useful if you have to rent a car or hotel. Have you ever tried to rent a car or hotel without a credit card? The cash security deposit you need is huge. If you are going to have a credit card, the best answer would be to have only one and pay it off each month.

How did the balances get so high?

The rules changed last year with credit cards, but prior to the rule change lenders would just keep on automatically increasing your limit. You might start out with a visa credit card with a modest $1,000 limit that you faithfully pay off each month. Every few months the nice lender then increased your credit limit until 2 years later the limit is now at $15,000. Well, then you decide to get a mastercard because you like the points program, you start off with another $1,000 and then the limit gradually goes up to $20,000. You then get a couple of store credit cards and maybe another mastercard until before you know it you have 6 credit cards with a total credit limit of $50,000. Wow, that took no time at all.

Maybe you don’t think its such a big deal if you are paying off the balances in full each month. But what happens if you need unexpected car repairs, or you lose your job? You end up using your credit cards until all of a sudden you have maxed out every card. You were probably even taking cash advances from one credit card to pay another. So you went from one credit card with a limit of $1,000 to six credit cards with limits and a balance owing of $50,000.

How did they even get this credit in the first place?

Many people I meet with said it was so easy to get the credit cards in the first place. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. But really, who applied for the credit in the first place? You were’t forced to get the credit card, you willingingly applied for it. When you first got the credit cards you were probably working so the lender saw you as low risk. Maybe even when you had multiple credit cards you still seemed low risk. The problem probably started with all of the automatic credit limit increases and now the rules have changed so that can’t happen any more.

What is the answer?

The best course of action is to maintain control over your credit card use in the first place. Think about how many credit cards you really need and be disciplined enough not to apply for more. If your credit limit is higher than you need, tell your lender to decrease it.

What do you do if your credit cards are already out of control? The first thing to do is to stop using your credit cards and then make a plan to pay them off in full and learn to live on cash. If you can’t pay them off in full, then contact me to discuss if filing a consumer proposal or personal bankruptcy are options for you.

As a bankruptcy Trustee, frequently friends and family come to me when they want advice dealing with money. If you are a mechanic, you probably have your family and friends coming to you for advice about their cars. It’s just the way it goes.

A few days ago I received a phone call from a friend who wanted my advice on a job offer she had received. She was going through the pros and cons of the job and wanted to talk to someone who could give her an objective opinion based strictly on the numbers. While the financial aspect is only one reason to consider when seeking new employment that is the one area we concentrated on.

The first thing to consider is that a new job requires a major move across Canada. My first question was what is the new rate of pay? She told her net income would increase around $800 more per month. Friends and family had stopped asking her questions right there and just said, it’s more money, take the job, but I kept asking questions. The next thing we looked at was how much her living expenses would be and did an estimated budget. We reviewed the cost of rent, utilities, gasoline, insurance and groceries in the new city. What we determined was that after the increased expenses in the new city, she wouldn’t have much money to save. She doesn’t have any friends in this new city so she will need entertainment money to join a club, gym or organization to meet new people. That will leave her even less money to save. We then looked at the costs to move. Her new employer would only cover around 25% of the cost to move. The rest she would have to pay for out of her current savings. The final thing we looked at was the remoteness of the new job. Currently she lives within a 2 hour drive of a major airport. When she wants to travel, flights are plentiful and deals can be found. The new city is a 2 hour flight a major airport. I told her she has to consider that increased cost. Once we added up all of the costs for her to live in her new city, including airfare to return back home once per year we realized she would not be able to save as much money as she is now. From a financial point of view, she realized it doesn’t make sense to move.

She then considered non financial reasons to move (such as a getting a fresh start in a new city), and future opportunities in the company she is with now compared with future opportunities she may have with the new company. She just sent me an email a few hours ago to let me know that she has turned down the job.

What does that have to do with a bankruptcy blog? Too often I see people making impulse decisions without thinking through the consequences of their action. You might think it looks cool to have the latest electronic gadget, but what happens when the credit card bill arrives next month and you don’t have the money to pay for it in full. Take your time to think thorough the financial consequences of what you want to do. If you realize that you need help with your already overwhelming debt, then use our debt options calculator to help you find the fresh start that is right for you or call me at 310-PLAN to book a meeting.

As a Trustee with Hoyes, Michalos & Associates I am often asked if there really is a Hoyes and Michalos or is it just the name of people who are no longer around?

Yes, Doug Hoyes and Ted Michalos exist and meet with people every day; just like I do. At one point, the three of us worked together for a large firm. Then in 1999, Doug and Ted opened up Hoyes, Michalos & Associate Inc. When I became a Trustee in 2003, I joined them by opening up offices in Windsor, Leamington, followed by Chatham a year later.

