Today is Super Bowl Sunday and hopefully you are getting ready to stack up the nachos, chill down the beer and prepare to watch a great game with good friends. It would be a good time to get your mind off your financial problems and have a little fun, except for this article I read about super quarterback Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts.

If you have even a passing interest in professional football this piece from Slate is a fascinating look into what makes Manning so freakin’ amazing, and such a pain in the ass to work with.  To make a long story short, he cares more about football than everything else in his life combined and works harder than anyone else in the game to be perfect. Not great, but perfect. When it comes to football, Manning has an obsessive-compulsive personality and speaking to his family and teammates you can get more anecdotes than he has passing yards.

When he was just twelve, Manning pushed his Pop Warner teammates to block harder. He got to college six weeks early to work out with the upperclassmen. At home, he falls asleep with the remote in his hand after hours of breaking down custom game film.

Reading all of this got me to thinking… Do you care enough about knocking down your debt to approach it like Peyton Manning would?

It’s a fair question. Football provides Peyton Manning everything that is important to him in life while massive debt prevents you from enjoying everything that is important in life. And both paths are temporary. Football players have a limited window to compete before age and injury take hold while you want to envision a time when you are living debt-free. Until then you have to focus and deliver.

So imagine what this would look like. Are you willing to break down your credit card statements looking for irregularities? Badger your card companies into lowering your rates? Get to work early and stay late to jockey for a raise or promotion? How about cutting out your favorite entertainment to save money? I doubt that Petyon Manning is going to a lot of movies on Saturdays.

Manning memorized his team playbook in days. Do you even have one? It’s called a budget and without one you’re in the financial pee-wee leagues and you’ll never be debt free.

Manning also expects other people to treat the game as he does. When a teammate left practice early to be present at the birth of his daughter, Manning asked why he couldn’t have babies in the offseason.

Here I would say that your family is on your debt-reduction team and they need to know their roles and get behind you. Or in front of you, if they are your metaphorical O-line. Make sure that your spouse knows that you’re serious about debt reduction and you expect him or her to do their part to cut spending and pay more towards the bills. And the kids. Playtime is over if it means expensive clothes, toys and electronics. Explain what the goal is, that it’s only for a short period of time and that they are helping the family win.

So go an enjoy the Superbowl today and tomorrow be ready to wage war on those bills. (Not the Buffalo Bills. You know what I meant.)

April 15th will be here sooner than you think and for a lot of people crunching the numbers on their 1040 forms the bottom line won’t be pretty. They’ll see that they owe money on their taxes and many won’t have a clue how they are going to pay.

As you might imagine, not having the cash to pay the Feds is a very big concern at a time when so many people are out of work, have drawn down their savings or have robbed their retirement accounts blind (causing an even greater tax bill if it’s a premature withdrawal.)

If you find yourself in this situation, don’t panic. Know what you’re facing and take action, because the worst thing that you can do is nothing. The government has near unlimited authority to make your life miserable. They can garnish your wages, put liens on your property and even throw you in jail.

Did I actually say “don’t panic?”

Rule Number One: still file your return, even if you can’t send a check along with it. Not filing a timely return is a federal offense, and you don’t want to go the Wesley Snipes route. But filing without payment doesn’t get you totally off the hook. Receiving your return without the cash owed will start the penalty train moving down the tracks.

The penalty failing to pay on time is .5% for each month (or part of a month) that the payment is late.  The maximum penalty is 25%.

Filing late is much worse. The failure-to-file penalty (or the delinquency penalty as it’s also known) is assessed at a rate of 5% per month with a typical maximum of 25%. That’s ten times as much for those keeping score at home.

If you obtain an extension for your filing due date, you are not filing late unless you miss the extended due date.

For more information on income tax penalties check out http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc653.html.

So where does that leave you when you still have an outstanding bill with Uncle Sam? Here are some of your options:

• Tap into Your Home Equity. If you have sufficient credit on a home equity line, this is a great way to pay taxes owed. You’ll typically have a low interest rate and the interest you pay will generally be tax deductible for the coming tax year. Win win.
• Pay by Credit Card. Not ideal for people looking to get out of debt, I know, but if you have a low interest rate and a plan to pay it off, this is an easy out. You’ll have no I.R.S. penalties, you’ll get the monkey off your back and might even pick up some rewards points. The I.R.S. has information about doing this and a table of their fees for doing this on their website at http://www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=101316,00.html.
• Ask for a Loan from Family/Friends. Everyone knows that the Treasury Department is not to be trifled with and you’d be surprised how willing folks can be to help you get out from under the boot of big government.
• Borrow from your 401(k) or IRA. This is a last-ditch solution but if you will have the money to pay your taxes soon you can typically borrow against your retirement account as long as you repay it within 60 days. But if you can’t, the taxes and penalties will be as bad as paying last year’s taxes late.
• Make Some Money Fast. If your tax bill is small and you’ve got a few weeks still, check out the Earn More section of Debtbeat to find ways to earn a little extra cash ASAP.

When all other sources of funding fail, pick up the phone and call the I.R.S. They want to get their money and are tasked with helping you meet that end.

They can work out an installment plan for you and if your circumstances are dire enough, even negotiate a lowered settlement. You will still have penalties and interest, but at least you won’t have the Feds after you like Mafia loan sharks looking to collect their vig.

There’s been a lot said lately about poor service and long wait times when trying to reach the I.R.S. and there’s a lot of truth behind that.

However, the government recognizes that this is a problem and as a result has proposed more than $43 million in the new  budget to improve IRS customer service. So while the concern of not getting through to someone who can help is legitimate, more than anything else it’s fear and embarrassment that prevent a lot of people from making that call, and it costs them big time.

