Article after article on personal finance exhorts you to create a budget and a financial plan. You’re finally (reluctantly) willing to do it. But if you’re gonna do it, you really want to get it done already.
Credit card debt in the US topped a trillion dollars, $1.08T as of a few weeks ago, according to debt.org. That’s over 26% of the $4T-plus total US consumer debt. On average, each household with credit card debt owes nearly $8400 on their average of four-plus credit cards. If you’re part of those statistics, do […]
Over the past 20 years, I’ve bought three homes, but took out over a dozen mortgages. That’s right, I took out far more mortgages than one per home because early on I used second mortgages to avoid having to pay private mortgage insurance (PMI), and on many occasions I was able to reduce my costs […]
Mortgage Accelerator Offers Are Bad for Your Financial Health When I bought my first home, the mortgage servicer included a pitch with each monthly statement. They called it a “Mortgage Accelerator” offer, which painted a really pretty picture. If I signed up, they would bill me half my monthly payment every other week instead of […]
It was 1994, and I was still paying through the nose, as the saying goes, for a mistake I made more than two years earlier. Back in late 1992, I had just moved with my family to the U.S. and chose to buy a 3-year-old Ford Taurus for $8000, financing $6000 with a 3-year auto […]
Over the past decade, we have had the gift and the curse of historically low-interest rates. This has allowed people to finance investments, businesses and home purchases much easier than they otherwise would have been able to do.
Credit cards are one of the most important tools you’ll have in your financial toolbox. If used properly, credit cards can help you establish and build credit, provide you with nice perks and rewards and streamline your day to day purchases. In this article, I’m going to discuss how to get the most out of […]
By the end of this year, more than 750,000 people will file for bankruptcy. If you’re one of them, you don’t have to live with bad credit forever. Although a day in bankruptcy court is not the happy ending most of us hope for, you can still rebuild your credit and live happily ever after. […]
It sometimes seems like savers can’t get a break these days, at least not at their local brick and mortar bank. Interest rates have been low for quite some time. And while that might be great news if you’re in the market for a loan, it’s not so great news if you’re looking to squirrel […]