Debt Prison &#187; Self Help

Buy Clothes at Salvage Stores (Hudsons & Dirt Cheap)

Debt Prison — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 22:36:01 +0000

I buy all of my work clothes and many of my ‘going out’ clothes at clothing salvage stores. This is because some clothing salvage stores carry new merchandise which is almost always in perfect condition. My wife and I went shopping recently at ‘Dirt Cheap’ in Lumberton, MS and found shirts for $1.00 and jeans for $7.00. And I’m talking brand name clothing here…. not some junk manufactured for the dollar store. I was about to check out with two pairs of Levi’s in my hand when a cashier announced over the intercom that the registers were closed due to a computer failure. Alas, I would have to return another day.

Around Hattiesburg there is a company called Hudson’s Salvage Center. They operate a handful of Hudson’s and Dirt Cheap stores around the southern Mississippi area. Since they’ve been in this business for a couple of decades they’ve turned salvage retail into a huge business. They buy salvage items from around the country for say 10%… and then resell for 60% and often less. For example, an Academy Sports store in Galveston, TX (wiped out by Hurricane Ike) sold Hudsons truckloads of merchandise from their warehouse. The merchandise was damaged from the Hurricane. Though much of it was still unspoiled, the insurance company pays 100% for the claim. The ‘damaged’ merchandise is then sold in bulk to companies like Hudsons. Hudsons will then filter through the merchandise, tag it for resell, and then place it on the retail floor.

In most towns you can find salvage centers like these as well as wholesale and liquidation stores. There are also many stores which sell used merchandise. Nearly everywhere I’ve been you can find a Salvation Army Store or even a Goodwill. These stores often sell used merchandise that was donated to the store. Though these clothes may not be new, many of them appear to be. And they can work out great if you need clothing for working outdoors (like me) or performing chores around the house.

I’m Frugal about my Dryer

Debt Prison — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 04:44:18 +0000

I’ve just finished the third repair on my clothes dryer in the last seven years. I bought this dryer used in 1995. It was probably about ten years old at that time, so it’s around twenty three years old now. I try to save money everywhere I can so when the dryer broke again I decided to pull out my maintenance hat once more. It’s not the best looking appliance in the house but it still works good.

A dryer is not a complicated piece of machinery. There’s only a few important parts that normally break over the years. So far on my dryer the parts that I’ve personally replaced are the heating element, broken door switch, and the belt that spins the basket.

About seven years ago the heating element went out. The dryer would still come on and the basket would spin but the clothes didn’t heat up. So, for the first time in my life I decided to find a heating element and replace it. It wasn’t too hard to find (it’s the shiny long thing on the right). I believe the heating element was around $35 at that time and took me about thirty mintues to replace. Now the picture below is what the backside of the dyer looks like when the access panel is removed.

Before I started working on the dryer I took a shop vac and vacuumed out the inch thick lint layer which was resting peacefully along the bottom. It’s amazing what you can find inside a dryer. There was money in there, jewelry, and even a pair of thongs from the dark ages…

My old room mate slammed the door on the dryer about four years ago, breaking the tiny plastic latch which holds the door shut. The dryer would only come on if the door was kept closed. Well it seemed to me that a door latch would work just as well, besides I had one handy.

About a month ago the belt on the dryer broke. The dryer would still come on and would still warm up but the basket couldn’t spin. This was the hardest repair to do because you had to take the front off the dryer. Then the basket had to be supported while the new belt was installed. The belt had to be carefully placed into position on the pulley and motor assembly.

Once finished this repair took about an hour and a half in all. Now if I had bought a new dryer everytime something broke I would have spent at least $250 in the last seven years. The belt only cost me $17 and now there’s another repair at which I’m a first class professional maintenance man.

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5 Steps to getting your Passport

Debt Prison — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 16:40:48 +0000

Having just gone through the procedures for obtaining a passport, I thought it would be a good idea to share the experience (there was a few surprises). Since I had never applied for a passport before there were a few things I had to learn. But overall the process was easier than I imagined. I performed all of the application process at the Postal Office, but you can visit this webpage for a headstart right now.

**Update – My passport arrived exactly two weeks after I applied. This was much faster than I had thought!

1) Obtain your birth certificate

Some people will surely laugh when I say this, but I thought the document from the hospital where I was born was my birth certificate. This is a form with a picture of the hospital and two ink imprints of my baby feet on the back. I think I formed this conclusion because it’s the only document that I can ever recall seeing related to my birth. And interesting Carnival Cruise Line let me on a cruise ship in New Orleans using that document as my birth certificate years ago. So that reinforced my belief that those two imprints of my baby feet represented my birth certificate. I mean really, when you think about it, what form could prove who you are any more than one with your prints from birth.

My state Department of Health and Records website redirected me to www.vitalchek.com. Through their website I purchased a copy of my birth certificate for $15.00. Then shipping and handling was another $7.50. Now vitalchek.com offered an ‘airmail’ option for $20.00 or something, it was a lot more. But I didn’t see how that would speed up the processing. As it turned out I was right. The order is still processed at your state’s Department of Health. I ordered the certificate on Saturday and it arrived the following Thursday. So I wouldn’t pay for the ‘airmail’ unless you just enjoy spending money.

2) You need a Government issued photo I.D.

I just used my state issued drivers license to satisfy this part of the application process. But you can also use a state issued photo I.D. or a military I.D..

3) Call the Post Office to make an appointment

If you have time to stop by in advance, pick up the written passport application form so you can go ahead and fill it out. At the appointment you will fill out the form (if you haven’t already), have your photo taken, present your photo I.D., and pay using your checkbook.

