People generally have different misconceptions about credit cards. It is important for you to make good credit card decisions. Make sure you don’t make these costly credit card mistakes.

1. Minimum Payments. Paying only the minimum payment can be extremely costly. You will end up paying a lot of interest if you don’t pay off your credit card each month. You will also become enslaved to your credit card balance, never being able to get out from under it.

2. Cash Advances. Credit card companies make you think that cash advances allow to get free money. When they don’t advertise is how much interest you’ll be paying each time you take a cash advance. Most times, you’ll be paying over 25% for each advance.

3. Budget with Your Card. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you can buy whatever you want now and pay for it later. This is an easy way to get way over your head in debt. Stick to your monthly budget. If you use your credit card, especially to earn rewards, make sure you have the money in your checking account to back it up.

4. Late Payments. Never make a credit card payment late. You will be charged a late fee and end up paying a lot more for that tank of gas than you intended. Always pay off the entire balance on your credit card a few days earlier. This will get you in the habit of making good credit card decisions.

5. Understand. Make sure you read the fine print and understand exactly what you are getting into. Know what introductory rate you’ll be paying, what the rate will be after the introductory period, what the late fee is, what your due date is, etc. When you apply for the credit card, you are entering into a contract with the credit card company. Make sure you know what the contract means.

6. Too Many Cards. Don’t get too many cards. Lenders do not look favorably on a ton of open revolving accounts. If you need one or two credit cards, get them. But, be careful you don’t have so many cards that you can’t keep up with each one.

7. Monthly Statement. Your monthly statement is your opportunity to review your credit card balance with a fine toothed comb. Review each statement carefully and make sure every charge is correct. This is also your opportunity to watch for identity theft. Your monthly statement is given to you for a reason. Read it carefully.

Be sure you are making good credit card decisions. In order to have good credit now and down the road, you need to be smart with your credit card. Don’t make any of these costly mistakes, and you’ll be on your way to great credit in no time.

It may seem counter-intuitive to what you may think is an economic textbook answer. With practically inevitable hard economic times ahead, most people’s natural reaction is to begin curbing their spending and to start hoarding cash. However, this behavior of spending less and saving more has a very negative impact and becomes nothing more than a self-fulfilling prophecy of economic hard times. The herd mentality puts jobs, even yours, and more at risk.

Being prudent with your money during hard economic times is important, but spending less will have an exponential effect on businesses, jobs and more. Businesses rely on revenue through sales to pay their employees, meet financial obligations to creditors and invest in new projects that make them more money. Declining revenue will force businesses to layoff employees and not invest in future projects. Those layoffs compound the problem even further because more of the population now has less money to spend. This vicious cycle starts all over again; jeopardizing millions of jobs.

But what if you really don’t want to spend your money? Wouldn’t a savings account be the best alternative? Not necessarily. Credit is frozen or has retracted severely from even several months ago. Banks use your checking and savings deposits to loan out to other customers or even banks. Tightened lending standards means lending may only occur to the best bank customers. This shrinking pool of people who can actually borrow, but at higher rates, may deter them from borrowing altogether. Fewer people borrowing means banks end up with a surplus of cash that they can do virtually nothing with. Banks can’t lend your money to earn interest and when you combine that with more and more people adding money to savings accounts, it lowers the rate of return for everyone.

What should you do then? Continue to spend your money.  If you don’t want to save, then invest in dividend-paying stocks (which are very cheap these days) and low-yield bonds.  This will put money in the pockets of entrepreneurs and businesses who will turn around and use the money to create jobs and start new projects thereby jump-starting the stumbling economy. If you’re really a doomsdayer, purchase goods with intrinsic value like: food, fuel and clothing. At least you can use this stuff if the economy collapses and it will always give you something to barter with while people are burning their dollar bills to stay warm. Whatever you do, keep the economic blood pumping by spending money.

The House of Representatives has finally reached a decision on President Bush’s bailout bill. The bill was narrowly…rejected. Since then, Wall Street has fallen apart…again. The Dow Jones industrial markets closed almost 800 points down. The Standard and Poor’s 500 index is off 106 points. The Nasdaq Composite Index is off almost 200 points. Citigroup also bought all of Wachovia’s assets. All of this is because the House of Representatives rejected the bailout bill.

The biggest industries to suffer today have been the technology industry and the energy industry. Worries that all of the economies around the world are slowing down have caused the slow down. Consumers around the country aren’t the only ones who were shocked by the vote. Traders of Wall Street were shocked that the bailout bill vote ended up the way it did. However, it is possible that each side will take part to negotiate a new version of the bill.

Now, let’s look at the Citigroup situation. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has again facilitated another acquisition. It was announced this morning that Citigroup will acquire all of Wachovia’s banking operations. The FDIC was sure to clarify that Wachovia did not fail. It further went on to state that all of its depositors were and still are protected. This acquisition is to help Wachovia’s burdens from the mortgage loan mess.

Gas prices are still affecting our economy. The price of crude oil dropped from $106.89 to $96.37. This is because there are so many concerns about the global demand being completely weakened.

The initial bailout plan that was proposed by the Bush administration has been tweaked several times. Both sides, the Democrats and the Republicans, worked all weekend long on a bill that would please both sides. Here is what they came up with:

1. The bailout plan legislation will be expanded to include the bad assets of pension plans, local governments and small banks.

