Personal Finance Guide

Financial Check-Up 

Give yourself a financial Check-Up

Financial advisers work sort of like physicians giving annual checkups; however, rather than checking for blood pressure or your prostrate, they diagnose the health of your financial situation and prescribe various solutions.  

Facing Finances: How to Calculate the Reality

 If you are like most people in debt, the reality of your situation is something you’d prefer to avoid. Yet, if you want to make real progress towards getting out of debt, you need to understand where you are before you can see where you need to go. 

How do I check my Financial health ?

There are two things in checking your financial health. One is to find out if you are in a good position, or if you are rapidly sliding downhill. In this article we will discuss your how to check your financial health.

12 Questions to Gauge your Financial Condition

Most of us don't actually realize that we are in trouble until we get into it and for many of us when the realization comes, we're already in a deep mess and can't find a way to extricate ourselves. This article will discuss the tools to help you gauge your financial condition.

What you Should know about Transparency of Potential Lenders and Employers

Because of changes in the industry, your experience when applying for credit is changing. Before 2011, if you were denied credit, you were then offered a free copy of your credit report so that you could look it over and see for yourself why you were denied.

Spending 

81 Ways to Reduce Spending

When you are in a tough spot, you have very little option other than to reduce your spending. You may not want to do this and may want to increase your income, but if you were able to do this, you wouldn't be in a tough spot, right? 

How Do I Cut my Spending?

If you are serious about getting out of debt, and you are operating on a budget deficit, it’s time to get creative about cutting your spending. When you are developing your budget, it is easy to look at your variable spending and determine where you can spend less. However, you must scrutinize all the categories of your budget including the necessities and identify more ways to reduce your expenditures.

Putting your Budget to Work

 You’ve already taken a big step by being honest about your financial situation. A monthly budget keeps you honest by giving you guidelines to reduce spending, prioritize debts and stay out of debt in the long run. 

How do I prioritize my expenses ?

Everyone has expenses. The difference between someone who is comfortably off and someone who is not is only in how they prioritize their expenses.

What are some of the reasons why people overspend ?

Finding reasons why people overspend is like trying to figure out how exactly the ocean gets it water. There are so many reasons, and for many who are in a bad state financially all the reasons why they spend money will seem like good ones.

Personal Financial Crisis Guide

Things Not to Do when in Financial Trouble

When you start having financial troubles it is easy to follow someone's advise even if it is not the best advise for you. When your mind is weighed down with problems it is difficult to think clearly and to many people this actually pushes them even deeper than they are in at that time. In this article we discuss some of the things that you should not do when you are already in financial difficulty.

Options for the Financially Overwhelmed

Those in a financial bind may feel overwhelmed, frustrated, and hopeless. It isn’t uncommon for people to feel they have nowhere to turn when enduring a financial hardship. Fortunately, several options are available. 

Facing Challenges of Personal Financial Crisis

A financial planner must have her own sets of beliefs, one of the core beliefs that she must possess is the ability to detach guilt from shame especially when personal finances is the one involved. To make the story short, people feel guilty from their debts because of the fact that they are theirs alone. They were responsible for the charges and they were the main contributors who made such financial decisions which eventually lead to these existing debts.

How to get Back your Life and Credit

If you don’t have the life you lived before, be attentive to the following steps to rebuild your life keeping an eye on credit and retirement.

Coping with Credit Crisis

It does not have to be a life altering event for you to realize you are in the midst of a credit crisis. Maybe a utility service was turned off for non-payment or a collection agency called your work. However you became aware of your credit crisis, it can come as a shock when you realize how much money you owe to creditors.

How to Get Out of a Credit Crisis

Understanding that you are in the midst of a credit crisis is an important aspect to taking control of your financial life. But knowing how to get out of that crisis might take more work than many people know how to put into it. If you do not understand the bankruptcy myths, your payoff options, credit counseling or when bankruptcy is your best choice then you will have a hard time getting out of any financial crisis.

4 Uncommon Credit Pitfalls

This article will discuss credit card pitfalls related to foreign travel, balances, statements and cash advances.

