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In anticipation of new consumer protection credit card laws taking effect in early 2010, credit card companies have figured out yet another way to maximize profits fast.  As many have heard in the news, credit card banks are increasing minimum payments from 2% to 5% of balances owed.  One Chase customer told CNN his payments were spiking up from about $200/month to over $900/month!  The customer told the creditor he’ll be forced into bankruptcy if the payment jump is sustained.  The story didn’t say how he ended up, hopefully he took the right steps.

This is how

It’s tough to think of an area of life which isn’t related to personal finances at some level.  A big misconception is that financial health depends on circumstances.  This is simply not true.  Circumstances are the driving force of emotion based decisions and perspective provides a logical plan based on real priorities.  For a financially “unfit” person, circumstances drive every action.  For the financially “fit”, each action is calculated and thought out.  To be above average, above average actions must be taken.  It’s the “freedom to choose” which can be our biggest ally or worst enemy.  The most important battle is with the man or woman in the mirror and the biggest tragedy of life is to “almost win”.  Listed below are 13 reasons to get financially fit along with some links showing Oklahoma’s Statistics of sub par personal finance education:

Financial Habits start from childhood.  You might be asking, “how does a kid have financial habits?”  Here’s an example:

Example:  A two year old tells his mom he wants a new toy car.  The mom says, “no!” and the two year old throws a fit.  After ten minutes of crying, the mother takes the child to the toy store and buys a new toy car.  The kid begins learning at age 2 that by crying he can get what he wants.  After high school, the same kid decides college isn’t “for him”.  After all, his mother will “take care” of him.  As an adult it becomes hard to function in society because the real world doesn’t deliver what he wants when he raises his voice or throws a fit.  This leads to all kinds of complications: financial issues, health issues, emotional issues, relationship issues, work related issues, etc. (Never the goal of parents, but true.)

5 Easy Steps To Spoiled Kids

1.  Don’t encourage them to learn, grow or gain knowledge and be sure to tell them what they “can’t” do instead of what they “can” do.

Today marks the end of my very first Jury Duty experience.  The case just so happened to deal with a subject I’m pretty familiar with.  It was a dispute regarding Real Estate!  Litigation was between a buyer and seller from a home purchase transaction which closed in 2004.  In 2005, the homeowner (plaintiff) sued the seller (defendant) for non-compliance with proper completion of a form called “Residential Property Condition Disclosure” .  Anyone who has bought or sold a home in Oklahoma since 1995 through Realtors is required to complete and/or review this form prior to signing a Real Estate Purchase Contract.  The seller is required to complete this form to disclose any “known” defects with the property.

Here’s a summary of  what happened based on information provided during the trial:

Sometimes it seems there’s more effort put towards avoiding what we don’t want, instead of identifying what we do want.  We’ve become accustomed to putting all our hopes