Good Morning DINKS.  Take a moment to think about your childhood and if you grew up with or without money in your life. How did you first learn about money and how did your parents manage their money? The way that we grew up learning about money as kids definitely has an impact on how we manage our money as adults.  If we grew up with money maybe we take money for granted as an adult, and if we didn’t lead a privileged life as a child maybe we work harder now to enjoy the finer things in life that we didn’t have when we were younger.

For many of us we never learned about money as kids, I never learned about money until my parents told me to get a job…and I got two. Money was kind of just always around when I was a kid and I never really learned to appreciate money until I had to start earning it myself.  As I got older and started making a lot more money I started to take money for granted.  After the market crash a few years ago I learned the hard way that I should never take money for granted because there is definitely no guarantee that money will always be there.  Now as a 31 year old professional I have come full circle and once again I am appreciating my hard earned dollars.  I made a promise to myself to never take money for granted ever again.

Our parents (or at least my parents) always said that they wanted to give us (my younger sister and I) more than they had while they were growing up.  Both of my parents come from Eastern European immigrant families with 6 kids on each side. My Father and my Mother are both one of the older kids in their families, therefore they had a lot of responsibilities growing up and unfortunately there was not a lot of money to go around.  Money was spent on necessities such as housing, food, and clothing for a family of eight; it was not spent on life’s luxuries such as toys and family vacations.

Did your childhood money memories make you grow up to appreciate a hard earned dollar, or did you grow up taking money for granted?

Here are 5 Bad Habits that We Develop when we Grow Up Without Money (according to Cracked.com)

1. Acquiring a Taste For Bad Food.  I have to be honest there is nothing like some feeling good but bad for you comfort food to make a bad day better!
2. Spending Extra Money Instead of Saving It.  I was definitely guilty of this in the past; every single quarterly bonus was accounted for and spent even before it was paid into my bank account.
3. Going Over Board with Gift Giving.  Christmas and Birthdays are a big deal in my family full of gifts, parties, and lots of food.  In my opinion there is nothing wrong with giving lavish gifts as long as we can afford to do so.  I don’t believe in getting into debt over giving gifts.
4. You Become an Obsessive Compulsive Money Tracker. I am sooooo guilty of this.  After my income crashed with the market I became obsessed with my money; I started tracking every single penny to make sure that there was always money in my accounts.  I know every cent that comes in and every single cent that goes out and (now) I don’t think that will ever change.
5. Only Focusing on Money in the Short Term.  When we don’t have a lot of money we don’t really think about the long term, this is only normal because after every pay check there is no money left over.  We can break this bad habit by saving even $10 per pay check for the long term, anything to change our habits.

Photo by Vivid

Happy Friday DINKS.  I hope that you all had a nice week and welcome to the first Friday in February.  Today we have rounded up the best posts from around the web from our favourite personal finance bloggers.  This week was an extremely great week for finance posts, and we hope you really enjoy them. Don’t forget, if you have a favourite personal finance post yourself please share it with us!

Have a Great Weekend Everyone!

Money Reasons asks if we are frugal, a savvy saver, or just plain crazy in the post “Are You a Money Hoarder”  There may be a fine line between being frugal and being a money hoarder, check out this post to see on which side of the line you fall.

Financial Uproar gives his political opinion in the post `Can We Just Legalize It Already” This is an ongoing discussion that seems to come up everywhere we turn.  It is also a topic that everyone has an opinion on regardless of whether you are pro or con legalization.  Read his post to find out on which side of the fence Financial Uproar stands.

Adaptu helps DINKS keep a little money on the side in the post “How To Evaluate Your Own Personal Goals in a Relationship”  This topic is so important because we have to know that its ok to keep our own separate savings even when we are in a couple.

Go Banking Rates reminds us that its time to invest in our IRAs and helps us with our investment options in the post “Is Investing with a Discount Broker the Right Option for You?”  This is a great post because there are so many different investment options available for us on the market other than investing with our bank.

Budgets Are Sexy questions our motives in the post “Does America Hate Money?” Read this post for a different kind of view on daily living, buying goods, and paying taxes.

(Photo by 401K)

(Guest Post by Kelsey Libert)

When you start to invest beyond having a savings account and a good insurance, you run into a multitude of choices. This is where a lot of people freeze up, and either don’t do anything or just do the first thing that pops into their head. There are literally thousands of stocks, hundreds of mutual funds, and an unbelievable number of bonds. This isn’t even including antiques, stamps, coins, works of art and other types of investments. Every kind has merit, rather like cereal has a place in a balanced breakfast.

