My Personal Finance Blog

How much will the SSA grant in supplemental income, and what benefits can you receive?

When you or a family member is unable to work due to a work-related injury or a severe medical condition, you can apply for Social Security benefits from the Social Security Administration.

How soon, and how often, will I receive Social Security disability benefits?

Once your application is approved, you will start receiving benefits in about 6 months. You will receive your Social Security benefits on a monthly basis.

How much will my benefits be?

The amount of your monthly disability benefits is based on your average lifetime earnings. You can get an estimate of your benefits from the SSA’s Benefit Calculator on their website. For guidance, below are the 2008 v. 2009 Social Security disability thresholds:

- 2008: Substantial Gainful Activity (SGA) – Non-Blind ($940 / month), Blind ($1,570 / month), Trial Work Period ($670 / month)

- 2009: Substantial Gainful Activity (SGA) – Non-Blind ($980 / month), Blind ($1,640 / month), Trial Work Period ($700 / month)

What kinds of benefits can I get?

In addition to a monthly amount, you may be eligible to receive other benefits. Additional Social Security benefits that you may be eligible for are:

- Supplemental Security Income (SSI) if you are 65 or older, blind, or disabled

- Food stamps

- Medicaid

- Medicare (after 2 years)

- Services under the Ticket to Work Program (allows you to go to work to earn more money)

When do I get Medicare coverage?

You will get coverage after you have received disability benefits for 2 years.

Is my family eligible to receive benefits?

Yes. Certain family members may qualify for benefits. They include:

- Your spouse, if he or she is 62 or older

- Your spouse, if he or she is financially supporting a child of yours who is either disabled or under the age of 16 younger

- Your child, if he or she is under the age of 18 and in school full time

- Your child, over the age of 18, if he or she has a disability that started before age 22

How much can a family member receive in benefits?

Each family member may be eligible for a monthly benefit of up to 50% of your disability rate.

Adjustments to your benefits:

Your Social Security benefits may change as necessary. Your benefits may change or be stopped if:

- The cost of living has gone up (in which case, your benefits would increase)

- Your medical condition improves

- There is any change in your ability to work

- You get married or divorced

- Your citizenship changes

What may cause my Social Security benefits to be temporarily or permanently stopped?

- You have an outstanding arrest warrant

- You are convicted of a crime

- You are also receiving Railroad Retirement benefits

- You earn more than $980 or more per month ($1,640 if you are blind)

- You violate a condition of your probation or parole

What may cause my Social Security benefits to be reduced?

Your Social Security disability benefits may be reduced if you receive other government benefits.

Your Social Security benefits may be reduced if:

- You are receiving workers’ compensation

- You work for an employer that does not withhold Social Security taxes from your salary (Windfall Elimination Provision)

- You receive a pension from a federal, state or local government based on work where you did not pay Social Security taxes (Government Pension Offset)

Social Security Attorneys and 2009 Social Security Disability:

What 2009 Social Security Disability changes will occur? A Social Security Disability attorney is an expert on disability law. Hiring a disability lawyer helps improve your chances of winning disability benefits and can impact the speed from date of application that you start to receive benefits. If you have questions about the 2009 Social Security Disability application, or if you have a case from a prior year that has not been awarded benefits, consider contacting an experienced disability lawyer.

Matt Berry is an Atlanta SSI disability lawyer focused on disability law. His team of Social Security attorneys is experienced with the 2009 Social Security Disability law.

tely, credit cards for people with bad credit aren’t always easy to come by. In fact, the scams seem to outweigh the legitimate credit card opportunities. Does that mean that credit-challenged individuals are destined to roam cardless for eternity? Absolutely not. You just need to follow some sound advice…

There’s No Pie in the Sky

First and foremost, understand your limitations and realize there is no pie in the sky — no matter what someone tries to tell you. If you have credit problems, you’re not going to get a $10,000 credit limit at an interest rate of 9 percent just because you send someone $150 to process your application. What you’re going to get is a smack in the forehead when you realize that you’ve fallen for a scam.

Yes, there are credit cards for people with bad credit, but they’re going to have smaller limits and higher interest rates and probably even an annual fee. Anything that sounds too good to be true probably is — and you’ll do well to remember it.

Compare Your Options Carefully

Now, as for the legitimate credit cards for people with bad credit, they do vary widely from one to the other. Some bad credit credit cards offer reasonable annual fees, decent interest rates and even some added perks. Others charge somewhat ridiculous fees, higher percentage rates and no perks whatsoever. Apply for the better ones first.

Some companies, like Capital One, offer low-limit cards to people with credit challenges, but you still get all of the Capital One perks like great customer service, low rates, low annual fees and free online account management and bill payment services.

Other companies, however, charge processing fees, high annual fees, application fees, high interest rates and one company even charges almost $8 every time you make an online payment. If this is the only type of card you can qualify for, you might be better off going with a secured card and working your way up to a card like the one Capital One offers.

Just because you have bad credit doesn’t mean you should be abused by bad credit credit cards that charge ridiculous fees and you should never have to pay a credit card company to make a payment to them online. Remember, not all credit cards for people with bad credit card created equal and you need to carefully compare each and every one of the fees charged to make sure you’re getting the cards that’s right for you.

For more tips on credit cards for people with bad credit, saving money and avoiding getting taken, check out CreditCardWhizKid.com, a website that specializes in providing credit card tips, advice and resources.

