www.smartdivas.com

If you are starting or running a small business.. you know how important it is to have great marketing materials.

An easy way to jazz up your marketing gear is with a fancy and unique font.  Fonts can be very expensive, but that don’t have to be!  There are a few sites out there that give away free fonts.

UrbanFonts.com is a new Web 2.0 powered site offering a wide range of both utilitarian and winsome typefaces and dingbats for a variety of web-based and desktop tasks. The site offers a user forum and social bookmarking as well as a series of informative articles covering all aspects of Internet typography.

Urbanfonts.com houses thousands of free fonts and free dingbats in a variety of categories, grouped by use, alphabetically, by author and by popularity. There’s even a list of UrbanFonts favorite fonts.

So check them out if you are looking to upgrade your brochures, you might just find the perfect typeface to match your latest idea!

As you know, real-estate is my favorite investment type - I’ve earned more from Real Estate than from any other kind of investment vehicle.  You may not know that I have a longstanding longing to support the underdog - a pretty typical australian thing, so I hear!

Anyways, I’ve come a cross a new real-estate website, and it’s a beauty!  The great thing about it is that there are NO fees attached to uploading your listing.. that’s right, the listing is free.  You can add photos  and change your listing at any time, giving you complete editorial control over it.  This is great for the “little guy” who previously had to rely on expensive real-estate agents, and sometimes VERY expensive real-estate agents if he was looking for an international market.

But now, there is a level playing field, and even the “little guy” can get international exposure.

The website in question is encuentra24.com, and they have just launched into a new country: Costa Rica.

So if you are interested in buying or selling in Costa Rica (and it’s a pretty hot market right now!) check out the www.encuentra24.com site, pronto!

 (The classifieds also list a wide selection of auto, pets, electronics, and furniture listings, new and used.  So get over there for pretty much everything you need…)

Many websites offer credit card comparisons to try to help you select the best credit card to suit your needs. (although, as we shall see, Magazines are better.)

You have to be VERY careful when using these websites as often the credit card company gives the website owner a financial incentive to get you to select their card.  This means that there are many cards that may be a better match for you out there - however the website may not list the card company if there is nothing in it for them!

So, short of doing all of the work yourself (which is a bit of a drag) how do you find the best credit cards?

The best way to find a credit card that is right for you is via off-line magazines.  Magazines have a reputation to uphold so they are more invested in being unbiased in the information they are providing.  They are paying someone to write that article and they want to get the best information they can get.

SO head to your local newsagent or library to do the reasearch you need, before locking yourself into a credit card!

Unfortunately it’s almost impossible these days to live without a credit card of some type - especially if you spend some of your time online and want to take advantage of online shopping.

The banks have responded to this need by creating debit cards - these act just like credit cards but the money comes directly from your savings or cheque account rather than being put into a credit arrangement.  These are great for new purchases if you are trying to pay off old credit card bills.

Using a debit card automatically links to your savings giving you a built in limit - with none of the fees attached to a regular credit card.

Many cards these days are being offered at an interest rate of 0% for a balance transfer.

By moving your balance around from card to card, you cna definitely reduce the amount of interest you are paying.  I recently telephoned my bank and they reduced my interest rate from 17.25% to 10.99% just because I asked them too!

Don’t be afraid og going elsehwere to do your banking to get the best honeymoon rate.

There are, however, two points to be wary of if you are shopping for credit card rates: firstly, if you swap credit card companies too often, this may impact your credit score.  So plan to get your credit card paid off within the honeymoon period.

The other issue can be what happens when the honeymoon is over.  Often the rate when the honeymoon is over is exorbitant - the company makes money by betting that you will not pay your credit card off when you are getting the cheap interest rate.

So if you do decide to shop around, just be aware that you will need to pay your card off as fast as you can once you are on that honeymoon period!

Have you seen the “advertising” flip-flops?  They are the ones that have advertising logos and messages scored into the soles, so that when you walk on the beach, you leave a trail of messages in the sand!

Neet Feet is the originators of the “talking sole”, supplier of the finest footwear, flip flops, and many other promotional products. Visit their web site’s showrooms to see the many models of sandals specially tailored for promotional use and discover what the Fortune 500 companies, exclusive resorts and hotels, spas and a myriad of other successful businesses, large and small, have discovered with Neet Feet’s promotional sandals.

So if you are looking for a really “Neet” promotional item, maybe to raise funds for your charity, advertise your store or service, get your Custom Flip Flops from Neet Feet!

One thing I have noticed about credit cards these days - the interest rates are fantastic, but the fees and charges they now attract are horrendous!  It used to be that if you tried to charge something to your credit card but it would take you over your credit card limit - the transaction would be refused.  These days, my credit card company will let me go above my limit, but they will charge me a $30 fee to do so!  They also charge me around $75 for the priveledge of having each card.

All of these fees and charges add up - it it is all possible, the best things to do is to try and consolidate all of your credit card debt onto the one card.  This will reduce the fees and charges you incurr because you have been running multiple cards, with multiple fees and yearly charges.

Don’t wait for your credit card bill to arrive if you want to pay if off as fast as possible.  Although you only receive a statement once a month - interested is actually calculated on a daily basis.   So if you are paid weeky, pay some off towards your credit card every week, as this will save on the interest charges you accumulate.  It’s not alot but every little bit helps and you will definitely find yourself paying off your credit card bill faster this way.

If you have ever thought of living in Baltimore then now is the time to do it!

Briarcliff Apartments in Cockeysville, MD offers one, two, and three bedroom apartments, many with dens, all located just few minutes north of Baltimore City.   Apartments with dens are a rare thing, but the extra space makes all the difference between feeling like you are living in a box, or living in a home!

Baltimore Real Estate like Briarcliff provides you with superb amenities and features, including full sized washers and dryers in every apartment and the most spacious floor plans in the area. They offer a valet trash service that picks up at your apartment door Monday through Friday except holidays. 

So why not check them out if ou are moving to the area and add a little luxury to your life!

If you have a number of credit cards then focus all of your efforts onto paying off the credit card that has the highest interest rate, before the other ones.   The  best way to do this is to pay the minimum on all cards except the one withthe highest balance - throw all of your extra cash onto that one!  Don’t try paying of a bit extra on all of them, just concentrate on the highest one until that is paid down.   Pay that card off in full first, and once you have done that - move onto the next highest one, and so forth until they are all paid off.  

Just remember - you need to “pay as you go” when you are running a credit-card debt.  Don’t buy anything you don’t need and certainly don’t put any more $$ onto your credit card!