Ethics & pf blogger: "Yes I will sell you my grandmother"

I hate payday loans! They take advantage of those who are most vulnerable in our society, people who are feeling very desperate. I think they should be illegal and I don't sell links or ads for them on my blogs.

I like to think this blog might be helpful to some readers, not lead them down the path of even more debt. I'm interested in what ads bloggers put on thier sites and what they choose to promote. I'm no saint and I'm not trying to be one, I'm just curious about the ethical reasoning of pf bloggers (...theres a PhD in that for someone...)

How do you decide what advertisers you will accept money from? Am I the only pf blogger who feels this way?

Check out the Predatory Lending Association site.

Have you ever taken out a payday loan?

I know several people who have, they were all in desperate situations with no real capacity to pay a loan off. They were already in financial trouble as most people who use these 'services' are.

My Debt Reduction Decisions

I've given a lot of thought to what the best strategy is to pay off this debt now that things have changed with the tax bill and I have finally a higher income.

I have decided not to use my friends strategy of redrawing on the home loan. I think it is just too tempting to overspend, and it is one reason I have have never had a redraw facility on the loan.The credit union 'generously' added this to everyones loans wether they wanted it or not last year.

I have also decided against using the 0% credit card to pay bills with for the time being. Again it is just too tempting and too easy to get back into bad habits, even if it would save us money in interest.

The pririty is the tax bill, they can be very unpleasant. So this month the mortgage payment has been missed to pay the tax installment. I really hate doing this but I know I can catch up later.

I am going to focus on paying off the buyers edge card. I think psychologically I need the boost of being able to cross one card off the list. It is almost under $2000 so I hope to be rid of it soon.

Work has become very very busy, and a lot more stressful in the last week. It is going to get worse shortly as one co-worker has just resigned. I am busy trying to get ready for my job application down the track. I may be able to work in the position while it is waiting to be advertised and filled which would be good for my bank balance but I have to admit, it will a much bigger stress level. I should have more news on that in the next two weeks.

Taxation troubles: Making progress slowly...

I am slowly making progress with this tax bill! I have just paid $1000 off it and I am supposed to pay another $2800 before the end of the month. But I remain optimsitic that it will work out OK. It's a challenge that is forcing me to be creative and come up with new ideas.

I expect another payment for writing articles next week ( $140). An adsense check and one from clickbank. All this will go off the mortgage and should account for about 1/2 of this months payment ($1200).

Now if I can work hard and get my first product our before the end of the month then I expect to be seeing some income from that soon. But I am still burning the midnight oil getting it all together and getting the website finished.

I used two books to help me do this: How to Write an E-book in 24 hours & Building an E-book Empire. I can't recommend them highly enough, and both are worth much more than the $27 they cost. I learned a lot about marketing and found lots of useful, free tools that I use for writing from these two books. If you are interested in making money writing they are worth the investment.

My husband scored 3 new distributors for his business this week so our home business is gaining momentum.

I have also paid more off buyers edge and there is only $270 left to pay! I just want to finally get at least ONE thing paid off and this was the lowest balance.

I am still trying to get back into mybloglog account, it has been months now of emails and they still keep stuffing around, so I haven't been able to access my account for a long time now and they still won't verify the site I own despite me posting the verification notice all over it, I just can't believe how bad the service is, I'm just about ready to give up on on mybloglog to be truthful.

Finance Viewpoint

Guess my luck has changed! Andy's from Finance Viewpoint had a competition and I won! The prize is a Seeds of Wealth DVD sets valued at $79 all about investing in the share market. I am planning on investing in shares once I get on top of this debt so this is a great prize! I also have a lot of my superannuation in the Australian Share market.

Actually Andy has a great guest post from a friend who just bought a house in Sydney. By taking their time and doing their research they have got a good price. He explains exactly the process they went through in doing their research.

Yesterday I worked all day with the extra clients I took on. I really did enjoy it and I have $500 ready to pay off my tax bill when the bank opens tomorrow. I am very fortunate to have no shortage of work if I want it. My problem is more being able to do plenty of work and stay healthy. I don't want to burn out!

I am certainly feeling a bit better than I did a few days ago!

So I will make the tax payment deadline, and catch up with debt reduction next month. I have paid leave to go to a conference in July and it can't come soon enough!

I got the graphics back for my first information product last night and they look great! Part of me can't believe I am actually going to do this! I will be testing everything out over the next two weeks and then I'll be up and running!

Business planning update

Quick progress report on what I did yesterday:

I made an appointment today to look at some rooms for rent in the 2nd location about 45 kms away. They offer daily room rates which is what I need at the start.

I signed up for the web based program that will run all my business documentation, clients, finances, reporting. I took monthly payment option ($80 per month + sms charges). It has a great system that automatically sms's every client in my appointment calendar 24 hours before to confirm the appointment. I am paying monthly to start but later I can pay yearly and save 10%.

My daughter spent 3 hours yesterday entering all the referrer and contact information into the system. I paid her $45 to do it for me. It would have taken me a lot longer!

I have paid up my professional registrations, I will be talking to the indemnity insurance guy today and also asking him about income protection insurance.

I have to admit to a few moments of anxiety about the finances but I opened my emails and a colleague has emailed me to see if I am wanting to take on more clients which encouraged me. I will call her today.

I contacted my old landlady and she does not have a room for me rent regularly which means I need to find new rooms here where I live. I have contacted some agents and will be looking at some rooms on Friday.

I found out that the pay office have been calculating

Something really good happened yesterday! I found out that the pay office have been calculating my leave & entitlements as if I were a part time employee instead of fulltime. I guess someone just hit the wrong button. I have queried my leave balances a couple of times and yesterday I finally found someone who took me seriously and got to the bottom of it. Instead of NO leave I had LOTS of leave!

I had enough sick leave to cover all the time off over the last few weeks.
I have 4 weeks annual leave owing!! This will help me cover that first month in business while I build up an income.
I also have 7 days of professional leave owing which I will am going to take ASAP.

The end result is that I will be on paid leave again by this time next week for three weeks!!!
This is all 'extra'leave, not annual leave, I have to take it now or I lose it as we don't get paid for it if we resign. It will give me time to get organised.

Yesterdays business planning progress:

• I purchased the report writing software, now I can start setting up templates

• I got a call offering me room in the town I live in, it's a great set up. Lovely rooms and old established gardens. Nice people to share with. I have taken it 2 days a week for $110

• I looked through the rooms in the other town, they are pretty basic, not really as nice as I would like, so I will keep looking and see if I can find something a bit better

• I got a phone call from someone who heard 'on the grapevine' I might be back in business asking me if I wanted referrals yet.... of course I said yes!!