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What’s the cost of financial failure? I had never given this a thought until I had experienced financial hardship in my own life. People never give reason or rhyme to why they have served themselves a bad deal. When financial crisis occurs you wouldn’t even begin to imagine the costs associated with the devastation.

For instance you have to determine what the financial failure is…A job loss, stock market crash, poor investment choices or no investment choices. What if indirect choices not even associated with finances directly affected you.

Let me try to clear this up a bit you see my choice was to start a business of my own, I worked hard and had my full time job at t he local telecommunications company. After suffering from lack of sleep and advancement in my business I made the choice to quit my day job, my security and financial stability.

This combined with poor well actually no financial management led me to financial devastation. I could deny all of this and base it on something else, yet I would still know the truth. When I made this choice I had no idea of the impact it would have on my life. I knew it would be tough, I just figured it would take me less time to achieve the level of success and wealth I wanted if I could dedicate all of my energy into my business.

It was just one month after I made this choice that my entire world was set upside down. My Mother passed away without warning, suddenly just two days after I had seen her. This rocked my world! My life spun out of control, I didn’t care anymore about anything. I blew over $100,000 of my inheritance on toys and trucks, instead of making the choice to pay my mortgage, my bills etc…

I know this sounds like a big “DUH YOU IDIOT” what were you thinking; and that my friends is my point. Most people don’t think about the choices they make about money. People and I mean almost 90% of the people in America are living in a facade, the truth is that that facade is has been blown wide open.

When local movie and television starts come together to speak out about financial awareness, you know there is a problem. When government spending has caused many a state especially here in CA. To point out their deficits to the tune of billions and billions of dollars you know there are serious neglects on many peoples parts.

Guess who gets to carry the burden of those choices you and I do. Not just our own choices but those choices of the people who we “elected into office”. By the way did you know that government officials don’t play by the rules you and I do. It’s quite obvious if you just read into it.

Regardless if you are in office or not, a Democrat or Republican or what ever other party you are associated with. Every official in politics sets two sets of rules. The one’s we must obied by and those rules they obied by. They are very different sets of rules. As I like to look at it as they are law makers and rule breakers.

Why shouldn’t they be subject to the same rules and regulations that we are? They’re exempt from the laws they put into place. So again what’s the cost of poor financial management. Let’s see your life and livelihood are at stake not to mention losses of housing, stability, family and friends. These are basic necessities that everyone needs.

What happens when you can’t find food or afford to eat, what happens when food shelters send you away empty handed or had out old breads and foods that have been in cans in the back of warehouses for what tastes like decades.

Loss of confidence and self esteem, embarrassment, humility and sense of purpose for life all demise. Depression and sadness rise up and beat you down. Financial insecurity that most people face is a sad and dangerous game to play. Because when the time comes to show your hand usually you loose.

If you have financial hardships you need to seek out the proper help and guidance from trusted professionals and resources. Possibly something as simple as an investment strategy, savings plans, debt settlement or mortgage modifications are all you need.

If your financial circumstances are more demanding then demanding and complex possibly a tax attorney/CPA are something you want to consider. Truly you want to have this type of support at your beck and call 24/7 and with your exclusive membership to Financial Destination Inc. You can have it all. Take the time to educate yourself with options, get involved with your life, join Financial Destination and receive First Class treatment like you have never experienced before.

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Holiday cheer is all around us and winter is in the air, we feel the chill of the season and the happiness of the time of the year. No matter where we go it’s hard to hide from the fact that it’s almost Christmas time. With mistletoe and lit up trees all around, the presence of stocking hung with care we keep our spirits bright all through the day and night. While we all spend the days with family and friends the thought of financial and personal safety are hidden way deep within.

We seem to have a sort of blindness to things that can be bad and detrimental to us all. With the rising threat of criminal activity on the rise here are some things you need to keep in mind. Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in America and around the world; a new identity is stolen every 3 seconds. That’s 20 identities per minute and 240 an hour. If you think you’re safe from these crimes think again.

