Speaking about money and finances seems to remain taboo, despite the many other topics gaining acceptance by society. The only way to break that trend is to simply start talking more openly about it.

As I’ve stated in many previous posts, I use my credit card for nearly all of my purchases. I only allow myself to do this because I pay my bill in full and on time each month to avoid the high interest and fees normally associated with credit cards. The reason I make so many purchases by credit card is to reduce the number of bills I receive each month and to maximize the travel rewards I receive through my card.

It amazes me that no one has ever questioned my use of a credit card. Fellow shoppers routinely see me using my credit card, but none has ever warned me of the dangers of such use. I would expect someone to say something eventually, given that I use my card so much and often use it for small purchases. Something as simple as, “Do you know how much that gallon of milk is going to cost you?” could open a meaningful discussion of interest rates and how long it takes to pay off credit card debt. As the average American household with at least one credit card has nearly $9,200 in credit card debt, those shopping along with me could easily assume that I too carry debt, in which case they’d be right to believe my $3 milk purchase could end up costing much more. This discussion would be quickly dismissed if I explained that I pay off my card in full, but it would still be nice to be asked.

Some readers may believe that shoppers generally mind their own business and would never offer advice. My counter-argument to that idea is the frequency with which parents (myself included) are berated with unsolicited parenting advice whenever they go shopping with young children. I can’t seem to get through the line in Target even once without getting some form of parental advice, yet I have never received any credit card guidance. So I do believe that it’s the subject matter—money— rather than the apparent rudeness of unsolicited advice that prevents people from offering any suggestions.

Of course, it may also be that those shopping along with you are themselves ignorant to the woes of credit card use and debt. While you may not be willing to offer any unsolicited financial advice to strangers, I hope that you will at least consider being more open about money and finances with your friends and family. Send them here to the Lending Club blog if you’re not comfortable discussing such matters with them directly. Doing so may help them to learn something about their use of credit and may even inspire them to consolidate their high-interest credit card debt with a peer-to-peer loan from Lending Club.

It is certainly wise to work with particular people and businesses based on their respective strengths and skill sets. Yet even though you probably wouldn’t buy a car from an accountant, you might be tempted to have a car dealer do your taxes.

My recent overview and data posts described the practice of refund anticipation loans in detail, but they did not mention a side-industry that has sprung up as well: businesses that offer to prepare your taxes as long as you use your anticipated tax refund to make a purchase from them. This practice is most frequently used by car dealerships, but I’ve also seen furniture stores trying to employ it as well.

Car dealer-prepared tax returns have some of the same problems as refund anticipation loans. In fact, they actually are refund anticipation loans at their core, with the proceeds going towards your down payment. If your return is prepared inaccurately, or if you receive a smaller return than expected or no return at all, you are still responsible for the amount that the car dealer credited you with. So if the dealer uses your anticipated refund to reduce the cost of a car by $3,000, for example, you’ll be responsible for paying the difference if your refund comes up short. Another problem is that it’s difficult to judge the cost of these loans. Even if they do provide this service “for free,” can you really be sure that the actual costs of the service aren’t hidden in the price that you’re paying for the car?

Clearly you’d be much better off waiting to receive your actual refund and then using it as payment towards a car. Unlike traditional refund anticipation loans, which can be used for pressing financial needs (though given the high costs, we wouldn’t recommend it), in many cases you can wait to purchase a car until your receive your actual return. Using the methods described in the aforementioned refund anticipated loan posts, you probably won’t even have to wait very long.

Realize that a car dealership offering to file your tax return is just another way to get you, a potential customer, in the door. Using some common sense in such situations will help you to quickly realize where these businesses’ true interests lie. If you’d like to purchase a car without the high cost of financing through the dealership, whether through their traditional financing or tax return “discount,” or if you need help coming up with a down payment in order to leverage the dealer’s financing offer, consider a low-interest person-to-person loan from Lending Club as a more affordable alternative.

