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The line between a future of financial solvency and one of distress is thinner than you might think.
Unfortunately, many people don’t realize they’re on the wrong side of that divide until it’s too late.
You could call it the ostrich syndrome. You know that things aren’t good, but you just don’t want to face up to
Continue reading Debt Problem – Signs to Look For – When to Get Help to Control Debt
You don’t have to put a lot of effort into it to hurt your credit score. Just a misstep or two is all that’s required.
Let’s look at a few ways your credit card could get dinged.
Paying Late
Credit card companies are notoriously prickly about late payments — even a payment that’s late by a few
Continue reading How to Hurt Your Credit Score Without Really Trying
The best way to begin getting the debt and spending under control is to reduce your monthly expenses. And one good place to start is to focus on reducing your variable expenses.
Variable expenses include those that can be changed or eliminated entirely.
Variable expenses are those that fluctuate each month, such as clothing, food, entertainment, vacations,
Continue reading Reduce Spending and Debt by Looking at Variable Expenses
As important as it is to start saving for retirement early, you may be better off tackling your consumer debt first. In some cases, the amount of debt you have not only affects your budget today, but it can significantly limit your options in the future. So if you’re contemplating whether to pay down your
Continue reading Pay Down Debt or Save for Retirement?
When you need cash to help make ends meet here are a few risks to avoid.
Credit Report
Before you take on new debt, it’s a good idea to take a look at your credit report and make any corrections.
Balance Transfer to a New Credit Card
If you go for a credit card offer that promises a low
Continue reading Options for Getting Cash to Make Ends Meet
For most of us, debt and borrowing money is a fact of life. However, debt can also be a financial tool to provide us with leverage that we can use to build net worth and wealth that we can, in turn, leverage to enjoy life and give back to others.
While cash can be used for
Continue reading Use Debt Wisely to Build Wealth for Enjoyment and Sharing
Here are some steps you can take to protect your cash flow during tough times. It may be a job loss, or large and unexpected medical bills. Whatever the cause, it threatens your income stream or raises your expenses. You’ll need to take drastic measures to restore your cash flow as much as possible.
Eliminate Nonessential Spending
One
Continue reading Steps to Protect Your Cash Flow
If you are struggling with how to manage your debt, start to take control by formulating your debt philosophy.
A debt philosophy is nothing more complicated than crafting a financial mission statement, the structural foundation of your family’s beliefs when it comes to debt.
It doesn’t need to be profound or complicated. It can be as simple as:
We agree to
Continue reading Your Debt Philosophy
If you’re buying a house, never let a mortgage lender tell you what you can afford.
A lender makes more money when you borrow more money. And most lenders don’t really know everything about your finances. They just look at your income and do a quick calculation to tell you what they think you can afford. They
Continue reading Homeownership: Your Mortgage and Other Financial Goals
When seeking financial aid and a college loan look first to the federal government before you resort to borrow money from a private loan.
Federal student loans typically charge a lower interest rate and don’t have much in the way of add-on fees.
The big federal loan programs are Perkins, Stafford and PLUS. You can get a
Continue reading College Loan and Financial Aid Basics
If you are worried about losing your job or getting hit with hefty unexpected bills you can improve your chances for staying afloat and paying your bills with these steps:
keep your core living expenses at less than half of your income
Create an emergency fund in a regular, taxable account
limit your debts, including credit card balances,
Continue reading Debt and Spending: Stay Afloat and Avoid Financial Disaster
This is a smart home-buying move that can save you big-time money on your mortgage debt if your FICO score is between 700 and 760.
Your FICO credit score plays a major role in determining the interest rate on your mortgage. If your score is 760 or higher, you’re in line for getting the lowest rate. But
Continue reading Mortgage Debt: Before You Buy a Home If FICO Score Not in Top Range
As prospective college students, and their families, prepare financially for a college education there are options. Here are some tips for college borrowing to reduce the need for debt and total borrowing costs.
Cut College Costs
Before you take out a private loan, look at the big picture. Do you have any savings you can direct toward
Continue reading College Financial Planning: Options to Reduce the Need for Debt
Prosperity is having sufficient assets to support your ability to live life for fulfillment and enrichment.
Here are some of the risks that can affect your trek to prosperity.
Spending
The most successful wealth managers know that they must be disciplined in their spending. It’s easy to let expenses increase as you make more and more money. If
Continue reading Risks to Your Wealth and Prosperity
One form of debt, credit cards, when used irresponsibly, can have devastating effects on your finances:
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
One of the biggest issues is a mental issue. When using credit cards, it is easy to rack up the balances because you don’t actually see the money going anywhere. It’s really easy to spend
Continue reading The Credit Card Debt Trap: Ease of Use, Carrying a Balance, Small Payments
Debt is an important financial tool that can be managed or mismanaged. If handled well, debt can enable us to purchase appreciating assets, minimize our long-term housing and transportation costs and reduce our taxes.
Debt has the power to improve our lifestyle, increase our cash flow and build our wealth. It also has the power to
Continue reading Managing Debt as an Important Financial Tool
In America today, carrying some debt is unavoidable, and even desirable, for most households. But between mortgages, car payments, and credit cards, many Americans find themselves over their heads – unable to dig out from under a growing debt burden that consumes an ever growing portion of their resources.
Assessing Your Debt
How much debt is too
Continue reading Getting out of Debt – Assess, Budget and then Reduce
Your credit score can affect your future cash flow. It can increase insurance premiums, job offers, housing costs and interest payments.
Insurance
Different rules apply for life, home and auto insurances.
Life insurance
A bad credit score will exclude you from top-tier life insurance, but your score doesn’t weigh heavily at any other level.
Although it does get factored in,
Continue reading Debt – How Your Credit Score Affects Your Future Cash Flow
What is a credit score?
A credit history is a collection of all of the pieces of financial information that relate to your life. It contains information on how long you’ve had your individual credit accounts, the account limits, balances, and your payment history.
Current and future creditors only want to know one thing: if they loan
Continue reading Your Credit History and Credit Score – An Overview
Debt consolidation is an important objective for many families.
For many people there is no clear way out of their debt problems – especially as they continue to meet their ongoing living expenses.
One debt consolidation option is to use equity or some type of collateral to obtain a debt consolidation loan. This option can provide value
Continue reading Debt Consolidation and Debt Relief Options
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