Oddly enough, my clients don't say "my lawyer" with the same amount of pleasure. Go fig.

My lawyer helped me craft the language of my standard contract, especially the liability stuff. Most clients don't seem to expect that level of professionalism from writers and start to explain why they can't sign the thing, or don't need to sign the thing, or whatever...and it gives me a positive glow of joy to say, "Well, my attorney says..." So there you go.

Ah.

Civil law.

I do primarily family and criminal defense.

So I'm usually shaking hands with someone just
as he is having a seat on the prisoner's bench.
It do make people cranky...

::is terribly impressed::

You have an accountant? Can I touch you? *g*

Signed,

Accountantless and now jealous in PA

I had a brace for a couple of years as a kid, and it was a load of inconvenience and humiliation for nothing. My overbite can still open beer bottles.

Anna, there are people everywhere who love to find people who don't notice where their money goes. Congratulations for starting to pay attention. It finally occurred to me that you trade your time for money, and your time is your life. Therefore, money important.


Call Citicard, 1-877-373-2065. They are offering 2.99% on balance tranfers, usually with no fee to transfer.

However!!! - I would put this in bold if I could - this is what you must do to get real benefit from this:

1. Never, ever put another charge on the card. Don't carry it, don't put online charges on it. Don't use any convenience checks. Any payment you make goes to pay the new charges first, and they are at 2.99%.

2. Never, ever make a late payment. If you do, you default, and they will immediately change your percentage to 27.99%, chortling happily. Citicard will let you arrange to pay your bill by bank draft - they will take out an amount on a certain day each month (so you don't have to remember). You can pay the minimum amount or arrange to pay a set amount (I do). As insurance, I also have overdraft protection at my bank (I keep $500 in the savings part of the account), so that I will never bounce. If you bounce, it is also a default.

I take my total, and figure out how long I want to be debt (depends on how large the total is). For me, it's usually 10 months. I divide the total by 10, and that is what I tell them I want to have taken out each month. I just paid for my dining room set, a new car air conditioner, and a clothes dryer like that.

Which brings me to my next point.

3. Don't charge daily things like lunch, gas, etc., unless you pay it off when billed the first time. You don't want to pay extra for that stuff. Paying interest is paying extra.

For example, is lunch at Subway worth $5.99 + 27% interest? Or even $5.99 + 3%? Aren't prices high enough?

Ahem. <> Sorry to preach. It took me a long time to learn these lessons. My husband still hasn't learned. He just charged lunches and gas for a solid year, never paid anything but the minimum, and now I am paying off a $1600 credit card bill - for stuff that he doesn't even remember. Bitter? Me?

"Any payment you make goes to pay the new charges first, and they are at 2.99%."

Sorry, that should be *not* at 2.99%.