Archives for July 2014

A Third of Americans Are Delinquent on Their Debts

Would you believe that 35% of Americans are in collections for unpaid debt? According to a massive study just released by the Urban Institute that is the case.

What’s the Scoop About Debt?

Now you do not go into collections until the debt holder gives up and closes the account, reporting it to the credit bureaus and selling it to a collection agency. Ordinarily the debt must be over six months overdue for this to happen.

pile of debts

With two exceptions, states with the highest percentage of people into collections are concentrated in the South where incomes are lowest and the economic crisis proved more painful. Nevada, where the housing crisis was the worst, and Washington, D.C., were the other two.

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Is there a positive side at all to the debt situation? Yes, in fact there is.

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Is the American Economy About to Collapse?

Certain financial writers have been making a little news recently with sensational articles suggesting that the American economy is likely, in one popular writer’s opinion certainly, to collapse in the course of the next year—not sometime in some uncertain future time frame but over the next few months. What evidence does he have and how likely is it?

Escalating National Debt

Some of the major facts facing our economy are clear. One reason for fearing an actual collapse, rather than the existing persistent decline as debt service uses an increasing portion of the nation’s income, is that the size of the debt accelerates over time.

National Debt Chart

The national debt is sky rocketing and its escalation is near the tipping point where it will accelerate so fast it will be unstoppable. Factors beyond the Federal Reserve’s capacity to control will at some time push up interest rates dramatically if unchecked soon.

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How to Increase Personal Productivity

One of the keys to success in any field is to discover and put into practice those skills that increase productivity. All else being equal, increasing your productivity has a direct correlation to increasing your income.

How I Learned About Productivity

When in graduate school I had the privilege of working with Dr. Elmer Gray in conjunction with my studies, particularly in learning more about writing. He had authored a couple of books in addition to many magazine articles and was working as the editor of a newspaper.

Project Plan Page

One of the invaluable skills he taught me was to plan carefully (even if quickly) what you were going to write. In particular, to get all the facts first, then organize your project into sections and write out a fairly detailed outline including the space to be allocated for each part.

Next, I learned to write in a disciplined fashion so that you would end up with only ten percent more material than you wanted for the end product. Finally, edit down to the intended size, deleting repetitious, superfluous material, unnecessary adjectives and the like.

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