Owning a credit card can be quite an advantage. Whether making online purchases, booking an air ticket or a hotel room on phone or simply being in need of some emergency cash, having a credit card can be a big help. However, getting a credit card is also a huge responsibility and if you don't keep an eye on your spending habits, credit cards can create some serious problems. Here is an excellent list of tips on proper credit card use and if you follow these, you will likely stay out of trouble and your credit card will be a blessing instead of a curse:

1. When you make a purchase with credit card, it is akin to taking a loan from your bank. What you have borrowed has to be returned - so do not borrow beyond your capacity to pay it back.

2. Always be aware of your outstanding credit card balances. This will help you determine whether you can make additional purchases. Even small purchases can really add up to big balances and substantial interest charges.

3.Any credit card receipts should be kept until you can compare them to your monthly statement. If you find any purchases you did not make, or higher charges than those on receipt, contact your credit card company immediately.

4. don't give your credit card to anyone, not even friends and family. Its not that you cant trust these folks but it would be really difficult to track purchases if you are not only one making them.

5. don't ever borrow more than your ability to pay it back. If you do and consequently arent able to pay it back, it can hurt your future ability to obtain other forms of loans such as home mortgages, car loans etc.

6. Pay your credit card bills on time or even before they are due. Doing so will not only help improve your credit scores, but also help avoid additional costs associated with late payment charges and accrued interest.

7. Try to have your credit card bills paid in full every month. To ensure this, budget your credit card purchases on a monthly basis and then don't allow your purchases to exceed that amount.

8.Keep your credit cards for new purchasing. don't pay one credit card bill with a different credit card. This will inevitably lead to more charging and higher balances.

Thanks also to Daryl and Alan for their assistance and encouragement in helping to mould John’s encounter into best trading tool of all – practical experience...”

During 2001, not long after losing our home, we made contact with Daryl and I take this opportunity here to acknowledge and thank him once again for his wisdom and support since that time and also to Alan Hull and Dr Van Tharp since then.

Daryl subsequently invited me to write a short article for his regular weekly newsletter (Tutorials in Applied Technical Analysis) which became first of many articles as my wife Angela and I began our search for education.

He made a strong point that by concentrating on research needed to write articles we would pick up good habits and through sharing with others, we ourselves would be more inclined to stick with discipline involved in subject being covered.

We have recently collated articles I have written for his newsletter and they are now available as ‘The Atkinson - Guppy Articles - Stock & Share Market Educational Options for Investing Online & Online Trading - Opportunity for a Home Based Business’.

Most of these articles deal with concepts and trading skills which are still relevant to readers today and include following: * CONDITIONAL STOP LOSS ORDERS: A real life comparison between using two brokers for monitoring stop loss orders - true cost of slippage * DIRECTORS DEALINGS: A snapshot study of Australian share market to determine, if by monitoring purchases and sales of company directors with their own shares, whether it is possible to obtain an insight into future direction of share price and hitch a ride in right direction - or jump ship with them. * EXPECTANCY - net profit or loss that you can expect over a large number of single unit trades. A series of articles with thanks to work of Dr Van Tharp, author of 'Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom' * TAKE-OVERS: A brief overview of some of strategies traders apply to take-overs. * AVALANCHE SELLING and KANGAROO TAILS: A series of articles on recent phenomenon in Australian share market caused by computerised automated conditional stop loss brokers savagely cascading sell orders into market, with prices often rebounding several percent within minutes.

Angela and I also recently launched our new web site www.sharetradingeducation.com which is designed to be a handy and dynamic reference site for online traders and investors around world to keep coming back to as a marked ‘favorite’.

It features Jim Berg’s Home Study Course of his own profitable Trading Strategies with Metastock; as well as our own Home Study Courses based on work of Jim Berg, Daryl Guppy, Alan Hull , Simon Sherwood and our own experience.

In addition, it also contains a growing and helpful list of links to Valued Partners’ sites including brokers, traders' forums, newsletters, books, data, software, Self Managed Superfunds & more to come.

All visitors are invited to register to gain access to free downloads, upcoming Seminars & more for investing and trading online.

Through my writing articles and through our site, my wife, Angela and I now aim to provide a ‘Road Map of Discovery to Stock Market' to help new and existing online investors and traders find trading education information they need to initially survive pitfalls ahead, then thrive in market.

We wish you every success in 2005 and beyond and trust that if you haven’t done so already, you will be seeking out answers to questions I offered to my sailing team member ‘Phil’.