The Three Little-Known Pitfalls of Using Debt Reduction Loans (and How to Steer Clear of Them)

By Sean Payne

If you have a lot of debt, you've probably gotten several phone calls from telemarketers who offer to give you a debt reduction loan. On the surface, these loans sound great. You'd have to be crazy to not want to turn lots of small debts into one loan with a low interest rate, right?

My dad always said that there's no such thing as a free lunch, and this definitely applies to debt consolidation loans. Getting a debt consolidation loan can be full of hidden traps that can actually get you in more trouble than you were to start with. Here's a list of the top three hidden traps of getting a debt reduction loan:

Trap #1: You're not fixing the problem, just treating the symptom.

You may think that you're curing the problem of being in debt, but debt reduction loans actually only treat the "symptom" of being in debt. These loans just put a band-aid on the problem, but don't address the behaviors that caused you to be in debt in the first place. And, once you've lumped all your debts into one huge loan, you'll eventually start to accumulate new debts when you, once again, spend more money than you make.

Statistically speaking, people who get loans to pay off their debts end up with the same amount of debt (if not more) in as little as two years. And remember, this is in addition to the consolidation loan that they now have to pay.

Trap #2: Turning an unsecured debt into a secured debt.

Credit card debt is commonly known as "unsecured debt". What this means is that the loan is not "secured", or backed up by collateral (i.e. your home). Most debt reduction loans are "secured debt", meaning debt that is backed up by collateral. Most often, this means the house that you live in.

The big problem with secured debt is that if you fail to pay off your loan, the creditor has the right to foreclose on your home. Compare this to the original debt, where the only option the creditor had was to "see you in court". They couldn't foreclose on the place where you live.

What taking out a secured loan does, in effect, is to put your home at risk of being foreclosed on. Not the brightest thing you've ever done, is it?

Trap #3: Now you're paying higher interest rates.

Even if you dodge the bullet of getting a secured loan by getting an unsecured loan, you're still gonna get smacked with higher interest rates. This is because your inability to pay off your current debts makes you a credit risk, meaning that anyone who is willing to give you credit is going to charge you a higher interest rate to offset the additional risk.

They may use some tricky mathematics, such as a longer loan repayment term, so that they can offer you lower payments than you're currently making. What this means for you, though, is that you end up paying even more in the long term for your debts. This is something that most people who are in debt can ill afford.

So, how do you avoid these traps?

You can avoid each of these traps by taking the bold step of managing your own debt. Unless you're on the brink of bankruptcy, you do have the ability to get out of debt without the assistance of some lender or credit counselor. It may take some radical changes in your lifestyle, but once you make those changes you'll be curing the behaviors that got you into debt in the first place. - 23196

About the Author:

Sean Payne has been studying personal finance and how to get out of debt for over 10 years. To get more information about how to get out of debt without a debt consolidation loan, check out Sean's free mini-course on getting rid of your debt.

Best ETF Newsletter Will Teach You How To Allow Your Money To Work In Your Favor

By Danny Denelo

Financial matters are persistently on the top of everyone's list the best ETF newsletter will help ensure that you know the basics to keep your financial matters in check. The current recession of our world has caused many people to turn their attention towards different ways that they can invest in their future.

People all around the world are hearing the news that circles our current youth. It is perceived that by the time that our modern day youth reach the mature age to be able to retire, they will not be able to support themselves because funds will be depleted. It's horrible, but true.

The concept of ETF's draws off of many academic studies as well as the basis of mutual funds. ETF's are being declared to be the next generations way to invest in their future. Although they may seem to bare the same qualities of mutual funds they are different in many different ways.

The best ETF newsletter will lead you through different things that are currently going on in the financial world with certain aspects that are encouraging the ETF market. ETFS, are the solution to allowing the next generation to stay afloat with the sudden down crash of society.

ETF's work on a relatively easy scale. You begin with a fund source, this source will create separate funds and other sources like demand queries for example. Sellers will be able to choose to sell their ETF assets on the open market or to turn in their assets to their underlying fund source. The fund source will then repay the seller the equivalent of their shares that they presently held.