If I were to offer you a way of breaking out of your financial straightjacket, offer you unlimited wealth, and a secure pension, and said that in order to have any chance at all of success, it was going to cost you around £ 500.00 per month, what would be your answer?

If you were to say, as over 80% of people would – “I can’t afford it” – what do you think that does to your brain? It shuts down, ignores the issue, and that is the end of it.

If, however, you were to have answered “How Can I Afford It?” your brain is immediately thinking, trying to come up with a solution. The question may not have actually been asked of you, but you may have seen an advert for an investment, so you go to sleep that night, thinking “What is the solution?”, “Is there a way?” How Can I Not Afford it?”

The above is part of the Introduction to a Free e-book (no I am not trying to sell something in this Article) entitled “How to Ignore the Welfare State and Make Yourself Wealthy” written by a very good friend of mine called Geoff Morris.

Like me he is of an age (more than 50) where one looks at the life mapped out for them by, well, our Government for want of a better apt description, perhaps having a bit of savings or maybe (and more likely) a mortgage which is not finishing when ones Pension kicks in. How much will the Pension be – oh dear – how am I going to cope – not that much I reckon.

What of the e-book, take a look at my Website – Investmenttime.info – I look at life and explore some ideas for investments – being surprised at the sorts of affordable investment packages for me & mine, and to pass the ideas on to my readers. I am not only alluding to Property Investment although it does figure highly in the scheme of things possible for everyone of us.

Oh by the way, you may have understood what I meant by 2 things you need to do – if not – they are sign up to your free e-book and secondly make an informed decision on how to improve your financial position – there are plenty of ideas!

A fairly poor Engineer looking to his financial future and trying to help others to do the same by looking for secure investments.

A convenient and straightforward way of borrowing, home equity loans have gained enormous popularity in recent times. Since their conception, folk in need of constant credit have increasingly preferred them.

Home equity loans refer to the credit folk borrow against the equity of their home, keeping the home as security. Such credit helps to turn our equity into cash, enabling us to spend on home improvements, school education, medical expenses, or to consolidate obligations.

interest rates are variable, changing every month in tune with the prime rate or the index. The prime rate refers back to the IR made public in some major paperspapers or a US Treasury Bill rate, which is the base rate for all firms in the country. With this base rate, firms charge a margin which is different for all companies, making interest rates differ from one company to the other.

Equity varies, as it indicates the difference between the estimated value of a home and the superb mortgage against it.

In deciding our exact line of credit, lenders also consider our ability to pay, by researching our incomes, obligations, and credit score, besides other things.

All this info is then reduced down to a credit score, or FICO score.

It includes costs for property appraisal, title search, attorney or title agent, and preparation of the document, besides other things. Access to credit is possible by checks, Visa card, or electronic transfer.

Available for different time periods such as 5 years, 10 years, or 15 years, with straightforward access and revolving credit, a home equity line of credit is a highly useful and convenient way of borrowing for any need.

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Jerrod has been writing articles online for a few years now. Not only does this author specialize in diet, fitness and weight loss, you can also

check out his latest website on Credit Equity Home Line which reviews and lists the best info on

Home Equity Loan Rates which gives you the best rates.

I wanted to make it clear first that I am not here to suggest you should or should not except credit cards. But to show you the pluses and the minuses of both and let you make the choice, especially because a small business has to make choices that will affect your bottom line.

The decision to except or not except credit cards for your product is one of those decisions. Since businesses are different, it would be better for some and not for others.

The Pros: The first advantage of taking credit is that it is continent. More people are using credit cards for purchases online and offline then they ever have. Even debit usage is becoming more predominate, although the old payment of checks and cash are becoming less popular.

So for the convenience factor alone can increase your bottom line. If you have an online business, sales over the internet are expected to grow and are estimated to reach $230 billion dollars in transactions by 2010. And online sales will account for close to 10% percent of the United States sales by 2008.

Another plus for accepting credit cards is the better credibility. To be able to get a merchants account is not the easiest thing to do. So if you are able to obtain a merchant account then the customers may see you as more reliable.

The Cons:One of the biggest cons of accepting credit cards is the fees that you will occur. These fees can range greatly. If you are accepting credit cards face to face it will be anywhere from $30 to $2000 just for equipment.

You will have transaction fees from anywhere from $.5 to $.50 cents per transaction. If someone used a charge back on you, that can be from anywhere from $30 to $60 every time. You are even charged for your monthly statements. Now I know someone is saying $.5 to $.50 per transaction does not sound like very much, but they can very quickly eat into your bottom line.

Let me quickly explain charge backs. A charge back is when you either have a fraud purchase, an error that happened with the bank or just misunderstanding with the customer. The funds will be taken from your account, back to the card before you can even know about it.

The credit card company will hold you fully responsible for the charge back even if you did everything you could to get proper information. Another negative factor for accepting credit cards is the amount of fraud that you will come across. You will still be held responsible for the fraud every time for using a credit card.

The last con I will be speaking of is the time you have to learn how to use this technology properly. It is important that you learn how to use credit card processes services because any mistakes at all and you will loose money. Now that you see the pro and cons it is up to you to decide if it is right for your business.

Court provides information about credit repair with bad credit personal loans and is an expert on internet marketing.