Cyber Poems

The availability of credit for anyone no matter their credit history has caused many financial problems for consumers. When credit is available to those with a poor credit history, interest rates are jacked up, loan terms are hard to meet and the consumer finds that they are in a worse situation.

The average consumer has about $12,000 in credit available through their credit cards. Over 50% of those consumers only use about 30% of the credit available to them. The other statistics show that 1 in every 8 are using at least 80% of the credit available and 1 in every 10 are in debt at least $10,000. Some credit card companies report that at least 20% of consumers have maxed out credit cards.

There are more Americans in debt now than in the nation’s history. Not everyone keeps a budget. Not everyone knows where their hard earned dollars go. Not everyone is cost-conscious. According to Businessweek, families owe more on their cars, their homes, and their credit cards, than they they have as a net on their yearly income.

Even with this alarming information, money lenders, credit card companies, and financial institutions are not deterred.

The credit card companies have done a thorough market research and then with the demographics in hand they construct their targeted audience with a demographic specific sales pitch or ad.

If you have a good credit score, (630 or above), you can usually get a line of credit or credit card with an interest rate of 12% to 18% depending on the company. To get a Platinum status card you will most likely need an income of at least $25,000 per year with a low debt to income ratio. For a Gold card status, your income only need be in the $10,000 per year range.

In or around 1990, the credit industry introduced the subprime market. This particular market targeted those with credit scores of less than 500. The other issues that qualified you as a subprime target were little or no credit history, those who were finishing up a bankruptcy, and those who showed a history of not managing credit to the best of their ability. The credit card companies found a way to profit off the consumer who was usually in a desperate situation and was looking for credit help in the form of a loan or credit card.

Some of the interest rates on these cards were close to, or over, a whopping 30%, while the credit limit remained very low anywhere from $250 to $500. If you were late on a payment that could also cost you a hefty fee and the credit card companies were making thousands of dollars on these borrowers.

While this looked appealing to the lenders, they soon found out that a large percentage of their customers held true to not paying their bills and they were astonished to find out that more than 10% of their customers were delinquent. With the industry average only being 5% delinquent, this was a big cut in their profits. Even though some card issuers went out of business, others pushed the envelope even further.

In 2004 over 1 million credit card holders filed for bankruptcy. This sent a shockwave through the credit industry as a whole and so they lobbied for stricter laws related to bankruptcy. What’s really strange, though, is that while they screamed for bigger punishments, garnishments, and payback terms, they continued and some even increased, their ad campaigns to target this same subprime market.

You, as a consumer, should investigate all options before signing that dotted line. Have you really read the terms associated with your credit card? Do you have a fixed rate that is within your budget? What are the default fees, the over limit fees, the yearly fees?

Some Solutions:

1. Find a way to put at least $500 into a CD or Savings Account at your local bank.

2. In a financial emergency, you can borrow against your own CD or savings account with an interest rate of only about 2% to 3%. That’s a far cry from a credit card with a $500 limit charging you 28.9%

3. If you don’t have the cash, then don’t buy it yet!

4. Repair your credit score by paying off all loans, credit cards, installments, on time or before.

5. Set a goal to have your credit score reach at least 630 within one year. Then focus on improving it more through the next couple of years.

6. Have a way to make extra income devoted solely to paying off your debt. (Babysitting, garage sales, etc)

Rebecca Game is the founder of Digital Women ®, Digital-Women.com, an online community for women in business. She is a 30 year entrepreneur and dedicated to helping other women find business loans and business grants. Visit her site: Business Grants and Loans for Women

http://www.digital-women.com

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In a nice change of pace, all three credit reporting agencies, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion have joined together in developing a new way to score your credit. The three say that this new scoring system, called VantageScore, was developed to make the loan process simpler and easier for both consumers and credit providers.

If you’ve applied for a credit card or mortgage or applied for credit for some other major purchase, you will know about credit scoring. Probably the most popular scoring system is called FICO for Fair Isaac Company, the company that developed it. But there are a variety of other credit-scoring systems available to lenders. The results of this can be a confusing array of credit scores with wide discrepancies. For example, depending on which score your lender used, you might have been turned down or approved for credit or assessed a higher or lower interest rate.