Credit Emergency

How to Evaluate your Credit Emergency

How do you know if your credit emergency is really bad or just a bump in the road? The only way to truly know if by taking an inventory of what the whole situation is, evaluating your options and prioritizing how you are going to get out of this crisis.

Pay off Plans for Getting out of a Credit Emergency

It is possible to get out of a credit emergency but you can only do it with a lot of hard work. You will need to take inventory of your debts and the resources you have for taking care of those debts. It might be necessary to take a part-time job or have a garage sale, but you can find more money in your monthly budget as well.

Are you in a Financial Emergency ?

When you are deep in debt, preparing for financial emergencies might seem like that last possible thing that you can do. But the reality is, the first thing you need to do when facing debt problems is to prepare.

Why you Need to Learn to Control your Credit

 Today everyone lives in a 'credit lifestyle'. Even people with low credit debt still live their lives to the fullest with some kind of credit. Everything from your house, to your car, to your education to your living room furniture can be bought on credit. This article will show you some of the many things that can be purchased on credit so you can understand why it's so important to our modern civilization.

How to handle Rent and Mortgage during Financial Difficulties

Most people would agree that housing is their most important necessity, but unfortunately, each year millions of people end up homeless because they are unable to make their rent or mortgage payment. Foreclosures have drastically increased over the years, and the inability to meet rising mortgage costs has made foreclosure a reality for many. Fortunately, there are concrete steps that individuals can take to keep their housing during difficult times.

The Perils of the Retirement Fund Loan

Social Security hanging in the balance and an emphasis on the employee contributing to his/her own package, retirement funds have increased in value. Plus, defaulting on this type of loan can lead to high penalties and taxes.

Utility Bills

What to do when you can’t Pay your Utilities

People are struggling in this current economic climate.  As people lose their jobs and income decreases it is hard to stay caught up with monthly expenses. Some of the bills that are likely to suffer are things like the utilities. This means your electricity, garbage, water, cable, and phone services.

Should you File for Bankruptcy to avoid Termination of Utilities ?

Filing for bankruptcy may seem like an extreme step, especially if it is just because you are unable to pay your utility bills. Yet sometimes you may not have any other option. In this article we discuss what exactly you need to do before you file for bankruptcy and how you can reinstate your utilities if it has already been disconnected.

How do you appeal to the Public Utilities Commission ?

If you believe that your PUC has violated your utility rights, or has not followed the right procedure in terminating your connection you can appeal to the state PUC. First make sure that you utility is governed by the local PUC. A municipality or a cooperative may not be governed by them and you need to find out how exactly the appeal process is with them. 

What can you do if you miss a couple of Utility Payments

In the previous article we discussed how exactly we can prevent missing any utility payments. In this article we will discuss what your options are if you have already missed a couple of those payments.

What to do if your Utilities are going to be Terminated ?

Utilities are one of the most essential things you need in the home. You can get by without a car, but you can't live without water, and electricity. If you are in very bad shape financially, it may not be possible for you to pay your utilities on time, and you may receive letters threatening you with termination of services. In this article we discuss what your options are in this situation. 

Medical Bills

How to Prevent Hospital Fraud and Reduce your Medical Expenses

Many people just do not review their medical expenses and pay up without a question. What they don't realize is that the people who make their medical bills are also human and are therefore liable to make mistakes. Unfortunately for you, these mistakes mean you have to pay more. Also whether you believe it or not, recent reports suggest that the incidence of hospital fraud is increasing. In this article we will discuss how you can protect yourself from being charged more than you should.

How to Manage your Medical Bills

Medical bills is one of the biggest problems you face when you are in a tight financial position. In fact difficulty in paying medical bills is one of the leading causes of consumer bankruptcy in the country today. In this article we discuss what we can do if you are in a position where you have a lot of unpaid medical bills.

7 Tips to Lower your Medical Bills

Apart from being careful in checking your bill to make sure that you don't get overcharged there are a few other things that you can do to lower your medical bills. In this article we will discuss what your options are.

