I’ve never been a fan of traditional charities, because you can never be sure where the money is going. Kiva is an organization working with micro lenders world wide to help people better themselves. All of these hopeful business people are quite inspiring, and may have you wondering what’s keeping you from doing the same?
First of all you might be wondering what a ‘micro lender’ is. Micro lenders are organizations that distribute small business loans to aspiring entrepreneurs whom the banks won’t have the time of day for. Typically this occurs in poor countries where many people can’t get credit. Amazingly these loans have about a 95% repayment rate - many loan distributors even report 100% repayment from all their clients.
It’s amazing what some people can do with so little. Sometimes it skips your mind that other people do not live in lands of opportunity. Many of these individuals or families have no money, no formal education, and there are no banks willing to cater to them. It’s incredibly difficult to get credit or loans in some countries unless you already have money. Even those who are not poor, or uneducated have a hard time with it. I used to talk to a guy who lived in the Philippines a few years ago who wanted to start his own internet cafe.
Even though he had a steady job, and was well educated in his field he just could not get credit. I didn’t understand at the time, because I had a line of credit. Capital One asked me about five questions before handing over a card to me. I flat out told them I was 18 years old, had no previous credit history, no job, and within the week I had a shiny new piece of Visa plastic.
I’ve come a cross Kiva a good few times in the past, but never really took the time to see what it was about. However, I took the time to do some reading, and help sponsor someone who needed a little boost. The thing that really was interesting was that most of these people have already started establishing businesses. They’re seeking loans to expand on what they’ve already built themselves. That weighed on me a bit when I realized that somebody with no money, and no credit started their own business while I’m still working my 9 to 5 job day dreaming about it.
I have credit, I have savings, but what am I waiting for? I keep telling myself the right opportunity, but maybe I’m just procrastinating out of the fear of failure. It’s more secure to let somebody else worry about whether the business will go under. You still get paid at the end of the week no matter what your profits look like. Some people argue that the United States has too many rules, and regulations governing business that make it impossible for people to just up and start. I don’t believe that either, because license fees for my state start at about $65. Even people who make minimum wage can save up that kind of money.
People keep telling me I should start a computer repair shop, but I keep insisting the market is too saturated, and nobody wants to pay for it. Even though I can take apart, reconstruct, troubleshoot, and custom build a variety of systems in different price ranges. None of the business owners at Kiva are doing anything groundbreaking. They’re opening staples like restaurants, corner stores, and farms. Things that people always need to have, and will pay for.
By the time I was done perusing I decided to sponsor a business myself. I gave a $25 loan to a 72 year old woman in Accara, Ghana which is a small country in the western portion of Africa. She operates a hardware store that sells building materials such as roofing sheets, nails, paint, ect. She applied to Kiva for a $675 loan in order to be able to purchase more products to sell, and expand her store. She is also a member of a group in her community that guarantees repayment for each other, and help in handling their loans. As I watch Mary repay her loan, and build on her dreams it will be a constant reminder to me about what I’m not doing. Even though I have a wealth of knowledge at my finger tips, and all the tools available to me.
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Are you an aspiring webmaster, but the economic downturn is leaving you a little pressed for cash? If you refer yourself to a company’s affiliate program you can save a nice chunk of money.
If you want to operate a website then you need hosting - bottom line. There’s a plethora of hosting companies out there, but some are a much better deal than others. This website is hosted with Awardspace - I’ve been very happy with them. Good up time, good prices, and.. well, I can’t really comment on customer service. I’ve never actually had to use it! There has not been a problem that I needed tech support to resolve.
Their affiliate program offers you a 50% payment for each sale you refer. So, essentially this means you’ll get 50% off of your hosting package that you choose. You can also pile coupon codes on top of that if they’re available. For example - Right now they’re also offering a 20% off coupon code ‘Winter’. This brings a one year basic hosting plan to $24 for the year for you! This would originally cost you about $48 to purchase.
The basic plan includes 60GB of disk space, 100 GB of traffic, a free domain name, and 20 MySQL databases with 50MB of storage for anybody who’s interested in knowing the statistics. There are of course bigger plans if you think you’re going to need them.