4) During the appointment

At my Post Office there is a side door that says ‘Administrative Services’. Behind that door were all the offices for Passports and other activities. First she gave us the forms to fill out. Here’s the surprising information you need to know:

Your parents birth date and place of birth

Your spouse (or ex-spouse) date and place of birth

Your date and place of marriage

The year of your divorce (if applicable)

I wasn’t expecting to have to produce information related to a previous marriage. After the forms were filled out we were taken to a room to have our photo taken. I stood in front of a white dry erase board and she snapped the pic. She then sat the camera down to allow the prints time to form. We ended up having to take my photo again because there was a mysterious green dot right next to my head. This time I stood in front of a white cardboard wall and the pic turned out normal.

I had to write out a check to the U.S. Department of State for $75.00. Also, I had to write out a check to the U.S. Postal Service for $40.00 (this covered the price of the photo and handling).

5) Time to wait

My birth certificate, which I had just obtained, was taken away from me. It seems that your birth certificate is sent off with your passport application. The lady at the Post Office said that it will return to me in the mail, but separate from my passport. She said that current processing is about 4 to 6 weeks. But she did comment that someone recently had gotten theirs in two weeks.

Debt and Depression

Debt Prison — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:39:10 +0000

Sometimes I feel like my life is going nowhere financially. It’s hard to think about being in Debt Prison and not end up with a sad feeling in the pit of your stomach. Usually I just don’t think about it. Rather than be depressed I just focus on my work, focus on my budget, and just keep barreling forward. The days turn into months and the months into years. It will be over soon enough….I keep telling myself. The best way to keep debt from beating you down is to turn it into a positive life experience. I know that I have to suffer for the stupid mistakes I’ve made. That’s called consequences. By accepting the penalties that a lifestyle of reckless spending has produced, I know that I’ll be a much better person if I pay my dues.

Try and embrace this struggle as an accomplishment

Now I realize that a pile of bills may not look like an accomplishment. But keep this in mind. If you continue to struggle and pay off your debts in full, you will never be the same. Your life will have changed and you will be a better person at the end of this ordeal. You must understand that once this burden is behind you, that other part of you that was so irresponsible with money – will be dead and buried. That is truly a wonderful thing. Is it not? We must bear in mind that this struggle will end one day, and when it does our lives are going to be magnificent.

It’s sort of like going to college. I got up early each day and drove to campus. I attended each class, sat in the front row, and took lots of notes. After class I would go to work and attempt to put in around thirty hours each week. Nights I would often study. The months turned into years. Then one day I came home from work, took a look on the porch, and there sat a large envelope from USPS. I opened the envelope to find my Bachelor of Science degree. This was an emotional experience for me because my senior year was a real struggle. I needed at least a C in General Physiology and didn’t know if I’d achieved it. After all, they let you walk before the grades come out. When I saw that degree, a knot came up in my throat and a tear to my eye. I raised my fists and shook them at the sky. I plan on doing the same thing when all my debt is gone. The difference between a debt education and a college education, is that you pay for the debt education up front. The education comes later. But both of these change us, for each of these has its own rewards. Let us focus on the rewards…

How I make it day to day

The truth is that I don’t go shopping anymore for clothing. If I have to buy some jeans for work I stop off at the salvage store and dig around. I rarely go out to eat and refuse to spend money on just about everything. This can be quite a depressing environment to live in daily. I avoid this depression by keeping my mind busy. I simply just keep my mind off of my debt. Just like right now. I’m writing a blog post (which is extremely therapeutic) to help me release my thoughts, energy, and emotion. I work forty to fifty hours a week on a job where I set the pace. And since my pace is a ‘busy’ one, my mind stays occupied all day long. Writing has become my most intimate hobby. In front of this laptop is now my preferred sanctuary – aside from work of course.

It also helps that all my debt is up to date. So there are no random computers and collectors calling my phone all throughout the day. That makes a big difference. The only time that I become aware of my debt is on Sundays when I open Microsoft Money and input my receipts to reconcile. This new lifestyle of no spending has now become part of my nature. Just as a college education morphs you into a broader thinker, a frugal mindset is naturally the product of avoiding the negative repercussions of senseless spending.

I’ve learned to focus on what I do have. I have so much to be thankful for. Don’t we all? Two days ago I was working in a very rural area about ten miles east of Quitman, MS. I had parked my company truck in a small church parking lot and unloaded my four-wheeler to do some inspection for the local utility. Coming from down the street I heard the sound of a small electric motor. It was an elderly black man who was nearly immobile, the sound was coming from his electric powered wheel chair. He had heard my truck stop at the church so he came up to check things out. “I’m just being nosey” he said. He was wearing a glove with a fork velcroed to it so that he could eat. This man couldn’t walk or stand and could barely move his arms. We had a nice visit for about twenty minutes, just talking about the weather, work, and women. Later, as I passed him on the street, I wondered how quickly he would be willing to trade places with me – even with all this horrible debt. It’s times like these when I know to pick myself up. “Hold your head up” I tell myself, “You have a great life.” And that’s what all of us enslaved to debt must do, keep our heads up.

Fight depression with action

Earlier I spoke of keeping my mind busy by working all day and writing in the evenings. When I used to manage large numbers of people there would be times when I would become very agitated and stressed because of the conduct of my employees or customers. What I learned was that in order to combat my own stress and depression, I needed to tackle problems head on by taking action. If there was an employee that was causing problems, I learned to immediately call that person aside and take corrective action. As soon as the conversation was over I felt like a new person. It was as though a weight had been lifted.