In this edition of "Catching up with....", our interview series, we have a chat with - CleverDude:

You originally had around 20K of credit card debt, right? How did get to 0? Any tips you could share with our readers?

I could talk for days about my credit card history, but obviously I can't right here so I'll give you the brief rundown. I graduated college with about $15,000 in CC debt, then accrued another $5k throughout the years while still paying some down. Technically, at one point I had a $25,000 total balance. I carried that balance for about 6 years after college, but almost never paid interest on it because I was able to keep transfering the balance to a 0% offer on another (often new) card every 6-12 months, at the cost of about $40-75 each time.

It wasn't until last year that I looked at that debt, then looked at our budget, and realized we could pay off the whole debt in about 10 months if we focused on it. I committed about $2000 per month (pretty much most of our discretionary income) to paying down the cards and eventually paid it all off last September, which was 2 months early. Overall, we paid down $41,000 in existing and new debt last year because we made a plan and committed ourselves to it.

You go by "cleverdude", yet often it seems you downplay your "cleverness" greatly. Maybe you should be "humbledude"! What do you think?

Well, the name Clever Dude was picked almost randomly by a domain name selector when I first decided to get my own domain. The name stuck, but like you said I downplay my cleverness. I don't consider myself humble, but I also never liked being boastful for one big reason: It has always seemed that whenever I patted myself on the back for doing something well or right, that something surely comes along to ruin the moment. I'm basically a pessimist, especially with myself, and I guess it comes through in my writing. Also, I don't like people who brag in general and I don't want to be seen as one of them. I like to be open to listening to any viewpoint and I see pride as an inhibitor to learning from others.

What are the biggest financial mistakes you see our generation (mid-late 20's) making?

Getting caught up in marketing. We seem to think we need the latest and greatest thing without sitting down, looking at what we already have and accepting it. I'm guilty of this too as you may have read about my problem buying a new car almost every year.

But this isn't just corporate marketing (of stuff), but also societal marketing. Society says we need to own a house instead of rent, that we need to have kids before we're 30, that we need a college education at the finest institution. However, I've often wished I still rented instead of owning our home. My wife and I are postponing plans for kids indefinitely because just don't think we're ready for them. And my public college education has landed me a very fine paying job.

(follow-up) How can we change that?

People just don't sit down and take the time to think about the big decisions in their lives. We need to be more patient and block out all the marketing hype from corporations, friends, family and traditions and just listen to our gut to see what's right for us.

What made you start your blog? How has blogging about financial issues helped your own finances?

I have Nick from Punny.org to thank for the idea of starting a blog. Before he came along, I didn't even know what a blog was, how to start one, or how to monetize one. I didn't really have a purpose for the site early on, which you'll notice from my archives, but eventually I began focusing on personal finance. I began having an audience and the idea that I could help others through my own experiences has been the biggest push and motivation for my site.

Blogging has kept me accountable for how I spend money, whether on stuff, debt, investments or donations. I'm honest in everything I write, and my conscience gets to me if I made a big purchase and didn't write about it. Those debt scales in my sidebar, well they're a big motivation. I want to see a big fat ZERO in each one soon.

What are your thoughts about Peer to Peer lending? (be honest. LC is all about the honesty) Do you think investors should be allocated a % of their portfolio in this new arena?

Ahh, I knew it would lead to this sooner or later. To be honest, I haven't ventured into P2P lending myself because I'm still trying to grasp concepts of basic investing. I do see P2P lending as having a place in people's portfolios, just like stocks, bonds, and other low or high risk investments, but I don't know what % should be allocated. I think only time will show how risky P2P lending is and thus its appropriate place in a portfolio. Personally, I don't plan on getting into P2P lending in the near-term until I get a better plan for my investment portfolio (no I don't have much of one right now).

What does the future look like for you and cleverdude.com?

