Today the United States of America will finally see how Barack Obama will become their new president and if you ask me, it is about time. I know I will be watching his inauguration life on Dutch TV over here in Spain just like I watched the debates and elections eventhough the time difference completely threw off my body clock.
Anyways, this blog not being the most appropriate place for me to talk about politics but what I wanted to talk about is the feeling of “change heading our way”. I don´t know how journalists are covering all the news on Obama in the States, but all I see on Dutch TV is the overall feeling of positive change in the air.
The feeling that everything is possible if you set your mind to it
So now I am wondering, will tomorrow be different from today?
How long does it take for The Change to become visible, noticeable?
I guess it all depends on what you are wanting to change and the time frame that you set for that change to happen.
Mitch Mitchell from ImJustSharing.com for example wants to change the number of RSS subscribers to his blog, bringing it up to 250 by the 9th of February. That, if you ask me, is quite a big change he wants to make in only a short time, but seeing that I enjoy reading his blog, I would like you to go over there and have a look. Of course I can´t push you to subscribe but hey, if you like the blog I think you should atleast consider it!
Mitch is also running a Financial Blog so when he mentioned that in his RSS subscribers post I decided to have a look. Now I have to be honest, the information on there is mostly geared towards American readers, or atleast that is how I see it, but I do find it interesting to see the difference between the financial mindset of people from different countries. One post I could relate to more was his Paying Down Debt because that seems to hold some information valid for anybody anywhere.
Now there is something in his post that I am not sure about though:
“One thing you can do is cut up your credit cards and send them back to the issuer.”
Keep in mind that I am by no means a financial advisor, so correct me if I´m wrong, but the last thing you should do is actually cancel your credit cards once they are paid off. Just putting them away in a safe place without canceling them and just not using them so they don´t cost a thing could be important later down the line, because you still keep the credit that has already been approved to you.
Yes, I watch Oprah and saw a show the other day with financial advisor Suze Orman and what she said about cancelling credit cards is that in the long run it would actually hurt your FICO score.
Less credit -> lower FICO score … am I right?
Anyways … Mitch, I am cheering for your RSS subscribers to go upto 250, go go go!!!
Something I just noticed right now is that this blog has actually reached the 1 year milestone. Actually it is 1 year and 2 days now and I completely missed it´s first birthday!!
They say that reaching the first year milestone is supposedly a big thing but I really don´t noticed that big a a difference between last week and this week, heck I even forgot the date!
So now I should really look at what I have learned this year and whether it has been worth it to run this blog, but more importantly, why I should keep it going another year. Before writing a post with my conclusions later this week, I would like to take the opportunity to thank all my readers and commentators who have participated and made this year of MeMyselfAndIBlog a joyous one!
For now I better get to work, not wanting to miss the inauguration of the new president later on this day!
Hi Miriam,
Wow, you’ve gone all out; thanks!
As for cutting up credit cards, when Suze is talking about it, she’s talking to people who are doing okay, people who have the means to possibly use those credit cards and pay them off when the bill comes. There are two reasons for cutting up credit cards. One, if your credit card issuer bumps up your interest rate (which they’re doing a lot these days ), and you were informed it was coming, the only way to freeze your rate, or bring your rate back down, is to cut up and return your credit card. The other reason is if you have way too many credit cards and are working to get out of debt. Suze would tell you that if you have 10 credit cards you need to get rid of of some. Matter of fact, here’s a direct, unedited two paragraph quote from her:
“So my advice to people who were once in credit card debt and now they’ve gotten themselves out of credit card debt is I would literally cut up all of my credit cards. I would not be carrying them, I would not even have them in the refrigerator. Some people say they put them in the freezer — oh, give me a break. Anything can come out of a freezer. I would cut them up 100%.
And if, in fact, I knew that I might seriously be tempted to call the credit card company and say, you know what, send it to me again — I would not care about my FICO score and I would literally call up the credit card company, close down the account and not give me any temptation whatsoever to get myself into credit card trouble. As soon as I got offers in the mail, they would immediately go into the trash.”
So, there you go. Everyone should keep at least one card, maybe two, but if you’re the type who keeps accumulating them, or spending recklessly by using them, they need to go. Oh, here’s the link to the rest of the article.
Thanks again, Mirjam; wishing you the best on America’s special day!