It’s the same way with our debts. Instead of focusing your energy on your debts, focus your energy on what you can do right now to erase this problem from your life. Taking action gives you a purpose. Rather than focusing on a problem, you are now focusing on the solution. It’s like giving yourself a mission to accomplish. It’s been said that an idle mind is the devils workshop. We don’t want our minds to be idle – not while there are debts to be paid. For example, you may decide that you need to earn more money by getting a new job. So instead of feeling sorry for yourself, you sit down at the computer and scroll through job listings on monster.com listed in your city. That seems like more fun doesn’t it? When I first decided to take ‘Long Debt Road’ I had just quit my job. Paying back my debts in full wasn’t the only decision I made that weekend. I was unhappy. The job I had was driving me crazy and I think that somehow drove me to spend money – even money that I had to borrow. I decided that part of my debt recovery would involve getting a new job immediately.

The first part of my adult life I spent in fear. What if I go to a party and get embarrassed in front of people I don’t know? What if I lose my job, what would happen? I decided to stop living in fear. Tomorrow if my boss called and said “Hey Barry, we just don’t need you anymore!” It wouldn’t faze me because I’ve learned to welcome these challenges. Often challenges such as these, force you to look inside yourself and take chances. By doing so you learn to have trust in yourself and your talents. But most importantly you learn that fear never makes our lives better. Let us take action and welcome the new day.

If possible avoid taking medication

More than ever Americans are turning to drugs to ‘cope’ with the stresses of life and debt management. Medicating your way into tranquility may feel nice, but there are always more consequences. Talking about this reminds me of something Bill Maher said on his HBO show. He was talking about people taking drugs for stress and said (paraphrasing) “Have you ever seen a squirrel trying to eat. He’s eating and jumping around, looking quickly everywhere, expecting any second for something to come along and bite him in the ass! But that’s life folks, it’s stressful!” This is true. There’s just a certain amount of stress that goes along with being alive and existing on planet earth. The reason I believe turning to medicine is a last resort is because of side effects. For every drug that induces a reaction – there will be an equal and opposite reaction. This opposite reaction will be displayed differently in different people, but it will be there nonetheless. Personally, the side effects often create a circumstance worse than my previous condition. For that reason I’ve tried very hard at tailoring my lifestyle in such a way that stress and depression are minimized.

I hope these ideas will help some of you out there that are struggling with your debts. I know it’s hard. But anyone in life that produces great things does so after a lot of hard work and struggle. Albert Einstein said that his scientific genius was “98% perspiration and 2% inspiration.” We should expect nothing less. Great accomplishments require remarkable drive from our talents and energy. But let us learn from our mistakes. Let’s focus on the actions necessary to pound our debts into the dirt. Then we can walk the earth again as free men and women shaking our fists at the sky and saying “Go forth and be debt free!”

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* The Perils of Switching Servers With Wordpress

Wordpress SEO and Google Adsense

Debt Prison — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 02:31:56 +0000

I’ve used Wordpress for about 6 months now and thought I would share my experience with SEO, duplicate content, google adsense, google analytics, and partial vs. full feeds. Six months ago I was not what you would call web savvy. In fact, many bloggers would probably still claim as much about my blog. I had no earthly idea what Wordpress even was until I activated it on my domain. It was there the whole time, just waiting for someone to turn it on. Well finally I decided to start writing and thought maybe this Wordpress thingy would help. That was hundreds of blog hours ago. Although my main focus has always been content, I’ve worked steadily at improving my SEO and reader friendly navigation. Please allow me to share with you my personal opinions (these ideas are only valid today). Remember, I have a full time job – outdoors – and my degree in Biology hasn’t endowed me with miracles when it comes to websites. It’s all OHT, or on the hobby training.

*Note: Before editing your template files you need to make a copy of the php file and paste it into notepad, not microsoft word. Just right click inside the template, click on select all, then right click and copy. Now just paste into notepad and save them (include the date in the name like ’singlepost04.23.2008.txt’. This way you can always refer back to the original file. Or you can delete the entire template in progress - and paste the old one back in.

Partial VS Full Feeds

Let’s start with partial vs. full feeds. Use the full feeds option. This allows people using google reader and other feed readers to read a blog post without ever coming to your website. I know, I know – this seems a little scary but just relax. First of all, let’s bear in mind that the goal of blogging is to influence other people’s lives with your content – not show them how pretty your site is or look at all the amazing google ads you’ve got on there. Don’t take my word for it, I’m a small timer – read this from the big timers. Also, I wouldn’t worry about others ripping off your content. It’s not that big of a deal, even if they do it just means that someone thinks it’s good enough to reprint somewhere else. In which case….congratulations.

Duplicate Content

I’m not sure how much of a problem duplicate content is when google crawls a wordpress blog, but I’ve done a few things which will limit the chances. First of all, on the main index page I only display an ‘excerpt’ of each article – about 50 words. This is just enough to give a reader a taste for the actual article and decide if they want to read it. By providing the ‘excerpt’ the entire post is not displayed and therefore not indexed. I accomplished this by going to Presentation, Theme Editor, Main Index Template, and changed the following line:

After the line that says ‘div class= entry’ you should see one that says ‘php the post’. Just change the word post to the word ‘excerpt’. Secondly I edited my category page to only display the titles. Inside my category.php file I removed the following text:

‘php the content’

My memory is a little fuzzy on this but I believe that’s what it said before I changed it. This doesn’t allow any of the blog post to be displayed on the category page. My goal in changing the Main Index Template and the Category Template was to enable readers to scan quickly for titles that interested them. However, this isn’t even really that important since the majority of my traffic comes from search engines. But once again it does help to limit duplicate content.