One of the major choices every investor has to make is whether they should keep the bulk of their holdings in investments they can physically hold onto or in investments held in accounts. While stock certificates do exist, most people never hold them. Most people don’t keep their jewelry locked in a vault, either. The issue can easily become very complicated, so we’ll keep it fairly general here. What follows is a basic discussion of tangible versus intangible assets. None are perfect, and the best investors have a diverse mix of both kinds.

Intangibles – The Good

Intangible assets such as stocks and bonds can’t be harmed if there is a fire. They also can’t be stolen, considering the protection offered by the SIPC and the fact that brokers are screened almost to the level of doctors. Mutual funds are more tightly regulated than plutonium producers, so your money is unlikely to disappear through shady dealings. While Ponzi schemes draw headlines, no thief breaking into your house can raid your portfolio. That’s why trading commodities online can be one of the safest ways to invest your money.

Another advantage of intangible assets is their extraordinary upside potential. While a stock can go down, it can also go up very, very high.  For instance, $10,000 invested into Berkshire Hathaway in 1961 became $100 million in 2011, despite more than half a dozen recessions.

Intangibles – The Bad

Intangibles often have no intrinsic value. For example, company stock is only worth a percentage of what the company is worth. While one can argue the fundamental merits of valuing a company by its cash flow, sales, etc., the ultimate deciding factor of a stock’s “value” is how much someone else pays for it.  If the market crashes, you may be sitting on a paper fortune that’s all gone up in smoke.

Intangibles – The Ugly

As tightly regulated as they are, there is still the potential for problems within a company. If someone at the top makes a mistake or does something shady, an intangible asset has the potential to lose value. Sometimes forces outside of a company can cause a loss of value such as if an industry becomes unpopular or suffers a scandal. In the 1980s, one company had someone tamper with a few bottles of its medicines. The entire industry took a significant hit. With paper assets, life is a popularity contest.

Tangible Holdings – The Good

Tangible holdings are great when there’s a natural catastrophe, a civil insurrection or when zombies rise from the grave–otherwise known as really, really bad times. With tangible holdings, you have some guarantee of value regardless of what someone else will pay for what you own. An original Picasso will be as beautiful valued at $5 million as it would if no one would pay five dollars for it.

Gold is useful in a variety of industrial applications, and can actually be used as a play-dough if you love spoiling your children rotten. If you know how to alloy metals, it can even be used to make your own fillings. Just be sure to practice that before trying it in another living person’s mouth.

Tangible Holdings – The Bad

Tangible holdings can literally be held, but only if they’re in your physical possession. Simply having gold, silver, oil or any other tangible holding “somewhere” doesn’t help you in the slightest. Unless you have them in hand, during a truly dire situation, you will not practically be able to gain access to them, which makes them next to useless. If you happen to be in a time and place experiencing a revolution, your distant holdings are as good as gone.

In addition to the need to keep them close, another downside to tangible assets is that they pay you nothing. While stocks can pay dividends and bonds pay interest, a lump of gold will never pay you anything unless you sell it. As any child could tell you, when you sell something you no longer own it, so you only get one chance to make a profit.

Returning once more to truly dire theoretical situations, tangible assets will only do you good if you know how to use them properly. If you have gold but do not know that it can be used for a wide variety of purposes, it’s just a shiny toy to you. Holdings without knowledge are like wings without air.

Tangible Holdings – The Ugly

During a truly dire situation, when having a large amount of gold bullion and antiques to barter for food and ammunition could be useful, you need to face some facts about human nature. If someone wants what you have, they may try to hurt you to get it. Bartering is good, but conquest is often considered faster and easier, and the law is notorious for being absent during these dire circumstances.

Bringing Them Together

Tangible and intangible assets are great when paired carefully. Everything goes up and everything comes down–this is the nature of markets. Just be sure to remember that buying things when they’re cheap is the best way to ultimately profit from them.

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Post by Kelsey Libert, on behalf of UFXMarkets

(Photo by digitalmoneyworld)

Good Morning DINKS. Would you consider your marriage to be luggage? So often when we become a couple and we lose our individuality.  We start to consider our spouse before we consider our self and we may even put our personal goals on hold in order to help our spouse achieve theirs.

