Debt

Do You Believe These Money Myths?

There are a lot of different things you’ll read when it comes to your money.  The personal finance world has lots of people with many opinions.  I’m one of them!  But with so much out there, it can often get confusing.  What do you believe?  What’s true and what’s a suggestion?  I don’t have all the answers.  But there are a few money myths that I’ve seen come up more than a few times.

#1: Always Pay The Higher Interest Loan First

The higher the interest rate means that less of your payment goes to your principal.  This is true.  So, you should always pay the highest interest loan first, right?

Not always.

I think you have some flexibility here.  If you have a loan with a low balance, maybe consider paying that off first.  It will free up some cash flow.  Plus, paying off a loan will give you a ‘win’ on your scorecard.  Those can be very important and might be worth a few bucks in higher interest in the short term.

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10 Short Term Money Goals That Are Easy

We all know we can do a better job at saving money, right?  I know I do!  Sometimes figuring out where to start is a bigger obstacle than actually making the changes.  If you can relate to that, then this post is for you.  Here are ten short term money goals, things that you can do today and without much trouble, that can really help you out.

Review Your Insurance Policies

Most people could save money on insurance.  You can often adjust your deductibles to lower your payment.  I also recommend shopping your policies around.  If you have more than one type of policy, you can often get a multiple policy discount by using one carrier.  Either way, checking your insurance is something that can probably save you money.  The great thing is that you can do this with just a few phone calls or website visits.

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7 Steps To Improve Your Credit Score

Few things are worse than finding out that you have a bad credit score.  Many people know that they have this hanging over their head, where others are taken completely by surprise when they go to take a loan or just do a check.

If you have a bad credit score, then don’t wait to start fixing it.  Every step you take can count and help improve your score, and the faster you get started, the faster you can see your score move in the right direction.

Check your credit report for accuracy.

The first thing you should do is check your credit report to make sure that everything is accurate.  A bad score can come about with inaccurate information or if you’ve been the victim of identity theft and there are items that you don’t even know are there.

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Why We All Might Be A Bit Like Bernie Madoff

Recently, ABC aired Madoff ,a two-part miniseries about the biggest ever (to date) ponzi scheme that bilked investors out of $65 billion dollars.  By now, many are likely familiar with the details of the scheme, so I won’t go into great detail except to recap that he started a hedge fund and always provided great returns, except that he was never investing a penny of money.  Instead, he was just putting the money into a giant savings account.  As long as there was more money coming in than going out, he could keep it going, but once the financial markets started crashing and investors started redeeming money faster than it was going out, the whole thing fell apart when the bank account (nearly) dried up.

The miniseries was pretty entertaining, and I always like Richard Dreyfuss, who was entertaining, but might not have been the best casting decision, as he usually makes his characters likable to a degree, so much that you often forgot to hate Bernie Madoff at various times.

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Build Wealth And Reduce Debt Today

We live in a world that differs from the ideal one we could imagine. While it’s simple enough to picture a utopia, most people would agree that this isn’t the world we live in. The same goes for our individual lives. It’s easy enough to imagine a set of goals (getting fit, learning a new language, getting your financial life in order), but it’s much harder to put those plans into motion, much less attain them. Today is the day to start turning those dreams into reality.  The best way to do this is to concentrate on two ideas: Build wealth and reduce debt.

Build Wealth

Building wealth isn’t easy, but there are a bunch of ways to do it. For one, you could simply save money. This is a great wealth building tool. Start with an emergency fund, one which is big enough to cover your expenses for six months or more, just in case you were to lose your job or get injured or sick. Making a habit of saving is an important financial discipline. It’s how you’ll build a better future for yourself.

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Budgetary Demands Should Conquer Other Considerations

Everyone enjoys spending money. Unfortunately not many are particularly good at following a budget to keep their finances in good order. The level of credit card debt in the USA suggests that there are plenty of people spending on a regular basis without actually paying off the bill in full. Once a balance is established it incurs a high level of interest. Interest is added at the end of each month so something that might be a bargain purchase bought on credit might ultimately end up being very costly indeed.

The recession resulted in an increase in consumer debt. The wise have paid off their debts as a matter of priority. Now it’s your turn. If you write down your regular income and expenditure it will put your financial position down in front of you.  Your credit card debt and any debt on store cards will be costing you a significant amount of interest each month.

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7 Ways To Improve Your Credit Score

Nobody knows the exact methods by which your credit score is calculated, but you should definitely understand the importance of having a good score, and some methods which will help you improve your credit score.

Here are 7 Ways To Improve Your Credit Score

Pay on time.  Every time .

The biggest knock on a credit score is late or missed payments.  While you can’t erase the sins of the past, you can make sure that moving forward you prove your credit worthiness by paying every bill on time.

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Set Your Debt Free Date And Stick To It!

When I started catching up on e-mails that piled up over the holidays last month, one of the first ones I opened was from Jackie at The Debt Myth, a fantastic personal blog that tackles debt in real and sensible ways.  She had a great idea to get as many bloggers as possible to write a blog post centered around the theme “Debt Is Not Forever”.

The Debt Is Not Forever Idea

The idea behind her theme is so simple that the words really speak for themselves.  It’s basically to acknowledge that debt is something that is temporary, even though many people have made it a permanent part of their lives.

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Starting An Emergency Fund Gives You The Most Bang For Your Buck

I was reading a well written post from Money Ning about emergency funds.  He was recommending an emergency fund over using the money to pay down debt.  I totally agreed with him, but as I read the article, I thought of it in a different perspective, and that my readers might agree or consider as food for thought.

The Biggest Value In Emergency Funds

The example that Ning used was if you had $1,000, would it make sense to start an mb-201312billscoinsemergency fund or to throw it at paying down debt?

Where it fell into place for me was when I started thinking about it in terms of where you would get the most bang for your buck.

Consider the following examples:

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