The new VantageScore system will have scores from 501 to 990 with the higher the score, the better. Because the new system uses information about a large group of customers from all three credit bureaus, it will create a more standardized scoring formula. The joint scoring should eliminate the discrepancies in current credit scoring that can be as wide as 30 percent. However, all three credit bureaus have admitted that some discrepancies may continue to exist as the they do not always receive exactly the same information about consumers.

As good as this may sound, don’t hold your breath about a new AdvantageScore any time soon. The challenge is to get businesses to use this new score rather than whichever score they use now. Also, at least one score provider, Equifax, says it will wait until lenders accept the new score before offering it to consumers - and this could take as long as six months. Even then, each of the three bureaus will market the AdvantageScore its own way and will set its own price. However, you will still be able to get one free credit report, or AdvantageScore, a year as this is Federal law.

Watch your local newspaper for information on AdvantageScore as it becomes more of a reality in the months to come.

Here’s another good tip. Plan to vacation this year in Denver. A Denver vacation offers the best of both worlds– there are the fun things to see and do you find only in a big, bustling city and the spectacular scenary and vistas offered by our nearby Rocky Mountains. For more information on a great Denver vacation, ust go to http://www.best-denver-vacation.com.

Douglas Hanna has lived in the Denver metro area for more than 30 years and is an expert on both Denver and Colorado. He is also the author of more than 100 ezine articles on a variety of subjects.

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Playing the piano is a wonderful activity for children because it not only provides hours of fun for kids, it utilizes all of the human creative processes. These include Seeing (visualization), Observing, Forming Analogies, Inverting, and Simplification. Effective piano lessons apply teaching strategies that utilize these processes to exercise students’ creative abilities and expand their potential. Below are some examples of how this happens.

Visualization -  “What would it look like if I could do it?”

Visualization is probably the most difficult creative skill to develop. Having a keyboard in the imagination, however, gives a powerful boost to students’ playing ability. So it’s worth it to work at developing this creative application. Here’s a way young piano students can begin to literally draw on their mind’s “eye”.

The piano has groups of two and three black keys. There are three white keys around each group of two black keys. Students close their eyes and pretend to draw, for example, two very large black keys in the air. Asking questions like these helps kids begin to see the keyboard in their mind.

Can you see the white key on the left of the two black keys? It’s a C. Can you see the one on the right? It’s an E. Can you see the white key in the middle of the two black keys? It’s a D.

Over time visualization techniques help students develop a keyboard in their imaginations and begin to read notes as locations on the piano, interpreting the Grand Staff as a Map of the keyboard. In addition to hearing visualization is an important part of learning scales, chords, and playing and interpreting music.

Once students begin to develop their visualization muscles they can apply this creative skill to see the possibilities and imagine solutions in other areas of their life and education by asking,

What would a solution to this challenge look like?

Observation - “Eureka! I’ve never noticed that before!”

Observation is about carefully noticing the little things to find similarities and differences. For example, the difference between staccato and legato marks, or accents and tenutos, and listening to observe the differences. Piano students use their observational skills when they ask questions like these.

How are these notes the same? How are they different? Hey, is that a triplet or three eighth notes? Is this melody the same or new? Is it repeated anywhere in the music?

Piano students use the creative process of observation just as scientists do to find surprises in nature that were always there, waiting to be discovered, and by experimenting with different techniques and expressive ideas to find what works best in different styles of music.

Analogies - “How Can I Gain Perspective/Change Perspective?”

Analogies are helpful for gaining or changing perspective, and for making us laugh! Here are some examples of how analogies provide learning aids for young piano students. To play legato, pretend your fingers are an eeeentsy-weeensty spider. Curve the spider’s legs and walk your fingers on the piano keys. To play staccato notes, imagine the piano keys are hot! Analogies are wonderful for helping students break through the mechanics of piano and bring the music to life in an interesting and creative way.

Inverting - “How would this look if I turned it upside down?”

Inverting affects perspective as well by turning things upside down, or by taking them to extremes. Einstein did this when he obsessed over a beam of light and discovered his theory of relativity. Like his theory of relativity, many things are hidden beyond our understanding as they’re counter-intuitive to the logic of our first assumptions. I don’t pretend to understand Einstein’s theory, but I know that Einstein also loved music and that many of the piano techniques students need to play well are indeed counter-intuitive. That’s why students may resist them at first.

