A Glimmer of Hope
While banks, insurance companies, and automakers, are all failing, a company in the UK that provides debt advice and support is growing. Debt Free Direct bought consumer debt advice group Clear Start UK. While banks are failing, a debt management company is growing. I love that.
This is encouraging to me!! This provides me with a glimmer of hope that we are not all lost, that not everyone out there is giving up and settling with the MYTH that debt is a part of life.
We all know that debt has become a fact of every day life. Some people believe that debt is inevitable and there is no other way to do things. But on the flip side of this coin, there are some of us who know that there is another way and a better way to handle money and life. For me, CASH is the name of the game. Paying with cash and having a lot of money piled up in my money market account incase of emergencies is what helps me sleep at night. It could be different for you, but as long as you know that debt is not a way to do anything, you are good.
For some, this realization may not come as easy. For most debt has not only been a part of their lives, but their parents lives as well. Some families are absolutely torn apart by debt. It is at this point, at the point where DEBT starts to control their life, that people start to think. They think about everything they have but don’t own and they think of all of the arguments they have had with their spouses or significant others over money. The thought process may take some time, but eventually they will get to the point where they know what they need to do. They need to change and they need to learn how to manage the debt they have, get rid of it, and start over.
This is where a company like Debt Free Direct comes in, and thankfully they are going to be sticking around. They offer free advice to their clients and provide them with debt solutions to help them get out of debt. With people slowly coming to the realization that living with debt does not have to be them, I see companies like this doing nothing but growing. And this makes me happy!
If you have been buried with debt and can not imagine where to start, do some research and find a debt solution company that can truly help you. Be careful, some will be nothing but a scam, but not every debt solution company is. Do your research, call a lot of people, and make an informed decision.
Asking for help is not a bad thing.
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Free Entertainment With No Catch – Your Free Lunch
Whoever said there was no such thing as a free lunch was looking in all of the wrong places or was too picky. It is simply false, especially when it comes to entertainment (video/audio) online. It can be done, and it is being done. And what is really great about these types of services is that they do not try to sucker you in to anything you do not need to use the service. Sure, they have the occasional ad, but it is not pushy at all.
I’m talking about services like Pandora Radio, Slacker Radio, Hulu.com, and countless others that help you get the content you want at the price you want: FREE.
Pandora.com
Think personal radio meets your music collection which meets your mood. Add that all up and you get a perfect selection of music that will have you listening for hours upon hours without skipping songs or feeling tired of your current selection. Their Music Genome Project almost has a direct line to your brain as it cycles through the songs it dishes out for you. That along with you giving songs a “thumbs-up” or “thumbs-down” directs the music in the way you would like it to be played. Don’t like a song that is playing, give it the thumbs down and they won’t play that song again OR any songs that are very similar to it.
To get started using Pandora Radio, just sign up, create a “station” by entering an artist or song, and off you go! Don’t forget to set a timer for those Christmas cookies 
Slacker Radio
Slacker Radio (which I am listening to as I write this – “Holiday Hits”) brings you the musical selection and knowledge of Pandora but without any input necessary from you. It does have the feature to mark songs as “Favorites” as they play, and even “Ban” them from that particular station; but the DJs that put the stations together must be watching you as you listen. I rarely have to ban a song from a station and I love that I don’t have to interact with the station unless I really want to tweak it. They have a HUGE selection of stations and a great selection of Holiday stations…
To get started using Slacker, just go to the website, choose a station and turn up the speakers. They do the rest. (Personal favorites for Christmas Music – Holiday Hits, Holiday Party, and Jazz Holiday)
Hulu.com
Lindsay and I have spoke in the past to the fact that we DO NOT have cable TV or even local TV. But we are still able to keep up on the latest episode of Bones, House, and even shows like 24. “How,” you ask? Hulu.com. Free, premium TV, available to you on your computer. Go to the website, create an account, and start poking around. You’ll find the layout and interface of the site very intuitive and easy to navigate. Easily navigate to TV shows, even movies, that you like and click the subscribe button. Next time they are fed an episode from that particular show they will email you letting you know that you have a new show waiting for you in your queue.
I’ll talk about Hulu.com in more detail in the next few weeks, but go over to the website and get started! Maybe even call your cable company while you are signing up for Hulu. Tell them you are sorry, but Aaron told you that you don’t need them anymore (Really, I mean that. I’ll tell you why in a few weeks…but get a head start and cancel now)!
