Re: Should it be illegal to have bad credit?

This is just a response to reallybadcredit on Twitter. The tweet was actually aimed at someone else, but I felt rather compelled to respond to this statement. Bad credit should not be illegal, per se. The issuance of credit in aims to malafactor the recipient should be made illegal. A lot of people I know are actually responsible with their credit cards and have excellent scores and some people I know cannot even touch a card for seven years.

Let's analyze the two: one person is responsible and is mature with their credit. They have been educated on what comes from having bad credit and do everything in their power to advance their score. Kudos to them, but now let's talk about the other side. People who often have bad credit are often inexperienced with using a credit card. And there are companies that do not mind putting these people in debt due to a lack of education. It is not like they choose bad credit. American society is known for being the populace of debt Mainly it is due to the lack of financial  education and here's why:

 The average adult carries  around two to three credit cards and do not leave those accountss open for more than six months. This is a sure fire way to damage your FICO credit score. They also do not dispute any bills and have companies like Chase talk them to the cleaners. Often in college, there will be recruiters that say, "Sign up for XYZ credit card and you'll get a free shirt. You can even through the card away afterwards". They often take advantage of people wanting free stuff. Also most people do not use online free credit score review sites like http://www.creditkarma.com/ . They are totally in the dark when suddenly  they find out that 8 credit cards have been opened in his of her name. Also people who do not pay within 28 days are hit with hefty interest rates. How hefty? An "average score" credit card can charge a person up to 28% for a payment past the grace period. Is this truely fair? No. But they did sign that contract, so they are forced to grin and bear it. Often times, credit cards are written in legalese or financialese. Meaning, you you have to understand the jargon of finance and law in order to truely read between the lines. And  there is a percentage of the population in America, that completely does not understand how to read. Illitaracy rates used to range around 70%. That's 3 in 10 Americans that do not understand either credit card or cell phone contracts.

That means that probably most people that are in the bad credit range are either a) there because of their own faults or b) do not understand their contracts whatsoever nor do they understand what methods can be used to research their credit. Credit Karma is a good site for Credit Reports and http://www.bankrate.com/ is good for researching interest rates and credit card rates as well as mortgage rates. But getting back to topic, the issuance of credit to an mal-educated populace should be made completely illegal. While I do not really advocate Socialism, I do see the need to provide increased credit card regulation in the United States. Creditors do not really consider the person's overall social stance nor literacy rate of the contractee.

Free Games For All!

Another day another post. Another game another payment...? Nope not me. People always wonder what games I play if I have the urge to play one. I often ponder this myself. I'll give you a hint: most games I actively look for cost less than $1 to play. In other words, I do not even pay for games. I just play all the freebies I can find. Now you are probably wondering about the quality, but rest assured, they are actually pretty good quality.

When I started looking for freebies, I first gravitated towards http://www.newgrounds.com/ . A gem in the freebie community, NG has a lot of beta Flash made games and slideshows.

When I want  to play an RPG: there is http://www.runescape.com/ . Honestly, I have not been to this site in a while, but it  is pretty intricate. Sure it's no WOW (World  of Warcraft), but it can stun people with how great the quests actually are. And you can customize your avatar character to do a plethora of things. Worth checking out.

For first person shooter games or third person shooter games, I go to http://www.ijji.com/ . The games worth checking out are Gunz and Soldier Front. These games are probbably the most beautiful of the freebies next to PoxNora.

Next in tactics games, I would say PoxNora is one I definately want to check out, even though I am going through another one right now. It is at http://www.poxnora.com/ .

For those of you who like the Fall Out/Diablo/Resident Evil Games, there is one my room mate just recently introduced me to. You can actually play this one in 2D/3D with  toggle mode. It is none other than Dead Frontier! Check this one out at http://www.deadfrontier.com/ . Oh and if you need armor repair service, hit me up! My ID is sinigami.

Haircuts for 8 Bucks

A cheap haircutting place moved next door to me! Now I do not have to hike 2 miles to find an affordable haircutting salon. For those of you that are in Reno, the address is:

Time 2 Cut
206 Linden Street
Reno, NV 89502

Now the threshold  for haircuts for me is $10. They luckily charge $8 and offer really good customer service.

There is something secondary that I would like to address: how much do you honestly pay for a hair cut? Now this is something you can do at home if your skilled enough (I'm not). Can you really justify paying $20 for just a haircut. The amount that is charged is ridiculous these days. And no, this does not include highlights or dying. Can that amount honestly be justified? I do not think so. So why bother over paying for a basic service? True people need their hair cut and there is a demand for good stylists, but honesly unless they are trying  to dye your hair or highlight it, I do not see this amount as being thesible.

Language Programs on the Cheap

I just wanted to make this quick second post to address language programs for the PC. Learning a second language has been made a lot simplier than in my days when I first started to learn Japanese. Now with PC language programs, the price of studying a language will probably continue to fall. Yet, only 1 out of  5 Americans speak a second language. And the ones that do are usually sons or daughters from a immgrated family. However the rest of the world does not share that sentiment: Mandarian is spoken by over 890 million people, Japanese is spoken by about 170 million and Spanish is one of the most widely used languages next to English.So why not learn one of these languages to compete with the international job market? (Note: the rarer the language; the harder it is to get materials for it.)

When I think of language programs 3 come to mind: Berlitz, Rosetta Stone, and Instant Immersion. Those are the main ones that many will have access to. When looking for a foreign language program you need to actually to some personal accessments. How far are you willing to go in the language? How much time can you spend on it. What do you want out of the language? If you cannot justify a reason to study something, then the efforts behind it will be for naught.

Pricewise: Rosetta Stone will run about $230 per level. It will be about $560 for a level 1-3 compilation and $1200 for a 1-5 combination set! My advise is do not believe the hype behind Rosetta Stone. You can learn a language way cheaper by going with Instant Immersion or Berlitz. Berlitz Language Primer Series will run you about $40 and Instant Immersion will run you about $50. Depending on the language, I would actualy suggest that you pick up supplementary writinig material due to the complexity of the various language scripts. For the Japanese and Chinese Premier by Berlitz for example you should probably find either a website (http://www.zhongwen.com/ ) or writing instruction books 250 Essential Kanji.

If you want to get technical with a language, there are  plenty of online language websites that can accomodates your needs. For Japanese I know there is http://www.japonin.com/ and for reading in various languages there is http://www.lingq.com/. Note that the best way to become fluent in a language is to reach an intermediate level  in a language and go visit the target language's home country. And there is no subsitute for becoming great at a language other than constant pratice. When I am studying, I probably study about 8 hours a week. I would study more if I had a set schedule, but my hours change all the time. Without pratice, all the language material that you have would just be expensive coasters for your drinks--so use them!

Why Bother Renting?

Okay this is just a quick thought on this whole "recession". I wonder how many people are actually looking at today's home prices. It might hit some people (who bought their homes before the first crash in 04) at home with seemingly no end to the crash in sight. Is it a  bad thing though?

Now people can actually buy homes instead of renting. A home on a 30 year mortgage at 6% for 40,000 would actually run you $118 per month. This means that you are able to buy a home no problem. Want to buy one outright in a safe neighboorhood? Reno's neighboorhoods are not that bad. You can actually pick up a 1Br/1Bth for as little as $25,000. If people are renting because they are scared to buy a house, they are just throwing money away. If you do not believe me, you can check http://www.realtor.com/ and see for yourself. Trust me, there is absolutely no need to throw money away needlessly when you do not have to.

By the way, whatever is bought now will turn around in the next 5 to 10 years. So you will really win if you can hold on to the property as long as possible.