Debt Consolidation Vancouver

When you make the decision to apply for a credit card, it’s hard to see the completely random purchases that will one day be charged to it.

One of the largest and most random expenditures I ever put on my credit card was emergency dental surgery. It seems crazy, but Vancouver dental work adds up. I had left my debit card at home and I needed to pay the full amount before leaving the office. I had no cheques, so I pulled out my Visa.

The bill was still on my card when I made the decision to leave my insurance gig. I probably should have waited till I paid off my dental work.

I haven’t made any emergency trips to a Vancouver dentist since then – thank God. I am completely satisfied with the work they provided; it’s just the bill that was shocking.

If I did require more work I would definitely come prepared with an alternative method of payment, rather than my credit card. It is always best to pay upfront and avoid the credit lure.

Say Awwww.....

I’ve been a car salesman for close to a year now. Before that, as most of you know already, I was an insurance salesman. I consider myself to be fairly good at what I do – selling.

But before I got into sales, I saw my career path heading down a different road. My goal, ten years ago, was to go into the locksmith profession. Crazy, I know, but for some reason I thought being a Vancouver locksmith would be a really cool job.

Every exterior door in the city has one, so there would always be business. They don’t require a huge amount of technical experience to install, so I could pretty much learn my trade on the job. I wouldn’t have to rely on others for support; I could work alone on most jobs. And, I would be able to provide a needed sense of security to thousands of individuals.

Seemed like a dream job.

Lured by a higher starting salary, I ditched the lock world for the insurance industry. I guess they both provide security in a way…

Now, every time I lock my door when I leave my apartment I think, what if I had taken the other road. Who knows?

Ensuring Security

Serious about reducing your debt? Start cutting out all the tiny purchases you don’t need. Here’s a list of some of the worst smalltime offenders:

1. Gossip Mags – They’re there at the checkout, you’re bored, the cashier just went on break and J.Lo has a new man. The perfect storm. But resist! If you need to have the latest celebrity scoop, wait till you get home and read it online. Or we can tell you – she’s dating one of her dancers (again…).

2. Lottery tickets – You’re not gonna win. EVER!

3. Adding a Combo / Upsizing – Fries are the furthest thing from a healthy side dish. They can hardly be considered a vegetable by the time they are added to your sandwich or burger.

4. Water Bottles – Water is free and clean in this country. In most places… Take advantage of this fact and fill up your reusable bottle at home, work and while you’re out-and-about.

5. Oil Light – When the little light comes on, spend a few dollars and buy a few litres. Don’t let it linger like a solitary Christmas decoration you forgot to take down. An engine overhaul could cost you thousands.

The Usual Suspects

Why do we wear helmets? Because we need to comply with a city bylaw or we value the information stored in our brain? Hopefully the latter reason.

Whatever the case, the amount of Vancouver cyclists wearing helmets on the street has dramatically increased in the last 15 years. Which is a good thing for taxpayers.

But what about the mountain? No laws exist, but it is highly recommended for a sport where the majority of full-day rides includes at least one spill. It would be insane not to.

The same can be said for leg armour. Downhill riders are risking their permanent mobility each time they attempt a trail without lower leg protection. Suiting up makes sense.

Iron Mountainwear is the leading manufacturer of leg armour in British Columbia. Their unique armadillo-like design protects riders with a lightweight armour that can withstand the hardest fall.

A helmet will protect the organ that lets you operate your bike. Leg armour will protect the engine that moves it.

Be safe. Strap up.

Keep Your Body Safe

Keeping our regular everyday finances in check can be a difficult task with debit cards, credit cards, change and cheques.

Tracking our spending is becoming increasingly complex. It is now easier than ever to overspend and windup on the wrong side of the line.

Like most things in life, less is more. If you can reduce your payment tools to two or possibly one method, you can keep a more accurate up-to-date record of how much you’re spending. You can also track where you’re spending your money.

Limiting your payment options will allow you to chose a service plan that meets your spending. Finding the right plan can save you money each month.

Those savings could go to paying down your debt.

A Vancouver consolidation plan is similar in nature. With only one payment a month, you limit the number of creditors you have to keep track of. You also reduce the amount of interest you pay.

Win-win.

To find out if a credit consolidation plan is right for you, visit Full Circle‘s website or call them in person at: 1-877-220-3328.

Pocket Filing System

The number one reason to start a debt consolidation program is: it will lower your interest payments.

Interest is money that you will never see again. It’s money that goes straight to your creditors pockets without ever reducing your principal. If you can lower the monthly amount you pay towards interest, you can put more money towards erasing your debt.

This is basic finance. Why pay more, when you could pay less.

There are no strings, there is no fine-print to read, only a guarantee that your interest will be reduced.

That should be enough to get you interested. But it’s only the beginning of the advantages offered by a debt consolidation plan. Not only will your interest payments be reduced, you will also see an immediate change from your creditors. With a debt plan in place, you will never receive a bill directly from your credit companies. They will not call and they will not send you written warnings. The only piece of mail you will receive will be for the one payment you owe.

I know… You’re thinking the same thing I was; “Why didn’t I signup for this earlier?”

Reduce Your Interest Payments

Sitting in my warm apartment, with the rain falling against the window, I wonder if the Occupiers are regretting their course of action. I know there are many who sympathize with their cause, but after working so hard to pay my own debts off, I find it hard to support a cause that wants their own debt erased with a magic flip of a wand.

The protests in New York City may have seemed like a romantic movement, inspiring our own Art Gallery encampment, but now with the rain and the cold weather, is it really that smart to voluntarily deny yourself one of the five basic needs? Wouldn’t it be more productive to come up with a plan on how to pay back your debt, rather than blaming others for their financial success?

The 1% got to the top tax bracket by working tirelessly. Sure some were handed family money, but they used that cash to build their own empire. It’s hardly fair to demand that they share with others who haven’t put in the time.

But this is a democracy and if people want to show their displeasure towards the current financial system by squatting on the Art Gallery lawn, I guess that is their prerogative.

Me, I’ll stay warm and continue to work towards my own goal of financial freedom.

To each his own.

-Tyler

(I should note, that these are my opinions and not those of the Vancouver debt consolidation company)

Occupy Vancouver

The young lady on the other end of the phone identified herself as Rebecca. She was operating the switchboard. She said she had a few questions for me to help with her recommendation for the right counsellor for my case.

I answered her questions concerning my financial status and we talked a little bit about the burden of credit card anxiety. Then she directed my phone call to Morgan, a veteran debt management professional.

Morgan didn’t have the conversational skills that Rebecca had, but she immediately impressed me with her professionalism. She explained that Full Circle was going to do three things for me: they were going to give me one payment instead of six, they were going to reduce the interest that I paid each month and they were going to assist me in my financial decisions. In return, I would have to be committed to finishing the repayment program.

I explained to Morgan that I had recently pulled myself out a ‘life trench’ and was now looking to improve my status as a working professional. I knew the time was right for a plan and Full Circle was willing to provide that opportunity.

Sometimes debt is a scary subject. Sometimes it fills us with such extreme anxiety, that we can’t even talk about it. This is natural and it happens to everyone from time-to-time.

But debt can also be as funny as it is scary. To add to the funny side, I would like to pass along this little story.  I hope you enjoy it.

It is a slow day in a damp little Irish town. The rain is beating down and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit. On this particular day a rich German tourist is driving through the town, stops at the local hotel and lays a €100 note on the desk, telling the hotel owner he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night.

The owner gives him some keys and, as soon as the visitor has walked upstairs, the hotelier grabs the €100 note and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.

The butcher takes the €100 note and runs down the street to repay his debt to the pig farmer.

The pig farmer takes the €100 note and heads off to pay his bill at the supplier of feed and fuel.

The guy at the Farmers’ Co-op takes the €100 note and runs to pay his drinks bill at the pub.

The publican slips the money along to the local prostitute drinking at the bar, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer him “services” on credit.

The lady-of-the-night then rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill to the hotel owner with the €100 note.

The hotel proprietor then places the €100 note back on the counter so the rich traveler will not suspect anything.

At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, picks up the €100 note, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the money, and leaves town.

No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now out of debt and looking to the future with a lot more optimism.

Ring For Service

The blogs were a nice introduction to the debt consolidation process. The variety of entries and the personal accounts helped me put together a clearer picture of the services Full Circle offered.

One interesting point I learned was that the service was not in the business to offer a consolidation loan. I would be paying my creditors, through the Full Circle Company. This was reassuring. I already had enough creditors; I didn’t need one more.

It was also nice to know, that once in the program, my creditors would not be permitted to contact me. No more voice messages, angry letters or threatening emails.

The best news was that my credit score would enter a different category. The new rating would be R7, a rating reserved for individuals who ‘voluntarily’ enter a debt consolidation process. As I continued to work on my debt, my rating would improve towards the goal: an R1 rating.

The blog was actually a really interesting read.

And now look at me. I’m writing on the very same blog that inspired me to start a repayment program.

So, if you have been enjoying my story, make sure to scroll down and read the personal debt tales from the other four writers who have produced for this blog.

Thank you Scarlett, Ben, Eve and Julia. Your work has shed light on a service that many Canadians should learn about.

My folks let me move back home, but like my girlfriend, they too began to tire of my self-pity and lack of motivation to find work.

Desperate to get her son back in the workforce, my mother talked to one of her friends whose family ran a used car dealership. She convinced the husband of her friend to give me an interview for a sales position.

The lot was in Burnaby and I had to bus to the site for my interview. I shared a seat with an older gentleman who asked a zillion questions. I avoided most of the personal ones, embarrassed of my current financial state.

The elderly man explained that he had just retired, at 68. He had worked for over a dozen companies since he was twenty; some of them good and some of them poor.

He had managed to raise a family and save for his retirement.

He must have sensed my situation because he seemed to constantly return to the theme of perseverance; ‘Yes, life was hard, but hard working people find ways to succeed.’

I thought about this as I stepped off the bus and into the dealership.

Car salesman was a step in the right direction.

Disillusioned, lying on my parents couch, a number of questions started to go through my mind. Where would I get the money to pay my creditors? Could I continue to hide from them? Where would my credit rating be in six months? Could I ever recover? How did I find myself in this situation?

I pondered this last question for hours. Why did I ever take on so much debt?

Well, the answer is easy. Debt is a necessary part of life. Credit provides us the ability to buy key living components, such as cars, homes and education. It keeps us afloat and lets us enrich our lives.

It is only when we lose the means to keep up with our payments that we fall into trouble.

Managing our debt is not always as easy as applying for credit. When times are tough, we need to find ways to pay the minimal amount to continue our good credit standing.

This is all visible to me now, but at the time I only thought to curse my creditors. Their collection notices were making my life more stressful.

Without an out, I continued to mope, blaming everyone but my self for my situation.

I remember the day clearly. I had gone to the gym in the morning, picked up a coffee at 7-11 and returned to my apartment. I was checking my phone for messages as I stepped off the elevator. I rounded the corner of the hallway on instinct and put the key in the door. Still looking at my phone, I turned the lock. Then I looked up.

Staring at me, taped to the hospital grey door, was a notice from the landlord.

My first thought was he must have the wrong suite. I had paid on the fourth – a little late, but I had given him the cheque.

I pulled the letter off and read it in disbelief. Apparently my cheque had bounced. I had ten days to pay. If I failed to do so I would be evicted.

I called the bank. I must have misjudged my automatic billing. It was true; I did not have enough to cover the rent.

I was forced to give up my apartment.

Nine days later I moved back in with my parents. It wasn’t an extended stay. But the request was humbling.

You have found the perfect niche business for a startup company in Kamloops. You have spent years researching the market and you are confident there is money to be made in your entrepreneurial endeavour. The banks have agreed your business plan is sound, but their is a limit to what they will lend you.

With new expenses arising daily, it seems that the banks money will not be enough to keep you going for those first few key months of operation.

What are your options?

A choose your own adventure book would have you flip to page 63 to find out if your business sinks or swims.

Luckily, life comes with more certainty.

If you own a home, you are eligible for a line of credit through Kamloops mortgage financing. With a Kamloops second mortgage, you can afford to keep the integrity of your business, without scrapping your year one plan.

The extra capital you receive from your Kamloops mortgage credit loan will guarantee your doors open on time.

Don’t let your dreams slip away due to a lack of startup cash. Secure a Kamloops second mortgage.

Open On Time

I know I am keeping you in suspense, but the details of my financial turnaround will come.

This week I have two more stories to share about my dark days, my time spent without a financial counsellor.

So, as I mentioned in earlier posts, my girlfriend left me when my debt anxiety began to ruin our relationship. I’ve never blamed her. It was a totally natural response. I was acting completely erratic. And, as I told you at the end of the post, we have since reunited.

But during those months when we were apart, I decided to dip my foot back into the dating scene. Let me rephrase that – I went on a single date during our time apart.

Let’s call her Angela.

Angela was the daughter of one of my mother’s friends. She was the owner of a small marketing business and was relatively the same age as me. My mom had decided that we would be great together.

I wasn’t expecting much, but when we finally met, I was blown way. She was beautiful, smart, funny and outgoing.

We went for a ride around the seawall using bikes from a friend who owns a rental company. After making our way over to Granville Island, we spent some time browsing the market. After half-an-hour of interesting conversation, Angela suggested grabbing something to eat at Sandbar.

Now normally I would have chosen the hot dog stand, but this girl was special and I didn’t want to seem cheap. I somehow convinced myself, that my remaining credit card could handle the date.

You see where this is going…?

After three rounds of drinks and a full meal, the cheque came – she didn’t even reach for her wallet. I gave the waiter my card and prayed silently. Of course it was declined and I had to politely ask the young lady across from me to pick up the tab.

The ride back was quiet. I could have easily brushed the embarrassment off, but the anxiety surrounding my debt situation returned and that was all I could think about.

We parted at the rental shop with only a hug. I didn’t bother calling her and she never called me.

The Moment of Truth

You worked straight through the summer, with hardly a day off. Your friends all cashed in their holiday time and took their families on vacation, but your job required your full attention from May until the end of August. The only thing that kept you focused through the hot Kamloops summer was the promise you made to your family of a winter vacation.

While the temperatures rose and the masses moved outdoors to tan, swim and enjoy the sunshine, you were stuck indoors working. You caught the odd softball game after work and enjoyed a few sunset beverages, but the majority of your time was spent working.

With your goal almost in reach, you have decided to increase your time-off, to reward yourself and your family. But a longer vacation will mean more capital and even with your extended hours, your savings will fall short.

Fortunately there are other means to finance your well-earned vacation. A Kamloops mortgage broker can help you pay for the time you need to take your family away to somewhere warm during the winter.

With a quick application process, the money you need could be delivered within days. Within a week you could pay for all the flights, accommodation and extra activities you have planned for your trip.

You deserve a break and a Kamloops mortgage broker can help turn your dream vacation into a reality.

Kamloops Second Mortgage

With the bill in front of me, I started another tally sheet. I put together a ten-year budget. It included a minimum sum that I could reasonably afford to pay each month. This money would be split between my creditors.

