My friend, Terry, wanted to know the most convenient way to apply for a credit card. I told him that he could do it online without having to go to the issuing company, look for a parking lot and queue up for ages to be served.

Also, before applying for a credit card, he could easily compare the best credit cards and look for those that suit his lifestyle the most.

Terry agrees that he could apply online for best credit cards. However, I told him to shop for his credit card as he would shop for any other item, comparing interest rates, features and rewards.

Credit Cards Guide is a good place to start if you are looking for the best credit cards. This kind of sites is best for people like me who do not have the time to surf all over the web, or are too lazy to! With Credit Cards Guide, you get to read up on information regarding some of the major credit cards in the market, compare them and then apply for the best credit card.

Seriously, without a website like Credit Cards Guide, I would not even know where to start searching for the best credit cards since there are so many and new ones are being launched ever so often it is impossible for me to keep up!

With the new ruling regarding credit cards and the 20-day interest free grace period, I don’t think that people would still want to apply for credit cards, but I am wrong. If anything, credit cards are truly convenient.

Many of my friends are young mothers or are expecting their first child and some of them tell me that they are financially not prepared for their newborn. I think that when you are talking about credit cards and newborns, the similarity between them is you need to be extremely responsible!

Couples who are expecting a newborn should know that a baby is a long term commitment and they surely don’t want to go into debt because of the baby. To avoid this, it is always best to pay off all outstanding credit card balances in full every month. Parents should also know that it is not necessary to spend on the best for the newborn since the baby is ever growing so would require continued expenses.

That is why it is always good to have some form of savings and not forgetting insurance! And let’s not even start talking about the money required to put each child through good education! Only a rare handful of my friends plan their finances well, but once they plan a family, they really need to put a check on where their money if going towards!

My friend consulted me on the best credit card offers currently in the market. You may have read that he cancelled his card a long time ago as he could not control his spending habit. HHmm I do understand the temptation of swiping our card now and pay for our purchase later but that is not a responsible way to carry a credit card.

However, my friend believes that now that he is older, he will be more responsible with a credit card, that’s why he is contemplating applying for one again. He asked me because he knows that I recently applied for a credit card and am familiar with the current cards and their offers since I did a thorough research before applying for one.

Well, there are many kinds of offers, of course, but it all boils down to what offer appeals to him. There are cards with an annual fee waiver, with zero percent balance transfer, with cash back rewards and even cards with 0% APR on purchases.

I told him not to listen to me but to do his own research. The trick in successful application of a credit card is to shop and compare them. I was told that rejection of a credit card can hurt our credit score so apply wisely!

My friends know that I surf the web a lot. They think that I am fooling around online AGAIN but I’m actually working. Well, they wouldn’t understand! Over the weekend, we had a meet up and one of them brought up the subject of investment. They asked me if I know of anyways to invest their money.

I am no investment guru but in the past couple of years, I have learnt of various options that we can venture into and grow our money slowly. With the current economic climate though, the only option I dare recommend to them is investing into gold and other precious metals.

There is no denying that the boom in China’s economy has certainly driven metal prices up and this is expected to stay for quite a while. Strike while the iron is hot, I say.

The other day, I received a message from my friend Gary, who told me that he will be leaving the country. I thought that it was a normal overseas trip that he takes about once a month.

A week later, I was surprised to learn that he has moved to Dubai for business and will be there for two years! Gary told me that it was a last minute decision and there was so many things to do before he left that he did not have time to meet up for drinks.

One of the things that he did before leaving for Dubai was to apply for an instant approval credit card for his wife. He opted for this credit card so that he would know almost at once if it would be approved as he did not have time to wait around to find out the status of her application.

Just for the record, an instant approval credit card does not mean that you can access your funds instantly. You still have to wait one to two weeks upon approval, but it cuts down your wait time and it especially removes the question mark over your application, if it will be approved, and when.

My cousin is tentatively going off to college this September. He has applied for scholarship and I hope, for his parents’ sake, that he will be approved for it. At least then, his tuition fees will be taken care off.

This morning, he called me up and asked me again to recommend him the best credit cards. I already told him that day that he should make his own decisions for something like this. After all, he is a college going student already. I suspect my aunt must have asked him to consult me because she thinks that I have more experience when it comes to credit cards, plus she was afraid that he would misuse his credit card and get himself into debt at such a young age.

I told my cousin, Terence, to see credit card applications online, especially the terms and requirements to determine the best card for himself. I also told him to check with his friends to see what credit or debit cards they are using before making a decision. I figure it would be more appropriate for him to check with friends of his own age group. After all, a student requires a different credit card than a working adult like myself. Don’t you think so?

My sister tells me that the economy isn’t doing too well in America. The price of gas has more than doubled since the day she entered the country seven years ago. The American Dollar has continued to weaken against major world currencies BUT it is hoped that things will improve in the near term.

However, many people are already left in a financial fix. Some of them have lost jobs rendering them unable to meet their monthly debts. When I first learnt that people in America use their credit card so freely like cash cards, I was surprised. There was a guy who bought a CAR with his credit card! Well, it is fine if the card holder will settle his credit card bill FULLY at the end of the month but then this rarely happens.

I feel that it is time for us to learn how to be prudent and make wise financial decisions. Yes, all of us and not only Americans and I feel strongly about this because my parents were very bad financial managers and it affected us in many ways while we were growing up. One significant issue that I will always remember was that my parents were unable to put their children through tertiary education. I used to wonder why my friends were all able to go to college and we could not. As I grew older, I realized that their parents were financially capable of doing so because they managed their income well.

Well, the thing is, if we want to have a better future for our children and our own old age, we have to start spending wisely RIGHT NOW. Stop Stupid Stuff is a blog that share great money saving tips. Do you think that you can implement these tips in your daily living? Why not challenge yourself and see how much money you can actually save every week by cutting down on extra expenses? Did you know that one of the best ways to save money is to recycle? Read Stop Stupid Stuff to avoid financial self-created pitfalls!