The easiest way to avoid those pesky ~$35 overdraft fees is to NOT opt-in to let the banks charge you. That way you’ll get declined rather than have the charge go through plus the extra fees. Here’s what you can do to avoid getting too close to zero.

1. The old fashioned balance your checkbook thing never fails.

2. Link your checking account to your savings account, so if you get too much from your checking, your savings takes over.

3. Think of $100 as $0. Have an emergency dollar figure that you never let it go down to.

4. Get an instant text message from your bank when your balance drops too low.

5. If you have a bill that’s due and your cash flow is low at the moment, ask for them to change your due date to correspond to your pay day.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

For a long time in American history, the richest of rich would give their wealth to their heirs after their passing, creating plenty of trust fund kids who never had to work a day in their lives. Two of the richest men in the world are changing that trend. Billionaires and philanthropists Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have pledged to donate half of their fortune to various charities. Recently news came out that more billionaires have pledged to share the wealth. Notable names in the list include David Rockefeller, Michael Bloomberg and Oracle founder Larry Ellison.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

If you haven’t gotten a shopping list ready for black friday you should do that as soon as possible. I’ve found that bfads.net has a nice layout of who’s having sales on what products. This time of year is always the best time to upgrade your laptop, flat screen tv, camera or gaming system. Those items are always discounted around this time.

If you’re staying home or sleeping in, Amazon has been having black friday sales all week. Unfortunately I haven’t seen any high priced items on their list, just mostly random products that are of no interest to me thus far.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

Paying your bills online is a great thing to do. Here’s why:

- I don’t waste time anymore with finding bills through a heap of junk mail. If the post office loses the bill, I might forget and not pay it. Writing checks and mailing it in is the old way of doing things. Plus the post office can lose that one too.

- Postage fees. They’re still on the rise and this trend will not end.

- Wasting paper. I stopped receiving all my paper bills. It’s not like I keep them or need them or anything. If I ever do I can just print a copy from my account online.

- Saving the environment. Every little bit helps. Less ink wasted, less paper used.

- Keeping costs down. Imagine if companies stopped having payment centers and payments by phone via a customer service rep and eliminated their accounts receivable department. They’ll either pass the savings onto us or upgrade their services.

- Never forget another payment. Say goodbye to late fees because they’ll automatically deduct the payment from your bank or credit account every month.

- So what are you waiting for, go create an online account with your gas or phone or electricity company and set it up for automatic payments and forget about those extra hassles.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

1. Factor in S&H. A $10 memory card is a good deal until you have to pay $7 for shipping, then it’s not much of a deal at all.

2. Slow down. You have time, buying online can mean impulse purchases made on a credit card. You might regret it once the Cyber Monday hangover is over.

3. Shop by product, not by store. If you know what you want to buy, use Google to find it at the lowest price, instead of just finding the product at your favorite store.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

1. Bring your ads to the store. Many stores offer “lowest price” guarantees, but you need to bring proof to get your product for a lower price.

2. Ask for a gift receipt. If you’re buying somebody a present, this is a big deal. No gift receipt means people might get stuck with a gift they don’t want/need.

3. Early bird discounts. If you’re going to save “big” money, the only way you’re going to do it is to show up early. Usually stores have the huge deals 5am-11am or so.

4. Don’t feel obligated to buy something. If you get to the store too late and all the items you wanted are sold out, don’t feel the need to still buy something at a regular price. That’s the big “scam” of Black Friday. Stores have a handful of items at low prices, then want you to buy everything else at the regular price once they’ve got you in there.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

“We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” – John F. Kennedy

While it’s true this is not a “mental recession” as it was called a while back, your actions will decide the future of the American economy. There can only be two possible results from this economic problems..

Believe it or not, the only way to get money back is to give it up in the first place. But we all need to do this. If you spend money at somebody’s business, they’ll get paid and perhaps spend that money where you work at.
The biggest obstacle is not the housing market or gas prices, it’s FEAR.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

While it is still not clear the United States is in a recession, it looks like we’re heading in that direction.

Here’s what the US has done or might do to help

• Cut the interest rates by 0.75%, taking it down to 3.50%
• Stimulus package which may give American families $1,000 to spend.

So what do you need to do to help?

• Spend money to pump money in the economy.
• Have faith in the dollar and stocks, don’t sell everything.
• Take advantage of the discounts, spend wisely.

So what does this all mean? It means that there is always an advantage to every disadvantage.

• House prices have been dropping and are expected to drop in the next few years. This it the time to take advantage of nervous sellers who aren’t sure how low their home prices will drop.
• Gas prices will drop, as there are fears a US recession might slow down demand for oil.
• To drive their slowing businesses, stores may have more sales to stave off the slowdown.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

Often times when you owe money, what immediately comes to mind is this: “Let me just borrow more money to pay off this debt, then I’ll be alright.” But in reality you’re just digging yourself in deeper. When you’re already in a hole, the last thing you should do is keep digging. There comes a time when you should just cut your losses.

So when you’re in a financial bind, what is there to do? Start downgrading, sell some things on eBay and start paying off those debts.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

Today’s the biggest day for online shopping. You’ve heard of “Black Friday” (the day after Thanksgiving), well this is the online version.
The reason they call it “Black Friday” is because it’s the first day of the year where a lot of business go from being “in the red” (negative profits) to being in the black, earning a profit. For retail stores the real money is made in late November and December. All those bad months all get forgotten about during the holiday season.

The reason they call it “Cyber Monday” is because Monday is when folks go back to work after the Thanksgiving holiday and use their employers’ computers (and high-speed internet connection) at work to do their shopping. Anything they couldn’t find at the stores they’ll buy online.

It’s times like these I wish I had a store-front selling hard goods. People love scooping up good deals on days like these.

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com

I was interested in purchasing some headphones, these really big ones, I ended up deciding on the Koss QZ-99 Noise Reduction Stereophone. Here they are..

I got them in the mail yesterday and it turns out these headphones are forsome heavy-duty work or for working at the airport or something like that. Not only that, but they have me an instant headache because it felt like a complete pressure change when trying them on.

So there’s another $50 down the drain. I’m going to be selling these on eBay, at least it’ll be another positive feedback on my account.

It seems as if these noise-reduction headphones aren’t for me, so I’m getting some smaller ones. Here they are

These have a retractable cord. That’s key because those wires always get tangled up. When you’re using them they always seem to get tangled up on something and after you put them away, getting them again and getting it untangled is such a hassle. The Koss headphones had a coiled cord and this one has a retractable cord. So we’ll see how it goes..

Here’s a few studio headphones

[eminimall products="studio headphones" channel="CTC Headphones"]

- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com