I admit it; I’m a total clutter fiend. Not proud of this fact, but the idea of throwing stuff out literally gives me a pang in my stomach. The season of spring cleaning is well underway and playing the shuffle game with the piles of old stuff that I love is getting tiring. So, as painful as it will be to part with my beloved karaoke machine and my collection of broken down computers, here are some places that will actually buy your old stuff and may leave you a few dollars richer. Computers and laptops: You might be able to get a fair market price for your old computer gear from sites like Amazon, Craigslist or eBay. You could also do it the old-fashioned way and put an ad in your local newspaper—or check with computer repair shops.

Cell phones and electronics: If you’re hanging on to old cell phones that still work but that you don’t use, check out sites like BuyMyTronics, Gazelle and Simply Sellular that specialize in buying old cell phones and iPods.

Jewelry or a family heirloom: You can go through one of the online selling sites above or head to a pawnshop, consignment shop, antique dealer or swap meet. It might be worth getting the item appraised beforehand so you know its value before you negotiate.

Sports equipment: Do you have a treadmill or elliptical machine that has become a clothes hanger? If so, you might consider offering it to a sporting goods place like Play It Again Sports or an online community like SwapMeSports where people sell, buy, trade and donate old equipment.

Clothes: Get together your best-looking unwanted clothes and consider selling them online or bringing them to your local consignment shop. Not only will the shop pay you, but your unwanted dress or suit could be a great find for someone else’s wardrobe.

If you end up making some money from your old stuff, consider using it to pay off some debt or invest for the future—this calculator can help you decide which to do.

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The rich are getting richer, and everyone else is going deeper into debt trying to keep up.

The bottom 95% of Americans have seen debt levels balloon compared to their earnings over the past 20 years or so, as falling incomes made them more dependent on credit to maintain their lifestyles.

In 1983, the bottom 95% had 62 cents of debt for every dollar they earned, according to research by two International Monetary Fund economists. But by 2007, the ratio had soared to $1.48 of debt for every $1 in earnings.

The bottom 95% had incomes of roughly $160,000 or less in 2007, including capital gains.

And then theres the top 5%. Their debt-to-income level actually fell during the same period, from 76 cents of debt for every dollar earned in 1983, to just 64 cents in 2007.

And experts say the picture hasnt changed much since then.

The debt divide is a result of the growing income gap between the wealthiest Americans and everyone else. The top 5% saw their share of total income rise to 34% in 2007, up from 22% in 1983. This excludes capital gains, which pump up the income of the rich even more since they are more likely to invest.

The wealthy had so much extra money lying around that they channeled it back into the financial system, making more credit available to the rest of the nation.

“Rich people have more money to play with and there are only so many Armani suits they can buy. So they can lend money back to the majority,” said Michael Kumhof, deputy division chief at the IMF who co-authored the report. Other Americans “are trying to maintain standards of living.”

As their wages dropped, some Americans were forced to take on more debt just to stay in place, according to Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary under President Clinton who has written about income inequality.

With credit easier to come by, they financed their spending by taking out home equity loans or refinancing their houses. They also took out more auto and student loans and ran up their credit card balances.

“The only way they could continue to purchase what they need was to go deeper into debt,” said Reich, now a public policy professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Other Americans, of course, used debt to climb up the societal ladder, the so-called “Keeping up with the Joneses” phenomena.

As the wealthy ramped up their spending on luxury goods, the conspicuous consumption tricked down the income brackets, said Russ Morgan, an associate dean at Dukes Fuqua School of Business. For example, a regular stove was no longer good enough, it had to be a pricey Viking stove, he said.

Meanwhile, the wealthier slice of society has done very well in the stock market and in earnings in recent decades.

“They are in quite good shape,” Reich said. “They dont need to borrow.”

This pattern of sharp increases in income and debt inequality and also has consequences for the larger economy. The two times this happened in history the 1920s and the 2000s ended with major financial crises, Kumhof said.

While Americans have been shedding their debt since the Great Recession, its come largely through foreclosure or bankruptcy.

Kumhof doesnt think thats led to much improvement.

“Were still in similar levels of vulnerability as we were in 2008,” he said.

Source: CNNMoney

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The United States consumer credit skyrocketed up 10 percent in November. This is the biggest move upward for consumer credit in the last ten years. It is a good sign for the economy that consumer credit card spending is up as well as the fact that government student loans are on the rise.

