Evaluate wants versus needs to reduce debt

Are you facing a bucketload of debt? You aren't alone. CNN Money reports that the average consumers faced a debt load of $210,236 in 2011. That is a huge figure by the standards of most people. However, living with this much debt comes at a cost that can't be measured by dollars alone. The true cost of living under a financial burden is more than dollars and sense.

The excerpt below is the story of one person whose family is clawing their way out from under a pile of bills. It first appeared on the Yahoo Contributor Network and is republished here with permission...

Domain renewal

Just a heads up to my blog followers. I am having domain renewal issues. Hopefully the outcome will be positive but right now it's a frustrating mess. A new system was put in place that ruined an otherwise smooth process.

Hopefully we can get everything straightened out quickly. This is not a financial issue but a technical one. (The domain renewal is a whopping $10.)

I have had this blog for a couple of years now. It's helped some people and made a tiny bit of money. The big loss will be in the work that I have put into keeping it fresh. There are a lot of posts that are at risk of being lost.

If you are thinking about buying a domain, don't worry. The process is usually seamless. You buy the domain, plop your credit card number on the account and it charges annually. This time there seems to be a glitch in transferring over to the new system.

My hope is to get it worked out before the domain name expires. That's the plan anyway. Please keep your fingers crossed for me.

Epinions closes the review writing platform

Word broke earlier this month that Epinions is no longer paying writers. February 25, 2014 was the last day that writers could edit content on the review writing platform. Writers are being referred to a FAQ for answers. Yesterday marked the final payout and the end of an era in online writing.

I have written off an on for them since 2001. They were one of the first online writing sites that paid and several people launched new careers because of it. Readers could turn to Epinions for unbiased product reviews long before other review sites developed.