But in my desire to eliminate my financial problems, I forget about one of the biggest potential threats facing my limited capital: interest payments.

With more than a handful of creditors, I tried in vain to calculate the interest I would owe each credit company. After more than an hour I gave up. Interest is a bitch!

I was in over my head. I wanted to organize a schedule of payments, but without an accurate understanding of the interest I would be charged, my budget was useless.

All I knew was that while I struggled to stay above the poverty line, my creditors would be living the good life with all the interest I was paying.

My conclusion was this: I needed a financial advisor and I needed some sort of debt relief to lower my interest payments.

Calculating Interest

Sometimes you have to hit bottom, to know how to climb back up.

Bottom came when a repo man appeared at my door on a Wednesday morning in April. He wanted my television, my couches, my sound system and my laptop. I was able to save the laptop with a quick loan from one of my neighbours. The couches, TV, speakers and receiver were put on a truck.

Sitting in my apartment that afternoon, I pulled out all my bills and made a list of what I owed. I wrote the number on a piece of paper with a sharpie pen and stared at it for over two hours as I thought about all the options at my disposal.

My Parents: I had gone to them for money when I was in University, but that was it. I could have gotten student loans, but they helped me pay for my entire tuition outright. I still owed them that favour. I couldn’t go to them again.

The Bank: Use one loan to pay for another…? I hear you could do it, but was it worth borrowing from one evil empire to pay another?

My Friends: They had money, but I had Butch’s nagging sting. I could never ask them.

Who or what then would be the answer? How would I continue with my payments with the smallest of incomes?

Hi.

This is Tyler. I’m new to this, so you will have to bear with me.

I read a few of Julia’s posts, so I have an idea of what you are expecting.

My story begins with a new job. After University, a family friend helped me get into the insurance world. I took a job with one of the major brokerage firms in Vancouver. After three years of paying my dues, I was finally able to build a respectable client book. By year seven I was pulling in over $100,000 a year.

Then I started to get bored with the industry. I made sort of a fool of myself at a business meeting and a week later I handed in my resignation. I worked for another month to save face.

The problem with me quitting my job was the bills that I had acquired during the period when I was making money hand-over-fist.

I had the fast car, a posh apartment in Yaletown and a taste for the finer things.

After a year of semi-retirement, I was out of cash and unable to find work in a field that would interest me. I had to reconsider my finances. I wanted to hold on to a few of the luxury items I had gained when I was at the top of my insurance game, but there was little money to pay for them. Eventually I sold my car, but there were still other bills that I was struggling with.

The anxiety was crippling and it affected my search for a new job.

This 'Was' My Car

Hi guys, it’s Julia here. It’s been awhile since I blogged. My life has taken a turn. I finally landed a teaching job! Hurray for me!!! And I have been busy preparing for my first classroom assignment this fall.

I landed a job in Creston B.C. It’s a small town of about 5,000 people. I’ll be teaching at Adam Robertson Elementary.

Finally, I will have a steady paycheck. I talked with Rob, my credit counsellor at Full Circle, and worked out a plan to increase my payments. Hopefully I will be financially free in less than three years.

Rob has been a rock for me and I cannot thank him enough for his support and advice.

But unfortunately, the new job will occupy the majority of my time. So I have decided to pass on the writing reigns to a friend of mine who also signed on with Full Circle Debt Consolidation. His name is Tyler. Hopefully he will provide you with the information you need to survive in this crazy city. Cause we all know how costly it can be…

Anyways, thanks for reading. I enjoyed sharing my stories with you.

My last piece of advice, and I know I’ve said it numerous times already, “you’re not alone.” There are a ton of Canadians out there going through the same financial struggles. Finding help is the only way to deal with your debt. If you try to turn your back on it, it will only rear its ugly head to bite you. Talk to Full Circle. They helped me and they can help you.

Alright Tyler, I hand the pen (keyboard) to you.

So Long Guys

We all know the benefits of buying local food, but finding local goods can sometimes be a chore at the grocery store. The California produce is often front and center, demanding your attention with it’s chemically engineered, bug free, overly large exterior skin. Hide your eyes and your wallet. Go out of your way to hunt down products grown or manufactured in British Columbia.

A great place to start is farmer’s markets. Community stands are opening across Vancouver to offer summer produce at reasonable prices. The most recent addition to the already established weekend spots is the Kerrisdale Village Market, across the street from Point Grey Secondary. The Kerrisdale market is open every Saturday from 10 am – 2 pm until October 8.

Bring your own bags or Tupperware containers for produce. Most stands do not offer paper or plastic bags.

Also, feel free to ask questions about how the food is grown. Venders love to discuss their product and your interest may land you a reduction in price.

Words of market wisdom: Come early in the day for the freshest wares and late in the day for the best prices.

Life Tastes Better When It's Fresh

Looking for a cheap date this summer? Have you taken your loved one to the movies lately? Fresh Air Cinema is offering free outdoor movies at different venues around the Lower Mainland. All you need is a blanket to sit on and a friend / partner to sit beside.

The venues range from parks, to Robson Square, to the Athletes Village. Our personal favourite is the Stanley Park viewing area; a beautiful backdrop, minutes away from downtown and a fairly mature crowd.

The films range from 80s classic popcorn flics to family animation.

Here is a sampling of the films that will be showing this August:

Thursday, August 11^th – “Casablanca”

-Athletes Village (Vancouver)

Friday, August 12^th – “Grease”

-Harbour Green Park (Vancouver)

Saturday, August 13^th – “Ghostbusters”

-Cloverdale Amphitheatre (Surrey)

Monday August 15^th – “Toy Story”

-Robson Square (Vancouver)

Thursday, August 18^th – “Aladdin”

-Delbrook Park (North Vancouver)

Thursday August 25^th – “Citizen Kane”

-Athletes Village (Vancouver)

And the cherry in the summer line-up:

Tuesday, August 30^th – “Stand By Me”

-Second Beach (Vancouver)

“If I could only have one food for the rest of my life? That’s easy – Pez,

cherry-flavoured Pez. No question about it.”

Imagine if you added all the hours together that you spent worrying about your debt. What could you do with that time?

You could read the entire Harry Potter series from his early days under the stairs to his final battle with Vold…. ‘The One Who Will Not Be Named.’

You could take ten windsurfing classes – that’s almost pro status.

You could weed, replant and water your garden a dozen times.

You could learn basic Spanish – enough to leave the resort with on your next vacation to Mexico.

You could retile the bathroom.

You could attend at least eight of your son’s soccer games.

You could film, edit and publish a video on YouTube explaining how easy it is to remove your debt with a debt consolidation plan from Full Circle.

Any of these options could be yours.

That last one stands out as a winner.

When you apply for a debt repayment program, your level of anxiety is greatly decreased if not eliminated.  With Full Circle’s help, you will only have to make one payment a month; this amount will be dispersed between your creditors. You will have less interest to pay and you will know exactly how long it will take to eliminate your debt completely. Try it today. Gain back hours of your life almost immediately.

Even 'Debt' is Scared By That Face

A recent Canadian poll discovered that a quarter of Canadians carry no debt. The data was collected for Scotiabank, one of Canada’s largest banking institutions.

Interesting… a bank produced a poll about the lack of debt in our country. Isn’t that exactly what they want us to believe so we will go out and apply for a loan, confident, that like other Canadians, we can pay it off quickly.

What about the three quarters of Canadians that do carry a negative balance?

The same survey found that 19 per cent of the individuals polled from British Columbia feel overwhelmed by their debt. If three quarters of our province has debt and 19 per cent are overwhelmed, then there are roughly 600,000 BC residents struggling to pay their bills.

If you are one of the many British Columbians who is in need of credit guidance, talk to Full Circle Debt Solutions about consolidating your debt. You can reduce your creditor list to one, lower your interest payments and eliminate your anxiety.

Call today and talk to a credit counsellor about your financial situation.

You're Not Alone

Is your small business suffering from budgeting issues? Full Circle Debt Solutions would like to pass along a few helpful tips for steering your enterprise in the right direction.

1. Always establish a company goal. Where does your focus lie? Does your major concern involve increasing your profit margins? Are you looking to expand? Maybe your focus is creating a diverse marketing campaign to spread the word about your unique enterprise.

Answering these questions will help you evaluate your company’s success. Sharing this focus with your employees will unite your team.

2. Knowing your focus is an important first step forward, but knowing where your company historically spends money can be just as valuable for advancement. Make a table of your financial data and organize it into three categories: revenue, direct costs and overhead costs. Are your costs growing at a faster rate than your revenue? Knowing where you spend your money will help you trim the budget. Keep your company goal in mind and adjust your spending accordingly.

3. Consider variables that may affect your business before the year-end. Have you properly budgeted for them?

4. Evaluate your company by comparing your data to industry benchmarks. How does your company stack-up.

Making Sense of Your Financial Data

The key to being organized is lists.

The simplest list: your grocery list. We’re human, we forget things. Next time write all the ingredients down so you won’t have to make two trips to the store.

Make a list of important dates. You don’t want to miss your mother’s birthday – for the third year in a row.

Hire a personal trainer for a day and have them make you a list of appropriate exercises that you could do at home.

If you have eight important clients to handle in a day, make a quick list and rank each one on their importance. Then make another list identifying how much time you think it will take to handle each client. Use these two lists to build your weekly working schedule.

Make a list of all the things you wish to accomplish by the time you’re 50. Post this somewhere safe, but visible.

Spend a few minutes and make a list of all your creditors.

Wow… you can stop now.

Want to reduce that list to one. Full Circle Debt Consolidation can help. With a debt consolidation plan, you will only receive one bill and you will only have to write one cheque.

Stick with the lists that matter. Hike in Nepal before you turn ten past forty.

Here are three apps that could save you some serious coin:

1. Wifi Finder

Are you counting your change at the end of the month? Want to get rid of that expensive data plan? The Wifi Finder can help. Just start at your basic you-know-its-there hotspot. Your local Starbucks will do. Then use their signal to connect to the Internet and search for other hotspots in areas where you might need one, such as the neigbourhood you work in or the eight block radius you walk your dog in. Why pay for data when Wifi is faster and free.

2. Park ‘in’ Spot

This app locates free parking in your vicinity. This app is especially good for downtown. Given up on the free parking hunt? Use Parkopedia to locate a lot near your destination.

3. Save Benjis 1.1

The name refers to the American one hundred dollar bill, but the app works just as well in Canada. To use it, you scan an item in a store that you are interested in; let’s use the example of a new TV. After scanning your HD dream, the app will list all the stores in its database that carry that particular television. It will also tell you what each store is currently selling the TV for.

Isn’t technology great!

There’s plenty of personal finance advice out there, but oftentimes some of the most basic steps toward financial freedom are overlooked. For me, becoming a frugal person didn’t happen overnight. It was a process of discovering strategies that helped me save for the important stuff and avoid impulse buys. Here’s a simplified version of the steps I took. Maybe some of them will help you.

• Avoid credit cards that don’t allow you to pay off your purchases immediately. Credit cards are important part of building a credit history, but you don’t need to accumulate balances to use them. Many store credit cards allow you to make a purchase and then pay off your balance immediately.

• Create separate accounts for important payments and purchases. Setting up separate accounts for travel or car payments or new technology helps keep you from dipping into your savings during your everyday routine. It also allows you to see the progress you’ve made toward your goal.

• Think before you spend. Do you spend a lot of money on a cable TV package you hardly use when you could be watching your favorite shows online or on Netflix? Do you pay for a long distance calling plan when you could be using a calling card? It’s important to think about every spending decision you make, knowing that spending in one place means giving up something else.

• Squirrel something away. If you can accumulate a small amount and put it into an interest-earning certificate of deposit or another investment vehicle, even if it’s only for a short time, you’ll see your money grow and feel good about making even more frugal choices.

• Buy in bulk. If you have the space to store large bottles of catsup and other staples, you can save a lot of money by shopping at discount stores that sell larger-quantity items.

There are a lot of other money-saving strategies I’ve adopted, such as driving slower to save on gas, but the ones I’ve listed here are key when you’re just starting to figure out how to live a better and more sustainable financial life. I hope they’re helpful to someone.

In a perfect world, all the food we eat would be natural – directly from the earth without any harmful pesticides or preservatives. But as most people who buy organic food know, it’s an extremely expensive ideal. There are ways to eat mostly organic food without sacrificing other wants and needs in our lives.

One way to save money on organic food is to plant a garden, either at your home or in a community garden. Sure, it takes work, but once your soil is ready and your seeds are planted, you’ll realize you take pleasure in tending to your plants and harvesting your own food.

If you don’t have the space for a garden, try buying organic food from a wholesaler. Local distributors and wholesalers usually offer lower prices than grocery stores, especially if you can buy in bulk and freeze some of the food you don’t use immediately.

Even if you can grow some things yourself and find an organic wholesaler, buying all organic is still really expensive. Do some research and make a list of priority foods you feel must be organic, and then do your best to stick to it. That way, when you need to choose the cheaper version, you’ll know you’ve kept the important things natural.

Eating organic food doesn’t have to be impossible. With some searching, networking and prioritizing, you can live healthily without spending much more than you normally would on groceries. Good luck!

There’s that old saying about feeling like you’re taking two steps backwards for every one step forwards. It’s like treading water, knowing you’ll eventually get too tired to continue. It’s a scary, overwhelming feeling, but there is something you can do about it.

By working with licensed, professional debt managers at Full Circle Debt Solutions, you’ll see that you can make tangible progress toward your goals and climb your way out of that hole, without taking two steps backwards.

We can help make the calls from debt collectors stop and put you back on the path to prosperity. Give us a call to see how we can find a solution to your debt management problems. It’s the best phone call you can make for your future.

There are many things that we can’t reasonably live without, but in this day and age, a computer is at the top of that list.

When our desk or laptop breaks down, it leaves us feeling as if one of our limbs has been taken from us. Sure, this ‘Borg’ way of thinking is a little unhealthy, but it almost can’t be avoided. Where would we be without Google Maps, iTunes or email? (Notice we didn’t even mention Facebook)

Buying a new computer to repair that missing limb is a pain, but it has to be done. When that time comes, we occasionally fall short on funds. With our credit maxed, it is nice to know there are other options.

Alpine Credits can help you replace your old computer with a new, more powerful, faster, computing station. Your new arm will have you doing one-handed pushups by the end of the week.

Don’t let your credit deprive you of the Internet, word processing or pirated movies. Apply for a Vancouver home equity loan and purchase a computer that will last your for years to come.

Once You Go Mac, You Never Go Back

As a society, who do we look up to? There are our friends and family, the few politicians who remain honest, local business tycoons like Jim Patterson and then there are the celebrities, the people who, through their looks, talent or birthright demand attention.

This latter group may seem like excellent role models, but often they struggle with the same issues we do.

Financial problems plague the rich and powerful. They may make millions, but they can be equally suited to burning millions.

