Personal Finance Articles

Finance » Personal Finance | By David Whelan @ Thursday, 18th September 2008 @ 10:46 PM

A debt management company could help you to become debt free over a period of time and one of the best ways of managing and getting out of debt is by going online and finding a specialist website to help you. Debt management companies can also give you lots of information on getting out of debt. The first step you should take to freeing yourself from debt is to sit down take a slow deep breath and jot down a list of all of your debts. The list should include the name of the creditors, how... more...

Finance » Personal Finance | By shelley bayol @ Thursday, 18th September 2008 @ 9:55 PM

Money difficulties range from overspending and chronic debting, to under-earning, and poor money management skills, which can touch us at every level of our being - emotional, mental, physical and spiritual. Today, we'll talk about the current challenges we face in our money lives and outline some simple tools to make positive changes in your financial life today. In these days with ever-rising costs, depleting equity in home values, foreclosures in record numbers, and the... more...

Finance » Personal Finance | By Joel Gray @ Thursday, 18th September 2008 @ 1:55 PM

If you are planning on buying your dream home, a second or vacation home, or even planning to relocate with a new home purchase, there are definitely a variety of home loan options to check out. Many banks, financial institutions and private lenders offer home loans; home equity loans, private loans or equity line of credit loans. All good lending programs will consider this, as it helps you to borrow the money, just by using your home on collateral basis. What is equity? In... more...

Finance » Personal Finance | By Kevin Ihrig @ Wednesday, 17th September 2008 @ 3:26 PM

If you have student loans, you have probably heard of student loan debt forgiveness. Your employer or some other entity pays off loans for you, often to fairly high limits. You need to qualify, and here I have written up some help in that process. NHSC? Who is that? You probably have heard of the Peace Corps or Americorps. The NHSC has some similarities, but you don't work for the NHSC, you work at an NHSC approved site, in an approved position. NHSC stands for National Health Se... more...

Finance » Personal Finance | By Stephanie Foster @ Tuesday, 16th September 2008 @ 4:19 PM

I've written often enough about saving money. There are some standard tips just about anyone will give you - cut the cable bill, drop to either just land line or cell phone, spend less at the grocery store. And of course, quit buying coffee at the coffee shop. Each of the above can seem like such a small thing, especially if you spread the cost out over the month. But when you put them together for the month, you may find they're a lot of money. That's why they are so often... more...

Finance » Personal Finance | By Diane Cossie @ Tuesday, 16th September 2008 @ 1:03 AM

Within the last few months, the news headlines have been dominated by bad news in the financial world. With the bank sector still facing challenging times ahead, the real estate sector suffering from falling house prices and reduced lending it all seems to point to the end of a decade that masqueraded itself as an economic boom. It was built upon shallow foundations,therefore few people should be surprised by the speed of the economic correction measures that will inevitably follow an eco... more...

Finance » Personal Finance | By Tarun Jaswani @ Monday, 15th September 2008 @ 10:05 PM

Credit history or credit report is, in many countries, a record of an individual's or company's past borrowing and repaying, including information about late payments and bankruptcy. The term "credit reputation" can either be used synonymous to credit history or to credit score. In the U.S., when a customer fills out an application for credit from a bank, store or credit card company, their information is forwarded to a credit bureau. The credit bureau matches the name, ... more...

Finance » Personal Finance | By Ki Gray @ Saturday, 13th September 2008 @ 1:39 AM

To many children, a birthday is the single most important day of the year. And to many parents, it's a day of both celebration and stress, as they strive to make their child's special day a memorable event. Crafting a fun, unique party for your son or daughter isn't always easy especially if you're feeling pressured to measure up to the over-the-top events hosted by the parents of your child's peers. But rest assured, there's no need to spend big bucks in order to t... more...

Finance » Personal Finance | By Debra Gropp @ Friday, 12th September 2008 @ 2:14 AM

Are you having a difficult time stretching your paycheck to cover all of your monthly expenses? If so, you are not alone. With our economy in its present state, millions of people are struggling to make ends meet and do not have the luxury of being able to save money. Before you give up hope, you can improve your situation by setting up a personal budgeting plan. This will show you exactly where your money goes. To help you get started, consider some of the tips listed below. HOW T... more...

Finance » Personal Finance | By Ann Marosy @ Wednesday, 10th September 2008 @ 5:09 PM

Bad spending habits is often the underlying cause that prevents most people from becoming financially free. However, the good news is: you can prevent this. In my observations, shopping can be a very emotional experience. Retail therapy! Because women, in particular, are more prone to relate emotionally to life's experiences, they need to learn how to manage the emotional attachment to buying and having new things. These items tend to be smaller, more dispensable objects such as clot... more...