Does it really matter that there really is a Hoyes and Michalos? Yes, it does. You have the choice of which trustee you want to deal with and there are many of us in Windsor. When you come through the door at Hoyes, Michalos you want to know that you are dealing with real people, not a nameless, faceless big corporation. All the Trustee’s and staff at Hoyes, Michalos have to go through the same training program. It doesn’t matter that you first met with us in one of our Toronto offices and now have moved to Windsor, the service will still be the same.

We are one of the largest personal insolvency firms in Ontario. Yes, we are a large company, but when you call us during normal office hours you will get a real person, not a recording. I manage three offices, but all we do is proposals and bankruptcies for people. You don’t have to worry about getting a phone call from us delaying our meeting because a big corporate insolvency just happened and it is more important.

We are here to help find the plan that is right for you. Sometimes a consumer proposal is the best option, sometimes it is bankruptcy or maybe even a referral to a creditor counselor. We are not going to just tell you what to do without giving you all of your options.

The first phone call is always the hardest. Why not call us at 310-PLAN and let’s find the best option to give you the fresh start you need.

Every day in my offices in Windsor, Ontario and Leamington, Ontario I meet with people who tell me about their experiences about collection agencies. The stories are often very similar, the collection agent has been rude, is calling numerous times per day and they are stressed. I will admit that some of the stories are pretty scary. I met with a lady who told me a collector called her 80 year old mother and told mom that unless mom paid her daughter’s bill, her daughter was going to jail. Mom was very scared for her daughter and went to the bank, cashed out a substantial portion of her savings and wired the money to the collector. When the daughter came to visit her mother later that day, mom told her what she had done and that she isn’t going to jail after all. Mom was very happy that she had saved her daughter. Of course the daughter was furious, not at her mom, but at the collector for duping her mother. All she could do was bite her tongue and thank her mother. The money was gone and there was nothing she could do.

I have heard other stories about collector’s using becoming personal in their attacks, using name calling and even calling the person’s boss at work. Collection agencies have rules they are supposed to follow. However, you must take the time to file a complaint, and when you are stressed about your debts; this may not be high on your priority list.

How should you deal with them? First – Treat them in a professional manner. Second – Don’t make a payment arrangement you can’t keep. Third – If you can’t pay them, don’t avoid them. They won’t go away on their own.

The bottom line is that they are calling because you owe money. You probably had a loan or credit card you weren’t able to pay. Your account was then sold to a third party collection agency who is now trying to collect the debt. Financial problems can happen to anyone for various reasons. It’s important to know there are options to deal with your debt. Maybe credit counseling can help. Or maybe you need the protection of bankruptcy or a consumer proposal.

It’s important to call us at 310-PLAN and talk to us about your options before the phone calls get overwhelming.

Summer is here again, and it is more important that even toproperly budget your money. Why does summer change that? There are a few reasons.

With the increase in temperature you are probably running your air conditioner more. That means higher electricity bills.

Traditional gas prices are higher in the summer and that means it will cost more to fill up your car.

Many people take time off work during the summer. Even if you are not going on a vacation for a week or 2, even day trips cost money.

What can you do?

Consider raising your thermostat to save on air conditioning bills, or look for other ways to keep your house cool. Enwin has some good energy savings tips

Try to fill up your car when gas prices are lower. I am not suggesting you drive across town to save pennies (you will lose more in the long run), but you can top off your tank if you pass a gas station with a lower price.

If you are planning a trip, use cash instead of credit.

You can read more about budgeting here.

If you find that you are having difficulties with your bills, it’s important to talk to someone about your options. Call me at 310-PLAN, or send me an email.

I am in the Leamington office today for the first time since the tornado struck on Sunday. Our office is downtown and undamaged, but I am hearing and reading stories about the destruction. As you can imagine, it has been the topic of conversation with the people I am meeting with.

But am I going to talk about a tornado on a bankruptcy blog? No I am not, but when many people tell me about their financial difficulties they talk about how they feel like they are in the eye of the storm. They know something is going to strike and they need to know how to deal with it.

It was wonderful to read that there weren’t any serious injuries in Leamington. When you read the stories in the newspaper, those affected by storm discuss that they listened to the activity outside and realized that they needed to make a plan for their safety. Financial problems are like that too.

When you realize the storm is coming, make a plan to deal with your debts. The first step is to see if you qualify for a consolidation loan or credit counseling. If you don’t qualify then a consumer proposal or bankruptcy in Windsor may be an option. If so, call me at 310-PLAN and I will help you weather the storm.