Mike Tyson is a great example of this. Here is a young boy who fought his way out of the ghetto to become one of the most recognizable athletes in the world. He may have lost all credibility with his rape charges and his later antics in the Holyfield fight, but at one time Tyson was earning close to $400 million.

By 2003, after a fall from grace, Tyson owed $27 million in debts, $9 million for a divorce case and $13 million in back taxes.

Then there is the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. At the time of his death, Michael owed $400 million dollars to various large lending agencies and private financiers. His album “Thriller” is still the second largest selling album of all time, but still Jackson’s spending outdid his income. After his death, one forensic accountant estimated that Jackson was spending over $20 million per year more than he was actually earning. Yikes.

Are these people we can look up to? No. But we can learn from their mistakes.

The most important lesson to take away: “Only spend what you can afford.”

No Matter How Far You Pull The Hat Down, Your Debt is Still There

Am I the only one who is a little confused by the sudden escalation of the word “swag?”

I always thought swag meant the free stuff you got when you attended a conference or charity event. But now I hear hip-hop stars and celebrities using the word as an affirmation or noun to mean style or confidence. I even hear it being used as a verb: “swagged-out.” Then all of sudden I read that Puff Daddy has changed his name to “Swag.” What gives?

Well readers, I did some research and apparently swag comes from the hip-hop term “swagger.” Remember that song M.I.A. did with T.I., Jay and Kanye: “Swagga Like Us?”

No one on the corner has swagga like us

Swagga like us

Swagga swagga like us

I guess these four thought pretty highly of themselves.

Now the shortened form swag, picked up by the hip-hop group of the moment Odd Future (OFWGKTA), has taken off. For example, I was watching “Dancing With The Stars” (don’t judge) the other night and one of the dancers used it to describe their routine: “That is swag!”

If you’re thinking of using it in your everyday life, try alternating it for the word cool. “Do you think it would be swag if I wore my Bruins jersey to the game?” And the answer to that question is definitely no! That is not swag.

Towel Power is Swag!

One of the biggest obstacles I grappled with during my lowest point was the feeing of being alone. I had all this debt to deal with and no one to talk to.

All around me I saw successful people, going to their steady jobs, driving their luxury cars and living a life that was miles away from my own.

I kept asking myself: “Why me? I’m the only one who is struggling to get by?”

The answer, of course, was no. There are literally thousands of Canadians struggling with debt issues every day.

Each of us has a different story of how we managed to accumulate so many bills, but the final condition is sadly similar.

Strapped with debt, we take on second and possibly third jobs to pay off our credit cards and loans. We lose touch with our friends and our families and become consumed by the struggle.

This is no way to live.

Debt Consolidation frees us from this financial and social confinement.

With a repayment plan in place, normal people like you and I can return our energy to the important elements in our lives.

You’re not alone.

Full Circle Debt Solutions can help you understand this fact. Talk to one of their counselors about setting up a consolidation plan.

Join the hundreds who have already and start living your life without the burden of debt.

-Julia

Hello readers. This week I would like to pass on a few interesting tidbits I picked up from an article in the Globe and Mail. The column was titled “10 PR Tips for Small Businesses.” It offered cheap and easy ways to promote your business using public relation techniques.

Obviously my first thought was: “My online friends could really benefit from this material.” So here is my summarized version of their 10 tips.

1. What’s Your Story?

-What does your company offer? Why are you different from the rest? You need to figure out what makes you unique.

2. It’s Not All About You.

-The article stresses that PR is separate from advertising. It’s about offering something to the public – a service. Something they need, not you need to sell.

3. Find the Emotion

-You know those NHL Playoff commercials that are all over YouTube right now? Those History is Made spots. The reason why those are so effective is because they remind us of the emotions we felt when we saw that goal scored or witnessed that huge save. Your customer’s emotional attachment doesn’t need to be that extreme, but they need to connect with your product.

4. Know Your Target Audience.

-This is essential. Who are you trying to reach?

5. Write Concisely.

-Remove all the information from your press releases that isn’t important. In other words, edit your work. Send it to a friend or colleague to proofread. Read it again. Then read it again.

6. Adhere to Deadlines.

-The business world is a momentum machine. If you can’t keep up with it, you’ll be run over. Always submit your work on time.

7. Know the Media.

-Where are you submitting your work? Who subscribes to their publication? Why is your story important to their audience?

8. Press Release Versus Pitch.

A press release is a formulated article that follows strict guidelines. This works for news items that relate to your company. A pitch if less formal and can be written to attract a journalist’s attention for a follow up interview.

9. Develop a Relationship With the Editor.

-Social Media tools are great for this. Follow them on twitter and respond to their tweets. Befriend them on Facebook. Just don’t smother them.

10. Timelines.

-How often does your intended media outlet publicize? When will they need the information to produce an article that will be relevant with their readers?

Have you ever heard the fable about the ant and the grasshopper? Of course you have. The ant is the steady producer whose work ethic leads him to a life of security, while the grasshopper lounges and eventually struggles through the winter due to his lack of production.

It’s a sad tale, but an honest one.

The grasshopper’s heroic flaw is that he can’t see past the present. This is a condition that many of us, including myself, have experienced. We take the easy road and accept lines of credit to maintain a lifestyle that we are accustomed to.

What we can’t see at the time is how a seemingly easy decision to extend our credit line can damage our future opportunities. At the time, we can’t imagine that our decisions will possibly one-day limit our chances of purchasing a house or will result in a denial of a business license.

But a bad credit rating does just that. Improving that rating is not an easy task and that is why there are companies like Full Circle to offer assistance. Full Circle can get you back on track, building for your future.

You don’t need to freeze next winter if you start a repayment program while the weather is fair. Contact Full Circle about a Canadian debt consolidation plan.

Figures have just been released that show a dangerous trend among Canadian borrowers. The Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy reported last Wednesday that bankruptcies in Canada were up 10.2 per cent in February.

The total number of Canadians that applied for bankruptcy status in the second month of the year: 6,774.

Ouch!

Trust me guys, this is not a road you want to travel down. Once you declare bankruptcy your credit record is ruined. You may be asked to surrender many of your valuable possessions such as your car. It also requires you to meticulously track your future income and expenses.

For those of us buried in debt, there are other options.

Applying for a debt consolidation plan informs your creditors that you are making a serious attempt to repay your debt. It will stop the phone calls, the angry letters and most importantly, it will put your credit history into a category that, with steady payments, you can come back from.

Before you throw in the towel, think about your future. Apply for a debt consolidation plan with Full Circle Debt Solutions.

Avoid the Front Page

Alright readers, this week we are going to get a little personal. We’re going to talk about relationships and financial compatibility.

Before you jump into a serious relationship, it may be worth your while to have a long talk with your partner about their financial goals and current status.

You may have been working for years to improve your credit rating, but your new partner could be concealing thousands in debt. Financial conversations are just as important as discussions on childbearing. In an alarming statistic, 35 per cent of couples don’t talk about money before marriage. This is not healthy. You need to have the talk.

If you don’t ask you will never know. And sure it’s not very romantic, but neither is taking out the garbage. They both have to be done.

You don’t want to be carrying someone’s unpaid debt for the next twenty years. If your partner’s financial history is drastically different than your own, you may want to reconsider your compatibility.

If not. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Love conquers most things, but it doesn’t pay the bills at the end of the month.

"The Talk"

Why are more and more Canadians finding themselves in debt trouble?

Perhaps it is connected with the ease at which we are able to pay with our credit cards. Scan, swipe or enter our digits, and bam, the purchase is completed. The speed at which we can buy products and services using a credit option is driving us into unthinkable debt.

Now Visa Inc. is making that process even easier. This fall, Visa will launch a new payment program called “digital wallet.” Designed for the online purchaser, the Visa wallet app will allow customers to simply enter their email address and password to pay for their purchases. No need to get out your card, and type in the 16-digit number plus an expiration date. That takes up to much time and god forbid you cannot find your card. Now, all you will need to remember is your email and password

Scary.

What’s next?

In the future will we just have to say the words ‘charge it‘ into a voice detector and we can walk away with an X-Box 1080?

Who knows?

All I know is the harder it is to use my credit options, the less likely I am to run up a huge bill.

So if Visa comes calling, maybe tell them you’re happy with the old ways.

You Don't Even Need Your Card

This Sunday, May 8th, is Mother’s Day. It’s the one day set aside to remind our mothers how much they mean to our lives.

But how do we go about communicating this? Through gifts?

If I buy my Mom a huge basket of flowers, with every known blossom known to humankind, she would reply with a huge lecture on how I had wasted my money on a gift that will wilt by next week.

If I make my mother a card, she’ll love the effort, but the crayons and sparkle glue will only remind her of the fact her daughter is still struggling to make ends meet on the West Coast.

No, I think the best gift I can give my mother is the knowledge that with the help of my friends at Full Circle, I have finally got my life in order. Bills are getting paid, my credit level is improving and for the first time in years my head is firmly above the water line.

If you want put your mother’s mind at rest, sign up with Full Circle and give the gift of security. No more calls for financial bailouts. No more co-signs. No more teary phone calls complaining about your aggressive creditors.

It’s the gift she has been waiting for the past ten years.

Organization – It’s what separates the achievers from the dreamers.

Unfortunately, not all of us come by it naturally. Some of us need a little coaching on how to manage our time, work and money.

Many of us who lack critical organization skills are helped by our significant others. Our partners are always the first ones to notice our deficiencies (and I don’t mean that in a bad way), so when they can step up and help, it means a lot.

Sometimes it’s a friend who steps in and helps us organize our schedules and demands. Making timelines and helping with our financial records goes beyond the duties of a friend, but this kind of help is often received by the organizationally challenged.

For the rest of us, there is Full Circle Debt Solutions. Full Circle can help you make a financial plan and stick with it. They will outline exactly how long it will take for you to pay off your debt by giving you a fixed, manageable, monthly payment amount. Their counselors will provide tips and instruction so you can manage your credit back towards a positive standing.

A debt consolidation plan is your first major step towards organizing your life. Let Full Circle help you start yours today.

Organize Your Life

The Conservatives have officially secured a majority government, the HST is being debated across the Province and businesses are failing around the Lower Mainland – And the big stories this week: the Royal Wedding, Bin Laden shot and the second round of the playoffs.

Bread and circuses!

Sometimes the major issues are clouded with inconsequential news stories and entertainment. These pop into our lives through the media and consume our time. In the process, we lose sight of the issues that concern our day-to-day lives.

Your credit situation is a major issue. Ignoring it will not make it go away. I tried that route and it only gets you deeper in the hole.

Enjoy the Canucks plyaoff run, be happy that there is one less psycho in the world and send your congratulations to the Royal couple, but don’t forget about your debt.

Contact Full Circle Debt Solutions and work out a repayment plan. You can always come back to the news of the day, but solving your credit situation should be your first priority. The more time you spend with distractions, the more interest you will accumulate. Start a debt consolidation plan today.

You may or may not know this, but once a week representatives from all the major credit card companies meet on the Death Star to plan new and evil ways to lure consumers into signing up for their high interest credit plans. Lord Vader mediates, while the Emperor controls the flow of the meetings.

Many of their schemes fall flat, but a few do succeed.

One of their most dastardly plots is the ‘sports paraphernalia giveaway’. You’ve probably all seen this evil device at work at a Lions or Canucks game. The credit card companies set up a booth or stall and offer free merchandise if you sign up for a credit card. The merch is often a towel with the Orca on it or a Leo’s shirt, something that would literally cost less than twenty dollars.

But we’ve had a few beers, our boys are winning and they claim the towel is free – so we sign. And sure enough, a week later a credit card arrives in the mail.

For a fifteen dollar stuffed lion, we will pay years of interest payments. It seems absurd, but it works.

Avoid the tractor beam. Buy your towel at the pro shop and thwart the Dark Side.

The Evil That Plots Against You

Continuing on the Star Wars theme, R2D2 was a proud little protocol droid who did his work and stayed out of trouble. Actually, he continually disobeyed orders and had a quick temper. But he passed along a few very important messages that got the Rebellion back on their feet.

R7, a close relative of R2D2 (you see how I’m stretching), is a rating given to debtors who voluntarily choose to engage in a debt consolidation plan. In Canada there are nine rating marks with R1 being the perfect credit and R9 being bankruptcy. What R7 means to a future creditor is that the individual had problems with repayment, but sought help to pay off their debt. It means the debtor is dedicated to the credit repayment process.

The R7 rating is considerably removed from the R1 rating, but it shows that the individual chose to avoid bankruptcy. This is always a positive sign.

Three years after completing your debt consolidation plan, your credit rating will move back towards the R1 rating and closer to R2D2 status.

For more information on credit ratings, talk to a debt counselor by calling this number: 1-877-220-3328.

The Ever-Faithful R2 Unit

Hello readers, Julia here. This week I thought I would talk about an interesting trend I read about in a Vancouver Sun article.

It was about women and our forays into the business world. The article discussed the fact that a lot of women and probably men as well, tend to use financial help books to prepare themselves for their business ventures. The problem is that business books, by nature, are written in a dry, formulated language that leaves many readers abandoning their paperback by the end of the first chapter.

So what are we to do?

Support Groups!

I don’t know how many of you out there belong to a book club, but over the years I’ve been in a few. You meet with a few friends each week and talk about the chosen book you read, or tried to read. You discuss the characters, the symbolism, the plot, the naughty bits and then you spend the rest of the afternoon gossiping. You leave with a better understanding of the book through the exchange of ideas. You also finally get to hear why Penny dropped Shane.

Financial book clubs – just as valuable. Learn from your friends, talk about strategies that worked for them and throw in a little gossip as well. For your first book I would choose a lighter read, a book that could easily be finished in a week. I would start with Gail Vaz-Oxlade’s work, Debt Free Forever.

Good luck ladies. Tell me how it goes.

What age did you learn about managing your money?

Sesame Street is now incorporating money management skills into its educational package. Familiar characters like Oscar the Grouch, Elmo and Cookie Monster are being used by the popular kids program to educate children on financial subjects.

The project is titled “For Me, for You, for Later.” In the series, the Sesame characters use three jars to divide their money; one is labeled ‘spend’, one ‘save’, and the other ‘share’. The children learn the value of putting money away for each of these causes.

While the lessons are directed at children, the shows’ producers hope that the lessons will also inspire adult viewers to consider the values being presented to the younger audience. Saving and sharing are two traits that some grownups seem to neglect.

For a more adult take on financial stability, talk to a Vancouver credit counselor at Full Circle Debt Solutions. They might not use hand puppets and funny voices, but they will present you with sound advice for managing your income and your debt.

Call them. I did!

The Muppets Take on Finance

April 20th holds a soft place in the hearts of many Vancouverites. It’s a day for indulging in some of British Columbia’s finest. It’s a day when green enthusiasts can come together and share their love for a plant that many west coasters use to relax and unwind with.

This year’s celebrations will be held at the traditional meeting ground, the Vancouver Art Gallery steps. With tens of thousands expected to participate, the Vancouver gathering is considered to be the largest in North America. There will be free samples offered to the crowd, so no one goes without.