With a jump of $20.37 billion during November, the Federal Reserve has indicated this has been the biggest increase since 2001 and comes out three times above the median forecast as predicted in a poll conducted by Reuters.

Financial experts feel that the growth is certainly a positive signal that consumers are more confident about spending on credit. However, there is a cautionary warning in place in that credit card use is up so high due to the high rate of unemployment. Lack of jobs may be prompting consumers to rely more on credit cards because they don’t have the cash to pay for items they need.

In addition to revolving credit accounts like credit cards, there has also been a reported increase in non-revolving credit accounts such as student loans and vehicle loans which rose $14.78 billion during November according to reports. It was the lending by the federal government of student loan funds that is said to be the significant factor in the increase. Federally-funded student loans rose 31.9 percent which marked the highest amount of an increase in non-revolving accounts which are tracked by the Federal Reserve.

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Its no surprise that top earners in America make a heck of a lot more than middle- and lower-income Joes.

But the disparity is greater here than in most developed nations.

The U.S. has a higher level of income inequality than Europe, as well as Canada, Australia and South Korea, according to data gathered by the World Bank.

And, while many nations have seen income inequality rise within their borders, the United States has experienced a more rapid increase in recent decades, widening the wealth gap even more.

“The top 1% in the U.S. really receive much more than in Western European countries,” said Branko Milanovic, an economist with the World Bank and author of “The Haves and the Have-Nots.”

America ranks in the bottom third of the list of 90 countries that Milanovic compiled, which is mainly based on 2008 data of per capita income or consumption in each nation.

The data is then put into a complex formula to provide the Gini index, which determines how much money would have to be redistributed for everyone to have the same income. The higher the figure, which ranges between 0 and 100, the more unequal the country.

Slovenia and the Slovak Republic top the global list, reflecting the fact that they have the most equal economies. Most of Western Europe, Canada, South Korea and Australia rank in the top half.

But while the U.S ranks low among rich nations, plenty of countries are worse off, particularly in Latin America. Honduras and Guatemala have the most income inequality, according to the World Bank.

Income inequality has also soared in the former Communist countries of Russia and China, as they shifted to market economies. Russia is only slightly better than the U.S., while China has become more unequal.

But the U.S. still stands out as a developed economy with such a great divide between rich and poor. The reasons behind its weak showing on the global stage are many and experts differ over which factors predominate.

Technology has contributed to the growing gap. As jobs require greater skills, its harder for those with just a high school diploma to land good-paying employment. A college degree has become a requirement for more lucrative positions.

At the same time, increased globalization is squeezing the middle class. Many companies are outsourcing jobs to other countries where workers are paid less. Also, other nations produce goods at cheaper prices so fewer U.S. firms are making items here. Hence, there are fewer opportunities to make a decent wage.

And whats unique to the United States is the relative lack of government support compared to Europe and Canada. Other countries provide more public services, including health insurance, higher education, daycare and pensions. And these benefits are provided on a more universal basis, rather than being dependent on ones income level, as in the United States.

“The U.S. government has done far less to address inequality in American society than any other of the rich countries,” said Frederick Solt, an assistant political science professor at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

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Views on credit cards tend to be divided between those that like them and those that loath them but very few arguments really consider whether or not it is good to have a credit card.

While the wrong kind of credit cards in the wrong hands will almost definitely lead to credit card debt in some shape or form, someone with a card that is right for them would never dream of parting with their plastic. So how can anyone really say whether or not having a credit card is a good thing?

On some level it comes down to what kind of card is involved and who is using it.

Basic, low rate and low or no annual fee cards, for example, tend to work for most people because they are designed to reduce credit card costs. These kinds of options will also be less likely to lead to card debt and other disadvantages that are often brought up around credit.

On the other hand, rewards cards are best suited to people who earn and spend enough to make the rewards outweigh any higher annual fees or interest rates.

The problems start to arise when people become tempted by credit card offers that sound too good to be true, prompting them to switch to a card that may not be ideal for them.

A great example is the many and frequent flyer cards on the market, which a lot of people sign up for as a way of saving points for a holiday.

Unfortunately these cards may not be worth it for people who rarely used credit and did not fly much in the past, so the actual card costs tend to outweigh potential benefits for these people.

To really decide whether or not you would ever benefit from a credit card, consider the following questions:

1. Do you currently have access to emergency funds?
2. Do you have enough savings to pay for any big purchases or investments?
3. Do you have enough credit history to support larger loan applications like a mortgage?