It is believed that ETF's will soon take over the investment market altogether. This, in fact would be absolutely great when you analyze all of the underlying advantages to having an ETF account. You will not have to be burdened with any management fees or anything of the sort, which means more money, gets to stay in your account allowing you to secure more funds on the open market (free tip: go to ETFTradingSignals.com and sign up for their free newsletter to receive the best ETF to buy every month).

Another great attribute of the ETF's are there are no end of year consequences that you will fall subject to. This means you will not have to pay extra taxes because you are choosing to look out for your financial future. All of your money will be available to you to utilize on the open market. Often times, financial advisers will try to keep your money, which they claim is for your own safety. However, when you have all of your money on the table you increase your gains.

You will always know what your ETF account holds as far as funds are concerned. The best ETF newsletter will keep you informed about different activities that are going on in the trading world; you will not longer have to be left in the dark where your hard earned money is concerned. - 23196

About the Author:

Go to ETFTradingSignals.com to find more on their ETF investing strategies or check out their ETF trend trading.

Descending Wedges - Long CFD Trading Strategy

By Jeff Cartridge

The descending wedge is usually traded on the long side entering the trade as the stock breaks out to the upside. This is how you would expect to trade this pattern as the text books will tell you, but baseline results are quite poor. The pattern forms when the two boundary lines that contain the price movement converge to a point. The bottom line slopes down, and the top line slopes down even steeper to meet the bottom line.

Descending Wedges, Unexpected Returns

Most descending wedges would be expected to break up and they do. In fact 61%, break out to the upside making this pattern predictable to trade on the long side even if the results are not so strong. Only 37% of these breakouts are profitable and on average the profit per trade is 0.12% over a period of 7 days. The descending wedge is not the best chart pattern when it breaks to the upside, but applying some filters makes this pattern much more attractive to trade.

Improve Your Trades

A break to the upside works better in a rising market environment. By using filters that require the market to be in an up trend and the stock and the sector to be in a consolidation or an up trend you can improve the results substantially.

Avoid trading descending wedge patterns that breakout late, in the last 20% of the pattern. Likewise avoid very shallow patterns where the height of the pattern is less than 2% of the stock price and patterns that form over 25 days or more.

Descending wedges with two highs, closes or lows at the same price should be avoided, as this usually occurs in an illiquid stock. If the volume supports the breakout the results are better. Supportive volume means the volume on the way up is higher than the volume on the way down.

Descending Wedges Can Be Profitable

Following a series of rules to determine which descending wedge to trade can improve results dramatically. By applying these filters descending wedges are profitable on 57% of the trades and return an average of 1.92% per trade in 11 days. This is a profitable pattern to trade, but sensitive to the right conditions being available.

Note: Statistics for this article have been provided by Patterns Trader after analyzing over 60,000 chart patterns on the Australian market from 2000 - 2008. - 23196

About the Author:

Jeff Cartridge is a private trader and created the website LearnCFDs.com Discover Patterns of Success

Cherry Creek Condos

By Michael Canon

In the southern central part of the greater Denver area lies Cherry Creek. The city stands out because of its excellent school system and upscale shopping areas. The city is a mix of urban and suburban and houses over 100,000 residents. Cherry Creek is at the southern border of the city which is what the city is named after. Because of its excellent schools, upscale shopping areas, and upper class homes, Cherry Creek is an expensive place to live. Unfortunately Cherry Creek condos are no exception.

Cherry Creek North is an upscale shopping area that the city is well known for. There are many shops in Cherry Creek North, over 600 in fact, ranging from art galleries and cafes to high end restaurants and salons. Not too far from Cherry Creek North is the Cherry Creek Mall. The mall happens to be one of the best places to shop in the whole state. There are many different department stores and smaller stores that are in the mall that total over 160.