I am a big internet enthusiast, and I try not to push that on the content here, but these services are very relevant to what we talk about here and I want all of you to take advantage of them! As time goes on and we start to push more and more content online, you are going to want to get a head start by checking out the services mentioned above, because soon you will truly be watching TV online, it is only a matter of time before it is mainstream. Best of all, right now these types of services are FREE and there is really no excuse to not use them! They all offer PREMIUM content at a price that you can’t beat: FREE (take that “no such thing as a free lunch” guy)!
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Service Review – Tweet What You Spend (TWYS)
How many of you lose track of the cash you are spending? *raises hand*. How many of you wish there was a quick and easy way to track the cash that you are spending? *raises hand*. What if I told you that there was a service out there that did just that? AND what if I told you that it was a sinch to use? Would you check it out?
Good. Me too, and I did, 30 days ago. This is a review on the cash tracking service Tweet What You Spend (TWYS).
What is Tweet What You Spend?
TWYS is a cash tracking service that uses the micro-blogging service Twitter (not sure what Twitter is, check out Twitter In Plain English). TWYS allows you to send them a direct message with information about your cash purchase and will store that information online in your personal “journal”. From there, your purchases are grouped and totaled for instant access to your spending habits. You can also export the information collected to CSV or Excel with the push of a button.
Tweet What You Spend Key Features
“No need to keep the receipt! Enter transactions at the point of sale through your mobile phone using Twitter” – How simple is that? Don’t worry about keeping the receipt, writing down the purchase information, or using some other method that requires more than two hands. Simply pull out your phone, send a direct message to TWYS (ex: “d twys groceries 35.00 food”) and off you go. Your TWYS journal on their website does the rest!
“Categorize your cash spending through drag-and-drop controls in your secure Cash Journal” – Don’t know how to catagorize a purchase right after you made it, or 
feel like you put it in the wrong catagory? No sweat. They have easy to use drag and drop features in your journal that allow you to easily change the catagory so that it is correct. And to go along with the easy to use interface, TWYS will do all the math behind the scenes so you don’t have to worry about correcting anything. Just drag-and-drop!
“Set daily spending limits and receive alerts to your mobile phone when you near them” – This one is awesome. Feel like you lose track of how much you have spent during any given day? Never fear, TWYS is here! They’ll send you alerts when you start to get close to 
your spending limit. That way you know that you should not make the next purhcase if you want to stay under your pre-set limit.
“Export your Cash Journal to CSV or Excel” – Doing the 30 Day Challenge? Here you go! Scratch the old way of doing things (taking the information from receipts, random pieces of paper, and notes on your hand and putting it into the excel spreadsheet that I built for you) and let TWYS do all of the input and output for you. All you have to do is track all of your spending with their service for 30 days and then export that information to CSV or Excel. It grabs the purchase, amount, catagory, date, time, and other information to help you take a closer look at your spending habits.
How Can TWYS Help You?
As humans we are natually terrible at managing our money. We need reminders, spreadsheets, computer applications, accountants, and websites like this one to keep us in line with our money. Take some of the pain away from doing this and use TWYS to track your spending! Never lose track again and always know how much you spent on what. From there, trim the fat!
New Features Planned for Tweet What You Spend
Below are some of the planned Tweetwhatyouspend improvements, which you can also find under http://news.tweetwhatyouspend.com.
- Custom categories – ability to define your own custom spending categories. (ADDED THIS WEEK!)
- New cash journal views – see your cash spending broken up by selected week or month
- Joint accounts – combine more then one Twitter account into one cash journal view so that you can see group or family spending habits
My Thoughts After 30 Days
As I try do with any service I review, I used TWYS for 30 days before I wrote this review and came to my conclusion of the service.
Well, as someone who is on Twitter all day I found this service to be awesome. I use Fuelfrog on a regular basis to track my fuel consumption and have always been on the outlook for a service that was integrated with Twitter and allowed me to manage some aspect of my money. When the co-founder of Twitter sent out a message about Tweet What You Spend I could not resist but look into it. I signed up and started using the service that very same day.
It has been a blast. It is so easy to use and is no more difficult than trying to remember to get a receipt to then enter into our spending plan that we use to make sure we don’t go over our budget each month. And setting it up is easy too! Just login into Twitter, follow TWYS, send them a direct message, click the link in their direct message back to you, and you’re ready to go! Never worry about where your money went again (combine this service with Rudder.com and I see a match made in financial heaven!).
So, if I were you, I would get a Twitter account if you don’t already have one, register with TWYS, and start tracking your money with an easy to use tool that is light weight and fits in your pocket.