What would you do if your spouse told you tomorrow that they wanted to travel the world and they were going with or without you? Would you give up your stability, your career, and your dual income to follow your spouse’s dream?

The reason this subject is coming up is because I know two couples who recently broke up and got divorced because one of them wanted to pursue their own personal dreams and their spouse didn’t share the same goals. So one person left their couple to pursue  their personal goals and unfortunately it cost them their relationship. However this may not always be a couples reality. Very often DINKS do share the same dreams and the same goals.  Even more often we may be willing to make some small compromises in our personal goals and dreams in order to be with our spouse.

Dream Save Do: Live Your Dreams

When Warren Talbot from Married with Luggage contacted DINKS Finance to offer us a copy of his new book called “Dream Save Do: A No-Nonsense, Step By Step Blueprint for Amassing the Cash You Need to Live Your Dreams” we were more than delighted to accept his offer and giveaway a copy to one lucky DINKS reader.  Warren and his wife Betsy are currently Married with Luggage, but it has a whole other meaning.  Warren and Betsy decided to follow their mutual dream of travelling the world…together. They are currently travelling around the world, they are living out of their luggage, they are together, and they are happy!

Warren Talbot and his wife Betsy tell their story of how they quit their corporate jobs and packed their bags to pursue their dreams of travelling around the world. Warren says that the book “Dream Save Do” “is not a get-rich-quick scheme or a fad. It is simply a more focused way to think about money and how it can be used to fund your dream life. If you aren’t living your dream life, then you are in the same place as 90% of the people on the planet. And we know, because we were there, too.”

Now it’s time to Give Away a Copy of the book “Dream Save Do: A No-Nonsense, Step By Step Blueprint for Amassing the Cash You Need to Live Your Dream.”  The book is currently a Kindle Edition but Warren and Betsy Talbot have been gracious enough to offer one lucky DINKS reader a copy of the book in whichever electronic format you wish or even in PDF format if you prefer.

Enter our Go Live Your Dreams Giveaway to win a copy of the Kindle book Dream Save Do by Warren and Betsy Talbot.

To enter our Kindle Book Giveaway, please leave a comment on this post and tell us what you would be doing if you weren’t married. Would you be travelling the world? Would you pursue your career goals? Would you be living on a beach somewhere? Feel free to post anonymously, just in case your spouse reads DINKS Finance too!

We will announce the winner next week and you will have to contact us by email to claim your prize

Good Luck Everyone!

Good Morning DINKS. Thanks to our great friends at Bankrate we have some great information for you today. In celebration of 2012 being an election year Bankrate has compiled a list of some politicians and their net worth. Which politician do you think currently has the highest net worth?

We have previously discussed both the wealth of John McCain as well as the savings habits of President Barrack Obama on DINKS Finance.  Although I don’t personally feel that personal finances should be compared amongst friends, family, or co-workers; I think that it will be interesting to see exactly how our politicians measure up against each other.  Do You Think the Politician with the highest Net Worth is a Democrat or a Republican?

It is reported that the annual salary of the President of the United States is approximately $400,000 per year, but politicians make money in several other ways. Politicians earn a supplementary income aside from their salaries by writing and  selling books, guest speaking at public and private events, as well as doing interviews for magazines, newspapers, and radio shows.

Which Politician Do You Think Has The Highest Net Worth?

5. Republican Rick Santorum is the former Senator of Pennsylvania.  He was the Senator of Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2000.  Rick Santorum’s estimated current net worth is between $526,070 and $2,624997.Rick Santorum receives his income from various sources such as being a contributor to News Corp and a columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer.  He also receives compensation from having a talk show on Salem Radio.  He receives an income from Universal Health Service stock options.

4. Republican and current Texas Congressman Ron Paul has a current net worth of approximately $1,939,093 to $5,213,999.  Ron Paul earns his secondary income from a very generous pension plan as well as an annual salary from Carona Ltd.

3. Democrat and current President of the United States Barack Obama‘s current net worth is estimated at approximately $2,801,082 to $11,830,000.  President Obama currently earns a secondary income from the advances, sales, and royalties from his 3 books “Dreams from my Father”, “The Audacity of Hope” and “OF Thee I Sing: A Letter to my Daughters”.

2. Republican and former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich has a current net worth of approximately $6,700,000 to $30,135,000.  Newt Gingrich receives dividends from Gingrich Productions as well as The Lubbers Talent Agency which is owned by his daughter.