Solving Duplicate Content using robots.txt

At the top right hand corner of this page you’ll see the ‘Email this Post’ link. This will enable a pop up window so you can email this article. I’ve read that this ‘email the post plugin’ generates an entire set of new links related to the pop up. I will deal with this using the robots.txt file in a moment. There’s also duplicate content if you use the ‘archives’ function. I removed the archives section from my sidebar because it seems pointless to me. If a reader has ended up at your site and they want to find info, it seems to me that the main index page, categories links, and google search box is more than adequate. But just in case the google bot finds it’s way to the ‘archives’ somehow, there is a way to disable it using the robots.txt file as well.

Finally, the RSS feeds can also generate duplicate content. I’ve decided not to block google bot from finding my feeds because I read that if someone posts your content on another site, google is smart enough to determine which site has the original content by following feeds and comparing it to content on the site. I’m not sure about this but the guy sounded like he knew what he was talking about so hey…….what’s a guy to do. Lastly is the trackback content, apparently this needs to be blocked as well so I’m blocking it – at least I think so, according to a couple of various sources I’ve gotten the format correct. So, with the robots.txt file I want to block the ‘email this post’ content, archives content, and the trackback content. The following text comes courtesy from theguru.

User-Agent: *
Disallow: */trackback*
Disallow: /wp-*
Disallow: /20*
User-Agent: MediaPartners-Google
Allow: /

I’m not sure how relevant the format is, but time will tell. The wp-* is where the email pop up content is stored. Next the trackbacks are blocked. Since the archives pages are normally something like /2007/04/ the 20* is supposed to block any url with 2007 or 2008 after the slash. In the example used by theguru, he uses /20* to block archive pages. But since I use the ‘id number’ in my permalink structure, articles 200 – 209 wouldn’t get indexed, so I left that out of my robots.txt file.

Google Analytics

I use google analytics to show where my traffic is coming from, but also to show how many hits per url, specific keyword searches, and all sorts of other useful information. Many of the attributes of analytics I have yet to use. This has been a learning process for me and I only have time for so much ‘learning’ each week. The two main functions of analytics that impress me are the ability to show where traffic is coming from, and the ability to show specifically what a person types into a search engine that leads them to your site. This is useful information. For example, when someone links to me and thus brings me traffic, I email them and thank them for the link. This often builds into a nice web referral system for both of us.

The reason I like to review what readers typed into a search engine is because it gives me ideas for new articles. If I see a trend of similar searches that come to my site, but I know my content is lacking – I will write an article that satisfies these readers. This is a great way to build search engine traffic.

Wordpress and SEO

Most importantly I use ‘pretty permalinks’ and downloaded the ‘All-in-one-SEO-Pack’ for Wordpress. I used to have ugly permalinks – you know the debtprison.net/wordpress/?=42/. I had to change over to the ‘custom permalink structure’, and I decided to use this one: /%post_id%/%postname%/. This way I still get the ‘id’ number plus the name is included in the URL. Having the id number comes in handy when you are setting up a ‘related links’ section or trying to quickly determine where the link you want is located in a list of url’s. To keep from breaking all my previous links I installed the redirect plugin, which enables readers to find the ‘pretty permalinks’ even if they clicked on one of those ugly ones.

The all in one seo pack enabled me to easily add specific keywords to the header of individual articles. It also allows you to set up your titles so that when google displays them in search results it looks like this ‘Wordpress SEO and Google Adsense / Debt Prison. This was a huge breakthrough for me. Before I installed this all in one – all of my links were displayed by google as ‘Debt Prison / Blog Archive / Wordpress SEO and Google Adsense’. Hell, no one could even see the title of the article. Since I’ve made these two changes my search engine traffic has doubled. This post has had 25 unique visitors from search engines within 24 hours of publishing, and my page rank is ‘low’ according to google webmaster tools.

Encourage readers to use the comment section at the end of a post. Here’s why. As google bot crawls your posts it will include the comments in the post index. Using google analytics I often go to google and type in the exact phrase that the search engine user did, that brought them to my site. I do this to see where my site was ranked for certain phrases. Often the text that google search displays about my site is something from the comments. This is a way for us to add valuable content and discussion to a post by letting our readers perform the work. Often when I read a post about implementing a plugin or using ads, I read the comments. So many times the comment section of a post will have content more valuable than the actual post. So encorage readers to add their comments. I would like for you to add comments to the bottom of this post. Tell me what you like or dislike about the changes I’ve made and give me some of your best ideas for Wordpress. Thanks!

I try and respond to comments very quickly. My average response time is probably two hours and I think this helps alot when it comes to reader retention. First of all, I think readers are pleasantly surprised when a website administrator responds to their comments. Even more so if the response is fast. But this also encourages more readers to leave comments because they feel confident that you will give them your opinion – and quickly. So more comments leads to more comments.

Having made the above important changes to my blog set up, something should be said about content. Once you get your blog in good shape for search engines, you should focus all of your attention on providing valuable, unique content. By writing useful information that is both value rich and unique, you increase your chances of other websites linking to yours. This is how you dramatically increase your search engine traffic. The number of ‘highly ranked’ websites that point to yours, is the difference in 500 hits per day and 50,000. It’s just that important. So once you get the title layout, tags, keywords, and all that jazz squared away…..focus on content.

Before publishing a post, copy and paste it from the view screen into microsoft word. Use word to check for spelling and grammatical errors. Having misspelled words is extremely negative. Think of this from a readers perspective. You are either too dumb or in too much of hurry to write correctly. This perception obviously bleeds over into the content. Readers are likely to decide that perhaps your content is also dumb or hastily thrown together. In which case they are more apt to leave your site and search out more thoughtful material.

