Unusual Ways To Make Money

Money Secrets

Here are a few "money secrets" you may not have read before. You might be surprised by the second item. Who said maniacal mass-murdering dictators were money hungry?

Raising Your Credit Score

Is it important to raise your credit score? Maybe. Lenders have their own "break points" between scores that get you one interest rate or another. If you have a score of 688, and the lender drops the mortgage rate by .5% at 690, those two points can cost you an extra $20,000 in interest on a $170,000 loan (30 years at 6.5% instead of 6%). Is that important? What can you do about it?

# 5. Manage your balances. It is best for your credit score if the balance on a given card is less than 50% of the limit on that card. Manage your use of the cards to keep the balances below this amount. For example, if you have three cards with limits of $2,000, $3,000 and $2,500, it is better to have a $600 balance on each than $1800 on one.

Think Money Corrupts?

Paul Johnson, in his column "Current Events" in Forbes magazine (July 2, 2007), notes that "the hugely wicked are quite innocent of avarice. Hitler never showed any interest in money. Stalin left his salary envelopes unopened. When Stalin died, the little old desk in his modest office was found stuffed with them. Mao Zedong, over the course of his career, killed 70 million people, but towards the end of his life Mao failed to recognize a current banknote. These three monsters weren't obsessed with wealth; they were obsessed with power."

Your FDIC Insurance Is Not For Theft

Lie # 87 - FDIC Insurance Protects Your Bank Account From Theft

Some banks lead you to believe that FDIC insurance protects your money from theft. This isn't true. It only covers you in the event of a bank failure. If somebody accesses your account online and steals money, or takes and uses your checks, these are not covered.

In cases of theft, the bank has no obligation to replace your money. For public relations purposes, most banks will replace the lost money, but possibly only if it is clear that it will be a public relations matter. In other words, make a big deal of it if you want to get your money back.

Think You Need Special Advantages To Get Rich?

Farrah Gray grew up on the south side of Chicago, in the projects, in a single-parent family. His mother worked various low-paying jobs. That was enough for survival, but Farrah wanted more than that.

He started several small businesses as a child, including selling painted-rock bookends and skin lotions. Farr-Out Foods, with the strawberry-vanilla syrup he created, was his most successful business. It made him a millionaire by the time he was fourteen-years-old. He made his second million by the age of sixteen.

He wrote the book "Reallionaire: Nine Steps to Becoming Rich from the Inside Out," and later "Get Real Get Rich." His advice on making money revolves around a simple idea: Do what needs to be done. As you might expect, he doesn't have much respect for excuses.

Now, who could honestly believe their own excuses when reading about a fourteen-year-old boy from the poorest part of Chicago becoming a millionaire by his own efforts?

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Unusual Ways To Make Money | Money Secrets