1. Republican and former Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney has an approximate net worth of $190,000,000 to $250,000,000.  Mitt Romney earns capital gains, dividend, and interest income from the corporation Bain Capital.  He earns over $350,000 per year in guest speaker fees, he also earns an annual salary from being on the Board of Directors for Marriott.  He receives royalties from the sales of his book “No Apology: The Case for American Greatness”.

Did you guess right? Did you think that Mr. Mitt Romney was the politician with the highest net worth? Are you surprised the the politician with the highest net worth is a republican?  Being a politician is supposed to be a job in itself, but it seems like it is just a platform for men and women to push their own personal agendas.  Being a politician and a public figure just ensures that the revenue income stream continues flowing when the politicians term ends.  Is that smart business or unethical business practices?

(Infographic by Bankrate)

Good Morning DINKS.  Today we are discussing what happens and ways that we can adjust when our relationship comes to an end. 

This past week two of my DINK girlfriends found themselves back on the singles market and adjusting to their new lives with a single income.  Maybe it was the stress of the holidays aftermath, or maybe it was the stress of the winter blues; but either way two of my thirty something year old girlfriends are now back on the market.

I know that some of our DINKS Finance readers are happily married, some readers are remarried with merged families, and I know that some of our DINKS Finance readers are unmarried DINKS.  I am not married to my boyfriend Nick but I would definitely like to have a ring…someday.  My question to you DINKS is… if you promise to live your life with someone, and the relationship ends before the marriage starts, should you give back the ring?

An engagement ring is a gift that turns a boyfriend into a fiance and it turns a girlfriend into a bride to be.  But is an engagement ring really a gift?  I am not 100% sure!  Some people think that an engagement ring is a gift, but generally gifts are given on specific occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, and graduations.  I am not sure that an engagement is a special occasion.  When a relationship comes to an end usually people don’t ask for all of their gifts from birthdays past to be returned, and therefore we shouldn’t ask for our engagement ring back, if we honestly consider it to be a gift.

Some people consider an engagement ring to be a promise, a promise to get married and spend the rest of our lives with someone, supposedly the person whom we want to spend the rest of our life.  However, promises are sometimes broken and if that promise is broken maybe we have the right to ask for the engagement ring back.  I would love to know how our male DINKS readers feel about this.  If you spent $3000 on an engagement ring and made a promise to marry your girlfriend, but then your girlfriend broke that promise, would you expect to get the ring back?

My friend Carol-Anne decided not to give back the engagement ring to her former fiance.  She decided to break off the 1 year engagement to her 3 year boyfriend after he wasn’t willing to relocate with her to pursue her career goals.  Carol-Anne told her ex-fiance that she was keeping the engagement ring that he gave to her and in exchange he could keep the Playstation 3 that she gave to him as a birthday gift since both items have approximately the same value.  Maybe an engagement ring should be treated as a gift, but maybe it should become communal property within a couple and the value of the asset should be divided if the relationship comes to an end.

I cannot speak from experience because I have never been engaged, but I think that I would give back the engagement ring because I wouldn’t want to look at (or continuing wearing) a daily reminder of my failed relationship.  On the other hand, an engagement ring is an asset; maybe I would keep the ring and sell it for the current market value to help fund my new single income life.

What would you do?

(Photo by Lucas_James)

Good Morning DINKS… I hope that everyone is trying to stay warm during these chilly days.  Even though I am from the cold North East I have to admit that I really hate the cold weather.  From December to March I try to stay inside except for essential reasons like going to work and going grocery shopping.  Maybe it’s just my own personal opinion, but I could definitely live without the cold winter months.

What is your favourite outdoor winter activity?

Today we have gathered the best posts from around the web for your reading pleasure.  There is a little bit of everything today from good business advice and improving your finances to planning your budget and how to invest your money.

I hope that you enjoy these posts.  Have a great weekend DINKS!

- Ultimate Money Blog  helps us earn a second income with some helpful business tips in the post “Make Money Online”

- Financial Samurai  advised us how to have ambition and achieve goals in the post “Always Be The Underdog To Get Ahead”

- PT Money is helping everyone turn their money lives around with an informative series.  He helps us update our virtual lives in the post “Day 20: Spruce Up Your Online Profile” in the 31 Days to Improve Your Financial Life series.