One way to break through our natural logic and bring other possibilities into view is by asking,

What would this look like if I turned it upside down?

Here’s a creative suggestion I give students for polishing a recital piece when they’e having difficulty with the last section of a longer piece of music.

Play it backwards! Like this.

Play the last measure. Then play the last two measures, the last three, the last four, etc., all the way back to the beginning. Then play the song all the way through and see how it has improved.
This is a great way for students to more thoroughly learn a piece of music.

Simplifying - “I’ve seen this some place before?”

Simplifying can yield creative solutions to difficult challenges by eliminating what is unnecessary. Ever try too hard? Here’s a tip. Sometimes less is more. Before trying to re-invent the wheel, look back through history to see where this problem has been solved before by someone else, or by you.

Piano students can do this by asking,

Where have I seen this in music before?

How did I play it then?

What strategy can I use to break this down and make it easier?

What playing strategies has my piano teacher shown me that I can apply here?

Is there a book I could read to find out what other pianists have tried.

As a piano teacher I want to follow a creative plan that simplifies learning and achieves more positive results faster, even if I have to turn things up-side-down! And I have! Just as piano lessons for children increase their overall educational progress, the reverse is also true! Literature, visual arts, and sciences can help children in piano lessons achieve their musical goals.

That’s why I wrote the Piano Adventure Bears Stories - To help piano students expand their creative potential. These beautifully illustrated books use language, art and science to help kids in piano see the possibilities, avoid frustrations, and create a plan for achieving their piano dreams.

My stories use all of the foundational creative skills I discussed above and more, because they feature the loveable and endearing characters Mrs. Treble Beary and her passionate, new student, Albeart Littlebud, who everyone calls Little Bear. You’ll enjoy the time you spend reading these stories with your children as they laugh and learn from Little Bear’s Piano Adventures.

For more information about Piano Adventure Bears Music Education Resources for children ages 5 to 11 visit Piano Adventure Bears Music Education Resources You’ll find a treasure box filled with piano resources to create an exciting musical adventure for your child - right in your own home! Visit their website and subscribe to their f’ree internet newsletter so you can download f’ree piano sheet music and mp3s of original piano compositions.

These exciting stories, games, piano lessons, and inspirational gifts feature the Piano Adventure Bears, Mrs. Treble Beary and her new piano student, Albeart Littlebud. Young students follow along with Albeart to learn what piano lessons are all about in a fun way that kids readily understand appreciate. Click here to visit PianoAdventureBears.com For a wealth of information about piano lessons, visit tallypiano.com

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4.1 Million Use Credit Cards for Mortgage or Rent

According to housing and homelessness charity Shelter, about 85% of the UK’s £1.4 trillion personal debt is secured against property. The good thing with secured debts, of course, is that they normally come with a lower APR (Annual Percentage Rate) than unsecured debts. Nonetheless, a mortgage is by far the biggest debt most people will ever have. It’s a commitment to spend a long time paying a lot of money every month. If the mortgagor runs into any kind of financial trouble, it can be a huge burden.

Here’s the scary part. In October last year, Shelter revealed that over a million people had been forced to pay their mortgage or rent with a credit card in the previous 12 months. Just eight months later, that number had quadrupled - published in June 2008, Shelter’s ‘Breaking point’ report revealed that ‘4.1 million households (16%) used credit cards to help meet their housing costs in the last 12 months’.

Credit cards may seem like a good way to deal with a cash shortfall in the short term, but they’re no long-term debt solution. “When someone pays a month’s mortgage or rent with their credit card, they’re not solving their debt problems - they’re just putting them off,” says a spokesperson for financial solutions company Think Money. “They’ll have to repay that debt sooner or later, and the longer they leave it sitting on their credit card, the more they’ll end up paying in interest.”

What’s more, any inability to pay essential bills like rent or mortgage could mean there’s something seriously wrong with their financial situation in general. “Anyone in this situation should immediately review their financial situation and figure out where the problem lies. It could be that they can’t really afford the mortgage / rent payments, or it could be that their other debts and expenses are simply taking up too much of their income. Unless they’re certain that it’s a short-term problem (caused by a one-off expense, perhaps) it’s essential they take action to regain control of their finances.”

