What is the “automatic stay” in bankruptcy?

This refers to the provision in bankruptcy law that forces all creditors to cease any and all collection activity upon notification that a debtor has filed bankruptcy. This includes harassing phone calls, lawsuit proceedings, and threatening letters.
What are bankruptcy exemption laws?

Bankruptcy exemptions are the laws that deal with giving you relief from creditors by protecting your assets during a Chapter 7 filing. In a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, unsecured creditors like credit card companies, hospitals, and collection agencies are paid through the liquidation of your non-exempt assets. Fortunately, there are specific laws (bankruptcy exemptions) in each state and on a federal that protect a large portion of your assets from being sold.
What is the purpose of having these protections?

The goal of bankruptcy is to provide a “fresh start” for consumers who are overwhelmed by their debts. In order to truly get a “fresh start” one must have a foundation from which to build on. By allowing debtors to keep their property and possessions, this is made possible.
What assets are typically protected?

The most common exemptions deal with your residence, a motor vehicle, clothing, a certain amount of savings, your retirement resources, and other basic needs in today’s society.
So my home is exempt from liquidation? That’s great!

Actually this depends on your state. Some states have minimal if any protection in a Chapter 7 (Pennsylvania and New Jersey, for example), and very few states will shield your house in the event you have a lot of home equity (Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Iowa being exceptions for the most part).
What is home equity?

Home equity refers to the dollar amount of ownership you have in your property. For example, if you took out a mortgage for $200,000, have paid off $150,000, and the value of the home has increased by $10,000, your equity or ownership would be $160,000 (assuming you had no down payment).
How does the equity you have in your property relate to bankruptcy?

When you file bankruptcy, the courts will calculate how much equity you have in specific pieces of property, compare it to the state or federal bankruptcy exemptions, and determine whether they are supposed to liquidate those assets to pay back your unsecured creditors.
What happens if my equity is above the bankruptcy exemption?

If the equity you have in a specific asset is above the allotted amount for that type of property, the court may liquidate it and from the proceeds of the sale, the court will pay you your exemption amount first and then from whatever is left over is divided evenly amongst your unsecured creditors.
Are there any cases when the equity you have in a piece of property is above the exemption, but the court still does not force the sale of that property?

Yes, when the equity you have is not substantially more than the exemption, it is possible that the courts will allow you to keep the asset. The underlying principle and cut off is if there will be nothing left after accounting for paying you your exemption amount and the cost of the sale, the courts will allow the debtor to keep the property.
Where can I find resources about my state’s laws?
Information About Bankruptcy

I heard that some states allow you to choose which exemptions you want—the state’s or the federal government’s. Is this true?

Yes. The following states allow you to choose between the state and federal exemptions:
Arkansas
Connecticut
Washington D.C.
Hawaii
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Texas
Vermont
Washington
Wisconsin

Has the new bankruptcy law had any affect on the protections available?

Yes. It has had a profound impact on debtors who have moved to a different state during the time prior to filing bankruptcy. Under the old law you filed wherever your legal residence was. With the new law, however, if you move to another state in the last three years and four month prior to filing, your homestead exemption is limited to $136,875. For other property exemptions, unless you have been a state resident for at least two years before filing, you must use the laws from the state you used to live in.

Want to save your credit and assets from bankruptcy? Let PayingPaul.Com help! Fill out a form and get a free, no risk consultation from a leading debt management provider.

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With the infinite amounts of information being passed on the Internet today, credit card frauds are happening in the information superhighway at an alarming rate. Though a lot of financial information attained for the use of credit card fraud are from the Internet through means of phishing, a common and overlooked area of obtaining critical financial information is from within a company. Most businesses handle sensitive information. This may range from social security numbers, credit card information, drivers license information and other types of personal information. In order to safeguard and assure clients and customers that their information is being handled properly, it is the responsibility of the business owner to take the necessary steps in getting a thorough background checks on all their employees. Obtaining personal or professional references alone is not to be depended on solely.  It is only obvious that the prospective candidate for employment to only give references to which they will be given positive feedbacks. Conducting a background check or an FCRA credited employee check will find things about the employee where the reference check cannot. Background checks will give you accurate and in-depth information regarding the candidate.

Background checks cover a wide variety of information regarding your candidate. It encompasses, driver’s license, character reference, personal acquaintances, criminal records, education records, court records, credit records and many more.

