There is no doubt about the fact that an economic recession is upon us. The question we are all now asking ourselves is how best to get through this.

The way I see it, there are only three possible outcomes. Things could stay the same for us and we would see little change, we could be adversely affected or we could even prosper. If you are like me, then this latter scenario is what we would like to see happen to us. The question is, how can we make that happen?

If we look back in time, we will see that the economy is constantly fluctuating. Right now we find ourselves in a recession, but it wasn’t too long ago that we were riding high and there was immense economic growth. We have also experienced periods of time where the economy was fairly stable.

We do not have to be frightened by this economic recession. There is so much hype in the media that sometimes it puts people in panic mode. It would be a good idea to get a little education on the causes of recessions and how to cope with them. I highly recommend a book by William Bonner entitled “Financial Reckoning Day: Surviving the Soft Depression of the 21st Century”. Perhaps you can find a copy at your local library. Most libraries will order a book if it is not yet part of their inventory.

It is important that we are very careful about the way we are spending our money during an economic recession. Obviously, we still have to eat and most of us have to drive our cars to and from work, so food and gas would be classified as necessities. We should also try to save some money, even if it is just a little, for the possibility of even tighter times ahead.

Right now the cost of vehicles has come right down. The automakers are really hurting and are offering some great deals. It would not be wise to be sucked in. Maybe we can afford that shiny, new car this month but what if we lose our job in a few months time — what is going to happen to our ability to pay our car loan then?

There are numerous way to earn a little extra income. One idea that comes to mind is renting out those few extra rooms in your basement or home. With so many people losing their homes, there would be no trouble at all getting those rooms rented out.

There is a wonderful opportunity during an economic recession to start your own home based business. You might think that is a crazy idea but let me tell you about a study that McGraw-Hill Research did. They found that those companies who maintained or even increased their marketing during the recession in 1981-82 saw a huge increase in sales growth to the tune of 275%. Can you imagine! So how do you think companies made out that didn’t do that? Well, those companies who cut their marketing saw an increase of only 19% during the same five year period. Folks, this is the best time in 70 years to start that home based business.

This is actually great news!

I am sure we realize that these fluctuations in the economy are inevitable, but they do not have to adversely affect us if we make smart decisions and take a few very specific actions. Internet Marketing is where millionaires are being created right now. People are doing this from the comfort of their own home. Did you know that Robert Kiyosaki and Donald Trump have both said that if this way of doing business had been available to them earlier on in their lives, they would have definitely made their millions networking over the Internet.

So my hope is that you will take this information to heart and move ahead by investigating the various ways you can very profitably survive this economic recession. I wish you all the success in the world.

Today there’s a plethora of labels for what network marketing actually is. Here’s my two cents: multilevel marketing is a business model using word of mouth as its primary means to distribute products and services. Doing this through a network of others generates business revenue for the company which can produce residual wealth over time for you.

Here are the essential element to a network marketing business: 1-Marketing your business to Generate leads 2-Prospecting those leads and Building a solid relationship with them 3-Selling products and services to them 4-Training people to train others do the same thing

It might sound simple but fuggedabowd it! The hard edged reality is that only a small percentage of us out there really know how to effectively put these piece together for true multilevel marketing success. And the network marketers who “get” this are the ones you keep hearing about year after year.

Generating leads for your business is really all about MARKETING. And marketing is all about crafting an influential and ideally ongoing communication to a TARGETED prospect in order to get them to take action. That action could be to download a free ebook, opt into a list, send for a dvd, fill out a survey, buy your product, or join your multilevel marketing business. The bottom line is if you don’t really understand marketing, you will spend a great deal of time spinning your wheels in your multilevel marketing business.

Lead prospecting and relationship building entails understanding what makes people tick, asking the right questions and dealing with objections to find quality candidates for your business. You simply can’t build a sustainable network marketing business without talking to folks IMHO. Because network marketing is relationship focused, the nature of the relationship you build with a prospect will determine whether they decide to join your business or buy into your service. And they are joining YOU, not your business. This is based on how much they see you as a leader who can help them succeed.