Cherry Creek has much more to offer than just an extravagant shopping experience. Residents can go to the parks and trails as well as do community events that happen annually. Every year there is an arts festival that takes place. The event is so big that it attracts over 350,000 guests every year. The event has over 200 national artists and is the number one out door arts festival in the whole country. There are eight stages that have performances and shows during the Fourth of July weekend. The Gates Tennis Center is another well known attraction that has many players who use the facility every year.

The city has also been undergoing many changes in its real estate. The city is unique to live in because it is architecturally diverse. As a part of the rebuilding program Cherry Creek condos and townhomes have been replacing older buildings. There is a wide price range that consumers can take advantage of start at $180 per square foot and going up. High end Cherry Creek condos have been starting to surface. Some of the new condos that have been being built have a rather high price tag between $3.5 million and $6 million.

There are many Cherry Creek condos that are currently for sale. These condos also have a wide range of prices that stretches from $150,000 up to $4.7 million. $692,000 is the current median price per condo. The average price of the condos is $890,000. Cherry Creek condos price per square foot averages out to $321.

Many people of Cherry Creek enjoy the upscale environment the city has to offer. A good portion of the city has married couples with children and an average income of $200,000. Cherry Creek condos are a great place to look into if you are planning at moving into the Denver area as you'll have everything close by. - 23196

About the Author:

Michael Canon is a top Denver realtor with the Canon Colorado Team who have been frequently quoted by the Denver Media as real estate experts. Michael will help you get that perfect Cherry Creek condo or townhome that you're looking for. Make contact today by visiting them at Cherry Creek Condos or Cherry Creek Townhomes!

Financial Literacy - Did You Learn This At School

By Damian Papworth

In high school, there's always one wiseacre who loves to get on the teacher's case, making jokes about how useless the material will be in practical life. "Will I ever use this skill?" he asks, smirking all the way. It didn't matter which class or which subject, the question always seemed to pop up at the wrong moment, causing the frustration of any teacher.

It would be quite an experiment, if someone had a record of everything they used in life and which part, if any, came from classes in high school. Maybe the wise-crackers would be right most of the time, but we'll leave that discussion for another day. There are definitely a few subjects which every student could use, and one of them is Financial Literacy. For whatever reason, the principals and education experts have never made this a requirement, though it is hard to think of a better idea.

Financial Literacy as a subject in school would be a course examining the impact of certain decisions on your finances, encompassing major and minor decisions. Basically, the goal would be to arm students with enough knowledge of the financial world that they wouldn't go out and make the foolish mistakes that drive so many people to financial ruin every year. The curriculum would go in the following direction.

Week 1. Avoiding scams. The teacher would deliver a tutorial on avoiding scams that prey on the young and naive.

Week 2. How to determine if you can take on a loan. Most young people have no conception of what it means to pay back a debt. The second phase of class would lay out the problems of taking on debt and when it should be done. Personal and business loans would be discussed, along with examining credit card statements and taking on mortgages. The positive aspects (tax-wise) will also be covered.

Week 3. Asset evaluation. Students will have a chance to evaluate assets. What is an appreciating asset? How is that different from a depreciating one? Earning assets will be covered along with consumables. Defining one's net worth is a series of decisions and students will see which choices will give them hope for the future.

Week 4. How should you invest? The different types of risk involved with any investment would be explored. With so many possibilities for going right and wrong with an investment, students would get an idea about how to spot a dangerous move as opposed to a promising opportunity. Making investments that work can lead to success, and vice versa.

Week 5. How should you leverage investments? Working with investment portfolios, students would be instructed on the process of leveraging. Tax concerns would be part of the lesson, as there are significant tax breaks available when taking out a loan for an investment.

Final lesson. The final lesson of this course would be put it all together. The steps you should take to avoid the financial problems so many people face. How to structure yourself to maximize your legal protection and your tax position. And of course, how to use the money you have to most effectively create wealth and income, given your personal tolerance to risk. - 23196

About the Author:

Damian Papworth acknowledges that you do not require mutual fund investments. Having learned some simple strategies, you can be your own investment manager.