90 Days to Financial Stability

If you look back to Tuesday February 13, 2018, you will see that I am discussing the history of women and money. Today, we continue. Next, we move into ancient Rome. The Romans were more liberal than the Greeks were. This culture allowed women divorce, hold property and inherit. Divorces were easy to get and men had the legal right to retain custody of children. In 565 AD, the Byzantine empire, Justinian laws allowed women to be married without a dowry though there were pre-nuptial gifts which, if a woman cheated on her husband, the man was allowed to divorce her and keep the gifts. He was also entitled to keep the dowry, if there was one, and a third of any property she possessed! Some working women, such as prostitutes and tavern-owners, did not have the right to marry Roman citizens and Roman men could only keep them as concubines. Emperor Justinian’s wife, Empress Theodora – a former actress and wool spinner – left her jobs when the Emperor started to court her. ...

Women are not good with money?  Did you grow up hearing that? I did. At one time, women did not have bank accounts, handle cheques or any of that sort of stuff. Today, I am consulting an article in The Guardian that looks at women’s financial rights from Cleopatra’s time to present. I am also going to do more research so I can relate Canada’s role in this. We are going to start by looking at life in ancient Egypt, 3100 BCE and after. Back then, women had the same financial rights as men. They were able to hold and dispose of property in their name. They could enter into contracts, sue and be sued, serve on juries, be trial witness and witness legal documents. Next, we will look at the biblical era, 1800 BC and after. Consulting Jewish law then, a woman had the right to own her own property and sue in court without a man representing her. However, she could not directly inherit from her husband - unless it was a gift and there were no children – and daughters c...

Jill is a divorced woman in her forties. She lives from paycheck to paycheck, trying to make ends meet. There are months she isn’t sure that she’s going to have enough money to meet her obligations and then Jill has to scramble, taking money from one bill to help pay another. She makes a decent income but doesn’t know why she is always broke.   She knows she has to do something so she decides to start a budget.   She makes a list of her income and all her expenses and sticks with the plan. For a little while. Soon though, Jill finds herself slipping back into her old habits and struggling to pay everything. Jill is convinced that she can’t stick to a budget and budgets don’t work. Does that sound familiar? Have you ever gone through something similar? Have you started a budget only to fall off it within months? You aren’t alone, many people do this. There are many reasons this happens. 1.        The budget is too ...

Have you ever heard someone say it is easy to stay out of debt – just spend less than you earn. How does that make you feel? When I hear someone say that, it pisses me off!  First, it sounds arrogant and condescending and secondly, it insinuates that people with large amounts of debt are stupid. Those who have debt, realize that they wouldn’t have any debt if they spent less than they earned.  Well, guess what? Those in debt already know that and telling them to do that does not help the present situation. If you can’t give helpful advice then don’t say anything. There are so many reasons people end up in debt. A health issue is a big one even for those who live in Canada where there is publicly funded health care.  Having a stroke, heart attack or a chronic illness comes with extra costs. What do you if the government or health care plans won’t pay for these extra costs?  You find the money somehow.  The same goes for dental issues. Going to the ...

I help people with unsecured debt get lower interest rates, pay their debt off faster and save money. Do you know what the most important phrase in that sentence is? Lower Interest Rates. In my opinion, that is the key to getting control of your unsecured debt. Anyone who has ever had a credit card or line of credit knows the frustration of making payments then when the bill comes due again, seeing very little of the balance reduced. It is so aggravating! People feel like they will never get out of debt. But you can. To prove my point on how you can save money by reducing interest, I want to tell you a story. At one time, I had three Mastercards - BMO, Canadian Tire and President's Choice. The Canadian Tire card had an interest rate of 19.99% and the President's Choice, 19.97%.  I took the amount that was owing on the Canadian Tire card from my line of credit at 10.5% interest and paid off the Canadian Tire card.  When I phoned to cancel that card, the supe...

We've talked about getting out of debt using debt consolidation and debt settlement. But what if those methods aren't of any use to you because you are just too far in debt? Then you may have to consider bankruptcy. Sometimes that is the only way out but there are things you should know. You can't file bankruptcy on your own. You need a bankruptcy trustee to do that and the trustees will charge you fees for this service - from several hundred dollars to $1,000 in court filings and legal fees. And the trustee's job is to get as much as possible for the creditors. The trustee is going to want you to keep track of your spending while the bankruptcy is being arranged. They are also going to need to know your assets. A portion of your income during the first months before the bankruptcy is discharged will go to your creditors and if you happen to come into a lot of money before the bankruptcy is discharged, these funds will go to the trustee and to the credito...

Many people hear debt settlement and think what a great idea. They will negotiate with their creditors to pay a lower sum than what is owed and the debt will disappear. The debtor will pay less money, the creditor will get some of what they are owed and life will go on its merry way, right? Not quite. There are consequences to taking this route to get out of debt. What usually happens is the debtor contacts a debt settlement company. The company will take the payments the debtor was supposed to be making to the creditor and hold it in a special fund. Then, when the debtor has fallen significantly behind in their payments, the settlement company will contact the creditor and negotiate a lower balance. But what if the debtor was current on his/her payments but has followed the advice of the settlement company? Now, their credit record has been damaged and will remain so for the next 7 years. There are dangers to this method of getting out of debt. Especially if the debtor gets...