Today’s post is a guest post from Sarah Scrafford. It is written from an American perspective and gives information about US bankruptcy. For our British readers, we will write about bankruptcy another day. Thanks to Sarah for the post.

Debt is extremely easy to accumulate and just as hard to pay off. Indiscriminate usage of credit cards, frivolous spending and high interest rates have led to a large number of Americans steeped in debts that leave them wringing their hands in despair. Continue reading »

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Want to make a little extra money, get to see the back of your debt even quicker? Check out the Idea Cafe. There’s a ton of ideas and advice for starting an enterprise. Anything from a micro-business, for a few extra snowflakes to a full-on enterprise, creating an avalanche. You’ll find all sorts of help and people on hand to test out your ideas on. Need finance? You can learn all about that too.

I saw it for the first time today but I’ll be a regular visitor from now. There’s much for the experienced entrepreneur as well as the absolute beginner.

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No, this post isn’t about organ donation – more about finding money in the pursuit of joy. Thursdays are Entrepreneur Days on this blog. Today is only the second in the series, so we’ll start with the very first move you need to make.

There are different ways to make money, some are quick in-and-outs, (clearing out your old junk and selling it to someone as treasure, for instance) and some are longer term. All entrepreneurial activity, though, starts with a good idea. So, what are the elements of a good idea? Continue reading »

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It’s spring, and the days seem brighter. We’re shaking off the slumber off winter and moving a little quicker. Flowers are starting to peek out and all seems good with the world… Until you open the newspapers, turn on the TV or catch up with some newsfeeds!

What is going on? Debt is becoming a bigger issue by the day. There are tent camps outside Los Angeles; banking ripples in New York; and Northern Rock (the bank involved in the sub-prime debacle, and recently nationalised by the UK Government to bail it out) is expecting to set new records in house repossessions this year…. I could go on.

Becoming debt free seems like a harder task each day. So we wanted to bring you a glimmer of hope. Continue reading »

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Capt. Nick Sloan was $68,021.35 in debt early in 2007, when he decided he needed to do something ‘radical’ to get out of debt…

He volunteered to go to Iraq.

Sloan, 26, a captain in the US Air Force, was stationed in Colorado Springs and could see a series of bad decisions in his financial life. So he decided to do something about it. In May he arrived for duty in Baghdad.

“I came to the realization that I was so far over my head, I had to do something drastic to increase my cash flow,” Captain Sloan said in a telephone call from the Green Zone, where he received extra pay and had minimal living expenses. “Iraq did that.”

Continue reading »

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