• proposalwriter.com - creating a grant proposal
• economy.com - credit card help
• cardweb.com - credit card rewards

A new bill is working its way through Congress that sounds a lot better than it is. The “Junk Fax Protection Act of 2004” is a great-sounding name, right? You’d think the act would help prevent companies from sending you expensive, annoying junk faxes at your home or business. But, in reality, the law will make it legal to send you these junk faxes. The National Association of Realtors is leading the charge because they want to send you all the faxes they can. But other companies are not happy about the new law. One of the groups is the National Federation of Independent Business, which sells insurance services. The organization was sued for sending people junk faxes and lost in court, so now it has to pay a fine. Meanwhile, other companies are going to get away with sending these faxes with no penalty or punishment. We’ll see how this pans out, but it does not look good for businesses that receive faxes.

Some people absolutely love “self service,” and Clark is one of those people. He remembers when gas stations were strictly full service and gasoline cost an average of meaning it was a lot more expensive. Clark loved it when stations changed to self service. He also loves the idea of getting money without having to go into a bank, so he got his first ATM card in 1975. Self service check-out machines at grocery stores are also a time-saving and money-saving invention. What about having a self service option at fast food restaurants? When Clark went to a McDonald’s in France earlier this month, he used a self serve kiosk to order his food. The kiosk completed the order very quickly and Clark knew he’d get exactly what he wanted. The idea is being tested in Denver, Raleigh, and in suburban Chicago. The operators of these restaurants are shocked because 70 percent of people are choosing the kiosk over the traditional method. Fast food restaurants have a terrible time filling orders in a timely and correct fashion, especially during lunch and dinner rushes. They lose customers in the process. So, this is going to sweep the industry over the next few years.

The Federal Reserve is starting the process of raising interest rates and people naturally wonder how the interest rate change affects you. Whether you are a borrower or a saver, the change in this year’s rate will affect you a little differently this year for two reasons. The first is that people are carrying a lot of debts with floating rates. Secondly, the amount of debt we’re carrying is huge compared to a few years ago. According to the Chicago Tribune, people in the bankruptcy business are all bracing for a disaster because of the amount of debt people are carrying. In 1990, Americans had $200 billion in credit, according to the Web site economy.com. Today, we carry almost $800 billion in debt. Our economy hasn’t quadrupled in size, but our debt has. If you are carrying a card with a floating rate, you need to start paying down that debt as soon as possible. Your goal should be to reduce the amount of floating debt you carry, starting with your credit cards. Either cut up the cards or put them in a bag of water in the freezer so you can’t use them right when you want to. Then, come up with a budget. Also, if you’re in a floating rate mortgage, it’s a good time to switch to a fixed rate especially if you are planning to be there for a while.

Do you like going to bars or nightclubs? For many people drinking and smoking go together, even if they don’t smoke all the time. The term smoky bar is somewhat redundant. But what if there was no smoking in bars at all? Bar owners fear they will go out of business if they ban smoking. But, surprisingly, in states or communities where smoking has been banned, bar sales have gone up. Montgomery County, Maryland reports that since banning smoking in bars, alcohol sales increased 4.5 percent. In Florida, which has had a ban on smoking for a year, restaurant sales went up 7.5 percent. Nightclubs and bars had no change in the consumption of alcohol. Also, the Washington Post reports that New York City had a nine percent in restaurants and bars after the smoking ban went into effect. Clark loves going to restaurant sales in Florida now because he never has to worry about the smoke from the “smoking section” wafting over. Not to mention that banning smoking helps people who really want to quit smoking anyway.

---

In other smoking news, there is a new brand of cigarettes that will extinguish themselves after a certain time. This could potentially save lives that otherwise would fall victim to house fires and other fires caused by cigarettes. We’ll keep you posted.

Clark wants you to know about affinity fraud because it's back again and you could easily get taken. Affinity fraud has been around for many years, but lately doctors and churchgoers have gotten taken. Affinity fraud can take place among any group that hangs out together, though. So, it usually involves a violation of trust. The latest scam ripped off member of various churches who thought they were going to make millions of dollars on import and export deals. Included were such products as bottled water, scooters and more. And, as people were pulling in money, they would tell their friends about it and more people got involved. It spread like wildfire, especially in the evangelical Christian community. Now, $35 million of money is missing. The group behind the scam, which went by the name IPIC International, spent churchgoers’ money on expensive homes, a yacht and even a helicopter. The trick is to use people who are well-respected in their communities – such as doctors and church members – to spread the news. As people buy in, the crooks buy toys from themselves and then take off. The rule is that if you’re not investing in standard mutual funds or stocks, but are dipping into private deals like this, you have got to be careful. When people see money rolling in, they think it must be real. But if returns seem too high, it’s probably not legitimate. The first investors will make money, but after a while it collapses and so will your finances.

Cablevision is one of the largest cable operators in the country, and the company has started offering phone service in addition to high-speed Internet and traditional cable service. So, if you sign up for cable and Internet service, the company will throw in unlimited long distance and local service for free for a year! That is a great deal, especially now that the Supreme Court recently gave monopoly phone companies the chance to dominate the business. The cablevision phone service is similar to what Vonage offers. Both are VOIP (virtual online internet protocol) services, meaning the phone service takes place over the Internet. The day may come when children have no idea what a dial tone is. All of our phone calls may be made over the Internet in the near future. If you like trying new things, you will benefit from these technological advances. If you are adverse to change, you will get hit in the wallet.