Finance » Personal Finance | By Ann Marosy @ Wednesday, 10th September 2008 @ 4:56 PM

Achieving financial freedom is not as difficult as you imagine - however, there are 3 absolute things you must DO and 3 absolute things you must AVOID to achieve it. If you write these down, paste them somewhere you can see everyday and then follow through, financial freedom is yours to have and enjoy! Things You Must Do #1: Attitude "Attitude" includes cultivating positive thinking, beliefs and an attitude that you absolutely KNOW you can achieve financial freedom. All sel... more...

Finance » Personal Finance | By Ann Marosy @ Wednesday, 10th September 2008 @ 4:55 PM

Financial Crisis is characterised by a problematic financial position where all you seem to be doing is going from one financial problem to the next. Finances are tough. You are barely surviving from payday to payday. There is a strong sense of scarcity; there never seems to be enough and there doesn't seem to be any way out. When my clients are in this stage, it is often all doom and gloom. It is extremely difficult to motivate them at first because this is when all their fears a... more...

Finance » Personal Finance | By Ann Marosy @ Wednesday, 10th September 2008 @ 4:26 PM

A good money management program is successful if it's able to break a long and complex journey into manageable stages. People need to see progress, and it needs to be measurable. Over the years, I have read as many books about money management as I could lay my hands on. A lot of them had the right answers but I could only follow them for a short time before people fell back into their old bad habits. I now know that what these books did not explain was the natural sequence of eve... more...

Finance » Personal Finance | By Dee Power @ Wednesday, 10th September 2008 @ 2:40 PM

Facing a mountain of debt? Hiding from collection agencies? Dreading the phone ringing? There isn't a way to magically make all your debt go away but there can be relief. Consider credit counseling. Because of the state of the current economy, more and more people are choosing to utilize this service. You are certainly not alone in your decision. A credit counseling service will work with you in determining a realistic but strict budget based on your income and assets. They may... more...

Finance » Personal Finance | By Allen Wright @ Wednesday, 10th September 2008 @ 12:55 AM

Let's look at a typical debt consolidation scenario for someone with a car payment, a couple of credit cards, and a home equity loan. We can separate these accounts into secured and unsecured debt: the car loan and the home equity loan are secured debt. That means they have a physical asset that backs them up, and if you fail to make the loan payments the lender will take the asset back to pay for the loan. Secured debt is generally at a lower interest rate than unsecured debt beca... more...

Finance » Personal Finance | By Darren Yates @ Sunday, 7th September 2008 @ 10:09 PM

The US and the UK is now facing the collapse of the wave of credit it has been riding for years. Banks, credit card companies and short sighted lenders have all played a role in creating the conditions for this crisis to occur. The pace of lending has been unsustainable and we are now paying the price. This nation's consumers have been taking advantage of the readily available credit offered to them from all parties and spent far beyond their means as a result. As competition ... more...

Finance » Personal Finance | By Stephanie Foster @ Sunday, 7th September 2008 @ 12:33 AM

For most people, the answer to this question is "YES! Obviously!" Having one parent stay at home can be quite the sacrifice for the entire family. Despite the popular myth, many stay at home moms do not have husbands whose jobs pay extremely well. Many live on an extremely tight budget. And while sometimes staying at home costs less by the time you consider expenses such as daycare versus what the second income is bringing in, it's all going to feel like a sacrifice. A... more...

Finance » Personal Finance | By Richard Martin @ Friday, 5th September 2008 @ 7:12 PM

In July 2008, The New York Times posted a large interactive chart showing that debt levels in the US have reached more than $100,000 for some consumers. It's hard to decipher who the post was describing. That is, it's unclear whether the chart was talking about the average household, homeowner, or consumer. Regardless, the message is clear- debt levels for many consumers have increased in recent years. And this isn't the first article by a major site illustrating the moun... more...

Finance » Personal Finance | By Hector Milla @ Thursday, 4th September 2008 @ 10:46 PM

What is the worst situation for a person that is trying to manage debt? Undoubtedly when all what you do did not work out and now you deal with your creditors in court, there is no debt management program that can assure you success and getting you debt free, you need to accept that sometimes it is too late and that you crossed line where some debt relief is possible. However, if you need to face such situation, it is important to understand the whole process in order to know if you have... more...

Finance » Personal Finance | By Mike Carter @ Thursday, 4th September 2008 @ 6:28 PM

When consumers get in over their heads in debt, many of them turn to some form of unsecured credit card debt consolidation as a method dealing with mounting bills. Unfortunately, the debt consolidation process can be extremely confusing for the average person. Few consumers know what their options are when it comes to consolidating unsecured debt and credit cards. As a result, many consumers are caught by surprise at some point in the process. These surprises can often end up costing t... more...