If “no” is the answer to any of these questions then it is probably a good idea to consider finding a credit card that will easily fit into your lifestyle.

While some credit cards may seem confusing and expensive payment options, others can be convenient tools for building up credit history or supplementing personal savings. No matter what your view on credit cards is, giving them full consideration makes all the difference.

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TLCs Extreme Couponers shows consumers expertly collecting and combining coupons to save hundreds of dollars at the grocery store checkout. Unfortunately, if were not careful, coupons can also seduce us into spending money rather than saving it. Retailers are experts themselves at using coupons to lure us into the store and part with our hard-earned money.

“Coupons can save you a lot of money but more often than not, they entice you to buy something that you shouldnt buy or wouldnt otherwise buy,” says Christopher Elliott, consumer advocate and author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles and Shady Deals.

“There is a very small group of people who know the system very well, who game the system and come out on top,” he adds. “Theres a far larger group of consumers who are only dabbling in the system and end up losing.”

Here are five sneaky coupon strategies, as well as tips on using this knowledge to make smarter purchasing decisions.

1. Size restrictions.

When youre using a coupon for, say, 50 cents or a $1 off an off item, buying the smallest size possible lowers the cost per ounce. But retailers and manufacturers dont necessarily want you to buy the trial size or the single size at such a steep discount because youre spending less money, so they might include a minimum size in the fine print, says to Robert Weagley, associate professor and chair of the Department of Personal Financial Planning department in the College of Human Environmental Sciences at the University of Missouri. “Coupon users dont read the fine print,” he adds, so sometimes they wont realize the size restriction until checkout. When that happens, they may wind up paying full price because theyve already waited in line and its too much hassle to go back and find the larger size.

2. Geographic restrictions.

Coupons with geographic restrictions are some of the most frustrating, according to Elliott. “Generally speaking,” he says, “when retailers try to do this, they see a very attractive demographic in a certain ZIP code. A lot of those coupons are for online purchases, so when you buy, you put in your ZIP code and it invalidates the coupon.” But once youve placed an item in your online shopping cart, you may feel invested in buying itwith or without a coupon. In this case, you could search online for alternate coupons or reevaluate whether you really want to buy the item at full price.

3. Expiration dates.

Expiration dates can create an artificial sense of urgency, because coupon users hate to “waste” them (even though theyre free). “Its not unusual to find a coupon thats on the verge of expiring,” says Elliott. “They like to keep us on a really tight leash.” However, timing can sometimes work to the consumers advantage. Although some stores dont allow stacking (using a manufacturers coupon and a retailers coupon at the same time), most allow you to use a coupon even when an item is on sale, which can significantly increase savings. And some retailers will honor competitors coupons or advertised sales, so you may not have to drive all over town to get the sale price or use a coupon.

4. Other restrictions.

In addition to restricting by size, geography, and date, some coupons are only good on certain flavors or products. For instance, if you see a coupon for the brand of air freshener you typically buy, but you dont notice that its only valid for the pine scent, not the lavender scent that youre used to. “Sometimes the fine print is so small and so illegible that you really gloss over it,” says Elliott. “The reason they make the fine print so fine is they want to get you into the store. Retailers know that that dynamic is going on and youre going to end up maybe not paying very close attention to the terms of your coupon and saying, Oh, what the heck, Ill just buy it anyway.” Other times, coupons have a minimum purchase amount (say “spend $50 and get $10 off”) to motivate consumers to run up their bill, whether they need the items or not.

5. Moving around coupon or sale items.

If a coupon or sale item lured you into the store, retailers hope youll pick up other items for full price while youre there. “[They] want [you] to have to look for it,” says Weagley. “Because in the process of looking for it, you might see other things. Sometimes theyll put the displays on the end of the aisle of things that arent on sale. Other times, they might put the stuff thats on the sale at the end of the aisle and remove it from the place it normally is.” Placing complementary, non-sale items nearby is another strategy. For instance, if a retailer offers a coupon for taco seasonings, they might place taco shells next to the seasonings in hopes that consumers will buy the shells for full price out of convenience.

“What retailers are really doing are short-circuiting our common sense,” concludes Elliott. “Theyre appealing to a subconscious desire to save money and that subconscious desire often overrides reason.” Before hitting the checkout line, always look at the fine print and ask yourself, “Would I buy this without a coupon?”

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