Offering products and services - Your multilevel marketing business is DOA everyday you aren’t moving any products or services or the business and the word isn’t getting out. Ideally you should have a marketing system that does the bulk of the telling and selling for you. But you should have a basic understanding of your product/service/business, what it does and why your distributor/customer should obtain it or join.

Training others to do the same - When you get a new distributor you don’t just stop here. In fact this where the real work begins because you have to teach this newbie what you just did. This is where systems really shine. Just like you plugged your prospect into a marketing system you should plug them right into an effective training system that will get the new person up and running and in profit as soon as possible. If a new distributor isn’t making any money after 90 days statistics show they will quit. Many new distributors themselves haven’t been effectively trained by their own upline unfortunately. Don’t let this stop you. Find a duplicable yet simple system that will help train your new distributors effectively to maximize your network marketing business success.

Late payments are not created equal; a 30 or 60 day late pay will not damage your score much, and can often be removed. However a 90 day or 120 day late pay will cause significant damage to your score.

You can remove a 30 or 60 day late pay by contacting the lender directly and asking them to erase it. Often they will do this as a gesture of good will and to keep your business.

A phone call and a letter including the reason is the most effective method. Also be respectful and nice to them because they do not have to remove this mark.

A 90 or 120 day late pay will be more difficult to remove. We still suggest contacting the lender, if your account is still open, and ask them to remove the mark.

It is a good idea to make sure your account is up to date before asking them to remove the item from your report. The lender will often look at your payment history to see if late payments are common with your account.

If the lender will not remove this item then we suggest you dispute it directly with the bureaus. This is done through a dispute letter; you can create it or hire a service to do it on your behalf.

This item will be on your report for a maximum of seven years. Additionally your account will be charged off after 180 days of delinquency.

A lender can remove this mark because they report monthly to the bureaus and can choose what to report to them. Thus if they do not report your late payment the next month then it will not be on your credit history.

You will find it very difficult to have the lender erase this mark if your account is not up to date. Additionally there is information that claims negative items on your credit must stay there for seven years.

This is not true; any item can be removed at any point in time, the maximum amount of time an item can remain on your report is seven years. There are a few exceptions such as a bankruptcy. The Fair Credit Reporting Act clearly says that the maximum amount of time is seven years. There is no minimum amount of time an item must stay on your report and can thus be removed at any time.

In sum the first step is contacting the lender, if you still have the account, and then if that is unsuccessful dispute it directly with the bureaus.

Credit ratings, at their most straightforward, are personal debt histories. Credit ratings can haunt us for our entire life, providing a often worrying picture of our financial behavior. Lenders and credit card companies look to credit ratings for the most simple assessment of whether we are a good or bad risk. But what kind of information does a credit rating contain?

For starters, credit ratings contain all the vital personal information you would expect them to have, such as full name, address and social security number. Any debt you owe will be added to your credit report. Credit ratings contain every store credit card you carry, their maximum limit and how close you are to attaining that limit. Payment history is included as well.

An unsoiled credit report will show no late payments, few applications for new credit or loans and low balances on existing credit cards. Good credit ratings win a higher rate of approval and lower interest rates with banks and credit card companies.

Negative comments, past foreclosures and bankruptcies obviously do not look good on credit ratings. Credit ratings carry negative information for a long time. Late payments, for instance, remain on your credit rating for 7 years. Bankruptcies can stay on for 10 years. Frequent loan and credit applications are also harmful. It pays to keep a good financial profile. You can help yourself by checking your credit report frequently. Credit ratings sometimes contain information that is out of date, such as your maiden name instead of your married name or an old address. Negative errors can occur, too. These need to be found well before you apply for credit or loans. Credit ratings can take weeks, even months, to correct.

In high school, children joke about what goes on their permanent record. Credit ratings are permanent records that are no laughing matter. You should make it a point to know what is in your credit ratings.