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), some background check information after a certain length of time cannot be used against the candidate. This includes but not limited bankruptcy, and other consumer information records. Criminal background checks, credit reporting, worker’s compensation claims and personal character reference are just a few available reports amongst the long list of types of background checks that are available. It is important for the business owner to know the laws in their specific state regarding what information is available for these specific needs. (more…)

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If you’re like a lot of Americans, it can be troublesome when you find out that you can’t apply for any future credit cards or loans because of your previous credit history. Whether you declared bankruptcy or you just had bad credit, a lot of people tend to be discouraged and think that they can’t apply for a credit card or any type of loan. You are far from the truth!

When a lot of people become in that hole that seems like it’s never ending, it’s always hard to grab that motivation and get back to the top. Luckily, with secured credit cards, you can bring yourself back onto the road of credit freedom. A lot of people usually don’t do research when they are looking into credit cards and this is what hurts them!

A secured credit card is just like a regular credit card but instead, it asks for a certain deposit amount.

Depending on the carrier, this can range anywhere from a few dollars to hundreds of dollars. The reason the credit card companies ask for this deposit is because if you don’t pay your bill off in time, they can dip into this account and withdrawal the money covering their butts. If you pay your bill off in full, you don’t have to worry about them taking your deposit money. It’s a win – win situation!

The next time you’re looking to rebuild your credit, make sure you do some research on these types of cards, you won’t be sorry! Just make sure you look into the terms and conditions and remember to learn from your mistakes the first time you screwed up with your credit.

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Customers that are looking to transfer balances from high interest credit cards onto a balance transfer card, either now or in the near future, are being warned that the choice of cards and the accessibility to balance transfer deals is continuing to fall, which could make it very difficult for them to transfer their balance when the time comes. Many people have relied on balance transfer credit cards to save money on interest over recent years, but many could now face unprecedented difficulties when it comes to this process.

The global credit crunch has impacted on all areas of the money markets, including the credit card industry. Many credit cards providers have really clamped down on lending over recent months, and some have taken a number of credit card deals off the market. Others have raised interest rates, charges, and transfer fees, making it more difficult and expensive for consumers to transfer their balances. This will all affect the chances of consumers when it comes to transferring balances in order to save money.

Industry experts are concerned that these difficulties in getting cheaper deals on credit card debt could result in many consumers falling back on other repayments, such as mortgage and bills, as a result of stretched affordability. One industry professional stated: "If people can’t afford their non-priority debts anymore sometimes they’ll stop paying their mortgage as well. It’s definitely having a knock-on effect." She added, however, that those with a good credit rating and repayment history may find that the choices are not quite as limited as those with tarnished credit.

In a recent report it was claimed that credit card firms are turning down around eighteen thousand credit card applications a week, reflecting the ever-increasing stringency that these lenders are exercising.

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If your items aren’t selling, then you might have a bad pricing strategy. There as many pricing strategies in the world as there are buyers – if you look at two businesses selling the same thing, often the only difference you’ll be able to find between them is pricing.

The ‘Few Dollars More’ Strategy.

Here’s something you might not have thought of. If you set your auction’s starting price to what you would usually charge for Buy it Now, while setting the Buy it Now price a few dollars above, you can make a profit by setting off an interesting psychological reaction in the buyer’s mind.

Here’s what they’ll think. They want the item, but why should they bother bidding for it? After all, they could use Buy it Now for just a few dollars more, and be sure of getting it! Doing things this way makes the value of the Buy it Now option extra clear to the buyer, and makes them more willing to pay extra for the privilege.

The ‘One Dollar Less’ Strategy.

This is simple, but requires you to keep an eagle eye on your competition. As soon as they start a Buy it Now auction for an item you stock, start an auction for one of those items yourself. Match the title closely, but price your item one dollar less than theirs. This will mean that your auctions will sit together in the search results, and who’s going to see both and go for the one that’s a dollar more expensive?

The ‘Free Shipping’ Strategy.

Buyers really hate paying for shipping. With Buy it Now, you might find it easier to incorporate the shipping cost into the main price of the item, and then write “free shipping” in the auction’s title. You’d be surprised how many buyers would prefer to pay one price including shipping for the auction, instead of having shipping added on at the checkout. Again, this is psychological: they pay the same at the end, but it doesn’t feel like they’ve paid an unnecessary ‘extra’ cost for Internet shopping.

The ‘Go for It’ Strategy.

If you’d like a slightly more risky strategy, try this. List your item for the maximum duration (ten days), starting the listing on a Thursday so it goes across two weekends and finishes on a Sunday. Set the starting price to the minimum (one cent).

What you’re trying to do here is give bidders as long as possible to discover your auction, so that they push the price up themselves. Pay for a few upgrades like bold and highlight, to give them a helping hand. If you do this right, you can make a much bigger profit than you would have with any Buy it Now price, especially with a medium or high value item.