Proposed topics for discussion at this year’s event are the active promotion of legalization and the arrest of Marc Emery.

The festivities will begin at one o’clock and will build to twenty minutes past four. The gathering will continue until 9:00.

A post-party hip-hop show will take place at Fortune nightclub in Chinatown. The main musical guest will be the legendary Raekwon, of Wu-Tang fame.

Police will be on hand at the Art Gallery for the purpose of crowd control only.

Smoke Cloud Descends On Downtown Vancouver

One of the most important things about dealing with debt issues is knowing your personal rights. Your creditors may seem to hold all the cards, but there are rules that apply to their collection practices. Knowing these rules is an important part of managing your debt.

The first thing you should know, is that no creditor has the legal right to use threatening or intimidating language. This applies to contact with you, your family members and or any of your acquaintances. It is also against the law for them to publish a record of your failure to pay.

If a creditor has your correct contact information (home telephone number and address), they are not permitted to contact you at work. If, for some reason, contact cannot be made at the home number, a creditor can make ONE call to the debtor’s place of employment.

A creditor can only phone you between the hours of 7:00am and 9:00pm. They can only contact you on Sunday between 1:00pm and 5:00pm. They can never contact you on a stat holiday.

If you would like to learn more about your rights as a debtor, call 1-877-220-3328.

Make It Stop!

With your debt mounting are you forced to take on additional jobs? Maybe pick-up a blogging gig for you nights off? Has your free time evaporated?

Don’t run yourself into the ground trying to pay back your creditors. Sign up for a debt consolidation plan and work towards paying one realistic payment a month.

A debt consolidation plan could save you thousands in interest charges. It will also allow you to resume a normal life. One where you can take the odd night off. Maybe catch a movie or try that new bistro down the block.

It’s not a loan to pay back another loan. It’s a service.

Contact Full Circle Debt Solutions to apply today. The professionals at Full Circle will contact your creditors and negotiate terms that are consistent with your current income level.

You won’t have to spend your days off picking up extra shifts or spend your nights scouring Craigslist for a job that brings in more income. Full Circle will help you pay off your bills while maintaining the same lifestyle you currently hold.

For a no obligation consultation, call: 1-877-220-3328.

Taking On Too Much?

Well guys, it’s playoff time again and like most Vancouverites, all I can do to alleviate the excitement of Wednesday’s match-up against the Chicago Blackhawks is distract myself. Work is out of the question, I was in a daze the whole day. Television? Too many ‘History Will Be Made‘ ads. Bike ride? I always end up outside Rogers Arena. So I thought I would spend this weird purgatory period writing to you.

And you know what? We’re going to talk about the Canucks!

My question to you is this: “Do you think the Canuck organization should change the goal song from Green Day’s “Holiday” to something else?

I’m thinking something Canadian, or something by the White Stripes. Or… yes, I have it. “Howlin for You,” by the Black Keys. I’m a genius. Alright, your turn. Comment below and include your vote for the Canuck 2011 Playoff goal song.

Wave Your White Towel

Here’s hoping the Chicago Blackhawks don’t score a single goal in their own building and we don’t have to listen to that annoying song by the Fratellis!

The name of the company that saved me from my credit catastrophe is Full Circle Debt Solutions. An appropriate name for a company that specializes in returning dignity to the lives of average Canadians who may have been trapped in an otherwise hopeless cycle of credit debt.

No one plans to get caught up in a web of credit bills, but sometimes, through poor budgeting or unforeseen events, we find ourselves cornered by our creditors. With the two options of bankruptcy or repayment, the latter is often seen as the tougher road to travel.

Fortunately, Full Circle is in the business of helping Canadians fulfill their repayment obligations. Full Circle helps individuals pay off their debts by reducing their troubles to one easy payment. They accomplish this by negotiating a plan with your creditors.

It is in Full Circle’s best interest to help you find a plan that works with your income level. Talk to them today and meet with a credit counselor almost immediately. You will save thousands in interest payments.

Sign up and turn your life around – Full Circle.

Hey guys. I had a coffee with my friend the other day and she asked me an interesting question that is pretty relevant to what we’ve been talking about the last couple of months.

Her question was this: “Is a consolidation plan the same as a consolidation loan?”

The answer: Not at all.

If you signup for a consolidation plan with Full Circle, you are not loaned any money. You are not switching one creditor for another. Full Circle provides a service. They contact your creditors and explain your situation. They make arrangements for you to pay them back on terms that are more reasonable. This is the service they provide.

They also make it easy for you. Instead of three or more outstretched hands, asking for money, there is only one bill. With only one bill, your interest payments are greatly reduced. This can save you thousands of dollars.

Sounds almost too good to be true! Trust me. You’ll never look back. Well, until it’s all paid off and then you’ll be raving to all your friends just like I am.

So visit their site and fill out the quick-and-easy form.

http://www.debtgone.ca

Questions Over Coffee

Exciting! The headliners have been announced for this year’s Live at Squamish. Closing the show are alt rocks’ poster boys, Weezer. The Canadian rockers Metric, fronted by Emily Haines will headline the opening night. Also on the line-up are the John Butler Trio, Major Lazer (a joint project that includes DJ Diplo and Switch), Canadian hip-hop artist Kyprios and dance mash-up artist, Girl Talk.

There will be a small area for on-site camping. The camping passes will be sold in pairs for $150. Why in pairs? Who knows? The camping pass will allow you stay for three nights and will secure you one parking space.

The festival weekend tickets will be priced at $119 until May 15rh. Children 12 and under have free admission when accompanied by an adult.

The gates to the festival grounds will open each day at 2:00pm. Tickets will be exchanged for wristbands at the door. There is no outside alcohol or cigarettes allowed on the festival site.

See you there!

In high school you planned your whole adult life out in one week of career planning. You intended to go to University for four years, get your Bachelor of Science Degree and then move on to a specialized field in bioengineering with a specialty in immunology. After a year abroad in Africa, you planned to get a job at a Canadian University to continue your work. By twenty-eight you wanted to own your first home and by thirty-three, start a family.

Turns out not everything goes according to plan.

After two years in Science, you switched to Arts. You graduated with a degree in creative writing and then spent the next three years trying to find a job in your field. After teaching English in Korea for two years, you returned to Canada and went back to school for a trade. Now working as a metal fabricator, you are just starting to pay off your huge student loan along with your three maxed credit cards. You’re thirty-four and a house seems at least a few years away.

Plan B got you a job that challenges you every day. It let you experience life in other countries. It let you experiment with your desire to write. And it helped you realize you were skilled in a field you never even considered ten years earlier.

But it also left you with a huge debt.

When it comes time to pay, there are institutions that can help. Full Circle Debt Solutions will sign on to be in your corner. They can talk to your creditors to help devise a repayment plan. Visit their website today.

Boys. We’ve talked about this before, but I think it’s worth another refresher. If you are over twenty-five and looking to find that right someone, you can’t expect to land the women of your dreams when you have a massive debt tugging at your back pocket. It’s not attractive. Trust me. I don’t like mine and I definitely don’t want to marry another person who is in deep as debt as I was a year ago.

But unlike a poor gene physical attribute, your debt can be worked off. You spend all those hours in the gym working off the beer from the weekend before; why not spend some months seriously paying off your creditors?

Don’t know where to start? Look at your bills and find the one with the highest interest rate. Start there. Still confused. Hire Full Circle Debt Consolidation to help you manage your debt. They did wonders for me and look how confident I am now. All it takes is a visit to their site. Fill out the quick form and a debt counselor will call you back. It is that easy.

Now please, try it.  And lose the facial hair. We’re not big fans of that either.

Call Full Circle... Then Shave.

The ostrich is an interesting animal. It is the largest bird on earth and has the largest eye of any land animal. The latter feature gives the bird acute eyesight. It also has exceptional hearing. Just try and sneak up on one. Bet you can’t.

But why am I talking about ostriches? You got it! Because they stick their heads in the sand. And what does someone drowning in debt do? C’mon, I did it myself. Right, we ignore the problem and bury our responsibility.

Is this the best choice? Probably not.

But that’s why the ostrich comes equipped with powerful legs, to defend itself against predators. “Are you telling us to take a karate lesson to handle our debt.” No. But you can attack it head on when you seek the help of Full Circle Debt Solutions. By creating one easy payment, you can minimize the anxiety that comes at the end of the month when all your creditors come asking for a piece of your income.

Now I’ll let you in on a little secret. The ostrich head-in-the-sand connection is actually completely false. Ostriches lower their bodies as a defense mechanism, but they never shove their heads into the earth. They’re too smart for that. And so are we. So start paying back your debts and start seeing what’s really around you. It’s not as bad as you think.

At the doctor’s office the other day, I happen to pick-up a copy of Good Housekeeping. Now, you may ask, ‘Julia, why are you even reading a periodical that focuses on home ownership when you rent.’ Well, dear readers, you can always dream. And, like many media sources out there, you can always find something that deals with your interests.

Sure enough, I found an article on saving money, my newfound passion. It was the title that first grabbed me: “Get it For Free.” Yes – you now have my attention.

The article talked about the online world of trading. It focused on two sites: Swapadvd.com and Swap.com. Both of these sites let you trade products with other users. The only charge is the shipping. If you package a bunch of trades with the same user, you can lower the cost dramatically.

The Swapadvd.com is simple enough, you can trade movies, but on Swap.com you can trade just about anything. When you create your profile, you make a list of the items you have and the items you are looking to trade for. The site automatically matches you with other members who may have similar interests and items you need.

It’s a pretty cool idea. Check it out. And the best part – No credit debt!

Good luck with the treasure hunt. Talk next week.

Julia

Hello again fellow penny-pinchers. Julia here.

This week I have another tip to pass along on how to make our hard-earned dollar go a little further. It concerns the price of gas in the Lower Mainland and for that matter the price of gas across the country. It’s skyrocketing! But that’s probably not news to anyone. With the unrest in the Middle East and the fate of nations being held at the hands of revolutionaries, the price of oil is reaching never before highs. Just last week, a station in Richmond posted their regular gas at a price pennies away from $1.40 a litre. I know, crazy talk. But that is the world we are currently living in.

So my tip, check out the GasBuddy app for your smart phone. Last week it was the 18th most downloaded app at the iTunes store. What GasBuddy does is track the daily prices of fuel around the city of your choosing. With this information they are able to post the best deals of the day, so you don’t have to spend time looking for them.

A noticeable trend in price spikes shows that Thursday night is a good night to purchase your fuel. Gas stations tend to raise their prices Friday morning, as many individuals load up their cars for the weekend.

So buy your gas during the week and download the free app to find the cheapest station in your neighbourhood.

There's an App For That.

Things that you would never want your girlfriend to find:

1. Your Grade 10 high school Yearbook (those photos from your Musical Theatre class are terrible for your cred)

2. Your signed Nelly Furtado CD

3. Your ex-girlfriends love letters (Why do you still have those!!!)

4. Your Pilates DVD series

5. The novel you started writing just out of University

6. That text from Jennifer last Saturday night

7. Your collection of Spiderman comics

8. Your nightly face creme.

9. Your worn copy of Twilight

10. Your drawer full of credit statements

Hope She Doesn't Go Searching For A Pen

One through nine you can take care of yourself. Number ten is a little trickier. Sure you can throw out the paper statements, but that won’t stop the creditors from sending more. The only way to scuttle your debt is to tackle it head on. Confused about how to start this process? Consider a debt consolidation plan with the credit experts at Full Circle Debt Solutions. Their counselors will guide you on your path to repayment.

Trust me boys. Girls are always on the hunt for incriminating evidence. Lose yours with the help of Full Circle.

A short PSA from our friends at Mattress Choice, the number one mattress store in Victoria.

The events in Japan this week have forced many British Columbians to look long and hard at their earthquake preparations. Many of you have been asking ourselves the same question: “Will my family be ready if we are hit by a quake on par with the one that took place off the coast of Japan?”

If you feel like the answer is no, log on to the Provincial Emergency Program, a website created by the Ministry of Public Safety. There are pages of tips to help keep your family safe during the event of an earthquake. There are also loads of tips on how to prepare your family for the ‘big one’ that scientists around the world are predicting will eventually strike the Pacific Northwest.

Pacific Ring of Fire

Mattress Choice would like to post a few of the suggestions for preparing your home:

1.  Inspect your home’s foundation. This includes your walls and your chimney. You should make immediate repairs to any structural elements of concern.

2. Tie down your water heater and other major appliance that could topple and flood your residence.

3. Store your important documents in a fireproof box in a secured location.

4. Keep flamable products such as cleaning chemicals in a special cabinet, away from heat.

5. Move your bed away from windows or hanging picture frames. You spend 1/3 of your day in bed. If a quake hit during the night, you would be helpless to falling debris in those few seconds of disorientation.

With only a few days in the Premier’s office under her belt, Christy Clark has announced plans to make good on her campaign promise to raise the minimum wage in British Columbia from $8 an hour to $10.25. Clark claims that the $10.25 wage will be in effect no later than May 1st of 2012.

The increase will come in stages, with the first jump occurring in May of this year. The first bump will take the wage to $8.75. In November it will rise again to $9.50 and then by May of next year it will finally climb to $10.25.

Clark also plans to eliminate the training wage, which is currently set at $6 per hour.

B.C. currently holds the lowest minimum wage in the country.

The increase is an integral part of Clark’s plan to put families first.

The wage was last changed when Gordon Campbell first came to power, nearly a decade ago.

Though many small business owners are wary of the increase, Clark is confident that the new increase will not affect the economy in a negative fashion. Others believe that potentially, numerous jobs could be cut and replaced with atomization practices.

Only will time will tell.

Working for Minimum Wage

Hey guys. Just wanted to pass along some moving advice from my friends at Careful Movers:

First time buyer? Looking to move inside the Calgary area? Now is the time.

With the Bank of Canada maintaining its interest rate freeze at a near record low mark of 1%, homebuyers can now lock into mortgages at rates that will probably never be seen again in our lifetime.

This is the year to take the leap from renter to owner. With the economy starting to show signs of recovery, it won’t be long before the banks decide to raise the rates.

And with the West Coast market spiking, Calgary seems like the most affordable option for a first class city to live in.

With your new home purchased, you will need a first class moving company to transport your furnishings from your old dwelling to your new home. Careful Movers is your best option for a reliable, competitively priced moving company in the Calgary area. Our staff will handle your belongings with kid gloves. We will show up on time, with all the resources needed to move your items safely.

When the purchase of your new home is finally processed, your next move is to call Careful Movers – Calgary’s moving company.

Is the Grass Greener On the Other Side of the Rockies?

My friends! I have a little entertainment saving tip for you.

Concerts can be an expensive luxury, especially if you want to check out some of the bigger acts that come to our fair city. Rihanna tickets went on sale last week and the majority of the seats were over $100. Ouch. The same applied for the Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj tour. Honestly, who was $140 dollars to spend on a one-night ticket? Not this young lady.

But don’t turn your back on the music. There are plenty of small shows playing around the city that are more affordable and way more intimate.

