It's OK to wish folks 'Merry Christmas'

"CHRISTMAS EVE was a night of song that warmed itself around you like a shawl. But it warmed more than your body. It warmed your heart. Filling it, too, with a melody that would last forever," wrote author Bess Streeter Aldrich of the loveliest night of them all.

In previous years, I've written about the true meaning of Christmas and how, just as Manhattan is everybody's town, this is truly everybody's holiday. In those columns, I found myself quoting Blake Gopnik, who unabashedly declares, "Merry Christmas," and follows up with these words: "I know those Christian-sounding words ought to feel odd coming from my lips. I am a third-generation atheist of Jewish ancestry and I'm almost evangelical in my lack of faith. But the words feel fine - 'Merry Christmas!'"

Mr. Gopnik clings to this greeting because "saying something like 'Happy Holidays' or 'Best of the Seasons' sound like bland euphemisms, newspeak, el cheapo substitutes."

He adds: "The wonderfully secular, partly pagan solstice celebration that is coming on Dec. 25 has also had a tie-to Christ for about 1,800 years. The link is too well-forged to try to break it now without diminishing the whole event.

"I find beauty in the most clearly Christian parts of Christmas, and I'm not willing to lose out on it, or let the Christians keep it for themselves.

"I'll buy 'In God We Trust' as crucial decoration on the dollar bill and I'll use 'Merry Christmas' as the right words to usher in the solstice season. So in the full spirit of the holiday, I'd like to wish us, one and all - Christians and Jews, Muslims and Zoroastrians, even my fellow atheists, a very, very Merry Christmas."

AND SO, I, Liz, stand with Mr. Gopnik for the embracing of "Merry Christmas" and of Christmas itself, rather than reducing it to "political correctness." I never buy Christmas cards that say "Greetings of the Season" or "Happy Holidays."

I like to say "Merry Christmas" and I hope Jewish people will say it to me, as well, just as I say, "Happy Hanukkah." And on Dec. 26, I'll be saying, "Glorious and Happy Kwanzaa" to those who keep that as a holiday.

ONE JODY ROSEN wrote an entire book about the Irving Berlin classic song "White Christmas." He described how "a cantor's son from Russia took the Christ out of Christmas by composing one of America's favorite songs. It is the darkest, bluest tune ever to masquerade as a Christmas Carol. And it's not a carol - that implication is religious - it's just a popular song!"

And now for something entirely different. The unusual introduction for Irving Berlin's classic "White Christmas" is often sung in L.A. and New York. Seldom heard, these words precede "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas; just like the ones we used to know ..."

"The sun is shining, the grass is green. The orange and palm trees sway. There's never been such a day, in Beverly Hills, L.A. But it's December, the 24th and I'm longing to be up North."

AND, HERE is another "Christmas song" written by the very funny Tom Lehrer. Sometimes, if he is urged, fans can get Michael Feinstein in his stint at the Regency Hotel in New York to sing this one, whose lyrics include:

Mid the California flora, I'll be lighting my menorah. Like a baby in its cradle, I'll be playing with my dreidel. Here's to Judas Maccabeus! Boy, if he could only see us spending Hanukkah, in Santa Monica, by the sea!

CAN YOU cook a Christmas turkey? Here's Ben Schott's timetable:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

For a 5- to 8-pound turkey, 2 1/4 to 3 1/4 hours. For an 8- to 12-pound turkey, 2 3/4 to 3 hours. For a 12- to 17-pound turkey, 3 1/4 to 3 1/2 hours. For a 17- to 20-pound turkey, 4 1/4 to 4 1/2 hours. For a 20- to 25-pound turkey, 4 1/2 to 5 hours.

Schott and I both advise you to buy a fresh turkey, not a frozen one. I also advise buying a small piece of cheesecloth to put over the turkey's breast so that as you baste it every half hour or so, the breast does not burn.

IN RESEARCHING this and going back to Blake Gopnik in the beginning. He reported that his own "Christmas-crazy family refuses to play carols written after 1900: Our favorite carols all predate the Enlightenment!"

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all and to all a great Eve and a goodnight and when you hear those reindeer stamping on your roof, just thank your lucky stars that you can still hear them.

The Pro’s and Con’s of Taking a Cash Advance on Your Credit Card

The holiday season is already upon us! We as consumers are left making difficult choices in how we choose to spend our hard earned money. When making decisions always way the pro’s and con’s before deciding to go ahead. Taking a cash advance on your credit card is an easy solution that can later have drastic consequences if not fully thought out. Here are just a few things to keep in mind when making the decision to take that advance.

The Pro’s in Cash advances off your Credit Card

·      Cash advances enable you to obtain the cash you desire at your convenience. It’s a very easy solution and you can use it as you see fit.

·      Cash is usually untraceable so that there isn’t any paper trail tying you to where and what you spent it on. For example if you are purchasing something for your significant other (a gift for the holidays but don’t want them to know about it?) cash is a great idea.

·      Some retailers will give you a better deal if they receive cash since they don’t have to pay for the transaction fee on their end. Saving the retailer up to 3.5% by using cash plays a big part in negotiating a better price. Often we forget retailers are also charged by the credit card companies when we use our cards at their locations.