The important thing is to act swiftly, but not panic and grab the first debt ’solution’ that comes to mind, like using a credit card for this kind of debt payment. “Financial solutions companies like Think Money can help people find a much better answer to their debt problems. A debt management plan, IVA or Trust Deed could be a good way to reduce their monthly payments and regain control of their finances, but everyone’s situation is different, so it’s vital to seek debt advice from a company that offers a wide range of debt solutions.”

You can read more about these debt solutions on the ThinkMoney.com website.

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Establishing a good FICO credit score isn’t all that difficult; all you have to do is pay your bills on time. But if you have a bad credit score from a history of not paying your bills promptly, repairing your score and building it up to a level where you can get competitive loan rates can take time. It can take several years of paying your bills on time to build up your score and it can take seven years to wipe out a judgment or a bankruptcy from your credit report. Most consumers, understandably, would rather not wait that long and there is not shortage of companies that promise to repair credit quickly.

Several companies are offering dramatic increases in credit scores of up to 200 points in as little as 60 days using something known as “seasoned credit.” The concept is simple - if you are added to the credit account of someone with good credit as a cosigner, that good credit will add to your own credit score. What these companies do, for fees ranging up to $5000, is arrange to add your name as a cosigner to the accounts of willing participants who have good credit of their own.

Adding a cosigner to an account isn’t illegal; husbands and wives add each other to their own accounts all the time. What is illegal about this scheme is that it is a deliberate effort to manipulate credit reports and credit scores. If it is done for purposes of qualifying for a loan for which the borrower otherwise wouldn’t qualify, such as for a mortgage, it constitutes fraud.

In addition to the questionable legality of the practice, there are some other reasons why this sort of credit “repair” should not be attempted. The idea of having someone else’s credit rub off on you works both ways. Customers of these companies have no idea whose accounts their names are being attached to, and if those customers stop paying their bills, then their credit score will go down along with yours. None of this is under your control; you are stuck with whomever they stick you with. Since these companies advertise that once your score increases, you can become part of their “good credit network”, it only stands to reason that you may have your name attached to that of a person who only recently had a bad payment history, too.

Increasing your credit score by 200 or more points in 60 days’ time sounds like a great idea. But the risks of paying someone thousands of dollars to do it for you are great. It is better to build your credit the old fashioned way. Take your time.

©Copyright 2006 by Retro Marketing. Charles Essmeier is the owner of Retro Marketing, a firm devoted to informational Websites, including End-Your-Debt.com, a site devoted to debt consolidation, personal bankruptcy, establishing credit and credit counseling and HomeEquityHelp.net, a site devoted to information regarding mortgages and home equity loans.

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If tears are an indication of how special my relationship with my mother was, I cry with pride! I’ve come to see grief as pain with a purpose. Interestingly enough, as I cared for my mother in my home the last several weeks of her life, much of what I had learned through spiritual teachings about death had gone out the window. It seemed as though I were losing her forever! At times, I wallowed in sadness and self-pity.

Living life in slow motion, I gazed off into my own inner space, sobbed, and occasionally argued with that part of my mind that did not want my mother to go. Even what I had learned about self-care was not accessible to me since I seemed to exist ‘in a fog.’ I wasn’t getting enough sleep and I felt scared and alone; but not for long!

I finally came to rest on the spiritual foundation that has carried me this far in life. What a respite those teachings became as I was able to see my grief as a journey of spiritual unfoldment. Grief is a normal and natural reaction to loss yet our society seems to hurry along the feelings around transitions that take time to heal. We grieve what could have been and what we feel ’should’ have been, along with not being able to see our loved one again, on Earth anyway!

The grief that I felt was really just me focusing on the idea that her life was ending. Using Spiritual principles, I was able to then focus on the truth, which is that Spirit, which is who we really are, is eternal! She too, would live on…

I feel like a large part of me died along with my mother. Maybe it was a part of me that was ready to be put at rest. Her death has created a void in me that I can choose to fill as I’d like. As I open up even more to greater spiritual understanding, I am learning to trust the whole process of life, including death.