Money Management

Home, Cars and Credit

There has been a trend with recent economic events for people to use their homes and cars to give them money. Twenty years ago people bought homes that they would live in through retirement. They spent their working lives paying off the house so when they stopped working they would have an inexpensive place to live their later years. The home was then passed on to their children and became part of their inheritance, but those days seem to be gone.

Professional help to managing your money

One of the first things you realize when you get into financial difficulty is that you really didn't know quite a bit about finances. Starting from taking insurance, to getting credit, there are so many variables involved that most of us just don’t understand the first thing about them. In this article we discuss the kind of professional help we need to take if we want to avoid falling into a pit again.

Create a Budget that Works

A person facing a financial emergency should face their debt problem head on instead of ignoring it and wishing it away. For some people, finding out how much they actually owe feels overwhelming. It isn’t uncommon for people to ignore their debt because of the emotional burden. However, the average debt counselor has discovered that many people tend to overestimate, rather than underestimate how much they owe. 

Your Finances and Overspending

The best way to get control over your financial situation to is to have a clear picture of your actual financial situation. This means making a budget. No one really wants to make a budget and sticking to that budget can be even harder, but knowing and watching where your money goes could be the difference between getting out of debt and getting further into debt.

The Three types of Budget

There are various ways on how to come up with a budget. This article will discuss the three best budgeting methods. These methods have their own roles and functions and could be utilized side by side with each other. Actually, all of them are interrelated and came up from one another. Here are the three kinds of budget: ideal budget, actual budget and compromise budget. 

12 Tips for Trimming down Fixed Expenses

 Trimming down your fixed expenses can boost your discretionary income. Most of the time, eliminating or trimming down your fixed expenses may seem to be a big lifestyle change. However, if you are fighting against getting rid of your debt, the hundreds or even thousands that you could save could really benefit you. 

12 Tips for Trimming down Variable Expenses

Variable expenses are the simplest but the most difficult to manage. If you were not fully aware of your variable expenses, your scheme for reducing debt will eventually lead to nothing. If you really want to succeed with your debt elimination, here are some tips to make your life easier.

How do I plan my Financial future ?

Just having goals is not sufficient for you to get back on your feet. If you want to accomplish these goals itself there are a number of other things that you need to keep in mind and in this article we discuss what you need to keep in mind when you are working towards improving your credit history.

How to save your Financial Life

In the United States, the most prosperous country in the world today and perhaps in history, we face a paradox. We are generally financially illiterate, and many of us are simply financial failures. Our educational system is largely to blame for failing to provide adequate information about managing our money. Many high school graduates know nothing about checking accounts, credit cards, or financial planning. 

What you Don't Know about Promissory Notes can Hurt your Friendship

 A promissory note is a less formal version of a contract. Specifically, they are used for personal loans. They're most often used when loaning money to friends/family. However, they're not used as often as they should be. The bank would have a contract for such a loan, and at the very least you should have a promissory note if you're going to loan money.

Don't make a Personal Loan to a Family Member Before you Read this...

 If you have kept your finances in good order, then eventually there will come a time when a friend/family member will ask you to co-sign a loan for them. This could be for a house, a car, or even some kind of moneymaking opportunity like a business.

Tips to Cut your Phone Bills

There are strategies that will insure that your home phone service is the least expensive available. The following strategies apply to landline services and can be implemented very easily. A major problem with home landlines is that the telecommunications market changes with the blink of an eye. The basic concept for savings is to insure that you are not paying for services you don’t use or that you are paying too much for the ones that you do use.

12 Tips for Saving on Hospital Bills and Funerals

 If you believe that hospital bills or funerals are in your future, here are some ways to get yourself prepared for the impact they will have on your financial life. 

Manage your Finances to Save Money

When people get so deep in debt that it bottoms out their credit, the question they often first ask is what they can do to fix it. The issue they should be addressing is how they got in that position to begin with. Despite the fact that one bad decision can cause a significant drop in credit, and contrary to popular belief, bad credit does not happen overnight.

Earning more to make up your shortfall

If you are in a tight financial position the first thing to do is to cut spending. If you have already done this, the next thing you should look at is increase income.