·      If you are in another Country and you need local currency (regardless of the interest that may start immediately,) you will most often receive a fair exchange rate. Know your exchange rate and interest before making that trip.

The Con’s in taking the Cash Advance

·      Most often interest starts as soon as you take the advance out on your card.

·      There may also be additional fee’s associated from the bank machine you withdraw from on top of the interest that starts immediately.

·      If you have not found out your daily limit you could be in for a rude awakening and not be able to take out as much as you need, due to daily limits set up you were not aware of. These limits are usually for your protection incase you loose your card or are robbed.

·      Banks are notorious for upping your card limit with out you knowing. Know your balance before you make the choice so that you are not left stranded thinking you have availability left on your card.

·       Understand that the Banks will apply any payments you make to the older debt and not to your advance regardless if your old debt is with in the interest free grace period.

Other Options to Consider Instead of a Cash Advance

A short-term personal loan from the Bank or other third party lending institutions may give you a better rate instead of your Credit Card Company. You may also be able to negotiate payment terms that won’t look bad on your credit history if you can’t pay back the full cash advance.

The Bottom Line

Do your homework. Call your credit card company and fully understand all the variables. Don’t be embarrassed to ask about every possible scenario.

Questions you may consider asking: What is my interest rate? Will it start as soon as I take the advance? What is my daily cash advance limit? What additional fees could be applied, if so under what circumstances? What is compound interest? Will my monthly payment change?

Armed with knowledge you will make an informed decision and understand all of the Pro’s and Con’s in taking that advance or in choosing to go to a third party lender. For more valuable information contact Prudent Financial Services www.prudentfinancial.net

Creating a Budget for the Holiday Season and Beyond!

The holiday season, with its gift-giving spree, can be an expensive time of the year. So, if you don’t already have a budget, it would be timely to start one.

A budget is a financial plan for monitoring how money flows into and out of your life. It shows how much you’re earning and how much—and on what—you’re spending.

It may reveal buying habits you're unaware of; it can certainly help you plan more effective ways to spend and save for what really matters to you. And it will prevent you from going into a dangerous bad-credit zone, which will imperil your credit score.

Use a budget worksheet

Track your income

First, use a budget worksheet (see link below). Here you will record all your income sources, including investment income and self-employment income.

If you receive a regular paycheck (with taxes deducted at source), then enter the take-home pay only as the amount. This is the amount that you will have to work with to cover your expenses.

Track your expenses

Then, add your monthly expenses—everything from groceries and gasoline to mortgage payments, insurance premiums and RRSP contributions.

(If you make only one annual payment for something, divide it by 12 months.)

Then sort these expenses into two groups: fixed and variable. Fixed expenses stay largely constant from month to month: mortgage or rent, car payments, cable and utilities. These expenses are a basic part of your life and seldom change in the budget.

Variable expenses include entertainment, eating out and, of course, gifts. These expenses will vary from month to month, and are where it’s easiest to make adjustments.

Income vs. expenses

Now, add up your monthly income and your monthly expenses. Hopefully, your income is greater than your expenses. If so, you can use the surplus to top up your RRSP contributions or to pay off your credit card balance.

But if your expenses are greater than your income, you’ll have to bring the two into synch—either by earning more or by trimming expenses. Definitely say no to payday loans and only making minimum payments on credit cards. This is a fast track to bankruptcy or a proposal.

If you have to trim, start with the variable expenses. You can eat out less and go to fewer movies and concerts.

Be sure to do a monthly review of your budget, to see if you’re “on the money.”

After the first month, check your true expenses against what you had projected in the budget. This will reveal where you did well--and where you may need to do better.

Budgeting isn’t complicated, but it does require careful attention to details. Even more important, living within a budget demands discipline and commitment. But it’s a good way to stay financially sound and to avoid a bad credit score! For budget worksheet, please go to: http://www.prudentfinancial.net/downloads/Prudent-MonthlyBudgetPlanner.pdf

Say no to Minimum Payments on Credit Cards

For years, the low monthly minimum payments required on credit card balances allowed consumers to spend far more than they could really afford—causing many to have serious financial difficulties and a bad credit score!

Lately, however, some credit-card issuers have started to raise the level of the minimum monthly payment.

Let’s be clear: an increase in the monthly minimum is actually good for consumers, as they will be paying off their credit card debt sooner. But that can still cause some real hardship in the short-run.

Holders of MBNA MasterCard, for example, have seen their monthly minimums rise as much as seven-fold, causing a severe financial squeeze.

Many of those cardholders relied on MBNA’s introductory low-interest rate of 1.99%, only to see that rate escalate dramatically – to as high as 16.99% -- if they miss a monthly payment.

New rules

Federal rules introduced in September 2010 force credit-card companies to tell cardholders how long, in years and months, it will take them to pay off their outstanding balances if they pay only the minimum each month.

The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada has a credit-card payment calculator on its Website (www.fcac.gc.ca) that shows how much of a difference it makes to pay more than the monthly minimum.