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Service Review – Rudder.com
Have you ever wanted a simple way to keep an eye on your accounts and credit cards on a daily basis? Have you wanted to do this without having to go to separate online bank/credit card accounts? If so, Rudder is your solution. Simple, easy, and secure financial management is what Rudder is and what they are trying to be. They are not Mint, and they are not Quickbooks, they are a new way of looking at your money.
If you page through the introduction to the service on their website you may notice the headline for one of the items: “Break Tradition, Look Forward”. In traditional budget software you are required to look back at what you did wrong that made you go over your budget, and make your change from there. With Rudder you are looking forward and know exactly how much money you have available after pay days, after bills are paid, and after credit card statements are paid, which keeps you ahead of your money.
Traditionally personal finance software tools have always focused on analyzing the past and what happened there. At Rudder we take a different approach and allow our users to make forward looking decisions by providing them with the amount they can spend/save and still meet their upcoming bills and commitments. If you make the right decision today maybe you won’t have to look back on it someday and wonder what went wrong?
What Can It Do For You?
Consolidate info into one place – if you are someone who has multiple bank accounts and multiple accounts within bank accounts, then you will want this. You can add all of your bank accounts and then choose which accounts within those accounts (checking, saving, etc…) you want to see. It is all in one place. Credit cards? It can handle those to, and will even show you your balance, which should be a nudge in the direction to pay the sucker off!
Bill Reminders – I’m busy and I know that you are. Bill reminders are awesome, especially when they are emailed to me! Never forget to pay a bill again.
Accurate forecasting – As mentioned above, Rudder knows what you will have left after bills are paid, after you get paid, and after you pay down on your credit card debt. It takes all of that into account and gives you a very clear picture of the cash you have available, never giving you the option to have a negative balance.
Recent Activity – With identity theft the way it is today who wouldn’t want to keep an eye on their financial accounts on a daily basis? Rudder makes this easier as well, and they do this by emailing you every day with recent activity in any of your accounts. If there is none, they’ll email you anyway so that you can keep an eye on your balances.
Is It safe?
If you are providing your account information to any service you want to know that it is secure. I can assure you that Rudder takes the same steps as most of your banks do, your information is not going to get into the wrong hands! All of the information on the website is transmitted using 128 bit encryption (SSL) which is exactly what most banks adhere to on their websites. Rudder’s servers are also stored behind a firewall and intrusion detection system which is monitored around the clock 365 days a year. In addition, the servers that keep track of your transactions are stored at a secure facility that is protected by biometric scanning, security cameras, and a 24/7/365 security staff. And in addition to all of that, Rudder.com is tested daily by Hacker Safe.
There is no such thing as a short cut here and the folks at Rudder understand that.
Just how private is my information?
Rudder has partnered with CashEdge who is a leader in the Account Aggregation field, so that they can connect to your banks and credit cards. CashEdge is currently serving more than 600 leading financial institutions so there is a very good chance that yours is one of theirs! You can visit Rudder.com for more information on CashEdge and their security and privacy policies.
And Rudder does not stop with an incredible partnership. They also do not store usernames, passwords, or any account information. This added step ensures that no Rudder employee can view or make changes to your information. This is the kind of privacy policy I like.
Can I Trust It?
Yes, you can. Not only because of everything mentioned above, but because you log into their website anonymously. All they require for a login is your email address, nothing personally identifiable.
My Thoughts After 30 Days
I have used this service for 30 days and will continue to use it. It is easy to set up and easy to use. Not only that but it sends me updates every day on all of my accounts. From that email I see recent transactions, what bills are due and when, how much cash is at in my bank account after bills are paid, and the balances in all of my accounts. ALL IN ONE PLACE. I don’t even have to go to the website to get my information, they send it to me.
Pros:
- Easy to use
- Secure
- Email Updates/Reminders
- Tracks my bills AND marks them as paid for me
Cons:
- No “cash” tracking system just yet (It would be awesome if they could connect with Tweet What You Spend (review on this service in November))
- Can’t select if you prefer HTML or TEXT email
Planned Updates:
- Multiple Incomes: For couples that would like to see a ‘combined view’ of their finances, we will be adding the ability to add another income. This also works for those that have multiple lines of income.
- Additional Bill Frequencies: We had originally designed the bill view with monthly bills in mind. We will soon offer users the ability to add bills that occur more or less frequently. Users will be able to add weekly and bi-weekly bills like lawn services as well as quarterly and yearly bills like insurance and tax payments. We will also let users add one time bills, like maintenance & repairs.
Head over to Rudder.com and sign up for free. Give it a shot for at least 30 days (to give yourself and the system time to get used to one another) and then make your decision.
Although this is a great service I know that it is not the only one out there for personal finances online. What have you found to be a good service and why?