Divorce

Debt and Divorce

As with all aspects of getting a divorce managing the financial side of the separation of assets and debt is not a straightforward task. However, with some careful thought and planning some of the potential danger areas can be avoided and although there will almost certainly be a negative short term effect on your credit this can be minimized by following certain steps.

What you Need to Know about Assigned Debt in a Divorce

 Divorce is one of the leading causes of bankruptcy the United States. It seems like almost overnight you can go from a nice middle-class status to practically destitute. One of the ways this happens is through debt accumulated before the divorce. When couples can't decide on their own who gets what debt, then the judge decides for them.

How to Get your Finances in Order before the Divorce

 Everyone knows it's a good idea to separate your finances before getting a divorce. Otherwise, you will have endless battles in court over who gets the house, car and especially who gets what debt. If you really hate your soon-to-be ex, it can be impossible to work together to decide these things.

15 Action Steps you Must take to avoid Financial crunch after Divorce

Getting through a divorce can be a painful and ugly sometimes. Although divorces are never planned and no one expects a divorce, it is advisable to be prepared and protect yourself from unwarranted financial problems in the future. 

Before you Even Think about Divorce, get Your Personal Credit in Good Shape

Historically, only women struggled with loss of financial identity after a divorce. Now with prevalence of dual career families, it may be either the husband or wife who is the major money maker or who starts a small business and has significant credit in her name. When the marriage fails, the other spouse has many issues to deal with to re-establish credit outside of joint marital status.

Can you get a Reduction in your Child Support Payments ?

Yes in certain cases you can get a reduction in the amount you have to pay as child support. Usually the court will not do this, but in exceptional cases you can get a reduction in your child support payments. This is however not without its strings attached and in this page we will discuss in what cases the court will give you this leeway and what the strings are that come attached with this.

What are the Different ways in which you can Manage your Child Support Payments ?

Missing your child support payments is really not an option for you. The consequences can be really nasty and remain in your credit report for ages. Also even if not damaging in terms of your credit score, anyone who sees that you have missed your child support payments in the past will get a very bad impression about you. It is just not an option.

Kids

Credit for your Kids

It is possible to give your children a leg up in the world of credit through some simple steps. As we all know, managing your finances is not the easiest skill to master and getting children started early can potentially provide them with the skills they need before they enter into agreements that can cause them serious problems once they are older. 

14 Tips on How to Teach Money Management to Kids

Credit card debt is a reality for most college students. Credit card companies inundate them with appealing offers from the moment they set foot on campus. It is very easy for a student to acquire multiple credit cards, which could give them the opportunity to build good credit from the start, but instead, many end up gravely in debt.

Help with Funding your or your Kid’s College Education

 While college has become one of the most costly expenses you or your children will have, there are some steps you can take to lower your costs. 

What you Need to Know about Teaching kids Financial Responsibility

 In today's day and age having a credit card is a fact of life, even in pre-adult life. It's not at all uncommon for many teens and preteens to have to have credit cards that their parents are given to them. There many reasons parents give kids credit cards.

Send them to College with or without a Credit Card?

The time has come. Your senior in high school is graduating and moving on to the college scene. You might feel triumphant as you watched them apply to colleges, get accepted, helped them prepare for life in their dorm room, and even helped them earn some scholarships for their next phase of education. This article will discuss the pros and cons of having a credit card as a student.

3 Options for Credit Cards for Children

What rate does children entering adulthood get when they apply for credit? What type of credit should your child get as their first card? What are the options and which one is best for your child?

Credit and Kids

It’s true that raising children is expensive. As they grow and learn, they will continue to need new things. But this doesn’t mean that you have to go into debt to keep up appearances. Many families are drowning in debt problems and one of the top reasons that people go into debt is to provide unnecessary things for their children. Are we teaching our kids that having things is what will bring happiness? As a parent it is important that you teach your kids the real value of life and that isn’t found in items that can be purchased.

IRS 

What is the Appeals Process if the IRS wants to seize one of our Assets ?