I have come to see this “mourning after” as a time to heal, to heal unprocessed sadness in my life, including disappointments from relationships, jobs ending sooner than I would have liked, losing beloved pets, and moving from town to town as I grew up. There are opportunities inherent in life’s changes that are a gateway to greater personal and spiritual growth. The dynamics of change can be stepping stones to open up to the fullness of God’s love.

I received a card from a friend that said, “When the sea recedes, many treasures and gifts appear that otherwise never would have been noticed.” From a metaphysical or symbolic perspective, I can look at my mother’s death as being the sea receding. Her death, part of the natural ebb and flow of life, brought me many gifts.

Grieving the loss of my mother involved surrender. There came a point where I had to let go and let God, and what a blessing that was! I gradually remembered all that I had been taught around eternal life and the truth that she reemerged into pure positive energy as she “went home” to God. Another gift I was reminded of when, through “coincidence” I ended up in the office of a wonderful spiritual therapist, is that we are always being guided and we are never alone. Perhaps my grief is just God’s love washing over me. I can’t seem to get away from God’s goodness!

It is her death that inspires me to move forward and get clear about what I would like to experience in the next stage of my life. Similar to her spiritual ascension, I feel that I am reemerging into the rest of my life with a more grounded belief in the idea that the Loving Intelligence that created us and all of life is ever present, guiding and directing our ways.

God, you are the love that washes away what no longer serves me. During this time of grief, I ask that you wash away any limiting belief I have that would hold me back.

Diana Kennedy is committed to assisting others in transforming their lives from the inside out! She is an inspirational speaker and writer. Diana is the author of Living from Spirit website and E zine. She is the Ministerial Assistant at Unity of Tallahassee where she leads the early service, classes and workshops. Diana is a licensed massage therapist working at All About You! Massage where she specializes in Relaxation/Deep Tissue massage and spiritual energy balancing. Diana also leads TeleClasses for the Mind*Body*Spirit community. To register or to contact her, call 850-878-2130, visit http://www.dianakennedy.com, or email living_from_spirit@yahoo.com. To subscribe to Living from Spirit - A Breath of Inspiration, email Living_from_Spirit-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

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With rising gas prices, it makes sense that more credit card companies are offering gas rebates and discounts for using their credit card. But are they worth their rewards? And how can you choose the one that fits your life?

Knowing yourself

When you’re first looking at a gas credit card, you probably feel that you’re spending too much on gas. But if you’re not spending a lot on gas because your car is fuel-efficient or you just don’t drive all that mucha gas card might not be the best choice for you. While most people need gas for one thing or another, if that’s the only bonus you’re receiving from the card, and you don’t really need it, then you may want to look for other bonuses.

What do you have to do?

With a gas credit card, you generally have to spend so many dollars in order to build up an account of money that can then be used to purchase gas. But the items that you buy might be restricted, so you’ll want to be sure that you aren’t spending most of your money on things that won’t count toward the actual gas rebates.

How much are you getting?

Just like cash back cards, you want to see if the actual rebate is going to be worth the use of the card. If you’re only getting a few dollars for every hundred that you spend, it might not be the best value for you. This is especially true when you have a larger gas tank that needs to be filled more often.

Make sure that it’s worth your while. You don’t want to have a credit card that doesn’t pay off as well as you had hoped.

Where can you use it?

What a lot of people don’t realize is that some gas credit cards can only be used at certain gas stations. If the station is regional and you travel a lot, you might not be in town to redeem your rebate. Check with the card to see where your gas credits can be redeemed for your convenience.

With a gas credit card, you can help yourself with gas prices as you buy the things that you need. And to make sure that you’re getting the most fuel for your finances, be sure to ask your self the previous questions.

Beth Derkowitz recommends Find Credit Cards for finding the best gas credit card for you.

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So you are not one of those people who make purchases with credit. Do you feel you are better off? Whoa Nellie! Let me tell you how it’s really not what it seems and frankly doesn’t make a difference in the scheme of things.