Well, I never had a plan for the site from the beginning, and I don't see one coming anytime soon. I've found that work and school have taken a big toll on the time I can spend on the site, but I'm still posting daily. I've considered posted only 3-4 times per week, rather than 5-6, but I feel guilty when I don't post on a weekday. As for content, I'd like to begin doing more "basics" articles, and then move into intermediate topics, both to help my readers and to help me understand the concepts. I've also been slacking on linking out to other bloggers, so I'd like to add more of my own commentary on others' articles as well as current events. It all takes time though, and I just need to commit to a plan.

Any last words?

Willow, Xylophone, Yuca, Zebra

One of the big benefits of thinking of your financial life as a system is that you will respond instead of reacting to everything that happens to you financially. What is the difference? It can mean a lot to you financially.

A reaction is an action based on some kind of external action. A reaction has no plan and no thinking built into it. It can be called a “knee-jerk” action or a reflex. When the doctor taps you on the knee, you have no control over the reaction and your leg moves. Same thing happens when you are reacting to your financial life.

Some examples of reactions:

• There’s a sale going on at the mall and although you don’t need new clothes, you decide to go shopping

• Your car breaks down and it costs $500 to fix, so you put it on a credit card

When you don’t have a response or a system prepared to deal with everything that might come to you financially, you are forced to react. And many times this reaction will cost you a lot financially.

A response is a prepared action you have for anything that comes your way. A systemized financial life helps you by making sure you have a response for mostly everything. It helps you by allowing you to foresee anything that might go wrong and prepare for it ahead of time, so that the unplanned and unwelcome event does not ruin you financially.

Some examples of being ready with a response:

• Not spending all your money during the holiday season, knowing that the after-holiday sales will have a lot of bargains

• Putting away two to six months worth of life expenses in case you lose your job or get injured

• Planning ahead for major purchases so you’re not forced to use credit when buying them on a whim

Action: Look over your financial system to see where things might go wrong and prepare a response. This will keep you from breaking the bank when financial emergencies come up. It will also reduce the amount of stress you experience in your life, knowing that you have that cushion in case anything goes wrong on your way to achieving your goal to become wealthy.

If you’ve ever wanted to be a part of Oscar history, Lending Club can help. If there is one factor that is most important above all else in Hollywood, it is having money. For those looking to borrow money, Lending Club just happens to specialize in financial solutions by offering a smart alternative to high-interest credit cards. So while your amateur home movie may not leave its mark on the world of cinema, a $25,000 personal loan from Lending Club can get you started on your Hollywood adventure.

Here’s a look at how far that lump sum will go in terms of Academy Award spending.

25,000 used Oscar statues

The Academy makes all Academy Award winners sign a contract stating that if a winner decides to part with the statue, he or she must first offer it to the Academy for the price of one dollar. No wonder I never see Oscar statuettes in my local neighborhood pawn shop. It would follow that a wily entrepreneur could make quite a little profit if he were to put his business sense to work and offer, say, $1.50 per statue. That’s a 50 percent markup! You could turn that $25,000 Lending Club loan into almost $40,000! Of course, I’m pretty sure that very few people in the history of the Oscars have ever wanted to sell this most prestigious award.

12-day luxury sedan rental

The price tag for a fancy car rental on Oscar night is steep indeed. Seven hundred dollars for eight hours comes out to nearly $1.50 every minute (or one-and-a-half used Oscars a minute). I doubt you’d be getting your money’s worth sitting in LA traffic. But if you had a $25,000 Lending Club personal loan, you could charter that luxury sedan for a barnstorming black tie trip across the country. If the driver is an automaton and doesn’t need to sleep or eat, you could make it from L.A. to New York and back three times before your 25 grand runs out. Road trip!

5 products for the nominee gift bags

Companies eager to pawn their pricey products off as swag to the glad-handing upper class have to pay a pretty penny just to have the right to do so. At a $5,000 entry fee, the cost of marketing is rather steep, but getting your electric tie rack into Daniel Day Lewis’ closet is priceless. With that $25,000 loan, you would have enough left over to hawk four other gifts as well. Nothing says Oscars like art deco drawings, noise-canceling headphones, King of Queens on DVD, and In ‘N Out coupons. As a small aside, the lavish gift bags are no longer given, so perhaps that 25 large should go back into A&R.

