This rather brilliantly cuts thru all the political doublespeak we get.
Lesson # 1:
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* U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
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* Fed budget: $3,820,000,000,000
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* New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
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* National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
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* Recent budget cuts: $ 38,500,000,000
Let’s now remove 8 zeros and pretend it’s a household budget:
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* Annual family income: $21,700
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* Money the family spent: $38,200
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* New debt on the credit card: $16,500
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* Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
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* Total budget cuts so far: $3.85
Got It ?????
OK now Lesson # 2: Here’s another way to look at the Debt Ceiling:
Let’s say, You come home from work and find there has been a sewer backup in your neighborhood….and your home has sewage all the way up to your ceilings.
What do you think you should do ……
Raise the ceilings, or pump out the crap?
Your choice is coming Nov. 2012.
It looks a lot like my checkbook and makes my blood run cold. Thank God I’m old.
Debt consolidation is a risky tictac of deliberately ceasing all payments to creditors and forcing your accounts into default to attempt settlements. You pay a monthly fee to a debt consolidator .this entire fee goes towards building a settlement account and to the consolidator’s fees to “settle” your accounts in the future. Your credit card companies will deliberately not be paid so that all the accounts will default/charge-off so that they can attempt settlements at around 50%. If you are current on your accounts, this process will ruin your credit rating for sure. Debt settlement is like a roll off the dice with your finances You can never predict how your creditors will respond to the deliberate defaulting of your accounts they might settle at 50% or they might serve you a summons, take you to court and if they win, you could be looking at wage garnishment. These companies work with credit card debt not student loans. As you’re probably aware, student loans can’t be discharged in Chapter 7, but the $12K in credit card debt can. Maybe filing for Chapter 7 on the credit card debt might be an option. I generally think that $15K is the minimum that anyone should consider filing but do what you need to do to provide for you and your family. Just remember that you can only file for Chapter 7 once ever 8 years not every time you get into financial trouble. Another option is to enter into a debt management plan through CCCS for the credit card debt. They only work with the credit card debt and not student loans. They can negotiate lower interest rates and payments In general to about 2% of your total balance and interest rates down to 9 10%. They will require you to stop using all credit and to cut up your cards. Your credit report will be updated to enrolled in debt management. This does not damage your credit, but it may make it difficult to obtain new credit while you are enrolled in their program .so don’t use this service if you anticipate applying for a new apartment, car loan or mortgage anytime soon, as you would might be denied while you’re enrolled in the CCCS debt management program If your wife need student loans then be careful about entering into this program.