No one is safe from this. Your identity has several vulnerability points that can be penetrated, your medical records, your DMV records, your credit and social security as well. These are just 3 of the 5 points related to your identity. The most vulnerable point this Holiday Season is your financial identity and here are a few tips to help keep you protected from those who lurk to steal your information and benefit by destroying you in the process.

First and foremost you need to practice safe online shopping. Remember to never give out your personal information to an unsolicited email, only shop at trusted and known online stores and websites that you trust. Make sure that the checkout area is secure by locating the closed and locked padlock on your web browser’s window frame. This will help to ensure that your identity is safe from identity thieves.

All in all online shopping is more secure that going out to your favorite diner or restaurant. Simply due to the fact that there is no margin for human error; you see when you dine out or hand your credit card to a human who runs the transaction manually there is a possibility for the handler to copy your information and start charging away causing you to incur unauthorized charges. When you are online this risk is practically eliminated by secure encryption and light speed processing of the transaction with no human involved.

Secondly you need to remove unnecessary items from your wallet. While you are out on the town purchasing every item on your list you need to leave all of the unnecessary items at home. Lost checkbooks, wallets and credit cards account for 33% of all identity fraud. Only take the minimum with you the single card or checkbook that you will be using. This way amongst all of the confusion and chaos your other valuable items are safe at home.

You need to also have excellent record keeping; as soon as your statements arrive review them. With the ability to review statements online you have the upper hand. Your detailed organization and keen accounting skills will be a third defense of protection. You’ll need to keep your original receipts together for reconciling them against your statements. If you detect any discrepancies you’ll need to contact your bank or creditor immediately.

The most important step of course is having protection for your identity. You can watch, learn and become an identity specialist for your own protection, but who really has time to spend every second of every day performing these activities. In a matter of minutes your life can change without notice; will you be watching while your life becomes impacted? Having fraud monitoring alerts in place is an essential way to keep abreast of your circumstances while you grab a hold of life and get every piece of fulfillment that you can.

You need eyes watching over you while you’re away at work or play and while you’re off having fun while you are away. When you’re in that store this Holiday Season remember that others will be watching waiting and ready to pounce when the timing is right. Be alert now and always through your days protect your self from becoming a victim. Be smart use the tools and technology for your own advantage and defense. Shop smart, protect yourself and relax with ease; while everyone else scurries about carelessly meandering through the shopping malls and retailers unwillingly leaving their entire future wide open.

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If you haven’t heard about all of the fuss within the financial sector you must have been living under a rock. The demise of financial giants like Behr Stears, Indy Mac Bank not to mention many other smaller institutions has led the U.S. into a financial devastation like never seen before.

With the focus on the secondary market player Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae being bailed out by the U.S. Government to save us from financial ruin. The focus is now pointed at the mortgage brokers and new regulations along with reform measures to be put into place.

Anyone with half a brain could have seen this coming. How does a janitor or a McDonalds employee afford a 400K, 500K or even 600K+ home and think that they are only going to pay less than $1,500 to $2,000 per month for a mortgage?

Is anyone blaming the consumers for all of this mess? I mean if everyone had followed the old tried and true rules for obtaining a house this would have never happened. Who would have ever dreamed that an underwriter would approve a minimum wage earner for a ½ million dollar house?

The blame for this whole mortgage and real estate mess could be summed up in a word…greed. If it weren’t for some new fancy marketing for a single mortgage program most of this would have been avoided.

Stick with the basic rules and you wont go wrong. Only purchase what you can afford. A mortgage payment (PITI – principle, interest, taxes and insurance) should not exceed 36% – 49% of your gross adjusted income.

The target is on 36% this called the debt to income ratio. You have a top and bottom ration the top is called mortgage payment to income vs. the bottom which is the debt – income ratio.

Every loan officer, banker etc can pre-qualify you in under 30 minutes provided you supply them with the proper information and credit reporting. Bear in mind that the lower your credit scores are the less of a debt to income ration you can have.

Preparing future generations to avoid failure and acts of greed is important to their over all wealth, financial health and physical health by minimizing stress, pressure from over extension and worry.

So in closing play it smart and get the proper information before you buy a life of heart ache and misery, also if you can’t afford it in 30 years why drag the pain on for 40 or more?

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