Hey Rosetta is playing the Rio Theatre on Friday night and tickets are only $25. This is an awesome venue to check out a show. And for all the hipsters, the Rio serves Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Saturday you have The Dears, an amazing indie band out of Montreal, playing Venue. Tickets, again, are only $25. And you can get as close to the band as the bouncers will permit.

So don’t let your limited finances hold you back from enjoying what the city has to offer. Just pick your events a little more carefully.

Stay tuned for more affordable entertainment options.

The Dears - Looking Serious in Greyscale

Vancouver, BC has recently won the honour of ‘Most Livable City in the World’ for the 8^th time in a row or something.

Sure, Vancouver’s a lovely place with majestic mountains, beautiful beaches, clean air, lush forests and a temperate climate – but what of the cost of living in such a place?

It seems there is no room for a middle class in this city. Housing prices are the highest in the world compared to salary. The average house: $700,000. The average household income: $65,000. That’s over 10 times.

It’s crazy. No one can afford to live in Vancouver except overseas investors, and even they don’t live here. Take a look at Yaletown at night and you’ll see what they call the ‘Blackout Effect’ – a whole lotta empty apartments. Couple that with the worst homeless problem in the country, and it’s not looking so livable any more. (There is one really easy solution to kill two birds with one stone here – but I’ll leave the dot-connecting to the anarchists.)

Don’t get me wrong. I love this fair city. But it shouldn’t be inaccessible to own a place without accruing an impossible debt.

For now, I’m happy to rent. If I can consolidate my debt in Vancouver to a manageable number, then I’ll start looking into buying. And hopefully, by then, the prices will be back to normal.

Either way, the sun is shining. I’m off for a jog along the sea wall to the backdrop of the mountains and buildings of shimmering green glass all under the glorious blue sky.

If you are looking for Full Circle Debt Solutions in Surrey, BC, perhaps you didn’t know that we moved to Delta, BC, just a hop, skip and a jump down the road.

We used to do Surrey debt consolidation, and we still do, in fact we service the entire Lower Mainland from our Delta office at:

Full Circle Debt Consolidation Solutions

6935 120 Street,

Delta, BC

Canada

V4E 2A8

604-724-3242

So no matter if you live in Vancouver, Richmond, Delta, Surrey, Langley, Burnaby, New Westminster, White Rock, or Coquitlam we can help you with your debt consolidation needs.

Some people refuse to go into debt. They see it as a sign of weakness.

The reality: these people probably lead a boring life or have crazy assistance from some family benefactor.

The ‘D’ word should not be an evil phrase. It is a natural part of living in a monetary world. All of the perceived power nations run with a debt. Even China’s industrial boom is the result of the country going into massive debt. But what do these investments yield, stronger, more competitive nations.

Without debt, you would never afford to live in a house, pay for a new car, go on vacation or graduate from the school of your choice. It is a necessary element for achieving the lifestyle you deserve.

Paying off your debt can be hard. But as your income increases over time, it becomes easier and more manageable.

For those of us in our late twenties and early thirties, debt can sometimes seem like a dark cloud of oppression. Fear not. As I said, it gets better.

But for now, seeking out a debt counselor is often a proactive means of controlling your financial situation. The staff at Full Circle is an excellent resource for creating a plan to manage your debt. If you are having trouble meeting your payments, Full Circle will contact your creditors and create a repayment plan that is practical for your current income level.

Debt is not to be feared. We need it to lead progressive, full lives.

If you are struggling with your monthly payments contact Full Circle today.

Debt is Not a Word to Fear

Part Two – Gym Memberships

With all the work I’m doing to pay off my debt, it is sometimes hard to find time to keep my body in the shape I like it to be.

(Ladies, we’re talking about the backside. Boys, we’re talking about your gut. And that joke about having a keg instead of a six-pack stopped being funny years ago.)

This week I considered joining a private gym. I confess my new infatuation with Vancouver’s adopted leader, Trevor Linden, lead me to ponder a membership to Club 16. Yes it’s in Coquitlam, but the chance to work out beside Linden had me looking past the drive.

Trevor Linden on the Treadmill

So I started doing some research and looked into the price. It cost $14.99 a month, but I would have to lock into a 12 month plan. I looked at my budget and even though I was spending almost right to the cap (Gillis style), I could just afford it.

But then a few days went by and I started to think about my idea with a little more clarity. How much would I honestly spend on gas? Would I use the gym for the five months of the year when Vancouver is truly amazing outside? What if I joined and decided three months down the road that it wasn’t for me?

Then I looked into Community Centre plans or lack thereof. The monthly price was a little higher, but there was no contract. The location was less than four blocks from my house. And the equipment was a little older, but the basics were all there.

Then I thought, what if I just used my home as a gym. I had stairs in my apartment for climbing, a park near by for running, a yoga mat for crunches and a old workout ball from an ex who thought he could tone his tummy by sitting in front of the TV.

Eureka! Julia’s private workout club was born.

I had enough bills already. A gym membership was silly, private or public.

And the best part. No gym monkeys posing in the mirror.

Try it. It’ll save you money.

-Worried about motivation. Find a friend and create a daily schedule. Push each other to increase your difficulty.

Good luck. See you in June!

Julia here. Surfing the net this week (FOR FREE!) I came across an interesting article published in the Globe and Mail.

The article was entitled, “Five Common Mistakes When Paying Off Debt.”

Being that I had a massive debt problem just under a year ago, I thought I should probably read up on what the paper’s expert had to offer; You know, just in case I could share it with you guys. After reading the article though, it occurred to me that every tip offered I had heard before. Don’t get me wrong! It was great advice, but it was like they had interviewed my debt counselor at Full Circle and stolen all of his wisdom.

Whatever the case, I thought I would pass on his pearls to my readership.

1. Work with a repayment plan

-This is exactly what Full Circle provides. Your personal credit counselor will devise a plan that works for your current income. If that rate changes, they can readjust the numbers to suit your needs. The focus of payment should always be on the debt with the largest interest rate.

2. Don’t Pay More Than You Have To

-Lose the balance protection insurance on all your credit cards. This is a scam! The article also puts forth a disturbing example of how paying the minimum payment hardly affects your overall balance. In most cases it only just covers your interest. Full Circle’s advice: When you have the funds, pay as much off on your high interest debt as you can.

3. Create a Spending Plan

-This is a where you can pinpoint just how and what you are spending your money on. It’s great for cutting needless expenditures. The Globe suggests using a site to create your plan. They endorse MoneyStrands. See how it works for you.

4. Don’t Shred Your Cards When You Finally Pay Them Off

-Credit cards do have their perks. Rental insurance, extended warranties and lost or damaged items are just a few reasons to hold on to your plastic. Ironically, they could end up saving YOU money.

5. Don’t Go Down That Road Alone

-This is exactly the service that Full Circle provides.

Well readers, with all the social unrest demonstrated around the world these past few weeks, it probably isn’t a surprise that Canadians are finally taking to the streets to mount their own protests. But instead of demanding a power change or basic human rights, Canadians are fighting to hold on to the one free luxury that has surfaced in this modern age of technology: the glorious Internet. The CRTC, the same group that recently pulled a Dire Straits classic from the airwaves, has just approved a plan to allow service providers to charge their users according to their Internet usage.

What does that mean for the average Internet user? You know all those movies you have been downloading? That could potentially spike your Rogers Internet bill.

But before we march on Ottawa, it should be noted that the government has already seen the potential for a unilateral surge of public outcry. Harper’s Conservatives have stepped in and delayed the notion until further review.

Thank god!

In a day and age when movie theatres charge close to fifteen dollars and CDs cost close to twenty, it’s nice to still count on Al Gore’s wonderful series of pipes and tubes to provide us with free entertainment as we go about our busy lives.

Even with the government’s intervention plans have been made for public demonstrations against the CRTC ruling. Several major groups are planning to stage protests across Canada on February 26th.

Let’s keep those bills down.

Stay tuned for more details.

The Future (maybe)

Part of my problem when I was struggling with my debt issues was the denial of my growing debt. The bills would come and I would immediately stash them in a drawer in my room. The numbers depressed me and I knew I could never pay them.

The same applied to my bank statements. I never wanted to know how far I was into my overdraft or the amount I had spent on my Visa that month. I just wanted to pay the minimum and move on with life.

This, dear friends, is no way to live.

You need to be conscious of your spending if you ever plan to manage your life in a progressive manner. One way I found to manage my resources efficiently was to signup for online banking. It literally only takes a few minutes and you can do all your account transfers and budgeting online.

Opening monthly bank statements can be traumatic. Opening your account online is easy and painless. You will also be able to track your balance as you move through the week. It is an excellent resource for financial management.

No Internet access? Use the computers at your local public library.* You can check your Facebook, watch YouTube and manage your money all in one stop. Try it. It helped me. And most of my friends said I was beyond help.

*When working on computers at the library and at Internet cafés, always remember to clear your cache and reset your browser. You do not want your banking information getting into the wrong hands.

Just Remember To Check Over Your Shoulder

It’s confession time. You already know most of the details of the past two years of my life. You also know I smoke. And I love to shop.

But I bet you didn’t know that I am a huge fan of historical fiction. I love combat scenes, heroes, knights, cavalry charges and battle strategy. I sometimes fantasize about running an infantry unit at work, as I supervise the junior waitresses beneath me. When I’m hiking, I find myself daydreaming about how a mounted unit would move across the terrain. When I fill my purse in the morning, I think about how much else I would need to carry if I was a soldier marching off to war.

But I’m not. I’m Julia – A waitress with huge amounts of debt.

I’m not a Roman soldier or a knight of Camelot or even a Canadian foot soldier. None of these heroes would have thrown themselves at the foot of their enemy and begged for mercy. But that is how I perceived my move to contact Full Circle Debt Solutions. I surrendered, just before ruin.

But then it hit me one day: ‘Julia, you’re not surrendering. You are choosing the best option possible. You are admitting defeat, sure, but only in battle, not in the war.’

My white flag was raised to save the rest of my soldiers, to help secure a life for the ones who lied wounded. My actions were for mercy, but I would return. I only needed time and the resources to compete, both of which Full Circle provided.

Help Is On its Way

Well hello again. It’s me Julia, your friendly storyteller and fellow debtor. If you have been following my story, you know that by the fall of 2009 I was seriously floundering.

Let’s quickly review my situation for those who weren’t paying attention:

I was unable to find work in my field of study, Education.

I applied and received a credit card to pay for my bills and rent.

I found a job as a waitress to pay for my rent and the minimal payment on my card.

Student loan repayment had me paying another $357 a month until I got it reduced to $187.

I found a position inside a school, but fortunately it was only volunteer. Income tax can be a killer.

To get back and forth to my non-paying job I bought a car. Correction; I agreed to start making payments on a car.

Now let’s add up those monthly totals:

Credit card min. payment: $110

Student Loan: $187

Car payment: $263

Rent: $720

Subtotal: $1280

Lets add to that my other major expenditures:

Groceries: $375 (roughly)

Cigarettes: $120

Gas: $60

Subtotal: 555

Grand Total: 1835

Ouch. And I was barely making $2,000 a month. Paying the bills, but only when I could. I prayed for an easier way, a path of less resistance. It came, finally, but not before I added another debtor to my list…

The List

July 2009  – The Heavy Hand of the Federal Government

Opening up the bill, I slowly scanned the statement provided by the National Student Loan Bureau; $357 a month was to be my minimum payment. Wow. That was half my rent!

Well my friends were at the beach, I spent July working like an animal and worrying about how I could pay my credit cards and my loan payments. I felt alone, left to meek out a meager existence in a forest of debt.

Then a co-worker told me that I could apply for debt relief. By filling out a form and providing details on my current income, I could become available for a short term, reduced payment plan. I applied and two weeks later was accepted.

My new payment was $187. Steep, but manageable.

I paid the minimum on all my bills at the end of the month. Again, I was just barely surviving. The credit card interest was killing me. I needed a way to pay them off and focus solely on reducing my debt to the government.

I also needed out of the waitressing gig and into my field of study.

Maybe August would hold more promise.

Crippled by Debt

This week I thought I would end with another helpful saving tip.

An article in Canadian Living entitled, “Trim Your Grocery Bill”, inspired me.

According to the article, Canadians spend almost as much money on food and grocery bills as they do on rent. The article references a professional shopper/blogger named Kimberly Clancy. For a news piece, Clancy was able to walk into a grocery store and after picking out a $133.89 worth of product, reduce the cost to a meager $23.45.

Her secret: coupons. Apparently those old ladies with the bursting purses are on to something. Clancy claims that she routinely saves 25 per cent on her grocery bill using coupons and watching for upcoming sales.

Now, I know what you’re thinking; only the elderly have the time to spend scanning flyers and leaflets for discounts. But a few each week can save you dollars that add up at the end of the month.

Other tips from the article are to buy generic, avoid impulse shopping and plan meals before entering the store.

A great generic brand retailer in Vancouver is No Frills. There are two locations, one just off Alma, on Fourth Avenue and the other in the West End, on Denman Street. Tell them Julia sent you.

Talk next week!

Squint and Save

Continuing with the news theme, I thought I would touch on one more very important news story from the past week. Now, being from back East, I can’t really appreciate the magnitude of this story, but talking with friends who have lived in Vancouver all their lives, I’m starting to understand just how important it really is.

The story: Trevor Linden’s appointment to the Order of Canada.

Being a fairly new Canucks fan, I had to do a little research on Trevor. I had heard the tales of 94 from some of my guy friends, but I had no idea of the amount of charity work that the young hockey captain participated in.

Now every time I see his smiling face on those eyeglass ads on the bus, I can understand why this city holds such a high regard for their transplanted son.

Some day I hope to inspire young children with the same passion that Trevor was able to share with the less fortunate.

We all can’t be honoured in the way Trevor has been, but we can all appreciate the hope he was able to inspire.

Thank you #16…

Forever Our Captain

We all have that moment when we are pulled from the gutter and given hope that tomorrow will be the return to better days.

Without being too sappy, my moment was when I contacted Full Circle Debt Solutions.  I called to ask about a plan to consolidate the huge mess of unpaid debt I found myself drowning in. It was 2009 and I had borrowed from every available source I knew. One year later, I am working towards paying off every creditor I owed. I have renewed hope, I am more confident in my decision-making and my attitude on life has done a full 180.

The same sort of inspiring event happened to a homeless man named Ted Williams this week. Williams was begging for money at the side of the highway in Columbus, when a media personal recognized his talent. He returned with a video camera team to film Williams speak and record his story.

Williams, in the video that went viral in a matter of minutes, holds a sign that claims he has the ‘God given gift of voice.’ Watching the tape, you realize that the homeless man is far from exaggerating. Williams, who once worked as a radio host until he lost his way with drugs and alcohol, has a voice that belongs on Monday Night Football.