Despite the new consumer protection legislation that goes into effect in just a few short weeks (i.e. the CARD Act) it’s still incumbent upon people who use plastic to know what they are getting themselves into. In other words, they need to know the skinny on credit cards, which just so happens to be the title of today’s RR book.

The Skinny on Credit Cards, How to Master the Credit Card Game is an easy-to-read and guide on using plastic wisely.  And by easy I mean stick-figure easy (literally.) You can preview a few pages on their website and check out what I mean.

This tome by Jim Randel (he has a series of them) helps teach you how to:

• Escape from credit card debt
• Improve your credit score
• Lower your interest rate (APR)
• Identify credit company tricks
• Select the right credit card
• Protect yourself against fraud
• Teach your kids about debt
• Avoid paying fees

Unlike books that give stupid advice like “don’t use credit cards” this one recognizes that credit cards are an indispensable if not unavoidable part of modern life can you can use Visa to your advantage.

So grab a copy of a simple book and don’t let the card companies play you for a simpleton.

We are a month into 2010 and while that new-year smell has faded, the paint job is still fresh and the tires have all their tread. But are you driving in the right direction?

To ring in the New Year I gave everyone a list of tasks that they should consider to make 2010 the year that they reinvent themselves financially. Now is the time to revisit (and re-engage) those goals.

Have you started keeping score, using  software or services like Mint.com or Quicken?  It’s still early enough in the year for you to get a better understanding of where your money goes so you can keep more of it and track your net worth to see it rise year-over-year.

What about creating a budget? If you don’t have a budget then you don’t have anything to put the brakes on reckless spending.  A budget will let you know if your income can support your monthly spending and if not, it’s time to trim the fat or look for ways to bring in more cash.

Speaking of which, it’s also time to make more money. Whether it’s a small side project like the ones in our Earn More section or jumpstarting a new job search, inertia is your enemy. Get out and do something, anything to get more and bigger checks in the door.

Getting out from under high utility bills and high-rate credit cards help on the other side of the balance sheet in cutting expenses. Make sure that you look at alternative phone plans for home and mobile and if you don’t do anything else pick up the phone and demand a lower credit card rate. If you can’t haggle it down, shop around. And if there is one luxury or bad habit that you can cut out entirely, you’re cooking with gas. Kill the cigarettes, or liquor store trips or eating out as often. You’ll feel better and save money coming and going.

And now that pulling out a stack of coupons at the checkout counter is no longer a mark of shame but a badge of honor, make sure that you’re getting deals wherever you can. Fifty cents here and a dollar off there can help you double down on a credit card payment or two without sacrificing anything.

So before the year becomes a clunker and takes your bank account for a ride off a cliff, get in the driver’s seat and handle your business. Budget, cut your spending, grow your income and watch your debt die a slow but satisfying death.

They say that everything’s bigger in Texas. For examples, one could point to everything from cattle, to hats, to oversize pickup trucks. Now add to that list the tumbleweed-sized cojones on Dallas resident Craig Cunningham.

A recent piece by the Dallas Observer details how Cunningham flips the script on debt collectors, takes advantage of their tactics and with some mean m0ves of legal judo actually makes money by suing their asses and winning big.

Of course without being behind on his bills, Cunningham wouldn’t have any problems with collection agencies. His troubles started in 2005, when a combination of failed real estate speculation, huge credit card debt and subprime mortgages sank him and forced him to go into foreclosure on two investment homes.

As you can imagine (or may be experiencing) the bill collectors quickly came a-calling.

Desperate, the now 29-year old Cunningham (who is currently between jobs except for his work as an Army reservist) figured out how to make the hardball ploys used by the debt chasers to his own lucrative ends.  Searching for information in online forums, he was told about the many federal and state laws that protect consumers against unfair debt collection practices.  The told him that if he knew a few basic rules, the odds were good that he could catch a collections agent violating them.  Then he could sue.

Here’s an account of his first bout with the man:

Cunningham armed himself with this knowledge, and the next time a debt collector called, the trap was set.

It didn’t take long. Cunningham had canceled a home alarm service with ADT Security after two months, and the company had billed him a $450 early termination fee, which he disputed. ADT sent his account to Equinox Financial Management Solutions, a third-party debt collector. The collection agency sent him a letter asking that he call back immediately. He dialed, armed with a voice recorder.

“Can you garnish my wages if I don’t pay?” he asked.

“Yes,” the voice on the other end of the line said.

“Can you put a lien on my house?”

“Yes.”

Wrong answers. Turns out, Texas consumer rights laws are some of the most consumer-friendly in the country. And according to a federal consumer protection law, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), debt collectors are prohibited from threatening legal action that would violate state laws. In this case, garnishing wages or putting a lien on Cunningham’s house would violate the Texas Debt Collection Act.

Cunningham engaged an attorney and within a few months he had a cool $1,000. This was too easy. He was hooked.

He figured that he could handle these types of complaints on his own and so he ditched the lawyer. So far he has filed 15 other suits in federal court without the help of a lawyer, earning settlements totaling more than $20,000.

He now is regularly able to trap bill collectors in his web and make them pay for their crimes.  And he’s not the only one. There is a subculture of people known to the debt collection industry as “credit terrorists” (although I’d call them debt freedom fighters) and they are good at striking fear into the hearts of callers.

We’re written about the illegal and unethical practices of debt collectors before. Most hire poorly trained staff who are chasing an easy buck and never think that they can get caught on tape.

So if you are being harassed by debt collectors, maybe you’ve just found a new source of income. The Observer article is a fascinating read and an interesting place to learn more about a successful debt freedom fighter.  You’ll also want to learn more about Federal laws governing debt collection and your local statutes as well.

Texans are known for their fight. Saddle up and ride with this one.  Yee-haw!