How To File For Unemployment Benefits

By MoneyBlueBook

For those of you who are fortunate to have a stable job and blessed with being gainfully employed, congratulations and more power to you. For those of you who are currently unemployed or out of a job, I feel your frustration. I've been there before and know how scary and uncertain the experience can be.

In this fluctuating and unpredictable economy, you never quite know what is lurking around the corner. Life comes at us fast and sometimes job stability, occupational predictability, and all positive aspects of full time employment can disappear in a flash. Sometimes it can be due to our own fallibility and less than perfect work performance, and sometimes it can be due to slowdowns in the economy at large. Life is unpredictable and it's hard to be certain whether there is such a field that's a sure thing anymore. During the past few years, jobs and careers related to the real estate and housing market were hot and in great demand. However, years later, with the collapse of the housing bubble, many of the jobs previously fueled by the burgeoning real estate market have mostly disappeared. Even upper echelon MBA-type financial positions at top firms like Merrill Lynch have been down sized and trimmed back, resulting in many educated employees suddenly out of work.

If you find yourself one of many who have been laid off, I feel for you. I've been through a sudden job lay off before and it's not an easy feeling or experience to go through. Not only does

By MoneyBlueBook

Life is unpredictable. As much as we may try to project what is to come in the future, our feeble attempts at fortune telling and soothsaying inevitably fall short of reality. That's life and that's just the way of the world. We may try to walk the steady and safe path paved with good intentions, but sometimes life just insists on chucking a banana peel to trip you up when you least expect it. It's not always fair and it's not always just. Bad things happen to good people and sometimes unfortunate circumstances befall even the best of us. But the unforeseen and the unexpected don't have to ruin our lives and cause everything that's going for us to fall apart at the seams. We can plan for such an occurrence and protect ourselves the best we can by creating a back up financial contingency plan. Having a "Plan B" savings account and readily accessible emergency fund set aside will give you piece of mind in knowing that you will be taken care of should the worst case scenario occur.

I've personally had many unforeseen and unexpected situations spring forth in the last couple of years, and have learned that life comes at you fast. In the last few months, I've had to deal with a family health emergency due to the sudden passing of my grandfather which required me to go on emergency leave to fly overseas to be with him. I've also had to deal with a significant tax liability bill recently that

By MoneyBlueBook

An Updated List Of the Best Student Credit Card Offers Provided Below

It's remarkable how much the Internet has changed how we manage our finances today, and the sheer amount of information and knowledge it affords us. With a few keystrokes, we are now able to instantly access a wealth of reviews and consumer opinion pieces to better educate ourselves on the workings of all financial products and services. One of the best things to grow out of it is that it's also helped college and university students to become better informed and educated consumers when it comes to dealing with credit cards and the credit application process.

Don't Succumb To Bad Credit Card Offers Just Because Someone Is Giving Away Free Stuff To College Students

Back during my early student years as a college freshman, the Internet was only just getting popular, and many things were still being done the old fashioned way. At the time, my first encounter with credit card temptation was at one of those free credit card promotion booths on campus. I remember walking past the campus student union one day and noticing an attractive girl standing behind a fold out table adorned with a large promotional banner and colorful balloons. On the table was all sorts of prizes - everything from free T-shirts, free Frisbees, cheap alarm clocks, to free squishy ball stress reliever "thingys". Naturally, as a bright eyed and bushy tailed (not to mentioned gullible) young college student, I was ready at a moment's notice to sell my credit card

By MoneyBlueBook

When you think of Ed McMahon, you don't exactly associate or lump him with big time wasteful spenders like MC Hammer and some of the other well known celebrities of the past who rose to fame and fortune quickly but ultimately frittered away their money into bankruptcy on trivial pursuits. No, when you think of Ed McMahon, you think of the aging but charismatic late night show announcer, the TV personality, and the face and voice of the American Family Publishing sweepstakes team (not to be confused with the more popular Publisher's Clearing House sweepstakes) that arrives unannounced at the homes of winners to present them their grand prize. You certainly don't see or hear about him throwing his money away on fast cars, fast women, or holding lavish sleaze parties to great excess.

So I was quite surprised when I learned that someone like the now 80 plus year old Ed McMahon has now found himself in difficult financial straits and faced with the prospect of mortgage foreclosure on his multi million dollar home. This housing bubble and credit crisis seems to be quite merciless and universally brutal, even to those who simply lived their lives with the best intentions, but still succumbed to hard times. With little regard to feelings or reason, the mortgage credit crisis and the powerful forces of housing supply and demand have devastated many good families.

Ed McMahon and His Wife Pam Speak Out About Home Foreclosure and The Possibility Of Losing Their House

Ed McMahon recently appeared on

By MoneyBlueBook

Today I was relaxing at home on a lazy Saturday afternoon, tinkering on the computer and watching my weekend mixed martial art fighting shows on TV when suddenly there was a tremendous flash of light from the window, followed by the wallop of a floor vibrating thunder crack. Since I was on the computer, I quickly checked the weather page and confirmed that there was definitely a major thunderstorm heading my way. Weather reports predicted a heavy storm system to move through my neighborhood during the early to late afternoon period with the potential to bring forth severe isolated thunderstorms and heavy rainfall mixed with strong winds, with torrential downpours heavy at times. There was even an online warning issued for frequent lightening and even a small tornado watch. The mere prospect of tornadoes has always baffled me. I live in the Maryland suburban area of Washington D.C. and have never encountered a tornado before during my entire lifetime in this area. There have been limited reports of one or two tiny tornadoes touching down in years past, but their appearances are rare and usually sighted in the less populated outskirts of the central city. The metro D.C. area is simply too urbanized and populated with tall buildings and infrastructure for a substantial twister to develop. However, we do get pretty powerful thunderstorms and heavy rain showers at times - and that's where my dirty, dust covered car comes in.

Thunderstorms and Rain Showers Signal The Tantalizing Opportunity For Me To Get A Free Instant Car

By MoneyBlueBook

Updated List Of Citi Thank You Codes For Free ThankYou Network Points Below

Back in the day, cash back credit cards were all the rage as their rebate offers provided the highest purchase incentives for cardholders. But as the U.S. economy has soured in recent years and the mortgage backed credit crisis has worsened, credit card companies have joined the legions of credit-related industries hurt by the downturn. Despite the need to make changes in the new economical climate, credit card issuers still continue to offer lucrative incentive rewards and rebates to attract new customers and encourage continuous credit activity. However, such riskier times have compelled them to modify and scale back their credit card purchase incentives to greatly favor point reward programs over straight cash back. By offering purchase reward points redeemable for free merchandise, free airline tickets, or free gift cards, credit card companies are at least able to lessen their promotional losses by plowing some rebate money back to merchants that they have special partnership agreements with instead of just giving money back to the customer. This shift towards promoting reward points instead of cash back has lead to a rise in rebate earning percentages for reward programs offering points, and a gradual decrease in earning percentages for credit card programs offering cash back.

However, over the years, Citibank has consistently remained one of my better credit card reward issuers. When they came out and started promoting the Thank You Points Network for their banks and credit cards, I did my research and