Google Adsense

There’s a lot of good articles out there about google adsense and wordpress. First of all, about one hour ago I read a comment from a reader that said something like “When I see ads on a blog I immediately leave, because I know the content is no good.” Well……I’ve heard all of that before and – I think it’s about the stupidest thing that’s ever came out of anyone’s mouth. I’ve seen people complain on digg.com because someone posted an article from their blog……..and their blog had ads on it and they were like “You’re just using digg to make money from ads” and immediately someone posted “Yeah just like digg is doing – placing ads on their site to make money……moron!!!” To all of these folks I just have to say “Get over yourself already…….” If you have a problem with advertising then no problem, just leave! I suppose these same people don’t watch CNN, or Fox News, or MSNBC, or any other news program because every ten minutes or so they have one of those damn commercials. Ahhhhhh, just more silly self righteous attitudes from silly people. Ignore them. I’ll stop using ads when they stop paying. Besides, providing your readers with additional opportunities to obtain useful information from their visit to your blog is a good thing.

Google’s best profit ad is the large rectangle, with a white background and no border. If your article is short, place ads near the beginning. If the article is long, place ads near the end. I have all but one of my ads built into the php so I don’t have to add them to each individual post. Only at the end of the post do I change the type of ad. It just depends on the look and feel of the post.

Until recently I only had three ads on a page. A small image ad banner at the top of the article. And then a small banner text ad in the beginning, and at the end. Two weeks ago I added the wide skyscraper to the sidebar on the left. I replaced the image banner ad at the top with a ‘links’ ad. *NOTE, I’ve already removed the text link ad from the top of my posts. I didn’t like the way it looked when viewed with Firefox instead of Explorer. I’m going to place a text ad in the middle somewhere. This ad looks a lot like a menu bar and I made the text blue to match the other links on my pages. I also added the medium rectangle text ad to the beginning of each post. I’ve definitely seen improvements in my revenue. When I first started blogging I said that I didn’t want to be one of those web pages with a bunch of ads surrounding the article. Now I have a bunch of ads surrounding my articles, at least at the beginning. Personally, I think it makes my articles look a lot more professional because of all the relevant links on the page.

Google has a policy about blocking any more than three ads on one page. But there is a way to get more than three ads on a page. I discovered this when I placed the link menu at the top of my articles. I was able to have a links ad at the top, a square at the beginning, a text/image link banner at the end, and the wide skyscraper on the left. Inside the single post template I put the links ad above the title of the post. I’m not sure why exactly this works but it does.

Yes, I’m one of those evil bloggers who wants to blog and get paid. But seriously, bear in mind that the content is free. I call these proximity dollar links. I brought the links within my readers’ proximity and they clicked on them. Everybody wins, even those self righteous elitists who’ve already left…..

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* Hints for writing great blog posts

* Stumbleupon.com brought me 60,000 hits in 60 days

How to Avoid a Tax Audit From the I.R.S.

Debt Prison — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 00:47:42 +0000

Many people stress about the possibility of an audit from the Internal Revenue Service. If you follow some common sense principles you should be able to limit the possibility of being called upon by these agents of good will and sympathy (LOL). Although the I.R.S. can audit you for up to three years after you file a return, most occur within eighteen months. My father was audited three years in a row. Often when you’ve been audited, the I.R.S. likes to make a come back the following year. Let’s take a look at some strategies to limit this occurrence. See also Debt Prison related article: Can you go to jail for not paying your taxes?

Understand that the I.R.S. audits certain groups more than others. For example, if you have just straight income documented on a W-2, with no investments, contributions, or strange deductions, then you aren’t likely to be audited. We’ll call this group number 1. It’s true that the I.R.S. computer system will randomly flag a very small number of people within group number 1 to be audited – even if everything looks legitimate and the tax form is flawless.

Group 2 would be lower income wage earners who receive a percentage of their income in tips, such as a waitress or pizza delivery person. These workers are more carefully scrutinized because of the ease with which one can omit cash earnings from their 1040. The I.R.S. has calculated a range of what these wage earners’ cash tips should be. If the amount you claim in cash tips varies wildly from what is expected, you may have just bought yourself a dinner date with big brother. I recall a story from a co-worker whose friend worked at Pizza Hut where he earned cash tips as a waiter. At the time minimum wage for waiters was just over $2/hour. This particular guy failed to claim any tips on his tax form. His tax return was flagged, he was audited, and he ended up having to pay thousands. And to think this kid was only 19 years old at the time. The I.R.S. isn’t big on auditing the lower class because there’s more money to be made from the rich. But they’ll still shake down enough low wage earners to keep the masses intimidated.

Group number 3 would be the self employed. Many self employed business owners will try and write off household expenses as a business expense. Also, the self employed may fail to report cash transactions and instead simply pocket the money. There are so many ways that a self employed worker can beat the I.R.S., it’s no surprise they fight back.

The wealthy or high income earners are group number 4. In 2007 the I.R.S. audited one in every eleven citizens with income over one million dollars. Compare that to the number of audits performed if your income is $100,000 or less; chances are one in a hundred that you’ll be making coffee for an Internal Revenue Agent. However, as a whole these Agents are auditing about one in every hundred Americans who file a tax return.

