town car ride to ohare Marengo Park Ridge taxi to Midway Naperville south of 95 limo Midway Lincoln Stretch limo rentals Deerfield travel from O'Hare Carpentersville .. Drug testing

Money Matters - Really!

One of the biggest challenges facing black RELATIONSHIPS today are finances. Many people mistakenly feel that money does NOT matter. In fact, money matters the MOST! Why? Most people do not have a clue about their own financial destiny.

You know you want to own a home and save some money toward retirement but have you PLANNED what it is you are saving each month and how that money will assist you in the future. Do you have a PLAN to empower yourself financially by NOT depending on your JOB to pay your salary and that's your only source of income. Times have CHANGED. Jobs come and go(and so do SPOUSES). To protect yourself financially you need to be proactive and not depend on anyone else to solve your financial issues.

You can improve your finances RIGHT NOW if they are not in order. There are low costs alternatives to improve your credit score and increase your buying power. Power not to be wasted on designer shoes, clothes, and automobiles, but to be invested in REAL estate. An interesting term to be sure. REAL because it is the foundation of all REAL wealth in this country. Estate, because that is what you can leave your children and family if you handle your business correctly - RIGHT NOW. Money matters because in a relationship YOU should have your OWN MONEY! That is right- I said it! You should not count what someone ELSE brings to the table when all your money is tied up in petty and senseless bills. Talking about petty and senseless- let us discuss CARS! What would possess a person to lease an automobile? Other than as a BUSINESS expense (which also means TAX WRITE OFF) someone PLEASE Tell me WHY? I have heard of folks paying $500.00-$900.00 monthly on car payments. WHY? My car is paid for and I am proud of it. Yes, it is ten years old - BUT I don't work because I DON'T have to support my vehicle. If you are serious about getting more money in this lifetime, you will need to STOP SPENDING money RIGHT NOW on things that DEPRECIATE in VALUE such as CARS! Nuff said!

We all need just ONE major credit card and an American Express card. The other credit cards need to be in the trash. The reality is- if you CANNOT pay for something you purchased within 30 days, you CANNOT afford it! Brutal I know but I have been there and done that. When you have to spend real $$$ on what you purchase, it truly does slow your roll.

Contact me if you need to be pointed in the right direction. I will be happy to assist!

In a personal relationship many of your disagreements WILL stem from money issues. Not just who makes what, but how it is spent and how it is saved. It seems like such a small thing but when you are commingling finance and love you need to establish boundaries up front. PLEASE DO NOT IGNORE THIS ADVICE! You should decide in advance if you want to keep your finances separate and have a joint household account.

The household account should be open to both parties (online access is great for this) and not used for personal spending in any way. The check card will let you market, pay bills etc. A joint savings account would also make saving for special purposes much easier. No matter how much you trust each other, the savings accounts should REQUIRE both parties to sign off on withdrawals. Just to keep everything clean and above board. The traditional (old fashioned) way is to have just one account for checking and one for saving. Even though our parents did this, most mothers (and fathers) always had personal money SOMEWHERE that was just theirs. So why not be upfront about your own personal money issues so they do not come back to haunt you down the road.

Michelle Smith-Billups owns serveral websites. Her main site, HurryDates-in-Black.com is dedicated to finding and building better relationships. Her focus has turned to money as a way to improve on what YOU have before you find a mate. This is NOT to be used to measure a potential mate, but as a means to open, honest and effective communication about finances before your relationship begins.

http://www.HurryDates-in-Black.com/money matters.html
http://ClassyBlackSingles.com/?CID=art1
http://YourHealth.mymagicwand.com

limousine chicago service

In The News:

The Boy Scouts of America is trying to recruit a new generation of kids to join its troops with high-energy, high-tech activities that include thrill-inducing zip lines at a new adventure camp, apps and a television show.

The next iPhone or iPad from Apple is surely around the corner, and Google is getting into everything from cloud computing to car making. But what the cards hold for $100 billion behemoth Facebook is far from clear, experts say.

Rumors of the hairy humanoid known variously as the yeti, bigfoot and sasquatch have persisted for decades. Now scientists are hoping to make more of a case for the creature -- with the help of genetic testing, Reuters reported.

Scotty has finally been beamed up. The ashes of the actor James Doohan, who played Scotty on the 1960s television series "Star Trek," were launched to space this morning (May 22) on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Cows are a red herring. The most dangerous potential source for methane release lies underneath thinning permafrost and glaciers in the Arctic. Ecologists have just mapped the seeps where methane is bubbling up, and they found more than 150,000 of them.

At a time when black magic was relatively common, two curses involving snakes were cast, one targeting a senator and the other an animal doctor, says a Spanish researcher who has just deciphered the 1,600-year-old curses.

Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, U2 frontman Bono and more honored the memory of late Apple founder Steve Jobs Monday in New York City at the 16th annual Webby Awards.

Humans' close relationship to dogs has so far obscured their history so much that it's not yet possible to use genetic data to tease out the details of their domestication, new research indicates.

A Jurassic mom's almost certainly painful death is perfectly preserved in a rare fossil skeleton, one of the many unique items that will go on display in the Houston Museum of Natural Science's $85 million dinosaur hall when it opens to the public June 2. We take a first peek at the exhibit.

A Jurassic Mom's almost certainly painful death is perfectly preserved in a rare fossil skeleton, one of the many unique items that will go on display in the Houston Museum of Natural Science's $85 million dinosaur hall when it opens to the public June 2.

The rise of Kickstarter's crowdsourcing platform means consumers can now vote with their dollars, investing in unique new projects that they believe in, from smartphone watches designed from e-paper to coffee joulies that keep your drink at the perfect temperature. Here are the 12 most funded design projects.

Jodie Foster may have seen proof of alien lands in the 1997 Robert Zemeckis film "Contact," but the real life astronomer the filmmakers based their sci-fi odyssey on didn't find so much as a tentacle.

A first-of-its-kind commercial supply ship rocketed toward the International Space Station following a successful liftoff early Tuesday, opening a new era of dollar-driven spaceflight.

Many scientists say it's just a matter of time before we find evidence it exists, and now, anyone can get in on the hunt -- as long as they have a computer.

The private rocket company SpaceX is officially "go" to make a second try at launching its unmanned Dragon capsule early Tuesday, May 22, from Florida's Space Coast.

The Supreme Court refused Monday to hear an appeal from a Boston University student who was slapped with a $675,000 penalty for illegally downloading 31 songs and sharing them on the internet.

The European Union has given Google "a matter of weeks" to propose remedies to antitrust concerns arising from its alleged dominant position in the online search market.

A Maryland student was awarded the top prize at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair on Friday for developing a urine and blood test that detects pancreatic cancer with 90 percent accuracy.

Microsoft recently announced plans to strip the Windows interface to its basics -- flattening surfaces, removing reflections, and scaling back distractions. Here's a brief look at the Windows interface over its 27-year history -- and how it will look tomorrow.

Microsoft's So.cl social network opened to the public at large this weekend. The experimental research project combines social networking and search, the company said -- and the company swears it's not meant to compete with Google+ or Facebook.

Money Matters - Really!

Personal Finance Personal Finance