Any decision related to the IRS is open to appeal. For instance if you have received a notice that a lien is going to be placed on any of your assets, or if it has already been done so, you can appeal this. You can even appeal if the asset has already been attached by the IRS. The appeals process is simple enough and in this article we are going to discuss how this process works.

What can the IRS do to Recover its Money ?

When it is time to pay your taxes, you should do so. You should file your returns on time, or if you are unable to pay your taxes, you should at least approach them for an installment plan or an OIC. In this article we will discuss what IRS can do to recover its money from you.

Is there Anything I can do apart from Filing an Appeal with the IRS ?

Although the appeals process is one of the best possibilities options that you have to try and work something out with the IRS if you feel that you have been the victim of improper procedure, or incorrect calculation of tax, or if you feel that any decision of the IRS is not right, there is one other option open to you. This is the Taxpayer Advocate Service.

Is there any way to get my Assets back from the IRS ?

If you default on your taxes, the IRS has the power to levy or to attach any of your assets as payment for what you owe. Usually it is nearly impossible to try to change the IRS' mind. Apart from the bureaucratic red tape involved, the procedure to get anything done with the IRS is very complicated. In this article we discuss what your options are if you have already lost any of your assets to the tax man and how you can get it back.

How does the IRS Levy Work ?

The IRS uses something called a levy to collect money that you owe to it. This levy is a very powerful weapon and can be used on anything that you have in your name. Your home, your car, your bank account, boat, motorcycle, nothing is safe from a levy. The levy can even be used for future earnings like commissions, dividends, rental income Etc. You can even lose your retirement funds, the cash value of your life insurance policy and have your wages garnished by a levy.

What are my Options when I can’t Pay Taxes on time?

When it comes to taxes there are very few options open to you. You have to pay your taxes and there are very few options open to you other than paying it up. Yet there are a few things that you can do and in this page we will discuss what these are.

When you don't pay your taxes by April 15th you will receive a letter from the IRS asking you to pay your taxes. You will receive a “Notice of Taxes Due and Demand for Payment.” 

Why you should always Pay your Taxes on Time

relentless in its pursuit of people who don't pay up their dues on time. The government has almost blanket powers to collect and can do anything to make you pay. Also the IRS charges you interest and fees for every single day that you default on paying your tax. Not paying your tax on time is serious business. In this article we will discuss why you should pay your taxes on time and the consequences of not doing so on time.

Insurance

Managing your Insurance Costs

In most states, you can qualify for lower insurance rates by taking action to help yourself through the coverage you buy and how you use that coverage. Here are steps that you can use to keep a lid on insurance costs.

Ways to Pay Less for your Auto Insurance

Auto insurance costs the average family close to a thousand dollars a year. There are ways you can significantly reduce how much you pay while still making certain that you are well insured.

Calculating Your Insurance Score

 The specifics behind how they figure out your insurance score are still under lock and key. We are starting to get information about how your credit report is being used in your insurance score but items are rated with different percentages of importance. Your payment history, credit utilization, types of credit and credit length are all aspect that go into your overall insurance score. 

Things to Know about Shopping for Life Insurance

 There are many ways that you can save on your life insurance. Here are some helpful tips to help you pay less. 

How to Protect your Assets even if You're Dead

Okay, so it's really not if you're dead, it's if your loved one dies. When that happens, identity thieves seize upon the narrow window this provides to impersonate the dead person and run up all sorts of bills. This creates quite a hassle for the estate as no one is complaining about these bills until the creditors come trying to get their chunk of what was left of the assets.

Car Loan

How do I deal with Paying off Car Loan ?

If you are finding it difficult to pay your car loan, you may want to sell off your car and pay off your outstanding amount. Unfortunately this does not always work. Vehicles depreciate a lot as soon as they hit the road and most of the time your outstanding on the loan will be more than the current market value of your vehicle.

Buying a Car and your Credit

The problem with buying a new car is that as soon as you drive off of the lot you have already lost money. Cars start to depreciate as soon as they are taken away from the dealership. No matter how good of a deal you got for your car purchase, you’ve already lost money once those wheels hit the street.