2. Includes a Republican demand that would allow the government to insure the value of some of the bad loans and toxic securities instead of buying them outright.

3. New executive-compensation limits would be part of the legislation that prevents “golden parachutes.”

4. The government would get $250 billion up front, with an additional $100 billion based on the president’s approval. The remaining $350 billion would have to undergo congressional review.

Lawmakers are confident that this new bailout bill will pass in the next few days. Until then, our economy continues to go downhill.

The race for the White House is in full swing. Barack Obama and John McCain continue to battle it out before the actual election in November. Barack Obama and Joe Biden remain on the Democratic ticket. John McCain and Sarah Palin are the Republican’s choice. Barack Obama has just gained his first clear lead of John McCain. It appears as though the state of the economy is having a negative affect on John McCain’s ratings.

The Washington Post-ABC News national poll has just been released. This poll shows the clear lead that Barack Obama has over John McCain. Only 9 percent of the people who took the poll rated the economy as either excellent or good. This is the first time that number has been a single digit number since before the 1992 election. Only 14 percent of the people polled said the economy was headed in the right direction. This is also a record low number. The last time this number reached such a low percentage was back in 1973.

Apparently, votes are more confident in Obama’s ability to readjust the economy than they are with McCain’s. Obama’s financial platform has clearly given him the lead of McCain…at least for now. Voters tend to think the Obama is more in tune with the real financial problems that Americans face. The poll shows that he has a double-digit advantage when it comes to handling the problems on Wall Street. The ratings show that Obama has “won over” 52 percent of voters, while McCain struggles to hold onto his 43 percent. It was only two weeks ago when the race was virtually neck and neck. That goes to show you how bad and drastic things have gotten in only two weeks time.

Voters are putting more emphasis on the economy now than ever before. Regular people, like you and me, want to see a change in the economy. A change for good. People are worried that the “Next Great Depression” is right around the corner. Voters want to be assured that their financial situations, their jobs, their careers, etc are going to be protected. Apparently, voters are more comfortable with Obama’s promise to re-stimulate the economy.

The poll shows the 52 percent of people are extremely concerned with the way the economy is going. These people “believe the economy has moved into a serious long-term decline.” College students have again turned the tide of the race. White people who do not have college degrees support John McCain by 17 points. Obama is supported by white people who do hold college degrees by 9 points.

The economy will continue to be a major factor in the 2008 Presidential Election. Take the time to study each candidate and vote for the one who has the strongest values that correlate with your own. Let’s make sure we elect a competent President who can turn the economy around, whether that be Obama or McCain.

Recently, I had a conversation with a family member who has been married only a short time. As with any relationship, each person brings a set of positive and negative qualities, but both are generally willing to look past the negative for the positive qualities. Given the nature of my work, we naturally talked about finances and how ways to handle them are about as different as people are, whether good or bad. Although I didn’t impart any sort of revelatory advice to my family member, our conversation did cause me to think about how someone could earn more of our most popular credit card categories - the cash back reward credit card.

My train of thought after our conversation led me to devise a strategy that anyone should be able to do without much work. This strategy probably could not have worked even a decade ago, but with the utilization of the internet and online banking, you can now earn even more cash back. All you need is a cash back credit card, a high-yield savings or money market account and a checking account. Your cash back card can be that of your preference from whichever issuer or bank you prefer. For convenience, find a bank, financial institution or credit union that pays the most you can find on a savings or money market account and open an account there. You’ll also want to open a checking account with them too so that funds can easily be transferred if necessary.

The cash back credit card is probably the most universal reward credit card because of its broad appeal to earn the cardholder cash back on every purchase they make. If you do not already have a cash back credit card or are looking for a different card, there are a few points to consider. First, take into account where you would make the majority of your purchases. Is most of or a large part of your money spent at grocery stores or at gas stations? Do those places only accept Visa and MasterCard or do they accept all issuers? Having two cards from different issuers, like a Visa and an American Express, is certainly very common. Next, is knowing how much you charge each month or year on the credit card. Depending on how much you charge can determine how well you maximize your cash back reward. Many of the higher percentage cash back cards have tiers that earn different percentages of cash back based on the amount you spend. Some people may be better served by a 1% cash back reward versus a card that can earn more on a tiered basis. Maximizing your reward with some forward thinking and making every purchase you may normal make with conventional payment methods can add up to a healthy cash back reward.

Most people probably already have automatic withdrawal setup to pay bills that cannot be made on a cash back credit card. Why not have those same bills deducted from a high-yield savings or money market account instead? Plus, a savings account and in some cases a money market account, provide debit cards to account holders for convenience. This gives you the ability to withdraw cash at an ATM or use a debit card as you normally would. Deposit or have your paycheck direct-deposited into this account so you can earn interest on it instead of that “no fee” checking account that pays no interest.

However, having a checking account is simply a necessary evil, but having it with the same institution will make money transfers quick and easy when you need to actually use the services of a checking account. You may or may not be able to eliminate a checking account completely, but in the event you actually need to write a check to someone, you can. You just make out the check as normal and transfer only the necessary amount from your savings or money market account to cover it.

There are many different institutions that can help you get the accounts necessary to implement this simple strategy. Use a comparison website like Bankrate.com to find those who offer the highest paying savings or money market accounts. Also, be sure to check with your local credit union and even your current institution to see what they offer. Once your accounts are established, you’ll be on your way to earning even more cash back.