The Columbus Dispatch posted the video and asked if anyone could hire the out-of-luck announcer. Well, within a week Williams had a job with Kraft Foods. The Kraft Food Company is currently running a campaign to Feed America through 20 million meals. Hiring Williams, the Kraft Company latched themselves on to the viral news story. With a commercial already in the can, Williams voice will soon be heard, again, all across America. And this time he’ll be paid.

Congratulations Ted.

Eliminating needless expenditures

Part One – The Mermaids Mug

Addictions are a tough subject to bring up. I’m not to fond of talking about my brother’s illness and I’m sure addicts aren’t too keen on discussing their own slides. But some addictions carry a little less severity than others.

This week I want to talk about this city’s addiction to java.

It’s rampant. I thought it was bad back east with the Tim Hortons craze, but they have nothing on Vancouverites.

You guys are hooked on the Mermaids brew. She has her three pronged triton deeply imbedded in your psyche. You need her elixir to start your day. You make plans to meet at her lair with potential partners. And you sneak in just before closing to get your last cup for the long night of work ahead.

These visits add up. It’s almost five dollars for every non-fat, extra shot, caramel latte you order. Plus, one out of every three visits you add a munchie. On an average week your bills could total over sixty dollars. That’s ludicrous. And we’re not talking about the rapper.

Want to save money? Buy a thirty-dollar coffee maker, some filters and a generic tub of fine grind. Bring your tub to work and brew your own blend at the job. It might seem weird at first, but you will soon see the difference in your pocket book at the end of the week.

Small things like these can have you saving money instantly.

Try it.

The Little Mermaid

All right my followers, it’s a new year, a new beginning, time to get your life in order. Trust me, once you do these few simple things, you will feel so much better about your daily routine.

The first thing you need to do is organize. Forget the money issues for a sec and take the time to clean up your living area. Clean the bathroom, the kitchen, the closet; especially the closet. Throw out any old clothes you don’t think you will wear again. Next, do your car. Get rid of all that junk you’ve been lugging around.

All right, now back in the house.

Next is your purse/backpack/wallet. If you are one of those people who likes to collect receipts (which is great!), find a shoebox and store them away. You don’t need those little paper reminders in your back pocket. Then take your key ring and remove any key that you don’t use on a regular basis. Do the same with your cards, pens, and cell phone adapters; anything that you might be carrying with you that is of little or no use discard.

"The Things We Carried"

Now go for a walk.

Back already?

Feel better?

Do you know what you just did? You consolidated. Now, it is a little trickier with your finances. That’s where Full Circle Debt Consolidation can help. Their expert credit team can help you minimize the bills that reach you. Your only concern will be one simple sum that will arrive once a month.

Apply for a Full Circle consultation right now and feel the weight lifted within days.

In the spirit of Christmas, let’s stay in the present.

Last night, when I was on a smoke break (yes, I smoke and yes, I know I could save myself a ton of money by not, but I also never said I was perfect), a fellow employee shared an alarming statistic with me. Apparently, Canadians debt-to-income level is now higher than our American neighbours to the south. Fact!

The way he explained it, this statistic is troubling because it could spell financial ruin for families who have over extended themselves. The threat comes in the form of rising interest rates. Currently interest rates are at a all-time low, but as the economy rebounds, these will start to rise. When they do, some families may not be able to meet their higher payments.

I brought up the matter with my credit counselor at Full Circle. He told me that this was exactly the reason why debt consolidation is a smart move for any Canadian with a variety of credit card and personal debt payments. Consolidate and you only have to make one payment at a fixed rate. It’s simple. Even I get it. And you know how much financial trouble I used to be in – We’ll get back to that next week.

Here is another article if you want to read more on the debt-to-income crisis. You’re welcome…

It’s been a week dear readers. Did you miss me? Please say yes.

Well, lets get back to the gory details.

January 2009 – Resumés, resumés, resumés!
So after completing my Education program on the Island, I crossed the Inlet to look for work in the lower mainland. I had a brother living here, so I moved in with him. That proved difficult, but again, that is a story for another blog.

The first month here I spent my time checking different job posting websites. I submitted my resumé to every position that became available and waited patiently for a response… nothing. Then I started dropping my resumé in person at every school board office between Squamish and Chilliwack. I got one phone call. From the Surrey office. They called to say ‘they weren’t hiring, but they would keep my resumé on file.’ Excellent.

February 2009 – Tears and Fears
With no responses, I started to panic. What if I never found work? What if I went years without work? How would I afford to live in the city? I couldn’t move back home, that would admit failure. Could I take on another job and still look for work?
Totally confused I spent the rest of the month feeling sorry for myself.

March 2009 – Last of the Free Rent / Deal With the Devil
In March my brother told me I would have to start paying rent. I needed to come up with money quickly. That’s when a friend of mine, a so-called-friend, suggested getting a credit card. They said I could use the card to take out an advance and then pay the money back when I found work. Honestly, looking back, I thought I was smarter than that. Turns out I wasn’t. Like a junkie’s first hit, I took the card, paid my brother off and bought a new pair of boots to help boost my spirits. And like that, I was hooked.

Aren't They Cute???

Well, I should probably tell you how I found my financial saviours.
It all started with a text conversation, with my good friend Alexis:

Alexis: OMG! Have you heard the Arcade Fire’s new album? Frking amazing!
Me: Yeah, I downloaded it last nite. The Sprawl 2 gave me goosebumps.
Alexis: You know theyre coming in Sept?!?! Lets get tix!
Me: Love to, but honestly, I have 0 funds. Can’t even afford to pay Rogers bill. This time next week I may be sending this msg by carrier pigeon. LOL
Alexis: Seriously, is it that bad? ☹
Me: You have no idea!
Alexis: You know my brother signed up for this debt program online.
Me: Oh yeah. You know what it was called?
Alexis: No, but Ben said it made his life way easier.
Me: How???
Alexis: Well for 1, he got in touch with a credit counselor. They explained his rights and then worked out a plan for repayment.
Me: Was this 2 different org.s?
Alexis: No, the debt program and the counselor were from the same company. I think the term Ben used was debt consolidation.
Me: Sounds like a disease.
Alexis: Hey! Don’t you knock it. Ben is way better off now. You should try it. Just google debt-consolidation-Vancouver.
Me: Alright, I’ll try it. But if I develop a thirst for kool-aid…
Alexis: LMAO!!! Don’t worry babe. It works.

Saving Tip: Pick Your Plan Wisely

Hello out there in cyberland. (Echoooo….)
My name is Julia and I have financial problems. Yes, I am one of the many who can’t seem to manage their finances. Too many bills, not enough steady income.
A few years ago I thought I had it all under control. I was just about to finish my Post-Bac Education Program and head straight into a teaching job. Oh, naive Julia of two years ago, if only I could warn you…
Now, in December of 2010, I have still not found my way on to the TOC list of any district in the Lower Mainland. I am working as a waitress four nights a week and volunteering at a local elementary school three days a week. I also work sporadically at an English school in North Vancouver.

Still Waiting For My Own Classroom

Did you know there’s an app on your iPhone that will let you automatically screen your calls so that ‘black list’ calls will never interuppt your dinner?

Why would the App Store offer such a gadget?

Collectors. If you have ever had to deal with these annoying blood-suckers, you know the problem. They call at dinner-time, they call in the morning, they call at all-hours. All they care about is money.

Collectors are bad on the morale. They are a kill-joy and an energy suck. They need to be avoided, or, nipped in the bud.

The iPhone app will help you avoid them, for now.

But sometimes it is better to get them out of your hair once and for all.

With a debt management, debt consolidation strategy, Full Circle can help you find a way to reduce your monthly payments to collectors by as much as 50%!

To find out more, contact us today at www.debtgone.ca and we’ll get those collectors off your back once and for all.

Vancouver, BC debt solutions are a little different than other cities. If you have hundreds of dollars in monthly payments, and if these are credit cards and you are paying crazy 20% plus interest on these bills – you aren’t ever going to get anywhere.

But there is hope. If you live in Vancouver, BC, and you are interested in Vancouver debt consolidation solutions you have a friend in Full Circle Debt Solutions.

The first thing you need to do is examine your options.

1. Do you own a home? If you own a home in Vancouver, BC then you are already ahead of the game. You will be able to consolidate all of your high-cost debt almost instantly with a home equity loan or second mortgage.

2. If you don’t own a home – are you good with numbers? Take a good, hard look at your financial statements, at your chequebook, and at your organized bank statements and data. If you have all of this available, and you check it weekly, you can probably make some headway to the steps you need to sort out your debt.

3. HELP! If you can’t balance a chequebook on a 40 foot concrete slab. then you might just need a little help from people who deal with numbers and figures every day. A lot of what we do is just make sense of your financial situation. Because we live and breathe this stuff, it’s easy for us to make it easy for you to understand. Sometimes the best thing you can do is just get a consultation about your debt situation, so we can offer practical advice.

To find out more about Full Circle Debt Solutions, give us a call today. We would be more than happy to help you out. It is our goal to see everyone in Canada out of debt.

Got a case of the Mondays? Why not blow off the cubicle life and try dropping out of society.

It’s tongue-in-cheek, but there is something to be said about being 100% self-sufficient.

Did you know? 1 in 7 homes in America is currently available for squatting. A little lesson to be learned in debt management.

Have you seen this funny clip from Saturday Night Live?

You have to love Steve Martin. He’s a riot.

But seriously, this is my life! I was exactly like this. Before I sorted out my debt, all I did was buy things. I loved to buy things! Especially things I could not afford.

I was talking to my ex-boyfriend the other day on the phone.

We are still friends and we still keep in touch from time to time. And in a funny way, no one knows me better than Stan. We went through a lot when we were young, idealistic early-twentysomethings.

One of those principals was that we would never allow anyone to pay for anything for us. His dad was a successful businessman and he even had Stan working for his company selling insurance when he was in high school. But Stan was never big on insurance. He’d rather grow out his hair and strum along to Donovan. That’s what I loved about the guy, he went his own way.

And he really stuck with it. He ended up getting his own recording studio, years later. And now, talking to him, he’s doing okay.

We got into a conversation about debt though. I guess owning your own studio isn’t the cheapest endevour to set out on, and being as stubborn as Stan was, he refused to get any help from his dad. This meant that he was up to his eyeballs in debt when I talked to him.

You know my story. My debt was simply out of control up to just recently. So I told Stan about debt consolidation options available and how with the right debt management, how he could save his bruised credit.

Stan was all ears. I have to say, even though I haven’t seen him in years, I still miss my crazy hippie friend.

Crazy Stan

So like I mentioned earlier, I had just recently graduated as a Certified Dental Assistant and I was now enjoying life in the workforce earning a decent wage. About 6 months in I received a letter regarding my student loan, stating that the interest payment freeze was over and I was now responsible for the payments of my previous student loans. Ouch. Also, my newest loan was now requiring monthly payments.

Vancouver is an expensive city and I soon found my new wealth drying up.  I was struggling to make monthly minimum payments and rent, let alone any extras for fun.  It’s such a trap, like a hamster on a wheel.  Any extra money I had would go straight onto my ever growing credit card bill but it didn’t make a difference.  My funds would run out before the next pay period so back on the credit card it goes.  At this rate I would never pay anything off not to mention be able to afford to do anything fun.  I wish someone would have told me about Full Circle Debt solutions at this point in my life.

To continue with my story for Full Circle Debt Solutions …

It felt exhilarating to be released from school and to finally be earning a proper wage.  I managed to land a great job that paid more then I expected ($19/hr) to start and I was on my way.  Life was good.  Roger and I were stronger then ever and I suspected that we would soon be moving in together, away from wild roommates and communal living!

And boy did I spoil myself those first few months after school!  But I deserved it, or so I rationalized.  A girl can only take so much suffering and I used a great deal of my new cheques to spruce up my wardrobe and buy lovely things for my house that I could never afford before.     

  It took about 6 months for the dust to settle and then I realized that I was in a whole world of trouble but I’m off to sleep right now so this story will have to continue later.

I decided to take a brief interlude from my story to talk about something fantastic that I did today… I bought a new bed from Simmons Mattress Gallery! This may not be a big deal to some but those people probably haven’t spent their entire adult life sleeping on an uncomfortable mattress that they inherited from an old flatmate. Or maybe they have but when I laid my head on that pillowy mattress top I knew that I could never go back.

I feel so grown up!
I should also point out that this isn’t an impulse buy. I have no intention of stepping one little toe back into debt now that I have clawed my way out thanks to Full Circle Debt Solutions. I happen to stroll by the West Broadway and Oak Simmons store daily so this is an idea that has been ruminating for a long while, long enough for me to wait for a deal and pay with cold hard cash.

Sweet Dreams!

Actually, vocational school wasn’t all bad.  Dental Assisting is a very practical and hands-on profession, which I found a refreshing change of pace from my university days.  It felt good to be a little settled on a career path too.  I was able to put a hold on my former student loan interest payments while I was in school so my debt was less intrusive to my day-to-day existence.

At this point I wasn’t yet clued into Full Circle Debt Solutions.

Plus I was in love!  His name was Roger and was a ruggedly handsome carpenter that I met through a friend of a friend on a wild night at the commodore.  We drank martinis and discussed everything under the sun until dawn.

Love has an all-consuming quality and my year of dental assisting school whirled by soon spitting me back into the workforce.

You know when something haunts you? No matter what you do or where you go, there it is. It hangs over your head until it becomes a part of your DNA and you can’t remember life without it.

That was my debt.

Before I found Full Circle Debt Solutions I was lost. I would oscillate between trying to be responsible by paying the miniscule amounts I could towards the debt or throwing my hands up at the sheer absurdity of my struggle and splurge to treat myself with some new clothes or such.

It was such an intense feeling to feel this debt looming over me and being powerless to do a thing about it. I became accustomed to avoiding thinking about it all together. I reasoned that there was nothing I could do about it so no point dwelling on the topic. Something like plugging ones ears and singing la la la la la la I can’t hear you! Probably not the best strategy granted.

Anyway I do digress. What I’m trying to say there is a way out. Don’t give up!

What is a girl to do with a mountain of debt and no skills beyond table service?  Vocational school!  So I swallowed my pride, cut my losses and succumb to the seemingly happy girls in scrubs advertised on route to my crappy job.

Dental Assisting.

I figured in for a year and out with a decent paying job that would tide me over until I could figure out what I really wanted to do with my life.

Interestingly, when I headed down to my local community college I discovered that many people had a similar plan.  The dreaded 2-year waiting list.  I mean who has 2 years to wait around to get into a course?  2 more years of slinging hash browns.  Forget that!  Luckily one of the private schools offered the program too but of course the catch was cost.  Almost $20 000 for the year.  That is more then the combined total of my stint at university.  Unbelievable.  Highway robbery.

  But what is a girl to do? 

Time is of the essence and the sooner I complete the program I can start earning a decent wage.

This journal project that was given to me by Full Circle Debt Solutions is turning into an intriguing personal project.  I guess I haven’t given much thought to how I ended up here as a success story for a debt consolidation blog.  After so much struggling with bills and interest rates and minimum payments I’m finding it almost therapeutic to examine the choices that got me into this mess in the first place.  We really do have a relationship with money and mine was dysfunctional.