Since running your auction for longer means that more people see it, you should always take the longest duration of ten days, right? Not always. In the next email, we’ll talk about how long your eBay auction should run for.

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Creating a sustainable income online did not come instantly for me when I first started out a few years ago. You often hear lots of people touting their success stories of how they made thousands of dollars in just one month.Whether some of these are true or not I don’t know – but it certainly didn’t happen for me.However, I could have made my life a whole lot easier by avoiding these mistakes.1. Too Many Ideas.
The internet is full of opportunities to take a bite at, and my eyes were too big for my belly and I bit off more than I could chew.

I always found myself writing down ideas, researching them, and deciding how to implement the idea, but then never actually implementing the idea because I was already too busy.

Now I just make a very quick note in my ideas folder and leave it at that. When it is time to expand or start a new project – I just open up the ideas folder for inspiration.

2. Needed to Focus on One Thing and Get it Right.
Running several or even two projects at once when I started out was really stupid. Each website or project will have a learning curve and take time to master.

It might take you 6 weeks to master and begin to start making money if you worked on one technique full time.

If you do 3 other projects at the same time that will also take 6 weeks to learn and start making money then it will take you 6 months (4×6weeks) for these 6 projects to actually come together and start to pay off.

Chances are because it takes so long you’ll end up giving up on some anyway and get distracted by something else.

Doing so many things at once slowed down my progress and stopped me from generating a solid income quickly.

Once I picked one thing, stuck to it, and gave it 100% for a few months my income really started to take off. Then all I needed to do was look to outsource certain parts of running the business to free me up for new projects.

3. Save Your Money To Start With!
Before I started venturing into earning money online I had managed to save about $14,000 of my student loan after leaving university.

I thought I had a great idea and went ahead and spent the $14,000 very quickly. My idea was great, it still is great and I’ve continued to develop it beyond what I ever first intended.

However, I didn’t use the initial $14,000 effectively, and although it got a brilliant new site started, I made so many mistakes that the money was practically wasted.

If I had sat on the money for 6-12 months while I secured an income online, built the idea as much as I could without any money, and got a better understanding of the whole industry I could have spent the money a lot more effectively and made a lot more money more quickly as a result.

In the end I started making an income not from the money I spent, but from my own hard work. I actually needed very little money to get off the ground once I began to focus. 

Throwing money at something you don’t have experience with won’t make you learn any quicker and probably won’t make you earn make money anymore quickly either.

If you have some cash sit on it while you work hard and learn the ropes. In 6-12 months time you should be 100% certain how to use the money and know (and I mean really know) that your investment will pay off.

4. I Ignored Info-Products
When I started out online I was hugely skeptical of anyone selling any information that would help you become successful online.

While I quite happily wasted $14,000 testing out a new idea, I was not prepared to pay any so called expert for any information that might help me.

I thought all the information I needed was out there for free and I didn’t need to pay for someone to tell me something I could find fore free.

There are three reasons that this mentality significantly slowed down my progress:

Reason #1: Finding information for free costs time, and time costs money. I spent long hours scouring forums for useful information.

While this is can be good practice, spending $50 on an eBook covering the information you are looking for will save you a lot of time.

Reason #2: There is so much misinformation on blogs and forums because so much is just personal opinion or people trying to sound clever when they don’t know what they are talking about.

You end up with the blind leading the blind and the information you get can be extremely misleading causing you to make costly mistakes with your business.

Reason #3: People won’t give away quality information for free. No matter how hard you look in forums there are just some tricks that you won’t find publicly, at most there will just be hints.

The gurus sell information, membership clubs, and guides because they have true value, and if you act on them they will make you money.

There are plenty of bad apples out there to watch out for so check out what you buy.

Also you definitely don’t want to be the type of person that buys tons of info-products you don’t need or use.

Analyze an area you are having trouble with, or something you would like to learn more about, and find a product that meets your needs.

Go through one product at a time and put the teachings into action.

5. I Didn’t Start in a Niche I Enjoyed
When I first started out online I quickly went for a niche that I thought I could make the most money in quickly.

It took me some time but I did finally start to earn good money from this niche, but as soon as I did I realized how much I hated it and certainly did not want to carry on working in this niche any longer.

I ended up selling the sites I created to a friend and started working in a niche that I was truly passionate about. Because I was more passionate about the niche I was able to build higher quality sites and make an impact more quickly.

I should have just done that from the beginning.

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Are you considering the life of an Internet business business owner? Well before your eyes gloss over with dreams of endless free time and images of sitting on your couch with your laptop clicking away earning you thousands let me show you the reality of the situation.
A certain image has been promoted of the Internet business owner. It’s often glorified as the great dream, leaving your old job, with the long hours and annoying boss in exchange for a flexible lifestyle that you are in control of.

