Attacking Credit Card Debt

There are far too many Americans asking themselves how they can attack their credit card debt.

The first thing you need to do is to stop charging things!

Now, I know how difficult this can be, but it really is the only way. You will need to get out of the red before you attempt to better your financial standing. If you absolutely have to use your cards, then you’re not ready to get out of debt yet.

Trust me, you won’t get out of debt unless you want to and you won’t do it by continuing to charge.

Once you’ve stopped charging, take a look at your accounts and their interest rates. Transfer all that you can to the lowest rate cards, then once you’ve done so, call every credit card company you still have a balance with and ask for a lower interest rate.

When you are denied, threaten to transfer your balance with them to another card and they will usually comply. I was able to get Capital One to drop my card from 18.9% to a fixed 12.9% in just a single phone call.

Once you’ve gotten your interest rates as low as you can, determine how much you can send towards the credit card bills each month. Make sure you can make at least the minimum payment on time for every card to avoid late fees and penalties.

Attack the highest rate card first with as much money as you can spare after you have made your minimum payments on everything else. Be diligent and dedicated. It will take time, but if you can avoid charging and attack your balances, even if it’s only one at a time, you will win the war against your credit card balances.

Geographic Diversification In Investing

There are so many things in our everyday lives that we are looking at differently now, after 9/11.

Financial Journalist Andrew Feinberg captured the new way that we must look at portfolio diversity best when he wrote, “In the post-9/11 world, I fear that our painstakingly diversified portfolio is actually dangerously concentrated. I mean, we are overweighted in Manhattan big-time.”

This is something new in investing, but a very valid point in the world we are living in today. Every analyst will preach non-stop about the importance of your portfolio being diversified. In yesterday’s world, diversifying amongst different countries, different sectors, different companies, different sized-companies and different company philosophies was enough, but with terrorism threatening U.S. cities, investors even need to diversify where their investments lie in the U.S.

Business in Manhattan literally ground to a halt on 9/11 and some investors learned that their diversified portfolios were extremely heavily invested in companies that resided in Manhattan. Investors need to check their portfolios to ensure that their U.S. investments are spread out over the geography of the nation as well.

Eye-Opening Comment On 9/11

I think even after all the time we’ve had to ponder since the morning of September 11, 2001, it is still hard for the average American to truly grasp what happened that morning.

I believe eSpeed, Inc.’s Executive VP Joseph Noviello really put the events of that fateful morning into perspective for me in a way I hadn’t really thought about yet.

Think about where you work, the people you work with, and the tasks that you share at your job as you read Noviello’s comments:

”People did whatever it took. Those whose managers had died showed their skills as natural leaders. Their instincts for what to do were so strong.”

That’s not a military officer talking about soldiers, but a business executive talking about his employees.

While September 11th showed us the worst of mankind, it also showed us the strength in the average American.

Fred Alger, An American Hero

My thoughts are with all Americans today as any true American will be in mourning for the loss of our collective innocence one year ago today...Let us never forget the tragic and heroic events of that fateful day as we push forward into our future...

Seven years ago, Fred Alger, the founder of Fred Alger Management decided it was time for some rest after taking himself, investors, and his company to the forefront of the investment world.

Fred handed the reigns over to his brother David who had been with him all along and then made his way to retirement split between Switzerland and parts of the U.S. This past September as Fred and his wife were getting ready to leave the house in East Hampton, New York, which they had leased for a month’s vacation, Fred glanced at the television and saw One World Trade Center ablaze.

Fred Alger had chosen the 93rd floor of the World Trade Center for his offices and recalls that it took him quite some time to realize not only that his brother and former colleagues were in harm’s way, but that they had been killed in the attack. Nearly all of the firm’s employees perished.

Fred Alger Management was virtually wiped out on September 11th, but in the typical Fred Alger style, instead of leaving his investors in peril, he immediately cancelled retirement indefinitely and is now working to get the firm back on its feet.

Former employees who had moved on after coming into their own at Fred Alger immediately lined up to help run the now-leaderless funds and pensions. Today, almost a year later, Fred Alger Management is pretty much back on its feet and pushing forward, a symbol of the spirit and determination of American will.

Are You STILL Talking About Race In The Business World?

I opened up the latest edition of Fast Company, a magazine that is supposed to be on the cutting edge of business only to read the following:

”Diversity Without Excuses. Yes...there are qualified minorities for top jobs. If you want to find talented people of color for your organization, you can. But you have to make it a priority.”

Those words made me shake my head and wonder why so many people refuse to get out of the stone age and catch up with the times.

Maybe we have been blessed with our Orange County marketplace and an acceptance of diversity in color that they do not enjoy in other parts of the U.S., but doesn’t that sound like a line straight out of the dark ages of business? 

Maybe there wouldn’t be so many people hung up on color in business if there weren’t so many people who refused to stop complaining about the hang-ups of color in business.

I truly feel color in business is a self-defeating philosophy. If you can’t get along with purple people, then you suck, but if you refuse to look at purple people the same way you look at yourself, you have no place in the business world.

Any self-respecting business professional knows there are actually two kinds of people in the business world...those who want to succeed and those who don’t...and that’s got nothing to do with a person’s color.