Like I mentioned, I was inspired to move on from the service industry so I packed my bags and headed to the west coast.  I planned to attend university in the fall and enjoy my first summer in Vancouver.  Life was good.

I had a little money saved for the move and enough to get by for the summer but that was it.   For all those years flush with tax-free cash I had nothing to show for it.  Students loans were it and that is really where all my troubles began.

I’ve always been an indecisive person.  I become enamored with something for a short period of time until I soon grow restless and in search of the next thing.  School turned out to be no different.  First I studied chemistry but I soon realized what a giant mistake that was (so boring!) so I moved on to philosophy and when I lost interest in that I moved on to psychology.

That is how my mountain of debt began, with school.  A year here, a year there, dancing through different disciplines and trying to find my niche. Post secondary education is a very expensive place to find oneself. After three years I was no further ahead and I had completed nothing.

Oh, and I had a load of debt and no skills to land me a decent paying job so back to serving in a restaurant it was. Only now I’m in my late 20’s and it is even less fun.

Hi, my name is Eve. Full Circle Debt Solutions has asked me to join this forum and share my story in the hopes of inspiring other people to utilize their services and finally get out of debt.  I can still hardly believe that I did it!

I’m a pretty average girl in most aspects of my life.  Unfortunately, I have excelled in one particular area … the accumulation of debt.

Now it wasn’t always this way. My early 20s procured a false sense of wealth.   Tax-free tips earned from various waitress and bartending gigs left me with a continuous wad of bills tucked into my pocket.  I didn’t know anything about budgets and didn’t need to. I always seemed to have cash in my hand.

Then, as many people in the service industry do, I soon grew weary of dirty dishes and a general lack of respect given to people working jobs that don’t require an education or specialized training.   So, I packed up my bags and headed out west to Vancouver, BC.

Blood Suckers

I want to suck your blood.

Well, if your blood could be exchanged for hundred dollar bills. But I’m pretty sure you just get a cookie for plasma these days.

And no, I will not be going as a vampire for Halloween this year. No money for a costume. Still trying to save.

For the third year in a row I will be going as a hippie. My old tie-dye, the tinfoil peace necklace and the John Lennon glasses I bought from that crazy old woman at the garage sale down the street. Nothing scary about a Hippie, apart from the odd acid trip.

If I really wanted to scare some partygoers I could enlarge a few of the collection notices I’ve received.

I am the fear inspiring student loan reclamation document. Tremble before me.

I don’t know if everyone would get it though. It would be lost on all those kids who went through University with a financial plan. Guess I missed that lecture. Now I’m stuck in debt purgatory. Seriously considering getting some help. Can’t live in the 60′s forever.

This may seem like an odd forum to discuss shopping, but this week I thought I would give a little mention to a company in Victoria that helped my mom purchase her first new mattress in over twenty years.

My mom, after years of putting up with a springy old bed, finally told me last week that she was considering buying a new mattress set. I told her she needed a new one back in the late 90′s, but you know mothers, sometimes they like to stick it out until the bitter end.

So to help her, I thought I would find her a mattress company. I googled ‘Mattress’ and ‘Victoria’ and came up with a small, locally owned company called Mattress Choice. I called ahead and told them to be on the lookout for a grouchy pensioner.

She finally went to visit the showroom on Sunday afternoon. After spending an hour discussing the different brands, she went with a Sealy Posturepedic mattress.

Later she told me she smooth talked them into delivering it for free, but I checked out their website and they offer free delivery to any customer in the Greater Victoria area.

After her first night on the new mattress, she called me at 9:30. She told me she just got out of bed. She said it was the first time in years that she hadn’t woken up at 6:30 am. I mumbled a ‘you’re welcome.’

What I really meant to say was, ‘well I could also use some help me with my debt.’ Guess we share that stubborn gene.

Sealy Posturepedic Mattress

It’s not bad being a single guy in this town. Vancouver is the ultimate cultural and culinary melting pot, which means beautiful women everywhere and plenty of amazing restaurants to take them out to. When I started working at the accounting firm, and stopped being a broke college student, I took full advantage of what our wonderful city had to offer. But now that I’m job-less, broke (yet again), and in debt (no less), it’s back to Subway and ESPN companionship.

Every lonely night I spend sitting on my couch, eating store-brand popcorn and throwing back Colts is depressing. The only way I get through it is by reminding myself over and over again that I have to save money, and get rid of my debt, if I ever want to get my business off the ground.

I’m not proud of it or anything, but I was what they called, a “super senior” in university. Not because I was the star basketball player or anything of that nature; rather, because it took me 6 years to graduate instead of the usual 4. Now let me explain myself… I’m not a dumb guy, nor am I a slacker. I am, however, extremely indecisive. I started out undecided as a first year, and then after a summer abroad in Rome, I decided that my life calling was to be an art curator. One Art History class later, I realized how wrong I was. Third year, it was journalism because I figured I’d be a great news anchor – after all, it’s like being an actor but without having to memorize lines. You can imagine how that went. Finally during fourth year, when all my friends were scrambling to complete their requirements and score internships, I found my calling. Business. And more specifically, accounting. Surprising even myself, it came quite naturally to me, and I liked the feeling of being good at something (for once!). Only problem was, I figured this out kind of late, and had to spend 2 extra years to get my degree. Great news for my career, but not-so-great news for my student loan debt.

It’s my second week of chronicling my journey here, and I’ve been playing around the blog a bit. I did some reading up on my predecessor Scarlett and even checked out Full Circle’s site, to see what they’re all about.

I know Scarlett had great results working with FC and everything, but I don’t know if I’m ready to take that leap yet. After all, I’m just getting comfortable with admitting the serious $H!# I’m in… You might think that it’s bull-headed stubbornness or even delusions that make me want to go it alone, but a guy’s got to try right?

I will say, though, I was glad to see that the process is pretty painless if I decide to get some professional help to manage my debt. It doesn’t leave the lazy-guy-in-me with any excuse to not sign up when all I have to do is fill out my name and contact info.

I was out having beers with my buddy Mac from university last week, catching up on what was new in our lives. He was regaling me with stories of how sick his trip to Cabo was, and I was getting him up to speed on how my business venture was going.

Somehow the conversation moved onto Twitter, and personal techniques on Twit-flirting, and he mentioned one of the Tweets that he had received that day. It was basically a casting call from a debt solution company for someone who would be interested in sharing their debt story.

First, let me note that Mac has always been the type of guy who did homework assignments a week before they were due, and who painstakingly took the most detailed notes in class. He was obviously pretty concerned with my current financial state and my seeming lack of initiative to get it under control. So he suggested that I volunteer myself to document my story for their blog.

“Hey man, just think of it as your financial journal. If you write this stuff down, you won’t be able to avoid the problem anymore,” he said, trying to convince me.

My hesitation must have been apparent because he quickly added, “Comon, it’ll help you start your business. Once your own debt’s taken care of…”

And long story short, ladies and gentlemen, here I am – revealing all the blood, guts, and gore that I experience on my way to financial freedom. End goal? Starting my own business.

sneaky little bird

I have something to admit. I forgot to mention one little detail in my last post. And that’s that I am deep in debt. And when I say deep, I mean like 69-days-to-rescue-the-Chilean-miners-deep. I’m still trying to pay off my student loans, and my credit card bills are piled as high as that rescue shaft was deep. I really don’t know why my personal finances always trip me up, considering the fact that I help people balance their checkbooks all day. I really have to get it together soon, god forbid one of my future clients finds out.

So my debt poses a problem for my entrepreneurial aspirations. How am I supposed to pay my web programmer and graphic designer if I’m struggling to make ends meet? At the very least, I know I need to have a solid website if I want this business to succeed…

Hey guys, since this is my first blog post, I guess I should probably introduce myself. My name is Ben and I’m a 29 year-old guy living in Vancouver. After I graduated from UBC, I jumped right into a job at one of the Big Fours in accounting (I won’t name which), and ended up staying there for 3 years, working my way up from being a lowly auditor. Like my fellow number-crunching minions, I was also trying to get my CA certificate so that I could eventually move up the corporate ladder. Endless nights and forsaken weekends later, I passed the test and became a chartered accountant. However, the corporate ladder proved too slippery for me to climb.

So I left my job, and everything that was safe and steady behind, to start my own boutique accounting firm. Sure, it’s going to be hard as hell, but I’ve got time – that’s where the ‘boutique’ comes in handy. My grand plan is this. I’ll start off small, build my brand, and once the customers start coming, all I’ll have to do is expand, right?

This past Sunday, Mark and I were sitting in the kitchen after a particularly festive brunch, relaxing and enjoying our lazy Sunday. The kids were in the den, watching their cartoons, and we were sipping on our coffee, and flipping through the pages of the Sun. I was doing some serious newspaper reading (Dilbert, my ultimate guilty pleasure!), when Mark said to me, in a voice that he reserved for emotional or confessional moments, “Scar, I’m proud of us”.

This got me to thinking… We’re finally out of the woods with debt thanks to my rehabbed spending habits and our debt management consultant at Full Circle, and we’re finally making progress on the kids’ college funds. People are even asking me (me!) for financial advice. 4 years ago, I would have never guessed we’d be this far along.

So, dear readers, I think it’s time to say goodbye…As sad as I am about it, and as much as I love sharing my debt stories with you, I’m excited. Excited about my newfound financial responsibility and all the freedom that comes it. I can’t  wait to spend time with my family, without the stress of thinking about interest rates, and bills. So thanks for hearing me out, and good luck to you on your road to financial freedom!

I was getting none of it a couple years ago, when Mark and I were clawing our way out of debt. But ever since we got in touch with our debt management consultant at Full Circle, I’ve been able to sit back and relax. Our debt was in good hands, and all Mark and I had to worry about was making our newly lowered monthly payments.

Not only were we able to consolidate our debt, we even started to save some money (finally!). Weights off our shoulders, we were finally able to focus all our attention on our careers – and that’s when Mark got his job offer in Vancouver. Our finances were finally back on track, I was finally getting some beauty sleep, and the rest is history.

dogs need it too

I love my job. As a legal assistant at a law office that does a lot of great work in First Nations economic development, I’ve been learning a lot of Aboriginal law and the ins and outs of the Canadian justice system. Who knows? Maybe I’ll go to law school one day, when the kids are older. And to be honest, anything is better than my job in Calgary, where I was essentially a bona-fide document filer at a law office.

But as much as I love my job, I have days when I wake up and the only thing I want to do is lay on my couch and watch trashy soaps and infomercials. As soon as I go to wake up the kids, though, all those thoughts wash away and my work ethic kicks back into overdrive. After all, the last thing I want to do is to fall back into debt, and have to struggle to raise them.

You know, when I graduated from Emily Carr, I went through this whole phase where I was really into decorating my apartment. I was going for the mid-century modern feel and even splurged on a tufted velvet couch to complete the look. I hired someone to do crown moldings, redid my window treatments, and even repainted my walls. Clearly, I was on a mission to obtain my dream apartment with no regard for my credit card debt.
When I finally completed the apartment (and accrued a boatload of debt), I was so excited to invite all my friends over to admire my work. I invested another $300 on the housewarming party, justifying the expense on all the compliments I would receive – after all, it would have been a waste of money spending all this money on my home if nobody could appreciate it, right?
Well, what I should have realized is that no matter how much money you spend (a lot, in my case), nobody will even notice your awesome one-of-a-kind lambskin rug if your apartment is a mess. My guests were pirouetting through the clutter in my apartment the whole night and the closest thing I got to a compliment was, “oh, I like the area you live in”. Gee thanks. Not only was I up to my neck in bills debt, I was also knee deep in a huge mess.

1. Don’t open up a credit card account just because they offer you a discount. It’s too hard to keep track of multiple accounts and you’ll end up racking up the bills.
2. Ignoring the pile of bills on your desk will NOT make them go away. The only thing that will go away is your credit and the only thing you will gain is debt (at a high interest rate!).
3. Your kids do not need to wear designer duds. Not only do they not appreciate it, kids are cute no matter what brand they’re wearing.
4. It doesn’t matter how much money you spend on decorating your home. Nobody will notice it if your house is a mess.
5. Managing your debt is a full time job – unless, of course, you’ve got Full Circle and their team of licensed debt management consultants by your side.

When Mark and I first moved back to Vancouver together, the first order of business was to buy a car. While Mark was enamored with sleek lines and big engines, I was all about energy efficiency and eco-friendliness. After weeks of listening to Mark wax poetic about Napa leather seats and the ‘practicality’ of a sports car (honey, the kids are so small, they’ll definitely fit in the back seat!), I finally put my foot down and insisted on the Toyota Prius. And plus, we just got our debt under control, and there was no way I was going under again for some European sports car.

Of course, for the past couple of years, I’ve had to listen to Mark whine about our car’s torque and how the whole green car thing is a passing fad, and look at that the 20 inch rims on that beauty! So when I read in the paper about how one in three vehicles in B.C. would be electric by 2030, I almost jumped out of my seat at the breakfast table. It was a shame that Mark had already left for work, because I would have loved to do a victory lap around the kitchen, article in hand. Sure, it’s a tad bit immature, but so is wanting to own a convertible.

I know the kids are still young but I worry all the time about setting a good example for them when it comes to taking care of finances. As you probably know already, I had some problems when I was younger what with my swipe-happy habits, shopping sprees, and fine dining excursions. And this was all despite the fact that my mom was always in my ear about managing my money properly.

Sure, 10 years ago I wouldn’t have been the best financial role model for my kids. But ever since I got in touch with my debt management consultant at Full Circle, I can say that I am. He helped me design a debt consolidation plan that reduced my monthly payments to something I could manage, and helps me stay on track. I might not be the shining beacon of financial responsibility but at least my kids will know that I picked myself back up and hopefully they’ll learn from my mistakes and not make as many of their own.

One of my favorite $aving tips of the day is, “Buy in bulk – and invest in a vacuum sealer”. It’s something my mother taught me, just from tagging along with her whenever she went shopping at my all-time favorite store, Costco. I would insist on sitting in the cart (despite my age and size) while my mom pushed me through the store. The smell of samples hot out of the toaster ovens, the garish fleece jackets piled in cardboard bins, and the seemingly endless array of candy lining the warehouse shelves were feast to all my senses. The experience was, at the same time, fascinating and intoxicating to my 8-year-old self. In that 6000 square metre concrete warehouse, the world was full of possibilities.

Needless to say, the addiction continued into adulthood. Whenever we need something in the house, whether it be toilet paper or some eggs, I jump at the opportunity. Not only because I love Costco, but also because we save a lot of money getting things like meat, seafood, and cheese there. Throw in a basic at-home vacuum sealer, and you’re looking at a packed freezer and a boatload of savings. And even though I don’t get to sit in the cart anymore when I go to Costco (I had to relinquish my seat to my son), I get to be a kid again.