This article looks at the way banks exploit customers with NSF and overdraft fees. It contrasts this with the alternative of using fast online payday loan and proposes that these are in fact cheaper than bank fees. It goes on to show how banks lobby aggressively against the payday industry fearing cuts in there fees. The findings are based on a US study by the federal government and is freely down loadable.

An independent agency of the federal government, the FDIC was created in 1933 in response to the thousands of bank failures that occurred in the 1920s and early 1930s. The commission is managed by 5 people who constitute a board of directors. They are all appointed by the President and confirmed in the Senate. No more than three can be from he same political party.

In 2006 legislation allowed banks to apply automated overdraft programs - much to the detriment of consumers. This is a system where the bank honors customers obligations using computer rules to determine non-sufficient qualification for overdraft coverage. Data and information were gathered through a survey of a sample of institutions representing 1,171 FDIC-supervised banks, and a separate data request of customer account and transaction-level data from a smaller set of 39 institutions.

FDIC publishes the results of a 2 year study on the banking systems use of overdraft programs. The study found that a typical NSF check can result in overdraft fees and interest in excess of 3,500 percent APR. In addition, the study found that customers in low-income areas (median annual income of less than $30,000) were nearly twice as likely to incur these charges.

The FDIC study reinforces the payday loan industry’s position that short-term cash advance loans are significantly less expensive than traditional bank overdraft fees. The study also found that, unlike payday loan companies that offer on-demand products, most banks (75.1 percent) automatically enrolled customers in overdraft programs that carry APRs and other fees far more expensive than the typical cash advance loan.

The study concluded that a typical customer would incur fees of $27- for each $20 overdraft over a 2 week period. A $60- ATM overdraft in 2 weeks would incur an APR of 1,067 percent. A customer repaying a $60 ATM overdraft in two weeks would incur an APR of 1,173 percent and a customer repaying a $66 check overdraft in two weeks would incur an APR of 1,067 percent. Oddly enough the faster one pays down the overdraft the higher the APR turned out to be.

Some consumer advocacy groups like the CRL are lobbying to ban payday loans. This leaves customers with no option than to pay overdraft fees to the banks. CRL have led a charge to pass a law banning payday lending in Ohio. In 2006, Ken Compton, CEO of Advance America, said, “Contrary to the CRL’s spin, responsible uses of the payday product provides consumers firm footing to overcome unexpected financial circumstances,”.

Some key findings;

90 percent of banks surveyed allow NSF transactions to be completed without informing the consumer that funds are insufficient - even though the information is immediately available. Only 8% inform consumers that funds are low before completing the transaction. There is little opportunity to cancel the transaction so avoiding the fee.

Bank customers complaints about overdraft fees were received by twelve percent of banks.

About nine percent of bank customers have 10 or more NSF transactions per year. 4.9 percent had 20 or more NSF transactions. Customer accounts with 20 or more NSF transactions were charged $1,610 per year in NSF fees on average.

I’m going to take a break today from my normal article writing. My usual article consists of some beneficial learning material concerning the reverse mortgage.

Not today. I had a brush with someone last night that made me feel just damn good about my country and my business.

So you know why I’m so interested to write to you about this subject you should know a little tidbit about me. I’m 41 years old and am an avid history buff. Most particularly I hone in on post 1900 American history.

Fortunately I’m in the reverse mortgage business. If I wasn’t I wouldn’t have talked with the man I spoke to yesterday. We talked for at least a half hour about him getting a reverse mortgage.

At the end of the conversation he mentioned where he was stationed back in 1948. That was close enough to WWII so I had to ask if he served during the war. Notice he didn’t just tell me…

He said, yes, he was stationed at Pearl Harbor the day of the attack.

Whooohh Nelly! Now the whole conversation has turned into a little gold mine for me. There aren’t many of these guys left.