Let’s first look at what we should consider the root cause of this situation. We have become a debt nation. We want what we want and we want it now. The day of saving and sacrificing for something we want appears to be a thing of the past and we have an entire overcharged nation to prove it. Keeping up with the Jones’ has become getting it before the Jones’. We feel we will always have time on our side to pay for our decisions and so what I have to make monthly payments 20%-30% more for an item over time, I’ve got what I want.

Practically 95% of all businesses accept some type of credit or debt cards. VISA, Mastercard, Discover and American Express are not complaining. I know you’ve seen some business that stress cash or checks only, no credit or debit. There is a reason and you will soon learn why.

Did you know that the credit card companies (VISA, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express) get a percentage of every transaction made with their card? Every time a card is swiped, for the privilege of using a card with their logo those companies are compensated. Now apart from that the bank that issued the card is hoping to make their money off your revolving (monthly payment) charges. They charge interest on the purchases you make, thus profits. I’m getting ahead of myself.

Let us for the sake of this explanation assume you are purchasing a common item, a pair shoes. Nothing fancy, just a normal pair of “Brand X” cross trainers. The estimate cost $50.00. The business owner of course did not purchase the shoes for $50.00; the price they set is based on what they want to receive in profit for selling the shoes. For this example let’s say it’s 10%. So now the price should be $45.00. So the business owner has determined for every pair of these shoes he needs to make $5.00 (profit) to pay for employees, insurance, rent, utilities, etc. thus the $50.00 price. The price is also determined to take into account the fact the merchant services or the company responsible for processing credit card payment receives a percentage of every transaction. That can be 1%-3%. Now the price based on 3% is $52.00. Now, a person who purchased the shoes with credit or debit actually is paying $50.44, all the other money is going for processing fees. Here is the kicker. It doesn’t matter of you are paying with cash or credit the price is the same.

So here you are a person who doesn’t use credit and you are paying for those who do. Does that seem fair? Why don’t stores have prices based on how you are going to pay for the item? For instance, if you are purchasing the shoes with cash you pay $45.00 and if you are buying with credit or debit the price is $52.00. This may sound strange but it’s easy to do. When you go in a store there are prices marked but the prices are adjusted based on the profit the business expect to make. In fact, it’s done in some Latin American countries. Cash is less and credit is more. Why? Because the store owner can make the same profit from you paying in cash versus having to pay the merchant services company a percentage for processing the payment. You won’t get Wal-Mart or any other major corporation to admit this fact. The next time you frequent a sole-proprietor small business ask them and they will tell you.

Is paying cash really an advantage? In fact, some business owners are upset that the merchant services are continually increasing their prices they charge for processing credit cards annually or semi-annually and the businesses have to increase the bottom-line prices of their items to make up the difference to both cash and credit customers. If you are one of those individuals who pay in cash there is one way to circumvent this growing trend. Find a credit card that offers points or rewards based on purchases. Assuming you will pay off the balance in full when the bill comes this can be very advantageous. You make your purchases as normal, pay off the balances and reap the benefits of the points or rewards. Since it doesn’t make a difference in the price if you are paying with cash or credit, you may as well benefit.

Kevin L. Mallory, MBA/A is creator/founder of The Payers Club.com. It is a webservice dedicated to support members and pay their personal debt. http://www.PayersClub.com

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Having good credit is essential in today’s world. Acceptable credit will generally get you what you want, but bad credit can be the kiss of death. If you want a house, you need a mortgage. If you want a car, you’re likely going to take out a loan. Anytime you apply for credit, the lender is going to pull your credit report to determine whether or not you are a good credit risk. Not everyone is a good credit riskbut there is something you can do to make sure you become one.

Millions of Americans have poor credit, and many are in debt because of high interest credit cards. Credit card companies often target low-income families by providing them with high interest credit cards, but they aren’t the only ones to fall in debt’s trap. In fact, one million Americans file for bankruptcy each year. Bankruptcy isn’t the answer for everyone, but there are several things you can do to get your credit healthy again.

First, make a budget and stick to it. Save money by clipping coupons, buying items on sale and not eating out as much. Don’t buy something on a whim. Go home and think about it first. Chances are you’ll never go back. Remember, buy only what you need.

