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The Top 3 Tips for Fabulous Holiday Shopping Results

If you could get a lot more with your money, would you do it? Of course you would. American consumers and retailers are already gearing up for the 2008 holiday season. The average person is planning on spending about $900 for all of their holiday shopping. So, let’s make sure that you get the most for your money this year. All you have to do is follow these simple tips.

1. Start early. Don’t wait until Christmas Eve to do your holiday shopping. Start early. Retailers are already offering fabulous discounts for many of the products on your list. Here are some dates to keep in mind to get the best deals…
-Black Friday-November 21, 2008. This is the biggest in-store shopping day of the year. You’ll find the most unbelievable prices this day.
-Cyber Monday-November 24, 2008. If you prefer to do your shopping online, either do it right now or wait until November 24. Online retailers give the biggest discounts on Cyber Monday.
-Mondays in December. Most consumers do their holiday shopping on the weekends. Because of this, sales are slow during week days. In-store retailers slash prices on Mondays. If you want to find the best deals at the mall, go on Mondays in December.
-The first two weeks in December. If you forget about Cyber Monday, don’t worry. Retailers continue to give great discounts throughout the first two weeks of December.

Do your shopping early. The closer you get to Christmas, the more you will pay for your gifts.

2. Find the best deals. All it takes is for you to do a little bit of homework. Take a little bit of time to thumb through the Sunday newspaper. Look at websites like slickrdeals, Ben’s Bargains and Fatwallet to find the best deals online. Sometimes, you can even sign up to receive weekly email notifications. These are easy ways to stay informed about the prices of the products on your shopping list. Don’t settle on the price of a product at the first store or website you go to. Doing a little bit of research can cut the price you pay drastically.

3. Use a cash back credit card. This one just makes sense. Why not get paid to shop? Cash back credit card sales are predicted to skyrocket this holiday season. More and more consumers are looking for additional ways to save money on holiday shopping purchases. Every time you use your cash back credit card, you will also earn points. You can easily redeem these points for cash back. If you do your shopping early, you can get this cash back in time for more holiday shopping. Only use your cash back credit card this holiday season if you want to maximize your holiday shopping experience.

These are the top 3 tips for fabulous holiday shopping results. Following these tips doesn’t take much time and you’ll be able to save a lot of money that way. Make sure you stay under-budget this shopping season by sticking to these easy recommendations.

Credit Card Holiday Shopping

‘Tis the Season for holiday shopping. Halloween is just around the corner. Thanksgiving will be here before we know it. And, we all know what that means…Black Friday. Black Friday has been the biggest shopping day of the year for decades. Retailers offer great deals and unbelievable discounts. If you feel brave enough to fight crowds and hoards of people rushing to get the best deal, Black Friday can be your favorite day of the year.

Economists are predicting that Black Friday, or the Day After Thanksgiving, sales are going to be quite grim. Most economists don’t think that the bailout plan will have taken effect by then. Economists shouldn’t have the power to tell us whether or not our shopping experience this holiday season will be good or bad.

Let’s prove all of those ‘bah, humbug’ economists wrong. Let’s use our cash back credit cards wisely. Some of us have recently had our limits lowered. Others of us haven’t experienced any changes to our cash back credit card reward program. Either way, this holiday season can be a good one for us all.

How? Here are some great tips to use your cash back credit card wisely this holiday season.

1. Pay it off. Try an get the balance of your cash back credit card paid off in the next few weeks. Do whatever you have to do to lower the balance of your card. You’ll be able to free up your limit and make room for the holiday shopping.

2. Be informed. Keep up-to-date on the latest policies and procedures for your cash back credit card account. Banks and credit card companies are tightening their reigns, but this doesn’t have to ruin your plans. Make sure that you are aware of their ever-changing policies. This will allow you to make the most of your holiday shopping.

3. Get the deals. We are going to see unbelievable deals this holiday season. Retailers and companies around the country have been forced to drop their prices. For instance, the price of an Apple iPod is incredibly low right now. Take advantage of these deals. Stock up now before prices start increasing again.

This holiday season is going to be great for all of us. Use your cash back credit card to do all of your holiday shopping. You will be able to get everything on your list and get some cash back in the process. Don’t let the economists ruin your holiday cheer. Use your cash back credit card to spread some holiday cheer of your own.

Holiday Shopping to the Rescue

Economists aren’t holding their breath in hopes that this holiday season will be a good one. In fact, leading economists around the country have already begun telling us how awful this shopping season will be. The 2008 holiday season doesn’t look like it is going to pull the U.S. economy out of its slumps. Our economy needs consumers to get out there and do a little holiday shopping this year.

Don’t be afraid to spend money this Christmas. You can save a lot of money during your holiday shopping when you use your cash back credit card. Prove the National Retail Federation wrong this holiday season. Show them that this year is going to be a great one, in terms of sales.

More and more people are looking into getting cash back or reward credit cards. Why? Because these cards come with real incentives that actually benefit the cardholder. You’ll earn cash back points every time you use your cash back credit cards. These points can be redeemed after you’ve accumulated a certain amount.

These points will come in handy this holiday season. The more people utilize cash back credit cards this holiday shopping season, the better off our economy will be. Truly, cash back credit can be the thing that helps our economy rebound. Why? Because cash back credit cards offer incentives to anyone who uses them. These incentives just might encourage people to start using their credit cards again and stimulate the weakened economy.