-  Funancials describes his first trip to The Big Apple in the post “Observations from New York City”.  I love this post because I love New York City.  The great thing about the greatest city in the world is that the New York experience is different for everyone.  As you may remember I have been trying to become an American Resident or at least obtain a US Work Visa for over a year now, so if any DINKS work in immigration and could give me some tips I would really appreciate it.  Or better yet, if any DINKS would like to offer me a job in the US I would be more than happy to accept J

- Money Crashers explains the difference in our investment options in the post “What Is Preferred Stock vs. Common Stock – Definition, Pros & Cons”

- Doughroller helps us plan our budget in the post “Cash or Credit – How Should You Pay?”

- Go Banking Rates reminds us to invest into  our Savings Accounts and IRAs with the post “Is Investing With a Discount Broker the Right Option for You?”

Photo by David Blackwell

Good Morning DINKS!  Thanks to our great friend Tony Steuer we have an amazing giveaway for your today.  Actually we have two amazing giveaways for you today, so keep reading to find out how you can enter our Great Insurance Giveaway to win one of two copies of “Questions and Answers on Life Insurance: The Tool Book and The Workbook.”

A very important part of planning our financial lives is preparing for the afterlife.  Choosing the right type of Life Insurance for our needs as well as determining the correct amount of Life Insurance that we need are two very important parts of financial planning.

Questions and Answers on Life Insurance by Tony Steuer helps us do just that.  The Life Insurance Tool Book and Workbook will help us assess our current financial situation as well as determine which amount of life insurance will protect our families in the unfortunate event of a loss of life.

Life Insurance should not be used in order for the survivors to gain a profit.  Life Insurance should be used to cover debt losses and final expenses, as well as sustain the survivor’s current lifestyle.  Life Insurance should not be treated like Lottery winnings.  I know that it’s awful to even think about Life Insurance that way, but unfortunately that is the reality we live in.

I don’t feel that a human life can ever have a price put on it and therefore Life Insurance should be used to replace the income, not the lost life.  If you ask anyone who has ever received an inheritance from Life Insurance I am sure that they will tell you that they would give all the money back if they could have their loved one back in their life.

Some people don’t have Life Insurance because they aren’t worried about what happens after they have moved on into the afterlife. This is an irresponsible attitude, we don’t have an obligation to leave a financial legacy for our family; but we do have an obligation to take care of our own expenses.  The reality of life is that funeral expenses, debt repayments, and final tax expenses are our own personal expenses, even after we are gone.

It can be very hard to determine the amount of Life Insurance that will be required to cover our final expenses as well as provide a sustainable lifestyle for our family after we are gone.  This is why we need The Questions and Answers on Life Insurance Tool Book and Workbook by Tony Steuer.  He helps us evaluate our current financial obligations in order to determine the future amount of Life Insurance required.

I personally have mixed emotions about Life Insurance.  I think it’s a great financial planning tool to ensure that we don’t leave a debt burden for our family.  I definitely think that all essential family owned assets should be covered by Life Insurance if there is a debt attached to them.  The mortgage on our family home and the loan on our family car should be covered by Life Insurance to ensure that they remain property of the family in case of a loss of life.

If one person in the family is the sole financial provider, then I also think that the income should be covered by Life Insurance to ensure that the family is still provided for in the future.  However, I do not think that parents or grandparents etc. should incur the unnecessary costs of Life Insurance premiums just to leave a financial gift to their kids or grandkids.  If someone wants to leave a financial gift or legacy to a family member or friend they should do so with their own assets.

Now It’s Time For Our Giveaway!

We are giving away TWO Copies of ”Questions and Answers on Life Insurance: The Tool Book and The Workbook.” by Tony Steuer.  That is TWO winners who will receive TWO books each…are you noticing a theme?

All you have to do to enter our Giveaway is Leave a Comment on this post telling us about the best duo you have ever seen, heard, eaten, or experienced.  It could be Shaq and Kobe or it could be Chicken and Waffles.

Tell us about your favourite Duo and Win!

As you may know I have recently turned my financial life around, it is by no means perfect but it is on the right path.  I no longer take money for granted, I always pay my bills on time, and I don’t accumulate debt. I decided to keep one credit card open in order to help rebuild my credit score.  Over the past few years I had a really high income with a really low credit score. That’s because I had a lot of open credit cards that were maxed out to the credit limit.

Keeping one credit card open, using it, and paying it off every month shows financial responsibility; and it has definitely helped improve my credit score.  Closing my (several) other credit cards and making regular payments is not enough to increase our credit score.  In order to build and maintain a good credit score we have to be actively (and responsibly) managing our open credit.