It gets even better. It wasn’t like he was in some obscure part of Pearl. He was actually on the USS West Virginia when it was struck by multiple torpedos. He could hear the whine of the torpedos before they hit.

In one of the explosions from a torpedo he was hit hard and blacked out. In all the confusion in the hours and days thereafter he was listed as dead. And his family was notified.

His family proceeded to conduct a memorial service.

I have to admit I’m a bit of a skeptic and don’t take everything at face value. So, i looked him up on the internet later. There he was. And the story was a spot on match.

I don’t have much of a point here other than it was a great phone call, at least for me. I felt like I had a little brush with history in the form of an American hero.

What a great phone call to speak to a man who was actually there and remembers the day. I have to say I’m glad to be in the reverse mortgage business. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have had the pleasure.

Debt settlement has always had a sort of negative stigma in our society. However, if you’re at the end of your financial rope, it can be a great option to save yourself from bankruptcy or another financial crisis. Too many people have lived thinking that bankruptcy is their only option, but it doesn’t have to end that way. If you pay off your debts through debt settlement with a professional company, you’ll be in a much better place financially, once all is said and done. It might make your credit look a little worse temporarily because you worked with a debt settlement company, but it’s better than being denied credit for up to 7 or 10 years because you filed bankruptcy.

If you’ve never had financial problems before, debt settlement can seem like a scary process. You’re sharing your personal information with strangers and relying on them to help you out. That’s why you need to research your options and find a reputable company or choice for your debt settlement needs. It will also help if you are informed about debt settlement for your own knowledge, so that you aren’t confused throughout the process. Having a custom plan for your debt settlement will make it a much more affordable feat and help you to pay down your debts much faster and easier than if you tried it alone.

Debt settlement professionals will work with your creditors to negotiate the removal of fees, as well as lowering the interest rates and balances on your accounts. It doesn’t matter if you only have a little debt or if you have a lot. There’s a solution for every person that can be affordable and give you the financial salvation that you need. Debt settlement might seem like a last resort, but in actuality, it’s much better to let professionals take care of your negotiations. Credit companies and medical collection agencies will be more likely to negotiate with a professional company than they would with you.

If you’re in too deep with debt of any kind, there is help out there. As stated above, it doesn’t matter how much debt you have or what your situation is. You have options, including debt settlement, which can save you in your time of financial need. Having a plan that is designed specifically for your situation can make it much easier to take care of your debts.

Debt settlement is only one alternative to handling your debt, but it is one of the best and easiest methods to use. You’ll be able to get your debts taken care of in a timely manner, and you’ll be able to afford the payments without stretching yourself too thin. Too many people do nothing, but you can save yourself by taking an active role in spite of the economy, and getting the help that you need.

Having a bad credit history can follow you around for a lifetime. If you have a bad credit history and have applied for personal loans, you probably know that you will generally get denied. Even if you are approved, you can often end up paying interest rates that are simply out of control.

Lenders are starting to offer more and more loans to people that have bad credit. They have started to see that some people have impressive credit histories even though they don’t have spectacular credit scores. This is usually because the events that caused the damaged credit score happened a long time ago, sometimes as long as five years.

In today’s world, banks have opened up a lot of different types of loans for people that have bad credit. You can now get bad credit loans for the home, bad credit loans for cars, and bad credit business loans. You can also get bad credit home equity loans that can be used for almost anything you want.

If you want to find a bad credit personal loan, you will have a lot more luck if you have some kind of collateral. This allows the lender to mitigate some risk because they can seize the asset if you fail to make your payments.

Unsecured personal loans are very rare for people that have bad credit. This type of loan represents a significant amount of risk for a bank. There are special types of loans such as payday loans that people can take out if they have bad credit, but they usually have extreme amounts of interest.

If you have bad credit and need to get a personal loan, you will want to take a look at assets that can be used as collateral. If you dont any assets that can be used, you will want to try to find a cosigner that can help you with your loan. Otherwise it will be quite difficult to convince a bank to give you a loan.