Focus on honesty

Whether you think the Federal Income Tax is unconstitutional, unfair, or even immoral, you’ll be less concerned about an audit if you attempt to be honest. This means reporting all of your income accurately. If you’re honest about what you report, then the idea of an audit will seem less worrisome. I knew a person once who received wages in the form of cash. The contractor (who was self employed) could save on paperwork and employment related taxes by paying some employees in cash. Because he was paid in cash this worker had a very small amount of income from a previous job reported on his tax return. What this person failed to realize is that the cash he received should not have been deposited in the bank into his checking account. If audited the first question an I.R.S. agent is going to ask is “Where did this money for the deposits come from?” And if you rat on your boss then the I.R.S. will move over and audit him too. If we try and play by the rules we are less likely to get burned.

Maintain a paper trail

Any deductions that you plan on reporting should be backed up with paper. This would mean receipts, bills, or even charitable donations. Anything that will have an effect on the way you fill out your tax return should be organized by category and filed. If you can’t prove that you deserve a deduction by producing a receipt…..then don’t claim the deduction. During an audit, having all your receipts organized and on hand, will make the I.R.S. agent realize that you are prepared. Remember an audit doesn’t work like court. The burden of proof is not on the State, it’s on you.

My father was audited because he claimed his sister as a dependent. At the time both my fathers’ parents were unemployed and my father, who was in his early twenties, was bringing home the bacon. During the audit it was discovered that he lacked $25.00 in receipts to lawfully claim his sister as a dependent. Therefore my father was audited the next two years as well.

If you are claiming something that could be seen as unusual, send a copy of it with your tax return. For example, if you are claiming $13,000 in medical expenses, make a copy of the bills, attach it to the tax return, and mail them in. This could prevent an audit. Likewise, if you made large charitable donations, attach a copy of the receipt to your return. This can only reduce your chances of an audit.

Use online tax software

Using an online tax service like Turbotax will help reduce your chances of a mistake. For example, this year I filled out a 1040 EZ to get a quick idea of how much tax I owed. Later on I actually filed using the free online edition of Turbotax and discovered I owed much less than I thought. It seems I forgot to subtract the standard deduction from my adjusted gross income when I was quickly filling the form out, causing my tax liability to be higher. Online tax services also allow you to file your tax return with the I.R.S. online for free. Your refund will be deposited into your bank account electronically if you’d like. But most importantly is the fact that Turbotax incorporates a wealth of tax knowledge into their tax software. If there is a problem with your return, the software will likely catch it.

In the comments section below, a reader mentioned using Vulocity to log business mileage. I looked into it and Vulocity is a mileage logger which uses GPS technology to log your mileage for you. From their website it states “Simply plug the device into the car lighter adapter and place it in a cup holder, center console or sun visor and forget about it when you’re driving around for business. Let the power and accuracy of GPS technology do all of the writing for you. The device receives GPS signals and transmits your mileage data wirelessly over the cellular network to you. Access all of your records online, any time.” It costs $249 and that doesn’t cover the $14.95 to $19.95 monthly fee for the logger and tracking service. Since I despise wasting money I would do some research before buying. If possible, try and find someone who has already purchased it and ask their opinion.

Filing late

This is a concept I’ve been reading a lot about lately. There’s a consensus among some tax professionals that filing at the last possible moment (April 15th), or even filing an extension, will reduce your chances of an audit. They claim that by April the majority of audit victims have already been selected. I’ve read other sources that say the opposite, that filing an extension could actually trigger an audit. If you’re planning on filing at the last possible minute don’t wait till April 15th to file using an online service like Turbotax. The internet traffic can be so impressive that in overwhelms the servers that host the website. Why don’t we play it safe and shoot for April 13th? Sounds good to me too.

Discuss this article, share ideas, and meet new people at Debt Prison Forums.

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Unearthed – Why Funerals Are So Expensive

Debt Prison — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:19:40 +0000

Doesn’t $8,000 for the cheapest funeral in one of the poorest states in the Union seem a little excessive? That’s what I thought. Just this past week a distant cousin passed away quite unexpectedly. He had stopped making payments on his burial policy about six months earlier, so the immediate family had to perform a lot of leg work in arranging the funeral proceedings. For the casket, wake, burial, and housing the body for two days, would cost an outrageous eight grand. So I did a little research on why funerals are so expensive. I hope this information helps readers discover the many options available in handling the loss of a loved one. The problem with funerals is that, like so many businesses, there are endless pages of laws protecting the economic interests of established funeral homes. Bear in mind that the laws pertaining to funerals and caskets may vary from state to state. For federal laws that apply to all states click here.

Funerals are as expensive as they are because funeral home organizations have convinced communites that they have no other options but to purchase the ‘total package’. Although you may not like the idea, funeral arrangement is a business transaction, and it should be treated like one.

Caskets

The state of Tennessee has a law on the books since 1972 forbidding the selling of caskets unless you have a funeral establishment or funeral director’s license. This legislation only exists to allow funeral homes to charge outrageous mark ups on caskets. A cheap metal casket can cost $300 to $500. But after the funeral home slaps their price gun to it the price may be $1,500 to $3,000. Many states have this same law.

In an ABC 20/20 investigation producer Mark Golden asked a funeral director about purchasing a cheaper casket. The director replied “To be perfectly frank and honest with you, the metal casket is about one step above a Maxwell House coffee can.” To which my response would have been “Who cares!” The purpose of burial is to allow the body to decompose naturally, so it’s foolish to spend extra money trying to preserve your loved ones body. You want the body to decompose. These air tight caskets don’t allow the body to degenerate as it should, causing the interior of the casket to become a much more repugnant circumstance than it should naturally be.