I am not going to lie, calling my credit card companies and asking them to close my existing credit cards because I could no longer afford to have them was very hard and it was also a little bit shameful.  It is very difficult for a young professional with an income of over $100k to admit that she needs help with her finances. But now that my financial life is back on track I definitely don’t regret making those phone calls.  I am actually proud that I was smart enough to ask for help, and I love seeing my credit card balances get lower every month.

I have come to learn that people don’t need to live on credit.  We don’t need 5 credit cards and a line of credit to live.  We don’t have to accept every single credit card that is offered to us, smart money management is knowing when to say no.  All we need in life is to be happy, and being thousands of dollars in debt doesn’t make me happy.

I got into debt because I was careless and spoiled.  I thought that having credit cards made me mature, but it actually just made me irresponsible.  Spending money on materialistic things such as clothes, trips, and food actually showed just how immature and financially irresponsible I was.  I thought that spending money would make me happy, and it did; but only temporarily.

I decided to change my financial spending habits.  I decided to make the conscious decision to start paying off my debt because I was sick of making only the minimum monthly payments.  I was sick of getting my credit card statements in the mail every month and not seeing the balances getting smaller.  I was sick of living pay check to pay check, I wanted to get out of debt.

I cut down my monthly bills and I used the extra money to start paying off my debt.  I called my credit card companies to negotiate lower interest rates, and I set up biweekly pre authorized payments to make sure my debt was being paid down regularly.  Making a realistic debt free date will help us stay focused and become debt free.  It’s easy to achieve a goal when the terms are clearly defined.

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Photo by bfshadow

Good Morning DINKS.  This is an impromptu post, it was not planned but last night something happened to me and I just have to share the story with you along with my feelings.  I am feeling a whole slew of emotions about my recent Credit Card experience and I would love to hear from others who are been in or who are currently in the same situation.

Last night around 7 pm just as I was cleaning up after dinner I received a phone call from The Visa Security Department who wanted to verify some recent transactions on my boyfriend Nicks Visa Card.  We have a joint VISA card but they didn’t want to speak with me, they only wanted to speak with Nick  to verify some suspicious activity on his credit card. They wanted to confirm if he recently used his VISA card to purchase $400 at Home Depot and $500 at a Jewellery Store.

Have You Ever Been The Victim of Credit Card Fraud?

At first I thought that it was a joke, because Nick and I never shop at Home Depot.  Then I thought that maybe Nick was shopping for a Valentine’s Day present/Engagement Ring…but unfortunately I was wrong.  It turns out that both the $400 at Home Depot as well as the $500 at the Jewellery Store were both fraudulent charges.  The worst part of this whole experience is that this is the second time Nicks Visa card has been flagged by the Visa Security Department in the last two months.

I am not sure exactly how Credit Cards are monitored and which transactions get flagged by the Security Department.  We usually don’t make any large purchases on our Visa Cards, but when Nick purchased a new computer after Christmas at Best Buy for over $1000 the transaction was not flagged by the Visa Security Department.

I have mixed emotions about the recent fraud activity on my Visa because I was upset that even with advanced pin and chip technology there were still fraud charges on my Visa twice in the last 3 months.  I was disappointed when I found out that the jewellery store charge was actually fraud.  But I was happy and thankful that the Visa Security department was able to detect unusual spending activity on my Visa card and that they called to verify the recent suspicious transactions.

Did Your Spending Habits Change After the Credit Card Fraud?

Even though the fraud transactions occurred on Nicks Credit Card, Visa advised us that we both have to cut up our Credit Cards and wait for new cards to arrive in the mail.  I don’t mind living without a Visa card for a few weeks, but it’s still a bit frustrating a little bit inconvenient.

I have made my share of financial mistakes in the past and therefore now I only use my Visa Card for transactions that I can afford to pay off in full each month. This helps me stay out of debt and helps to keep a strong credit score.  Sometimes I use my Visa once a week, and sometimes I use it once a month; I usually use my Visa Card to buy groceries or purchase dinner at restaurants.

Now that our Credit Cards had fraud charges on them twice in the last 2 months Nick and I are deciding if we should stop using our Credit Cards throughout the month and only use them once a month at the grocery store.  I am not sure if this is an extreme measure.

If you have ever been a victim of credit card fraud, did your credit card spending habits change?

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Photo by Mike Poresky