Well let me tell you - it’s all true!

Well sort of. It’s not by any means easy to do and you lose many things you might have not realised you valued in your old secure job. Let me point out the things you lose that you might want to think about before quitting your job.

1. Say good bye to a reliable and predictable income.

No job is 100% secure and there is a good argument that being in control of your income via your own small business is more secure than a job (you’re not at the risk of downsizing etc) however it doesn’t feel like that, especially when you start out. Even the oldest most established business cannot be certain sales will keep coming. From week to week you go up and down and are never sure when or where your next sale will come from. You can have great months and bad months and the only constant is unpredictability. A steady pay cheque feels a lot more secure than the ups and downs of your own business.

2. Your business is your life.

When you leave work you leave work. Most small business owners live and breath their business so they don’t ever really leave work. Now I’ve got it pretty good at the moment because I love what I do and I don’t *have* to work much though I choose to work online a lot. That being said I am trapped to checking my email day in and day out, 24 hours a day, which is not ideal. Chances are when you start your business you won’t be working 9-5 or even 8-6. Early on you will most likely carry the show and until you can justify hiring others your hours will be long and you won’t have a weekend. However if you are smart, set realistic expectations and remember life is a balance, then running your own business can definitely be less work than a normal job, if you choose it to be.

3. You may never make real money until you sell your business.

An unfortunate situation in many small businesses is that the owner often doesn’t make much more than an average salary, sometimes less. Now if you are evaluating starting a small business based purely on financial rewards then you might want to change your assessment criteria. Many small business owners don’t make a big windfall until they sell their business and often by the time they are making the sale they will be using the money for retirement. Although it is also true that the only way to become really, really wealthy, besides inheritance and lotto, is by starting your own business.

The reality is that only a small percentage of businesses make their owner really wealthy, the rest stumble along earning an average wage. Of course many of those business owners earning an average wage love their lifestyle and only work as hard as they want to. Running your own business has the greatest potential to make you rich and may never make you rich, but here is the important part, your own business is very likely to make you a happier person if you keep your goals simple and aim for lifestyle over riches. Anyone can get rich but the contented people are rich without material wealth.

4. There is no superannuation, paid leave or sick leave.

You may not think about superannuation very much but it’s nice to know that when you have a job your employer is planning for your future by contributing to your superannuation. As a business owner your employer is you and besides looking after your employee superannuation you are also in charge of your own retirement. This is an added worry that you don’t have when you are working for another business.

Having time off is a concept not familiar to many business owners. Being paid when you have time off is like a dream for a business owner. There are some common myths about business owners working 7 days a week even when sick. If you do things right your business should still function without you when you need time off because of illness or even if you dare to take a holiday. However that being said most business owners find themselves as the most critical wheel in the business system and if you remove that wheel things fall apart. The important skill to learn is that the business owner should work on the business, not in it, but that’s easier said than done and especially early on when funds are tight it’s very like you will be working in the business. Don’t expect a paid holiday.

5. Workmates

There are no work mates for the solopreneur. You can hire employees that may hopefully become friends but the dynamic is always you the boss and them the employees. If you have been used to working in a busy, lively, talkative office full of peers that share the same perspective as you, with Friday afternoon drinks, group functions and shared time complaining about the boss — you can kiss all this goodbye.

Okay, that’s not entirely true.

Things are definitely different from working in someone else’s business but I’ve seen many small businesses that have great working environments. The difference is as the boss you have to create your own socialisation. You can do this by creating an amazing business culture where all employees are mates and the office is like a party that happens to get work done too. Of if you do not require employees then it’s your job to make sure you don’t turn into a lonely home based business bum. This means flexing your socialising muscles and organising events with other business people (if that’s whom you like to associate with), making sure you stay actively involved in groups and clubs and that you leave the home office now and then to interact with real live people. Much like everything else with running your own business, you are in charge of your social life too.

by Yaro Starak
http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/192/small-business-realities/

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NEW YORK (AP) — Just weeks ago, the holiday shopping season seemed headed for disaster. But in the waning hours before Christmas, the nation’s retailers got their wish — a last-minute surge of shopping that helped meet their modest sales goals, according to data released late Monday by research firm ShopperTrak RCT Corp.

And with post-Christmas shopping to come, some malls and stores were downright optimistic.While consumers jammed stores at the start of the season in search of discounts and hot items such as Nintendo Co.’s Wii game console, a challenging economy prompted them to hold out until the end for bigger discounts.

An extra full weekend before Christmas also caused shoppers to procrastinate. In fact, Christmas Eve is expected to be a bigger shopping day than in past years because many employers gave workers the day off, with the holiday falling on Tuesday.