For example, paying only 2% of your balance every 30 days barely covers the interest, and leaves almost nothing to whittle down the principal. On a balance of $2,000 or more, it would take you about 30 years to pay off the existing debt even if you never charged another item to the card.

If the monthly minimums rise to 4% of your balance, you will cover the interest but it will still take 10 to 12 years to pay off the balance even if you do not add any new charges.

Try a personal bad-credit loan

It would be better to take out a personal loan or even a bad-credit personal loan, for example, at Prudent Financial Services. That way, you will pay all the debt within one to four years, depending on the amount you borrow. Most loans of $1,000 or less at Prudent are paid off within the year if payments are made on time.

Other options

● Start paying cash for purchases and stop buying items that you can only finance on your credit card.

● Do some ruthless budgeting: identify areas to cut costs.

For further information please contact Prudent Financial Services http://www.prudentfinancial.net

Prudent's Gift of Giving photo contest.

Enter Prudent's Gift of Giving photo contest on Facebook.

Each day a $50 gift certificate is given away.

Every dollar will be matched in your name by Prudent to Sick Children's Hospital.

Click on the Photo Contest tab to the left to upload your favorite holiday photo, with a brief description.

Your name will then go into a draw. Daily winners announced Mon-Fri for the next four weeks.

If you want to watch a video on how to load your picture copy and paste this link in your browser http://vimeo.com/32646390

Good luck!

How to Build Credit for New Immigrants or If You Have to For Yourself

It’s very difficult to know where to start to build credit when you don’t have any. Financial institutions and creditor’s see new immigrants and people born here who have no credit at all as a high risk since they often don’t have any history to support their request for credit. If you search Google for www.canada.creditcards.com you will find more helpful information to help you along. Here are a few simple ways to get your credit started and to improve your credit so that lending Institutions and Creditor’s will start to give you a chance and approve you for credit.

Understand how credit works.

Get a credit report through Equifax or Trans Union to see what you have associated with your name. Sometimes you may not know you already have some positive credit created and sometimes you will find out you have a few things that are looked upon negatively, that you can then take care of.

Use Cheques & Open a Bank Account Savings with Overdraft in Your Name

When you do this you automatically start a paper trail the Banks can track that, will put you in a good light with creditors. Make sure your Ckeques don’t bounce and your overdraft is always paid, showing responsible payment histories.

Have your work Cheques deposited into your account and pay your bills through the Bank.

Once again this is all recorded and will show a good history of bills being paid on time or at least the minimum balance being paid. Your utilities (electric bill, gas bill, phone and internet) will also support a positive payment history.

Apply for a secure Credit Card through a Bank

This is a credit card that will hold (even a minimum balance of $500.00) until you have shown that you can use it, pay off the balance owing or minimum balance creating good responsible history that lending companies can track. Once they have seen you are responsible you can ask them to turn it into an unsecured credit card and continue showing the banks you are worthy of credit as you pay the minimum or complete balance off each month.

Remember the sooner you start your credit history the more positive credit you can generate. Many accountants will tell you that the best credit obtained is the longest credit history that indicates you have a job or income revenue coming in and that you are responsible for making payments to support your request for a loan or more credit.

For more valuable information please visit http://www.prudentfinancial.net/

Rebuilding your Life after Losing a Job or Bankruptcy

While plenty of reports today have talked about the recent upswings in our economy, there are still some issues and people have undeniably suffered as a result. If you've lost a job or gone through a bankruptcy, there are plenty of effects that it may have on your family and your life. Keep in mind that it certainly isn't the end of the world, but you may need to take a moment to prepare yourself and your family for the changes on the horizon. From seeking a loan after bankruptcy or a loan after a proposal to changing some of your daily routines, there are numerous considerations to make.

If you've lost a job, the first thing you'll be focused on is finding a new one. And if you've recently filed for bankruptcy then eventually you'll want to rebuild your credit through a loan after bankruptcy.

1. You should focus on more pressing matters. Start by taking a long, hard look at your expenses. There are numerous things that may not be necessary which you'll have to cut back on. Showers instead of baths, washing laundry on the cold setting, and other options will reduce the amount of your power bill, for example.

2. Once you've reviewed your expenses and dropped unneeded ones, modified your daily routines, and bundled any bills that you can your next step will be figuring out other cost saving measures. Food is a major expense, and your family will probably have to stop eating out as often and begin eating at home. This alone can save you big.

3. Once you've adjusted your life adequately, you can start focusing on steps to rebuild your credit like bad credit loans. Financial organizations can help you plan your budget and even line you up with a loan after a proposal or bankruptcy to get you started.

Losing a job or a home can be difficult, and will likely require sacrifices from every member of your family. But if you stay focused and positive, it isn't an issue that is insurmountable. Start by figuring out some basic life changes to cut your bills and then meet with a financial company to see what options are available to you for securing your future. These two steps are the first towards regaining your financial footing and moving forward into the future. It may be painful and difficult, but it is certainly possible.

Fore more valuable information, visit www.prudentcreditrepair.ca