When you’re in debt, it’s really hard to think about anything else. Sure, you can avoid looking at the growing pile of bills on your desk – say, by avoiding the desk, or by avoiding the room that houses the desk altogether. But deep inside, you know full well how much money you owe and the extent of your debt. And on the outside, the new clothes hanging in your closet and the brand-new mohair rug on your living room floor are constant reminders. In fact, falling into debt is not unlike stepping on dog sh#!. The smell follows you around and lingers no matter how many times you try to get rid of it.

So if you’re sick and tired of worrying about your debt, and want to do something about it, give us a call. At Full Circle, our team of licensed debt management professionals will help you minimize your debt and your monthly payments. We know everything there is to know about debt consolidation and we’ll even help you get rid of those annoying calls from creditors.

At Full Circle Debt Solutions, we’ve got lots to be proud of. We’re proud to be Canadian, we’re proud to call Vancouver home, and we’re proud of our clients, all of whom have taken control of their debt. But what we’re most proud of is our team of debt management consultants.

As Canada’s largest independent group of licensed debt management professionals, they will walk you through every step of debt consolidation, even tailoring consumer credit counseling programs to your needs. By contacting your creditors to negotiate debt payment plans that are more manageable for you, our debt management experts help you get rid of those annoying calls from debt collection agencies.

So if you find yourself knee-deep in bills, give us a call. We’ll set you up with an expert from our team right away. We will help you reduce your interest rates, and cut down your monthly payments so that you can, once again, take control of your debt.

Bills are one thing, late fees are another. At least when it comes to paying bills, I know I’m paying for something that I used or received. Paying late fees, on the other hand, is almost like you’re giving money away. Although I know that late fees are supposed to be more of a deterrent than anything else, so that these companies don’t fall behind on their own accounting and so that you don’t fall into the habit of paying late – it doesn’t stop me from channeling my inner petulant child whenever I get fined with one.

But with all the bills I have to pay, it’s easy to fall behind. For example, there was this one time when Mark and I first moved into our new apartment in Vancouver. I got so caught up in the unpacking, furniture shopping, and setting up of our new apartment, that I had forgotten to tie up our loose ends in Calgary – and we ended up getting late fees on our cable and electric bills. And this other time, in my college days, when I let the credit card bills pile up, for fear of dealing with what was inside.

Ever since we got in touch with Full Circle though, we’ve been pretty good about keeping on top of our monthly bills. By helping us consolidate our debt, the process of paying the bills has become a lot less daunting. So if you find yourself paying late fees all time, consider giving Full Circle a call. They’ll walk you through the entire process of managing your debt so that you can be one step closer to financial freedom.

I’m sick of paying bills. I know it’s all part of being an adult an all, but sometimes I wish I could go back to my sandbox days. Sure, I wouldn’t have a car to drive, credit card to use, or cell to text with, but I’d be totally debt free. (And I’m sure my mailman wouldn’t mind.)

But seriously, how nice would it be if the biggest worry in your life were the guest list at your next play date? Instead, I have to worry about how I’m going to make my next mortgage payment and how I’ll pay for my car insurance.

The only consolation I have is that I’ve got Full Circle Debt on my side. Thanks to my debt consolidation consultant, life doesn’t feel like all work, no play.

My mom is the thriftiest woman I know. My dad worked all the time, and since my mom was a stay-at-home mom, she took it upon herself to manage our family’s finances. Every purchase, payment, and deposit was balanced in her checkbook, which seemed to be a permanent fixture in her handbag. All receipts – even those from buying a pack of gum – were stored in a tiny drawer in the kitchen desk and dutifully checked whenever the credit card bills came at the end of each month.

When my sister and I were growing up, mom tried to instill in us a sense of financial responsibility. The earliest lesson I can remember was when she gifted us with piggy banks when we started getting our allowance. While my sister would carefully deposit half of her weekly $5 into her pig, I would be at Seven Eleven on Monday shoving my hand into the 5-cent candy jars. Needless to say, her pig got fat while my stayed painfully thin.
In retrospect, that was a pretty good predictor that my sister would be the one to guide me out of my financial rut. Which is exactly what she did 2 years ago when Mark and I found ourselves close to bankruptcy and ready to skip town. She told us to call Full Circle immediately, assuring us that their debt management consultants would help us reduce our debt. We called, and surely enough, our consultant helped us consolidate our debt to one manageable monthly payment.

Mom was so proud.

Our oldest, Griffin, is on summer break, much to the delight of his younger sister Silvia who considers herself his sidekick. All summer long, they’ve been taking advantage of the sunny days and warm weather, and have developed quite the skill at convincing our nanny to take them to the beach. When I get home from work, I always know if they’ve been successful, not only by the sandy trails I find in the foyer but by the stories that the kids enthusiastically tell me about their seaside escapades.

Now that Mark and I have our finances under control, thanks to our Full Circle debt consultant who helped us consolidate our debt, we’ve decided that we should take our first family vacation abroad. Since the kids love the waves so much, we’re definitely thinking somewhere tropical with white sandy beaches, but we’re not sure where. Any suggestions?

Full Circle Debt Solutions here. We’re not going to sugar coat it. Scarlett’s path to financial freedom isn’t an easy one. In fact, it was a long road that was filled with potholes and ditches – and it’s definitely a road that will never really end. It’s the consumer thirst that seems insatiable, especially when we’re constantly faced with promotions and products that we ‘have to have’.

If you’re looking to manage your debt and you live in BC or in AB, give us a call. We’ve got licensed professionals who specialize in debt consolidation and will be there every step of the way on your journey towards financial security.

I’m so sick of getting bills in the mail. And I’m sure the mailman is sick of the dirty looks I send his way whenever I happen to see him on my daily walks around the block. Poor guy, it’s not his fault that I’m perpetually swipe-happy with my credit cards, and that I have student loans that will take me until retirement to pay back. Add that to bills I have to pay for auto insurance, car payments, and electricity, and you’re looking at a mailman who is going to be looking at a huge chiropractor bill by the time he finishes delivering my mail.

If it weren’t for Full Circle Debt, I’d be knee deep in these bills. But thanks to my debt management consultant at Full Circle, I’ve consolidated my debt so that I just have to submit one payment each month. Much more manageable – to my relief but also to my mailman’s.

when he sees me...

Moving homes is one of the most expensive things I’ve had to do. And I’ve had to do it twice. Once when I moved to Calgary and again when Mark, the baby, and I moved back to Vancouver. Paying for the moving guys, boxes, trucks, and new furniture took a huge toll on my wallet, not to mention the emotional cost.

Since graduating from college, I promised myself never to buy another piece of furniture from Ikea, a promise I didn’t manage to keep when I moved to Calgary, due to my ailing finances. But thanks to Full Circle, our debt was under control for our move to Vancouver, and I finally managed to fulfill my interior decorating dreams.

bye bye

When we were living in Calgary, on rare occasions I would have weeks where I had no bills to pay, no things to buy, and nowhere I had to travel to (other than work). Thanks in part to the fact that I’d uprooted my life in Vancouver and moved to a new city, my billing cycles for my utilities, cell phone, and cable were the same. I savored these days, relishing the moments when I’d check my online banking and see the balance NOT decrease. I was so smitten that fanning myself with the cash that was in my wallet may have crossed my mind.

But the days would turn into a couple, and then I’d get that terrible itch. The one that presents itself when I’m feeling particularly good about my good behaviour. Usually triggered by something like a television commercial, or an ad in a magazine, the result was always the same – go out and buy something. And let me tell you, it’s quite the fall, falling off a financial high horse. Your spending goes into overdrive, a sort of subconscious overcompensation for all the saving you’d been doing for the past couple of days.

After a particularly damaging self-rewarding bout, and after the retail euphoria wore off, I was racked with guilt and stress about how much money I’d spent and how much I’d have to pay for it when I got my bill in a couple weeks. So I called up my debt management consultant over at Full Circle. He talked me through some debt-reducing strategies like debt consolidation, and assured me that he’d walk me through the next billing cycle. Relief! I quickly added him to my speed-dial that day.

cruisin'

10 years ago, I would have never guessed how dependent I’d be on the internet, or on my email, and on Facebook, and on Twitter. I do everything on the world wide web now, from reading the daily news, whether it be about BP’s oil spill or Lindsay Lohan’s lock up, to shopping for a new blender. But one of the internet utilities I’m most attached to is online banking. I log-in and poof! My account balance, recent transactions, transfer totals, bill payment plans – all at my fingertips and all at a moment’s notice. Never has instant gratification made me feel so responsible.

I’ll never forget the first time I was approved for a credit card, if you can call it that. I was a studying at Emily Carr at the time, with little to no credit to my name. But since I was enrolled in a university, I qualified for a student credit card. The limit was something like $500, which seemed like the king’s bounty at the time considering the fact that my allowance up to that point was measly 20 bucks per week.  So with my newfound wealth, I spent like a high roller buying fancy art supplies, splurging on pricey meals, and buying tickets to concerts.

Needless to say, what seemed like a lot of money at first turned into what-can-I-really-buy-with-five-hundred-dollars. That changed again when I got the first statement in the mail, this time to holy-sh#!-where-the-heck-am-I-gonna-get-five-hundred-big-ones? So I had no choice but to go with the minimum payment and get charged an insane interest on the rest.  And that, ladies and gentlemen is when my debt started piling up.

Where was this sign when I signed up for that darned credit card?

If Jewel can re-invent herself as a dowdy frozen food section worker at your local IGA – you too can take off the disguise of artificial living to enjoy a whole new life – debt free.

Enjoy!

Ever heard that song by Johnny Cash – I’ve been everywhere?

That’s what Mark and I were like. It was straight out of a song – we didn’t have any money, any future or a clue, but we were born to run and we hit Canada like two crazy kids with the wind in our hair and nothing to lose and a whole wide world worth seeing.

We went everywhere, man. We went to Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo, Port Alberni, Port Coquitlam, Cranbrook, Creston, Nelson, Kelowna, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Brampton, Thunder Bay, Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, St. John’s, Charlottetown.

We went everywhere, man! Debt or debt beware, man! We went everywhere!

There is no standard model on what is considered to be a good or bad FICO score. This question really depends on your lender and how they rate individual scores. However, we can make some generalizations about FICO scores that range up to 850 and what score may be considered to be good, fair and bad.

750 or higher – This is considered to be an excellent credit score. At 770 and above you can generally obtain the best interest rates.

700 to 750 – This is considered to be between very good and excellent credit.

650 to 700 – Considered to be very good credit.

600 to 650 – A good credit score. Sometimes the minimum for good credit is at 620 or above, because this is generally considered the cutoff point for a prime rate loan.

600 and below – This range is considered a high credit risk. While you can still obtain loans and credit cards in this range, they will most likely be secured credit cards and loans at the highest interest rate.

550 and below – Any FICO score below 550 is considered to be awful credit.

Bad credit means no one will lend to you... for good reason.

Of course Full Circle Debt Solutions services all of Canada. But if you live in Vancouver, you can drop down to our new office in Delta anytime and we can help you out in person.

If you are interested in debt consolidation in Vancouver, talk to us first. The other counseling companies will charge you voluntary ‘fees’ that you will have to pay. Not so voluntary.

If you live in Vancouver, and you are being suffocated by debt payments that haunt you worse than farmed salmon, you’ll need to talk to a debt advisor right away. We’re open late.

Call 1 877 220 3328. Getting rid of your debt is as easy as a phone call.

When I was at Emily Carr, I had a strange attitude towards money.

The way I saw it – money wasn’t important. The only thing that mattered was what you produce – your art. Being in set design, I lived an breathed photographs of my final creations.

I framed those photos and put them up in my bedroom. It was all that mattered to me. It was a great way to keep focus on what I was doing. Especially considering everything else was going sideways.

I used to go out for 50-dollar dinners, by myself, because I thought I deserved a nice meal. I would treat myself to a 400-dollar jacket come winter. I hadn’t made a dime in two years, yet I was spending like I was Caligula.

In my head, I thought that I deserved all of the luxuries of life. I had my Kitsilano flat, my red Volkswagen Bug, my 200-dollar lamps – all bought on credit. Looking back on it, I wonder if I wasn’t a little crazy.

I just kept using my Visa for everything, because dammit, I deserved it! But when the monthly statements started rolling in, I’d just stuff them in a box without opening them, or throw them out.

Deep down, I knew this lifestyle couldn’t last forever though.

Tomorrow Did Come

For those of you who have been following this story for some time, you know, I was pretty poor with money. That’s for certain. Then I met a man that I loved, and it turns out he wasn’t much better.

Who would have guessed that a self-employed architectural consultant could have so many problems with a bank? That was Mark’s situation. He had clients that wouldn’t pay, and he had his suppliers, and because he’s such a big-hearted guy, he started floating everything himself.

One day, I look over and he’s sweating on the phone with his credit card in hand. Turns out one of his clients skipped town and left him holding the bag. He had people to pay, and as much as Mark would like to, he couldn’t.

Would the banks help us out? No way. Being self-employed made it impossible for Mark to have a good credit rating with the bank, in fact his FICO score was even lower than mine! I couldn’t believe it. We had credit cards maxed out, all over again, I still had my student loans.

Just when we thought we were out of the frying pan, we were right back into the fire.

ugh!

We hope you are enjoying Scarlett’s story so far. It is certainly told with a lot of heart.

We at Full Circle Debt Solutions thought that we would interject here for a moment to offer a bit of a reality check. As we don’t want you to get worried that debt is just doom and gloom (sorry, Scarlett).

SPOILER ALERT:

In the end, Scarlett was able to make her payments a manageable $150/month (from $300/month) – and in the end, she paid her entire debt off within a year.

Scarlett and Mark now live in a beautiful three-bedroom apartment with a sunny North-western view. They have two beautiful children – Griffin and Silvia.

Life all worked out in the end, and to her credit, Scarlett did it all on her own. After picking up the phone that day in the bath, she called us up at Full Circle Debt Solutions and were able to consolidate her debt, talk to her creditors, and negotiate payments that suited her lifestyle. In the end, we saved her thousands of dollars in bills and months of headaches.

She did write this blog, years ago, and would like to share it with you for inspiration. If you would like to follow along from the beginning, click here.

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We hit some hard times in Calgary. Mark’s firm went bust and then he went into consulting. This was fine for a while, until one client never paid. Mark was left in a lurch and owed his suppliers something like $20,000.

He couldn’t pay.

We looked into getting a home equity loan to cover the cost on our Calgary apartment. No dice. Because Mark was now self-employed, he couldn’t verify his income. And my Beacon score (FICO score) was way out of wack.

No bank would lend us money.

Luckily, we heard an ad on the radio about Alpine Credits, and we looked them up. They promised that they would lend us the money as long as we owned our own home. So we were in luck.

We got the loan and they helped us figure out a way to consolidate our debt into one manageable payment.

Before, Mark was struggling with $2000 a month! It was more than our mortgage, after talking to Alpine Credits, they had us down to $1000 a month, and got rid of some of our high cost debt at the same time.

The sad part was, Mark didn’t even know half of the debt that I had following me around – I have never felt more guilty in my life.

She is beautiful though.