“I’m trying to get some deals, seeing what they got out. The sales are better later on. And the stores aren’t so packed right now,” said Tina Fields, who was at the Circle Centre Mall in Indianapolis early on Monday morning. Her best bargain was a shirt from Aeropostale Inc. she bought for $5. Others like Alex Allen of Boston had postponed shopping because of lack of time.

“I’ve been working a lot,” said Allen, who took advantage of the 7 a.m. opening at a local Target Corp. store to get toys for his three grandchildren before the largest crowds came later in the day.

The spree defied fears that a deepening housing slump, escalating credit crisis and higher gas and food prices would turn shoppers into Grinches — even in the end. Meanwhile, with the season plagued by a slew of Chinese-made toy recalls that began in the summer, there were concerns that shoppers would boycott those products. That didn’t happen either.

Still, financial concerns clearly affected how consumers behaved throughout the season, forcing more to trade down to discounters such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., according to Fred Crawford, managing director at restructuring firm AlixPartners. That trend hurt midprice apparel department stores such as Macy’s Inc. and J.C. Penney Co., which have been aggressive with discounts and other come-ons. Ultra luxury stores are expected to fare well, Crawford said.

Toy sales are expected, at best, to match business from a year ago.

“This year, all I’m shopping for are the kids — no adults,” said Chevy Edwards of Raleigh, N.C., who was picking through discounted children’s clothing at a local J.C. Penney store. “I just need to cut down on bills.”

Those stores that didn’t meet their pre-Christmas goals are now even more dependent on the post-holiday season, which is becoming more important with the increasing popularity of gift cards. Card sales are expected to hit $26.3 billion in the November-December period, up 42 percent from two years ago, according to the National Retail Federation.

According to ShopperTrak RCT Corp., which tracks total sales at more than 50,000 retail outlets, the week ended Dec. 31 now accounts for about 16 percent of holiday sales. Stores don’t record the card sales until shoppers redeem them.

ShopperTrak said late Monday that total sales on Saturday reached $9.36 billion, up a robust 7.6 percent from $8.7 billion on the same day a year ago. That surge will put stores on track to at least meet its forecast of a 3.6 percent sales gain for the season, according to ShopperTrak.

For the Friday through Sunday period, total retail sales soared 18.7 percent from the year-earlier period, though the increase was inflated because Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday a year ago, according to ShopperTrak. Dollar figures were not available for this past weekend.

Scott Krugman, a spokesman at NRF, noted that the season is turning out as expected: The final days before Christmas and the week after Christmas “determine the holiday season.”

He expects total holiday sales will meet NRF’s growth forecast of 4 percent. That’s still below the 4.6 percent growth last year and the 4.8 percent average over the last decade.

The figure excludes business at auto dealers, gas stations and restaurants. The results also exclude online sales, which according to research firm comScore Inc. were up 19 percent for the season overall. That’s in line with its 20 percent forecast.

“Overall, we will pull off a pretty decent performance,” said Michael P. Niemira, chief economist, who is sticking with his December forecast for a slim 1.5 percent gain in same-store sales, or sales at stores opened at least a year. That would mean same-stores sales in the November-December period would be up 2.5 percent from a year ago, though still below the 2.9 percent gain seen in 2006.

A clearer picture of how the holiday season fared won’t be known until as late as Jan. 10, when the nation’s retailers report their final December same-store sales figures.

Meanwhile, Karen MacDonald, spokeswoman at Taubman Centers Inc., which operates 24 malls in 11 states, said the “entire weekend” was strong and the malls on Monday were busy from the time they opened. Based on a spot check of malls, stores are recording low-single digit sales increases this holiday season, she said, but they’re also looking to the week ahead when gift cards are redeemed.

Jerry Storch, chairman and chief executive at Toys “R” Us Inc., said the weekend was very strong.

“We were very pleased,” he said, noting that business was “erratic but picked up at the end” of the season.

Shoppers who waited were rewarded with great deals.

Mark Pitney, 62, of Raleigh, who snapped up a red-and-white Christmas sweater discounted 60 percent at a local J.C. Penney’s on Monday, said “without a doubt, there are a lot more markdowns this year.”

Meanwhile, Susan Pirri, of Cranston, R.I., while shopping at the Providence Place Mall, stumbled on a pre-Christmas sale at clothing chain New York & Company that was offering 50 percent to 70 percent discounts. At that price, she couldn’t help but purchase a belt, scarf and gloves for herself.

“I wasn’t going to purchase things for myself,” she said. “But at that price, it’s hard to walk away.”

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