During the investigation the funeral director tried to sell a protective vault to place the casket in. This is more ridiculous rhetoric designed to make you feel like these upgrades are somehow beneficial to the decomposing body of your loved one. Researcher Karen Leonard describes the illogical promotion of such upgrades “When you put a body in a protective casket, instead of the natural process of decomposition, drying out and becoming a skeleton, instead you get a slimy, moldy, much slower process and it’s much more gruesome.”

I just spent three minutes looking on the internet and already found a 20 gauge steel casket for $899 and that includes free shipping. I found this source to be very informative about the legal?issues regarding casket sales.

Embalming

Normally embalming the body isn’t necessary unless you are going to have a wake or transport the body out of state. If you don’t plan on having a wake you can leave the body in the funeral homes cooler instead of having it embalmed. The funeral home can then move the body into the casket for transport to the burial site. The funeral home will charge a stiff price for each day the body remains in their possession. The FTC has laws pertaining to funeral homes. One such law requires them to furnish a price list of services and products to buyers. To read about these laws click here.

The Wake

If you decide to have a wake then embalming will, of course, become part of the package. But where you decide to have the wake can make a huge difference in the over all price of the funeral. In the case of my distant cousin, the family saved $1,500 by moving the wake to a local church instead of having it in the funeral home. In this occurrence the body is moved into the casket by the funeral home. The casket is then transferred to the church by the funeral home, where it will remain until the following day of burial. On the day of the burial the funeral home will return with the hearse and transport the casket to the cemetery.

Other considerations

Some people are no longer using caskets at all. In fact this doesn’t seem like a bad idea because a coffin really isn’t even necessary. In “Grave Matters” author Mark Harris follows twelve families as they return their loved ones to the earth in a more natural, less costly and traditional manner. Many loved ones are buried without embalming fluid, caskets, or wakes. The documentary examines this new green burial underground, leading you into natural cemeteries and domestic graveyards, taking you aboard boats from which ashes and memorial reef balls are cast into the sea. He follows a family that conducts a home funeral and delivers a loved one to the crematory, another that hires a carpenter to build a pine coffin. Mark reveals “The goal then and now is the same: to allow the body at death to rejoin the elements it sprang from, to use what remains of a life to regenerate new life, to return dust to dust.”

Cremation is also a less expensive option. In the 20/20 investigation a funeral home director suggested the price of $3,300 for a cremation. Considering that a cremation coffin can be purchased online for $356, I would say that price was a little high. The total cost or a cremation should not exceed $1,000. If the funeral home refuses to give you accurate information report them to the FTC, contact your local newspaper, or even local radio and t.v. stations. MSN Money has an article about cremations “How to Plan a Funeral for $800.”

Donating your body to science is probably the cheapest method. Some universities will “assume all costs involved in procuring the body upon death, cremation of the remains, and returning the ashes to your family. All for free.” (Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity – pg 161).

Although you want the passing of a loved one to be as respectful as possible, it’s foolish to spend money simply for the sake of spending. Wakes, embalming, and expensive coffins are all part of an elaborate ceremony instilled in most communities. But these expensive practices give the deceased no more love or protection than any other form of burial. It’s what we do while our loved ones are alive that matters.

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How to Wax Your Own Car

Debt Prison — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 20:49:56 +0000

Whether you are trying to bring top dollar by selling your vehicle or just trying to give it a good cleaning, waxing your car’s finish restores and protects its appearance. When people go to buy a car they will often base a large part of their decision on the appearance of the vehicle. A vehicle with an immculate appearance and documented service history will set a buyer’s mind at ease. Having worked in the auto detailing and service industry for 14 years I learned plenty about waxing cars. Feel free to leave your comments or questions at the end of this article and I’ll respond quickly.

Cleaning the vehicle

Before waxing the vehicle it must be properly cleaned. I often use Joy or Dawn dishwashing detergent. However, your local auto parts store like Autozone or even Wal-Mart will carry cleaning agents designed specifically for clear coated cars and trucks (like Black Magic Wet Shine). You can use an old terry cloth (bathroom hand towel) for washing your car. There are other products on the market for this purpose as well.

Before getting to the main wash you need to inspect the vehicle. Look along the front bumper and backs of mirrors for bug residue and damage. Also, check directly behind the front and back tires along the painted surfaces for road tar, paint, cement, or even dried bubble gum. You should also check the surfaces of the vehicle for pine or other forms of tree sap. These will need to be removed (if possible) before waxing the vehicle. Waxing over these items will not effect your ability to remove them later if you so desire.

Removing the bugs

In the South we experience ‘Love Bugs’ in the first part of spring and last part of fall. These small black insects fly through the air mating in such dense clouds it’s easy to have the entire windshield barely visible if driving on the interstate. These and other bugs do much damage to a car’s finish because the acid in their bodies will slowly eat through your cars clear coat if not removed. Also, just the impact of your car or truck with these insects can actually remove the paint altogether if traveling at high speeds (in excess of 55 mph). To remove these bugs from the front of your vehicle use a mixture of water and soap and perform a pre-soak. You need to have the bugs as penetrated with water as you can before trying to remove them. I would spray the front of the vehicle with soap and water for at least ten minutes – keeping the bugs soaking. Once the bugs have softened you need to scrub them with a pad or sponge designed for use on vehicles. Don’t use an S.O.S. brillo pad because it’s made of metal wool and will seriously scratch your paints finish. Many people are starting to use dryer sheets like Bounce – they say it works like a charm. Insure that the bugs are completely removed to prevent damage to the clear coat.

Removing paint

If you have driven through wet paint, the faster you can remove it the better. There’s no miracle cure for paint or cement. In the past I’ve often used an old credit card and soapy water to carefully scrape dried paint from a car’s finish. If the paint is still fresh you can try some form of petroleum distillates and wipe the paint off.