If you want to give it a test run you can also sign up for a totally free account! Their freebie service contains no ads, or hinderances. You’ll just get a much smaller chunk of server access, and you’ll be denied all the tools that paid account get (such as the one click script installer for Wordpress, Joomla, Agora Cart, ect.).
The best part is you can do this whenever you want. My hosting account expires in about four days, and will revert to a free account. I’m planning on just upgrading the account afterwards to get the $24 hosting. They ‘offer’ to upgrade my account for free, but it will still cost me about $60. They’re offering, because they know I won’t be using all the space their giving me - which translates into free money for them.
If you’re feeling a little bad, and like you’re taking advantage of the company - don’t. They even tell you about this option on their front page. It’s part of their marketing strategy; I’m just passing it a long. : )
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I was originally very critical of the new ‘tax credit’, because of the wording which lead people to believe it was free money. While I am in the market for a new home in the time period where it’s claimable - I’d thought about NOT doing so just, because it’s a loan, and not really a ‘credit’. I’ve been thinking about it more, and I’ve come up with this list of things you could use a $7,500 interest free loan for!
The first thing you should know about this credit is that it is not free money. You have to pay it back to the government over the course of 15 years. This is a little ‘bonus’ for first time home buyers. While it seems less appealing that you don’t get to keep it; the small fact of ‘interest free’ is still tasty for your wallet. Here’s a list of some things I came up with that you could use that credit for.
Home Improvements
You got a new home for a steal, but it needs some fixing up. By claiming your credit you can purchase any materials, labor, ect. you need to fix up your new digs. Replace the carpeting, fix up the cabinets, or even buy some paint!
Payoff Credit Cards/loans
Since this is an interest free loan you could also use it to pay off some of that pesky credit card debt you might be carrying. You’ll get through it much faster without the interest piling up on top of you, and save a lot of money in the long run. Assuming you have a fairly standard 18% interest rate you’ll save $1,620 a year in accruing interest! The payment for your interest free loan will be about $42 a month (paid yearly at $500) - So that gives you $1,120 to invest in something better than eternal debt! Even if you can’t pay ALL your debt with the credit; it will still help you out to relieve some of the burden.
Down Payment On A Car
If your vehicle barely gets you to work, but you didn’t have the green to buy a car you could cash in on your credit, and use it for some new wheels. If you buy a less expensive used car your vehicle could be totally paid for by your ‘tax credit loan’ for that same $42 a month.
Small business loan
If you’d been wanting to start up a business, but are short on funds you could use your credit to give you a kick start on some of your materials. ie. equipment to start your own lawn business, rent, advertising, ect.
School loan
The cost of higher education is getting more expensive by the day, but you could use your credit to get in on the act. If you’re looking to take some technical courses or even some college classes this could be a more affordable way for you to at least partially finance your academic tuition, books, supplies, and anything else you need.
Investing/saving
Since the loan is interest free then any gain you make over the $7,500 capital in 15 years is yours to keep. You could drop the money into an interest bearing account, stocks, bonds, ect. Simply pay the $500 a year you owe, and keep anything else you make as profit for yourself. At a 5% interest rate over 15 years your investment will grow to $15, 591.96 with no additional money from you. That means you made over $8,000 in profit from the loan after paying back what you owe Uncle Sam. If you contribute your own money to that compounding amount of just $50 a month then you’ll end up with $29,186.46 in 15 years minus your $7,500 that leaves you $21,686.46 for whatever!
Furniture
While buying new furniture is not the most economical option on the list; if you’re currently using a tide box coffee table it might be a good idea anyway! If you spent all your extra cash on closing costs then you could use some of your credit to furnish your new house. If you need furniture, but still don’t want to spend a fortune try places like craigslist or consignment shops.
Repairs
If your home, car, air conditioner or other important item is in need of some costly repairs you could use this money to get the job done. If the check engine light is on it might be a good idea to take care of it before it gets very costly. Problems tend to not go away when ignored.
There are rules for claiming this incentive. You have to be a first time home buyer, but their definition is that you must not have owned a primary residence in the past three years. So, even if you’ve owned before, and you’ve been renting for the three year period you can claim it on a new home. Likewise if you are renting, and own a vacation or a rental property you can still claim it as well. I’m thinking I’ll claim it, and either invest it in something or maybe spend it on some improvements to my new house.
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