Zero Debt Living

Use student loans only to pay for college that you cannot afford to pay for right now. Using student loan money as if it were cash income will come back to haunt you later and impact you for years. Need income? Get a job!

While you may need to cut costs in order to see you through your debt crisis, don’t be penny wise and dollar foolish by not having adequate insurance for both your property and yourself. Without the right insurance, you have a disaster waiting to happen.

Create a paper file and keep it in a safe place of all of your important documents.

Create a long-term financial plan and include where you want to be in a year, five years, 20 years. Things happen to change the best laid plans, but you need a plan to begin with and then adjust it as the reality changes.

If you have been getting those promotion checks in the mail that offer you low or no interest rate charges on sums that you transfer within a specific period of time, consider them, but remember, they are not without risk or impact on your credit score. Plus they can cost a little money to make the transfer, even if the[Read More…]

Going shopping is an easy way to throw you off your best laid plans for getting out of debt. If shopping is a hobby of yours, find a new past time that doesn’t cost so much money.

If you are older and drowning in debt and have whole life insurance, consider cashing in the policy or the the cash-value portion of it to get that big debt paid off to give you financial peace of mind.

If you have managed to stay current on the balances you owe, check with your lenders to determine if there are lower interest rate loans available to you. Refinancing can be a dramatic way to lower your monthly costs and get loans paid off more quickly.

Find cheaper everything including your apartment, car, insurance, the works! In desperate situations, move back home, if they will take you! It will amaze you on how much money you can save. An important example is commuting to the job. Unless you work in jogging distance from your home, commuting adds up to a considerable expense for most of us.[Read More…]

There are generally five ways for you to consider getting out of debt including: Debt Consolidation Debt Management Bankruptcy Debt Settlement Use a Combination of Approaches There are pros and cons to each that you must carefully consider with the help of a qualified financial and legal professional

Pick out your lowest interest most rewarding one or two credit cards and retire the rest to a place near your financial records. Don’t destroy or close these credit card accounts because that will impact your credit score, but do put the away.

If you are fast and free with your money, you need to changing your spending habits. Anytime you are tempted to spend money, ask yourself this: Can I afford this purchase without putting it on a credit card? If the answer is no, then you can’t afford it.

They say that success leaves footprints. So do high-credit people. Here’s what they do starting young that you can begin to implement today: 1. Create a budget to live on. 2. Create a financial plan to prosper on. 3. Save money. Open an ’emergency fund’ and a ‘retirement account’ today, even if you are only putting in $5. 4. If[Read More…]

Sell two classes of “stuff” that you have and use that money to pay off creditors. The first group are expensive items, expensive presents you bought for yourself. Sell them and use the proceeds to pay down debt; the second class are items, while not of great value, continue to cost you money, like the sailboat with mooring privileges at[Read More…]

Where to get a credit score, preferably free-of-charge? Under the law, you are entitled to get a free credit report annually from each of the three big credit reporting companies…Transunion, Equifax and Experian. There is no such law, however, that guarantees that you get a free credit score. You can buy your credit scores from each of the above-mentioned companies.[Read More…]