If your vehicle has experienced ‘overspray’ then you could be looking at quite a bit of work. Let’s say you parked you car at work and the business next door was being painted by a painter using a spray gun. The wind was blowing and particles of paint were caught up in the wind and drifted onto your car. This can often cover an entire vehicle. It will look like you took table salt and sprinkled it all over the car in an even pattern. Little specks of dried paint will be all over the paint and glass. The safest way to remove overspray is to use a clay bar. When I used to manage an auto service center we would normally charge between $150 to $200 for overspray removal. We had to charge so much because it often took many hours to remove all of it. For the windows we would spray some glass cleaner and take a razor blade and slowly scrape the?overspray from the surface of the glass. For the painted surfaces we would spray mild soapy water and rub with the clay bar until the overspray was removed. The clay bar will not harm your vehicle’s finish.

Dried cement

This is the worse one because it may be impossible to remove dried cement without damaging your vehicle’s paint. I’ve only attempted this a couple of times. Once I used an old credit card and soapy water to scrape the cement. The resulting scratches were buffed out using a high speed buffer. The other time I used an abrasive sponge pad and the cement was fairly fresh. The remaining scratches were buffed.

Road tar

This is the black stuff used to make pavement. If workers are paving a road or highway you can easily drive through this black tar and the circular motion of your tires can sling the stuff along the rocker panel. There are two ways I normally remove road tar. If possible I use a citrus based solvent. Made from citrus fruits this product is very safe to handle and melts road tar away with ease. Otherwise I use a petroleum distillate. If the tar has been on the vehicle for a long time neither of these methods may faze it. If that’s the case you can treat it like dried paint and go with an old credit card and soapy water.

Pine and other forms of tree sap

Pine tree sap is especially caustic and will actually eat through the clear coat and paint, leaving you staring a spot of bare metal. Normally this takes a year or two. However, the longer pine sap sits on the clear coat, the more damage it does and the harder it is to remove it. I’m gonna recommend a terry cloth soaked with 70% alcohol or nail polish remover. You can get some watered down versions on the market but this stuff normally does the trick. If the pine sap has been on the car for a long time I might take the blade of a knife and carefully scrape the top layer of sap from the spot, since the outer shell is often rock hard. I’ve never had pine sap that I couldn’t remove. However, sometimes I would have to rub the same spot for several minutes. We used to charge one dollar per spot.

Waxing your car or truck

Waxing your vehicle’s finish removes dirt and grime from the clear coat and also leaves a protective finish that often lasts for a couple of months (depending on weather and other conditions). The more applications you apply the better the result. Keep mind that some waxes can be very hard to remove, so you’ll have to try what’s on the market and see what works best for you. Most importantly I would purchase a wax that contains Carnauba. Over the years I found that waxes containing carnauba performed very well for most paint finishes.

If it’s a hot day (over 75 F) I wouldn’t wax the car out in the direct sunlight. You don’t want the paint surface to become too hot while you are waxing the car. This can make the wax very difficult to remove from the clear coat. If you are having trouble removing the dried wax, I recommend stopping by the auto parts store and see if they have any liquid spray wax like this one. Then I would place the car in the shade to make sure the paint was cool. I would soak the dried wax with the liquid wax. Next I would spray the liquid wax on a terry cloth towel. Then I would aggressively rub the dried wax with the damp part of the towel. Rubbing a paints finish too hard without the liquid wax barrier can leave a blemish on the clear coat.

Applying by hand

I want you to remember that wax needs to be applied in a thin film. Watching a thick coat of wax drying on your car may be impressive but it’s no fun trying to remove. Also, you just wasted half the bottle. Use an applicator pad especially designed for this purpose – most places carry a terry cloth pad, I like these the best. Put a small amount of wax on the pad and apply in a circular motion. Try to maintain an even amount of pressure on the pad and spread the wax evenly. Take care not to get wax on the moldings and rubber trim of your vehicle. If you do the wax can embed itself in the microscopic pores of the plastic or rubber and turn white. If this happens to you try putting a little tire shine over it to conceal the blemish.

Once you have the entire vehicle covered let dry for about thirty minutes. Come back with a dry terry cloth hand towel and begin rubbing the wax from the paint. You will have to flip the towel many times and may need more than one. When you’re finished you can repeat the steps for any area which still need attention.

Applying by low speed buffer

Make sure you are using the proper bonnet for the application, preferably a terry cloth bonnet. Nearly all the buffers on the market are low speed buffers and cost anywhere from thirty to eighty dollars. High Speed buffers are often $150 to $200 so you aren’t likely to buy one on accident, besides they look like a hand held grinder. And if not used properly you can burn the clear coat and ruin a good paint job. If you have serious scratches that can’t be removed by hand then have a professional buff your car with a high speed buffer. I would recommend a body shop over a car wash or detail shop. A body shop is less likely to damage your vehicle. Only an experienced person should handle a high speed buffer, you don’t want a newbie ‘practicing’ on your car’s finish. We finally stopped offering high speed buff services at all three of our locations due to customer damage claims.

When applying the wax stop periodically to apply more wax as needed, taking care not to apply too much. Handle the buffer carefully, since tipping it on its side could cause the handle to scratch the paint’s surface. Also, take care not to let the extension cord get caught up in the buffer. After the wax has been applied remove it using the buffer and a clean terry cloth bonnet or by hand.

Well that’s all I can think of right now. If you have any questions just leave me a comment below and I’ll be sure to respond shortly.

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