3 1/3 haircuts

There is no point in getting all dressed up if your hair looks like a soccer mom’s—unless you are nominated for your role in a Bend it Like Beckham remake. For the rest of the movie business, a fancy hairdo is the icing on the cake of a complete look. However, it does not come cheaply. For a woman to have her hair done by one of the finest hairdressers in L.A., it could cost $7,500 for the star treatment. The good news is that you get to read Vanity Fair for free while you wait. Having a $25,000 personal loan from Lending Club would make the cost a little easier to stomach. Plus, with the left over dough, you could get hair appointments for two and one third of your best friends. Hopefully, the one-third girl is not going to the Oscars with you.

½ of the red carpet (250 feet)

Without a red carpet, an award show is nothing more than an adult prom. That is why the Academy Awards spares no expense in rolling out the spendy shag on Oscar night. The $50,000 price tag says a lot about the show’s commitment to excess and its complete and total disregard for affordable IKEA carpeting. At this point in the proceedings, your $25,000 loan will start to wear thin. Instead of fronting the whole bill for the red runway, you could chip in for about 250 feet. What you’ll do with it afterwards is anyone’s guess, although it would fit well in that 250-foot hallway at home. Of course, there is always the IKEA alternative, where your $25,000 could get you 100 area rugs with purple flower patterns. They would go great in your purple room at the end of your 250-foot hallway.

½ second of a commercial

With 30-second commercials costing at least 1.7 million dollars, a $25,000 loan will not go very far. However, that approximate half-second of airtime is still enough to pimp a product or showcase a brand. Just make it fast. I would recommend having a popular actor stand on a giant soundstage, stare deeply into the camera, and say your product’s name as fast as is humanly possible. Naturally, said actor should be working for free.

1/1000th of the most expensive piece of jewelry ever worn to the Oscars

Titanic actress Gloria Stuart put the jewel in jewelry with her 15-carat blue-diamond necklace that she wore to the 1998 Oscars. She didn’t take home an award, making the giant sparkling gem the world’s greatest consolation prize. If Gloria Stuart had visited Lending Club for a $25,000 loan prior to her jewel binge, she could have paid off roughly 1/100th of the price of the $20 million bling. On the other hand, with $25,000, she could have bought 100,000 ring pops from 7-Eleven.

15 seconds of the award show

The cost to put on the Oscars is appropriately exorbitant—nearly 30 million dollars exorbitant. That seems like an awful lot of money for some lame jokes, long speeches, and a few Phil Collins songs. Nonetheless, the bloated budget helps make the Oscars the spectacle that they are, and with a running time that can exceed four hours, at least they are getting their money’s worth. Speaking of getting your money’s worth, you will not if you sink your $25,000 Lending Club loan into putting on the Academy Awards. Your money would claim 15 seconds out of a possible 15,000, which is about enough time for host Jon Stewart to tell a political joke that goes over everyone’s heads.

25 seconds of Juno

The darling of this year’s Best Picture nominees was also one of the cheapest to produce. At a price tag of only 6.5 million dollars, Juno is extremely affordable compared to Hollywood’s other big-ticket blockbusters. Spending $25,000 for 25 seconds might seem like a rip-off, but you would be making movie history. What if those 25 seconds were an important plot point or a funny Michael Cera joke? Of course, if you’d rather choose temperance over timelessness, you could always wait and spend your small fortune on 1,400 copies of the DVD.

And while the Oscars only air once a year, Lending Club is available to everyone looking to apply for a loan online right now. Just please don’t make a sequel to Gigli.

The Academy Awards will air on Sunday, Feb. 24th at 5PT / 8ET.

Research done at Portfolio.com.