An apple a day...

It's Fall again in northern Ohio which means Apples!

George and I visited my Mother-in-Law a week ago last Monday and came home with lots of FREE, locally produced, ORGANIC, apples. They aren't perfect but the key word is FREE. AND the bonus is we get to visit Grandma and the cows on the family dairy farm. George got a kick out of watching them eat ground up corn cobs with molasses mixed in. Grandma's apple tree is weighted down with TONS of fruit so we planned to go back for more.

I made applesauce from most of the original apples and we planned to go back last Monday. Due to car trouble (really just some bad bulbs I was too clueless to figure out how to change...) we had to cancel. AND on top of the $100 we had to pay our mechanic to change our light bulbs, I was forced to pay green money for chemically treated apples at the store. "Sigh."

A Phone Call That You Need to Make

By Christian Hill

The average American has at least one credit card and carries a balance of more than $1,700. Faced with mounting minimum payments on their cards and shrinking monthly budgets, what is a consumer to do? Answer: Call your credit card company and negotiate a lower interest rate.

Credit card delinquencies are mounting with the downturn in the economy. (Interestingly, the two states with the highest foreclosure rates, Nevada and Florida, also lead the nation in credit card delinquencies.) Through July, the annualized rate of credit card charge-offs rose 33 percent compared to last year, according to Moody's Investor Services. At the same time, the Payment Rate Index, which reflects borrowers' ability and willingness to repay credit card debt, dropped.

Faced with increasing delinquencies, credit card companies are more willing than ever to lower your interest rate to make sure you'll be able to keep current. The last thing they want is for you to fall behind on your payments and have another past-due account on their books.

[Ed. Note: Protecting your wealth is about more than investing. It means keeping your debt under control, too.

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, an e-zine dedicated to making money, improving your health and quality of life. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.

"Today's Paper For A Quarter"

On my way to my day job today, as I was walking up to the Rapid Station, a guy was sitting on top of the newspaper box saying, "Today's Paper For A Quarter?"

He had obviously put in his 50 cents and pulled out a stack of newspapers and was attempting to resell them.

I don't know if he got any takers or not.