This holiday season will certainly be a dismal one without the use of cash back credit cards. Our economy absolutely needs the use of these credit cards in order to get it moving again. So take this financial advice, and let cash back credit cards come to the rescue by using them this holiday season.

Beating a Troubled Market

If you haven’t noticed how poor our economy is right now, something is seriously wrong. Don’t keep your eyes closed on our national news. Our country has been forced to sit and wait while the government strives to fix its problem. The stock market needs some serious help, along with other aspects of our economy. Investors around the world are now stuck with decreasing portfolios until the problem is corrected.

Stock market expects suggest two main methods for building a successful portfolio in today’s market.

1. Watch, Watch, Watch. Never stop watching the events on Wall Street. Keep current trends in mind when deciding whether or not to buy or sell. What goes on in Washington D.C. is affecting Wall Street every single minute. Make sure you are an informed investor. You cannot afford to stop watching for even one second.

2. Diversify. Keep your investments diversified. Even if some of your stocks plummet, the chances of losing all of them if they are well diversified is slim to none. Don’t worry about diversifying too much. Keep your investments separate so you won’t lose everything if one things slips.

You can build a winning portfolio in today’s economy. It will take more discipline and practice. You will have to stay up-to-date and never fall behind. If you want my financial advice, the key is to watch and diversify. Stock market experts recommend these two strategies to build (and keep) a successful portfolio. Now probably isn’t the best time to begin looking at investing, but you can always keep investing. Investments can be confusing at times, so you may want to wait until things slow down a bit before jumping into the stock market. If you have been investing for a while and feel confident, keep doing it. You won’t lose everything if you stick to these fail-proof methods.

Thanks to Plastic Rewards for guest posting and bringing us these tips. If you are looking to compare credit cards and find the best cash back credit cards - they can help!

More Government Aid

The U.S. government has recently announced that it will provide more aid to the struggling economy. A new $250 billion plan will be implemented shortly. This plan was unveiled by the Bush administration in hopes of giving necessary aid to weakened banks.

The money from the $250 billion plan will be directly injected to specific banks. The money will be used to buy stocks of these banks. These drastic steps “were not intended to take over the free market, but to preserve it.”

There are nine banks that will benefit initially from the plan. These banks include the nation’s largest financial institutions. Some of these banks had to be pressured into accepting the plan. Henry Paulson, the Treasury Secretary, wanted some of these healthy institutions to get capital from the plan. Although these banks didn’t necessarily need capital, it was necessary to include these banks in the plan to remove the nation’s stigma about bank bailouts. The new “bailout plan” has already had a major effect on Wall Street. The announcement of such a plan has caused stocks to increase drastically.

When announcing the plan, Henry Paulson said, “We regret having to take these actions. Today’s actions are not what we ever wanted to do-but today’s actions are what we must do to restore confidence to our financial system.” Additionally, the Federal Reserve announced that it will buy massive amounts of short-term debt on October 27.

This partial nationalization of the U.S. banking system puts the U.S. in an awkward position. President Bush promised, “The government’s role will be limited and temporary. These measures are not intended to take over the free market but to preserve it.” He went on to say that these bold moves were implemented to prevent a global recession. It sounds like our current administration needs some third party financial advice.

This latest move leaves people all over the country wondering if the government has gone too far. Is it really necessary to spend another $250 billion to “restore confidence to our financial system.” Ben Bernanke has welcomed all of the government’s steps. But, American citizens are skeptical. Some people think that the government should have given the $750 bailout plan more time to take effect. Instead, we are now in more debt, with no guarantee that these plans will work.

Thanks to Plastic Rewards, our guest poster today offering the best information on the web for credit card offers and general credit card information.

The Need for Small Business to Get Creative

More and more people are beginning to feel the credit crunch on an everyday basis. The credit crunch is not only affecting individual lives. It is majorly affecting businesses, especially small businesses. Banks and credit unions around the country have started using drastic measures to keep afloat. These drastic measures are affecting small businesses more than anyone else.

Entrepreneurs and small business owners have been forced to get creative. These business men and women have to have money and credit available to run their businesses. The much needed credit and money cannot come from banks and credit unions because these organizations have put a tight leash on all outgoing money. In fact, we are at a 15 year low in terms of the number of small businesses that are currently using bank loans. So, that’s where the creativity comes into play.

Small business and entrepreneurs have turned to nontraditional funding. The most common form of this nontraditional funding is person-to-person lending, social lending or peer-to-peer lending. A common funding network is LendingClub. This Internet venture connects borrowers to individuals willing and able to lend much needed cash.

These sites are set up somewhat like Internet dating sites. Individual lenders are able to search different profiles of potential borrowers. These profiles are laden with information about the needed money, how the borrower plans on using the money, what their business set-up will be, etc. Lenders are able to lend to each and every borrower they want to and have the freedom of choosing the amount they wish to give. Some individuals lend the bare minimum, $25. Others offer several thousand dollars.

These individual lending programs are set up similarly to bank loans. Individual lenders are able to earn interest on each of their loans. Rates for these loans are similar to the rates you would find at a credit card company.

Small business owners and entrepreneurs appreciate this new and innovative lending method. One small business owner need to borrow $25,000 to open his store. Within two weeks, he had the money he needed from using LendingClub. He borrowed his $25,000 from 74 different lenders. This method of lending just may be what saves small business owners until this country can get back on track.