The money you save can be used to pay back debts. If you have problems paying your bills, you should call the creditor immediately. If you ignore your mortgage bills, you can face foreclosure and the loss of your home. Most lenders will work with you to help you get caught up on your bills and allow you to keep your home. However, if you default on your car payment loaneven if it’s late on a given monththe lender has the option to just repossess the car. Staying on top of your debts will help you on the path to good credit.

You also want to get a copy of your credit report from one of the three major credit bureaus: TransUnion, Experian and Equifax. Your credit report includes your personal information, your accounts, your credit history and whether or not you’ve defaulted on an account. Review the credit report carefully, looking for any errors pertaining to your personal information. Also, look at each of the financial statements to determine if there’s a credit card you’ve already closed, a debt that shouldn’t be there or any other mistake. Contact the credit bureau immediately if you do spot any errors.

A lender determines if you’re a good credit risk by looking at your credit report and analyzing your credit score. Most people have a credit score anywhere from 300 to 750. Anything 650 and higher is considered good credit. Anything below means you’re on shaky ground.

Remember the key to creating and maintaining good credit is to pay your bills on time, and always call the creditor if you find yourself unable to pay the total bill to see if they can help you work out a plan to help you get back on track.

Paul Babs is the owner of Apex Consultancy Dotcom One Stop shop for all franchise info.For more information,go to: www.franchisebx.com

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Sigmund Freud was one of the most influential people of the 20th century. He claimed that depression and anxiety are influenced by factors that affect us in childhood, and that interpreting dreams can lead us to the childhood causes. He felt that psychotherapy could make emotionally sick people heathy by getting them to understand that what happens in childhood can cause them to develop depression, anxiety and schizophrenia.

For 50 years, Freud was one of the most revered scientists on earth. Then scientists discovered neurotransmitters, chemicals that pass messages from one nerve to another. They found that people who hallucinate and are not able to think clearly are schizophrenic because their brains make too much dopamine or glutamate; that people are depressed because their brains make too little norepinephrine and serotonin; that people who shake with Parkinson’s disease do so because their brains make too little dopamine; and that people who lose their ability to reason and remember because they suffer from Alzheimer’s disease have too little acetyl choline. So now these diseases are treated with drugs that raise or lower brain levels of neurotransmitters. Drugs, like Mirapex, raise dopamine levels to treat Parkinson’s disease. Drugs such a Paxil, Prozac, and Zoloft to raise brain levels of serotonin and treat depression. Modern psychiatrists know that you cannot treat chemical depression, schizophrenia or anxiety just with talking. You treat mental disorders with drugs to correct abnormal brain levels of neurotransmitters.

But wait a minute. Because today psychiatrists treat depression, anxiety and schizophrenia with drugs, doesn’t mean that Freud was wrong. Psychiatrists cannot talk people out of mental disease, but new scientific marvels called pet scans, electroencephalograms, MRIs and so forth show why Freud was right. When you go to sleep at night, your eyes are still. After a while, your eyes dart from side to side rapidly. This is called Rapid Eye Movement sleep or REM for short, and during REM you have dreams. If you wake up, you can report your dreams, but if you try to remember your dream a few hours later, you usually can’t. During REM sleep, the part of your brain that governs emotions and visual imagery are activated, while the part of you brain associated with rational thought and reasoning are turned off. So dreams may uninhibit you so you can think about things that may be too painful to think about when you are awake. Or dreams may allow you to discover things about yourself that you would never tell directly to anyone, let alone your doctor.

So, 100 years after Freud published his Interpretation of Dreams, we can see that he may be right because dreams can be a clue to why we feel depressed, anxious and may reason poorly. But psychotherapy, by itself, has not been shown to be an effective treatment for most cases of depression, anxiety or schizophrenia. On the other hand, psychotherapy plus medication is more effective than medication alone to treat anxiety and depression. Psychotherapy can help people cope better with their problems and interpreting dreams can help them understand why they are what they are. Even though many theories proposed by Freud one hundred years ago appear to be wrong, Freud remains one of the most brilliant contributing intellectuals of the 20th century.

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Dr. Gabe Mirkin has been a radio talk show host for 25 years and practicing physician for more than 40 years; he is board certified in four specialties, including sports medicine. Read or listen to hundreds of his fitness and health reports at http://www.DrMirkin.com

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