Buying a Car 101 : Money Saving Tips

The shiny exterior of a brand new car can be mesmerizing. Unfortunately, many are bamboozled by the trappings and fail to think logically when purchasing a vehicle. They forget the multiple costs that go into driving a car off the lot. Moreover, these same consumers will extend their budgets for current models that come with even higher premiums, maintenance fees and price tags. The key is to utilize cost effective strategies for purchasing a vehicle.

Finance and Marriage 

Marriage and Your Credit

 Getting married does not generally affect your credit score, it’s the getting unmarried that can wreck it. Whether it is from a divorce or a death, the chances that your marriage will end has a very statistical chance of happening. It is a good idea for you as an individual to plan for the likelihood of it happening, before you take your vows.

Marriage and Finance – Things you should Know

This article is for those of you who are planning on getting married. Never say “I do” without full disclosure, which includes finances as well, to each other, so you don’t have to later bear the consequences of skeletons in the closet coming tumbling out.

Credit, Debt, and Cutting Expenses

When dealing with creditors calling, warning letters coming in the mail, and falling behind on your bills it can feel like a no win situation. But there is actually quite a bit that you can do to get out of your financial problems.

Reducing Insurance Costs

 Many people do not understand how their credit score is going to affect their insurance costs. It use to be that people with poor credit could not even get insurance or struggled to get a decent rate, but laws have changed since then. Now your credit score does play a role in your rates but you can reduce your insurance costs in other ways as well. 

6 Things you Need to Consider before you Refinance

 There are some basic things you need to know before you decide to refinance or not. Here are ways to look at all the things you need to consider before you make a wise decision. 

Credit Basics

What are the different kinds of Credit?

There are a number of different kinds of credit that you can get, and each of these operates differently. Unless you know what the different kinds of credit are, and how they operate, you will not be able to manage your finances well. In this article we discuss what the different kinds of credit are and how exactly they operate.

Dangerous loans

Taking another loan to make the interest payment on one or more of your other loans is something that all of us think of doing. In fact if we have a number of secured loans where the loan is taken on collateral, missing payments mean that we risk the danger of losing the asset. Considering that this can mean your vehicle or your home, it is almost unthinkable that you miss the payment and so many people try to get a short term loan to tide over this expense.

Credit Mistakes that will Cost You

This article will discuss maxing out your chards, not reading your statements, using your credit card like an ATM card and working for rewards.

Avoiding the Biggest Credit Mistakes

 Building your credit starts with avoiding some of the big credit mistakes that individuals make. These typical mistakes can make it more difficult to keep up with your bills and result in not being able to make payments on time. This process is extremely difficult to get out of once you start down the mistake pattern.

Unsecured Credit

You might think that going with unsecured credit is the simplest way to get and develop your credit rating, but be careful. Too much unsecured debt can build up; damaging your credit and costing you more money. Do you even know how much unsecured debt you actually have?

What you Don't Know about Credit Interest Rate can Hurt You !

This article will discuss the simple interest loan and compound interest loans and how it affects your payoff amount.

What you should know before Going to Court for Credit Disputes

In credit disputes, several things can go wrong. A collection agency could be harassing you, your rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) could have been violated, a landlord could be trying to stick you with costs for damages that you didn’t create and creditors breach contracts. If you have tried to resolve these disputes amicably with no results, initiate legal action and take your dispute to court.

Tips for Saving on College and Divorce

 If you believe that college for your children, or a divorce are in your future, here are some ways to get yourself prepared for the impact they will have on your financial life. 

Car Rentals

What is the Collision Damage Waiver?

The collision damage waiver, or loss damage waiver, as it is sometimes called, is “insurance” coverage for the RENTAL CAR you are driving only. This is the coverage offered by many credit card companies and auto insurance companies on your own car. It does NOT cover the damage to the other car, any property damage, or any personal injury. You would need liability insurance to cover those.

How to save money on Car Rentals?

Rental rates vary depending on the day and time of pick up, how long you keep the car, the time you return it, miles driven, car size, and whether you take the shuttle bus from the airline terminal. There can be number of extra fees on your rental contract. Should you buy collision damage waiver? This article will answer questions related to saving money on car rentals.